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Google’s AI Overviews appeared in 13.14% of all U.S. desktop searches in March, up from 6.49% in January. That’s a 102% surge in just two months, according to a new analysis of more than 10 million keywords by Semrush and Datos. Why we care. Google’s introduction of AI Overviews was the biggest shift since the arrival of featured snippets a decade ago. Google is forever changed and is becoming more of an answer engine than a search engine. That’s because AI Overviews generate answers rather than pointing searchers to websites, which studies have shown is impacting traffic and CTRs for many types of websites. Triggers. AI Overviews tend to appear for low-risk, fact-based content. However, Google is slowly creeping into conversion territory, according to Semrush: 88.1% of triggered queries are informational (e.g., “what is BMR”). 8.69% are commercial queries – up from 6.28% in January. 1.43% are navigational queries – this is double from 0.74% in January. Industry trends. The top five industries where AI Overview grew since January were: Science: Up 22.3% Health: Up 20.3% People & Society: Up 18.8% Law & Government: Up 15.2% Travel: Up 14.3% On the other end, real-time information categories (e.g., News, Sports) were the least unaffected – perhaps suggesting that “Google is still wary of covering recent events with AI-generated content,” according to Semrush. For now anyway. Zero click. AI Overview queries show higher-than-average zero-click rates. However, when comparing the same keywords pre- and post-AI Overview, zero-click behavior actually declined slightly, according to Semrush. It fell to 36.2% in March from 38.1% in January. As Semrush put it: “That suggests AI Overviews do not automatically increase zero-click behavior.” The study. Semrush AI Overviews Study: What 2025 SEO Data Tells Us About Google’s Search Shift View the full article

Maybe it's not fair to call a medical diagnosis "trendy," but more and more adults in the U.S. are seeking treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD, once regarded as a childhood disease, has made the transition to adulthood: About 15.5 million adults in the U.S. have been "officially" diagnosed with the disorder, and a growing group of others believe they have ADHD. A lot of them are wrong, but that's OK. Fed by a steady stream of online influencers and pop science, more and more people are self-diagnosing with ADHD, autism, depression, and other mental disorders. Very few of them are qualified to make these diagnoses. While it’s easy to scoff at someone self-diagnosing a complex mental illness after watching a TikTok, the rise in self-diagnosis, however flawed, points to an unmet need for mental health care. The double-edged sword of "awareness"A recent survey found that more than half of the members of Generation Z get health information from TikTok, and there are over four million videos tagged #ADHD on the platform. It's in the top 10 of health-related hashtags, and the top 100 videos on the subject have a collected view total of nearly half a billion. So ADHD awareness is high, particularly among young people, and that's a good thing. The disease is under-diagnosed and under-treated in adults in the U.S. ADHD has been linked to job loss, depression, substance abuse, and higher morbidity rates. Talking about the disorder online de-stigmatizes it, and may lead many to seek treatment they might not have previously. And treatment is effective. So it's great that more people are wondering if they have ADHD—but that awareness has a downside. A recent study of 100 of the most popular #ADHD videos (with a combined view-count of around half a billion) indicates that more than 50% of the claims made about the disorder in these videos are misleading. With each false claim in a TikTok video, the popular perception of what ADHD actually is strays further from a mental illness toward a trendy collection of quirks. Why you're (probably) wrong about your self-diagnosed ADHDYou can't tell if you have ADHD from an online quiz or from relating to someone else's video. Self-diagnosis lacks the objectivity and clinical context of a professional diagnosis, and even doctors can find it difficult to recognize ADHD. Among people who seek treatment, ADHD is usually accompanied by other psychiatric conditions like major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and/or alcohol abuse. Medical professionals, with training and experience, often treat those co-morbidities instead of the underlying problem, so it's no surprise that average people scrolling TikTok so often get it wrong. But those mistakes still serve an important purpose. Maybe it's not ADHD, but maybe that's not the pointADHD is not sometimes forgetting appointments or zoning out in meetings occasionally. Popular ADHD videos on social media often equate common life experiences—losing your keys, hyperfixation on hobbies, blurting out thoughts—as symptoms. Those could be indicative of the disorder, or they could be just part of being human. It's a spectrum, and, as with autism, this can lead to overgeneralization and people believing normal human experiences are part of a mental illness; conversely, it can lead to neurotypical people viewing a serious mental health issue as something quirky, cute, or funny. This is not good, but it beats the alternative of having no explanation or language to talk about a mental illness. When people say, “I think I have ADHD,” they often mean something like: “I’m struggling, and maybe this is why." Whether the