The Buzz About Crowdsourcing, Google and Twitter Changes: April 5, 2013 |  |
- The Buzz About Crowdsourcing, Google and Twitter Changes: April 5, 2013
- Facebook Home Unveiled: Replaces Home Screen of Android Devices
- Brian Marcus: EBay Partner Network’s Lessons for Affiliate Managers #AMDays
- SEC Letters Give Nod of Approval to Online Venture Capital
- 6 Time Saving Tips to Shave Hours Off Your Week
| The Buzz About Crowdsourcing, Google and Twitter Changes: April 5, 2013 Posted: 05 Apr 2013 02:00 AM PDT
News from the Small Business Trends and BizSugar community this week included an announcement on guidelines for online investment and crowdfunding from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The announcement, which Small Business Trends CEO Anita Campbell described as “not a sweeping endorsement of all crowdsourced venture capital,” came just days after Brian Sutter, director of marketing for Wasp Barcode, complained in a post on BizSugar that the business community was “still waiting” for rules on The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act passed in 2012. Also this week, while we reported on Google’s controversial doodle of Mexican American labor leader Cesar Chavez on Easter, Emma Jones blogged on Zubin Kutar’s WebTrafficRoi blog on BizSugar about Google’s recently launched enhanced campaigns for online marketing. Those commenting on BizSugar were divided on the doodle, and we’ll be waiting to hear what people think of enhanced programs as more businesses get a chance to use it. While BizSugar member and online marketing consultant Mike Allton of The Social Media Hat shared April Fool’s content from YouTube, Google and Twitter, Twitter wasn’t fooling about the launch of its revamped Twitter for Business page with plenty of great resources. Late last week, BizSugar members Daniel Zeevi and Steve Murphy shared posts on Klout’s decision to add Bing and Instagram Data to member scores and Yelp’s new Revenue Estimation Tool respectively. Do you really believe the data either of these services is feeding you? Meanwhile, Maria Valdez Haubrich of Grow Smart Biz shares these depressing numbers with the BizSugar community from the Capital One Small Business Barometer on how small businesses feel about their financial futures. In the most recent survey conducted at the end of 2012, one fourth of those surveyed said they expected economic conditions to deteriorate over the next six months. They probably had the looming sequester in Washington on their minds and the anticipated cutting of an estimated $85 billion from the federal budget. It’s a move widely expected to cost the business sector big, especially contractors for the federal government. But don’t get too bummed out, now that the sequester is under way, says Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University Scott Shane in a recent post. The impact might not be as bad as you think. Read All About It Photo via Shutterstock The post The Buzz About Crowdsourcing, Google and Twitter Changes: April 5, 2013 appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Facebook Home Unveiled: Replaces Home Screen of Android Devices Posted: 04 Apr 2013 01:10 PM PDT
At a press event today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, dressed in his trademark zippered hoodie, announced Facebook Home for Android. It is something he described as “more than another app but not really an operating system.” It will change your phone’s home screen and replace it with Facebook updates, making Facebook front and center of your phone experience. A quick look reveals how useful it will be not only for casual users, but for business communications. “Instead of our phones designed around apps first, what would it feel like if our phones were designed around people? We want to flip that around,” he said. Facebook Home will be available starting April 12, 2013 on select Android devices and available for download at the Google Play Store, according to TechCrunch. The phones for which it will initially be available are HTC One, HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy SIII, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note II. The app will be available on more phones and tablets in the coming months. During the event, Zuckerberg explained the rationale for creating Facebook Home, which consists of software, instead of creating a new hardware device that was centrally built around Facebook, as had been bandied about for days prior to today’s announcement. Building a phone, he said, would limit the company’s reach to most of its audience. “Even if we did a really good job building a really good phone, we’d only serve one or two percent of our community,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re not building a phone. We’re not building an operating system.” He said that according to the company’s data, people spend 25 percent of their time on mobile devices using Facebook or Instagram. The new Facebook Home product seemingly aims to keep people connected to Facebook every time they look at their phones by changing the home screen experience on Android devices. “The home screen is the soul of your phone,” he said. “We think it should be deeply personal.” Zuckerberg then unveiled Facebook Home before the throng of interested onlookers and excited Facebook employees. For Android users, the home screen would be replaced with what Facebook determines to be the most visually-rich updates from a user’s News Feed. At the bottom of the Home screen is a user’s Facebook profile picture, which serves as an access point to the rest of the phone, namely its other apps.
