We have had a few posts recently about useful apps to help you throughout your business day and when you’re on the go. It’s undeniable, that apps are increasingly important for brands and people alike, and corporations are finding unique and exciting ways to use apps to engage their audience and increase involvement.

With the Topshop app dedicated fans who have downloaded it will receive a virtual front row seat at the fashion show.

Alongside the live streaming of the cat walk, the app also gives iPhone users exclusive content in offline and online methods. The marketing team have used QR codes in shop windows, on clothing tags for designer T-Shirts and also within the Topshop newspaper distributed throughout the event, for users to snap with their app and get more information.

On top of all this, there are behind-the-scenes videos, including make-up tutorials from top models and designers. The app, that launched in December, is also said to contain the full range of clothes that are available on the main site, so that whilst you are watching the models you can purchase new clothes.

This kind of engagement is particularly important within the current climate, having a close and meaningful relationship with customers is one of the few ways to retain business and develop advocates of your brand.
Topshop has given it’s clients a reason to download their app including a variety of different situations in which it can be used. When developing an app for your brand, it is important that it is truly unique, or really useful.

Here are some of the most useful/ unique apps from well known brands that I have found so far:

1. iFood from Kraft

Listing hundreds of recipes, categorised by occasion, ingredients and much more, the app can be used at any meal time. Although the app launched in 2008, statistics have shown that it is still popular today and 60% of those who downloaded four years ago are still using it now! The app leads the users to Kraft focused recipes (obviously!) but also acts as a distribution service, for information, vouchers and news.

2. Sky+ from Sky

Sky released their Sky+ app to give their customers lots of extra features for their monthly fee. The Sky+ app allows Sky users to record a show or series for the next seven days from any location they are at. Using an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android, users look through channels, quickly search for shows and record programmes that can’t be missed!

3. Pingit from Barclays

This app was launched very recently, 16 Feb 2012 to be exact, and is a really fast way to send money using just a mobile phone number. Barclays account holders are permitted to send and receive money, and those not with Barclays can just receive the money. This app, although initially criticised, seems safe enough and can be a great way to pay your debtors quickly and easily.

4. Easy Jet

Easy Jet created an app that allows the user to manage their flights all in one place, anything from booking, flight status, managing previously booked flights and other available options including, speedy boarding, online check-in and addition luggage allocation. The app has been successful and has increased the engagement of Easy Jet customers.

5. Gumtree

The online market place offers users an easy way to search Gumtree for products desired, the app sorts through ads by location, allows contact with sellers within the app, creates favourites list and keeps track of the items being sold within the lists.

Each app has been successful due to its specific and unique use, make sure that when creating your app, it is useful for your customers and that they gain something specific when they download it. If your app is good enough, then not only will your customers download it, but they will also continually use it and gradually become more engaged with your brand.

If you have an app that you are particularly proud of or have seen one that you can’t live without, let us know!

Those among you considering this as a fun and unique marketing campaign, albeit a little pointless due to dog’s spending habits, may not have noticed the advert has succeeded in exactly what it intended to do… Make us talk about it! And we have fallen for it, hook, line and sinker. The unusual idea has sparked off this latest blog post topic about some of the most impressive and down right strange PR stunts created specifically to get us talking and buying.

 1. Scrabble

To mark the ever popular, and aging board game’s 60^th birthday, the PR team behind Scrabble compiled a number of photos of fans playing the word puzzle game in increasingly extreme conditions, culminating in two skydivers having a quick game whilst falling 13,000ft over Florida.

2. WWF

A truly thought provoking stunt came from the wildlife protection charity, who placed 1600 paper maché pandas in the centre of Paris to represent the 1600 actually left in the wild.

3. National Railway Museum

National Railway Museum, support child labour, kind of. The Railway Museum hired a 6 year old (which I’m sure isn’t legal) to be their Director of Fun, which got the museum substantial press coverage. The bosses at the museum were so impressed by the enthusiasm and application submitted by Sam Pointon, who said “I have an electric train track. I am good on my train track. I can control two trains at once” that they immediately offered him the job.