impulsivity and inability to focus they are experiencing fit the diagnostic criteria of ADHD or not, paying attention, noticing patterns, and taking mental health seriously are important. Maybe that's not a medical diagnosis, but it can be an important act of self-reflection. For many, putting a name to the struggle is a first step toward seeking support, even if the label isn’t exactly accurate. Why people are drawn to misleading ADHD videosIt's easy to blame social media for spreading misinformation about healthcare—it does, constantly—but people choose to get medical information from social media for understandable reasons. Many regard the way medicine is practiced as impersonal, even scary, and view doctors as untrustworthy. Social media figures, on the other hand, are charismatic, non-threatening, non-judgmental, and don't charge for their time. In a perfect world, ADHD TikTok would be a gateway to medical evaluation and treatment, but too often, it becomes the end of the line. Non-evidence-based "treatments" gain traction. Skepticism of doctors hardens into full-blown mistrust. And as research shows, frequent social media use often correlates with worse patient-provider relationships—though it's unclear which is the cause and which the effect. Social media will (probably) continue to serve as a support systemTikTok, Instagram, and Facebook aren't optimal ways to approach diagnosis or treatment, but given the current realities of the healthcare system, it may be the best many people can do. Until structural changes make mental health care more affordable and accessible, platforms like TikTok will continue to serve as makeshift support systems. Flawed as they are, they’re filling a gap the medical system has yet to close. And for now, that may be the only starting point available to millions. View the full article

“Well, it took a minute,” said Spike Lee, surveying the glittering Met Gala crowd during cocktail hour through bright orange glasses that matched his New York Knicks cap. “But we’re here now, that’s the most important thing.” Lee was referring to the fact that for the very first time, the Met Gala was making a point of celebrating Black style and Black designers — something he felt was an overdue milestone, but a very welcome one. “Long overdue,” Lee repeated. “But we’re here to celebrate. And who knows what’s gonna happen because of this event? There’s gonna be reverberations around the world.” Lee was echoing an excitement that many of the approximately 400 guests — luminaries in sports, music, fashion, film, theater and more — shared as they sipped cocktails or toured the gala’s accompanying exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The show is an exploration of Black menswear from the 18th century onward, with dandyism as a unifying theme. Another film director, Baz Luhrmann, was touring the exhibit, designed by curator Monica L. Miller, a Barnard professor who literally wrote the book on dandyism: “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. He, too, mused on the importance of this year’s theme. “Sometimes the subjects are fun, sometimes you go, that’s interesting. But this is a subject where you go, why has light not been shone on this before?” Luhrmann said. “Black sartorial power on culture is so great but how much talk has there been about it?” Thinking of a departed friend For Whoopi Goldberg, the most important person of the evening wasn’t actually there. It was her late friend, André Leon Talley, the fashion editor and personality who was so important to Black style, and with whom she’d attended previous galas. Talley, who died in 2022, is honored in the exhibit; there’s a caftan he wore, among other objects. And Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton has said he was an inspiration for the show. “I think they did him proud,” Goldberg said during cocktails. “I’m very happy to be here again, but spectacularly happy to see how they took care of him.” Asked what Talley would have thought of the show, she guessed he’d say: “I’m glad you understand.” And she added: “What better way to honor him?” Goldberg was dressed head to toe — meaning mini-top hat to spats-inspired shoes, to handbag – in Thom Browne. “He said. ‘Will you come?'” Goldberg said of Browne, whose suits, particularly, are hugely popular. “And I said, when you’re done, just put it on me, and I’m good. I feel incredible.” So what is dandyism? It was a favored topic of conversation; every guest had a slightly different way of defining what a dandy is. For director Lee, it was simple: “Doing your own thing.” For Audra McDonald, it was about “a sense of reclaiming” one’s own identity and worth. The Broadway actor, currently starring in “Gypsy,” was among the first guests examining the exhibit, along with her husband and fellow actor, Will Swenson. Over at cocktails, the Rev. Al Sharpton was describing dandyism as a form of activism: the silent kind. “It means to me that even in the midst of being in a socially limited situation, we celebrate. I refuse to submit to just having a menial job. I’m gonna dress up . I’m gonna tip my hat. It’s a sense of rebellion without having to speak it.” A crucial sense of timing Sharpton was full of praise for the Met having chosen this moment to honor Black style. “It comes at a very important time,” he said. “To make a statement of diversity at the highest cultural level — which is the Met Gala — when diversity is under attack by the highest office in the land is more than if I could do a hundred marches. This is a monumental night.” Broadway actor Alex