One of the keys to running your business smoothly is efficiency. The web applications and tools you use every day can make running your business more efficient — but having those apps and tools work together for your business can change the way you work altogether.
That’s where IFTTT comes in. And, like all great apps for desktops and smartphones, it’s totally free.
Don’t let the techy name scare you away. The best to way to describe IFTTT is by explaining what it stands for: “If This Then That.”
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If you do one thing (or if something happens that you don’t control, such as someone mentioning you on Facebook), IFTTT makes something else happen.
For example, if you Like a photo on Facebook, it can save it to your Dropbox. That’s just one very simple example of what this very versatile web tool can do.
Creating Recipes to Simplify Your Life
Recipes are at the core of IFTTT. Just as a cake recipe takes different ingredients and combines them to make something better, an IFTTT recipe takes web components and combines them to make your life easier.
There are two types of recipes: IFs and DOs.
Both utilise “triggers” and “actions.” The difference is that, with Do recipes, the trigger is initiated by tapping a button in the app, while Ifs (what you might call the original recipes, based on the original IFTTT format) are recipes designed to take action any time the trigger is initiated from a designated source, such as a website, weather app, or GPS locator in your phone.
Each trigger and action (excluding Do triggers) is represented by a channel. A channel can be an application, a function, or a wireless service — pretty much anything that connects to the web.
Some of the channels to choose from include:
- Dropbox
- Gmail
- Evernote
- Buffer
- hue
- WordPress
- eBay
- Craigslist
- Sensibo
- SMS
- WeMo
- Weather Channel
- SoundCloud
- Tumblr
And that’s just to name a few.
Creating recipes simple. IFs can be created on the If app or by registering on ifttt.com like this:
- Click on the “Create Recipe” button, and the screen will show the words “If This Then That.”
- Click on the highlighted “This,” and select your app from a lengthy list of options.
- You’ll be prompted to describe the specific trigger (for example, when a certain person posts on Twitter or if a specific hashtag is used).
- Click on “That,” and select the action channel. Again, the options are many.
- Connect to each channel selected. You only have to do this once per channel.
- If you already have an account for a selected channel, you simply sign in.
- If you’re new to the channel application, you will need to create an account.
- Fill in any additional information for the triggers and actions.
- Click “Add” to activate the If.
Dos are even more simple to create. Start by downloading the Do Button mobile app.
- Click on the Recipe icon (a pestle and mortar) in the bottom right corner
- In My Recipes, click on the “+” sign.
- Click on Channels on the top right.
- Select a channel for your action.
- Connect the channel.
- Click on “Create a New Recipe”
- Choose an action from options provided.
- Fill in additional information.
- Click “Add” to activate.
Recipes for Small Business Owners
The best way to see what you can do with Do and If is to browse the recipes on ifttt.com.
While designing your own recipes allows you to fully customise your ITFFF experience, there are ready-made recipes (created by other users) that are extremely useful for small business owners. These also show their popularity rank.
Some of our favorites IF recipes include:
- Timesheet reminder: At a specified time set on the Date and Time channel, send an email reminder to your employees to submit timesheets via the Yammer channel.
- Refund alert: If a refund over a specified amount is issued via the Square channel, and email will be sent to you via the Gmail channel.
- Save receipts: With a single click, save receipts to Evernote.
- Track payments: When a payment is accepted via the Square channel, a new row is added to your specified Google Docs spreadsheet.
- Turn up the volume on a misplaced phone: Have you ever turned down your ringer for a meeting, only to misplace it? If you text “lostphone” to your number, Android will set the ringer volume to 100%.
- Save starred emails to Evernote: Just click the star on an important email in Gmail, and it will automatically go to the Evernote folder you choose.
- Get emails for new posts on Craigslist: Looking for a good deal on equipment or someone local offering a certain service? If a listing is posted to your chosen search parameter, you’ll be notified.
- SMS for missed calls: If you miss a call, the caller will receive a text message letting them know you’ll call them back as soon as possible.
- Text your broker: Select the stock ticker symbol and the price — if it falls below that amount, your broker will automatically receive a text to buy.
- Save a phone log in Google Drive: When using the mobile app, phone calls will be automatically logged in Drive.
- Get a notification when your business is mentioned on social media: Never miss a mention with this IF.
- Adjust lighting: If you use Hue, you can set the lighting to flicker gently 15 minutes before the close of business.
One-touch Dos to simplify your life:
- Post to Facebook: Slow day? Post a sales promo message to generate interest. Create several for different sales, so you don’t post the same thing repetitively.
- Email your current location: a one-touch way to send directions to your business or meeting place.
- Tally to Google Drive: Count customers, items made, items sold, the number of times you check your phone — whatever you want to keep track of, just hit the button, and a tally will register in a Drive file.
- Do Not Disturb: Tell Google Calendar you want an hour without disturbances; it will mark you as Busy.
- Track your hours: A simple way to log work time. Click once to start logging in Google Docs, and again when you’re done.
- Alert your team when you’re leaving: Create a boilerplate message to send out when you’re about to leave or sign off.
- Control the lights: Tap to tell hue to dim the lights, turn the lights off or on, or flash.
- Turn on the coffee maker: or any device that’s plugged into a Belkin Wemo switch.
- Start recording security footage: With a device set up as a Manything camera, you can control recording with Do.
- Arm your alarm system: Using the Myfox channel, you can arm and disarm your alarm system from anywhere with a tap.
If it all sounds complicated, you’ll be surprised at how simple it really is.
Try downloading one of the apps to experiment with (the apps are a bit simpler to navigate than the web version).
In a few taps, you might start asking yourself how you ever got along without it.
Do you have any favorite If or Do recipes? Share them in the comments.
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