The Link Between Thought Leadership and LinkedIn

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• The Link Between Thought Leadership and LinkedIn
• Yahoo Is Testing New Ads For Mobile Apps Similar To Facebook’s
• 30+ Ways To Use YouTube Effectively
• It May Be Time For Your Business to Retire That Old Operating System
• Are You a Rule Breaker?
• A Bluetooth Ring Could Improve Your Productivity Like Magic

The Link Between Thought Leadership and LinkedIn Posted: 11 Mar 2014 02:30 PM PDT The topic of thought leadership has been hot and heavy over the last year or two. Often discussed, speculated about and outright claimed by some, it is among the more misunderstood business concepts. Many seem to think if they know something about anything, they can claim the "thought leader" position in a niche. Wrong. You can be very knowledgeable about a subject, live in your mother's basement with Dr Pepper and Cheez-Its and perhaps be a subject matter expert, but you are not a thought leader. Thought leadership is not claimed. It is an acknowledgement from a niche community, usually afforded to a very small top tier of people in a given niche or category. But what constitutes thought leadership? What qualities must a person have? Thought Leadership Qualities Shows Deep Knowledge Most obvious is a deep knowledge of a market segment or topic, and developing a definite point of view regarding your market niche. Recognized as Being on “Top of Your Game” You have to be at the top of your game and recognized as such by your peers and others in your market niche. That means working hard at knowing not only what is currently going on, but what forces are coming to play in the near and long term in your niche, and having some thoughts on how to deal with those forces. Uses Multiple Formats to Share Knowledge You need to find, develop and make use of multiple formats to share your knowledge: Books/eBooks Articles Blogs Speaking Networking Serving on association committees Displays Acknowledgment to Peers You should recognize that you are not "alone at the top" and that you have peers. When those peers say something, be prepared to comment and acknowledge the contribution. If you disagree, don't be mean about it, simply offer your view. If you use their thoughts or materials, give credit to them. Exhibits a Sharing Mentality You need to have a sharing attitude. If you tend towards lecturing or talking down to people, you are just a know-it-all, not a thought leader. Go back to mom's basement with a fresh box of Cheez-Its and a Dr Pepper for a time out. Where Does LinkedIn Come In? LinkedIn is the perfect venue for small business people to share information and to differentiate themselves. You should share all manner of formats on LinkedIn: Videos White papers Comments in groups Webinars PowerPoints Differentiation is the first step to thought leadership and too few companies do this, maintaining more of a "herd" mentality. One of the major components of your differentiation strategy needs to be a strong LinkedIn presence. As I wrote in "It All Starts with Your LinkedIn Profile," your profile has to start the process of attracting people to you – so you can share more. Once you have successfully attracted people, you can then begin to use the platform to position yourself as a thought leader. Sharing the type of information listed in the bullet points above and making a conscious effort to break away from the pack, the “herd” mentality, will have you well on your way. If you approach your use of LinkedIn through the perspective of thought leadership and you begin to exhibit thought leadership qualities there – you will find that others begin seeking you out as such. Thought Leadership Photo via Shutterstock The post The Link Between Thought Leadership and LinkedIn appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Yahoo Is Testing New Ads For Mobile Apps Similar To Facebook’s Posted: 11 Mar 2014 12:30 PM PDT Small business owners and independent developers trying to market their own apps may have a new way to reach a massive online customer base. Yahoo is hoping to emulate Facebook’s success in the mobile market. The online portal is testing new ads for mobile apps. These ads will enable people to click and install apps directly to their mobile phone or tablet. The smaller number of clicks involved, the more likely it is that someone will buy your app, Yahoo believes. Therefore the company’s plan to have direct app installation links inside ads should encourage customers to buy. And this could result in a big sales boost for developers. Just consider the amount of mobile traffic Yahoo receives. Right now, only a small select group of advertisers are being allowed to take part