Newell agreed. It was the performer’s third Met Gala in a row, but this one had a special meaning. “It’s nice to see us represented this way,” Newell said. “Just when it is needed the most.” A flower-filled night sky Once gala guests climb the steps outside and enter the museum’s Great Hall, they encounter each year a monumental centerpiece, usually floral. This year, it was hundreds — thousands? — of flower petals suspended from the ceiling, with lighting evoking a starry sky. The petals also hung over the Great Hall staircase, which guests ascended to greet the awaiting receiving line of gala hosts. The petals — made of fabric, truth be told – were meant to symbolize narcissus flowers, and there were also reflecting pools, nodding to the myth of Narcissus. The greeting was not only visual but musical: An orchestra, accompanied by swaying singers, played favorites like Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing,” Guests then either proceeded to view the exhibit, or head straight to cocktails in the airy Engelhard Court. Often, they seem to prefer socializing, but this year the exhibit was filled with guests. Honoring Oscar (Wilde, that is) One of the more famous dandies, historically speaking, was Oscar Wilde. And so there was symmetry in the fact that Sarah Snook — the “Succession” star — was dressed in a way Wilde would have liked. It was certainly intentional. Snook now is appearing on Broadway in “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” the stage adaptation of Wilde’s 1891 novel in which she plays all 26 roles. “Yes, There’s definitely an echo,” Snook said with a smile, about her striking (and aristocratic-looking) black suit. “Oscar would be happy.” Snook said she was enjoying her night off at the gala — conveniently for the many guests from Broadway, theaters are dark on Mondays. “I’m loving the celebration of beautiful things,” Snook said of her gala experience. There are always first-timers At every Met Gala, there are newbies — and they’re often rather starstruck. One of them was model Christian Latchman, 19, wearing a dramatic white ensemble that combined trousers with a long skirt. If he looked familiar, that’s because Latchman is the face in the photograph on the cover of the exhibit’s massive hardcover catalog. Asked to sum up his feelings about the evening, he said simply: “Astonishment. That’s the word for it.” Also new to the gala was actor Keith Powers, who sat on the sidelines, soaking it in. Was it all intimidating? Overwhelming? “All of the above,” he said. “It makes me anxious — and happy, and inspired.” A call to dinner, tuba included Cocktails are fun, but dinner at the Met Gala sounds even more fun — that’s where guests get an A-plus musical performance, for one thing. But music also accompanies the call to dinner. This time, it was the New York-based High and Mighty Brass Band who did the honors, snaking through cocktails with drums, trombones, a tuba and The Presidentets. Then guests headed off — slowly — to dinner, where they feasted on a menu by chef Kwame Onwuachi. Dinner began with papaya piri piri salad, and moved on to creole roasted chicken with a lemon emulsion, and cornbread with honey curry butter and barbecue greens. Dessert? That was a “cosmic brownie” with powdered sugar doughnut mousse. For more coverage of the 2025 Met Gala, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala —Jocelyn Noveck, AP National Writer View the full article

Provide clients with actionable information they can use to move their businesses forward. The Disruptors With Liz Farr Go PRO for members-only access to more Liz Farr. View the full article

Provide clients with actionable information they can use to move their businesses forward. The Disruptors With Liz Farr Go PRO for members-only access to more Liz Farr. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

When Cadillac designed its new ultraluxury EV, the handcrafted Celestiq, the design team had to completely rethink its battery pack: a standard EV battery wouldn’t fit inside. “We had a challenge, because due to the low roof height and the expressive proportions, there wasn’t room for a typical battery in this vehicle,” says Tony Nausieda, chief engineer of electrical propulsion systems at GM. “It would have been probably pretty straightforward to do something like an internal combustion powertrain, but that was not at all what anybody wanted to do. This was conceived to be an electric vehicle.” They couldn’t compromise on the low lines of the car. It also had to be spacious inside—including in the back seat, because the type of person who owns a bespoke vehicle that starts at $340,000 often uses a driver. And the battery needed to be big enough to give the car at least 300 miles of range. To tackle the challenge, they took a new approach to the layout of the battery cells. In other GM vehicles, the cells are stacked vertically in a tray. (The company calls the arrangement “toast” since it looks like slices of bread.) But for the Celestiq, the battery cells lie horizontally. And instead of having a uniform height, the battery pack varies from front to back. “It’s more of a topographical situation,” Nausieda says. Underneath the passenger seat in the front, the stack of cells is slightly higher; under the second row footwell, the stack is very short to provide as much legroom as possible. Because there was much more room under the second-row seat cushions, the batteries are stacked higher there. Once the engineers had gotten to that point, there were still 25 miles short of what the car needed in