The world has changed, and the old ways of running a business rarely apply anymore. Your employees could be working halfway across the country or halfway across the world! It’s hard to keep tabs on everything that’s happening, and even harder to ensure your team is working efficiently. But, by learning about and taking advantage of a few key apps, you can bring your team closer together and ensure everyone is working on the same page.

1. Get more time face to face, virtually.

It isn’t always feasible, financially or otherwise, to bring your whole team together in one place. That doesn’t mean getting valuable face time is unattainable. Skype is a popular standard for video calling; many people have an account, it’s easy to use, and available on a variety of devices. So while the weekly phone conference may be the best way for your team to get things done, it’s even better to see your coworkers face from time to time.

But the free version of Skype is only good for one-on-one video calls. To have multiple people on a video call you’ll have to opt into Skype’s premium service for $4.99 a month. However, there are other free options like Google Hangouts or one of my favorites, Spreecast. Spreecast enables you to have up to four people at once, with no need to download software because it works right in the browser. You can make your meetings private and record them for playback later. Whether you’re having free-flowing strategy meetings or just relaxing with your coworkers and enjoying a  VoIP happy hour, video makes your team feel like they’re really a part of something, even when they’re working remotely.

2. Use cloud apps to share data.

When managing employees in geographically diverse locations, it can be hard to manage what should be simple tasks, like making sure everyone has the latest version of a document or spreadsheet before a meeting. This is a perfect opportunity to use the cloud. Cloud storage apps like Dropbox or Box.net (which I’ve discussed in a previous post) are great if your employees take full advantage of shared folders and collaboration tools.

For larger files, we use cloud storage to share files to great effect, but when it comes to actually collaborating on documents or presentations, I find Google Drive to be the best solution. Combining cloud file storage with a web-based office suite of document, spreadsheet, and presentation software, Google Drive is the perfect way to ensure everyone is literally on the same page. The best features are the collaboration tools—when I’m working on something, my editor or publicist can jump right in to the document with me. We can edit files together, and chat about what we’re doing at the same time, all from the Google Drive interface.

There are so many ways to put Drive to work for your business, but I’ll tell you a few of my favorites. During a meeting, multiple people can collaborate together typing the notes to ensure that every action item or brainstormed idea is properly captured. While compiling a spreadsheet, my team often takes to the chat to ensure everyone working together is on the same page about formatting, what values go where, and how the formulas work. When my producer is working on a segment for TV, I don’t have to ask her how it’s coming along—instead, I can jump straight into Drive and see her progress on the pitch in real-time.

Drive is powerful software, and will take your small business straight into the 21st century.

3. Organize your team with project management apps.

So your team is meeting face-to-face, building awesome presentations together, and everything is going great, right? Wrong. How are you making sure every one is staying on task? How do you get a status update from a team member who’s halfway around the world and in a different time zone, or unreachable because they’re underground on the subway? There are a million different situations where you need some little bit of information, but in today’s workforce, you can’t just walk down the hall and pester someone in their office. What’s the best way to get that same experience online?

Enter project management software. My team uses Basecamp, which is practically the industry standard, but you might want to check out some alternatives. One worth checking out is Siasto which integrates seamlessly with Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box.net. Another is Trello, which uses cards to let you see the big picture of how projects are moving, or allows you to drill down quickly into the nitty-gritty details.

Whatever you choose, the important thing is making sure you get your whole team on board, trained, and excited about the possibilities of managing their projects with an app. From giving management the ability to quickly scan deadlines, due dates, and progress on a variety of tasks to enabling employees to collaborate, discuss, and share ideas, inspirations, and help on all of their tasks, project management software makes it simple for everyone to stay on track with their work.

Those are my ideas for how to take advantage of the latest tech to build a better business. Your business might struggle with different stumbling blocks, so let me know what problems you’re trying to solve in the comments below, and I’ll try to find apps that can help you work better!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show, CNN, HLN and Fuse. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

1.      Cloud file storage

No matter what line of business you’re in, there are surely dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of files you need to manage. Wouldn’t it be great to have access to them everywhere you go? Thankfully, the prices of cloud storage are falling every year, and it’s becoming simpler than ever to point an app to your documents folder and let it sync to the cloud and across your devices.

Stop carrying around flash drives and never be caught in a meeting without access to a crucial document ever again!

If you’re a small business or entrepreneur, one great solution I like is to switch your business over to Google Drive, which provides both document storage and editing of all your docs, spreadsheets, and presentations in one place. Fully compatible with other office suites but available on every device you can think of, Drive is a great way to promote team collaboration on important documents and make sure your company has all of their important docs in one place.

But larger companies that may be more resistant to switching over to Google for all their document needs, either Dropbox  or Box.net  can help. You can get several gigabytes of storage on either service for free so you can try them out, and since both offer apps for every mobile device out there, you can have your documents, pictures, and more easily synced across all your devices and never be caught without a crucial file again!