in the testing phase. But if successful, the program could be opened to small independent developers including small businesses with apps to sell. The program could allow these app developers to more easily connect with a larger mobile market. A Yahoo spokesman told Adage: “We’re testing in-stream ad opportunities with an initial group of advertisers who have mobile apps and who want to connect directly with audiences across Yahoo mobile apps and sites. These tests will begin to appear across all of our properties where in-stream ads run on iOS and Android devices.” Facebook has a head start though when it comes to generating mobile revenue. More than half of the company’s fourth-quarter ad revenue came from mobile. Their debut into the mobile market in 2012 involved allowing people to buy advertising space in news feeds. As the user scrolls through their news feed, the ads would appear in between their usual posts and status updates. These ads would have a link to the developer’s app in the App Store or Google Play. On Facebook, the ad also features thumbnail photos of any of your Facebook Friends who were also using that app. Finally, there is also an app store on Facebook itself. Yahoo, on the other hand, apparently wants to take the opposite approach with an “app discovery service.” The ads will appear in Yahoo’s content feeds. In Re/Code, Kara Swisher reports: “According to numerous sources, comes a plan to turn part of the [Yahoo] homepage into a kind of app platform in a project called "Touchdown.” Apparently many months in the making, Yahoo apps – as well as third-party ones – would be published on the highly trafficked site.” Image: Adage The post Yahoo Is Testing New Ads For Mobile Apps Similar To Facebook’s appeared first on Small Business Trends.

30+ Ways To Use YouTube Effectively Posted: 11 Mar 2014 10:00 AM PDT YouTube is one of the hidden gems in online marketing. It is a terrific way for small business owners to compete with the big brands. But creating effective (as in watchable) content and then promoting it can be intimidating. Of particular interest to business owners who are wondering if the time creating and marketing with video is worth it is the YouTube Partner Program, created in 2007. It now has more than a million creators earning money from their videos. Thousands of channels are making six figures a year. I grabbed a few statistics from YouTube directly to give you an idea of the opportunity there: More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube,  almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than last year. 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. 80% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S. Mobile makes up almost 40% of YouTube’s global watch time. The following 30+ ways to use YouTube effectively can help you make the leap into video marketing and harness it for your small business. Tips to Use YouTube Effectively One of my favorite training spots is Lynda.com where expert instructors teach on a wide range of topics of interest to small business owners. It is a membership-based site, but worth it if you need to take yourself up a steep learning curve. Here's the full Lynda site based on a search for YouTube courses with 4 courses made up of 109 tutorials. If you don't know where to begin, The Small Business Guide to YouTube is a good place to get started. Clicking on the "No" answers will give you links to informative content to answer your YouTube questions. Using YouTube for Your Business provides you with an overview of ways you can use YouTube to improve your business. Similarly, How to Use YouTube for Effective Marketing gives you ideas for using YouTube to market your business. Ways to Incorporate Video into Your Business helps you find new platforms for adding video to your content. This list of 34 Ways To Use YouTube For Business from Gigaom is from 2009, but still loads of great ideas. Check out 4 Innovative Ways to Use Web Video for Small Businesses for some easy ideas to engage your customers in videos you can produce with little to no cost. YouTube Channel Setup explains how to get started by setting up a customized YouTube channel where you can publish your videos. This infographic found at Digital Sherpa points out the major building blocks for creating good video content. Before you start recording, you should view this Video Marketing Slideshow, which gives you an outline of how to create successful videos that will be seen by others. Keep your video looking as professional as your business with these 5 Tips to Making Professional Looking Video. You should also check out Ten Tips for a GREAT Corporate Video. This video offers basic tips to help keep your audience