A Great CMS for Small Business Websites

Are you looking for a CMS for Small Business?

GetSimple CMS one of the latest in a lineup of simple web content management systems that underscore the trend toward leaner, simpler websites.

Yellow pages aren’t working like they used to. Traditional advertising isn’t working like it used to. What’s a small business owner supposed to do?

As IT & marketing budgets continue to get squeezed, small businesses are looking for easier and cheaper ways to (1) create a website (2) manage their content, and (3) use Social Networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to build their own channel with their customers and prospects.

GetSimple is a great CMS for Small Business

GetSimple has everything a small business owners needs, and nothing a CMS doesn’t.

While it’s unlikely that a large multinational is going to use a simple CMS system like GetSimple, it’s perfect for a small business owner who needs an online presence. Most small business owners need a small 1 to 10 page brochure site that will help them achieve search engine visibilty… they need a simple web presence — that’s it.

Here are some of the features:

• XML Based ~ Getsimple doesn’t use mySQL to store information, but instead depend the simplicity of XML (extensible markup language). By utilizing XML, it removes a layer that causes slowness and complexity.
• You can “Undo” Almost Everything ~ This feature was based off an eye-opening AListApart article explaining how warning messages never work as planned. Because of this, they’ve included “undo” into almost every action you can take on the site.
• Easy to Learn ~ The top priority when designing a user-interface for a small business is to make the best in it’s class. GetSimple tried and tested all the competing management systems, took the best practices out of each one – then refined it.
• Simple Theme Customization ~ It’s very easy to create a custom theme and make it your own look. The base software is extensible, meaning you can add just the functionality you want: for example a photo gallery, or a new manager (or blog), or a google map.
• It’s Perfect for Small Business ~ For most small businesses, the only need is to be able to easily update their site from time to time — to create seasonal offers, ur update a list of services. GetSimple alllows them o do it efficiently and effectively.

If you have any questions about CMS for Small Business, or you’re looking for a resource to help you build a website or increase your online visibility, please contact me today.

Free Social CRM: Get Rich Contact Profiles Inside Gmail

This is going to be a short post.

In a previous post I covered several different very good Social CRMs. Social media CRMs are applications that aggregate information on your contacts’ social profiles, making it easier to engage and ultimately influence and educate them to the point where they’re ready to do business with you. 

One Social CRM that I didn’t cover in the previous post was Rapportive, which is an application we use, and I highly recommend, since it’s free, and helps you connect with contacts on their preferred social networks.

Rapportive helps you get  rich contact profiles right inside Gmail. You can download it here. Download it and install it, and connect to your social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and it will automatically feed you information about your contacts’ social activity in your email inbox — see below).

Eh voila! A Free Social CRM that gives you rich contact profiles right inside Gmail.

Happy connecting!

Create your own Social Media Email Signature

A social media email signature is one of the most cost-efficient and effective marketing tools you can ever use.

Designed correctly, it can be a great way to educate the people you interact with every day, turn prospects into 1st time buyers, and 1st time buyers into regular customers.

People have been asking me how I create my social media email signature, and how I seem to connect with people so easily on my social networks, and I am going to share with you an easy way that I have found to do it.

If you don’t already have social profiles established at Linked-In, Facebook, and Twitter, I highly recommend you do this now. Also, if you are interested in sharing your ideas and establishing thought leadership, I suggest you look into WordPress.

My solution requires the use of both Firefox as a browser, and Gmail as an Email Application. I highly recommend using both. Not only are they great applications; they’re free. I have quit using Outlook altogether.

Firefox — Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Corporation. As of October 2010, Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with 30% of worldwide usage share of web browsers.In Germany, Firefox is the most popular browser with 60% usage. With Firefox, functions can be added through extensions, created by third-party developers, of which there is a wide selection, a feature that has attracted many of Firefox’s users.

Gmail — Gmail is a free, advertising-supported webmail, POP3, and IMAP service provided by Google. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release in 2004, and became available to the general public in 2007. As of November 2010, it had 193.3 million users monthly.

Assuming you’re using Firefox and Gmail, to build your own social media signature, you just need to follow these easy steps:

1.) Download and Add Wisestamp to Firefox –

WiseStamp is a web browser extension which supports Firefox, Google Chrome and Rockmelt web browsers. WiseStamp enables you to include your social profiles and dynamic Email Apps in your emails. With this you can design your own email signature and link it to your social profiles.

2.) Add your contact information in the rich text box

Sincerely,

[I've added my image and my actual signature here; that requires a little bit of HTML coding].

Les Proctor
Founder/CTO
HyperLocalDeals
216-973-9228

3.) Add Social Media Icons

I added my profiles from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.

4.) Add IM Icons

I added Google Talk, which contains my email address, but will also allow people to chat with me through Gmail and AIM.

5.) Add Email Apps

I added 2 RSS Feeds from HyperLocalDeals, and new venture we recently started. It’s a Group Buying Website with a Social/Community Twist. With our merchants, we offer great deals and also give back 5-10% of every deal to local charities. In my social media signature, I have a feed to the latest deal, and a feed to the latest blog post (where we feature the charity that’s going to benefit from the latest deal).

This is a live example of my social signature:

Sincerely,

Les Proctor
Founder/CTO
HyperLocalDeals
216-973-9228

Connect:
Some Really Awesome Local Deals Coming Soon!
“We make a life by what we give”

In the Wisestamp Settings, you can set up your default signature when you hit the “compose” button. you can have a business signature, and a personal signature. In my case, I am running two businesses, HyperLocalDeals and Les Proctor Direct, my marketing consulting practice, so if I want to switch signatures, it’s quite easy… just hit the little Wisestamp button in the rich text box.

Voila! That’s how you can create your own social media email signature.

Coming up next: How to Use Rapportive as a Free Social CRM with Gmail