Social Media Marketing Cheat Sheet

Still struggling with various social media marketing networks? Designed for small businesses, the “cheat sheet” provides some basic tips, lingo and relative audience size for various social networking sites.

Social media marketing cheat sheet, Social Media Cheat Sheet

5 Bad Management Tactics - Avoid to Become Bad Boss

Managing people is not an easy job. But is it so difficult that you resort to certain dirty tricks which are unprofessional and can label you as a Bad Boss?

There are certain bad management moves which are often used in business world. I have identified 5 bad management tactics and also the better ways to handle these challenges. Try to adopt the best management practices which will led better results without hurting anyone.

1. 'Be a Professional'
Scenario: You want low and mid level employees to work for 60 hours a week but can pay only for 40 hours.

Bad Manager - Tries to resort on the statement "Be Professional" and tries to convince the employees to extend their working hours irrespective of the fact that the work is regular and does not requires extra hours to put in.

Good Manager - Know the worth of emplyee and pay accordingly. If its not possible for you to decide then...work on your business model because its not viable.



2. 'I am Helpless'
Scenario: Emplyee expects a big raise which is not really deserved.

Bad Manager - Tries to avoid conflict by citing various unverifiable conditions or forces (like salary guidelines, HR Policies or Investor policy) which prevent him from doing this or else he would "really love to do, if it were possible".

Such vague statements never resolve the issue but increases resentment.

Good Manager - Discusses with the employee the real reasons because which big raise will not be coming. Tries to find out the areas of improvement in performance of employee and works on it with the employee to get better results next time.


3. High Employee Turnover 
Scenario: You want to reduce the expensive employee turnover.

Bad Manager - Believes fear is the best tool to handle this. He will email articles about bad economy, high unemployment rate etc. He may discuss the possibility of a layoff at staff meetings.

Good Manager - Improve your hiring process to find better fits for the jobs you need done. The better the fit, the lower the turnover.


4. Showing the Carrot
Scenario: You have a valuable employee which you want to retain, but can't pay what he's actually worth.

Bad Manager - Makes a series of vague, flowery promises devoid of actual commitments, details, and timelines. By Sshowing illusory carrots, the bad manager hopes that the valuable employee will stay put and keep quiet.

Good Manager - Create a great work environment where your star emplyees truly enjoy working, even though they might get paid elsewhere.


5. Sacrificial Goat
Scenario: You want to raise a controversial idea to top management but dont want to risk your image damage publicly if the idea back fires.

Bad Manager - Asks an employee to present at the big meeting, calling it a chance for them to 'gain some visibility.'And adds his idea into the presentation, if it hits the ceiling he gets the credit and if it fails employee is sacrificial goat to blame.

Good Manager - Discuss the idea with top management in one-on-one meeting before bringing the idea in public forum.
 

What Type of Facebook User You Are?

Most of us have presence on Facebook. We post, we share, we like, we comment and do much more on Facebook. So what type of Facebook user you are? Identify and have fun.

The Rooster - They feel that it is their job to tell Facebook "Good Morning" everyday. 

The 'Lurker' - Never post or comment on your posts but read everything you post. 

The 'Hyena' - Hardly ever say any thing. Then read your post and just LoL or LMAO. 

Mr/Ms Popular - Has 2000 friends for no reason. They are/want to have highest number of friends and flaunt it as their status symbol. 

The Gamer - spends most of the time in their Utopian world of  Mafia Wars, Farms. Generally these are found baking virtual cakes, growing up their farm, building up city.

The Cynic - World is the worst place for them to live. They are fed up with everything in their life and most of the time they are found venting out their anger/frustration on their wall. 

The Collector - Never posts/participates in any forum conversation but they join every group 
and become fans of the most random stuff. 





The 'Promoter' - Always send event invitation to things that you finally delete or ignore.

The 'Liker' - They know only like button on Facebook and use it to full extent. Most of the time they like your posts even without reading.

Drama Queen/King - They often post stuff like "I can't believe this!" or "How can you do this to me?" in the hope that you will ask what happened or whats wrong... but don't expect them ending the story. Their drama never ends.

