NebulaBiz Cash Advance Melbourne Fl: June 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017

Small Business Owners May See a Credit Score Boost

Do you monitor your credit scores and reports? If you do, and you have a judgment or tax lien on your credit reports, you may be in for a welcome surprise. After July 1, 2017, many of those items won’t appear on credit reports. For some, this change could result in a credit score boost. And business owners are more likely to be impacted, according to data from Nav.

The law allowing negative items such as these to appear on credit reports hasn’t changed. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, tax liens and judgments can remain on credit reports for seven years or longer, depending on whether they’ve been paid.

Credit reports are supposed to be accurate; however, and in the past a number of consumers have complained to regulators that their credit reports listed judgments and tax liens that didn’t belong to them. There were also complaints that information wasn’t being updated after these items were resolved. Recently, the major credit bureaus unveiled an initiative called the National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP) to increase accuracy in credit reports. Under the NCAP, public record information (information recorded with the courts) must contain enough identifying information to match it to the consumer, and must be updated regularly.

According to the Consumer Data Industry Association (a trade group representing the major credit bureaus), beginning July 1, public record data collected for credit reporting purposes including bankruptcies, civil judgments, and tax liens, must contain minimum identifying information and be collected at more frequent intervals as follows:

Minimum reporting of: (1) name, (2) address and (3) Social Security number and/or date of birth; and
Minimum frequency of courthouse visits to obtain newly filed and updated public records of at least every 90 days.

Information about consumer bankruptcies already meets these standards so that’s unlikely to change. But most civil judgments and about half of all tax liens don’t, and will no longer be reported, according to the CDIA’s own analysis of currently reported judgments and liens.

To be clear, these changes will occur on consumer credit reports, but not business credit reports. If your business had a tax lien or judgment filed against it, that item may still appear on commercial credit reports and your business credit scores are unlikely to change. Unfortunately, they are among the types of information that can hurt your credit reports the longest.

How many business owners will be impacted?

According to credit scoring firm FICO’s research, roughly 12 million individual credit reports (that’s about 6-7%) will be affected by these changes. Most consumers will see their credit scores rise by less than 20 points, but a small percentage could see larger increases; or they could see a delayed impact, with their credit scores rising faster in the future with this type of negative information no longer appearing on their reports.

Nav’s research indicates the change could be even more impactful for small business owners. We’ve found that 17.5% of small business owners with a Nav account have either a civil judgment or a tax lien on their personal credit reports. Because many business owners rely on personal credit to help fund their businesses—and because some small business loans involve a personal credit check—having these items removed from their credit reports could help them get the capital they need to grow their business.

One caveat though: These debts don’t go away just because they no longer appear on credit reports. It’s still important to find a way to pay off or settle these debts, or the amount owed can continue to grow and you could even face garnished wages or seizure of your bank accounts in some situations.

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Investors Eye Earnings, Could See Some Sparkle From Stocks

If you’re looking for some colorful fireworks, you can head to your local 4th of July celebration — and keep an eye on the stock market. Even though the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has inched up about 8% halfway into the year, hitting a series of record highs along the way, there’s been little reason...

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Ask Brianna: How Can I Lessen the Financial Pain of Moving?

“Ask Brianna” is a column for 20-somethings or anyone else starting out. I’m here to help you manage your money, find a job and pay off student loans — all the real-world stuff no one taught us how to do in college. Send your questions about postgrad life to askbrianna@nerdwallet.com. This week’s question: “I’m moving...

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Mortgage Rates Friday, June 30: Leveling Off

Current mortgage rates leveled off today after climbing for three straight days, as the rate for the 30-year fixed loan was unchanged, and both the 15-year fixed and the 5/1 ARM fell by a single basis point, according to a NerdWallet survey of mortgage rates published by national lenders Friday morning. As reported by Bloomberg,...

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IT and Marketing: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Think back to your previous jobs and it’s likely that you can remember departments that were siloed, each focused on its own wants, needs, and goals. The mail room, for example, might have wanted to end its workday at 4 p.m., even though the packaging department frequently had last-minute shipments.

No matter what industries you’ve worked in, you likely have experienced this silo approach. In today’s digital world, this is perhaps most often seen with the IT department and the marketing department, each of which often holds on to their information tightly, sharing it with the other department on a need-to-know basis (often believing there aren’t very good need-to-know reasons).

Let’s face it. The things that keep your IT team up at night are clearly not the same concerns that cause your marketing department to lose sleep. IT managers are focused on keeping their systems secure, stable, and reliable; marketing managers want to change things up with the latest tech for acquiring customers. IT often moves at a deliberate pace while digital marketing must move quickly to be effective. In between these groups can be a minefield of opposing priorities, perspectives, and even cultures.

