HeatherStone commented on the following stories on BizSugar
Why Instagram's sale to Facebook is bad news for startups
"Your point seems to be not that Instagram is actually bad for startups, but that startups that have unrealistic expectations about being like Instagram may become discouraged when their businesses don't perform as well or don't sell for as much as Instagram. I do think the title is a little misleading, but I see what you're saying. Perhaps using Instagram will be good for small businesses, especially for sharing. What do you think of its actual use for small business?"What good wine can teach you about your small business
"Great post! I'm glad you qualified it with characteristics like uniqueness. You could go further if you compared how your business could be like regional wines--like a French wine vs. an oakey California wine...and come up with some kind of character comparison there. Would be amusing and maybe lead to some further insights? Anyway, very entertaining. Thanks for your submission."Facebook Timeline: You Can Run But You Can’t Hide
"Personally, I like Timeline, but that's because I only use Facebook primarily as a business tool. I don't put a whole lot on there that's personal, or that could hurt me if anyone knew it. The thing that I like is it features visuals more, so even if you post only infrequently you can have something visual to show for the month/year. What is the application that you were mentioning to fill up empty years? Hope you'll get back to me. Thanks!"College Students Should Link Up on LinkedIn
"Some great advice for getting the LinkedIn ball rolling, and before graduation. As an adult student, I'm trying to set aside a few hours each week just to build relationships there for when I'm jobseeking after graduation. And you're right, it's easier when you're a student--even an adult one--because professors, mentors, the community, everyone wants to help students. Thanks for the post! I'd love to hear more about how to strategically build one's network to include targeted companies."6 Ideas for a Productive Commute
"I can add one to your list: How about getting either a webcam for the car or a stand to mount a camera, whether a flipcam or something better, and do either a recorded vlog or a live webcast from your car, as you're driving. You don't have to maintain eye contact for it to be entertaining. I've seen a few people do this. What other interesting ideas can people come up with?"6 Key Attributes of a Winning Business Culture
"Thanks, Martin. I think the art of creating the right culture for your business is extremely under-appreciated these days. (It may be on a par with having the right product or the right marketing plan.) This is because without the right culture everything else in your company may have a tendency to deteriorate. How can your company create the best product possible or implement the right marketing plan if employees are working in a culture that does not reflect the set of shared values and practices upon which those products and that marketing plan are based? On the other hand, create the right culture, and many of these other things may take care of themselves. When employees begin working in a manner consistent with a good company culture, creating products and marketing consistent with that culture and hopefully with your brand becomes a much easier process. "What Is Negative SEO?
"This is all fine and well (Not!). With no control over who links to your site, and with the Penguin updates in place, it's only a matter of time before negative SEO companies arise and begin to blackmail site owners in order to have them remove a multitude of crappy links that they generate. What's to stop this? Is there any recourse with Google for the poor site owner when some random SEO decides to link a thousand times to your site from junk sites, just to downgrade you? That's why Penguin is scary. What do you think?"Small Business Lessons From Disney
"Thanks, Glen! Great post about some great anyone should be able to use for any business. But I'm wondering how great a role company culture plays when trying to turn a business around. In the example here, we are talking about Disney, an organization already renowned for thinking outside the box. How easy is it for an owner to change direction in a business with a culture not so open to possibilities and what does this say about the importance of establishing this kind of culture from day one? "Guest post: Pandering to popularity: 7 ways to optimize your site for Google Penguin
"I hear a lot of complaining about the Penguin updates, however when you dig deeper you usually find the folks complaining have engaged in some questionable SEO. I've been looking over a lot of Google's policies recently, and to me, most of what they want us to do is just be good bloggers. However, the inbound link issue does concern me, because there is no way to control who links to your pages. Sure, you can ask them not to link, but they can just say "no" or even ask you for money to remove the links. It opens up a whole 'nother can of worms. What do you think?"Subscribe
The Best Tool to Manage Your Social Media
"Hey Stephanie! I use HootSuite a lot, but there's a major MAJOR drawback to using it instead of going directly to Facebook: You can't tag! Don't you think this is a huge problem? I asked them about it, and they said that it may be a future feature, but nothing definite. If they include Google+, they're going to have the same problem there too. Sooo, I only really use it for Twitter and LinkedIn, and not always LinkedIn. It's great for Twitter, though. What do you think about the tagging issue?"