Better Business Blog

Wikia: The largest social network you’ve never heard of

Everybody’s heard of and uses Wikipedia, but what about the for-profit company founded by Wikipedia’s own Jimmy Wales? Wikia is one of the biggest internet companies around, but it’s likely not on your radar yet. This year, that’s all going to change.

I had personally heard of Wikia but never knew exactly what it was. Put simply, if you’ve ever seen a specialized Wiki outside of Wikipedia, the odds are it was hosted on Wikia. The site packs an enormous amount of content, with users collaborating, discussing and consuming nearly anything you can imagine.

Wikia is also completely free, ad-supported and is all linked together under one navigation bar that sits atop every page. So far, all of its driving growth has had everything to do with users.

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How To Get The Business Help You Need

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s very difficult for many of us to ask for help.  However, we can’t build our businesses (or our lives) alone.  That being said, once you are ready, how do you get the help that you need?  Here are three quick steps to getting others to help you (I know, that sounds like an infomercial, but it is really this easy- no Ginzu knives included):

1- Ask, or at Least Have an Answer

If nobody knows what you need, it is pretty challenging for them to help you. If you need help, the onus is on you.  We have personal, professional, alumni, social and other networks, so use them!  Most people are very willing to offer help if they know what the heck you need. How many times have you been in a conversation when someone said, “How can I help you?” and the other party said, “I don’t know?”Know what help you need and be both willing and able to articulate it.

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How To Get From A Great Idea To Actual Innovation

There's a tendency for all of us to glorify the ideation process when in fact it's the reduction to practice that's perhaps more important, says Stephen Hoover, CEO of PARC, a Xerox company.

What's the formula for moving from a great idea to actual implementation? "You'd think we'd have a really complex answer for this one, given that PARC is in the business of breakthroughs," says Stephen Hoover, CEO of PARC, a Xerox company. "But for me, it's really simple and can even be captured in one phrase: 'Inventions with impact.' As in impact on people, our clients' businesses, and the world. In whatever forms it takes."

Fast Company sat down with Hoover, to ask him how innovation works at PARC. 

STEPHEN HOOVER: 

Compared to big companies, startups have the advantage of no "legacy," which means you don't have to worry about disrupting your own business model or changing skillsets. So when big companies can--and some do--create the space for new opportunities that challenge the legacy, they can do incredible things!

Furthermore, there's a place in the innovation landscape for big companies and startups and others, such as government and universities. While big companies tend to focus on core innovations and startups can pivot rapidly, all of us need to work together when the problems are too big or complex for any one entity to solve alone.

 

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The Realities of Successful Entrepreneurs

Today’s guest post is written by Mark Harai.

I often read articles about the bliss, excitement, and glory of being an entrepreneur.

Don’t get me wrong, these are certainly part of the overall journey, but typically just the icing on the cake.

Everything in between the start of the climb to the icing at the top define you as a person and shape your entrepreneurial career.

Dealing with bills, budgets, and payrolls isn’t glorious. Driving day-to-day operations, motivating the crew, and meeting crushing deadlines may sound exciting, but it can be daunting. It will seem as if everyone and everything is conspiring to derail you and your plans. It can really suck!

Pushing through constant resistance and overcoming challenges on a daily basis requires commitment, mental toughness and hard ass work.

Before you buy into the bliss of entrepreneurship, one must first understand and accept the realities to have staying power when the tough gets going.

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5 Easy Ways to Get Started On 5 Different Social Networks

 

Let’s face it, there are a lot of social networks out there and more are popping up every day. For a small business owner, that can get a little intimidating. If only there was an easy way to start getting involved in each. One little thing or activity that could help spur a future of more engaged results and interaction.

Why not start right here?

Below are five ways to ease your way into five different social networks.

1. Twitter

Twitter is a great platform for small business owners who need to get their message out there, but don’t necessarily have the resources to do it through more traditional channels. Twitter can get you that network by investing time, not dollars. Each time you send a tweet it’s blasted out to the people in your network, who then have the ability to share your content with their unique network and so on. The stronger the network that you build, the greater potential reach for your content.

So where do you start? By building a local audience. How?

