Google Reader: Gone for Good After July 1, 2013

Google Reader: Gone for Good After July 1, 2013
How to Build Employee Engagement: Open-Plan Offices
Fortune 500 Thrives, But Small Businesses Not So Optimistic
M-Commerce: Why Your Website Needs to Be Mobile

Posted: 13 Mar 2013 06:52 PM PDT

Google keeps surprising people. That latest came as it announced it was shutting down Google Reader, the RSS feed reader application, on July 1, 2013.

Google Reader closing - cat appalled In a statement on the Official Google Blog titled “A Second Spring of Cleaning” the search behemoth wrote, “We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined.”

The company went on to note, “Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.”

A number of other Google services are being shut down. Most, however, seem either developer-focused or appealing to niche interests.

For most people, losing Google Reader will be the biggest blow of all the products being shut down. John Resig tweeted that 97% of his feed hits come from Google Reader. Here at Small Business Trends we have a similar experience. Out of the 120,000 subscribers to our RSS feed, 90% are from Google Reader.

Of course, we’ve seen much slower growth in RSS readership, as our Twitter following has grown these past 3 years. People today get a lot of their news updates through social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and other social sites.

I’ve always found Google Reader hard to use. It has an inflexible user interface with limited customization features. But it really depends on how you use a feedreader. Some people actually read the full text of their content in an RSS feedreader. Others use a feedreader to be alerted of new news and merely look at the headlines, jumping over to the originating site to read the content.

If you are looking for an alternative to Google Reader, there are a number to consider, including start pages such as NetVibes, which is very customizable, and Feedly (which already offers instructions for transitioning from Google Reader).

Another one that we use internally for some of our processes is My Yahoo. My Yahoo is streamlined and makes it easy to scan headlines – it’s good if headlines are mainly what you are interested in. It’s not the best solution if you wish to read the full text of feeds in the reader itself.

MarketingLand also has a healthy list of alternatives to Google Reader.

Cat image via Shutterstock

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How to Build Employee Engagement: Open-Plan Offices

Posted: 13 Mar 2013 02:00 PM PDT

employee engagement With the latest unemployment numbers showing that U.S. businesses are steadily adding new jobs and the Dow Jones breaking records, the economic outlook in much of the country is brighter than it's been in years.

As a small business owner, it's essential to take advantage of these economic indicators to expand your operations and keep your business growing. And study after study shows that, by simply increasing employee engagement, business owners can improve nearly every area of their performance.

Why?

Because engaged employees have been found to lead directly and indirectly to:

Decreased turnover rates.
Higher operating income.
Higher productivity.
Fewer missed days.
Increased customer loyalty.

In a recovering economy, these factors can make the difference between ho-hum growth and pedal-to-the-metal expansion. So how can you build employee engagement without hiring a top-dollar consultant or sitting through a weekend retreat?

Start with eliminating the physical barriers in your workplace.

How to Build Employee Engagement

Open-Plan Offices: Employee Engagement Machines

Studies of open office spaces show that they are effective at increasing employee engagement. I see this research confirmed on a daily basis thanks to the open-plan office I work in.

The benefits of an open office space include:

The Ability to Share Great Ideas With Each Other

I'd love to take credit for all the great ideas in the office, but the truth is that many fresh ideas come from my team members.

Thanks to our open office plan, they can (and do) flag me down, point out a process or procedure that's inefficient or not working and suggest a solution. Within a matter of minutes, we're talking through improvements and making changes.

As CEO, it's my job to recognize when one of my team members is being brilliant and then funnel resources to that person so he or she can make great things happen. This agility empowers everyone in my office to take ownership of what they do and initiate improvements when necessary – and that benefits the entire company.

Everyone Talks to Everyone

This builds friendships among the team, which boosts employee engagement. Members of my team have independently launched a basketball league, after hours get-togethers and office birthday celebrations. All of which make the office a pleasant place to be. When you spend the majority of your waking hours somewhere, you want it to be pleasant.

A side benefit is that everyone knows what's going on in various departments, which prevents anyone from feeling as if they're working in a silo. When everyone has an idea of how their work contributes to the greater good, it boosts internal motivation and productivity.

Accountability for the Work

No walls in the office means no slinking off to a cubicle to play solitaire or fritter away time on social media. When I can stroll by and ask for an update at any moment, my team knows they need to be ready to show me something good.

But this goes both ways: I'm also on the hook for being productive.

My team hears me talking to their colleagues, asking about the latest developments and offering feedback. We're all constantly accountable for our work, which means we're constantly pushed to produce the best work we can.

Successes Can Be Rewarded in Real Time

When one of our producers makes a sale, they ring a bell and folks in the office offer a word of encouragement. During our weekly office meetings, we acknowledge the work each department has done to move us forward. And I'm never shy about announcing to the entire team a particularly deft maneuver I notice someone making.

The promise of rewards for good work keeps my team motivated and makes them feel valued when they deliver.

If You Can't Show the Door the Door

So how can you improve employee engagement if switching to a more open office layout isn't a possibility?

Go out of your way to show your team that they matter to you and to your business. Ask for their opinions about the work they do (and actually take what they say into consideration). Use face-to-face conversations instead of email when possible and hold your team accountable for what they do.

Reward them when they do it well.

As you improve the engagement of your staff, you can expect to see improvements in nearly every business indicator you track – no matter what happens in the larger economy.

Open Office Photo via Shutterstock

The post How to Build Employee Engagement: Open-Plan Offices appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Fortune 500 Thrives, But Small Businesses Not So Optimistic

Posted: 13 Mar 2013 11:00 AM PDT

Every month here in the United States the NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses) conducts a survey and updates its Small Business Optimism Index.

