For small businesses, setting up social media profiles, blogs and any other online presence is a trivial matter that takes mere minutes to complete. But how does one effectively pull it all together into one centralized hub?
Central.ly is a tool for creating one-page business profiles that can include a number of third party “apps” linking to sites like Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and, of course, a company’s own Website. Think of it like About.me or Flavors.me, but for businesses rather than individuals. Indeed, the back-end interface will look very familiar to users of About.me.
Setting up a page on Central.ly only takes a minute or two. It’s a matter of entering your business’s name, description, logo and choosing a background image and color scheme, then moving on to install any number of apps, which are essentially links to social media other portals online.
The end result is a dead-simple page that identifies what your business is called, what it does and where to find more information. The background area, which is great for including a large photograph, is an opportunity to include some visual identity as well.
You can configure your own domain name to work with Central.ly or go with their native URL.
For most businesses, this probably isn’t a substitute for a proper multi-page company Website, but it’s an quick and simple way to get an at-a-glance business page up. Rather than a comprehensive Website, it’s a portal into your company’s existing Web presence and another potential search result for your brand.