16 Apps for Every Internet Professionals
With more than 50 billion app downloads under Apple's digital belt, it's safe to assume there's a few that can make any Internet professional more productive and more in the know.
Website Magazine has detailed 16 sweet applications for iOS or Android devices that ecommerce merchants, service providers and information publishers can leverage to develop their careers and build their businesses.
Ecommerce Merchants
On-the-go email marketers can manage lists, add new subscribers, send campaigns and view reports from within the MailChimp app. The managing lists component can come in handy at a networking event, for example, if someone wants to be added to your list. You can also edit subscriber profiles and add notes on the spot. What might be most intriguing, however, is the ability to send campaigns from your smartphone. It's not uncommon to have to leave the office for an offsite emergency, pick up a sick kid, doctor's appointment or just get an early start on the weekend. With the MailChimp app, administrators can start a campaign at the office and then quickly send it from their phones wherever they may be. They'll be shown the same pre-delivery checklist they see in the Web app to ensure the campaigns are spotless before sending (see image). Another feature that makes sense to view on the go is the reports option. MailChimp mobile gives marketers instance access to campaign stats, including revenue reports.
User-Reported Cons: No ability to pause a scheduled campaign. Limited.
Two of the chief complaints of daily deal voucher redemption are that merchants don't know how to process vouchers and that consumers have to print them out. Groupon has listened to the pleas with its new Groupon Merchants app, which lets merchants redeem Groupons and accept credit card payment from the same application - all without monthly fees, contracts or obligations. Other features include the ability to scan and redeem Groupons from the camera, view redemption history, manage deals, accept credit card payments from customers, and accept custom tip amounts for each transaction.
User-Reported Cons: App freezes at login. Comes with a 48-hour delay for funds to be released.
Similar to Groupon Merchant, the AmazonLocal Merchants app lets vendors scan and redeem vouchers quickly. To avoid voucher-redemption headaches, merchants can also search for vouchers using codes or customer names. What's more, the ability to add the bill amount (for upsells) and employee initials can help storeowners track performances of their deals.
User-Reported Cons: None reported.
Instagram is a no brainer for ecommerce merchants. With videos and images, they can post content containing product releases, new merchandise, look books or behind the scenes views into their businesses. Instatag helps merchants get more likes and more follows on the social network by providing the most popular and relevant hashtags. The top five Instatag features include: predefined tag lists, tags based on geo-location, live trending tags from Instagram, and the ability to add own tags and like Instagram pictures from Instatag.
User-Reported Cons: Not white-labeled - adds a "Powered By" with each post. Doesn't update trending lists often enough.
With rise of mobile phone usage, merchants with brick-and-mortar locations have advantages of their Web-only counterparts in regard to visibility on the mobile Web. That said, Foursquare for Business helps merchants get more customers through their doors by posting photo updates, managing specials, viewing analytics and more. Business owners can also view their locations' recent check-ins within the app, as well as learn more about their most loyal customers and share Foursquare updates on Facebook and Twitter.
User-Reported Cons: Not white-labeled - adds a "Powered By" with each post. Doesn't update trending lists often enough.
Service Providers
Millions of businesses - in varying industries and of different sizes - use Sugar's customer relationship management software. It helps companies drive consistent and relevant experiences to leads and customers. The app features search and filter capabilities to help business professionals find information fast, the option of adding new contacts, accounts and opportunities, as well as the capabilities of calling, texting, emailing or accessing links or documents directly from contacts. Plus, users can have access to any Sugar module including custom modules. Both sales teams and customer service reps can use SugarCRM apps to track and engage their prospective and current leads/customers.
User-Reported Cons: Very basic.
Increasing customer satisfaction should be a top goal for any enterprise and that starts with great customer support. More than 30,000 customers use Zendesk to help with that lofty goal. The Zendesk app enables brands to: access support tickets; see a real-time list of activity on tickets, search support tickets and knowledge-based articles; view and update comments, CCs, tags and ticket fields; get push notifications on ticket updates; apply pre-defined responses; bookmark tickets for future references; upload and view attachments on tickets; and take photos and attach them to tickets.
User-Reported Cons: Needs offline support and better search and Voice.
Billing is a pain, but FreshBooks for on-the-go service providers can help track time, organize expenses and invoice clients - from anywhere. Since FreshBooks works in the cloud, Internet professionals can access their accounts on all their devices and it makes collaborating with coworkers easier. The FreshBooks app also accepts online payments via PayPal, credit card, echecks and 11 other gateways, while it also prepares businesses from tax time with its new Balance Sheet tool. It's important to note that this app does require a FreshBooks account, but that can be created from within the app.
User-Reported Cons: Not optimized for iPhone 5. Crashes a lot.
Project management is a skill with equal parts organization, mediation and ego massaging, which is why projects can easily be delayed and get off-task. With Basecamp, companies can encourage discussion while also managing to-do lists and employee progress. Basecamp's official app lets teams check in on projects from anywhere and includes the latest news on each project. Designers, marketers and other people on projects, can jump in on discussions to share their thoughts so other team members are never waiting for feedback or next steps.
User-Reported Cons: Due to screen size, it can be difficult to manage projects, so it seems more suited for checking up on projects rather than working on them.
Telecommuting is on the rise and executives travel often, but teams still need to communicate face to face and share documents to increase understanding. GoToMeeting lets service providers host or schedule meetings and view slide presentations or other reports that the host wants to share. With GoToMeeting, collaboration also won't suffer just because people are in different places.
User-Reported Cons: Doesn't seem to synch when switching from PC to phone.
Information Publishers
Used and highly touted by Website Magazine's own Editor-In-Chief, Feedly helps bloggers, editors, writers or people who are just curious, organize their favorite blogs, news sites and YouTube channels to access them later. For information publishers, this stored material can help fuel their future content.
User-Reported Cons: iPad app crashes frequently.
There are 38 million new posts and 62.3 million new comments made each month on WordPress.com, making the ability to update a WordPress site on the go an important part of most information publishers' lives. The WordPress app lets bloggers and editors moderate comments, create or edit posts and pages, view stats, and add images or videos from anywhere.
User-Reported Cons: iPad app crashes frequently.
More than half of all freelancers are writers, editors or designers, which means documents must be shared. Emails can quickly get out of hand for writers with multiple projects, which makes Dropbox a great alternative for all involved parties. The app lets them bring all their photos, documents or videos wherever they go.
User-Reported Cons: Some issues with iOS7.
Where'd your day go? It's easy to get lost in creative work as an information publisher, but this Time Tracker, lets creative types keep track of their time, billing hours and even mileage. Key features include the ability to manage time record by project, client and/or tags, as well as attach documents or photos to time/mileage sheets.
User-Reported Cons: Would like the ability to add payments.
Not sure to spell out a number, use the numeral instead or have other AP inquiries? If you're a self-professed AP nerd, or just want to adopt a style guide for your blog or news site, try out the AP Stylebook used by major publications for grammar, punctuation, and principles and practices of reporting.
User-Reported Cons: It's too cumbersome to be used as a quick reference.
Bonus: Website Magazine (Of Course)
The Internet industry changes fast, and Website Magazine keeps professionals up to date with our 360-approach to Web success. Subscribers can access content, easily comment and share material on social networks.
User-Reported Cons: Pricing is confusing.