 

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How to Make Your Customers the Hero of Your Story

I use the idea of hero a fair amount when I talk about what we do. I don’t use it in an egotistic way, more aspirational really than anything. I think aspiring to be a hero to someone is a good thing.

You can substitute leader if you like, but I love the image of hero because I think it paints a much more vivid illustration of the whole package – struggle, denial, acceptance, achievement, and purpose.

While I think it’s important that you and your business strive to be the hero in somebody’s story, I think it’s equally important that you understand how to position your customer or community as the hero of your story.

Below are some of my thoughts on how you do this and if you find yourself thinking this sounds a bit like crafting a screenplay, it’s because there’s a bit of that art to it. In fact, there’s a book I would recommend to anyone that takes this idea to heart. It’s called Save the Cat – The last book you’ll ever need on screenwriting by Blake Snyder.

 

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Cultivating Charisma: How Personal Magnetism Can Help (Or Hurt) You At Work

Olivia Fox Cabane, author of The Charisma Myth, talks with Fast Company about why charisma is so critical to business and how special Jedi mind tricks can help get you there.

As a socially inept teenager, Olivia Fox Cabane realized that she had two choices. “Either confine myself to a desert island, or learn how to make this human thing work,” she says. Cabane opted for the latter. Good thing. By age 24, the French-born author of The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism, published on March 29, had addressed the United Nations. The following year she was lecturing at Harvard and MIT, a precursor to her career as an executive coach and keynote speaker. A self-professed science nerd, Cabane came up with the idea for a book on charisma after realizing there was no single resource to help individuals cultivate it. We spoke with Cabane about why charisma is so critical to business and how Jedi mind tricks (not the hip-hop group) can help get you there.

FAST COMPANY: So what is the myth of charisma and where did it come from? 

OLIVIA FOX CABANE: It came from the Greeks, who coined the word as “gift of grace.” They believed it was a divine gift. The myth is that charisma is not innate. What scientists have actually discovered--like many other myths they busted this one--is it’s actually a social skill, which like many others is learned. But this happens so early in life that by the time these charismatics get to adulthood, it all seems to be natural. And yet if, for example, you analyze the progression of Steve Jobs from 1984 to 2011 you’ll see he painstakingly learned it step by step.

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Learning to Network: Organized Study vs. Winging It

My colleagues and I, as co-authors of the new book Business Networking and Sex – Not What You Think, thought it would be interesting to see if men and women acquire networking skills in different ways. So in one of our surveys, we asked participants how they learned to network.

Most respondents--both men and women--cited multiple ways. More than one-fourth said they had been mentored, which is widely considered one of the most effective ways to learn anything. Almost half said they had learned on their own, but many of them also participated in networking groups or read books and articles. In fact, more than three-quarters of respondents cited their use of networking groups. Which isn't surprising. Such groups often provide training programs and materials. Their popularity also illustrates the old wisdom of learning by doing. Many people learn fastest by watching others, making mistakes and correcting them.

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Seven Principles to Building an Online Reputation

 

 

Today I’m speaking at re:think in Oslo, Norway (more on the city later).

The conference organizer, Arnt Eriksen, asked me to consider speaking on something that is near and dear to my heart, but a topic I hadn’t yet created a presentation around.

The topic? Principles of Building an Online Reputation.

So I thought I’d do something a little bit different today and share with you the presentation.

Because it’s all images, it likely won’t make sense without some explanation.

Therefore I give you the seven principles to building an online reputation.

1. Create a strong online monitoring program. I stole a lot of my recommendations for this principle from Lisa Gerber’s blog post yesterday. If you haven’t read it yet, head over there now.

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Entrepreneurs Network for Success

Networking…as entrepreneurs we do this almost instinctively, but are we taking the wrong approach when networking for our small businesses? Here are some resources that may help.

Networking Advice

What Reid Hoffman can teach you about connecting. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or not, networking is the key to your success. Realize that as an entrepreneur your ability to connect will define the direction your small business takes. Bloomberg Businessweek

Even businesses without Websites can network online. A surprising number of small businesses don’t yet have Websites, but that doesn’t keep them from networking online. LinkedIn specifically creates a hub for entrepreneurs even without other Web presences. The Sydney Morning Herald

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What Does A Biz Dev Person Actually Do?

