Successful Blog

How Will Your Social Media Situation Look in One Year?

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By Jennifer Dunn

Between all the other activities you must do every day as a business owner, keeping up with new and exciting trends probably isn’t the highest on your list. This can be especially true with latest social media bandwagons – you’re already on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. What else are you supposed to do?

Not keeping up with these trends, though, may actually be hurting your bottom line. While it may be a little obnoxious that web users bounce from social media site to social media site, you have to follow your customers. This involves learning what they’re both currently using and what’s up next.

Want a little help? Here are a few services to check out.

New Trends

Think video would work well with your business but don’t have a camera nor the time to spend editing something for YouTube? Then Vine is perfect for you. You may have seen these micro-videos around the web already as the Twitter owned service blew up pretty quickly after it was launched.

Vine works because it is super simple to use. After you download the app, you simply hold the screen to record video or just tap it to record a frame/picture. Your limit is 7 seconds, so be brief! Although it doesn’t seem like you can really get much in during that short amount of time, businesses have made some amazing things with Vine.

Another social media bandwagon you should hop on is Google Plus. “But wait,” you might ask. “I thought that ship had sailed?” Sure, that’s what the general consensus was…up until Google Plus passed Twitter as the #2 social media site. Now it’s apparent Plus is here to stay.

What’s there for your business? Besides yet another profile for you to fill out, make sure to take advantage of Hangouts. These video-based interactions are an amazing way to engage with your customers and fans in many different ways. For an example, look at what Major League Soccer has done with it.

Up and Comers

How often have you or someone you know used Facebook and exclaimed how annoyed you are with how complicated it’s become? You might use the service a little more if it wasn’t just so “busy” all the time. Between all the games, ads, and constant updates about what people ate for dinner it’s hard to actually do anything of substance.

This is why simplicity is going to be a factor in the future when it comes to social media. One service, Potluck, reduces social media to sharing cool stuff with your friends. You find a neat link, post it, and your friends (and their friends, their friends’ friends, etc.) can talk about it. That’s the extent of the site.

Even cooler, it’s a website now, but it’s actually designed to be a smartphone app. This means people waiting in line for coffee, bored at work, or taking a trip to the bathroom will be able to see the stuff your business account shares.

Also on the horizon is Ghost, a true blogging site. The creators used to work at WordPress and felt like the site was moving towards making websites rather than letting people blog. That’s why Ghost is designed to let writers hop on and go to town rather than spending hours making their blog look fabulous. If you’ve ever had trouble getting your great content out there because WordPress or BlogSpot left you feeling like a website designer, then a platform like Ghost could be the way of the blog future.

What social media trends have you spotted recently?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

Big Data for Bloggers

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Have you noticed? Big data is the new buzzword. Apparently, it’s so hot you should “make out with it,” according to Mitch Joel in his new book, CTR ALT DEL.

But if you’re like most entrepreneurs, bloggers, or small business owners, you have no clue what big data is, or how it might apply to your business.

So here is my all-access definition: “big data” is sets of information that are way too large to be accessed or analyzed on your average computer or set of servers. Think of data being fed from RFID tags globally, or all of the data in Facebook’s open graph, or earthquake sensor networks. You’re probably contributing to big data yourself, whenever you serve up an ad on your site from an ad network.

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Perhaps none of these big data sets apply to your blog site, but the wider discussion about how to draw business insights from big data absolutely does apply.

Maybe we should call it “medium data.”

Here are three ways you can use medium data to draw insights for your blog.

Google Analytics

It’s free, and it’s getting deeper every day. If you haven’t signed up yet, here’s a quick tutorial on how to get started with Google Analytics.

At the most basic level, you can draw insights on who is visiting your blog, which content is the most popular, and where you can improve.

Once you dive deeper into the data, you can figure out whether all that time you spend on Twitter is actually driving people to your blog using Advanced Segments in Google Analytics.