2.      Cloud backups

Okay, quick show of hands: how many of you regularly back up all of your data to an external hard drive? Now, keep your hand up if you use multiple hard drives. Okay, finally, keep those hands up if you store those multiple hard drives in geographically disperse, secure locations.

Any hands still up? I didn’t think so.

While at a minimum you should have backup drives locked up at least at home and at the office, in the event of disaster like a hurricane or earthquake, both of those locations could be inaccessible. At the very least, a secure backup out of the state will mean you’ll still have your files if you need them. But accomplishing that is tough—are you prepared to mail or drive backup drives to a remote location once a month? Wouldn’t it be great if you could have that same level of security without the hassle?

Enter cloud backups, where you can cheaply encrypt and copy the entire contents of your hard drive to a remote location and let someone else worry about keeping it up-to-date and safe. Two apps I like here are Carbonite  and BackBlaze  and they both start at under $5/month for unlimited data! Compared to the trouble you’d have to go to for the same level of protection for your data, it’s a steal! But don’t think that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still back your data up to drives locally—you never know!

3. Cloud storage of ideas

If you’re anything like me, you’ve always got lots of ideas and nowhere for them to go. When you’re on a mobile device and the light bulb goes off, what do you do? Put that idea in the cloud! Apps like Evernote  let you put text, pictures, and audio recordings in the cloud, so you can search them and access them on every device you own, from your smartphone to your tablet and even the PC on your desk or the laptop you carry everywhere. Plus, Evernote is a great place to work on documents when you’re on the go. After all, how many times do you actually need a fully-fledged word processor to flush out a proposal or meeting notes? Evernote let’s you do that from any device you have handy, and with the cloud powering the back-end you can be sure you never lose a note and can get to it anywhere you are.

What if your needs are simpler, and you just need an app to jot down some ideas? For that, I recommend Simplenote, which does just what you think. Simplenote makes it dead simple to store notes, ideas, lists and more as well as make it easy to search and find exactly what you’re looking for. Plus, just like Evernote, it syncs to the cloud and is accessible from every mobile device out there. My recommendation is to give them both a shot, and then see what works best for you!

No app can fill everyone’s needs, but these apps are basic utilities everyone should have. What parts of your workflow would be easier to manage with the cloud? Leave me a message in the comments below, and I’ll see if I can find a solution that fits your needs!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show, CNN, HLN and Fuse. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Fantastical

Struggling to manage your calendar? Wish it were simpler to create and manage events? Fantastical is the fastest and easiest way to create calendar events on your smartphone, because you can create events using natural language. Just hit the plus button and type something like “Phone Call with Nicole at 9am Tuesday” or “June 23rd meeting at Grand Central with Investors,” and it creates exactly the calendar event you think it would. Plus, the DayTicker view shows your upcoming schedule in a simple and easy-to-understand way that you can quickly scroll through. Stop wasting time with confusing calendar apps and keep it simple with Fantastical.

Speek

Both a web service and an app for smartphones, Speek makes it simple to set up a conference call when on the go. Start a conference call with multiple participants, schedule a call and have it automatically send calendar invites with dial-in information, and join a call quickly and easily—all from your mobile device! It can notify you if participants join a call and you’re not there, which is a great feature to ensure you’re never late for a call again. You can share files, record calls to share with participants who can’t make it, mute attendees, and get a custom and easy-to-remember speek.com URL for your conference calls so nobody has to remember a messy dial-in number or code ever again! When you’re on the go and need to set up a call fast, Speek makes it easy.

Timebridge

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: you’re trying to schedule a meeting with multiple, busy people, but you spend more time going back and forth trying to decide on a time than you do on the meeting itself! With Timebridge you can stop playing tag and instead get right to it. It integrates with everyone’s calendar, working with Outlook, Google and even iCal, to find the times everyone is free. Once you’re set up, Timebridge works behind the scenes to make sure everything about the meeting goes smoothly, from sending reminders over SMS and email, to setting up and sharing an agenda. It even helps you handle the follow-up on action items from the meeting!

Socialcam

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how about a video? While I’ve talked in-depth before about how the Socialcam app can be used to boost your online presence, what I haven’t discussed is the value in simply having a reliable app that lets you shoot and share videos painlessly. Need to show something to your boss or client quickly, introduce them to someone you just met at a conference or event, or even just need to record a video of something so you can look at it again later? Socialcam has the answer.

While Socialcam is a social network, it also offers privacy settings so that only the people you share videos with can see them. Since it lets you set up all the sharing and privacy features before the video even finishes uploading, you can have your phone back in your pocket as soon as you’re done shooting and know that the relevant parties will see their video. From quick videos of the people you meet and their ideas, to important sections of talks at conferences, to devices you see out in the wild – there are a million things that video can convey better than a picture or just some text, and Socialcam is the perfect way to put it out there.

