Managing social media for your business can be a tricky endeavor. Which pictures should you share on Facebook? What industry news should you tweet about on Twitter? What topic should you blog about on Tumblr?
And on top of knowing what to publish on which social network, another big question business owners struggle with is the best time to post. Publishing your content at peak times can help you reach the most people on those networks.
Turns out the best time depends which social network you're posting to, according to popular URL shortening service bitly. It tracks metrics on bitly links that are shared across networks. In particular, bitly has examined how the day and time something is posted affects how "viral" it might eventually become.
But each social network has its own "culture," bitly says, and users exhibit distinct behavior patterns. Here's a rundown of bitly's findings on the best times to post to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr:
The new crowdfunding law passed as part of the JOBS Act, which allows companies to sell pieces of their business for cash, won't be finalized until early next year. But many entrepreneurs are already champing at the bit to deliver on the services they think this new marketplace will want.
Here's a look at several industries and jobs being developed as part of the trickle-down effect of crowdfunding, according to David Marlett, Executive Director of the National Crowdfunding Association, an industry trade group that has been involved in discussions shaping this new genre of startup financing.
Proponents of free speech say no employer should have the right to ask job applicants or employees for their private social utility passwords, any more than they have the right to ask to inspect personal diaries or someone's bathroom medicine cabinet.
Such demands by employers could set a precedent for personal and online privacy, a situation where all the power is in one corner, making it difficult for people to get a job. And on the flip side, such action can open employers to claims of discrimination.
Last week, in an effort to make it illegal for an employer to compel or coerce access to any private information stored anywhere on the Internet, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Charles E. Schumer (D., N.Y.) filed the Password Protection Act of 2012 in the U.S. Senate (SB 3074). Reps. Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.) and Ed Perlmutter (D., Colo.) introduced an identical bill, HB 5684, in the House of Representatives.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has the delicate task of writing guidelines for the next generation of crowdfunding, so that investors are protected and yet preserving its benefits to companies seeking to raise money.
Crowdfunding has been mostly restricted to artists and business owners accepting small donations in exchange for things like tote bags and CDs. But the JOBS Act, signed last month, will let entrepreneurs sell pieces of their business (equity) to non-accredited investors via crowdfunding. The SEC is expected to release its guidelines early next year.
In the crowded business of smartphone and tablet apps, the money might not be in building apps from scratch, but in flipping them.
One way to get started is with Apptopia, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup that enables developers, businesses and investors to buy and sell apps in online auctions. The site, which launched in April, provides everything from valuation to escrow services and intellectual property transfer.
“Essentially what we’re trying to do is broker mobile app acquisitions in an eBay style,” says founder and COO Jonathan Kay.
There are other online app markets, including SellMyApplication.com, but Apptopia is among the most developed conceptually and is particularly helpful in shepherding users through the sales process.
The idea is to create a Web win-win. Developers can turn their code into cash and entrepreneurs can find ready-made online businesses that they can then turn around and sell again.
There are a number of issues Apptopia aims to address. First, Kay and his co-founder, Apptopia CEO Eliran Sapir, noticed entrepreneurs spending money to build apps that already exist. Meanwhile, developers are constantly looking to unload their apps -- even apps with lots of downloads. Not every developer is a born entrepreneur and many aren’t interested in the administrative end, including the time it takes to support a successful app.
“If they could get four or five thousand dollars that’s awesome because it helps fuel the project they’re excited about now,” Kay says.
To start bidding, users simply sign up with their email address. The rest will be familiar to anyone who has bought items on eBay. Users fill out a profile, browse listings of apps and then place bids on the ones they want to buy, starting with a minimum bid set by the seller. In some cases, apps can be bought outright for a set price.
The average Apptopia purchase hovers around $7,500, but many apps are available for much less. Potential buyers don’t even need a login to navigate the site, which is searchable by category, downloads, bid price and monthly revenues. Shoppers can then view statistics about their potential purchases, which are updated daily.
Related: Camera+: An Apps to Riches Story
The data is easy to read, but interpreting the numbers is the real trick. Good apps might appear to perform poorly because they are relatively new or because they’ve been marketed poorly. Others might be legitimate fixer-uppers. Ultimately, buyers have to rely on their best business sense before taking out a flyer on an app.
What to do with an app once it's purchased is up to the new owner. Jean-Marie Truelle, a New York-based investor, uses Apptopia to buy apps for his own bootstrapped mobile publishing company, JMT Apps. The real magic to Apptopia, he says, is how it simplifies the crowded app marketplace.
"Apptopia gives the opportunity to find valuable apps with comprehensive information at a fair price,” says Truelle.
Making money on apps can be a tricky business, but Apptopia makes it at least theoretically possible for the smallest investors to get started. Savvy entrepreneurs can buy a niche app, figure out what needs to be improved and find a talented mobile developer to execute those changes, Kay says.
“You’re buying an asset with some revenue stream. … It’s unlikely that you will lose your entire investment,” he says.
Related: There's an App Maker for That
How business friendly is the place you've set up shop? A new report rates the business climate of states and counties across the U.S., based on a survey of business owners.
The report, from 2012 Thumbtack.com Small Business Survey, presented in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, offers a roadmap -- quite literally -- of the friendliest places to conduct business in the U.S., on a website that enables visitors to check the business climate “score” of any county in any state.
For instance, Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah all earned A+ scores in rankings for states most friendly to small businesses. On the bottom end of the report card are California, Hawaii, Vermont and Rhode Island. Each received failing grades.