 4. Pepsi

Pepsi painted the world blue. In 1996, Pepsi paid the tabloid paper The Mirror to print on blue paper (don’t attempt this campaign unless you have substantial savings) and sprayed a Concorde blue with Pepsi branding, to promote the soft drink company. In all it was a success, but the plans were criticized when rival newspapers to the mirror suggested that the 300 litres of blue paint used would stop the Concorde from reaching its supersonic top speed once in flight.

5. Dove

Dove campaign for real beauty. Dove impressively gained a lot of exposure for the skin care brand and also boosted sales up by 700% following the adoption of their real beauty campaign. Beginning in 2003, the adverts featured only ordinary women, making a real statement next to competitors who continued to use stick thin models.

6. Unicef

Unicef bring on winter. Unicef brought about an autumn leaf stunt which began in 2001 to encourage people to donate money to Afghan children in the coming winter months. 5000 autumn leaves were printed simply saying “Winter’s coming. Help the Afghan children now”. Those who found leaves were encouraged to log on to the website and donate money to the cause which saved over 10,000 children from starving in Afghanistan.

7. Virgin

Virgin balloon trip. Richard Branson has got to be the king of the PR campaign, creating a brand new ridiculous stunt each time Virgin expands its enterprise. The most spectacular being his continual endeavors within aviation, and his hair-brained scheme to circumnavigate the globe within a hot air balloon. From space suits and super models to wedding dresses and revealing a little too much, Richard Branson and Virgin are not scared to bare all in truly outrageous PR stunts.

8. KFC

When it came to launching the new logo for KFC there seemed to be no better way than creating a logo in Area 51 in Nervada large enough to be seen from space. Well if you can, why not?

 9. Travelodge

Travelodge Nativity Promise- Travelodge announced in December of 2007 that all married couples called Mary and Joseph (with proof of marriage and identity) could stay in their hotels for one night (for free) between Christmas eve and the 5^th of January. They were obviously provided with a little more luxury than the original Mary and Joseph, with a room and a bed inside the building, not outside in a shed.

10. The Simpsons

The Simpsons Movie launched in 2007 and as part of the marketing campaign, Homer appeared in his underpants on a field in Dorset opposite the ancient hillside chalk drawing of Cerne Abbas Giant. Drivers of the M4 were treated to this spectacle before the movie’s launch and throughout the running time it had in the cinema.

Although these may require a substantial investment that many of us may not actually have, a PR stunt doesn’t have to cost too much and can be a great way to get promotion and reputation within your industry.

It’s more work on top of what you already do, it takes time that you don’t really have, and you can’t be bothered.

Why wouldn’t you have an e-newsletter?

It took us awhile to embark upon the voyage to producing a newsletter to go out to the hundreds of email addresses that we have accrued over the years but as soon as we finished the first copy and watched it get opened on the world map view, we were hooked. Our baby was taking its first steps into the outside world, and was doing really well, actually. We have had some more since then and although the release isn’t as nerve-wracking and the anticipation as tense, it is really paying off, and already one of our staff has had a radio stint on the BBC. So it can pay off!

If I put the time in, what do I get out of it?

An e-newsletter can really be what you want it to be, the world is your oyster, you climb the highest mountain, become the richest person on earth. Well sort of, I mean you are limited to email format, so maybe not all that, but you can maintain and establish really close relationships with clients (this should help you on the way to becoming the richest person on earth) so they come to you with issues, instead of competitors. This is also an opportunity to send people to your website, something that you should do as often as possible so that you can sell them your products and services.

What needs to go into an e-newsletter?

This is where we come in, sit back and take in the 10 Xposure tips for creating a smashing e-newsletter.

1. It may sound silly to mention it (but to avoid any trouble later I will) make sure that you know why you are writing it. Obviously for the reasons I have concisely stated above, but there may even be a more specific purpose to your letter. Are you advertising what you do? Do you have a really good offer that you want to share with everyone? Has there been a development in your business that you want your clients to know about? Or did you just have a really good breakfast and you thought you’d share it? What ever your reason is, keep the theme focused and consistent throughout, but remember to avoid the hard sell, as it can really put people off.

