These are my favorite iPhone apps that help me as a marketer, entrepreneur, and small business owner.
I have organized them by category. I hope you find a few you can use. Most of them are free. Please leave a comment to share your favorites so we can learn from your personal experience.
The name of each app will link to the website of the application. No link means the website is not necessarily complementary, and you should just search from the iPhone app store.
Other links will take you to previous posts where I have described in detail how the app has been successfully used by me or a colleague.
Efficiency
Evernote – This app is invaluable for capturing ideas on the fly, especially for taking action on ideas from the Web.
Batchbook – You can save a great deal of time by having your contacts readily available on the Web. Batchbook is my choice. It is especially geared for those of us who actively use social media. I've commented numerous times on how I'm using Batcbook to simplify my social media work – most recently to insert a form in your blog. Use the Google search box on this blog to search for others.
It's one thing to access contacts from the cloud. It's another to have full access to deals in progress and notes from recent conference calls.
Dragon Dictation – This is an amazingly accurate app for capturing notes when paper and pen are not handy – think bedside and bathtub! It will transcribe your words very accurately. Then you just email them to yourself.
Tripit – If you travel much at all, you need Tripit. Just forward all of those confirming emails for air, hotels, and travel to plans@tripit.com. It consolidates them into an itinerary that you carry with you on your iPhone. No more scraps of paper to lose.
You can share your Tripit schedule with colleagues who may wish to meet with you when you are in their area. In this respect, it is a viable productivity app too.
Learning
Google – The Google app brings in much more than search. This is where I read dozens of blogs by using the Google Reader. You can also access your Google Docs, Calendar, and most of the other applications Google provides.
RedLaser – Have you ever been ready to make an impulse purchase and wondered if the price was fair? No problem, Redlaser uses a barcode scan to give you off and online price comparisons. It costs a few bucks, but is much more reliable than the free apps I have tried.
Siri – This new and free app uses the latest geolocation technology and more to serve as your virtual assistant. You simply dictate what you need in common language and it serves up appropriate options. We used it recently while on a family road trip. It helped me find a Starbucks on one of the upcoming exits. Nice!
This is the future of apps on this humanized web. Think of Siri as Google search, Google Maps, UrbanSquare, and Dragon Dictation, combined with others, and all rolled into one.
Jeffkorhan - Are you thinking of creating your own app? It is easier than you may realize. I previously described how I created an app for this blog, JeffKorhan.com, so that you can easily access the latest on social media marketing for your small business.
Sharing
Hootsuite - This is my current favorite for using Twitter from my iPhone. It is especially helpful for accessing your Twitter lists and hashtags.
Documents To Go – I just learned of this powerful app today. My college roommate is an executive with a Fortune 500 corporation and travels the world to audit financial systems for his company. He uses this app to have full functionality for Excel spreadsheets and Word docs.
I plan to use this app to do the same with a current project. I'm co-writing a book with a marketing colleague and we'll be collaborating through Google Docs to hit our 90 day timeline. You'll need to pay $15 for the premium version, but it is worth the investment.
Facebook – The Facebook app allows you to do most everything you can from your laptop. And it's free. I only wish LinkedIn would follow suit and add the same capabilities to theirs.
Typepad – Frequently I notice a typo on this blog while reading a post in the smallest room in my house. Think privacy and you'll know which room I'm talking about! Using a few keystrokes and some scrolling I can fix the mistake.
These are my favorites. How about you? Leave a comment to share your favs. And use the buttons below to share these with your networks.
Photo Credit: macmuc
Pricecheckah is better than RedLaser. It uses the same great redlaser barcode scanner, but gives you results from Amazon, eBay, walmart, overstock, buy.com as well as Google. It even let’s you put in your own stores.
And at only 99c.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300264101&mt=8
Aaron – I’ll check that one out. Several that I tried were a joke. At least RedLaser gives me valid info 80% of the time.
And for .99, Pricecheckah is worth a look.
Jeff
Thanks for this article. As the result, when I received the invitation to upgrade to 3.1 of Documents to Go, I went to the Premium version. Another thing have you found a good (I emphasize good) time management system for the I-pod touch or I-phone (plan to get an I-phone when my AT&T account allows me to get one for $299, for now I have the I-pod Touch.)
Dr Jo – When I think of time-management, I think of how all of these apps work together. For me, Batchbook keeps my contacts together and allows me to track “deals” – and, they have just been added to Google apps marketplace: http://bit.ly/d5caG2
What I am seeing is this may be a good place to start. When you become more Web-based, i.e. operating on the cloud, all of these apps seamless integrate. It’s a very cool thing!
Jeff
Hi,
These apps have been helping me too. They help me manage my time and my small business. Thanks for making it simpler. I also know a site which can help generate amazing advertising ideas. Its been helping me a lot too. Maybe some of you can also find it helpful.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/adpack/id359562015?mt=8
http://www.firstrate.co.nz/
Thanks
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