So how can your company foster better collaboration between the marketing and IT departments? Here are tips.

Culture of collaboration

At the start of your facilitation, make sure that your company has (or is committed to developing) a culture of collaboration. Otherwise, any changes in policy, technology, or office space, to name just three possibilities, will be like swimming upstream.

Forbes.com wrote an excellent article on how to create such a culture, and one of the most important tips is to not fear differences in culture from department to department; instead, focus on understanding these differences. It’s easy to assume that others in your company should operate the same way you do, especially if your coworkers live in the same geographical area as you. But, when you acknowledge that isn’t the case, then you can start to observe differences, rather than judge them.

This observation opens the door to understanding the viewpoints of people in another department, which is a key step to working more effectively with them.

If you’re working remotely and/or in an international company, additional challenges will likely arise in this process. For example, one woman shared how her colleagues in Japan didn’t say no to her requests, but then didn’t follow through with them, either. She later learned that in Japanese culture turning down a request causes people to lose face, so they don’t say no. The woman who was in this situation learned that if she makes a request of her Japanese colleagues, she will likely need to follow through with “appropriate decision-makers” afterwards, something that might not have been her approach with American coworkers.

Common goal of customer focus

When focusing specifically on the cultural differences of the IT and marketing departments, IMeetCentral.com suggests that the best way to unite these two departments is through the common goal of customer focus. When Silvercar entered the car rental space, the company created a “customer experience, customer journey-designed team” with people from the product development team, the IT team, the marketing team, and more. This helped to eliminate the “isolated in an ivory tower” mindset as the newly created team focused on common ground.

At my company, we also fully support the idea of customer service alignment, but also believe that it’s important to not ask team members to go too far outside of their established skills sets. At the very least, don’t ask your IT people to be web developers/designers or your marketing people to be enterprise technology experts. It’s a rare person who can cross that kind of divide.

Disengaging from space and time

Finally, Michael Brenner, CEO of the MarketingInsiderGroup.com, recommends that teams disengage from the concepts of space and time. Because teams can operate from anywhere in the world, yet still collaborate in real time, it makes sense to carefully select digital tools that can help departments participate in high-quality communication in a virtual manner.

Communication tools include but aren’t limited to Slack, Skype, Basecamp, HipChat, Spark, Box, and Asana. When collaborations will take place in your office building, carefully consider the setup of your office and meeting spaces, designing it intelligently to facilitate collaboration.

The post IT and Marketing: Can’t We All Just Get Along? appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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7 Ways to Create More Productive Meetings

Our time is a valuable commodity, and it should not be wasted in frivolous meetings. Countless hours are consumed by business professionals attending meetings that produce no valuable results; frustration is often a byproduct of such wasteful meetings.

As a leader, you can communicate to your staff that you value their time by planning and administering well-organized meetings. Follow these seven steps to create a more productive meeting.

Define the purpose

Holding a meeting without a well-defined purpose is like navigating a boat without a rudder. It can float any way and the likelihood of your reaching your established ending point is doubtful. Leaders who are hosting a meeting should take time to delineate why the meeting needs to occur, and what the outcome should be. With a clear purpose that all attendees understand, the focus can more easily be maintained.

No one likes to have their time wasted. If the meeting’s outcome can be achieved through a more efficient way, such as through using a project management system or communicating through email, it may be more sensible to “meet” in a different format.

Identify who should attend

Once you clarify the need for holding a meeting, identify who should attend. Be specific in delineating the specific role you expect each participant to play. Think about the contributions you hope they will be able to share. When you invite the participants, indicate what their expected role will be and the specific amount of time the meeting will take. In this manner, participants can set aside the appropriate amount of time in their day.

Set an agenda

After you’ve reviewed the desired outcome of your meeting from the key participants, then setting an agenda is the next step. The agenda should include the statement of purpose, a list of those attending, topics to address, and the time allotted for the meeting.

Be focused with the topics you list. You want the participants to offer meaningful insights that result in applicable solutions. In other words, you want participants to leave the meeting with new perspectives they can apply as a result of the meeting.

Allow preparation time

Be aware that some of your participants may be introverted thinkers and need time to process their opinions before the meeting. Otherwise, your meeting will be monopolized by the extroverted thinkers in the room. Also, you may want to give assignments before the meeting so that participants arrive prepared and ready to roll up their sleeves to get things accomplished.