“We wanted this to feel like system software, not just an app you run,” Zuckerberg said. “We wanted to design Facebook Home so it’s just as easy to get to your apps.” Facebook Home has notifications appearing on a phone’s Home screen, overlaying the select updates from a user’s Friends that would then be reviewable by swiping from side-to-side. By tapping one’s profile picture, bookmarked apps, a friends list and the most recently used app are all accessible with one swipe. Perhaps one of the bigger changes to note from Facebook Home is the introduction of Chat Heads, an applet (of sorts) that meshes an Android’s SMS service with Facebook chat. Instead of accessing a separate SMS app for texting, Chat Heads aligns all active Facebook chat and text messages in small circles that are constantly in view on the screen, even while using other apps outside Facebook. “Messaging is treated like just another app. We think it should be better,” Zuckerberg said. The post Facebook Home Unveiled: Replaces Home Screen of Android Devices appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Brian Marcus: EBay Partner Network’s Lessons for Affiliate Managers #AMDays Posted: 04 Apr 2013 11:00 AM PDT Brian Marcus is the Director of the Global eBay Partner Network, where he leads one of eBay’s most important and valuable sources of quality traffic. EBay’s affiliate program was established in 2001, and has steadily grown to include more than 300,000 partner websites across 13 countries. Marcus is speaking at the 2013 Affiliate Management Days conference in San Francisco and below are a few questions I decided to ask him prior to the event. * * * * *
Brian Marcus: This year, we're making sure that not only are we delivering for our publishers, but also really focusing on the needs and wants of the end customers. I think that's a strategy that all affiliate managers can use to make sure their programs are really making an impact throughout their entire lifecycle. Too often we lose sight of what the customer really needs to be successful, but I think greater success can be achieved if we're all making sure that those customer needs are really the basis for all decisions. So what sort of tools, access and support do the customers need, and how can we make the process easier and better for them? We're thinking of this in terms of focusing on creating great experiences for eBay buyers and sellers, whether they're coming to us directly, or through one of our affiliate partners. I think that's a strategy that most affiliate managers can also apply in their organizations. Question: What do you see as the main areas of opportunity for online and affiliate marketers in 2013 – 2014? Brian Marcus: Social and mobile: These two have obviously been big opportunities for online marketers for quite some time now. But we think there are more ways for affiliates to tap into social and mobile channels to build their audiences and monetize content through emerging avenues. Personalization: These days, there are a number of tools and strategies for creating seamless, tailored experiences for customers as they travel from affiliates sites to advertiser sites. This goes along with the idea that we should be focusing more on the end customer and giving them different ways to customize their searching and buying experiences, based on their specific needs. Network wisdom: As technology advances, we now have much more insight into data on how online consumers are navigating their experience. With smarter tools and more data insights, online retailers, networks, affiliate managers and publishers can all make more educated decisions and can constantly fine-tune and optimize campaigns. Question: It isn’t unusual to hear that since affiliates operate in the mix with other marketing channels that merchants use (paid search, re-targeting, social, etc) with multi-touchpoint eCommerce, that the last-click attribution model is not necessarily an optimal one? In September 2009, eBay Partner Network (EPN) implemented Quality Click Pricing (QCP), which essentially meant moving from EPN’s previous CPA (cost per action) model to a CPC (cost per click) model. How did the change to QCP affect the performance of your affiliates? What do you think about the last-click? Brian Marcus: Since we are now able to evaluate and reward publishers for driving higher quality traffic rather than focusing on quantity, the overall quality of the program has greatly increased. Because we are rewarding quality, we are able to promote conversions, reduce non-performing traffic and essentially level the playing field for publishers of all sizes. I think the method of attribution used depends heavily on the advertiser's business model and how affiliates interact across the channel. While last-click may work best for some, it does depend on your goals, what kind of advertiser you are and who your affiliates and customers are. I don't think we need to go to one rigid industry standard; there's a case to be made that we don't all have to choose the same model. EPN is always looking for better ways to tell the true story of attribution. I think the key is to have analytics in place that can give you a broad picture of the entire purchase journey and draw insights from there. Question: What do you view as the main areas where affiliates can truly help online merchants, adding value to the pre-sale process? Brian Marcus: Well, the most obvious place where affiliates can add value is by helping merchants extend their reach and find new customers that they aren't able to reach on their own. Creating quality content that educates, engages and ultimately helps to guide purchasing decisions is another key area. The best affiliates add value by doing both of these things, naturally developing a loyal following of visitors who trust the publisher to provide quality content and recommendations. Question: If you were to leave online advertisers, merchants and affiliate managers with one piece of advice, what would it be? Brian Marcus: My advice is to truly take the time to understand why your customers are going to affiliate sites in the first place. Affiliates help to fill the gaps in areas in which we may not necessarily excel. If your customers are going to an affiliate site, they're probably doing so for a reason. By understanding your affiliates' strengths, you can also uncover some of your own weaknesses, allowing you figure out how to work with affiliates to provide a richer overall experience for your customers. * * * * * The Affiliate Management Days Conference takes place on April 16-17, 2013 in San Francisco, CA. Follow @AMDays or #AMDays on Twitter. When registering, make sure to use the code SBTAM250 to receive an additional $250.00 off your two-day (or combo) pass. See the rest of the interview series here. The post Brian Marcus: EBay Partner Network’s Lessons for Affiliate Managers #AMDays appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| SEC Letters Give Nod of Approval to Online Venture Capital Posted: 04 Apr 2013 08:00 AM PDT Getting angel investment or venture capital has always been tough for entrepreneurs. One reason is that it’s simply hard to find investors willing to plunk down money on your company, unless they are family or friends. The options are especially limited for startups based outside of venture meccas such as Silicon Valley. But the legal door just opened a crack, to make it easier for investors and startups to find each other and come together — using online platforms. Late last week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued what is called “no action letters” to FundersClub and AngelList. (More here.) Both companies operate online venture capital or angel capital platforms. Both companies had sought the SEC letters, to clarify their legal positions. The upshot? The letters give the nod of approval to online venture capital platforms and angel capital platforms — if they are set up exactly the way either FundersClub or AngelList are set up.