The Index that just came out yesterday, saw a small 1.9 point rise. The Index is now up to 90.8.

Small Business Optimism Up – Must Be Good News, Right?

The Optimism Index number went up, so you’re thinking, “it has to be good news.” Well… not so fast.

With all such indices and surveys, it all depends on the perspective and context. Yes, it’s positive news, but if I had to sum it up, I’d say “it’s hardly rousing.”

The NFIB notes that survey results are on a par with 2008. That’s good because there’s been a bounce back. But it’s bad in the sense that the results are actually below small business optimism levels for both the 1991-92 and 2001-02 recessions. The Small Business Optimism Index chart tells the tale:

Here we are in March of 2013, with reports indicating the economy is improving. As I write this, the stock market in New York has had eight straight days of gains, based on great earnings reports by large corporations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is at an all-time high.

But here’s the rub. That improvement hasn’t made its way to small businesses yet. Small business sales revenues trended down over most of the past year, 2012. And according to the NFIB’s report, small business sales numbers are still weak. Is it any wonder that optimism is anemic?

Some of the reason may be all the fear mongering coming out of Washington — and all the talk about raising government spending. Paying for that spending disproportionately hits small business owners in the form of taxes — at least, that’s what many business owners believe, no matter what the pundits and politicians try to tell us. Taxes and government regulation are bigger issues for small business owners than for the rest of the population, according to a Gallup poll.

In a prepared statement, NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said:

While the Fortune 500 are enjoying record high earnings, Main Street earnings remain depressed. Far more firms report sales down quarter over quarter than up. Washington is manufacturing one crisis after another— the debt ceiling, the fiscal cliff and the sequester. Spreading fear and instability are certainly not a strategy to encourage investment and entrepreneurship. Three-quarters of small-business owners think that business conditions will be the same or worse in six months. The Index gained almost 2 points last month; that was good news. But, until owners' forecast for the economy improves substantially, there will be little boost to hiring and spending from the small business half of the economy.

Small Business Sales and Profits Weak

Here are some additional results highlighted by the NFIB release:

Weak Sales – There are still more business owners reporting declining sales in February 2013 than positive sales trends.
Same Earnings and Wages – 43 percent of small business employers reported falling profits.
Weak Credit Demand – Small business demand for credit stayed low in February. Only 7 percent of small business owners said they were unable to get the credit they needed in February, though that is one percent up from the previous month.

Results are based on responses by 870 NFIB-member small businesses surveyed randomly during the month of February.

The NFIB is a nonprofit founded in 1943, that advocates on behalf of small businesses. The organization represents small businesses of many sizes, from solo entrepreneurs to those with several hundred employees. The typical NFIB member employs 10 people and reports gross sales of $500,000 a year.

The full NFIB report can be downloaded here (PDF).

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M-Commerce: Why Your Website Needs to Be Mobile

Posted: 13 Mar 2013 08:00 AM PDT

Mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, is evolving – and small businesses must evolve with it.

A 2010 survey by Internet Retailer of 149 chain sellers, chain retailers, web-only merchants, catalog companies and consumer brand manufacturers found only 8.8 percent of these companies operated an m-commerce site.

However, the same survey suggested 75.9 percent of these retailers already had plans to launch a mobile site with 31.9 percent expecting to be selling through mobile devices in the next six months.

Flash forward to 2012 when eMarketer estimated an increase of mobile sales by 81 percent to a total of $25 billion in revenue that year. Another 55.7 percent increase in mobile sales is expected this year, with mobile sales representing about 15 percent of total retail e-commerce in the U.S. by the end of 2013.

The increasing commitment to mobile retail and resulting rise in sales is no surprise. In his book M-Commerce, author Paul Skeldon estimates that more than 70 percent of the world’s population now own mobile phones, and 74 percent of those owners have made purchases as a result of using a smartphone while shopping. Based on current trends, mobile global commerce sales will have reached $120 billion by 2015, estimates Skeldon.

Small businesses need to develop mobile commerce presences of their own, if they haven’t done so already, to take advantage of the evolving market.

To do so, smaller companies have the choice to either invest in custom mobile commerce development or to purchase a ready-made solution that will give them a mobile presence with their current site’s options and features.

Companies like Zuznow, founded by husband and wife team Chen and Racheli Levkovich, say they offer small businesses the option to automatically render a traditional website in mobile form with no need for additional programming.

The company’s website describes Zuznow as a “one-click mobilization.”

Zuznow boasts 100 paying customers who use the service to create mobile-friendly versions of their websites while preserving the look and feel of their original sites.

Zuznow’s solution aims to supports advanced features, such as user authentication, shopping carts, optimized purchase forms and PCI compliance. No software installation is needed. Customers can incorporate Zuznow's technology with just a few lines of code. Mobile optimization is then maintained 24/7, and updates are automatically integrated into the mobile version of the site.

The Zuznow team says the solution captures a website in its entirety and is capable of translating it for all available mobile platforms. Mobile device users visiting Zuznow-supported sites are automatically directed to the Zuznow proxy, which detects the device in use and converts the site to the appropriate mobile version for that device. The automatic adaptation service now specializes in complex business sites, especially e-commerce.

The service is delivered at a cost of $100 per month. The company continues to add conversion features for additional platforms like iPad and plans to incorporate optimization for smart televisions in the near future.

With a majority of customers currently in Israel and Germany, the company is working on partnerships to provide services in the rest of Europe and the United States.

Whether they use a service like Zuznow or work with a developer to create a custom option, small business retailers must consider how to provide mobile versions of their sites to take advantage of today’s burgeoning m-commerce market.

M-Commerce Photo via Shutterstock

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