interested in your visual content. The DIY Marketers Guide to Marketing with Video gives you a list of some tools you can use to create successful videos. If you are looking for stock videos to enhance your business video, you can find low-cost, royalty free ones at Videohive. Or if you want video, image, sound, illustration and special effects, you can find them all at pond5. You can also find low-cost, royalty free videos at iStock, but you have to purchase credit packs to buy these. Flixpress helps you to create professional intros to your videos online from templates. This service offers different plans ranging from free to a monthly fee for heavy users. The templates are priced based on their content (i.e. those containing people cost more), but there are several free basic templates. If you would prefer to do a screencast instead of filming a video, 5 Free Tools for Creating a Screencast suggests great tools for making video content from your computer screenshots. Look at How to Utilize Videoblogging for Business to learn about a more visual way of blogging for your business. 10 YouTube Tips for Small Businesses provides you with good information on presenting your business at its best by suggesting ways to polish your content and channel. Once your business invests resources in creating a video you want to have people watch it. Use these Simple YouTube Tips for New Traffic to build your viewers. Ways to Make Your Videos Viral gives you great insight into what makes customers share your video with their friends. At the same time, you can keep your expectations real by avoiding these 5 YouTube Marketing Mistakes. An important part of using YouTube or any social marketing is to look at it from a long-term perspective. 4 Tips for Marketing Your Business on YouTube will give you things to think about when developing your YouTube marketing strategy. Learn how other small businesses were able to make YouTube work for them by checking out these 3 YouTube Success Stories that I wrote for American Express OPEN Forum. YouTube has its own Keyword Tool to help you find keywords for your video content. This is a great way to take a step toward helping the YouTube search engine (and by extension Google) find your video content. You can find many tips to help SEO your YouTube Channel and increase your Web visibility with these YouTube Marketing Tips and Maximize YouTube’s Marketing Potential. You can learn 5 Ways to Promote Your YouTube Video so you develop an audience and grow it. Watch this YouTube Analytics Tutorial to see how to use YouTube analytics to find out if your videos are working for you. This is a great tool to find help identify what you may want to change or tweak about your YouTube video strategy. Pixibility Inc. offers an entire YouTube channel devoted to YouTube marketing. They are advertising their YouTube marketing software but have many videos with helpful tips posted. I reviewed the service here on Small Business Trends. Even if you aren't quite ready to take the plunge into using YouTube to post videos for your business, you can still follow channels that contain content specifically for helping small businesses, such as the U. S. Small Business Administration Channel. This channel is dedicated to keeping you up-to-date with government information for small businesses. No one has to attend the university to get great advice from the Harvard Business Review. This channel is filled with the latest videos on everything business. Yes, the Google Business Channel focuses on using Google products to increase your business, but most of it can be done at little or no cost. Create a video transcript by following Jan Bear's post from her Market Your Book blog. You can also find the same explanations within YouTube's support section. The transcript can help you get found in search engines, an added bonus for the effort. Don't forget that you can upload/embed your YouTube videos on your Facebook page. I recommend you simply click the Share button just below the YouTube video you are watching and click the Facebook icon. It opens your Facebook page status update if you are logged in. Add your comment and post. Title your file name with keywords before you upload – or at least something better than letting your camera name it with a bunch of random numbers and letters. Last tip: Always create a call to action at the end of your video. Splice in a slide that lists your website. The best post that I've seen on this comes from my friend Jay Baer on his Convince and Convert blog (compelling blog name, huh?), 4 Ways to Include Calls to Action on Video. Video Photo via Shutterstock The post 30+ Ways To Use YouTube Effectively appeared first on Small Business Trends.

