Lumenica, llc » lumenica

Online tools for Small Businesses

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:19:05 +0000

An outline of different online tools to help businesses become more productive, efficient, organized and reach a greater audience.

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5 things not to do when it comes to Social Media

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:03:20 +0000

The internet is swarming with things to do when it comes to Social Media and yes I too have written a post to that affect. Today I would like to do a different kind of post, one that talks about things NOT to do when it comes to social media. I think it’s important to learn the ethics of social media and equally important to learn what’s a big no-no.

The following strategies are pet peeves:

1. If I repeat, they will come: Sell your skills/expertise not your products- I will never promote or recommend someone who is constantly announcing why their company is the best and the special deals they have going. If you don’t engage your online community and have conversations with them or have something of value to offer, get a megaphone and get off social media.

2. TMI: If you are using social media to promote your business, keep bathroom breaks to yourself. I understand social media has become part of life, but I truly feel the concept of TMI (too much info) has become invisible. Please keep bowel movements to yourself.

3. If it exists, I must tweet: Do not just tweet about anything and everything, have a strategy, a focus. Ask yourself, what are you focusing on? What are you trying to achieve?

4. I have a camera, I must share: Do not put up a picture of anything and everything, be cautious. Just saw a fellow tweep put a pic of herself in Hawaii in a bikini-where’e the unfollow button? (This would depend on the type of profession you are in I guess.)

5. If they exist, I must add: Do not add just anyone and everyone. If I see someone following 1000people and only 100 people following them, I will think of them as a spammer and not be interested in following them.

Every so often I re-evaluate the tweeps I follow, the pages I am a fan of and re-evaluate who to continue to follow and who to leave behind. Sorry if you are one of those who didn’t make the list. Maybe if you stop doing the things mentioned above, I will follow you again. Until then adios!

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10 ways to use google docs for small businesses

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:56:44 +0000

We are on our way to celebrate our two year business launch anniversary. As I reflect over the last two years, I started thinking about the different tools that we used that helped our business be a success. I quickly realized that we could not have been where we are without the help of Google Docs. Below are some of the ways we and other small businesses use Google Docs

1. Create word processing documents, we used it to write proposals and develop website manuals.

2. Share documents with other people on the same project, this was helpful when people involved on a project were not in the same physical location.

3. Created a document that could be edited by multiple people simultaneously for collaboration purposes. This was very important for us when we were trying to meet a deadline.

4. Divide documents into different folders/labels/projects-always nice to be organized!

5. Share folders with selected people, helpful to make sure there is a consistent way of sorting and organizing documents. You could have folders project based or sorted in what works for your organization.

6. Create forms to collect information from clients- For projects that required specific information, we would create simple forms and use them to gather the information we wanted. Made us look professional and helped us gather the information we needed.

7. Create forms for feedback after completion of projects-Always nice to get feed back in a professional way.

8. Email form or embed form in blog or website for quick responses-love this option!

9. Create presentations with Google presentation tools. Helpful if you don’t have MS Powerpoint.

10. Create spreadsheets using Google Spreadsheets-helped us with managing time spent on each project and amount of money owed by each client!

These are some of the ways we used google docs to help with our business. Do you have any stories to share? Tell us under comments or tweet them to me at @bizincubation !

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