The U.S. indoor tanning industry, already chapped over a 10 percent tax imposed by the federal health-reform law, now faces renewed calls for tighter regulation amid publicity surrounding New Jersey's so-called tanning mom.
The case of tanning customer Patricia Krentcil of Nutley, N.J., a leather-toned woman charged with taking her 5-year-old daughter inside a tanning bed, might even lift the efforts of a Canadian lawmaker to seek a ban on indoor tanning for children and youths.
Krentcil, now the subject of late-night comedy sketches (that's Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig in photo above), a parody action figure and a reported ban from local salons, has denied the accusation and pleaded not guilty to child endangerment.
Do you hate to negotiate? Feel too shy or intimidated to ask for more, or to pay less? If so, you might want to tune in to History Channel's hit show American Pickers. This show is like a college course in how to negotiate a great deal.
On the show, Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe of two-location antique shop Antique Archaeology wander U.S. back roads, finding old-timers with barns stuffed full of decades-old trash...and some treasures.
They're a couple of laid-back guys who seem to just be out on a lark, having a great time yard-sale shopping. Until it comes time to cut a deal, that is. Then they bid low, and they usually don't buy unless they can get something for about half what it's worth at retail.
How do they pull it off? Here are some negotiation tips drawn from their show:
As a prolonged recession hangover weighs on both small businesses and their customers, tracking down the cash they are owed has become a challenge for an increasing number of business owners. At issue is customers not making payments on time – or at all, according to a survey released today by the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo., research organization focused on entrepreneurship.
In 2008, only 2% of small business owners said getting paid was their most challenging problem. That figure jumped to 12.8% in 2009 and continued to edge up slightly to 14.1% in 2010, the most recent year the data is available.
Casey Reinhardt seemed to have the right ingredients for business success even before appearing on the Food Network show Cupcake Wars in February of last year. Winning that competition, though, certainly sweetened the outlook for her growing southern California business, Casey’s Cupcakes.
“Being on the show brought us instant credibility,” and new customers, says 25-year-old Reinhardt. “Winning Cupcake Wars had a lot to do with the attention we’ve gotten.”
The furor over new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson's inaccurate resume is shining a spotlight on inadequate employee vetting. Thompson, the third Yahoo CEO in the past year, claimed to have a computer science degree, which he doesn't, along with his actual degree in accounting.
If Yahoo, one of the world's largest technology companies, with $1.22 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2012, can be misled, what's to stop your potential hires from lying on their resumes?
If your business doesn't have a dedicated human-resources department, you can still vet potential employees. What's key is to slow down and think through your choice of applicants, according to John Challenger, CEO of outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"Sometimes when you're in a hurry to make the decision, you're not thorough in your process," he says. Here's more advice on resume lie-detecting from Challenger:
A local bank and a high-growth startup don’t seem to have a whole lot in common, but they do have one similar problem: shareholders can’t turn their ownership stake into cash easily. On Wall Street, of course, portions of companies are bought and sold all day long. For companies not listed on these public exchanges however, buying and selling shares has been more complicated. And with credit still hard to come by for many business owners, new ways are emerging to turn at least part of their companies into cash.
In the private sector -- from high-growth startups to community banks -- alternative marketplace SecondMarket is making that possible. The New York-based online marketplace provides a platform for private companies to sell shares of their businesses.
Initially popular for allowing employees of superstar startups like Facebook and Pinterest to trade company shares before going public, SecondMarket has since added a new type of private company to its roster: community banks.
You've heard of Y Combinator and TechStars. While they may be world-class accelerators that have dazzling track-records for helping startups launch, they're not for everyone. Some entrepreneurs need a little more time to hammer out their idea before they're ready for the spotlight -- and they may not want to give up any equity.
Though decidedly less sexy, incubators have come a long way in the last few years. Here, we give you an inside look at Arizona State University's prestigious SkySong incubator:
At 42 acres, SkySong is massive. The final plan for the mixed-use facility consists of more than 1.2 million square feet of office, research and retail space, as well as multi-family residential units and a hotel/conference center. And while the footprint of SkySong will soon expand as additional buildings are constructed, its dominating physical presence is only half the story.
New York-based crowdfunding platform Kickstarter broke its previous record for the most any single project has raised in April with Pebble, a watch that synchs with your smartphone. So far (the funding round is not over yet), the watch has raised more than $9 million from over 61,000 backers. And while alternative funding appears to be on the rise, loan approval rates at banks across the nation have slipped, according to the most recent analysis from Biz2Credit, an online marketplace that matches small and medium sized businesses with lenders.
Banks with more than $10 billion in assets approved 10.6% of loans in April, down from the 10.9% approval rate in March, according to the report released today from New York-based Biz2Credit. That also marks a continuing decline from January and February of this year, when big banks approved 11.7% of small business loans.
Whenever I’m asked to speak to a group -- whether it’s a large gathering like a college commencement, or a smaller one like those found at a local chamber of commerce’s monthly breakfast -- I think of Steve Jobs, the master presenter. The co-founder of Apple didn’t just focus on statistics or technology in his communications; he sold the benefits of his company’s products.
Take a quick look at Jobs’ keynote address introducing the iPhone during the 2007 Macworld Conference & Expo. Visuals were used to illustrate a point, not to fill space or entertain. And no matter how brief or long the Jobs-led dog-and-pony show, you left the venue with a full understanding of what was presented.
We can all take some communications cues from Steve Jobs. Here are five that I recently came across from Jim Confalone, co-founder and creative director of ProPoint Graphics, a New York-based professional presentation design firm.
Connect with Entrepreneur
Most Popular on Entrepreneur.com
From the Entrepreneur Bookstore
