Twitter Now Lets You Put Line Breaks in Your Tweets

Twitter Now Lets You Put Line Breaks in Your Tweets
10 Reasons Your Business Still Doesn’t Use Pinterest
Steve Cox of Oracle: Cloud’s Lure is Return on Investment
Cartoon: A Tremendous Third Quarter Thanks to a Leprechaun
Grumpy Cat Protects Trademark

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 02:00 PM PDT

Twitter keeps pushing the envelope about the style and content of tweets. Yesterday, it launched a new feature called “line breaks” – which are exactly what they sound like, line breaks inside tweets. Here’s an example:

twitter line breaks

The announcement was made, where else, but in a tweet. The @TwitterForNews feed simply pushed out a tweet that said “Line Breaks” but with each letter on a separate line, along with the hashtag #newattwitter.

Digital Trends noted that the feature already existed in some mobile apps and desktop platforms, although many people may not have been aware of the capability. With them being launched on the Web version of the platform (what I use 85% of the time), the feature likely be used more:

What's worth mentioning here though is that the ability to add line breaks already exists on its mobile and desktop platforms (iOS, Android, and Twitter for Mac to be specific) so it's a natural progression for Twitter to roll this out finally to its Web app. Twitter didn't end up saying a peep about the feature in other devices – it was more like an Easter egg until now. But thanks to the official tweet tweet, this time around a lot more people are aware about the line break's existence.

This feature, while not a huge deal, expands the flexibility of messages you can create on the social sharing platform. To use it, all you do is hit the Return button to advance to a new line while composing your tweet. We see 3 benefits of Twitter line breaks:

1.) Line breaks can be used to emphasize points — If you want to emphasize a portion of your tweet, just set it off on its own line. In a sea of over-used hashtags and what can appear to be gibberish to the uninitiated, it can be refreshing to see a word or a few set apart with some free white space around them.

2.) Twitter line breaks can make your tweets easier to read – Sometimes in order to cram in as many words as possible, people abbreviate words — to the point it feels like you’re reading hieroglyphs. But instead of abbreviating words, you can set them apart by line breaks, in lieu of some connector words or punctuation.

3.) Twitter line breaks make your tweets stand out – Line breaks give your tweets more physical space in the tweet stream, making them stand out because they look different. That can lead to more engagement.

Reaction to Twitter line breaks has been mixed, according to ComputerWorld, with some people predicting an explosion of line-break spam. However, once the novelty dies down, I predict Twitter line-break spam also will die back.

This is just one more example of Twitter expanding the tweet format. Previously, Twitter added attachments to tweets, including photos and videos.

Then last summer Twitter introduced Twitter cards. Twitter cards add attachments in the form of summaries of news articles to your tweets, so that people can preview them. Here at Small Business Trends we implemented Twitter Cards just this week, and we’ve already seen a small uptick in engagement with our content shared on Twitter, as people can preview a link before clicking. Twitter cards also add a lot more information, including visually-interesting information, to our tweets. With a little special programming, we’ve even been able to add author bylines and the author Twitter handles to our tweet summaries, giving wider visibility to our authors.

The post Twitter Now Lets You Put Line Breaks in Your Tweets appeared first on Small Business Trends.

10 Reasons Your Business Still Doesn’t Use Pinterest

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 11:00 AM PDT

Recent reports suggest Pinterest is well on its way to being one of the biggest social networks ever.

A study last month indicates that while Facebook still maintains its domination with 67 percent of American Internet users, Twitter, the second runner up with 16 percent of the same audience, may soon be overtaken by Pinterest, which now has about 15 percent.

It kind of makes you wonder why small businesses aren’t moving faster to adopt the popular image sharing site.

Another study showed that while small businesses are focusing on Facebook and Twitter, adoption of Pinterest has been slower.

Here’s our admittedly tongue in cheek list of reasons small businesses might not be adopting Pinterest, just for fun.

Why Your Business Still Doesn’t Use Pinterest

You Don’t Really Care How Much of Your Traffic is From Pinterest

This week, Pinterest announced the introduction of analytics tools telling site owners how many people have pinned images from their websites, how many other users have viewed these pins, and how many people have visited their websites from Pinterest. Who needs that, right? Small Business Trends

Shiny New Social Tools Just Leave You Cold

Tools and tips for improving your skills using Pinterest abound. Here are more than 26 of them collected by blogger Wong Ching Ya that can take your social media efforts to the next level. But hey, maybe your small business doesn’t really need that kind of thing. Social@Blogging Tracker

You Don’t Need Better Sales or SEO

Experienced Pinterest marketers like Melanie Duncan are regularly giving free seminars like this one to boost SEO and sales. Duncan claims her strategies can double your traffic, followers and sales using Pinterest in the next 90 days. Now, why would you want something like that, right? LinkedIn

Monetization Just Isn’t Your Thing

In this post, Jacob Kastrenakes claims Pinterest’s new analytics isn’t just a way of improving results for marketers who already love the site. It also opens the door for more precise monetization, not just for Pinterest, but for businesses who use the site for driving traffic. But then, finding a way to better monetize your web presence probably doesn’t much interest you, huh? The Verge

You’re Oblivious to the Current Trends

You may have heard small businesses and brands aren’t the only ones using Pinterest to market themselves. Job seekers have also gotten into the act. This story suggests job seekers are using Pinterest to learn more about potential co-workers at a job they want and employers can use Pinterest to figure out whether an employee would be a good fit. Yes, these techniques might be translatable to your business, if you’d just give Pinterest a try. LifeInc.