Customer Surveys and Interaction

If you’re a blogger, your customer is a reader, perhaps a commenter or member of your community. Maybe they downloaded your eBook or signed up for an online course. Every time you interact with them, you have an opportunity to gather intelligence.

Whether it’s a quick one question “how did you like that book” sent in a followup email, or a more in-depth customer survey, you have the ability to pull together data to feed your future efforts.

John Jantsch said in an article a year ago, “Until a business of any size gets serious about listening to their customers, talking to their customers, and measuring every possible data and touch point, the promise of more data will only serve to distract.”

Accessing Big Data from Researchers

All of the data you use doesn’t have to come from your own blog site or customers. There are myriad free or inexpensive resources out there that can help you build business insights on your subject area.

Organizations like Edison Research, Gartner, and The Social Habit routinely produce scientifically valid research based on a much wider data set that you can access on your own. Find a research outlet that covers your industry or topic, and leverage their reports to come up with blog post ideas, watch for future trends, and increase your own utility to your audience.

Are you using data (small, medium, or big) to draw insights for your blog?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Image: Flickr CC

Vertical integration and your business

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By Katherine Pilnick

You’ve probably heard of vertical integration, a trend to minimize middle-man work and bring products to the marketplace in as few steps as possible, and you may be wondering if it’s right for your business. Vertically integrated companies have control over more than one part of production. They may partner with companies that work with the product before or after them, or they may take care of more than one step of the process in-house.

Vertical integration gives manufacturers more control over their products, including reducing costs. Customers also benefit, as they can discover otherwise lost local business and may enjoy price cuts because of lowered production costs. However, vertical integration isn’t always the best option, and its effects should be considered for each unique set of circumstances.

Vertical Integration in Modern Markets

One of the most prominent examples of vertical integration is Apple, which designs and develops the hardware and software for all its products, and also puts out the final products. While specific parts of production may be outsourced, Apple’s overall vertical integration gives the company more control over its product. It also ensures that the company has unique products that customers cannot find elsewhere.

Amazon is another well-known example of vertical integration. Its online marketplace and its Kindle products act as book distributors, and the company has evolved to publish books, as well. In this way, it took over another piece of the production line.

Amazon and Apple are prime examples of companies that have become significantly more involved in their product lines than is typical at other companies.

Choosing to vertically integrate your business is a big decision, and one which involves a lot of thought. It requires access to resources that small startups often lack, but it expands opportunities for future growth and success.

The main advantage of a vertically integrated business is that it will make your product unique, so that no other company can offer exactly what you have to offer. That way, you can build a loyal customer base as your company grows.

Despite its pros, vertical integration won’t help every company, especially one that’s already on thin ice financially.

Key Considerations

Vertical integration requires a company to take on new responsibilities in production. While this can save money for business in the long run, it requires an immediate financial investment to pay for additional equipment and labor.

Likewise, entrepreneurs must be careful that vertical integration does not spread the company’s resources too thin. The company must set its priorities and stick with them, without allowing its new responsibilities to take over the core business goals.

Unless your business is already hugely successful, you’ll have to determine if vertical integration is right for your particular scenario by weighing the pros and cons.

Discuss it with others at your company to gauge how willing they are to take on the risk and responsibility. You can also seek professional advice at a bank, since the new endeavor is likely to require a small business loan. And remember that there is no need to rush the decision. In most cases, the opportunity to expand will always be there. If you don’t take advantage of it now, you can change your mind in the future.

Author’s Bio: Katherine Pilnick is a writer, blogger and editor for Debt.org, a debt help website.

4 Fast Growing Social Media and Shopping Websites

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Richard Franklin

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4 Fast Growing Social Media and Shopping Websites

There are so many social media and shopping websites nowadays available on the web, some of them are growing rapidly because of their services, how they are managed and updated, and how the features or how user friendly they are. These websites have been increasing because of the increase of the growing interest of people on social networking platforms and people are also getting bored of the existing social websites. It has increased this year because of the social awareness of the individuals, sharing their thoughts, experiences, photos, and products daily are the things that people could do with the social and shopping websites.