range. So, they designed a new console in the interior, from front to back, and added 24 more battery cells in the tunnel they’d created. “That put us comfortably above that 300-mile limit,” he says. The unusual arrangement was possible because GM’s “Ultium” battery system, created in a partnership with LG Energy Solution, was designed for flexibility, with cells, modules, and packs that can be built in different configurations. The Celestiq’s particular battery pack design is unlikely to be repeated in other models, since it’s more difficult to assemble; the luxury car is made by hand and doesn’t need to be made at scale. But it’s one example of the car company’s road map to move from a one-size-fits-all battery to developing the ideal battery for a particular car. In this case, the designers didn’t have a choice. Typically, “your vehicle design and configuration is really somewhat bounded by the propulsion technologies that you have available to you,” says Nausieda. But with the Celestiq, the design came first and the engineers had to make the battery work. “We took a clean sheet of paper approach and made sure that we had the right battery to support this vehicle and not compromise,” he says. View the full article

Phone notifications are tricky to balance: too many of them, and you're constantly distracted by buzzes and pings. Too few of them, and you risk missing something important, from a relative in trouble to a great deal on headphones (two ends of the importance scale there, but you get the idea). Over the years, Apple and Google have tweaked and refined the notification systems built into iOS and Android, but there's still room for improvement. The native features that are currently in place work fine, but lack the sort of granular control you need to properly manage the alerts you want and the alerts you don't want. Enter BuzzKill: It's Android only (sorry, iPhone users), and it'll cost you $4, but it does a fine job of managing notifications for you. It hits the sweet spot to give you a powerful set of options to manage without feeling overwhelming or cluttered, and it just might be the notification solution you've been looking for. Unfortunately there's no free trial to take advantage of, though the developer does promise to refund you your money if you're not happy with the app—and as I take you through some of the features it offers here, you should get a good idea of whether or not this is an app you're going to find useful on your own phone. Creating rules in BuzzKill Rules have certain criteria attached to them. Credit: Lifehacker Load up BuzzKill for the first time, and once you've given it the necessary permissions to run in the background and access your notifications, you're ready to add your first rule: Tap on Create rule to do this. That then leads you to a rule builder that will look familiar if you've ever attempted to set up filters for your email. There are two parts to each rule: how to identify the notifications that qualify it (tap any app and contains anything to specify the criteria), and then the action to take for matching alerts (tap do nothing to set an action). To begin with, you'll need to pick a specific app— whether it's Uber, WhatsApp, or anything else you've got installed—and you can select multiple apps per rule. You can leave a rule to apply to all notifications from your chosen app(s), or you can specify further filters. BuzzKill is able to look for words or phrases inside notifications, plus certain notification attributes for the notification—such as whether or not it has an image in it, or whether it's from a group conversation (handy for those group chats). You can build up some quite complex filters this way, and it's even possible to nest certain criteria in sub-groups. You can ask BuzzKill to match all the filter rules you've listed, or just some of them (so a rule might be applied to messages from group chats or with images in them, or only when both of those criteria are met, for example). All you then need to do is specify the action that BuzzKill needs to take, and it's here that the app really proves its value. You can do everything from mute an alert, to make sure it's unmuted even if your phone is silenced—so BuzzKill is useful for getting your attention for important notifications as well as reducing distractions from more minor ones. You can also invoke popular automation tool Tasker from BuzzKill for even more control. Managing rules in BuzzKill Head to the Explore tab for inspiration for your rules. Credit: Lifehacker Once you've started creating rules in the app, they can be managed from the Rules tab: Simple toggle switches let you enable or disable them, and you can also delete and duplicate rules by tapping the three dots in the top left corner of the rule box. Over on the History tab, you can see stats relating to all the notifications that have come in on your phone, with filters and summaries available if you need them. One handy feature on this screen is the option to create a new rule based on a notification you've already received: Just tap on the notification and pick Create rule. The Explore tab gives you some examples of what BuzzKill can do, and it's a great resource for finding inspiration. For example, you can set up automatic replies to incoming messages, or snooze alerts that arrive together in quick succession, or create a custom vibration for communications from a particular contact. Head to the Settings tab and you can play around with some of the app options. From here you're able to give BuzzKill control over persistent notifications that stick around in the status bar, and create shortcuts for quickly triggering rules from the home screen or the quick settings panel on Android. I've found BuzzKill most useful for shushing apps that I don't particularly want to hear from during the day, without losing those notifications altogether—above and beyond the features that you get with Android itself. Creating and managing rules is also straightforward, and there's an export tool for moving them to another device (BuzzKill is particularly privacy-conscious, and doesn't connect to the web). View the full article

