These web sources for small businesses will make collaboration easier, as identified by content expert Ken Lyons.
- Skype: Skype is still one of the best online tools for collaborative communication. Voice, video and text chats to your team are completely free; you can even share files. In addition to the Windows, PC and Linus versions of Skype, there are also iPhone, iPad, and Android apps, which truly make this a versatile tool.
- Google Drive: Anyone with a Google account can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations to share with the group. Permissions and other sharing features make Drive even better for collaboration. Because it’s free, many teachers are using Google Docs to share files with their students.
- Co-op: If you like simple, you’ll love Co-op. The interface serves as a central place to ask your team questions, share links, provide updates and share your daily agenda.
- Basecamp: You can’t skip a rock through internet waters without hearing about Basecamp, and for good reason—it offers superb online project management. The web-based tool lets you organize any project, track progress, set up to-do lists, share a calendar and more.
- HootSuite: HootSuite will link up Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ business pages and LinkedIn. Pre-schedule posts for any time, monitor your accounts, ping yourself for certain keywords and more.
- Join.me: This simple screen-sharing tool is a marketer’s best friend, especially if your team is so far-flung you never get a chance to sit down together. You can control the screen yourself, or hand over control to your collaborators.
- Twiddla: Twiddla takes your whiteboard online, serving as a “meeting playground” for all your virtual face-to-faces. You can do anything you do with a real whiteboard—draw, write and erase—but do it online where you can also add images, links, video and other media resources.
Source: Ken Lyons, co-founder of MeasuredSEM, is an SEO inbound marketer and link-based content strategist with an eight-year track record of driving qualified leads and traffic to websites. He also co-founded Cornerstone Content, a free source of content marketing tips and advice geared to helping marketers and site owners get more traffic, more leads and more sales.