Key findings

Positive Indicators

• 45% hope to reap rewards (profit) from social media spending in next 12 months
• 57% have built online network using LinkedIn or similar websites.
• 61% uses social media to identify and attract new customers.
• 75% small businesses surveyed had a company profile page on any social networking sites.

Things that make them scowl

• 6% of survey participants said that use of social media has hurt them
• 17% of them said using social media left the companies vulnerable to consumers’ criticism.
• 50% thinks it takes more time than expected.

These findings (See image for complete detail) indicate that to be successful in the new socially-connected economy, the company has to be caring. “Meet deadline and bottom line” oriented company will have a hard time persuading its customers. The concerns that small business owners that participated in the survey talked about had more to do with their business and its operation and less to do with the nature of social media. They will grow and get accepted, if only they accept this fact and make required changes in their businesses.

Well, the first thing that gets noticed is the design. People come to your website, and decide to read or leave your website on the basis of how it looks. Not on the basis of how it reads. No matter how informative your website is, or how well researched your content is, your website is not going to witness visitors, unless you have a well-designed website. If you want your website to be read, make sure that it doesn’t look visually cluttered. There are 3 elements that you need to keep in mind while designing your website.

1. Clutter-free layout: Content is the king. No one is contesting this fact, but no one will care, if a king is draped in rags. Hence, a visually appealing website is a must. A visually heavy and informative website will have the same effect on the visitors as will have a non-informative website. In either case, the users are not going to stay on the website.
2. Flat Navigation: Navigation of your website, as the name suggest, is the doorway through which one person travel between different pages. If you have not planned a proper link structure then your visitors will have hard time in going from one place to another. And the more difficulty they face, the quicker they will be out of the website. Navigation also helps search bots in crawling through the pages; therefore, you should avoid using JavaScript or other opaque elements in your navigation link.
3. Awe-inspiring Over-the-fold elements: use over-the-fold space of your website to garner visitors’ interest by seeding website content that excites the visitors. Do not waste this space by explaining everything. Rather, use it to pull the visitors to the inside pages. You can use it as teaser, but be very judicious in using this space. You can also put your highest-paying ads in this space.

Along with these, there are quite a few more things that affect the quality perception of the website. Can you suggest some? Use the comment box below to add your view.

You have to realize that in most cases the fear, or anxiety that you feel could just be a fear of the unknown.  You haven’t put yourself out there and been rejected, so you don’t know how it feels.  Having that unknown component can make rejection seem worse than it actually becomes.

Try to combat this by writing within your strengths at first.  You’ll be more likely to produce content that you actually like by writing on subjects you know about first hand, or are in general very knowledgeable about.  Plus you’ll be able to write more effectively concerning information you’re already comfortable with.  Don’t push yourself outside your comfort zone in the beginning.

Get all the creative criticism that you can find, and take all of it into account.  This is a good step to help you really put yourself out there.  Try starting small, with friends or family.  Or even if that seems to embarrassing at first, try a writer’s website, where you can retain your anonymity, but still receive feedback.  This way nobody knows the writing is yours, or even who you are, and you can get the feedback you need to take into account, to grow as a writer.

From there, when you feel you’ve fine tuned enough, it’s time to take a deep breath and submit that first piece.  Whether it’s a story, or an article, etc.  The only way that you can get past your fear, is to jump headfirst into submitting your content.  Remember that you’re going to get rejected, it’s a fact.  Even the greats have gotten a huge portion of their work rejected in the past.  You’ll be no different.  Rejection is a huge part of the job, just learn to deal with being rejected, and move on.

Most importantly, don’t let rejection stop you.  Being a successful writer is more about how you deal with rejection than anything else.  So don’t let your fear stop you, because it’s hard to become a writer if you never put your ideas out there.

Think of what you would expect from a leader, and what you hope to gain out of becoming one.  If it helps make a list of each, preferably side by side, to figure out your motivation.  These factors will give you a guide to follow.  By writing out what you want, and what you expect, you have a good idea of whether or not being a leader works for you.  In most cases being a leader means taking a back seat for the better good of the team sometimes.  If you aren’t prepared to do that, you’ll have a hard time developing your leadership skills.

To be a leader you have to be prepared to take charge.  Being a leader is just what the title implies, you are expected to lead your followers, or your team.  The best way to do that is to lead by example.  You have to be the best performer, so that the rest of the team can feed off your leadership.  Nobody wants to follow a coworker that can’t achieve goals as well as they can.  This doesn’t mean you have to be the best at doing the job, but rather the best at meeting goals and following directions.  This way you inspire through example, making yourself a natural leader before you ever have the title.

Finally, you have to be the anchor of the team.  When the cards look like they’re stacked against everyone, you have to be the person to bring the motivation to get the job done.  A leader motivates the team by any means available.  So if you want to be a leader, you have to be able to stay positive to help your team get the job done, no matter the situation.