It May Be Time For Your Business to Retire That Old Operating System Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:30 AM PDT If you still use Windows XP in your business, Microsoft is planning four security updates for the 13-year-old operating system this week. XP and the new Internet Explorer have both been vulnerable to hacking in recent months. Microsoft says they also have a patch for Explorer to be released this week, too. But the thing to think about is that Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014. So, aside from possibly one more update, if there’s a problem after that, you’re on your own. Your computer won’t stop working after this date. On the contrary, it will continue as normal. But with no more security updates coming from Microsoft, it would be the same as leaving your front door open and going to bed. The hackers will just walk right in and potentially damage your operating system and files. Small businesses are sometimes slow to change, especially after finding a tool that works well for them. Plus the costs of upgrading will put off businesses who are operating on a shoestring budget. But sometimes there is no choice but to make the necessary changes to keep your business efficient. Below are some possible options. Windows 7 Theoretically the next stage in the Windows ecosystem would be Vista. But since Vista is also an aging system, we haven’t dealt with it here. If you are going to spend money on upgrading your Windows system, you may as well upgrade to one of the more modern versions of Windows. Otherwise, in a few years when Microsoft retires Vista, you’ll be right back to square one. When you are upgrading from XP to Windows 7, it is a rather convoluted and lengthy process. In fact, Microsoft, on its website, recommends that you print out the upgrading guide to refer to. You need to test your PC to make sure it has the specs to handle a more powerful Windows. Before upgrading, you need to move all your files off the computer, as you will be completely wiping the hard-drive. Another small glitch is that because Microsoft has now moved on to Windows 8, you cannot buy a normal installation package for Windows 7. Instead, you can only get an Original Equipment Manufacturer copy intended for pre-installation on a new personal computer for resale. However, if you have a skilled IT person or friend, the Windows 7 software can still be installed. You just won’t get any help from Microsoft Technical Support. One other option is to check eBay for used retail versions of Windows 7. Windows 8.1 Windows 8 had a bit of a rocky start. First, not everyone appreciated the radical departure from previous  Windows versions. Gone was the Start menu and in were the colorful tiles. The tiles were brought in to entice people to use Windows 8 on a tablet. But for desktop PC users, the tiles were controversial almost from the first. For the current 8.1 version, Microsoft gives you the complete guide to upgrading from Windows XP. As with Windows 7, you will need to run a compatibility check to make sure that your computer is capable of handling a more powerful version of Windows. If so, you can buy Windows 8.1 from online stores such as Amazon, and from all electrical hardware stores. You can even bring back the beloved Start menu and boot to the desktop (avoiding Microsoft’s newer tile interface) by installing the free Classic Shell. This will give you a version of Microsoft that might feel more familiar. Linux Of course, alternatives to Windows are also possible. For all the cost-conscious and cash-strapped businesses out there, it may be preferable to go with the completely free and open-source Linux platform. Linux has always labored under the erroneous image that it is only for geeks who can code in their sleep. Nothing could be further from the truth. Big efforts have been made in the past few years to make Linux more accessible to all and a more viable alternative to Windows. Being open-source, anyone can make their own version of Linux. This has resulted in literally countless versions of the Linux operating system out there. But the most common one of all is Ubuntu, which is extremely easy to install and use. You can even run it on a USB stick to try out first before taking the leap. You can download the very big installation file from the Ubuntu website. The file is in IMG (image) format, and can be opened and run by using a program such as Virtual Clone Drive. Just be aware that a lot of Windows software will not have Linux versions, though this is improving. Also, there is no Microsoft Office for Linux (although one is rumored to be coming). How-To Geek provides some workarounds, but honestly, it would just be easier and cheaper to ditch MS Office and use the open-source Open-Office. Chromebook Google has been developing the Chrome operating system for the past 5 years. But it wasn’t until 2011 that the first Chromebooks started to appear. Chromebooks are quite simply laptops that connect to the Net and nothing more. You cannot store files on them, nor can you run software. If you need to store files, then cloud storage is an option. (For obvious reasons, Google pushes Google Drive very heavily, and Chromebook buyers get extra free storage for at least a year, depending on what model you buy). So a Chromebook is an option, if all you need to do is go online and if your files are all in the cloud. Mac OSX Last but not least, Mac OSX is an option. Now, this