Socialbakers Raises $26 Million; Can Measure and Manage Social Media

Socialbakers Raises $26 Million; Can Measure and Manage Social Media
When Starting a Business Be Prepared to Do Worse – At First
4 Things New Entrepreneurs Must Learn About Sales and Marketing
“Remote” Working; Office Not Required

Posted: 23 Feb 2014 03:00 PM PST

socialbakers

Prague-based social media management platform Socialbakers just raised $26 million in funding to improve its services.

The new round of funding was led by Index Ventures with additional funding from earlier investor EarlyBird Capital, Tech Crunch reports. The latest round brings total investment raised by Socialbakers to a total of $34 million.

In an official release on the Socialbakers site, Chief Marketing Officer Neil Morgan said:

“Last year we experienced major growth in both clients and employees, innovated products that provide deeper integration and stronger benchmarking capabilities. But our clients are telling us they want to go further and faster in social marketing, and we want to help them push the boundaries of what is possible as they also continue to innovate new methods of marketing.”

The company now has over 2,000 customers and now employees a staff of 300. That staff may grow to 400 by the end of the year.

Socialbakers offers a lot of features on a single platform. For example, you can use it to manage and update multiple social media accounts at once. But you can also monitor your competition to see what they’re doing and listen to what people on social media platforms are saying about your brand.

Services are split into different categories. For example:

Analytics includes tools for industry benchmarking, graphical reporting, fan growth and other features.

Builder is a section with some of the traits of Hootsuite. You can manage multiple channels from one dashboard. There is also analytics software that let’s you compare your competition’s campaigns to your own.

Listen tracks mentions of your content or brand in the social media and identifies the key influencers talking about your brand.

Ad Analytics offers conversion tracking, tracking of Facebook advertising and the ability to boost content online, all according to the company’s website.

Pricing information is available for various packages depending on features. Some start as low as between $120 and $250 per month.

There are numerous free resources including a fake followers tool and regional social media marketing reports by nation. The platform also offers various trial and demo options allowing you to learn more about what products you might want for your business.

Image: Socialbakers

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When Starting a Business Be Prepared to Do Worse – At First

Posted: 23 Feb 2014 12:30 PM PST

working hard

The early stage of business ownership can be very difficult. Most people have heard that, yet many still have dreamy visions of overnight success. No matter how confident you are with your business idea and ability to make it work, be prepared for some hard times at first.

According to Dan Andrews of Tropical MBA, new business owners should prepare for a period of about 1,000 days of making less than they did while working for someone else. Andrews writes:

"I was chatting with my friend David from Greenback Tax Services the other day about these misconceptions. I said, ‘People don't understand they need to be poor for 1,000 days.’

Our basic hypothesis: Uou'll be doing worse than you were at your job for 1,000 days after you start your muse business.

I've seen it happen a bunch of times. For many of us it's been almost exactly those 1,000 days it took for us to get back to the level of income we enjoyed in our corporate days."

Andrews describes the typical process. It begins with the early days of calling new clients and wondering how you'll ever make money. Then you progress to the later stages of having too much work to do and considering new hires. He also mentions that most entrepreneurs quit early on in the process.

While being poor for nearly three years doesn't exactly sound like good news for new business owners, the idea can still offer some comfort. If you're a new business owner struggling to make ends meet, it's not necessarily because your idea is bad or because you don't have the skills to succeed. It could very well just be part of the process. Very few businesses make a profit in the first year. And it can take even longer to get to the point where you can pay yourself as much as you made at your last job.

So before quitting your job to pursue your dream of business ownership, make sure you'll be able to spend about 1,000 days working harder and making less money than you ever have before.

Working Hard Photo via Shutterstock

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4 Things New Entrepreneurs Must Learn About Sales and Marketing

Posted: 23 Feb 2014 09:00 AM PST

new entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are a special breed – they are risk takers, innovators, and problem solvers. They are often enthusiastic, passionate and willing to stand up for their beliefs. But many entrepreneurs struggle with sales and marketing.

If you're one of these new entrepreneurs getting ready to launch your company, pay attention to these tips on how to get your sales and marketing done right.

New Entrepreneurs Must Learn To…

Choose Your Customers Wisely

Just like the old saying, "choose your friends wisely," many entrepreneurs need to be more selective about which customers they accept.

This advice might sound counterintuitive. After all, aren't we supposed to take as many customers as we can get? Especially for new entrepreneurs, can we really afford to be picky? If you try to be choosy about which customers you accept, won't that drive customers away and ruin your business?

The truth is, your business is not going to be the right fit for every single customer, so you shouldn't try to please everyone. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, spend some time figuring out which customers are definitely not the right fit for you. If you can avoid the "wrong" types of customers, you can spend more time and energy pursuing the customers who need (and are happy to pay for) exactly the solution that you offer.

Diversify Your Lead Generation Portfolio

The first rule of investing is "don't put all your eggs in one basket." But many entrepreneurs make this mistake by over-investing in certain types of lead generation and marketing activities. If you spend all of your time and energy making cold calls (and none of your time and energy building a decent website and social media presence), you're going to miss out on opportunities.