Here are some of the fast growing social media and shopping websites that are grabbing the attention of more users day by day:

Pinterest.com

Basically, Pinterest is a pinboard -style social photo or an image sharing website that permits users to make and achieve theme-based image groups such as interests, events, likes or hobbies, and many more. Users can surf or browse other Pinboards or inspiration,’re-pin’ images to their own collections and/or ‘like’ photos. It permits its users to share ‘pins’ on both Facebook and Twitter, which permits users to share their interests, photos, events, hobbies and interact with the community.

A social media agency should post their client’s business in Pinterest to drive more traffic. It is an advantage for the business to have major products for women because most of its visitors are women.

Pinterest can help a social media company to have the advantage of driving traffic to their clients’ websites. It is really a big help for the social media companies on their Internet marketing strategies.

Svpply.com

This is a new shopping website that made a big splash in the online community. Svpply is pronounced as “supply”, it is the online form of window shopping that permits users to browse products extending from clothing to home decorations and easily bookmark items when you shop.

Before you can post or shop on the website, you have to register first on Svpply.com, create your free account, search for the products or things that you want in the online store, and upload them to your account. You can also share what you have found with your friends thru social media sites like Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

There is more! You can complete your online shopping using Svpply, just click on the BUY button and be directed to the “Checkout Page. Svpply also offers specialty features like monthly Editor’s picks and gift guides that are giving you the advantage of having all of your shopping needs addressed on one website.

Wanelo.com

One of today’s trends which social media is focusing is online Pin boarding. Users “pin” their items and images what they like on the virtual boards and sharing it with their friends that have similar interests and can give and take ideas. Pinterest maybe the most popular of these websites because of its unique features that permits users to interact, engage, and connect with the imaginative process with people who have shared their interests. Furthermore, socializing and connecting with friends through online is the major factor in current’s Social Media part.

Online shoppers or users used to find themselves shopping for toys for their loved-ones, gifts, clothes, supplements, and other items that could give them convenience in shopping. Online shopping gives them convenience because it doesn’t need to be in the physical store to purchase or look for the items they want. Wanelo has covered the way for businesses to seize more market share by attracting in online marketing and makes easy for the shoppers.

Polyvore.com

Polyvore focuses on fashion, it is for the fashion enthusiasts and advocates. It is devoted to style and giving a platform for fashion enthusiasts for showing or demonstrating their works in the entire world. It is one of the largest online communities with members from across the globe and helps to unite online shoppers and trendsetters / trend starters by showing the latest trends, the hottest brands, and trend forecasting.

It allows users to create different outfits by culling various products from online stores and online fashion collections, publishing and sharing their works with friends and other Polyvore users.

Polyvore is now becoming another trustworthy social media network for online businesses who aim to create more connection and interaction with their online prospect buyers and online buyers. Some Big Fashion companies are having relationship or connecting Polyvore for promoting and exhibiting their designs, products, and for showcase.

Author’s Bio:
Richard Franklin is a social media strategist and wants to share his knowledge with people who are about to hire a social media agency for their businesses. He writes about latest trends used in social media companies. You can find Richard on Twitter as @AgencySEO.

Thank you, Richard!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Top Five Industries to Start a New Business

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Where Do You Start?

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Starting a new business is a big decision, which has to be taken with much thought and diligence. No two years are the same and with changing trends one has to be vigilant enough to tap the right business opportunities at the right time.

The year 2012 is the year of the retail business, personal care, hospitality and education. While these are not the out-of-box industries that seem to be providing good potential for growth, but it is the way one propels their business using the right techniques catering to the modern times. Success lies, not in what you sell, but how you sell it. Here is a brief overview of the top five industries to start a new business:

Health and wellness: a healthy lifestyle is something which every one aspires for. The health and wellness industry covers a large domain including healthy eating, fitness centres, fitness consultancy, personal grooming, care of the elderly and to an extent hospitality. Consumers are growing aware of what they are eating, the sources of their food, keeping fit by visiting gyms and fitness centres, consulting with yoga gurus and experts and even opting for stress management activities. All these areas of health and wellness offer opportunities to start a new business.