2. If you can, establish recurring columns and features for each issue. These can be whatever you want them to be (within reason-maybe keep your more controversial views to yourself). Maybe you have an interesting fact, a joke, a testimonial from a client that you have recently done work for. It doesn’t matter what your features are, as long as they are there waiting for your audience when they open up your email.

3. Don’t have full articles in your newsletter, this is personal preference (but there are methods to the madness). If you put a teaser paragraph into the email that goes out which contains a link to the full article which is found on another site, then you can now track what your clients look at within the email so that you know what stories they like best. Was it the top 10 tips for Facebook pages, or was it a picture of the snow in your garden? (not the most original idea).

4. It is likely that you have a personality (if not skip to number 5), so make sure that you are more than your business. Speak your opinions, crack a few jokes and don’t be afraid to let it shine through, as people love other people and not businesses.

5. Your articles need to be worth reading, remember that! If you look at your newsletter and are not even remotely interested in it then this is a bad sign, probably a stop sign, or a turn round and start again sign. Don’t just include information about your business, have topical news and information about others so it isn’t just me me me!

6. From research, tips and advice are the best at grabbing attention (hence this blog post). Having clear, numbered and structure lists, encourages people to read in the first place, and stay there till they finish it.

7. Mix up the media you use within your newsletter to keep it fresh and interesting. No one wants a full newsletter of text staring them out, intimidating them. Have links to videos, cartoons, pictures, quizzes or anything else that you find interesting or relevant to your industry/ newsletter.

8. You could even make your newsletter interactive, by including polls or surveys to make sure that your audience feel like their opinions count and that they can have their voices heard.

9. Your subject line for each e-newsletter that goes out is really important. Make sure that your subject line makes people want to read on. Avoid using offers like 50% off, as these look like junk and are often filtered by the spam filter on the email system. Try to include a title of an article within or a couple, something that will make the client want to open it to find out more.

10. Add analytics to your campaign so that you can look back over the posts you have written to see which ones are the most popular and the ones that people enjoy most, then you can recreate similar posts for up-coming issues to give the audience what they want.

Addressing what your audience want is always key to a successful newsletter. Get cracking on your own, and send them to us so we can have a look! Alternatively, for an example of a truly tremendous e-newsletter fill in the form with your details and receive ours! It’s great… honest.

As soon as the latest edition of our newsletter went out, we received an email from an eager BBC representative requesting our advice on the latest in new media technology.

Having represented Xposure on BBC Radio Nottingham previously (see our “What’s in a name?” blog post), Esme was more than prepared to take to the mic again.  The producers were so impressed that they immediately asked Esme to join them as a monthly feature on the show so listen out for Esme again on Friday March 3rd at 3:20pm.

Have you got something interesting to say but don’t know how to get yourself or your business heard?  We could be finding opportunities and achieving results like this for you.  If you’re interested in making yourself heard, drop us a line or give Esme a bell.

Click below to listen to our ever-professional Esme, stealing the show on BBC Radio Nottingham last week.

The valuation asks investors to fork out double the value of Google and even more so of Twitter, despite their increased competition to Facebook’s monopolising success. This valuation is not undeserved however, as the social network has managed to prove its worth through revenue, value and various new directions and channels yet to be conquered, by the social networking giant.

The full details have not been disclosed as yet, and the amount of shares still remains a mystery, but it is known that the 100 billion figure is based on the 100 times the income made by the site in 2011.

The 800 million users of Facebook see the company’s money making schemes everyday, in the form of targeted, user specific ads that address interests and information disclosed by users on their Facebook profile. Ads of this nature have been steadily rising in popularity and value,  and are set to increase even further bringing as much as 20% more income this year.

What next for Facebook?

In order to justify and keep those extortionate share prices (speculated at over $84 a pop) Facebook will have to develop the existing channels, and create new ways to keep spending on the site high.