These are just some of the apps I’ve been using to boost productivity lately—how about you? Are there things you wish you could speed up with apps? How about apps you’ve found that you’d like to share with the world? Leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to reply!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show, CNN, HLN and Fuse. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Enter the cloud. There are a variety of cloud-based technologies that can help you manage the data you’re taking in during these events and help you sort it back out when you’re done. While you may have little more than a smartphone with you when you’re interacting with people at these events, using the cloud you can automatically sync everything that comes in with your desktop computer back home. Today I’m going to take a look at some of my favorite ways to use the cloud to make sure you capture all of the data from an event and turn that into an actionable plan for you to work from.

1. Put Business Cards in the Cloud

Every day you’ll be grabbing (and, hopefully, handing out) dozens of business cards from potential partners, potential clients, or even just people you’d like to see again. But by the time you’re back in your hotel at the end of the day, never mind by the time the conference is over, you will surely have forgotten why you took some of those business cards and all will be for naught.

If you’ve already standardized your personal note-taking on Evernote like I have then the best option would be to use Evernote Hello. Far more than just a place to capture business cards, Hello captures people, interactions, notes, meetings, and helps you build a rich history of when you’ve seen someone before and what you discussed. This way, when you run into someone at a conference, you’ll know exactly what you discussed the last time you saw them.

The only thing I’d remind you to do is to make a quick note in Hello about exactly what you talked about. “He will help me with my website,” or “She knows someone who does branding.” These brief notes may seem redundant, but when you’re going back over these connections later they’ll prove invaluable.

Another awesome service worth checking out is CardMunch by LinkedIn. While you don’t get the rich history like you do with Hello, CardMunch is a great way to turn every business card you come across into an actual contact in your smartphone. And if your contacts are already synced between your phone and your email or your computer at home, bam, you’re set. Just make sure to add a note to their contact card on your phone briefly describing what you talked about so when you follow up later you don’t have to rely entirely on your brain to remember.

2. Create Reminders For Yourself

So you meet someone, you trade business cards, and you agree to follow up with each other after the conference. But how do you remember to actually do that? Use your smartphone right then and there to create reminders for yourself. A good reminder program will leverage the cloud so that your reminder isn’t just on your phone, but on your tablet, laptop and desktop as well. At the very least it should offer a web interface you can use on every device you own. Some ones I’ve tested and like include Remember the Milk and Astrid, but even Google’s Tasks which are built into your Gmail on Android or your default iPhone Reminders app are good enough and automatically sync across all of your devices.

Here’s what you have to do. Every time you meet someone at a conference or event, there will be something to follow up on. Maybe you need to email them the name of a contact, or maybe there’s a specific project you’d like someone’s help on. In as clear and concise language as possible, turn these into actionable tasks in your reminders list and set them for a date after the conference ends, preferably a few days after it ends. This way, even if your real brain forgets to follow up, your digital brain will ping you from the cloud and let you know what you need to take care of.

It is absolutely crucial, however, that you’re using a cloud-based service for this. It’s one thing to create the reminder from your phone, but after the event ends you may be on any number of events when the reminders start popping up and you want to make sure you don’t miss them. So create them from your smartphone right away, but make sure they’re synced across your devices.

Using the cloud is all about offloading this crucial information related to your follow-up from your brain and instead putting it into the cloud so you won’t forget. What cloud-based solutions have you tried, and what are your sticking points? Leave a comment or a question below and I’ll be sure to get back to you!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show, CNN, HLN and Fuse. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

I’m at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference this week in Austin, Texas, and it occurred to me that while I’ve gotten tons of amazing opportunities through my own networking, including television and radio appearances, this isn’t a subject that’s necessarily taught at business school. Many of you, I’m sure, are constantly attending conferences, events, and speaking engagements but if you struggle with getting up the nerve and pitching your idea then I’m going to try and help you by giving up my best tips. Here are the steps I would take before, during, and after an event to ensure I make the absolute most out of my face-to-face networking.

1. Know your subject

Before heading to an event or conference, get a copy of the program or print one out. Make sure you really study the entire program—you should know ahead of time what all of the panels are about and who all of the speakers are.

2. Make a hit list

With your knowledge of every nook and cranny of the program, you should be able to make a “hit list.” A hit list is your personalized list of everyone who will be speaking or attending the conference that you want to get in front of. Do you have an idea you’d like to run by them? An opportunity to present to them? Whatever it is, come up with more names than you’ll ever be able to meet (after all, some opportunities may pass for reasons outside of your control) and then prioritize them. This means making hard decisions and deciding on a #1, a #2, all the way down.

3. Have a calendar

Now that you’ve got your list of names, and you’ve prioritized them, match things up with the program and create a calendar for yourself of every panel and talk that you’ll be attending. Do this well before the event or conference begins so you can identify any conflicts in your schedule and resolve them before it’s too late.