Make meeting preparations

Another way to communicate that you value participants’ time is by preparing the room with necessary presentation equipment, refreshments, and handouts. The meeting should begin at the allotted time, without having to spend time getting things ready as people are arriving. You may go so far as thinking of technical glitches that might occur and have backup plans ready.

Set a time limit

A well-run and productive meeting starts on time and ends on time. In addition, you should allow time for debate. Also, don’t over schedule your agenda so that people feel rushed in expressing their opinions. Most importantly, to end the meeting at the allotted time you had indicated in your agenda, be ready to end debate and reschedule for another meeting time.

Clarify the next steps moving forward

To maintain momentum after the meeting has ended, clarify what the next steps will be addressing the discussion topics. Send written minutes from the meeting in a timely fashion, indicating assignments given to participants; describe outcomes from the meeting and how they will be used. Since meetings often monitor how a group is handling a project, there are usually more steps to complete.

People won’t mind taking time from their busy days to attend meetings if they can count on the meetings to be productive.

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What Does Your Business Stand to Lose in a Cyber Attack?

Not long ago, I blogged here about a new type of cybercrime called ransomware. But when it comes to cyber crooks, apparently they’re also using some old-fashioned methods to breach businesses’ systems. The 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report from Cisco shows cybercrime is growing. Here’s what could be at risk for your business.

How are cyber crooks getting in?

While highly complex cyber attacks are increasing, the Cisco report notes that “classic” attacks are on the rise as well. For example, adware that gathers information about a user’s computer without telling them and malicious spam emails are common attack methods. In fact, spam is flying at levels not seen since 2010. According to the report, almost two-thirds (65%) of all email is spam, and 8% to 10% of spam is malicious.

Another risk for businesses is when employees select and use their own third-party cloud apps on company computers. Respondents to the survey say more than one-fourth (27%) of employee-introduced cloud apps led to “significant” security issues for their companies.

What do you stand to lose?

Of course, money is at stake in any cyber attack—but businesses, especially small ones, often lose much more than that. Security breaches can affect all aspects of a targeted company, from its operations and finance to its brand reputation and customer loyalty.

More than half of businesses surveyed that had their data breached were subjected to public scrutiny as a result. They also suffered some measurable losses:

29% of businesses that were breached lost revenue; 38% of those lost more than 20% of their revenues.
23% of businesses lost business opportunities after a cyber attack; 42% of those lost more than 20% of their potential new business.
22% of businesses that suffered a cyber attack lost customers; 40% of those lost more than 20% of their customers.

How can you protect your business from a cyber attack?

Keeping your small business safe from cybercrime requires constant vigilance to stay on top of new threats. The task may seem so daunting that you’re tempted not to bother—but as the figures above show, no small business owner can afford to take that risk. Here’s what you need to do to protect your business from cyber attacks:

Develop cybersecurity practices for your business, including both technical and behavioral protections.
Guard your systems with firewalls, antivirus software and automatic updates of operating systems and software.
Regularly test the security of your systems. Cyber criminals never rest, and neither can you.
Make your employees your first line of defense. Educate employees on the importance of following your cybersecurity policies, such as changing passwords frequently, not opening suspicious emails, and not downloading software or connecting to unauthorized cloud services on company computers. Enforce consequences for not following the policy.
Identify common methods that cyber criminals use. Emails that appear to be from someone within the company or spam emails with unusual attachments or hyperlinks are things to watch out for.
Always back up your data in case of an emergency, and choose a backup system that lets you restore your lost data quickly.

The most important step in protecting your business from cybercrime is taking cybersecurity seriously. As the leader of your business, you need to model the behavior you want your employees to follow when it comes to keeping your business data and networks safe from intruders. Devote time, effort, and a chunk of your budget to cybersecurity, and your employees will see that you mean business when it comes to protecting your business.

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How Students Can Avoid Common Bank and Credit Card Fees

Banking and credit card fees can be costly, especially for college students on a tight budget. But many of these fees can be avoided by knowing your bank’s policies, choosing the right bank account and using credit cards responsibly. Here’s how to avoid some common financial fees: It pays to do your homework There are...

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Thursday, June 29, 2017

What Does Your Business Stand to Lose in a Cyber Attack?

How are cyber crooks getting in?

What do you stand to lose?

More than half of businesses surveyed that had their data breached were subjected to public scrutiny as a result. They also suffered some measurable losses:

29% of businesses that were breached lost revenue; 38% of those lost more than 20% of their revenues.
23% of businesses lost business opportunities after a cyber attack; 42% of those lost more than 20% of their potential new business.
22% of businesses that suffered a cyber attack lost customers; 40% of those lost more than 20% of their customers.

