It's likely your employees have been feeling a bit more pressure than usual in recent months, new research finds.
The holidays have brought an added level of stress to the majority of workers, according to a study from Virgin Pulse, a provider of employee health and engagement solutions. Specifically, 70 percent of employees are significantly more stressed during the holiday season, with 10 percent estimating that their stress level has increased from 60 to 100 percent more than usual.
"It’s become increasingly vital that employers help their teams better manage their stress and priorities – especially during the holidays," Chris Boyce, CEO of Virgin Pulse, said in a statement.
The added stress is definitely hurting employee performance, the research shows. More than 60 percent of the workers surveyed said holiday stress is distracting them from getting work done, while 30 percent said the extra anxiety is diminishing their quality of work.
The added stress has been affecting employees for a while now. The study discovered that 20 percent of workers started worrying about the winter holidays in October, with one-third saying their stress spikes in mid- to late-November.
Those being hit hardest by increased stress are the youngest members of the workforce. Employees between ages 18 and 29 expect to be 45 percent more stressed this year than last, compared with just 30 percent of workers between ages 45 and 60.
There are several factors contributing to employees' increased anxiety around the holidays. The study revealed that 43 percent blame their added stress on having a tougher time balancing their holiday and work responsibilities, with 65 percent believing that shopping for gifts and other holiday necessities is to blame for their stress. In addition, 60 percent think the need to maintain their finances is the cause behind their stress.
Regardless of the cause, employers need to do their part to help support employees during the holidays, according to Virgin Pulse. To help keep stress levels in check, Virgin Pulse recommends:
Encouraging employees to focus on one priority to make daily progress.
Educating workers on the benefits of healthy habits.
Creating companywide healthy-habits competitions to get everyone involved.
Reminding workers to unplug, relax and recharge.
The study was based on surveys of 1,000 workers in the United States and Canada.
It's never a bad time to rethink your social marketing strategy, especially when you get advice directly from your go-to social networks.
Last year, Twitter rolled out keyword targeting in timelines, a key feature for the company's advertising platform. This week, Twitter shared some helpful tips for making the most of this tool in your campaigns. If you're not already taking advantage of keyword targeting in timelines, then it's time to add this feature to your advertising tool kit.
Ready to take your Twitter campaigns to the next level? Try incorporating these five tips straight from the company's advertising blog.
1. Change the way you search. The way keywords work on Twitter is very different from the way they work on a search engine. When people enter a query into a search engine, they know they're talking to a machine, but when they post on Twitter, they know they're talking to real people, Twitter wrote. That difference is exactly why it's important to rethink the types of keywords you use in your campaigns.
For example, "Suppose your company sells baby clothes," Twitter wrote. "Your phrase-matched 'boy infant clothes' keyword from your search campaigns is unlikely to reach many users on Twitter, because people don't Tweet that way."
Instead, Twitter suggested searching a keyword like "it's a boy." While almost no tweets contain the phrase "boy infant clothes," nearly 8,000 tweets per week contain the phrase "it's a boy" according to Twitter. That kind of difference can make or break your campaigns.
2. Time it right. Twitter wrote that every tweet sends a signal about what a person is thinking, feeling and experiencing in the moment. That means that when users are talking about keywords that are relevant to your brand, it's time to strike. Especially if those keywords are about a trending topic.
"Plan your campaigns around the moments in people's lives that might lead them to realize they have a need for your products, or to make an emotional connection with your brand," Twitter wrote.
When those moments do occur, Twitter suggested thinking about which keywords people might tweet and what kinds of tweets they'd be likely to engage with.
3. Take advantage of analytics.Twitter gives you the ability to see just how well certain keywords are performing through its keyword-level analytics tools, which can help you determine which keywords work best for your campaigns.
"Try creating a campaign with a set of tightly themed keywords and starting a weekly optimization rhythm," Twitter wrote. "After the first week, once you have enough data, view the engagement rate of each keyword."