As advertising is one of the sites key revenue sources, this will be an element to maintain and grow, with what I predict will be even more targeted and interactive ads with sponsored news feed items. Given that the amount of time spent by individual users on the site averaged 7 hours per month in comparison to Google’s 4.5, Facebook is set to increase the prominence of their credit system allowing users to buy credits and exchange them for goods.

Should you buy?

If you have a couple of million to spare, then the ability to buy American stocks may certainly pay off, and Facebook specifically with a pretty strong hold in the market, could make you even more, but given that the current highest shareholder, Mark Zuckerberg (obviously) has 24% accumulating to $5.3billion, you would have to buy a fair few shares before you started to see any real return on your investment.

Although many are calling it the deal of the year, and some, as far as deal of the century, the reality is that the hype will inflate the share prices making the demand high and the cost great. Forbes quoted an expert who predicted that the supply will be so tight in relation to demand that it the stock will outstrip the supply by a factor of 4 to 1.

With this in mind, and the fact that many believe, with historical evidence on their side, that Facebook has reached its pinnacle, now may not be the time to invest in the site. How much further can the social network go? Many see social networks as a short term investment, and have criticised Facebook’s poor advertising model leading to a risky investment that may never pay off. Maybe we should have invested 4 or 5 years ago, but alas, those days have passed us by, so we should probably save the money for now…

This photo sums up a lot of Tweets and wall posts from the announcement day (as found on mashable.com)

When YouTube began in 2005, the site was a utopia of different videos, from individuals, about anything and everything. Brands and businesses have been fearful of the uncontrollably free nature of the site and often avoided it completely to ensure they weren’t mixed up in all the nonsense.

Nowadays however, the scene could not be more different. Brands are embracing the video revolution and are uploading work, adverts and marketing material to the site onto branded channels where all their messages can be found.

But how easy is it to create a truly useful and successful YouTube channel and how do you actually do it? Read on to discover Xposure’s tips on your YouTube channel.

1. Experiment

When approaching your shiny new YouTube channel, it is important that you experiment with the videos you upload.  Try out lots of different styles of video, how to guides, examples of work, you at work or video tours dependent upon your industry. Use the first few months of your channel to discover what your viewers like and what they want to see then you can begin to attract more.

2. Why?

When uploading any or all of your videos, before you put them up, remember to consider why you have your channel. You should be constantly goal-orientated, and each video should reflect what your YouTube channel is there for. You could have it for any number of reasons, customer service, attract and build sales, or build a list of subscribers.

3. Time

Nothing is worse than a neglected social network so make sure you are going to have enough time to actually maintain the site. It’s unlikely you will a moment to spare, so often business out source this service or have interns to maintain their outlets. Mistakes on YouTube can be disastrous, so make sure that you know and trust those who are maintaining it.

4. Communication

This is where the time can really fly, to ensure that you get the most of your YouTube channel, you need someone to respond to the comments made, to make sure that your viewers feel involved. You also need someone to proactively comment on the videos of people who may need your services to encourage involvement and increase knowledge of your existence.

5. Content

Post any tv or video adverts you may have on your YouTube channel, including commercial material as this is great, but make sure that you post more than just that. Include videos behind the scenes of your business and “meet the staff” interviews, as people love hearing about the secrets behind business and how things really happen.

6. Best

Be the best. Make sure that all your content is top notch. What goes online and bares your logo should always be the best it can be, representing your business in the greatest way possible. Quality is key.

7. Search

All your content should be searchable and consider what your customers would search for to find your services. If you tag videos effectively and well, then you will be able to come up in results when others search for your competitors ensuring that you become the first and only choice within your industry.

8. Combine

All your networks should exist as branches of a larger being, so incorporate them all together by tweeting about videos, having links to your Facebook on your channel page and use your branding to ensure everyone knows about your networks and can access them easily.

9. Launch

Don’t just launch and leave! Make sure your channel grows and develops in time to ensure you get the most out of it that you possibly can. Viewers will enjoy new content, and be interested in watching the site develop and grow.