Larger conferences almost always have apps, so check the app store on your devices and see if something is available. You can usually make your schedule right there in the app, which I would recommend since it can also then become a reference for you to quickly check bios or panel topics when you’re in a rush.

4. Follow your targets on social media

While you’re going to be meeting people in person, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also be doing all the research you can and following them on social media. This is especially useful during an event or conference so that you can see if anything in their schedule changes. (Maybe a talk was rescheduled or they’ll be making an additional appearance outside of the convention center.) This way, you’ll be among the first to know.

This also lets you know what someone is thinking at a given time—maybe there’s a topic they’re talking about right now on Twitter that you could engage with and get your name in front of them before you meet in person. You may find out they’re interested in something you’re an expert in, so you’ll want to incorporate that into your pitch, which I discuss later in this article.

5. LinkedIn is your friend

Another thing you need to do before the conference even starts is put every name on your hit list into LinkedIn. You don’t need to connect with anyone, but what you do need to check is if you have any connections or acquaintances in common. Trust me, you’ll be shocked to discover that your network is bigger than you expected when you find out that a celebrity speaker at a conference is a friend of a friend—it happens!

If it turns out you do have these connections, shoot a message over to your connection and politely ask if they’d be comfortable introducing you to your target. You’re asking for a favor so be careful how you word your request—do a triple check that the message is professional before hitting “send.”

6. Pitch BEFORE the talk

So you’re at a conference and you’re sitting at a panel or a talk, and the speaker is someone you want to get in front of. Everything is perfect, right? WRONG.

If the speaker is well-known and well-liked (and let’s be honest, if they’re speaking to a crowd there’s probably a reason) then they are going to be mobbed the minute their talk is over — by both their fans and others like yourself who want to get an idea in front of them.  You want to be remembered as an individual, not one of 20 faces who pitched in the first five minutes after the talk. Sometimes, well-known speakers sign books after events. While this can occasionally be an excellent time to network, more often than not you won’t find yourself with enough time to get in a good pitch while they sign your book.

What you want to do instead is get to their talk early (I usually like to arrive an extra 30 minutes ahead of time) and see if you can find them before the crowd gets to them. If you’ve followed my advice and checked out their social media and LinkedIn profiles, you should have a good idea of what your target looks like and you may be able to identify them in the seats or even outside the venue.

While this doesn’t always work, it really is the best time to catch someone and get the time and attention you need to properly pitch them.

7. Pitch perfect

The time has come. You’ve done your homework, arrived early, and identified your target. You’re walking up to them and suddenly you realize you don’t know what you’re going to say! Basically, you don’t have a pitch.

A pitch should be no more than 30 seconds and should do three things. First, you need to identify yourself, who you are and who you work with. Second, you need to explain exactly what it is you need or want from your target. Third, you want to demonstrate your value to him or her so that they remember you when you follow up.

But what do you actually say in that time? This is where things get tricky—I could write a whole article about the pitch!

The first thing is, have a visual element if you can. When I pitch I’m usually trying to get a TV show or a new hosting gig, so I make sure that I have either my laptop or my tablet computer on me at all times. On every device I own, especially my smartphone just in case, I have several videos to show, including my demo reel and prior television appearances. This way, my work can speak for itself and when I pitch I can say, “Hey, Sergey Brin, my name is Mario Armstrong and I talk about technology on television. Can I show you a quick video?” and hit play. Believe it or not, this actually happened to me—I recognized the Google founder on the street, took a minute to compose myself, and then I ran (literally, ran) up to him and gave him my pitch. The result? I have his personal email address and a promise to follow up with me on a variety of topics.

But what’s important is how simple my pitch was. Let’s take a look at that again:

“Hey Sergei Brin. My name is Mario Armstrong and I talk about technology on television. Can I show you a quick video?”

In just two sentences and under 10 seconds I let Mr. Brin know who I was, what I do, and was able to immediately hit play and show him my Television work. Now imagine if I hadn’t had my work on me at the time and I had no video to play. Would I have been able to pitch Mr. Brin? Could I have convinced him that I’m actually a contributor to the TODAY show, CNN and HLN? Maybe, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective.

If you’re a graphic designer, have your art on every device you own and make sure you have one device on you at all times. If you’re a writer or blogger, use an app like Simplenote or Evernote and sign into an account that you only use to store writing samples. This way you can show someone your writing work right then and there.

Heck, I’ve even seen PowerPoint presentations used successfully as part of a pitch! Make it fun, engaging, and make sure that it adequately shows off exactly what you do.

8. Benefit everybody

As you’re working on your pitch, remember this one rule—the pitch HAS to be something that benefits the both of you.

