Social Media - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

Pivoting from One Business Plan to Another

December 10, 2014

When Michael Garrity founded CommunityLend in 2010, he thought his company was in a perfect position to capture an untapped market. After all, the 2008 financial crisis made many banks wary of lending too much cash, presenting a golden opportunity to non-traditional operations like CommunityLend. Plus, the company’s peer-to-peer model was the first of its kind in Garrity’s home country of Canada, marking a major advantage for the startup.

Despite these benefits, though, CommunityLend had trouble finding qualified borrowers for Continue reading →

Finance, Retail, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Social Media

Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Mobile Advertising Overtakes Print and Radio

November 6, 2014

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By the end of the year, mobile advertising spending will eclipse the amount of money that companies spend on old media like radio and newspapers. This historic shift shows just how far smartphones and tablets have come after less than a decade of existence. In contrast, newspapers have been in circulation for centuries while radio has been a media fixture for nearly 100 years.

Analysts estimate that companies will invest nearly $18 billion in mobile ads this year while newspapers Continue reading →

Social Media, Innovation, Advertising, Smartphones, Old Media, Marketing

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Eliminating Waste Through Reselling

September 20, 2014

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Although many Americans make sure to recycle their plastic bottles and aluminum cans, they’re less careful to do so with their more functional possessions. Ninety percent of the nation’s mobile devices get thrown in the trash rather than the recycling bin. The gadgets are joined there by 40 percent of the food produced each year in the U.S., along with the 12 million tons of textiles that get tossed annually.

Over the last few years, a number of new companies Continue reading →

Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Innovation, Startups, Sustainability, Resale

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

[VIDEO] Etsy Artisans Reach Retailers

July 15, 2014

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The online, indie-driven craft store Etsy is giving their users a chance to sell their wares wholesale to retail outlets.

https://nyti.ms/1jFBb61

Questions:

What are the major benefits of using Etsy to a firm like Worley’s Lighting?

Do entrepreneurs like Shelli Worley often turn their hobbies into businesses?

From The New York Times

Etsy, Social Media, Product Development, Retail, Distribution, Innovation

Videos

Educating Executives about Social Media

July 14, 2014

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For millions of people around the world, social media is a vital tool for everyday life. However, there are millions more who don’t have a Twitter handle or even a Facebook account. These mostly middle-aged or older absentees simply didn’t get swept in the social networking tide like so many others. To retirees, remaining unfamiliar with the subtle workings of a service like Instagram is not a huge loss. But for managers at many companies, social media skills are becoming Continue reading →

Mentoring, Management, Training, Human Resources, Social Media, Innovation

Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 10: Motivation, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media, Bonus Chapter D: Personal Finance

Fine Dining Meets Web 2.0

June 3, 2014

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In the world of fine dining, the food may be the focus, but the customer is king. That’s certainly the case at New York’s exclusive Eleven Madison Park, where professional servers iron table linens and polish silver before diners arrive. Like any three Michelin-star establishment, they want to ensure that guests will be as comfortable as possible even before they sit down to eat. While this includes primping that is common at other elite eateries, the maître d’ at Continue reading →

Food, Human Resources, Social Media, Innovation, Consumer Research

Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price

Getting the Most Out of Product Reviews

April 13, 2014

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In the days before the Internet, consumers had two choices if they wanted more information about a product: either ask a friend or consult the item’s marketing. And since people in those days weren’t able to stay in constant communication with everyone they knew, most had to opt for the latter. Nowadays, though, consumers have no shortage of options available when they want to shop around. Studies commissioned by Google show that consumers consult an average of 10.4 sources before Continue reading →

Consumer Feedback, Amazon, Marketing, Asus, Social Media, Product Development

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Facebook Limits Reach of Brand Pages

April 7, 2014

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Over the years, thousands of brands have established pages on Facebook in order to reach the social network’s hundreds of millions of users. Although companies can purchase banner ads or sponsor certain posts, many prefer to use the service’s free features to reach consumers organically. But as Facebook becomes stuffed with content, fewer and fewer posts pop up in a user’s feed. In October 2013, just 12 percent of a page’s content reached people who had “liked” that page. By Continue reading →

Branding, Facebook, Marketing, Ethics, Social Media

Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Duolingo Translates Free App into Profits

March 26, 2014

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For many people, learning a second language is often a necessary step to take in order to climb up the career ladder. Of the 1.2 billion people across the world currently learning a foreign language, more than 800 million are studying English to get a better job. But language learning is such a time-consuming and expensive enterprise that many people are forced to end their instruction before reaching fluency. Even alternatives to personal tutoring, such as the popular software line Continue reading →

Duolingo, Global, Language, Social Media, Innovation, Data Mining, Communication

Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media