How can you protect your business from a cyber attack?

Develop cybersecurity practices for your business, including both technical and behavioral protections.
Guard your systems with firewalls, antivirus software and automatic updates of operating systems and software.
Regularly test the security of your systems. Cyber criminals never rest, and neither can you.
Make your employees your first line of defense. Educate employees on the importance of following your cybersecurity policies, such as changing passwords frequently, not opening suspicious emails, and not downloading software or connecting to unauthorized cloud services on company computers. Enforce consequences for not following the policy.
Identify common methods that cyber criminals use. Emails that appear to be from someone within the company or spam emails with unusual attachments or hyperlinks are things to watch out for.
Always back up your data in case of an emergency, and choose a backup system that lets you restore your lost data quickly.

The post What Does Your Business Stand to Lose in a Cyber Attack? appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post What Does Your Business Stand to Lose in a Cyber Attack? appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Rieva Lesonsky.

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7 Ways to Create More Productive Meetings

As a leader, you can communicate to your staff that you value their time by planning and administering well-organized meetings. Follow these seven steps to create a more productive meeting.

Define the purpose

Identify who should attend

Set an agenda

Allow preparation time

Make meeting preparations

Set a time limit

Clarify the next steps moving forward

People won’t mind taking time from their busy days to attend meetings if they can count on the meetings to be productive.

The post 7 Ways to Create More Productive Meetings appeared first on AllBusiness.com

The post 7 Ways to Create More Productive Meetings appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Ann Gatty.

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14 Soft Skills New Hires Need for Success

When you’re looking to hire someone, not everything you need to know is on the resume. Sometimes, you need the right soft skill to make sure the candidate will not only fit but thrive in your corporate culture.

To find out what those crucial abilities are, we asked members from the Young Entrepreneur Council this question:

Q. What is the one “soft skill” you find most essential when considering a new hire?

1. Curiosity

While we hire for specific roles, we know that in six months (or sooner!) the needs of the company and that role will change. I want folks who can be great at their job today, but who are also always thinking about what we can do better, both internally and for our customers. A team of curious folks who ask questions will help make sure your business doesn’t stagnate. —Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

2. Emotional intelligence

When a person demonstrates a high emotional intelligence, it shows that they are perceptive and, most importantly, self-aware. New hires who possess a high emotional intelligence are always appealing candidates, because this is not a skill you can easily teach. In a team-based organization, high self-awareness is a very valuable attribute. —David Ciccarelli, Voices.com

3. Email communication skills

An essential soft skill is the ability to produce typo-free, well-written, well-formatted email communications throughout the hiring process. We have a high bar in terms of what we expect from our work product. If new hires cannot nail straightforward email communications pre-hire when they’re putting their best foot forward, I can’t expect that they will do so after they’ve been hired. —Douglas Baldasare, ChargeItSpot

4. People skills

My business deals with clients on a daily basis. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service and building a genuine rapport with clients. It’s imperative that everyone on my team understands the importance of this skill, whether or not they work with clients directly, as it is the core of our business. —Stanley Meytin, True Film Production

5. Hunger

The people I bring onto my team are go-getters. I want someone who is hungry to succeed, so that I don’t have to always instruct on what to do next. I always love someone who comes to me with ideas of how to grow and improve. There is a multitude of skills I look at when making a hiring decision, but hunger is a big one. —Renato Libric, Bouxtie Inc

6. Self-Awareness

You know that the right hire won’t be great at everything under the sun. Ask an applicant what they know they’re not good at, and they should be able to answer this questions quickly and specifically. Generic answers will tell you that they have weak self-awareness. Hires who don’t already know their own weak points require heavy management, because they won’t know when to stop and ask for help. —Roger Lee, Captain401

7. Humor and positivity

There is so much stress at times that it helps to have people on the team who can inject humor and positivity into the mix at an appropriate time. This helps the rest of the team look on the brighter side and approach any challenges in a better frame of mind. It also reduces tension and conflict. Plus, it just makes work more fun. —Angela Ruth, Due

8. Willingness to make phone calls

In a world of email and text, it’s amazing how many people refuse, or downright hate, to get on a phone call. In business, there are times when you can accomplish more in a 20-minute phone call than in 200 emails. When evaluating a new hire, look at their ability to pick up the phone, return your call, and carry the conversation. This quality can make or break one’s ability to thrive at their job. —Kim Kaupe, ZinePak

9. Persistence

No matter what the role, if the potential hire isn’t persistent, he or she is likely to throw in the towel at any immediate sign of a challenge. When one is persistent, though, he or she will dig for the answer, the sale, or anything else. —Darrah Brustein, Network Under 40