 

 

According to the Grand Unified Theory of Business Development, Biz Dev is simply about pursuing opportunities for long-term growth from customers, markets, and relationships.  Sounds simple enough, but has anyone ever set out to describe what a “Biz Dev Person” actually does?  How do they spend their day?  What should you look for when hiring someone for a Biz Dev role?

While Business Development may still mean many different things to many different people, at it’s core I believe a Biz Dev job is focused on 3 activities:

• Customers: Find new ones and extract more value from current ones.
• Markets: Figure out where new customers “live” (both geographically and in terms of “buying mindset“) and find a way to reach them.
• Relationships: Build and leverage relationships founded on trust and integrity to facilitate opportunities.

 

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How American Express Grows Its Massive Social Media Presence

Credit card company American Express seemed to come out of nowhere in the past year, offering one social media program after another.

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ — it’s got them all covered, and even better, it stands for what its consumers want across all of the social platforms it’s on.

While American Express has seemed to pump a lot of life into its social strategy as of late, it has actually been on the scene since 2009, helping cardholders solve problems one tweet and wall post at a time.

We spoke with Leslie Berland, SVP of digital partnerships and development at American Express, for the backstory on AmEx’s social media strategy, mission and goals. Read on for what she had to say.

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Must-Have Mobile Apps for Business Travelers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time is money, especially when it comes to business travel. How many times have you missed a flight or spent too much money on a rental car because you didn't have the right information handy when you needed it? Staying organized and informed on the road can be a major headache.

The good news is that a growing number of mobile apps can help frazzled travelers with everything from tracking flights to managing itineraries to finding the best deals on hotels. Here are some of the ways apps can make your life on the go easier and more economical:

Get deals on flights, hotels and car rentals.
Most business travelers make their travel reservations using a computer from home or work. But once you're on the road, plans can change and you may need to quickly find a good price for plan B.

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A Guide to Ambient Social Networking for Business Owners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Ambient" social networks were all the buzz at Austin's annual South by Southwest tech festival. So what are ambient networks? They include social discovery platforms and "proximity"-based apps on a smartphone or mobile device that locate other app users within the same geographical area.

Unlike Foursquare, which connects people to places, ambient social networks aim to connect people to people. Startups playing in the ambient social networking sandbox include:

• Highlight
• Sonar
• Glancee
• Grindr
• Banjo
• Circle

Depending on the app, users can search for and connect with Facebook contacts and Twitter followers, or locate nearby app users who have friends in common or share their interests, hobbies, or even dating preferences.

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Why Successful Businesses Don't Need To Love Their Customers

Greg Smith's resignation op-ed in the New York Times must surely take the prize as the most talked about resignation op-ed of all time.

Mr Smiths fans argued that his article was just one more proof that a once great company is on the skids.

His critics (led by the giant squid itself) argued that there was no truth in the accusation sand that Mr Smith was motivated by rather baser motives (such as spite at only being paid $3m a year) than the desire to expose evil.

But everybody agreed on two things. That a company that employs 12,000 vice-presidents is suffering from an advanced case of job-title inflation. And that treating companies like Muppets that is indeed what Goldman Sachs does is a terrible thing. Surely the first thing that successful businesses should do is love their customers?

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/economist.online.21551354.xml#ixzz1qNYsDgIQ

Rise of the Global Entrepreneurial Class

Innovation is a demographic, not a geographic, phenomenon. 

We are in an age of, largely positive, conspicuous creation.  The rise of entrepreneurial class supersedes nationality.  Whether from Tsinghua, Indian Institute of Technology, or Stanford, entrepreneurs with similar education and ambition share more in common with each other than they do with their brethren within borders.  Clustered in the Y-Combinators, the TechStars, and the 500 Startups are manifold international Founders, CEOs, and teams. 

Found in near every startup is a method of human capital differentiation.  From visa sponsorships to secure top international talent, to the development team that’s based in China or Israel, many startups cross oceans.  Entrepreneurs will continue to find each other, and distributed talent, ideation, and competition is the undeniable status quo.

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Forbes: On Tax Returns, Don't Forget Form 1099 Traps http://onforb.es/GUeqIJ

How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

The Complete Guide to Getting Press Coverage For Your Startup

Whoa, this guide was long, long, long overdue. Over the past few months, a lot of people reached out for help on how to best get press for their startup. I could help them with a quick email response, but it never felt quite appropriate.