You Couldn’t Care Less About Industry Leaders

Retailers like online auction giant eBay have begun looking at Pinterest’s success. They are redesigning their sites to look more like Pinterest. Ebay says its redesign already has customers spending more time on the company website. Oh, but what does eBay know, right? Digiday

You Don’t Want to Know What Your Customers Think

The new analytics for Pinterest also give a better sense of what consumers respond to, both positively and negatively, on the social network. If your business used Pinterest, you would get a much better view of how your social marketing efforts were working with your audience. If that kind of thing interests you, of course. Internet Retailer

E-commerce Isn’t a Part of Your Game Plan

Pinterest and sites like it could have a huge impact on e-commerce, and this isn’t just because big companies like eBay are copying some of Pinterest’s successes into its own business model. It’s also because of Pinterest clones with e-commerce capabilities like Wanelo. Are you sure your business doesn’t need a tool like this? Fox Business

You Don’t Want to Boost Your Social Engagement

Lorna Sixsmith writes in this post about the opportunities to increase social media engagement using Pinterest. Sixsmith gives a brief tutorial on how to boost Pinterest followers using a contests and other techniques on the site. But maybe social media engagement with your customers isn’t something your company needs. Write on Track

You Don’t Believe in Data

Pinterest isn’t just the latest social media channel out there. Some data suggests it also works more effectively than its competitors. Take a study last year suggesting that Pinterest drives 2.5 percent more traffic to a homepage than rival Twitter. If you believe in all that data stuff, that is. Econsultancy

Conclusion

Obviously, we’ve had a little fun compiling this list of reasons your small business might not be putting a priority on adopting Pinterest. In fact, we’d really like to know the sentiments of the small business community out there.

Do you consider Pinterest to be a priority in your online presence and why or why not?

The post 10 Reasons Your Business Still Doesn’t Use Pinterest appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Steve Cox of Oracle: Cloud’s Lure is Return on Investment

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 08:00 AM PDT

The Cloud offers many enticing benefits and opportunities to small businesses that they otherwise may not have had access to. Tune in as Steve Cox, Oracle’s Vice President of Oracle Accelerate Programs, joins Brent Leary for a discussion on the lure of the Cloud – return on investment.

* * * *

return on investment Small Business Trends: Can you tell us a little about your role at Oracle and your personal background?

Steve Cox: Sure, I have been with Oracle Accelerate Global Programs for Oracle, focusing on two programs for applications with midsize customers, Oracle Accelerate and Oracle Business Accelerators. I joined Oracle in 1997 as a consultant and since joining, obviously I worked as a consultant. I did three years in product development and since 2003, I have been focusing on the midsize segment.

Small Business Trends: Can you explain what Oracle Accelerate is?

Steve Cox: Oracle Accelerate is Oracle's brand and strategy for midsize applications. Partners who are members of the Oracle Accelerate program offer complete package solutions for customers that include our applications, rapid implementation tools and methodologies, their services and their Internet property.

Oracle Business Accelerators, are cloud-based rapid implementation tools developed and maintained by Oracle, and only available through proven and qualified partners.

Small Business Trends: You mentioned they are cloud-based. How does this help companies get up to speed and moving in the Cloud?

Steve Cox: Cloud computing brings companies within reach of the same powerful technologies and latest innovations that the largest companies in the world enjoy.

The Cloud can offer the ability to compete with these larger companies with lower cost. You create a configuration that allows customers to have the flexibility they need to maintain what makes them unique, and what gives them a competitive advantage.

Small Business Trends: How quickly are you able to help these companies get started?

Steve Cox: Most customers that I speak to move through five key phases on their journey. Oracle, and our Partner Ecosystems, provide support and professional associates throughout each of these phases. So that first step is aligning your organization's business objectives and goals. Understanding those goals and aligning with how you are going to consume your software – whether it is in the Cloud or on the premise.

Then they need to use a cloud readiness service to reduce complexity and automation. Are you ready for the Cloud? Is your IT system ready for the Cloud? You should get complete implementation of migration services that can deliver the best practice and tools to help you succeed.

Small Business Trends: When you say, “ready for the Cloud, ” what does that mean?