10. Honesty

I would call honesty a skill in this day and age of unethical behavior in business, fake news, and leaders who continually lie to their audiences. Finding honest and ethical new hires is a real asset. —Zach Binder, Ipseity, Inc

11. Ability to learn from experience

Learning is a critical skill for every job, but not everyone wants to learn, and some people struggle with learning from experience rather than from traditional classes. Much of how we work is learned “on-the-job,” so it is critical to assess a potential hire’s learning agility. One way is to listen for how the person has learned from their previous experiences and then applied that information. —Mamie Kanfer Stewart, Meeteor

12. Self-Motivation

Hiring someone who is self-motivated and disciplined is essential, especially because our team is fully remote. Remote work comes with many perks, but it’s not for everyone. Remote employees need to be extremely disciplined and understand that just because they are not working in a physical office doesn’t mean they don’t have to work. We look for people who have the motivation to get the work done. —Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com

13. Autodidactism

Since traditional job descriptions have become loose, employees are expected to obtain a broader amount of skills to keep their competitive value sharp. Being an autodidact is a great trait to have in a new hire. It means they will always be focused on learning and won’t shy away from acquiring new skills. If you ever need to make a pivot, these are the people who will succeed. —Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

14. Versatility

I want to bring people on board who aren’t limited to one focus. Having an employee who is knowledgeable in multiple facets of the business not only makes us stronger as a team, but that knowledge will help us grow in the future. —Abhilash Patel, Recovery Brands

The post 14 Soft Skills New Hires Need for Success appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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IT and Marketing: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

So how can your company foster better collaboration between the marketing and IT departments? Here are tips.

Culture of collaboration

This observation opens the door to understanding the viewpoints of people in another department, which is a key step to working more effectively with them.

Common goal of customer focus

Disengaging from space and time

The post IT and Marketing: Can’t We All Just Get Along? appeared first on AllBusiness.com

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When Is Amazon Prime Day?

Born in 2015, Prime Day is the brainchild of Amazon. It’s a limited-time, limited-quantity sale with an exclusive guest list — Amazon Prime members. After two iterations of the bargain blowout, Amazon announced the third annual Prime Day is coming July 11 (but deals start the night before). Here’s what you need to know. What...

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Guard Your Card: 5 Tips to Evade Gas Pump Skimmers

Heading out on a vacation road trip? Watch out at the fuel pump for a threat to your debit or credit card: skimmers. Gas stations, among the last retailers to install fraud-reducing EMV-chip card readers, remain an attractive target this summer for card-skimming crews. Skimmers can be hidden in and around gas pumps’ card readers,...

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Launching a New Marketing Campaign? Don’t Pull the Trigger Until You’ve Done This First

There’s a lot of excitement that comes with launching a new marketing campaign. Since it can take your marketing team weeks to brainstorm and prepare, there’s always a lot riding on the launch and execution. But one thing many CMOs and business owners fail to consider is buy-in across the organization.

Why widespread buy-in matters

When most people think about a new marketing campaign and getting people to buy-in, they assume the target is the external audience–i.e., customers. But before a company can ever penetrate the marketplace, internal buy-in has to take place. Ask any experienced marketer and they’ll tell you that getting company stakeholders to buy-in is the toughest part.

Why do you need employees, board members, managers, and investors to all buy into a new marketing campaign? Why can’t you just go ahead and launch a campaign that you know will work? Well, buy-in matters more than you could ever know. When everyone is in support of a campaign, suddenly there’s a sense of unity and confidence that everything will work out as it should.

When there isn’t buy-in, the opposite is true. Frustration begins to fester beneath the surface. The marketing team feels like it doesn’t have support and has to tread lightly. Customers see inconsistencies in the execution of the marketing campaign and the brand’s core values. Overall, it’s a big mess.

How to encourage stakeholder buy-in

Sometimes a lack of buy-in is obvious. People will openly and verbally express their disinterest. However, it isn’t always so apparent. There are times when a lack of stakeholder buy-in is subtle. It’s important that you’re able to spot these signs and openly confront them as quickly as possible.

“Body language speaks volumes. Look for crossed arms, closed faces, tight postures, or lack of eye contact,” advises Michael Whatmore, an executive business coach in San Francisco. “While there is danger in misreading body language (maybe the air conditioner is set too low), consistently negative cues are meaningful and indicate that individuals are not buying into your ideas.”