10. Google+

Share all your videos on Google+ as this makes the content rank higher in Google, meaning that not only will your circles see it, but also anyone typing the relevant search tearms.

11. Playlist

Make playlists for your content to increase the ease of use. Make a number of playlists and group similar videos together, so that your audience can easily find the video they want, and will automatically be surrounded by other relevant videos.

Here are some exquistely branded YouTube pages for some larger brands:

Have you got a branded YouTube page? Let us see your latest videos and your design, by commenting with a link below! We look forward to seeing them.

But wherever there is effective PR, there is the opportunity for bad, ineffective or poorly planned PR and I am writing this blog post to give you examples of truly terrible PR so you can learn from their catastrophic mistakes.

A company that went through substantial bad PR at the beginning of its time, is the money saving site Groupon. Initially hailed as a success and one of the fastest growing businesses ever, the coupon company even had offers from Google for an acquisition, but as the company seemed to be doing everything right, they were turned down. Substantial profits meant, when the advertising slot of the year (half time at the Super Bowl) came about, Groupon decided to invest, and air an advert to promote the company. A misguided attempt at controversial humour meant that their parody of the Tibetan plight against China was not well received. The advert was automatically deemed controversial and as discussions grew and opinions formed, the founder issued an apology. Opposed to traditional apologies used to get out of difficult PR situations that offer sincere and heartfelt sentiments, Groupon released a statement that was said by many to be a feeble attempt, that wasn’t actually an apology at all. On top of this Groupon’s accounts were criticised and said to have been embellished to show the company to be doing better financially that it actually was.

When Blackberry mobiles went down for almost a week last year, one would assume a company of that magnitude would have effective and thorough public relations strategies in place, but when the crisis hit RIM (the Blackberry operating system company) were far from prepared. Blackberry users were forced into a week long black out, unable to use social network facilities, receive their emails, BBMs and enjoy all the services that their hard earned cash paid for.

In an act of what seemed to be thoughtless self provision, throughout the debacle, Blackberry remained silent without commenting on what was happening or what its customers should expect. Messages mobile phone users received when attempting to use their phones were complex and uninterpretable for example “message delays were caused by a core switch failure in RIMs infrastructure”. Not only was the message given, unhelpful but also extremely infuriating due to its lack of content. Blackberry received particularly bad press from this and this morning reports claimed that 71% of Blackberry users would switch to an alternative smartphone service given their disasterous customer service.

It’s not just businesses that can fall foul of poor public relations, the Catholic Church was recently criticised for the way in which it handled child abuse claims. In 2010, a priest from a church in the UK was found to possess child pornography and other compromising pictures of children, including those in his parish. The church failed to report this matter for over a year, in what appeared to be an attempt to sweep the events under the rug , resulting in a costly law suit, and a multi-million pound pay out to victims and the promise for a change in the way these types of cases were dealt with. Although there is the promise of change, the damage to the Catholic Church is undeniable, and acts as yet another example of misconduct to reinforced the already tarnished reputation of the Catholic Church.

When looking through these examples of bad PR, there are certain mistake that are made in each culminating in a complete lack of control throughout the situation. Combined poor organisation and little to no communication resulted in what could have been a small problem sky rocketing into something, that even those unaffected by it can hear and complain about.

This is the controversial advert about Tibet and China, created by Groupon, to advertise their brand during the Super Bowl. What do you think?

As well as a momentous sporting occasion, the event usually plays host to other revelations (some more appropriate than others!) including, more flesh than expected from performing celebrities, and brands premiering new adverts. Last year the half time slot was given to VW who launched their popular Star Wars campaign with great investment, but substantial results.

In a change of proceedings, this year’s Super Bowl organisers have announced this week that the event is set to truly embrace the social media revolution. Organisers have created a social media command centre that will be part of the winning team, and an integral element, essential to the running of the event.