Steve Cox: First thing is, you need to determine a return on investment on your IT project. Whether you are going to purchase applications in the Cloud, or whether you are going to move your IT back into the Cloud, or whether you are going to be able buy SaaS services.

You need to understand what would be the return investment. You need to invest to support growth. You need to understand the opportunities that the Cloud and any IT system provides. I think you need to understand the jargon:

How do you make the most of a limited project?
Where are you going to invest?
Do you have the right resources in place in terms of people, time, etc?
Where do you start?
What are your business priorities?
Where do you have to invest first, to get maximum return on the investment, maximum bang for the buck, if you like?

Small Business Trends: Are your customers and prospects looking to go to the Cloud to get to the next level? Or are they going so they can be more efficient?

Steve Cox: They are doing it for economic reasons. When you come to the Cloud, there is a lot of promise there that you can improve your return on investment. It can lower the cost of the adoption, and that is always on top of mind.

Small Business Trends: What are some of the biggest challenges that companies face when they make the move?

Steve Cox: I have never come across a company that plans enough. If your organization is expected to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 20% or 30% or more, what effect is that going to have on your priorities and challenges? What are you likely to be facing this time next year, or the year after?

The next question is what other resources available? Nearly everyone I have spoken to has a real good grasp of their budget. And then there is time. How long does it take for me to realize the return on an investment?

The next one really comes down to time scale. That is a measure of patience. When do I need to do this? Do I need to do this because my business is changing and I have to maintain competitive advantages? Or to improve it? Do you need to do it now, or can you look forward and say, “By this date I need to achieve X and Y.”

Small Business Trends: What functional area are companies really looking to the Cloud to get up to speed with?

Steve Cox: The Cloud option has a head start in CRM and human resources simply because it is a model that has lent itself to those two business areas. But I would say that in every conversation I have had with every customer and every partner, they look at it on a very broad basis and they tend to look across all the areas. They want the back office to front office solutions. They want to be able to support human capital management (HCM).

Small Business Trends: You have already laid out where you see things going over the next two years. Is there anything else that you see that will make this kind of move, something that midsize businesses in two years will not have to think as much about doing? Is going to be that easy in two years to do it?

Steve Cox: We have talked about the time scale, budget, business priority and challenge. I think it is going to be a lot easier to make the decision to adopt having made that adoption a lot easier. But it is still a decision you need to think about.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

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Cartoon: A Tremendous Third Quarter Thanks to a Leprechaun

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 05:00 AM PDT

business cartoon

I love to do cartoons about holidays. They’re usualy ripe with all kinds of images, there’s plenty of material to play with and – well, not to put too fine a point on it, they sell well.

But St. Patrick’s Day is kind of a toughy. You’ve got leprechauns and shamrocks and beer, but that only goes so far.

I’d intended to crank out a bunch of St. Patrick’s Day business cartoons this year, but after two days of literally staring out the window for hours upon end, this is all I managed to get.

Just unlucky I guess.

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Grumpy Cat Protects Trademark

Posted: 15 Mar 2013 03:00 AM PDT

Grumpy Cat, the feline Internet sensation, had people lining up for hours to see her at the recent South by Southwest Conference. And her owners aren’t taking any chances over Grumpy Cat’s intellectual property rights. They have filed for U.S. trademark protection for Grumpy Cat.

Grumpy Cat’s real name is Tardar Sauce. By all accounts she is a sweet-tempered cat but has a naturally sourpuss expression on her face. She is owned by Tabatha and Bryan Bundesen, sister and brother, of Arizona and Ohio.

She became an overnight sensation after one of the owners posted her picture on Reddit.com under the title “Meet grumpy cat.” Fans took to her grumpy expression — and ran with it, sharing pictures of her all over the Web often with funny captions.

Pretty soon Grumpy Cat had a website, a Facebook Fan page, and a store selling merchandise. She’s appeared on the Today Show. Just recently she landed a Friskies cat food commercial.

The trademark application is on public file at the USPTO.gov website. Grumpy Cat’s trademark application covers such things as mobile phone cases, videos, greeting cards, coffee mugs and T-shirts. Under the trademark application, the owners seek protection for the name “Grumpy Cat” and her image. One trademark document features a picture of her and refers to the distinctive feature of her mouth being “in a frown.”

The trademark application was filed in January 2013 by trademark attorney Kia Kamran on behalf of Grumpy Cat Incorporated of Ohio, a company set up by the owners. According to Paid Content, ”Kamran, who also represents Mike Tyson, says he hasn't filed any Grumpy Cat lawsuits yet, but probably will soon in response to the ‘current wave of infringers that are popping up.’ He adds that, while he's sensitive to the cultural dimensions of internet memes, he's had to take action on behalf of other clients, Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat.”

Hmm, maybe we should apply for a trademark on Small Biz Cat (@SmallBizCat on Twitter), our unofficial mascot here at Small Business Trends.

Image credit: Reddit

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