doesn’t mean buying a new Mac computer (not an option unless you have a huge hardware budget.) But Apple’s current system, Mavericks, is free to download from the Mac App Store. And according to Apple’s own website, Mavericks can run on various older models, the oldest being the MacBook Pro or iMac from 2007. So if you really want to make the switch, you could pick up an older computer from, say, Craigslist or eBay. Then get onto the Mac App Store, and upgrade to Mavericks for free. The big downside to switching to a Mac is that you will have to get new Mac versions of all your software which, unless you are a freeware fan, will cost you a lot extra. And some Windows software doesn’t have Mac versions. It may be tempting to just try and plow on with XP, in the hope that things will be OK. But eventually your luck will run out. Without Microsoft to watch your back and plug all the security holes, eventually a hacker will find a way into your system. Then you will have a big problem. So it’s best to bite the bullet, find the cash and upgrade now. You’ll be thankful later. Operating System Photo via Shutterstock, Ubuntu Image: Wikipedia, Chromebook: Chromebook The post It May Be Time For Your Business to Retire That Old Operating System appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Are You a Rule Breaker? Posted: 11 Mar 2014 05:00 AM PDT Sponsored Post There is no shortage of award programs honoring entrepreneurs, but most measure revenue or growth. While this is not a bad thing, entrepreneurs deserve to be recognized for other contributions. They should be celebrated for things they don't do: • They don’t follow. • They ignore conventional wisdom. • They take the path less traveled. • They do it the hard way. They believe rules are meant to be broken. Did Steve Jobs follow the rules? Did Mark Zuckerberg? Did Elon Musk? Have you? The Rule Breaker Awards honor and celebrate those entrepreneurs who have succeeded by doing it their way. Some have created whole new industries while others have revolutionized a field that has existed for hundreds of years. Sponsored by Nextiva, Skype and Constant Contact, the awards salute those who never shirk from obstacles, don’t fear the unknown and persist – despite the odds. They salute the next business leaders. Awards will be given to 15 entrepreneurs in the technology, retail, manufacturing, food/restaurant and service sectors. Nominations can be submitted digitally, and winners will be selected by popular vote and industry judges. The Rule Breakers will be honored at a ceremony in New York in June 2014. At that event, one small business innovator will be chosen as the "Rule Breaker of the Year." Apply now to win the award and its prizes by March 31, 2014 at Rule Breaker Awards. Barry Moltz is a host at the Rule Breaker Awards in New York City on June 10th. He can be found at BarryMoltz.com. The post Are You a Rule Breaker? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

A Bluetooth Ring Could Improve Your Productivity Like Magic Posted: 11 Mar 2014 02:30 AM PDT A new Bluetooth ring being promoted in a recent Kickstarter campaign could be a major productivity tool. That includes for the small business owner on the go during those times when it’s not convenient or appropriate to pull out your smartphone. By syncing with apps on your mobile device, Ring can perform a variety of distinct functions. And all these functions can be activated by a few swipes of your finger — like magic. In a recent post on Mashable, Andario Strange writes: “By recognizing finger gestures, Ring allows the wearer to write text messages by simply drawing in the air. The same dynamic allows the wearer to access apps by drawing designated shapes in the air. For example, drawing a music note could access your music player, while drawing an envelope shape would allow you to access your email.” Ring can control appliances and other devices too. In the promotional video below, a person writes “TV” in midair with their Ring finger and turns on the television in the room. Ring can also send texts. After writing out a message in midair (as mentioned above), you can make a gesture to send the message, too. Digital payments with a wave of your hand are another option with Ring. A few gestures in midair with your ring finger, including writing out how much you’re going to pay, will allow you to remit a payment using the device’s Bluetooth feature. Ring also has a vibration and LED display to alert you of incoming messages and alerts. Gestures with your finger using Ring can activate a wide variety of functions. Up to 1,000 of these gestures can be made before the device requires recharging. Ring does have one glaring shortfall, however, Mashable reports: “The only obvious shortcoming of the device at this point is that fact that it’s not waterproof. That could turn into a problem for those attempting to use Ring in mobile environments during bad weather, or even inside the home, say, if you forget you have Ring on when you go to wash your hands.” The Kickstarter campaign for Ring, created by Logbar Inc., San Carlos, California has been highly successful. To date, the device has more than 3,900 backers and has raised more than $600,000 well over its $250,000 goal. Images: Video Stills The post A Bluetooth Ring Could Improve Your Productivity Like Magic appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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