Understanding the undeniable power that social media currently holds, the command centre will act as an information hub, manned by 20 people for 15 hours per day throughout the competition.  The hub will score highly with fans of the Super Bowl, answering the questions of the public and providing information about the event and monitoring the conversations of the 150,000 visitors to the Super Bowl and those in the surrounding area.

The main networks under the social media hub’s scrutiny will be Facebook and Twitter, the staff hired for the event will be keeping an eye on mentions, replying to queries and addressing the most immediate concerns of all visitors to the event. This will be so much more than previous methods that just saw a stream of updates on results of matches, though I hope this feature won’t be forgotten.

Unlike lots of businesses, and indeed sporting events, SuperBowl has recognised and addressed the need for social media adaption. Due to it being a prime arena for conversation in the public eye, it is important that the efforts are put in to using it successfully.

Hired by Super Bowl, digital firm Raidious, have been drafted to sit on the bench and man the hub for the event and their CEO Taulbee Jackson, said: “Social media is just how people interact now. We felt it was critical to have some horsepower behind that aspect of the Super Bowl here, versus what you might have seen from other Super Bowls.”

The social media hub is forging a path for the interaction of social media within sporting events and due to its importance within the American calender, other such sporting milestones are more than likely to follow suit. Not only does the social media element allow the big wigs to see the great things that are being said, but it can be an area for internal development, addressing the needs of the public as and when they express it, and making changes that are necessary to keep visitors happy, and with 150,000 of them, they have their work cut out!

Unique and directed tweets from the centre’s team will go to confused fans looking for car parking spaces, give advice on the city’s best attractions and have stand by emergency information if anything should go wrong.

It won’t be easy to monitor all the hundreds of thousands of Super Bowl mentions throughout the event, but Radious has addressed this issue by adopting advanced search tools and analytics, that will use exact keywords and phrases to find relevant updates.

According to Mashable, researchers from a nearby University will be analysing the systems strengths and weaknesses including the possibilities social media opens up for customer relations.

On a slightly smaller scale, it is definitely worth adopting your own hashtag for an event you are holding, or monitoring mentions of your name during it, so that nothing comes as a surprise to you. You can use social media, to help you to address the needs of those at your events and ensure that you are always prepared for comments from attendants.

With the SuperBowl adopting social media to this extent, it is only a matter of time before other sporting events follow suit. I would be interested to see the networks involvement in a little event coming up for 2012, the London Olympics, although you may not have heard of that…

The idea behind SOPA is seemingly sound, and as you would imagine brought forward by the entertainment companies and music big wigs, stopping online piracy and the illegal downloading of film and music. But when you look further into what the act dictates, the consequences could be far-reaching and potentially damaging to more businesses than merely artists and record labels.

Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told The Guardian Newspaper that:
“These bills propose new powers for the government and for private actors to create, effectively, blacklists of sites … then force service providers to block access to those sites. That’s why we call these the censorship bills.”

What could this mean to you at home, or in your business?

With this in mind however, straight away a problem that crops up when you consider how far removed those affected by online piracy can be. How easily you can be closed down, whether you have done anything wrong or not. Your blog or website could be commented on by a user who has an infringing link on their site and then due to your connection with this link, your site could be shut down, despite the fact that you have done nothing wrong. As you can imagine, this is a MASSIVE problem for site such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube who could see their whole sites being closed down through the actions of one individual user.

Another problem is that once you have been blocked, it is your domain name that will not be able to be found, your IP address is still out there. This means that those committing the piracy acts will still be able to act, but you will be hindered massively when your not-so-tech-savvy customers won’t be able to find you.

Individual users can be punished for things that really aren’t that bad. An example of this would be that technically a record label could put you in prison for linking to a YouTube video that shows you singing along to a song. When you don’t have the rights to do this, you will pay the price. In the past the entertainment industry has even targeted individuals who have been in a similar situation, locking up those who have done one thing (which was probably funny), as opposed to those constantly uploading pirate material.

Not only are small businesses and individual users in for difficult times if this act passes, but also large corporations will be really restricted when it comes to the development of new technologies which are more than likely going to include elements of social sharing and online activity. This broad law banning all activities of this kind will make it very difficult to go forward in the technology industry, in a time when progression is something that we should encourage and not hinder at every turn.