From there, you can remove keywords with low engagement rates, and try adding in new ones.
4. Find balance. Don't get too narrow in your keyword choices. When it comes to your Twitter campaigns, broader keywords are often better. It's important to find balance between precision and overall reach.
"It’s tempting to use phrase match with every keyword to maximize precision, but consider that phrase match may sometimes be too narrow to ensure sufficient reach," Twitter wrote. "For each keyword you use, there could be variants or similar words that reveal the same openness to your message."
For example, the keyword "snowboarder" would only reach users who tweeted that exact term, but the keyword "snowboard" would reach users that tweeted that term as well as other variants of the word like "snowboarder" or "snowboarding."
5. Reach users who have recently engaged with your tweets.People who have recently favorited, retweeted or clicked on your tweets are more likely to continue to interact with your brand and even make a purchase. You can use keyword targeting in the timeline to reconnect with these users.
For example, "Suppose the fictional coffee company @BaristaBar wants to send a message to users who show an affinity for Hawaii and Kona coffee," Twitter wrote. The account already runs a campaign of promoted tweets that contain the unique hashtag "#AlwaysKonaQuality."
"Once this first campaign has begun, @BaristaBar then creates a second campaign, and targets only the keyword #AlwaysKonaQuality. With this second campaign, the account reaches only those people who engaged with their first campaign," Twitter explained.
For more information about keyword targeting in timelines, head to Twitter's Help Center.
Some skills more than others helped employees land new jobs this year.
To determine which abilities were most in demand in 2014, LinkedIn analyzed the skills and experience data in more than 330 million LinkedIn member profiles. Overall, employees experienced in cloud and distributed computing, statistical analysis and data mining were the ones garnering the most interest from U.S. businesses this year.
"If your skills fit one of the categories below, there's a good chance you either started a new job or garnered the interest of a recruiter in the past year," Sohan Murthy, a LinkedIn research consultant, wrote on the company's blog.
The 25 hottest skills of 2014 in the U.S. on LinkedIn were:
Cloud and distributed computing
Statistical analysis and data mining
Middleware and integration software
Network and information security
Mobile development
Foreign language translation
Storage systems and management
Mac, Linux and Unix systems
Java development
Perl/Python/Ruby
Algorithm design
Digital and online marketing
Computer graphics and animation
Data engineering and date warehousing
Software QA and user testing
User interface design
Web architecture and development framework
Economics
Marketing campaign management
Shell scripting languages
Business intelligence
Virtualization
Electronic and electrical engineering
Game development
SAP ERP systems
In coming up with the list, LinkedIn first grouped the skills its members listed on their profiles in several dozen categories. For example, "Android" and "iOS" skills were grouped together in the "mobile development" category. LinkedIn then analyzed all of the hiring and recruiting activity that happened on LinkedIn in the past year and identified the skill categories that belonged to members who were more likely to start new jobs and receive interest from recruiters.
In addition to examining data among its U.S. members, LinkedIn also studied the most in-demand skills of employees in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, the Netherlands, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Among the worldwide tends uncovered were:
More STEM: Skills in science, technology, engineering and math made up the majority of the top 10 lists in the 10 countries analyzed. While most are considered "tech" skills, more traditional STEM skills like mechanical, electrical and materials engineering made the list in many countries.
Data demand: Around the world, statistics and data analysis skills were highly valued. Specifically, companies in the U.S., India, and France had a particularly high demand for cloud and distributed computing skills.
Foreign language: Knowing a second language is paying off for many workers, especially those in the U.S. Language translation skills were among the hottest skills in many countries, but nowhere did they rank higher than in the U.S.
Technical marketing: This year saw the rise of the technical marketer. With digital, online and search engine optimization marketing skills making the lists in many countries, there is increasing evidence that a 2012 prediction by Gartner that by 2017 chief marketing officers would be spending more on technology than chief information officers is coming true.