In 2023, I said that creator-led content marketing would shape the future of search. Two years later, that future has arrived – faster and more broadly than expected. In the past year alone, adoption has surged among consumers and, in turn, brands. The conversation has grown bigger, faster-moving, and more complex than I initially imagined. Today’s users no longer just “Google it.” They discover and trust information through: TikTok videos. Reddit threads. YouTube Shorts. Instagram Reels. Community forums. Google has adapted, integrating user-generated content and lived experiences directly into its search results via features like Perspectives, Short videos, and Forums. The rise of AI-generated content has flooded the web, increasing the value of creator-authenticated, human-driven content. In 2025, brands must build trust and demand attention by partnering with real people telling authentic stories – optimized not only for Google but for a “search everywhere” world. Why creator-led content took over discovery Creators were already gaining traction as powerful drivers of consumer trust in 2023. Influencer marketing had emerged and matured. TikTok had reshaped entertainment consumption. Audiences were leaning into peer-to-peer recommendations. Fast forward to 2025, and several forces have cemented creator-led content as a dominant force: Post-pandemic loyalty shifts: Trust now lives with individuals, not corporations. Experience-first content expectations: Consumers want to hear from people who have been there and done it. Whether they’re reviewing a product, traveling to a destination, or trying a service, firsthand experience is prioritized in content. The rise of Gen Z as a search-shaping force: Gen Z, now a major consumer demographic, has redefined how discovery happens. They prefer the immediacy, relatability, and experience-led answers offered by social search platforms like TikTok and Reddit over traditional search engines. As Gen Z habits spread, they are influencing older generations too, introducing Millennials, Gen X, and even Boomers to new search behaviors and cementing platforms like TikTok and YouTube as legitimate search destinations. Dig deeper: Social search is Gen Z’s Google: Are you visible where it matters? Search as a behavior, instead of a platform The idea of “search” being synonymous with Google has fractured. While Google still commands a huge slice of global search activity, the user journey increasingly starts elsewhere or features touchpoints across multiple channels: TikTok: Now a primary discovery engine for Gen Z and Millennials (with increasing coverage across older demographics too) for product recommendations, reviews, how-to content, intent-led inspiration, and tutorials. Reddit: Seemingly recognized by Google itself as a repository of authentic, nuanced conversations, leading to a deeper integration of Reddit content into SERPs. YouTube: Short-form content (YouTube Shorts) is appearing more prominently in both YouTube’s internal search and Google’s main search results. In response, Google has adapted. Its Forums and Short videos feeds surface insights from creators, forum posts, social content, and more – a clear effort by Google to move beyond the traditional 10 blue links. Discovery is no longer limited to websites. It happens across creators, conversations, and communities. It’s now the job of SEO professionals to understand this journey from users’ perspectives and demand attention at those touchpoints, all while Google is stitching these surfaces together on their SERPs with increasing numbers of SERP features. How AI accelerated the creator-led revolution When generative AI hit the mainstream in late 2022, it triggered a seismic shift in content creation. Suddenly, anyone could produce articles, images, and videos at scale. While this democratization unlocked opportunities, it also created a crisis of quality. Users quickly grew skeptical. Over-optimized, lifeless content lost credibility. In response, Google doubled down on experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), while highlighting genuine insights from real people across the web within those new filters. In this era of search, creators are emerging as a beacon of authenticity. Their firsthand experiences, opinions, and personal narratives offer something AI cannot replicate: genuine human nuance. Interestingly, some of the smartest creators are now blending AI as a tool, using it to scale their production while keeping the human core intact. The future isn’t AI vs. humans. It’s AI plus human authenticity. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. What winning looks like now: Creator-led search strategies 1. Discovery through social search TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit are no longer secondary platforms. They are primary discovery engines, especially for Gen Z and Millennial audiences. Brands must embrace a social search strategy, ensuring that creator-driven conversations, short-form videos, and community discussions naturally position them during vital discovery moments. Authenticity is key: the goal isn’t polished ads, but real experiences that create organic momentum across platforms. 