The 'News Reporter' - Always update you about what they are doing and with whom. Even on deathbed they would think about updating their FB status first "Going to die soon". 

The Thief - Steals status updates and wall posts and posts it as their own. 
   

Is Google Reading your Personal Mails?

In our moral studies lessons we were taught that its bad to read somebody's diary or letter without his/her permission, but now the scenario has changed. As it is said that everything is fair in love and war so as all the unfair activities are good when you want your business to grow.

Do you think that your G-mailbox is secure and safe? Do you think that no one can read your mails without your permission? If your answer is YES, read through this blog post to get your facts clear.

In response to question "Given the issues raised by Facebook's security holes and aggressive privacy policy changes, how secure is Gmail data within Google? Can all Google employees and interns access Gmail data?" on Quora Christopher Nguyen, who was earlier responsible for Google Apps operations at Google replied

A small number of GMail-related engineers have access to the servers as a matter of necessity to do their jobs; a very small number of people actually access the contents as a matter of necessity to do their jobs, and even then, almost always only the associated metadata. The rest have to file a request and justify any access they ever need, which is extremely rare. All have to sign paperwork re users' privacy at the risk of dismissal & legal action, knowing that whatever they do is discoverable. And ultimately, an internal culture of respecting users' privacy helps keep one another in check.

So the risk is never zero, but minimized by the factors above.

The contextual ads which are served in Gmail are triggered based on the content of the email message that your currently reading. Certainly these are bots who are scanning your message at that moment and serving ads on that basis, but Microsoft in hope to entice users to shift to Hotmail is using this point to target Google on privacy. 

Some email services, like Gmail, actually read the contents of your mail (both sent and received, even if you aren’t a Gmail user but just sending to someone who is) in order to decide what kind of ads to serve up to you. They may call it “scanning” and attempt to equate it with less invasive activities like “checking for spam” but it’s quite different. For you, and the people you send mail to, it’s not spam, it’s personal.

Further, people tend to stay logged into their email service throughout the day. So all Internet searches you do with Google become tied to that same identity. 

Microsoft has also released a video featuring Gmail Man who highlights this particular Gmail behavior. Check out this video:

 Thanks to g-mail users on youtube for equal number of dislikes :)  

Google Algorithm Updates in 2011

Every SEO professional wants to keep track of algorithmic changes made by search engines specially Google. Falling Up Media created an interesting infographic listing all the major algorithm updates in 2011.

So check out this interesting and colorful infographic and stay on top of all the search engine algorithm changes made in 2011.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Facebook to Hit 1 Billion User Mark Soon, But Loosing Ground to Its Competitors

Two interesting news related to facebook are surfacing this year. On one hand facebook is going to hit 1 billion users mark by this summer while on the other hand it is loosing market share  to its competitors.

Currently facebook has more than 800 million active users, 50% of which log on to facebook everyday.

Increasing User Base
iCrossing, a UK based digital firm, made a scientific estimate using linear regression and came to a conclusion that Facebook will reach the 1 Billion user mark by mid-August 2012.

Decreasing Market Share
Although Facebook continues to increase its user base, it is loosing the market share to its competitors. Recently The Telegraph reported that Facebook usage in the UK has fallen by more than 7% in December due to emergence of new competitors like Google+.

Social Media Spends - An Increasing Threat for Paid Search Among SMBs

Borrell Associates conducted an extensive research detailing the social media phenomenon that’s prevailing among Small and medium size businesses. It details about how much SMBs are spending on social media marketing, what type of results they are expecting from this media and the overall effectiveness of this marketing model for SMBs.

Although lot of research has been done regarding adoption of social media among SMBs, this reports delves deep into various other aspects of this marketing model.


Social Media Adoption:

The report suggests that SMBs have already understood the current and future prospects of social media marketing and they already have presence on various social media sites which is between 45% and 75%.

Online Media Spends: 

Borrell's report estimates that with such adoptive nature of SMBs, soon Social Media Marketing is going to surpass Paid Search spends in 2012. 

In response to the question On which types of online advertising do you expect to spend money in (the coming year)? Social Media Marketing secured third spot.

So understanding the benefits of social media for businesses, it is advisable for SMBs to get ready for running a successful social media campaign for your business.