Failure is an ever-present risk in any new business venture. The indomitable entrepreneurial spirit of many startup founders drives them to keep going when they crash and burn, but if they don't heed the lessons they've learned from those experiences, they're doomed to keep failing.
Management consultant Kara Penn argues that there's a "right" way to fail, and that entrepreneurs can find greater, faster success if they simply embrace failure as a teacher rather than an obstacle to overcome. In their new book, "Fail Better: Design Smart Mistakes and Succeed Sooner" (HBR Press, 2014), Penn and her co-author, Anjali Sastry, actually encourage entrepreneurs to craft failures that can help them drive progress, professional development and innovation.
"In a dynamically complex world where many factors are outside the control of a manager or business, each of us must accept that failure is inevitable," Penn told Business News Daily. "Instead of waiting for a fall-from-the-sky, highly public failure that threatens individual and firm-wide reputations, why not craft a better, less-threatening, much more useful kind of failure?"
Based on interviews with executive leaders and insights drawn from research in fields like psychology and organizational theory, Penn and Sastry defined a "better failure" as one that is small scale, reversible, informative, linked to broader goals and designed to illuminate key issues. These failures are "affordable" in terms of risk, resources and reputation, and allow the team to put the lessons learned in service of the company's larger goals.
"Failure ultimately is only useful if it teaches us something, ideally ... while there is still time to take action," Penn said. "Failures that illuminate key issues allow teams to better identify a fatal flaw or misstep in a plan early on so a new solution can be formulated before it is too late."
Penn and Sastry outline a three-step method to help entrepreneurs and business leaders harness the benefits of failure, and put their companies on the path to success through their mistakes.
Launch your project. Most projects can be designed with a better launch in mind. The goal of the launch phase is to help teams weed out failure modes early on. During launch, Penn said teams need to hone in on the right problem to solve, link the actions they propose to take to the outcomes they desire, account for available resources and shore up any gaps.
Build and refine. Focus on information-rich activities early on in the project so you can test critical assumptions and get important data in ways that allow you to shift directions as needed before it's too late, Penn said. By doing this, you can improve upon a particular approach or idea throughout the course of the project instead of committing to a monolithic, one-off execution attempt. It also enables a learning environment that allows creative ideas to be explored with a safety net in place. That safety net comes from intention, planning, collecting and using data, and managing time frames.
Identify and apply what you've learned. Your efforts from steps one and two can do more than just generate a better outcome for your business. Those steps also teach you how to do things better the next time around. So how do you apply the learning so that it brings value for you, your team and your organization?
"Your project provides a great deal of experience that can spur personal reflection," Penn said. "Value emerges for your team when you [identify] new habits [to] preserve and ineffective ones that should be dropped. In startup and small-business settings, this is especially important because resources are often so limited. Having the discipline and making just a little bit extra time to pull out some of the critical insights can really help drive greater success in the long run in these types of environments."
Most importantly, Penn reminded leaders not to react poorly to their own "good" failures, or those of their teams, and to always remain confident in their organization's ability to bounce back.
"Failure becomes particularly costly when great employees and managers lose confidence ... and when organizational leaders respond to failures in a particularly punitive manner creating a culture that cannot accept risk and mistakes — and therefore, innovation," Penn said. "Failure is a master teacher if an appropriate balance of tolerance, insight and changed behavior can be achieved."
Launch an online store with these e-commerce website builders, tools and services. Credit: E-commerce image via Shutterstock
Launching an online store doesn't have to be rocket science. With the right tools, anyone can sell online — and be successful at it, too. From do-it-yourself (DIY) e-commerce website builders to online marketplaces and merchant services, there is a plethora of e-commerce resources available. These tools make starting an online business easier and more affordable than ever. If you've always wanted to sell online, now is the time. Here are 15 e-commerce solutions to help you get started.