Your target is someone who’s at a conference—they’re giving a talk, they may be famous or a minor celebrity, and they’re going to be bombarded with people asking them for help. Let me give you an example—someone comes to me and says, “Hey, Mario, I’d love to write for your website.” That’s a weak pitch, because I’m asking myself a ton of questions: Why should I help this person? How do they know if I need to hire a writer? Are they a writer? Why the heck would I need a new writer?

A better pitch presents itself as a solution to a specific problem I have. For example, what if the pitch was: “Hey, Mario, I see you haven’t written about Windows 8 on your site. Do you have an interest in getting some content about Microsoft’s new operating system?”

This is a pitch where afterwards I take their business card and put it in my left pocket because they’re someone I want to follow up with. Why? Because they identified a problem I have and offered a solution. That’s a successful pitch and it was successful because they had done their homework and phrased it perfectly. I’m saying to myself, “Why wouldn’t I want their help?” and that’s exactly the kind question you want your target asking themselves about you.

9. Practice, practice, practice

This should go without saying, but it’s easy to forget—practice your pitch, practice it over and over again. Test it out on anyone who will listen. Get advice from people you trust. Record your pitch with a video camera and play it back. Record just the audio, then speak more slowly and record it again. Is your voice clear? Can you force yourself to slow down? When you’re pitching, your heart will be racing so you need to know that you’re not going to rush through your pitch. The pitch also should sound natural, like it’s not a pitch at all, but just a conversation. Try different ways of saying it when you practice, listen to those recordings and then ask people if it sounds forced.

Afterwards, practice some more. At this point, you’ve invested too much time to blow it.

10. Shut up and listen

OK—so you’ve just delivered your perfect 30-second pitch and your target’s face lights up. What you need to do now is shut up. You’ve finished talking, so close your mouth and open your ears because you need to pay very close attention to what your target has to say.

Let them speak, and don’t interrupt your target, not even if they misunderstood your pitch or request. What you need to do is let them respond to everything you said and even give them time to think if they need it.

This rule is really about making sure you don’t oversell. I even do that sometimes, I get too excited and my pitch flies past the 30-second line and is being counted by the minute. You get stuck, you go over, and you can tell that your target is bored so you start panicking but you don’t stop talking. It happens to everyone, so you need to know ahead of time that your primary concern is to respect your target and respect their time. You can do this by giving yourself just 30 seconds and then letting them speak. By doing this you will demonstrate your value and become somebody your target recognizes the next time you meet.

11. Follow up

Then there’s the follow-up. You get all these business cards, but what kind of system do you have to put them in? Do they go in a Rolodex? Do you type everyone’s information into a Word document? Do you scan them yourself? Ship them off to Cloud Contacts and pay them to scan your cards for you? Whatever your system, you have to make sure that every single card is catalogued and that it goes somewhere you trust.

One thing I like to do is write notes on the backs of business cards because if I’m pitching lots of people, or being pitched myself, I often forget exactly what was said even a day later. If I don’t have a chance to organize my cards until after a conference, it will be too late to go back and remember those important details so I prefer to capture them right then and there.

Don’t wait forever—there are no magical waiting periods like there are in the dating game. Follow up during the conference if you can, while you’re still fresh in their minds. The follow-up doesn’t have to be as involved with the pitch, but is just as important because it sets the tone for how the work you’re doing will be conducted.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and get networking!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show, CNN, HLN and Fuse. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Last time I talked about the 4 technologies small businesses have to pay attention to in 2013. This week I’m going to be taking a look at our social media resolutions for 2013, and how we can double down on our commitments and find success building our following as well as our brands. It’s valuable to take these kinds of check-ins to see where we stand on our resolutions and evaluate our strategies.  Today I’m going to offer you some of the solutions I’ve found to improve my interaction and engagement online through social media.

1. Create a schedule and stick to it.

Some days I have plenty of free time to engage and interact with followers on Twitter and Facebook. Especially when there are major events like the State of the Union Address, the Super Bowl, and the Grammy Awards, it’s easy to find huge audiences to connect with online. But other days there isn’t nearly as much going on and it’s a stretch to find content to share and discuss online.

One thing that I’ve found useful is making sure that I have a minimum schedule of the number of interactions or posts I’m making on my social media accounts. You can start with something low, even 1 or 2 tweets a day, when done consistently, can have a huge impact long-term. But the trick is not to simply have a schedule, but to review it every week and analyze what’s working and what isn’t.

Once a week I try and sit down to look back over my engagement and interactions on social media. I check to see how I’m doing against my schedule: did I meet my goal for my minimum Facebook posts and tweets each day? I also ask myself questions like: what topics sparked interest, and what posts fell flat? Which hashtags caught on and which went unnoticed?

By constantly evaluating and re-evaluating what you’re doing, as well as setting a schedule, you’re on the right track for social media success.