It needs to be considered whom we need to back in situations such as these. It is obvious that the film and music industries bring millions into our economy, but this money only scratches the surface of the affect that the profits brought in by the technology industry and unfortunately this new ruling will limit their every move.

We’re not condoning the pirates in any way, copy write theft is a crime and should remain that way. We just need to consider the guidlines of this ruling, ensuring they are tighter and don’t inhibit our nations recovery, and ensure that the people who are breaking the law, are the ones who are punished.

This is the page that appeared when you visited Wikipedia on the day of the strike.

You’ve got a Smartphone, you’re up to date, and are moving your business forward but have you considered making the most of the mobile application market? If you aren’t using some of the millions of apps available for personal and business use, then your phone could definitely be working harder for you! Apps can help you when you’re in or out of the office, on the move or to help you organise your team, the ones you choose are up to you but this is Xposure’s list of the top 10 apps for small businesses.

1. Slideshare

Slideshare is an online, cloud-based app that allows you to access, create and share your slideshows whilst on the move, using your mobile phone. You will no longer be caught short when you’re out and need your notes. There has been a recent update that allows you to embed YouTube videos within your slideshow presentations, to help explain and illustrate your points, the app can help you to produce and show your work on the move.

2. Amazon Cloud Drive

I have been looking around the Internet for some time for free storage apps, and Amazon seems to come in at first place, for the amount of cloud based storage space for free. The nature of the app makes it particularly useful, with secure storage, unlimited access from any computer anywhere. Wherever you are (as long as there is wifi) you will be able to access your stored data helping you to ensure you never forget the documents you need again.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox, offers a similar service to Amazon Cloud Drive, but despite the lesser space available, a unique element of the apps is its ability to sync directly to your PC or Laptop. This means that when you load information into your Dropbox, you can set it to connect your Dropbox, with those whom you work with and automatically upload the same information to their computer.

4. Workflowy

If you have ever found yourself with a messy desk, lots of information, that you aren’t sure what to do with, then Workflowy is a great app for you, assisting you with your organisation. The app allows you to record all your thoughts in one place, categories them, and also review and order them easily. It can help you organize personal to-dos, collaborate on large team projects, take notes, write research papers, keep a journal, plan a wedding, and much more.

5. Skype

Skype, if you don’t already have it, make sure that you download it now! You can have individual phone calls using your Internet connections, or group meetings, which can make satellite offices or freelance work a really viable option.

6. Teamly

This app helps you to sort out your to-do list once and for all, giving you 5 priorities per week. You can go forward or back in time to see what you’ve accomplished and to understand the milestones that are coming up. You can easily re-order your priorities to a specific date.

7. Daylite Touch

Daylite Touch is a productivity manager for the iphone and ipad, to help you manage your business and your team. The app is useful for you to share your updates with your team, keeping everyone on the same page and to help you stay on track with developments and deliver results on time, every time.

8. Shoeboxed

Keeping track of expenses can be a difficult task, but Shoeboxed is a great app to help you keep all your expenses in one area and generate intensive expense reports. By snapping pictures of your receipts and invoices, Shoeboxed enters the date, total, payment type, store and category, then creates and sends expense reports from your iphone/ipad.

9. Google Docs

Google Docs have released an app, which gives you the opportunity to create, edit, upload and share your documents on the move. Designed primarily for the Android market, you can make quick amendments to spreadsheets, view your PDFs, amend presentations and upload files converting them to Google Docs format. You can even take a photo of printed text and convert it to a Google Docs document!

10. Toodledo

Toodledo is a task manager for the iphone and ipad, made specifically to help you to organise your to do list, notes, and to help you to be more productive. Toodledo gives you the ability to track your notes by priority, start date, due date, time, length or status.

These are the best apps for us, but what have you found invaluable to your business? Which apps can’t you live without? Let us know what you think about apps for businesses.