1. Symphony Commerce
Don't want to hire an IT team to manage your online store? Symphony Commerce is a commerce-as-a-service provider that handles all the back office, infrastructure and IT aspects of running an e-commerce business, so you can focus on selling products and growing your brand. It takes care of everything from servers to warehouses, and provides a one-stop-shop for inventory and storefront management, marketing, order fulfillment and shipping. The service also includes responsive Web design, so your online store looks as great on smartphones and tablets as it does on desktop. Additionally, its cloud-based servers mean you always have storage, bandwidth and 99.9 percent uptime, as well as the speed and scalability you need as your sales skyrocket and your business expands.
2. CommerceHub
It's never easy finding suppliers. Not only are suppliers wary of working with new online stores, but the lack of brand recognition also makes it hard for e-commerce startups to compete with large retailers that already have longstanding relationships with them. CommerceHub, a merchandising and fulfillment platform, connects online retailers with suppliers and large retailers that channel their products to smaller online stores. The service essentially makes you the middleman between the supplier and the customer, meaning you won't need to find wholesale suppliers and invest in a warehouse to manage your own inventory. CommerceHub can also manage purchase orders, shipping and returns, saving online store owners time, money and headaches that come with order fulfilment.
3. Ocoos
E-commerce isn't just for retailers. Non-merchants can sell their services online, too. Ocoos offers an expanded e-commerce platform specifically for small service-based businesses. In addition to its DIY website builder — which lets businesses create a professional website with no tech skills required — Ocoos also provides streamlined back-office administrative tools to easily manage customers and sales. This includes customer relationship management (CRM) integration, social media tools and appointment scheduling, as well as sales tracking, report generation and the ability to export QuickBooks and Excel data. Ocoos offers two types of plans: a completely DIY Premium plan for $25 a month and an Ocoos-managed Concierge plan for $35 a month plus a one-time setup fee.
4. PayStand
Find new payment flexibility with PayStand. This all-in-one payments service gives businesses access to a new model for payment transactions — Payments as a Service — saving businesses as much as 75% over traditional methods. Also, PayStand bridges the gap for accepting Bitcoin for mainstream businesses. With features like multiple payment options, fixed monthly costs, web design and automatically generated social network links, this easy-to-setup system can get business prepared for online payments in minutes. The service ranges in price from $24 to $299 a month.
5. Vee24
Deliver a new level of customer service with Vee24. This online customer engagement platform uses video technology to allow online retailers to engage with their customers as well as answer any questions and concerns seamlessly. Vee24 offers three products — VeeStudio, VeeChat and VeeKiosk — which are geared to make customer service simple and successful and to impact key business metrics such as online conversion and customer loyalty.
6. Lettuce
Manage your inventory and get orders filled quickly with the functional and usable Lettuce. This inventory management software, designed specifically for small businesses, consolidates multiple back-end functions from order-processing to accounting into a single click. This cloud-based software allows mobility as well as lowering the chances of human errors in the ordering process. Packages start at $39 for one user. A free 14-day trial is available as well.
7. Shopify
Start selling online with Shopify's DIY online store builder. Merchants can easily create an online store with no website development skills necessary. Simply choose from more than 100 website designs and add your products. Websites are fully customizable and include a secure shopping cart that can accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express. Merchants can also sell their products anywhere with Shopify Mobile (Shopify's own mobile credit card reader) and Shopify POS (Shopify's iPad point-of-sale system). Shopify starts at $14 a month with zero transaction fees. A 14-day free trial is also available.
8. 3dcart
Build an online storefront fast with 3dcart's shopping cart software and online store builder. Just choose and customize your template, upload your logo and product images, and add descriptions and pricing — no HTML or programming expertise required. The 3dcart program accepts all major credit cards, as well as PayPal, Google Checkout and Checkout by Amazon. Merchants can also sell via social and mobile commerce with 3dcart's built-in Facebook Store and mCommerce app. The 3dcart service starts at $9.99 a month. A 15-day trial is also available, and new members will also receive $50 in Facebook ads credits.