2. Find new ways to stay on top of the latest trends.

Now that you’re working on identifying individuals, brands, and businesses you’re following and engaging with, it’s time to start taking things to the next level. Different apps and websites can help you with finding great news stories and fresh topics to discuss on social media.

First off, take a look at what news sources the people you respect and follow are using. If you’re seeing the same blogs or publications come up, you may want to come up with a better system to track their latest stories. With apps like Flipboard and Zite you can create your own, personalized magazine based on the feeds from publications and blogs you like, so that you can browse them every day in an easy-to-digest format.

Still other apps, like News.me, Thirst, and Smartr work based on your social stream—they strip out the tweets and turn your Twitter feeds into a source of just the news people are sharing and discussing. This way, so long as you’re following the people and topics you care about you can easily get an up-to-the-minute feed of stories that interest you (and may provide some great fodder for online discussion!)

As you identify news sources, blogs, and authors, be sure you’re adding them to a system you trust and check regularly. I strongly recommend using some apps on your smartphone or tablet to do this. That way whenever you have some downtime you can check-in on your own, personalized, news feed. When you’re struggling to find content to discuss on social media, you’re just a tap away from a whole world of exciting, new, news stories.

3. Find and follow the authors that inspire you.

Another tip is to follow the author instead of the publication. Often times, contributors to major blogs (like many of us here on Networking Exchange) write for a variety of publications. I myself contribute to Black Enterprise magazine and write on my own blog as well. The next time you find an article you enjoyed or found useful, Google the author’s name and see what comes up. They may have a personal blog, Twitter account, or Facebook page worth following so you can get the absolute latest output from them.

Keep track of these authors so that they’re more than just names for you. Read bios when they’re available so that you know more about the author and where they’re coming from. If they’re someone whose content really resonates with you, don’t just read their commercial writing work, but see instead if they have a personal blog. Their personal writing may be an additional source of inspiration and a place to find new content to share on social media.

Be sure to keep an eye on smaller writers as well, not just ones who write for major publications. An author with hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter is a great person to follow, but someone with only a few hundred followers could be someone you get to know and can interact with. By identifying people in your field and starting conversations with them on Twitter and Facebook, you have another way to use social media on slow days and to make sure you’re making your goals and keeping to your schedule.

4. Don’t be afraid to recycle old content.

One other trick I like is re-tweeting or re-posting older content. If your business or brand has content that’s fresh but not necessarily new, say some recent YouTube or Socialcam videos or some blog posts that are a few months old, those can be great to push back out and try and re-engage with followers on social media.

The one trick is to avoid overloading your followers with old content. While it can be good to bring things back every once in a while (after all, not all of your followers will see every tweet or Facebook post you put out there), nobody wants to see you constantly recycling content they’ve already seen. But if you’re having trouble making the number of posts per day or per week you’ve resolved to do, then some recycling of content can really help to fill in those gaps.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

In school, teachers always told their students that there were no dumb questions and that students shouldn’t feel afraid to raise their hands and ask away. On social media, asking questions might get you answers to things that have perplexed you but they’re also a great way to get followers to interact with you.

While this trick isn’t something you should do every day, it might be a good thing to add to your repertoire. From simple questions like, “What are you looking forward to today?” to complex ones like, “Where do you need help in your social media strategy?” these will hopefully generate discussions and activity on your feed and will help you feel engaged with your base.

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show, CNN, HLN and Fuse. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

1. Mobile devices

According to Gartner’s research, 2013 will be the year mobile devices completely take over the computing landscape. In 2013, mobile phones are expected to overtake PCs as the devices most commonly used to access the web worldwide and by 2015, Gartner is predicting that 80% of phones will be smartphones. These are absolutely wild findings, and, if true, mean big changes in the way we all do business.

Last year, I talked about how the world has gone mobile and how small businesses need to ensure they had a mobile-friendly website ready to go. This year, not only do you need a mobile website, but you also need to be thinking about how an app or a new, mobile-friendly business model could re-invigorate your bottom line. Whether you sell products, provide services, or are an individual looking to turn yourself into a brand, this is the year to ensure you have a strong presence on mobile devices through social media, a website, and possibly even an app, But that brings us to our next topic that tackles the platforms and technologies that may power your new mobile business.

2. Mobile applications and HTML 5

Anyone with a smartphone or tablet already knows how mobile websites and apps empower us to do more while on the go and to be more productive while working from a mobile device. This year, Gartner is predicting that the general trend will be away from native apps (i.e., apps specific to a certain smartphone platform like Android) and into more general web apps based on the HTML 5 standard. Here, I have to disagree somewhat with Gartner. Take Google for example. In the past year they’ve released beautiful apps that integrate with a variety of their services, from their Google Drive office suite to their Gmail e-mail client. These native apps, as opposed to the web-based versions that are also accessible, provide much nicer, easier-to-use interfaces that just work better! Sure, for a business there’s a lot to consider—with a multitude of smartphone and tablet platforms to create apps for, it’s hard to know where to start! But from the user’s perspective, a native app is definitely preferable to having to remember a website address and navigating a less-than-optimized experience on a phone.