You could start a franchisee that offers healthy snacks or open up a fitness centre or a gym. If you are good at providing consultation, you can go for a health and fitness centre with expert consultants offering tips on healthy and nutritious eating. The corporate sector too is urging its employees to be more fit, healthy and stress-free, which means that you can introduce wellness plans for the corporate sector.

The beauty industry: trends are indicative of the fact that the beauty industry is a growing sector and so it has made the list of the top five industries to start a new business. As per the surveys conducted worldwide, it has been seen that consumers have more disposable income, allowing them to spend more on personal grooming and healthcare. For this reason, there has been a surge in beauty salons, spas and centres for beauty treatments. Barber schools and cosmetology are the growing sectors in this industry with more and more people becoming interested in looking and feeling good.

Clothing industry: clothes have always been a favourite with women. However, with the new trends pouring in, it is seen that even men are getting more particular about the way they dress up. For this reason, the clothing industry along with the clothing accessory industry is a very good area to tap into when looking to start a new business.

Education: with increasing globalisation and the need for highly trained and skilled professionals all over the world, education has come to the forefront as one of the top industries to start a new business. Whether it is a business school, language school, a trade school or an educational consultancy, you are sure to receive a very good response.

Food industry: with recession almost gone now, people have higher levels of disposable income. This means the capacity to spend on healthy and organic foods and snacks has increased. Taking up franchisees of a frozen yogurt, healthy snacks, organic foods can be a way to start a small business.

So, if you are interested in starting up a new business, one of the safest bets would be in one of these mentioned industries. However, these are only 5 of the many industries out there. So, if these don’t take your fancy, there is a plethora of other industries to choose from.

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Author’s Bio:
Working as business & finance analyst in Brisbane, Jim is very much interested in management consulting for finance projects. He writes about new challenges coming up in next year’s in the industry. You can find more information at bsbdc.com or follow Jim on Twitter at @JamesForrest8

Thank you, Jim!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Ideas & Infographics: Is Social Media Ruining Our Minds?

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by Mihaela Lica

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Social Networkers and Social Conversations Everywhere

Social media is going stronger than ever, Google + now seizing the forefront of all our frontal lobes, or at least resting on the minds of networkers everywhere online. The power of that so called “conversation” we all adopted as a fact of life though, does not come without a price. Along with the profound positive effects Facebook, Twitter, and g+ afford us, there appear to be some “less than positive” effects you may not be aware of.Scientists now believe social media may impact cognitive function and development negatively. From multitasking to other focus oriented skills, it appears a sort of transformative process is occurring – in short, our brains may be adjusting. The infographic courtesy Assisted Living Today below is demonstrative of this theory. You may want to investigate this.

[Click the image to see the isolated infograph and again to see it full size.]

Let’s Move Some Ideas at a Human Pace

As you can see, How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds opens up a bit of a can of worms where knowing what’s good for you on the web goes.

What?

Did we all assume pecking away at our keyboards, smacking those barriers with a slingshot and Angry Birds, endless hours of looking at crazy or not so crazy video would have no effect? The bigger question is, “Just how rewired have you become?” Our attention spans have become so short (perhaps) that soon a friend will have to get even the most “fuzzy” feelings across in microseconds. I don’t know about you, but I like my kindness and consideration delivered at a leisurely pace. That goes for absorbing other wonderful things on and off the web. Of course, those pesky “scientists” don’t know everything yet. Let’s hope so anyway.

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Author’s Bio:

Mihaela “Mig” Lica founded Pamil Visions in 2005 where she uses her hard won journalistic, SEO and public relations skills toward helping small companies navigate the digital realm with influence and success.

You can find Mig on Twitter as @PamilVisions

Thanks, Mig! Thank you, too, to Assisted Living Today!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!