#GrowOnlineWithChinny: These Productivity Tools from Google will change the way you do Business ​

Hey BellaNaijarians,

Yaaayyy… It’s another week of #GrowOnlineWithChinny! This is a weekly column that discusses strategies to help businesses grow and maximize their online presence. Wondering who this Chinny is? I am part of the social media team at BellaNaija where I spend a lot of time engaging with our audience online and I’m blown away by how enterprising you guys are! I started this column last week talking about the coolest updates on Instagram for Business as well as what your customers are watching on YouTube. Today, let’s talk about G Suite, how to maximize it to make life and work a lot easier. By the way, if youwant to connect with me, you’ll find me messing around on my Instastories @chinnysimperio

What exactly is G Suite?

G Suite is a productivity tool from Google Cloud that is specifically built to help teams work better. From creating business emails in very simple steps to simplifying your work, connecting easily with your team members wherever they are or video conferencing, G Suite can change the way you do business. I think G Suite is perfect for entrepreneurs and small business owners because once you sign your business up, you’re an administrator and can control other accounts to ensure data is kept safe. Other interesting benefits include:

• Cloud storage which allows you and your team members keep all your work safe and accessible by everyone on the team
• Your team can collectively work on documents, spreadsheets and presentations at the same time, across devices
• Smooth set up! Being an IT admin doesn’t get easier than this
• Video and voice conferencing with up to 25 people within and outside your organisation, with a simple invitation link
• Enjoy shared and synced calendars to schedule meetings with teammates
• 24/7 support from Google! The best part!
• Controlled mobile management by admin

Nudges

You know those emails you need feedback from a third party before you can respond to? Then something happens, you get distracted with other emails and somehow the email never gets responded to? The new Gmail has a solution powered by AI that ‘nudges’ you to reply to emails you may have missed and to follow up on emails you haven’t received a response (solves the problem of that teammate, client or investor that keeps your reply to themselves!) Nudging is on by default for all everyone using the new Gmail but you can turn this off from your ‘settings’ menu.

So, What’s the New Gmail all about?

Anyone else been seeing ads or notifications (I’m not sure which or where) about ‘what’s new in Gmail?’ Yeah! I just tried it out and I actually love it. First, I love that it’s not only available to G Suite and business users but personal accounts can use it too! Some of the cool features include:

• Select your view. While the default option shows you attachments before you open the mail, the comfortable view only shows you there’s an attachment to the mail and the compact view…I’m sure you can guess the rest! **winks**
• Snooze emails for later, mark as read or unread, archive or delete messages just by hovering over it. Yup, you don’t have to open an email or check the box before you decide what to do with it.
• My fave! Use Calendar, Google Keep, Tasks and Add-Ons without leaving Gmail! Y’all see the multi-use trend here? Instagram is letting you shop on the app and Gmail is letting you do other stuff in your mailbox. I love tech!

Guess what? You can use Gmail offline!

So, this works both for classic Gmail users as well as business accounts or G Suite users. Whether you’re travelling or Naija just happens to your internet, you can still archive, label, delete messages, respond to emails and compose new ones while disconnected from the internet without worrying because everything moves once you get connected. This feature is only available in Chrome. Also, for G-Suite users, the administrator has to enable this feature first for other accounts.

I really don’t like long posts but there’s still so much to talk about… maybe we should do a continued post? A few more things before you go:

•  To get the new Gmail, click settings and then the icon ‘Try the new Gmail’. If you try it out and think it’s a horrible idea, you can easily switch back to the classic Gmail. (what’s the fun in that though?)
• Want to get started on G Suite? Click here. There’s a 14-day trial, so you should really check it out.
• I also found a really interesting infographic that highlights Gmail tips to boost productivity here.