For your business, you may just want to target a small number of mobile platforms instead of trying to make apps for everyone. That way you can give people exactly what they want from your company. Plus, apps are still a hot topic—just the other week, I highlighted my top apps for 2013 on the TODAY show. Mobile websites simply do not get the same press coverage as their app equivalents, and you may miss out on media coverage if all your business has to offer is a cross-platform web-based interface.

3. Personal cloud

It used to be that all of our files were in one place, on our desktop computers at the office. Then came laptops, and we used various ways to ensure we had the files we needed while on the go. Today, we often need the exact same document in half a dozen locations—not just laptops and desktops but mobile devices including smartphones and tablet computers. The answer to this problem is maintaining a strong personal cloud, a personal collection of cloud services, web destinations, and apps to ensure that our files are there when we need them and that changes are saved across our devices. Gartner is predicting that this transition will be slow but inevitable, and our personal cloud will be the “glue” that holds our digital lives together. I couldn’t agree more! Files need to be portable and available because no single type of computing device fits all of our needs. Files will increasingly shift from our machines to the web, and apps and web-interfaces are absolutely the future of file management.

4. The Internet of Things

One important phrase that has been kicking around the online world lately is the “Internet of Things.” This phrase refers to the fact that the Internet is no longer just a network, but something that a variety of real-world physical devices (the “things”) all connect to. Far beyond our smartphones, the Internet of things increasingly connects to our homes through smart appliances and televisions, and it connects to our transportation through smart cars and Wi-Fi enabled trains and planes. The Internet of Things even connects to our bodies through digital health products like wristbands that track our workouts, sleep, and eating habits. These devices increasingly talk to each other through localized wireless technologies like Bluetooth and near field communication (NFC), but also connect via Wi-Fi or data networks to the entire Internet.

2013 is already shaping up to be a banner year for the Internet of Things. At CES this year, I saw wild new forms of mobile and digital health tech as well as amazing tech to train the next generation of children how to better live in a connected world.

These are just some of the hot new trends that Gartner is predicting for the next year in technology. If you’d like to know more about what tech Gartner is predicting will change not just your business but your life in 2013, I recommend Kevin Tea’s excellent analysis in this blog post at Web2.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below, and I’ll do my best to help out or point you in the right direction as we head into the new world of 2013 technology!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show, CNN, HLN and Fuse. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

1. 4K Television

As if it wasn’t enough that we’ve finally all moved to HD TVs, the next big upgrade in resolution for our home television sets is already on the horizon. Called “4K,” which refers to the horizontal resolution of the beyond-HD video format, the next advance in TV is going to bring four times the resolution of our current HD sets. With high-resolution displays already on our mobile devices and similarly high-resolution displays coming to TV, small businesses producing content for the web need to start preparing now for our beyond-HD future. Whether that means making sure that photographs being published online are already in a higher-than-needed resolution or looking into 4K video production solutions, this is something anyone producing content needs to be aware of and ready for!

2. Mobile is Growing

From six-inch superphones to innovative new tablet technology that can create a raised keyboard on top of your display, I saw tons of mobile tech that is going to change our lives this year at CES. The fact is, with mobile download speeds getting faster and devices getting smarter, every business needs to be prepared for a future where the computing power we have in current desktop and laptop computers is being carried around by general consumers in their pockets. Whether that means making sure 2013 is the year you finally get around to releasing an app for your company or making sure your business is prepared for a mobile future, there’s a lot to consider this year in terms of how you’re taking advantage of mobile technology.

3. Training the Next Generation

A huge portion of this year’s show floor was dedicated to tech for the next generation of children. From toys that help children build robots and learn to program to assistive devices that help children with autism and learning disabilities, there was an incredible amount of technology targeted specifically at children this year. What I realized is that any business that wants to survive the 21st century needs to anticipate customers who are not just tech-savvy but who literally grew up surrounded by smart devices. The next generation will literally be learning how to program at an early age and will be taking for granted the mobile technology and high-resolution displays that are cutting edge today. These won’t be brand new technologies for them, but rather things that have always been there. If your business is to adapt and produce products or technologies that next-gen consumers will love, you need to be able to anticipate and respond to these trends, as well as think of what types of products and services a totally connected generation of consumers will desire.

Seeing into the future may be hard, but taking a look at actual technologies on display at CES and determining what will have an impact on small businesses is easy in comparison. These are just some of the products and technologies I think will make a change in how we do business in the near future, but there will doubtless be others as well. The important thing is to try and stay ahead of the curve, anticipate consumer demand, and make the necessary changes to your business to survive and thrive.