Body language is just one cue. There are other signs and it’s up to you to pay attention. Having said that, once you realize that you’re facing a buy-in problem, here are some specific things you can do to bring people together:

1. Use audience-specific language

How you communicate the same idea to different audiences will likely determine your success in getting buy-in. You can’t expect to use the same language, conversation, or illustrations and get positive results every time. For example, how you talk to the folks in the advertising department should be different than how you talk to board members (and vice versa). Tailor your language to the audience and avoid buzzwords and jargon that others might not understand.

2. Provide some context

“Few business leaders regularly share their vision for their business with their staff, many of whom are often left to perform their day-to-day duties with little awareness of how their contribution fits into the bigger picture,” marketing consultant Caron Beesley notes. “Keeping staff abreast of how the business as a whole is doing against campaign targets, thanks to their help, can be hugely motivating.”

Are you being as open and honest with stakeholders as you can be? You may see the obvious value in a specific campaign, but think about things from the perspective of others. If you don’t provide context, they might not see the purpose.

3. Be sure to say thanks

Once you do get buy-in, don’t take it for granted. Remember that there will come a time down the road when you’ll need support again. Expressing your gratitude now will go a long way towards building a healthy rapport.

“Shoot them that email and thank them for supporting you in that meeting or in front of the team,” marketing expert Joanna Lord suggests. Even better, thank them in front of the leadership team and call out specifically how they helped move the needle. I know we get busy, but if there is one thing that builds buy-in down the road it’s appreciation right now. So say thank you, authentically and often.”

Get the support you need

Stakeholder support plays an integral role in the success of any marketing campaign. Before you can get approval from customers, you have to first earn the approval of those within the organization. Thankfully, there are some strategies that you can use to bring even the most stubborn individuals to your side.

Create a game plan and work hard to instill a sense of unity within your company. If you continue to get pushback after doing everything within your power to align stakeholders, then it might be worth considering the possibility that they’re right and you’re wrong. But until that point, be relentless in your pursuit of securing universal buy-in.

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Mortgage Rates Thursday, June 29: Upward Trend Continues

Mortgage rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed loans, as well as 5/1 ARMs, increased for the third day in a row, according to a NerdWallet survey of mortgage rates published by national lenders Thursday morning. The news that mortgage rates have risen for the third straight day doesn’t quite match up with Freddie Mac’s Thursday morning headline that...

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10 Easy Ways Your Business Can Be More Authentic on Social Media

We’ve all gotten them: the automated Twitter DM with a meaningless greeting. The spammy InMail. The sales-push Facebook message. These types of messages are clearly sent by people who just want to make a sale. And while most of us know social media isn’t the place for a hard sell, who hasn’t sent a message that felt…just a little bit…inauthentic?

It’s interesting how many us of—and how many companies—struggle to come off as human and authentic on social media. It is, after all, a social medium. All these conversations and new friends should come naturally, right?

But maybe that’s why social media can make our motives so obvious. People know when you’re pitching them. They know you’re reaching out to them because you want to eventually make a sale, or make a contact that might turn into a sale. So it’s all kind of forced and fake to begin with, right?

Not necessarily. There are companies and people who manage to preserve their authenticity. They still market on social media. They still make sales contacts and build business relationships. But they don’t do it in a way that seems canned.

If you want to lose that canned feeling on social media, I hope this post can help. It’s certainly not the last word on how to act more like a human being on social media, but I think it’s a pretty good start.

1. Say thank you

Say it a lot—at least once a day. Here are a few opportunities for saying thank you:

When someone follows you
When someone adds you to a list
When someone shares your content
When someone reshares your content
When someone mentions you
When you read a blog post you like

2. Personalize…and skip the automation

We all know how powerful it is to use someone’s first name. This applies in the real world as well as in social media. So apply it: Mention people by name in any communication.

While first names are good, beware of automated replies. I see a lot of automated replies on Twitter particularly. Some people ask me whether I’m on Twitter for business or pleasure, for instance. Or they ask me what I do for a living.

These are obviously automated responses. Anyone who’s even glanced at my Twitter profile would know why I’m on social media. They’d know what I do for a living, too.

These types of automated messages turn a lot of people off. They probably don’t work very well, either. So consider this: If you could double the results you’re getting from those automated messages, would it be worth the time to send half as many, but actually learn about the person you’re messaging? All it would take is a quick look at their profile page for that social platform. Or a quick check of their website. Time yourself: How long does that actually take?

3. Don’t be 100% business oriented

It’s good to share a bit about your personal life. Of course, none of us in the business realm should be tweeting like Kim Kardashian. But that baseball game you went to on Sunday? That’s perfectly safe to share a post about.

Remember: People like people. It’s interesting to know somebody spent a few hours at a game over the weekend, or went for a 5K run. Just don’t share five pictures from it (much less 50).

