Facebook has a mobile app specifically for the BlackBerry and the iPhone, which makes updating your status very simple.  If you do not carry a smartphone, you can still update your Facebook status with your standard cellphone, if you follow this little ‘hack’ or sorts.

Here’s how:  Get yourself a Twitter account.  Add your cell number in the Device Settings.  By doing so, you will be able to send Twitter a text message with your status update, and it will appear on the web instantly.

Now that Twitter it set up, head over to your Facebook and login, then add the Twitter for Facebook application.  In the settings, make sure checkbox below is selected:

Consider storing what you would need to stay afloat somewhere safely off-site.  The basics can fit inside a personal safe stored at your home.  Even something simple, such as having a supply of business checks can help you get back to business quicker in the event a major setback were to ever occur.  Without checks, you may not be able to pay your suppliers or vendors, while waiting for a printing company or bank to generate new checks.

Secure data storage via the internet can be had very inexpensively, in some cases free, and with regular backing up, can ensure you have the ability to access your stored data in the event your office can not be accessed. Additionally you may choose a data center in a region very different from where you are in the event of a large natural disaster.  See the bottom of this article for some suggestions for free online storage.

Investing $100 in a standard scanner can help you create PDF versions of paper documents you can then store off-site, or even email them to a web-accessible mail account set up strictly for this purpose. If you have no other online storage and are just starting to implement your Disaster Recovery Plan, this may be a simple way to start.

Even with regular backups stored off-site, the backup will do you no good if you have no where to use it!  If you use special software, the installation discs and paperwork should be in your kit as well.  This is especially true if you are using custom, or older commercial software.  If your company file is formatted for QuickBooks version 2002 for instance, without the program installation disk you may have a tough time getting your backup up, and converting to a new version is not something you’ll want to be dealing with in this kind of a situation.

You may never have to put your Disaster Recovery Plan into play, and I sincerely hope you don’t.  Having one, and keeping it updated, is not only a small business best practice, it will certainly give you peace of mind knowing you’re covered.  Contact me today if you would like help setting up your plan or would like some suggestions on how to do so.

ADrive, Box.net, DropBox, MediaMax, Windows Live Skydrive, XDrive are just some that offer some sort of free online storage.

If you use Twitter, now you don’t have to log in to Facebook or check your feed reader to see status updates from friends. Most of my Facebook friends don’t use Twitter, so I couldn’t see their updates very frequently. That all changed when I found Twitterfeed.

Here is what I did: First I created a ‘dummy’ Twitter account solely for this hack, and I selected keeping the updated protected. Then I went to my Facebook account where my friends’ status updates are displayed and clicked on ‘See All’. I copied that address (my Friends’ Status Feed). Next, I went over to Twitterfeed, plugged in that Friends’ Status Feed address from Facebook, and asked it to pull it into my dummy Twitter account. Now all the status updates from my Facebook friends are updating the status of the dummy Twitter account, prefixed with their Facebook name. Last, I logged back in to my main Twitter account to “follow” the dummy account. Now I see all the updates from my Facebook and Twitter friends.

If you select SMS notifications, you’ll even get the Facebook status updates sent as text messages to your phone.