If you’re struggling in any way to incorporate or respond to new tech in your business, feel free to drop me a line in the comment section below. I’ll do my best to read and respond to every comment you leave.

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show and CNN, and the host of a tech talk radio show on SiriusXM. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Give to Entrepreneurs in Other Countries (Kiva)

If you don’t already know about Kiva’s unique brand of micro-transactions, be sure to check out their about page and read a bit about how they work. Basically, Kiva is a nonprofit that connects individuals with small business owners and entrepreneurs all over the world who need help. First, browse Kiva’s listings and find people you’d like to help. The listings cover absolutely every type of business you can think of, from a woman in Tajikistan who is looking to raise $525 to buy a sewing machine so she can make dresses to sell, to a man in Cambodia looking to raise $1500 to buy fish and firewood so he can start selling smoked fish. Once you find an entrepreneur you’d like to support, you can lend as little as $25 to help someone get their business off the ground. You can even see tons of historical data from the lender they’ll be working with to find out what the credit risk of your loan is, what percentage of small businesses they support default, and how long they’ve been working with Kiva. Using one of the many mobile apps available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, you can browse Kiva’s listings while on-the-go and really find a small business you want to support this holiday season.

Give to Teachers in Need (Donors Choose)

Donors Choose is an amazing charity that connects individuals directly with teachers and classrooms all around the country who need help funding projects. Donors Choose is the perfect place to go if you’re looking to support an art teacher who needs supplies, math education in public schools, field trips for students in poverty-stricken areas, or — and this is a huge need this holiday season — schools affected by Hurricane Sandy. You can browse listings in these categories and more, find a teacher or a school you’d like to help out, and give as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. And with the app for iOS devices, you can browse (and give!) anywhere you can get online.

Give Your Time (VolunteerMatch)

Don’t have any money to give this season but want to give your time to those in need? VolunteerMatch is a great app that connects you with volunteer opportunities locally as well as those that can be done remotely. To date they’ve connected over 5 million volunteers with more than 90,000 organizations! And with the app, it’s easy to locate a volunteering opportunity near you and start committing some of your time to a great cause!

What other apps to help you give back to those in need have you heard about? If you have any to share, be sure to leave them in a comment below!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show and CNN, and the host of a tech talk radio show on SiriusXM. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

This holiday shopping season, shopping socially might be the answer you’re looking for. By getting your friends and family into the shopping mix, and taking advantage of some excellent social shopping sites, you’ll discover some unique gifts that won’t soon be forgotten.

1. Pinterest

If you do a lot of shopping online, then you need a Pinterest account! Pinterest.com lets you easily save great products you find online as “pins,” which are basically pictures with a small amount of text. You can either save gift ideas to browse later, or sift through thousands of great finds by your friends, family, or even strangers to quickly find interesting gifts for everyone on your list. The killer feature is that by sharing lists of gift ideas with family and friends, you can get feedback before you buy. Not sure which sweater grandma will love? Save a few pins and send them to your sister for feedback! Not sure which Lego sets your niece owns? Send her parents a few pins and find out which one they think you should get.

2. Svpply

On Svpply.com (pronounced “Supply”) is a great new site by online retail giant eBay that helps you find unique gifts. Svpply brings together thousands of hand-picked listings from a ton of smaller online stores, Etsy shops, and yes, even some major chain stores as well. Bright, colorful, and full of pictures, Svpply lets you easily browse through clothes, jewelry, tech and more. By finding people with similar interests to yours (or the person you’re looking to give something to), and narrowing down gifts by price or gender, you can track down a unique present at a price point you’re comfortable with.

3. Get local at a discount

Group shopping sites, live Groupon and LivingSocial let you join other buyers to get great products at a discount. When shopping for someone far away, these social sites are often the best ways to find deals on things local to your giftee. You’ll be able to quickly browse deals specific to an area, and find things like gift certificates to a restaurant they’ll like, a day at a local spa, tickets to the movies or theater, or even a day at the go-kart tracks!

4. Shop rare

Don’t just buy gifts from the big retailers. The most unique gifts can often be found by shopping from smaller businesses or individuals. One place I love is etsy.com, which connects you with individual or small-run retailers. While a majority of Etsy sellers make one-of-a-kind clothing and jewelry, it’s also a great place to find hand-made home furnishings, unique phone and tablet accessories, original pieces of artwork, and some really cool kids’ toys and stuffed animals!

Another place I love is Fab.com, which is rare shoppers dream. They curate unique and different products that make for great gifts—plus, almost everything on the site is offered at a good discount.

Those are my top tips to leverage the Internet and social media for your holiday shopping. What sites do you use and how are you using social to shop smarter this holiday season? Leave a question or comment below and I’ll be sure to respond!

Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is an Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show and CNN, and the host of a tech talk radio show on SiriusXM. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.