It’s that time of year again, where we desperately hope for a sunny summer here in the UK before giving up halfway through August and booking a last-minute trip to sunnier climates. But for business owners, packing up and leaving the country can fill you with a sense of anxiety. What will happen whilst you’re […]
Today’s world is the world of technology that connects us faster than anything else. Some businesses who have utilised the web have reported booming sales & profits, so if you also aspire to join the ranks of web entrepreneurs who are making millions, the opportunities for online businesses are seemingly unlimited. Social networking sites have made the task simpler and easier to convert the fans, friends, followers and subscribers to dedicated customers. Social networking sites are a great way to promote your new or existing business. Creating back links to your website on your social media platforms is a useful way to gain a greater global audience and to encourage sales growth.
Being a web entrepreneur you know all the social media sites available today but the question that springs to mind is, which ones should you leverage? You may choose to use them all to promote your business but in reality if you run a small business, using all platforms is not a feasible option because it becomes difficult to invest the time needed. So, with your limited resources, which platform is best for you?
Select social media sites based on their best usability to your business:
Facebook: Facebook is a great “social utility” for your business. On Facebook, you not only connect but also expand your network, so create your business page and share your business news & updates. Strong brands get a lot of active following, so if you have a strong brand value, Facebook may be the best option. However, if you are a nascent player you’ll need to focus your efforts on to page promotion which will help you acquire new customers. The majority of new businesses use Facebook as their first social media platform, whereby maximum `likes’ are driven by pictures. Studies show that more than 90% of `likes’ are derived from photos.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional B2B network site that helps you connect to other professionals and promote your business amongst groups. LinkedIn aims at career opportunities and is a good place for recruiters, whilst 91% of marketers use LinkedIn. Many business contacts are made daily on LinkedIn which results in it being the leading social media platform for B2B opportunities.
Pinterest: Pinterest is a trusted information and advice source for online customers whilst also enabling businesses to increase their sales by visual displays (pins). Many users on Pinterest are there to get shopping inspiration, and it has performed exceptionally well in shaping the mind set of shoppers to make purchases. You can use Pinterest to gain more customers by creating and sharing pins of interest. When individuals find something that they like on the web, they can `pin it’ to their Pinterest Board and access it anytime. A lot of top brands use Pinterest to promote their products by way of visual demonstration.
Google+: If your customer acquisition strategy involves SEO, then Google Plus (Google+) is your stop. The more +1’s you receive on your posts; the greater your chances to improve your search rankings. High-value brands use Google Plus actively as a part of their social media campaigns. So if you are serious about your Google ranking, you cannot afford to miss Google plus among your social media platforms.
Being new to social networking sites, you may wonder if marketing via social media is just a lot of hype. Will this actually make a difference or will anyone actually read your posts? Doubt certainly creeps in, and you wonder whether your business will grow or not? But don’t despair! Try giving a digital handshake to your potential customers. It will undoubtedly take time to build your audience on your social media platforms but with some thought & lots of dedication you’ll develop a strong and dedicated following and take your business towards success. If you really don’t have the time to invest in this important aspect of your business then an easy solution would be to outsource this work to an affordable Virtual Assistant who can add value by providing remote business support without the red tape.
“Social media is important for your business, it helps you gain greater exposure.”
Last week, the Facebook Newsroom announced a new initiative that the social network has launched in conjunction with Box and Pinterest. WEST, as its known, stands for Women Entering and Staying in Tech and, in my mind, is a fantastic program.
When it comes to Computer Science, there has long been a gender gap in the industry, both in workforce’s across the globe and in the educational pipelines where tomorrow’s generation of Computer Scientists will emerge.
In fact, the United States Census Bureau has reported that technical roles in the country will continue to increase and are expected to reach 1.4 million by 2020. However, the number of women filling these positions has been steadily declining since the 1990s.
That’s why Facebook, Pinterest and Box have teamed up to create WEST, a one-on-one mentorship program that is designed to help more women adopt and ultimately flourish in these types of technical role.
