Small Business (Time) Management

by Michael Barry

There is a theory glazed over in every freshman economics course on the way to supply side economics and demand side – I’ve already lost you. Economics might not be your cup of tea, but the theory is worth a listen. It goes a little something like this: Should Tiger Woods mow his own lawn? That’s it. The answer is an easy one. No. He has people for that. He should be golfing. The term for that is called opportunity cost. Why is there even a theory about that? Time management is why.

Investopedia defines opportunity cost as:

The cost of an alternative that must be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Put another way, the benefits you could have received by taking an alternative action.

In terms of your small business, opportunity cost refers directly to the actions you perform every day that take away from what you do best – managing your business. Here are a couple quick tips to manage your time so you can get back to work.

How Do You Spend Your Time

Time is money. Wasting time is wasting money. Plain and simple. The killers of time are well known too. Whether it’s fantasy football, Facebook, or searching for that new diet, all the time you click off the clock is time you’ll wish you had later. Future you will work hard, but she’d rather it wasn’t because past you had no discipline.

Track Everything

Make a budget of the time you spend each day, each week. Keep a list, a spreadsheet, write it in the margins of last months expense report. I don’t care where you write it, but get it down on paper. The same way money disappears at Target when you go in to buy “just one thing”, time disappears when you take “just one minute” to check Twitter. By writing down what time you spend doing what tasks each day you’ll be able to see where time is going. Making the change in how you spend that time is the difficult task.

You Have a Staff – Let Them Earn Their Pay

Maybe you read that last paragraph and said “I don’t waste time on social media” but time still escapes you. I have one question for you. How much time do you spend answering phones and replying to email? These mundane tasks are productivity arsenic. Your receptionist is there for a reason. She knows the phones and your day-to-day business like the back of both hands. You are the boss man, the oracle. Be there for the big things and swing in for handshakes and phone calls when needed. You don’t see restaurant managers waiting tables. They check in and move on, confident their staff is top notch. You have more important tasks to be doing. When you consistently spend time doing mundane tasks it become second nature to start there. The same goes for the converse. Your opportunity costs are clear. Be an innovator. The big picture awaits you.

http://www.bizoffice.com/small-business-time-management/#more-1322

3 Critical Questions to Ask Yourself Before Posting to Facebook

By Brian Patrick Eha 

  

The Holy Grail of social media outreach on Facebook is "engagement" -- going beyond broadcasting to interact with your fans. While some businesses might use Facebook to drive traffic to their own websites, the more that people are "Liking" and commenting on your posts and sharing your content with their own networks, the more brand loyalty you can build.

Facebook uses its "Edgerank" algorithm to measure fan engagement and to determine which of your updates appear in the News Feeds of your fans. Your Edgerank score goes up when fans "Like" and comment more on your updates which, in turn, means your posts will be seen by more people.

While there's no tried-and-true formula for everyone to maximize engagement all the time, outreach on Facebook doesn't have to be like blindly throwing darts at a board. Here are three questions to ask yourself to make sure your Facebook posts are prompting maximum engagement:

1. Will this add value to the people I'm trying to connect with?
Social media is a "soft-sell medium," says Mark Evans, a social media consultant. That means you should be trying provide your fans with some kind of value instead of hitting them over the head with a sales pitch.

Nevertheless, one of the goals of social media outreach, as with other types of marketing, is to spark conversion. The way to achieve this on Facebook is to come up with "educational and entertaining wall posts and promotions," says Todd Newman, founder of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based online social media agency SummaSocial. For example, one of Newman's clients raffled off an iPad 2 to fans of his Facebook page -- and gained nearly 1,200 fans as a result.

2. Will this update seem fresh to my fans?
If all your updates sound the same, your outreach can grow stale and your audience might stop engaging. "You can post links to interesting articles, photographs and videos," Evans suggests. "You can create contests and polls."

To help keep your updates fresh, and fans coming back to your page, Newman recommends this weekly posting schedule, or something similar: 

Mentor Monday: Share videos and posts that educate your audience.
Trivia Tuesday: Encourage fans to engage and share their opinions.
Watch Us Wednesday: Publicize in-office events and community involvement.
Thankful Thursday: Offer an incentive and play up your strengths.
Fan Friday: Feature and reward your star fans.

The goal, Evans says, is to create "a content potpourri that keeps people coming back, because they don't know what to expect."

3. Is this post in line with my metrics?
To understand what types of updates resonate with your audience, use the administrator panel on your Facebook page to monitor your metrics. Page Insights can be especially crucial, providing a weekly breakdown -- by age, gender and geographic location -- of who likes your content and who's talking about it.

For instance, if you've been posting U.S.-related content but discover that nearly half of your fans live in India, you might consider rethinking your approach. You could post special updates and promotions on major Indian holidays such as Diwali in addition to Labor Day and other U.S. holidays.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224062

Imaginary Friends

How to "Reface" Your Facebook Photostrip

by Eydie Stumpf

As you might have already seen, Facebook has made some changes - again - to how it looks and works. Fan Pages have lost their tabs, a photo lightbox has been incorporated for better photo viewing, and you can now just hit enter on your keyboard to submit a comment.

With all these changes I've seen an increase of email in my inbox with questions. One question was about 'refacing' the personal profile photo strip. Refacing is not a feature which Facebook implemented - but by a very inventive user by the name of Alexandre Oudin.

The latest Facebook trend is to "reface" either your personal page or fan page photo strip. I have to admit that refacing is one of the tasks on my to-do list, and so I did some research in order to learn more about the technique.

Before I begin, I'm betting that many readers are wondering why refacing your photo strip would be something they might want to invest their marketing dollars in. It's not a must have item, however; a refaced profile would certainly stand out and re-enforce your brand.

(Please note that Facebook, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to make the photo strip on Pages random and not fixed, as they are on personal profiles. I wanted you to understand that little issue BEFORE tackling this project).

Based on the fact that the images are random on Pages, some businesses are creating photo ads containing calls to action. Instead of having just a picture of a product, event, etc, they are creating small promotional ads. These ads, appearing in the photo strip could be special promotions, discounts, tips, or promos for upcoming events.

How to create the refacing effect is a bit detailed, and you'll need a photo manipulation program such as Adobe Photoshop or Elements.

Here's a quick overview of the steps:

* Begin with a base image which is at least 692 pixels wide and 540 pixels high. To create the left side profile image, crop your base image from the left to measure 180px wide to 540px high.

* For the rest of the photos you'll have to remember to begin cropping 20px below the top of the image. From the right side edge of the base image take a crop that's 492px wide and 68px high.

* Keeping in mind that there is a 2px gap between each profile picture, crop five images each sized at 96.8px wide and 68px high.

Now you are ready to upload your pictures. First upload your left side profile picture. Do not tag this one. Next, upload the remaining five pictures - uploading the far right one first then moving on until the last picture you upload is the one on the far left. Important: tag each picture as you upload them. The picture on the far left should be tagged last.

It may take a few tries to get the pictures cropped correctly and uploaded properly, but be patient, it will be worth it in the end!