9. Volusion
The Volusion all-in-one e-commerce solution provides all the tools companies need to start selling and growing their business online, such as an e-commerce website builder, shopping cart and Web hosting service. Features include professionally designed e-commerce templates; easy inventory management, order processing and returns; built-in search engine optimization (SEO); social media tools; 24/7 support; and more. Volusion plans start at $15 a month with no transaction fees. Try Volusion with a 14-day free trial.
10. Square Market
Need an e-commerce website ASAP? With Square Market — from the creators of the Square iOS and Android credit card reader and POS system — business can set up an online storefront in minutes: sign up, list products, set up shipping — and you're ready to launch. Sell everything from tech to fashion, health, beauty, art, design, books, baby products, home items and even food. Features include personalized store logo and images, flexible promotional codes, adjustable tax rates, size and color options, social media links, online marketing tools, mobile-ready storefronts and more. Square Market accepts all major credit cards, and payments are deposited in 1-2 business days. Unlike other e-commerce store builders, Square Market charges no monthly fees — merchants only pay when they make a sale at a rate of 2.75 percent per sale.
11. Etsy
If you sell unique products, check out niche e-commerce marketplaces like Etsy, which you can use to sell all types of handmade, vintage and other goods all over the world. Product categories include art, jewelry, men and women's clothing and accessories, home and living, mobile accessories, weddings, and more. Sign up for free, and start selling your creations from your own Etsy shop. Fees include a 3.5-percent transaction fee for each sale and a listing fee of 20 cents per item.
12. Doba
Want to run an online store, but lack the resources to purchase your own inventory? Or maybe you don't have the time or patience to pack and ship orders all day. Doba's drop-shipping marketplace connects online retailers with wholesale suppliers that process and ship orders under your business name. Choose from more than 2 million products and list them on your website, or automatically push them to eBay and other marketplaces. You only pay for products when you make the sale, and Doba's suppliers take care of the rest. Doba pricing starts at $59.95 a month, and discounted annual membership plans are also available.
13. MobiCart
Go mobile with your online business. MobiCart turns your e-commerce store into a mobile commerce (m-commerce) app to attract customers that shop using their mobile devices. MobiCart is fully customizable to fit your brand, and works on its own or links to your existing website. It integrates with more than 45 shopping carts, such as 3Dcart, Volusion and Shopify. This service comes with a native mobile app builder for iPhone, iPad and Android, as well as HTML5 Web apps accessible via mobile browsers. MobiCart is free to use for up to 10 products. The basic plan starts at $15 a month, or get two months free with a yearly plan.
14. Dwolla
Small businesses can take a hit from credit card processing fees. Dwolla offers a fast, secure way to move money for online transactions — and aims to do so at the lowest cost possible. Dwolla charges only 25 cents for transactions over $10, while transactions under $10 are free. Money transfers between Dwolla's payment network and your bank or credit union are also free. You can access Dwolla via the Web, iPhone and Android mobile apps, the Dwolla Merchant Kiosk, and any Dwolla-enabled point-of-sale system.
15. Forter
Selling online isn't without its risks. Forter provides e-commerce merchants with a simple plug-and-play solution that combats online fraud and delivers 100-percent chargeback protection. This tool eliminates the time wasted manually reviewing orders and the headaches of implementing and managing multiple security features. Instead, Forter automates the process by using profile data, behavioral data and cyber intelligence to instantly detect fraudsters and decline or approve customers in real time. And in the event that a bad transaction falls through the cracks, Forter promises to cover all resulting fraudulent charges. Contact Forter for pricing information.
16. Zendesk
Top-notch customer service keeps shoppers coming back. Zendesk is a support ticket platform designed to help you deliver excellent customer support. It offers a streamlined customer service system that gathers emails, tweets, Facebook posts, and phone and live chat inquiries into a single platform, so you can answer questions quickly and efficiently. Other features include reporting and analytics data, full customization to fit your brand and customer feedback to gauge a customer service team's performance. Zendesk pricing starts at $1 a month per customer service agent.