So from now on, just a link to this guide will hopefully be useful.

Over the past 6-9 months, I am extremely thankful for the amazing stories lots of great writers from news and tech sites have written about Buffer.

To put it into perspective:

Mashable featured us 6 times, TechCrunch twice, over 10 articles in The Next Web, plenty of write-ups from ReadWriteWeb, GigaOm, LifeHacker, VentureBeat, Inc. Magazine and others. In total, there were over 40 stories by these notable sites written about us, each one based on the tips in this guide.

It is up to you to judge how good or bad the above outcome is and there are others who have done better of course. And one of the things I still fail on, is getting covered by mainstream media, such as CNN, Forbes,and FastCompany and co.

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How to Craft an Exciting Marketing Message … Even for a Boring Product

Most of us struggle to find the uniqueness, the interestingness, in our products or services.

The reason we struggle is because we’re looking for something exciting and new to show our clients and customers.

All we seem to come up with though, is how mundane and uninteresting our wares seem to be. A long list of boring features, a tired value proposition that one hundred other businesses offer.

I’ve come to understand that marketing a boring product or service online can actually a very exciting exercise — for you, and your customers.

You just need to know how to think correctly about it.

Let me explain …

 

Click here to read more

 

 

Get Free Legal Advice from Actual Lawyers at LegalAdvice.com. No, Really. http://lifehacker.com/5895928/get-free-legal-advice-from-actual-lawyers-at-legaladvicecom-no-really

8 Bizarre Tricks for Start-Up Success

 

At the London Web Summit this week, the CEO of CloudFlare explained the rules he learned starting one of the world's fastest-growing companies.

"It took Facebook more than five years to hit 400 million unique visitors a month. It took CloudFlare just 1.25 years," Matthew Prince, the CEO of the phenomenally fast-growing cloud-based service that aims to make websites safer and faster, told the London Web Summit on Monday. How did CloudFlare manage to become, as Henry Blodget recently put it, "a monster company in the making"? Exploding expectations doesn't come from following the conventional wisdom, so it's no shock that Prince ascribed his company's success to these eight simple but utterly counter-intuitive rules:

1. Big ideas are easier than little ones.

At first this idea may make your brain hurt, but Prince insists that epic ambitions are actually easier to accomplish that middling ones. Why? Big dreams and a compelling goal make it easier to attract talent with bold vision. Don't be YAIA ("yet another iPhone app"), Prince said, and like CloudFlare you'll have people literally "camping in the hallway" to come work for you.

 

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6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers

 

 

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You're the boss, but you still spend too much time on the day-to-day. Here's how to become the strategic leader your company needs.

In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and it's time for you to "be strategic." 

Whatever that means.

If you find yourself resisting "being strategic," because it sounds like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack off, you're not alone. Every leader's temptation is to deal with what's directly in front, because it always seems more urgent and concrete. Unfortunately, if you do that, you put your company at risk. While you concentrate on steering around potholes, you'll miss windfall opportunities, not to mention any signals that the road you're on is leading off a cliff.

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Here's How Brands Can Exploit The Way The Human Brain Is Wired

 

Ninety-five percent of our decision making is unconscious. At SXSW, I took a fascinating journey into the brain. 

A panel featuring A.K. Pradeep, Brian Clark, Derek Halpern and Roger Dooley took the room through the unconscious responses that people make on the internet. 

They discussed psychological studies that identified how we react to text, imagery, and the reasons we use social media.  I’ll share three important learnings.

The first insight (but really no insight at all) was that the visual of an attractive woman “makes a man impatient and short-term oriented,” says Dooley.  On a video-game website enrollment form three designs were tested among men.  The first version was plain and had no women.  The second design featured a headshot of a woman and the third showed cleavage.  The version with the female had 65% more enrollment than the first and the boobs attributed to a 95% increase in enrollment from version one.   

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6 Negotiation Mistakes That Can Cost You http://www.openforum.com/articles/6-negotiation-mistakes-that-can-cost-you

How to Make a Business Mentoring Relationship Work http://onforb.es/GBt7MA