The aim is to bring together highly experienced women from the top technology companies across the industry to help build and maintain a focussed mentorship program. It will be driven by the day-to-day work that these individuals do and geared towards the exciting technical opportunities that are becoming available.
Opening in 2015, WEST will be looking to attract female mentees in their early to middle career stages. It will feature a series of 1:1 and group interactions face-to-face, as well as online sessions over the course of a year.
Initially, the program will be open to women in the Bay Area in the U.S. but if it proves successful then we can hope to see an expansion going forward. I for one, hope that UK women will be able to take advantage of this great initiative in the future.
Mentorship is something that is very powerful and can help shape an individual’s life including their career choices, lifestyle outcomes and overall success.
Influential individuals, like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, have long voiced their opinions about the need for more women in technical roles. The Facebook COO famously said in an interview with 60 Minutes that, “A man and a man at a bar at a hotel during a work trip – that looks like mentoring. A man and a woman at a bar at a hotel on a work trip, that doesn’t look like mentoring to anyone.”
It speaks volumes that three huge companies, like Facebook, Box and Pinterest, have decided to undertake this venture. They obviously want to tackle a problem that has been developing for some time. Hopefully, their lead will make other businesses take note and perhaps even offer similar programs.
When industry giants make a decision to create a bespoke mentoring program for women from the ground up, it can only lead to more diversity in the technical industry as a whole going forward.
You can find out a little more about WEST here. There’s even an application form but unless you live in the Bay Area in the United States it’s obsolete at present.
What’s your view on WEST? Should women be given a helping hand with mentorship programs like this or will doing so ultimately put men at a disadvantage?
I’d love to hear your thoughts below…
If you’re one of those people who finds themselves fighting a never-ending battle between balancing your personal and professional commitments then this post is definitely for you.
Last month, the UK government announced that from June 30 every employee in the UK would be able to request flexible working arrangements – a right that up until now only applied to certain carers and parents with children under 17.
On the face of it you might be wondering what’s in it for businesses? Well, the government estimates that the new plans will lower absenteeism, improve productivity and reduce staff turnover, which will realise economic benefits of about £475 million over the next 10 years.
But what exactly is flexible working and what do the new rules actually mean? Let me explain further:
What is flexible working?
Flexible working is when an agreed change is made to an employee’s working pattern. This can actually manifest itself in many different ways but the most common types of flexible working are flexitime, home working, job sharing, part-time working and changes to working hours.
The new rules are thought to be particularly attractive to young people who are just starting out in their careers and want to undertake additional learning or training and older members of staff who are approaching retirement.
Who is now eligible to apply?
Anyone who has worked for their employer for at least six months (26 weeks) continuously is eligible to apply for flexible working. Known as ‘making a statutory application’, employees can make one flexibility request per year and their employer must consider it in a ‘reasonable manner.’
Not all applications, however, will be automatically approved under the new rules; they simply allow all employees to make flexible working requests.
Why might an application be rejected?
Obviously, not every flexible working application will be successful and there will be times when employers have to decline requests. However, employers can only decline a request for one of the following business reasons:
These are the same reasons under which previous flexible working requests could be declined and the new rules don’t change them in any way.
How will applications be dealt with?
In a ‘reasonable manner’ by the employer is what the law states. The application process will ultimately see the employee have a face-to-face meeting with their employer in which the flexible working request will be discussed.
Employers then have three months in which to notify their employee of the decision – unless a longer period is agreed beforehand with the employee. A clear business case must be included with any rejections and the relevant business reason from the list above stated.
All flexible working applications will be dealt with on a first-come first-serve basis by the employer. This means that conflicts may occur and if they do, businesses are advised by the government’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) to try to reach a compromise with the employees involved.
So if you’ve ever longed to reduce your hours or experience the benefits of flexitime, now is your chance!
Image courtesy of franky242 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net