4. Take off your ‘results’ hat

This will be hard for many of you—especially if you’ve got a boss breathing down your neck to prove ROI. Many small businesses feel especially pressured to see revenue from their social media work. But if you really want to be more authentic, and thus appear more trustworthy, the sales pitch has to take a back seat.

People have become extremely wary of sales pitches, so wary that even a toned-down sales pitch will trigger their radar. This is especially true on social media, and even more true when you’re reaching out to new people.

Forget about selling to them—or even mentioning what you sell—for at least the first three communications. And when you do sell, use a really light touch.

5. Be interested in other people

Ever read How to Win Friends and Influence People? by Dale Carnegie? It ought to be required reading for social media professionals, and maybe everyone else, too.

If I had to distill the whole book down to one quote, this would be it: This applies to social media in spades. And if you’re a salesperson aiming to do social selling, it applies even more.

Want just one way to apply this? Comment on blogs and social media posts. Most blogs don’t get a lot of comments, but they really want them. Just don’t be over-promotional; don’t include a link to your site in your comment. It will dissolve any good will you might otherwise have created.

6. Focus on a short list

Most of us would love to have tens of thousands of social media connections. But few people really need that many business contacts. And honestly, it’s unrealistic to try to maintain relationships with even a couple thousand people, even as passing acquaintances.

So consider scaling down. Several studies have determined that the largest professional network one person can maintain is somewhere between 100 and 300 people. What would happen if you focused your efforts on just 300 people? Who would you pick for that list?

7. Don’t automate everything you post

Social media is all about the moment. But despite the in-the-moment nature of social media, a lot of us are trying to queue up social media posts weeks in advance. I get why people want to do this—it saves a ton of time. But a social media feed with less than fresh content starts to feel stale.

This doesn’t mean you have to manually post every update. Just leave some flexibility in your posting schedule for some truly fresh—as in the last five hours—content. It’ll make your feeds more interesting. It’ll also make them seem like you’re actually paying attention to them, instead of outsourcing your activity to a bot.

8. Balance honesty, compassion, and good judgment for customer service

Social media has become the new front of customer service. That’s good—it gives us a way to help people faster and to be more accessible. But it can be rough when things go wrong.

There are many ways to flub social media customer service. One of them is to communicate in a tone that strikes your audience as “too corporate.” It can be hard to find the balance between a sanitized corporate voice and what sounds like a college student’s off the cuff answer. But you have to find that balance. Give your social media reps the autonomy to reply without having to wait for approval. And when things do go wrong, don’t relapse back to corporate speak (i.e., evasive, uncommitted language). You’ll only make your followers angrier.

9. When you’re wrong, admit it

Should you ever make a mistake, or say something dumb on social media, don’t try to cover it up. Many of the social media blowups that firms and people have gone through were only exacerbated by the “apology” after the fact. They could have avoided a lot more flack if they had just come clean and said, “That was a stupid post. We apologize. It won’t happen again.”

Also be careful about how you frame your apology. Don’t write it like this: “We’re sorry you were offended.” That slyly puts the blame on your audience when it was you who made the gaffe.

Nothing about a social media blowup is fun, but if you can just deal with it directly, honestly, and humbly upfront, you’ll fare far better.

10. Be yourself

Much of the advice about being authentic on social media boils down to this: Be yourself. Or in marketing speak: Be true to your brand voice.

It’s simple, but good advice. So long as you know what your company’s brand voice is (many don’t) sticking to it builds consistency. And consistency is one of the hallmark attributes of an authentic brand. Or an authentic person.

This may mean you can’t appeal to everyone. So be it.

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7 Smart Ways Business Leaders Can Better Engage Their Employees

Post sponsored by Aurora University

Half of all U.S. adults have left a job to get away from their manager at some point in their career, according to a recent Gallup survey. And less than one-third of Americans are engaged in their jobs, a number that hasn’t changed much since 2000 when Gallup first began measuring employee engagement.

Lack of employee engagement at work can have a significant negative effect on productivity, customer service, and employee retention, according to OfficeTeam. The staffing company reports that more than one in four professionals felt their company was not effective at keeping workers motivated, and 61% of respondents said they would likely leave their current position if they did not feel engaged.

Gallup estimates that the 18% of employees who are actively disengaged at work cost U.S. businesses $450 to $550 billion in lost productivity per year! In contrast, high employee engagement increases profitability by 16%, employee productivity by 18%, and customer loyalty by 12%, according to Gallup

So what steps can business leaders take to tackle this serious problem?

