Chris Grams, a writer and communications strategist, highlights this point in “Avoid the tool trap when building communities,” an article on opensource.com.  He reminds us to ask “What are the values” of a community not necessarily what tool do I use to build it.

Read the full article: “Avoid the tool trap when building communities“

We’ll be doing regularly scheduled server upgrades over the next 24 hours. This should be a seamless process with ZERO downtime for those who are hosting with us. If for some reason you do have difficulty connecting to TapTrend hosted resources, please let us know immediately.

The upgraded servers will allow us to offer new, improved services to our customers. Stay tuned for news and updates in the coming weeks.

That’s why, when clients ask me “How do we get into social media?” I tell them “We claim your business on every service your customers are already using.”  This could include your business listing and/or it’s location on Google Local, Yelp!, Facebook Places, Foursquare, or any number of other popular, business listing directory.

But “Shouldn’t I first create a Facebook Page?” I’m asked.  Sure, that’s important, but I say it’s more important to claim the pages/listings your customers are already visiting and using before creating another page you’ll be promoting yourself.

If you have questions on how to utilize social media for you business, we can help.  Email us at info@taptrend.com today.

DEE stands for Discover, Engage, and Evaluate and it is our “secret sauce” in repeatedly executing successful social campaigns and programs.  It’s really not much of a secret.  In fact, it’s drop dead simple.  Here it is:

We use this process in all our social media projects.  Facebook.  Twitter.  YouTube.  Yelp.  Foursquare.  Google Places.  Linkedin.  You name it, it’s been used on it.  It’s used repeatedly through the setup and management of our social programs–rinse, lather, repeat.

Forrester’s Ted Schadler looks at over 200 businesses that are utilizing iPads and discovered three key ways they’re being used:

1) Replacing Laptops-  For employees that primarily use laptops for email and web browsing, the iPad is a more portable, ideal solution.

2) Replacing Paper-  Instead of caring large amounts of paper around the office, many are using tablets to access dynamic, up-to-date documents only to inform meeting discussions.

3) New Uses- iPads are commonly being used in ways previously not anticipated by IT administrators and staff.  Examples include use of them by sales staff to instantly customize customer orders.

We’re seeing these trends not only being reported by the enterprise IT community, but also forward-thinking education and medical institutions.  If you’re interested in educational use of iPads specifically, Fraser Speirs’s blog is a favorite of TapTrend.  Fraser is documenting his schools experience deploying iPads to every student at his school.

Overall, the tablet form factor is radically changing the day-to-day lives of enterprise employee and the accessibility of information.  We’ll only see this trend continue to grow as other tablet manufacturers  ramp up production and release their own solution.

TapTrend offers custom iOS and Android application development and can build business solutions to optimize your business.

Over a year ago Scott Brewster and I started TapTrend as a summer project to build creative, entertaining mobile apps for the iPhone platform. Since then our team has created a number of products, most for 3rd party companies and brands.

But over the past few months, we realized the company needed to go into a new directions in order to survive in a rapidly changing mobile software environment.

To that end, Scott will be producing much of the current TapTrend products-in-development under a new brand, where he can optimize resources used in his other ventures. Going forward, I will be focusing TapTrend to better serve our clients under a digital agency model that includes web, social and mobile platforms.

I’m excited to say, the small, flexible team at TapTrend is already working on some exciting brand development work that we’ll be sharing soon.

I look forward to sharing much more in the near future. Until then, please be patient with us as we transition into our new reality.

-Josh

TapTrend, an energetic software development company, is seeking a part-time copywriter to manage their social media communications. As a TapTrend copywriter, you will be responsible for developing a unified company voice and projecting that voicing into all primary social media channels. You’ll also engage with relevant community members, share important industry news with company fans, and hone website and marketing messaging.

Responsibilities:
- Compose, edit, and proof content for social media platforms (ex. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia)
- Post approved content to relevant platforms
- Monitor and engage in brand-related conversations on social media sites and relevant blogs
- Will also develop copy for print and online marketing such as emails, websites, & online advertising

Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in communications, English, or journalism
- Mastery of Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and Wikipedia functionality a must
- Marketing, public relations, or business-related copywriting and proofreading experience
- Adept in self-managing and communicating in a distributed-work environment
- Technologically savvy and quick to learn new platforms

How can your company “tap” the trend in mobile proliferation to expand into new markets and grow your brand?  We can help you develop a solid mobile strategy and develop a quality product that will create  a new revenue stream for your company.

Our team is waiting to work for you. Contact us today.

Think of it as Simon plus a big 80′s boom box.

Tap Bam Boom is soon coming to an iTunes App Store near you.