(PRWEB) November 06, 2012
Election Day has finally come and before America wraps up another historic day, ChooseWhat wraps up the top five latest technology events affecting small business. New reports on American job growth help to highlight the differences in the Democratic and GOP small business tax agendas. Facebook brings new innovation to the way local businesses interact with their social community, and it is pretty genius. Jumpshare propels cloud-based file sharing to whole new level of ease; a new iPhone app makes word sharing as hipster as Instagram and AOL is back…maybe. Reece Freeman, of ChooseWhat.com, hashes out the details of Octobers these technology events for small businesses and shows you how you can turn this event into an opportunity for your small business.
Small Biz Tax Myth Debunked:
One of the most repeated issues brought up in the Presidential debates this past month has been how focusing on improving opportunities for small businesses (mostly by cutting taxes on them) will lead to much lower unemployment. However, recent studies at the University of Maryland and the American Enterprise Institute contend that mature small businesses (those more than five years old) on aggregate actually destroy more jobs than they create as the majority of job growth comes from start-up companies. Thusly, tax breaks that assist entrepreneurs in developing new businesses should be viewed with much greater importance than those that cut taxes on all small businesses in general. This is especially true since many of these mature entities classified as small businesses are partners in hedge funds, law firms and private-equity shops, or they are highly paid actors, athletes, speakers and authors. (via Bloomberg)
Facebook is at it AGAIN:
The social media giant has recently started testing a new service that will allow Facebook Page owners to connect their page to their own public WiFi spots. Businesses can then connect their WiFi accessibility to Facebook check-ins at their location, making it easier for patrons to access WiFi networks and at the same time giving businesses more visibility on the social networks News Feed. While this feature is currently being tested by a small number of businesses, expect to see this type of WiFi accessing available on a much broader scale in the coming months. (via TheNextWeb)
How this applies to you:
The type of tracking that is being added along with this feature well allow brick and mortar businesses to view which customers used their WiFi after checking in on Facebook. This adds another layer to the increasingly precise data small businesses can extract from their customers with little to no cost.
Jumpshare:
A new web service has been created to allow people to easily and quickly share files over the Internet. Without even having to sign up for an account, Jumpshare allows users to upload files to the site and share them with a randomly generated URL. The site allows you to share over 200 different types of files; from Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to audio and video files and even code such as Python and C++ files.
How this applies to you:
Not only is Jumpshare easy to use since you dont need to create an account, but it also has an extremely user-friendly interface. All you have to do is go to their website (http://www.Jumpshare.com) and drag a file into the large rectangular box in the middle of the page. Within moments, the file is uploaded and a link is created for you to share it. There are also buttons to the right of the link that allow you to share it directly to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. This file can be accessed through the created link for up to two weeks. (via Business Insider)
Whims-ical Wordplay:
A new iPhone app, called Whims has been released this past month that gives the average Joe (or Jane) the ability to easily create advertisements, invitations, and other text-based announcements with professional-quality fonts and styling. The app is completely free and allows you to share your creations directly with your Twitter and Facebook followers, friends, and fans. (via FastCompany Design)
How this applies to you:
Thrifty small business owners and entrepreneurs should be the first to jump on this incredibly easy tool that will help you engage the public for free. Not only can you post your Whims designs directly onto the two largest social media sites, you can also email them to your specific contacts or to yourself. This way you can save the file on your local computer for use on other distribution channels like email marketing campaigns, Tumblr pages, or Pinterest boards. Of course, you can always print out a hard copy of the design and use it the old-fashioned way as well.
AOL Announces Alto:
In a forward-thinking move, AOL has developed an email client service designed to fix issues people have with their email accounts; clutter, disorder, and incoherence. With Alto, users will connect their own email account (Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, or iCloud) to the website in order to access email accounts in a visually-friendly, highly organized interface. For now, the service is invite-only but it will be released to the public in January.
How this applies to you:
Once the service is open to everyone, it will be an immensely helpful tool for those tired of email disorganization as Alto, automatically sorts mail into stacks depending on whether they contain attachments, photos, daily deals, notifications from social networks and bulletins from retailers. You can also create customized stacks based on keywords, email addresses, and other elements. (via Engadget)
More on ChooseWhat.com:
ChooseWhat.com helps entrepreneurs pick the best business infrastructure tools and services so that starting business is easy. In addition to the helpful business start-up guide, the website also offers tactical information on various small business related topics and an active forum where members can post business related questions and get answers from experienced professionals.
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