1. Promote open communication

“A successful feedback loop measures and reviews employee performance in an effort to improve future productivity,” writes Entrepreneur’s Andre Lavoie. “Continuous communication in the workplace is crucial to developing employees, yet only 2% of employers provide ongoing feedback to their employees, according to a 2013 survey of 803 HR professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).”

Regular meetings in an informal, one-on-one setting can help improve communication and engagement. Gallup found that employees whose managers hold regular meetings with them are nearly three times as likely to be engaged as employees whose managers do not hold regular meetings with them.

2. Let employees test new ideas

“Many employees, by their very nature, are risk-adverse,” writes Kevin Daum at Inc. “That’s why they are employees and not entrepreneurs. If they work in an environment where the boss is always correcting them before they have a chance to execute, they will constantly look for approval before taking action or, worse, simply avoid any new or dynamic action.”

Daum recommends giving employees the freedom to try new ideas in a way that doesn’t put the company in danger. Through the process, they’ll learn from their failures and successes, and become more engaged and innovative in their work.

3. Budget for personal development

Opportunities for professional growth not only engage employees, but they help workers grow to pursue leadership roles within the company.

“Employees are an organization’s most important asset, so invest in them,” Lavoie says. Formal education, internal or external training, lunch-and-learn programs, professional development events, and professional associations can help employees grow and advance.

4. Help employees understand the direction of the company

Employees don’t always have all the details to take action and lead others, or to navigate tricky situations. Leaders can communicate with employees what will help them be successful and represent the company well.

“An employee who clearly understands the core values, purpose, and direction of the company can easily make consistent decisions and take appropriate action at any junction,” Daum says. “It’s on you as the leader to impart your vision. That’s how you lead.”

5. Establish clear roles, responsibilities, and goals

If workers don’t understand what they are supposed to do, they can’t do their job very well and it’s hard for them to get excited about it. Confusion can also cause redundancy and blurred responsibilities between employees.

“Clarity of expectations is perhaps the most basic of employee needs and is vital to performance,” reports Gallup. “Great managers don’t just tell employees what’s expected of them and leave it at that; instead, they frequently talk with employees about their responsibilities and progress. They don’t save those critical conversations for once-a-year performance reviews.”

As high as 69% of employees who strongly agree that their manager helps them set performance goals are engaged, according to Gallup. For employees who strongly disagree, just 8% are engaged, and 53% are actively disengaged.

6. Let employees know that they are appreciated

“Don’t be shy about finding ways to say ‘thank you’ or celebrating the good things your employees do,” Daum suggests. “If they have to ask how they are doing, you are doing your job poorly as a leader.”

The best employees don’t work at a company for the money. They need to feel appreciated and that leadership values their participation. Employers and business leaders who demonstrate these values will help employees feel connected to the company and to their work.

Only 26% of employees feel strongly valued at work, according to an engagement report from TINYpulse. Respondents claimed that managers only let them know when they were doing something wrong or when they failed to do something.

7. Focus on strengths over weaknesses

“Gallup researchers have studied human behavior and strengths for decades and discovered that building employees’ strengths is a far more effective approach than a fixation on weaknesses,” the research firm reports. “A strengths-based culture is one in which employees learn their roles more quickly, produce more and significantly better work, stay with their company longer, and are more engaged.”

Two-thirds of employees who strongly agree that their manager focuses on their strengths or positive characteristics are engaged in the workplace, Gallup found; however, 31% of employees who indicate strongly that their manager focuses instead on their weaknesses are engaged. Placing employees in jobs that allow them to maximize their natural talents is “the most powerful benefit a manager can provide,” according to Gallup.

Traditional management systems encourage mediocrity in everything and excellence in nothing, according to Peter Bregman in Harvard Business Review. Most performance review systems simply assess how closely employees match certain standards or competencies and focus on how they can improve their weaknesses to “meet or exceed expectations” in every area.

For a worker who excels with customers but struggles with spreadsheets, a manager should focus on client-based work and have someone else who enjoys spreadsheets do them. That’s a better approach than discussing how that person can improve with spreadsheets. “He’s amazing with people, not spreadsheets,” Bregman writes in reference to a typical employee. “He’ll work hardest, derive the most pleasure, and contribute his maximum potential with the greatest result if he is able to focus as much time as possible in his area of strength.”

Excelling in business leadership

Connecting with employees and building an organization that is meaningful, exciting, and fulfilling can help business leaders maximize employee engagement. Aurora University’s online MBA and online MBA with a Concentration in Leadership helps students develop the knowledge and skills needed to manage employees effectively. The programs cover current business concepts and take place in a fully online learning environment.

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