The reverse is also true – if you spend all of your time and money creating an elaborate Web presence, but don't spend any time researching and proactively reaching out to prospective customers, you're not going to make very many sales.

It's best to take a balanced approach in marketing. Divide your resources and time investments so that you have a good mix of outbound lead generation (email, sales calls, direct mail, advertising) and inbound lead generation (SEO, website content, social media).

Don't Let Enthusiasm be the Enemy of Sales Success

Many new entrepreneurs are their own biggest fans – which is appropriate, since you need to believe in your company and be enthusiastic about what you're selling. The challenge comes when your enthusiasm causes you to lose sight of certain truths about your product, or causes you to lose touch with the needs of your customers.

If you're too eager to close a deal, you might drive away your customers or put them on the defensive. If you're too excited about what your product can accomplish, you might lose sight of the situations where your product is not the right fit – and try to force a sale that isn't the right solution for the customer.

Enthusiasm is important, but make sure it's not blind enthusiasm.

Be a Problem Solver

Sales and marketing is ultimately about solving problems. Entrepreneurs are natural problem solvers – they get into business because there's something they want to create or improve or develop to fill a need in the world. Often people get the idea that sales is about "talking people into buying something" or "overcoming objections."

The truth is, the most successful sales people are the ones who know how to build relationships, focus on their customers' needs, and find innovative ways to solve their customers' problems. If you can focus relentlessly on helping your customers get to a better place, you will have no shortage of sales opportunities for your business.

Entrepreneurship is a constant learning experience, and there's no better way to learn how to sell products and market a business than to become an entrepreneur. If you can avoid some of the "rookie mistakes" that go with being an entrepreneur and stay focused on improving your customers' situations, you'll be a successful entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur Photo via Shutterstock

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“Remote” Working; Office Not Required

Posted: 23 Feb 2014 06:00 AM PST

remote working Once in a while, in the great cosmos, the stars and celestial bodies – better known as opinions here on Earth – can line up between authors and book reviewers.

Take the book Rework by 37 signals Co-Founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (@37signals). When I reviewed it, I noted how service firms would benefit but the subject of collaborating with remote teams could be further explored.

Well Fried and Hansson listened. Or at least the stars aligned. Either way, I am glad. For their new book Remote: Office Not Required, Fried and Hansson decided to explore remote working teams. It is more than a terrific follow up. It is a terrific guide for understanding how to collaborate with remote teammates effectively. I picked up a signed copy when Jason Fried was interviewed at 1871, a Chicago technology incubator.

Moreover, Fried and Hansson are the best ones to know how to work a team, virtual or physical. 37 signals is best known for its online collaboration software Basecamp, Highrise, and Campfire. Started in 1999, the company is a remote team success story not only in the Chicago developer community, but globally as well (Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos is an advisor). Its employees are mainly remote with a small core team in Chicago.

The Stakes Are Not Only Higher, They're Everywhere

Remote is written in the same tone and format as Rework. Thus, the authors waste no time in addressing how to leverage a growing trend in startups and small businesses. They note the fascinating aspects of the remote work lifestyle, as well as the justifications for its adoption. They note that cities were once hubs for attracting talent, but today tech has ushered new freedoms in how we seek jobs and seek new employees:

"We have libraries, stadiums, theaters, restaurants, and all the other wonders of a modern culture and civilization. But we also have cubicles, tiny apartments, and sardine boxes to take us from here to there…Lucky for us, the advancements in technology that made remote working possible have also made remote culture and living much more desirable."

The authors also dismiss a popular misconception about remote work – the idea that you pay lower salaries just because the employee is remote. They provide a strong argument for making the remote opportunity worthwhile:

"Instead of thinking, ‘I can pay people from Kansas less than people from New York,’ you should think, ‘I can get amazing people from Kansas and make them feel valued and well-compensated if I pay them New York salaries.’ If your entire workforce is located in a hot hub and you pay market salaries, you'll be under constant attack from poachers."

Strategy That Can Inspire Employees Towards Meaningful Pursuits

The author's experiences inject a genuine value about these knowledge gems. They go on to name employees they've hired from remote places. If you ever get a chance to listen to Jason Fried, you'll get a genuine sensibility about valuing people, similar to this comment shared in the book:

"So instead of trying to treat motivation as something that can be artificially ginned up with just the right tricks, treat it as a barometer of the quality of work and the work environment. If a worker's motivation is slumping, it's probably because the work is weakly defined or appears pointless, or because others on the team are acting like tools."

There are also the memorable concepts such as easing up on the M & Ms (Meetings and Managers). More than mere slogans, the concepts help to frame what to expect from a remote working environment and how to connect, such as using conferences for gathering remote workers together. This technique makes the tone of the book not only entertaining, but also useful for organizing your teams to be their best. The authors also address the downsides for remote such as distractions and working with more access to your family.

The tagline says, "office not required." Well, reading this book to be successful in remote teams – is. Fried and Hansson had once wrote, "learning from mistakes is overrated." They have done an outstanding job covering how you can avoid yours while running a remote team profitably.

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