FundersClub CEO Alex Mittal is quoted at Techcrunch as saying this about the letter his company received:
Both AngelList and FundersClub list pre-screened startups seeking investment. The sites accept applications from prospective investors. The platforms facilitate investing relatively small amounts — as little as $1,000 — in exchange for equity. AngelList, for example, says on its home page that it has raised over $10 million for startups just this month. AngelList and FundersClub accept accredited investors only, today. Accredited investors are individuals who earn at least $200,000 annually or have a net worth of $1 million. What The SEC Action Means, And What It Doesn’tBoth the FundersClub letter and the AngelList letter deal with highly complex legal issues (for just how complex, read one lawyer’s perspective). On top of that, a “no action letter” is very narrow in scope. So let’s understand what the SEC letters mean — and don’t mean, in layman’s terms:
The post SEC Letters Give Nod of Approval to Online Venture Capital appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 6 Time Saving Tips to Shave Hours Off Your Week Posted: 04 Apr 2013 05:00 AM PDT
[Click for full version] When you're running a small business, time is literally money. Without a salary or a clock to punch, the only time you're making money is when you're working. Unfortunately, this leads too many small business owners to work extra hours – and eventually burn out. This infographic from Maven Link demonstrates the value of time for small business owners. A few highlights:
There's no question that if you want your small business to succeed, you need to put in the work, but it doesn't have to be 60 to 80 hours' worth every week. Follow these tips to squeeze more hours out of your working days and get more done in less time. 6 Time Saving Tips to Shave Hours Off Your WeekGo MobileYour smartphone can let you work on the go, anywhere you happen to be. There are plenty of timesaving apps for small business owners, and many will also help you automate tasks and keep things organized—saving more precious minutes. Look for apps that cover tasks like bookkeeping, invoicing, appointment scheduling, document sharing and more. You'll be surprised by how much time you save. A study by the Small Business and Entrepreneur Council, Saving Time and Money With Mobile Apps (PDF) finds that apps save small business owners an average of 5.6 hours a week. Don't Stay Attached to Your PhoneYou've probably heard the popular time management advice to limit the number of times you check your email. But are you applying this advice to your phone? Text messages can suck up just as much time as your email. How much time would you save if you didn't pick up your phone every time it buzzes or chimes? If you have a hard time ignoring incoming texts or messages, try turning your phone off during business hours until you need it. If your cell is your primary business line, limit interactions to calls only and designate a few times a day to go through texts. Tackle Your To-Do ListTo-do lists are a great way to keep you focused and on target. Schedule a short block at the end of the day to go through your list, check off what's been done, and add tasks for the next day. But don't beat yourself up if you haven't finished everything. Simply move incomplete items to tomorrow. You can save even more time with a to-do list app. Check out this top 10 list from PCWorld, most are free. Don't MultitaskFor a long time, multitasking was touted as a highly productive strategy for any busy professional. However, it's been shown that most people can't fully concentrate on more than one task at a time. In fact, the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry found that when you're drowning in texts, emails and phone calls, your IQ drops ten points. By concentrating on just one task at a time, you'll ensure that it's finished correctly and save yourself the trouble and time of redoing it later. Schedule Tough Stuff During Your High Energy TimeWhen are you at your best? Do you power through tasks in the morning and slow down after lunch, or does it take you a while to get up to full steam? Identify your most productive time of the day, and tackle your big, complicated items then. Though it's tempting to handle the fun, easy things when you're feeling productive, try to resist. You'll feel better and save tons of time when you get through the difficult tasks while you're operating at full capacity. Make Sure You Punch Out Every DayIt's important that your business day has an actual end – the point where you disconnect completely by shutting off the computer, putting the mobile devices away and relaxing. While you may have times when quitting isn't an option, you should strive to leave the office behind for the day as often as possible. Ask yourself whether what's keeping you working is truly an emergency, or if it can be moved to the next day's to-do list. When you commit to developing time saving habits for your small business, you'll end up happier, more relaxed and more productive than ever. Time Photo via Shutterstock The post 6 Time Saving Tips to Shave Hours Off Your Week appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
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