You Can Now Put Animated GIFs on Pinterest

You Can Now Put Animated GIFs on Pinterest
Big Banks Are Lending to Bigger Small Businesses
Call for Judges! Small Business Book Awards

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST

Pinterest announced this week it will start letting users post animated GIFs to the site.

The animated, looping GIF can actually be used to help better illustrate a point, capture a moment, or to make a simple how-to image. Some might even help add a little levity to your branding by informally showing your personal side or interests. In a way, animated GIFs seem similar to the short videos that Vine and Instagram support. They are usually made from an animated series of photos or sometimes from a video clip.

Posting recently on the Pinterest blog, software engineer Ludo Antonov wrote:

“The well-timed GIF may be the greatest thing to have happened to the internet since emoticons, and lots of people have said they'd love to see playable GIFs on Pinterest. Starting today, we support GIFs in all their animated glory!”

Animated GIFs are a staple of other social networking sites, like Tumblr. But unlike on Tumblr, which shows GIFs animated in your news feed, on Pinterest, GIFs appear static at first. Images on Pinterest are viewed as thumbnails on your homepage or in a “Pinboard,” a collection of photos collected by you or by someone else you are following. One way to activate animated GIFs is to hit the “play” button in the lower left hand corner of the thumbnail. Another way is to enlarge the image after which the GIF will play automatically.

In addition to Tumblr, Google Plus is another social media site supporting animated GIFs. People can sometimes use GIFs on other social media sites like Twitter. For example, GIF search engine Giphy allows users to tweet GIFs on its site simply by adding the link to the desired file.
Image: Pinterest

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Big Banks Are Lending to Bigger Small Businesses

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST

big banks are lending

When JPMorgan Chase released its fourth quarter earnings for 2013, it announced that it had provided $19 billion of credit to U.S. small businesses. The figure sounds impressive, but it pales in comparison with the $589 billion of credit that it provided to big corporations.

This should not surprise anyone. The country’s biggest banks ($10 billion+ in assets) actually prefer to provide capital to “small businesses” that average $10 million in revenue or more. While, it is encouraging that the spigot has opened and big bank loan approval rates for small businesses reached 17.6 percent, according to the December 2013 Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index, many of them are primarily interested in lending to large “small businesses.” (Yes, that is an oxymoron.)

For many of the big banks, small loans are paper intensive and thus cost more to process. This is a reason why they prefer to offer non-SBA loans, which typically require more forms and documentation and, as a result, take longer to process.

Small banks, which typically do not have the same type of brand recognition, cannot afford to be as choosy. Often, they are a secondary choice as consumers tend to go to the names they know first. Further, because of the amount of advertising that big banks have invested in advertising to promote their small business loan-making, entrepreneurs are going to the bigger players.

Unfortunately, although big bank lending approval rates are currently at post-recession highs, they do not approach the percentage of loan applications granted by small banks (almost 50 percent). Alternative lenders, comprised of microlenders, cash advance companies, are approving more than two-thirds of their requests.

Here Is How Things Can Change:

1) As they continue to be thwarted by big banks, borrowers will continue to comparison shop and seek alternatives to the big banks. Many will use the Internet to find the best deals. Small business owners will secure capital from community banks, alternative lenders, and increasingly, institutional investors that are hungry to make deals.

2) Big banks can improve and upgrade technology. It is still astounding that many of the biggest financial institutions in the country do not allow for online loan applications or eSignatures. What makes this so perplexing is the fact that the large, name brand banks have more vast resources to invest in upgrades.

One can look at the mercurial rise of alternative lenders as proof that when there is a void in the marketplace, the hole is quickly filled. Accounts receivable and cash advance lenders used their technological advantage and made capital more readily accessible. In many cases, speed is often more important to borrowers than low interest rates.

For instance, if you need working capital to make payroll, you cannot wait three months for an SBA loan. Employees want to be paid in a timely fashion and likely won’t wait around for a long period of time without payment.

A number of the large banks, such as TD Bank, Union Bank and others, are investing in upgrades and becoming more active in small business lending. Look for others to follow suit in 2014.

Bank Concept Photo via Shutterstock

The post Big Banks Are Lending to Bigger Small Businesses appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Call for Judges! Small Business Book Awards

Posted: 26 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST

Book Awards 2014

On February 11, 2014 we will be kicking off the 6th Annual Small Business Book Awards – and we can’t wait!

The Small Business Book Awards recognize and honor business books that target a small business and entrepreneur audience. This will be the 6th year for the Awards. The Small Business Book Awards are an honor for authors; a treat for book lovers who get to learn about the best books of the past year; and an exciting opportunity for fans to interact with authors.

Some things will be the same as past years. For instance, as always, there is no entrance fee to enter the Awards. Each nomination will have to meet eligibility requirements, including being an English-language business book with appeal to small business owners, their staff or entrepreneurs. Books first published in 2013 are eligible.

Some things, however, will change this year:

Perhaps the biggest change is that the the Awards will be judged by a panel of judges for the first time.
The Awards still have community voting, but we’re making some changes to the voting such as not allowing daily voting. More to come on that as we get closer to the opening date. The community voting will determine the Community Choice honorees.
We have a new logo and are updating the website design. For instance, the logo is more contemporary looking, and the design will have a lighter feel.
We will be announcing winners at a “live” online Awards ceremony.

Calling Judges!

Would you like to be a judge? If you are a book lover or would like to be an insider in this exciting event, we’d be delighted to hear from you. As a judge, you will choose or be assigned to one of the following book categories: Marketing; Social Media; Management; Economics; Technology; Startup; Motivation.

The judging will be streamlined with a simple scoring sheet. Judges will be given recognition for their assistance, too, including the use of a judge’s badge on your own site.

Judge eligibility: Publicists or those who work for a publishing company are not eligible to be judges. Authors that have a book nominated this year may not serve as judges. Past Award winners and nominees are welcome as judges.

Our thanks to PRNewswire, which already has agreed to be a sponsor. We are also looking for other sponsors and media partners, too.

Please email us if you are interested in learning more about becoming a judge, sponsor or media partner, at sbtips@gmail.com. Or leave a comment below.

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