2. Scaling search through UGC and creator partnerships Not many brands can manufacture the scale of discoverability that is possible and required to be successful. By partnering with creators and encouraging UGC, brands can decentralize their search presence by: Enabling hundreds – even thousands – of micro-moments. Letting real people talk about their products, services, and experiences. Driving discovery through these distributed, authentic interactions. Each authentic post, review, or video becomes a node of search-everywhere discovery, increasing surface area across: Social search platforms. Traditional search engines. 3. Building AI recognition through brand mentions As LLMs increasingly power search interfaces, brand mentions across trusted creator content and UGC will likely play a crucial role in how brands are represented by AI systems. In a future where chat-based discovery becomes the norm, brands repeatedly cited by creators, reviewers, and authentic sources will have a stronger semantic presence. This will make it more likely they are surfaced, recommended, and trusted by AI-driven search experiences. 4. Achieving SERP dominance across formats Google’s SERPs today are a tapestry of content types: Traditional organic rankings. News features. Paid promotion. Short-form videos. People Also Ask (PAA). Discussion forums. A variety of other SERP features. Winning brands will not rely on ranking traditionally. They will dominate multiple surfaces simultaneously, appearing through: Their own optimized content. Creator-led discussions. Social search crossovers. AI Overviews citing trusted creators and publishers alike. The future of SERP visibility is multi-format and multi-source. Creator-led content isn’t just an accessory to this – it can be a central lever for visibility, authority, and relevance in modern search. What’s next: The future of discovery is personal and participatory As we look ahead, three clear trends are shaping the future of search and discovery: Hyper-personalization: Search engines will increasingly tailor results to individual interests, communities, and trusted sources. Multimodal discovery: Search inputs, as with outputs, will continue expanding. Users will “search” using their favorite creators’ video snippets, voice prompts, and images. Search is diversifying on both sides of the conversation, leading to a landscape that features more than just typed queries. It’s all going to be powered by AI-led interfaces. Participatory search: Consumers won’t just passively receive information; they’ll engage in dynamic conversations with creators, communities, and AI assistants alike. The brands that thrive will be those who embed themselves within these systems and touchpoints, not just broadcast at them. The creator-led future is already here Creator-led content isn’t a trend – it’s the new baseline for how discovery happens online. Audiences crave authenticity. In a fragmented search landscape, trust is earned through experience, community, and voice. Brands that understand this – and are willing to create with creators and their communities of users, not just talk about them – will be the ones who win the moments that matter. The future of search is here: it’s human, experiential, and everywhere. The question now is: will your brand show up where it counts? View the full article

Next week’s conclave to elect the successor to Pope Francis as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is a solemn affair steeped in centuries-old traditions. But far from the Sistine Chapel where cloistered cardinals will cast votes, people are placing bets on who will be chosen as the next pope. From cash bets on websites to online games modeled after fantasy football leagues and casual wagers among friends and families, the popularity of guessing and gambling on the future of the papacy is increasing worldwide, experts and participants say. It’s even topped the Europa League soccer tournament and Formula One drivers’ championship, said Sam Eaton, U.K. manager for Oddschecker, a leading online platform analyzing odds across sports, events and other betting markets. “There’s a huge level of interest globally,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve had a market like this where we’ve had so many countries interested in seeing odds.” Around the world, thousands of bets on the next pope Hundreds of thousands of people from some 140 countries have visited Oddschecker to review each cardinal’s chances of becoming the next pope, Eaton said. He noted special eagerness in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States. In the U.K., about 30,000 pounds (almost $40,000) have been wagered with one leading online betting platform as of this week, Eaton said—a far cry from 1.2 million pounds on the singing contest Eurovision but still noteworthy as a trend, with the conclave days away. “Betting on the next pope is definitely a niche market in the grand scheme of things, but it generates global interest,” said Lee Phelps, a spokesman for William Hill, one of the U.K.’s biggest bookmakers. “Since April 21, we’ve taken thousands of bets, and it’s the busiest of all our non-sports betting markets,” said Phelps, who expects a surge in interest once the conclave begins Wednesday. Betting on elections, papal conclaves and all manner of global events is almost a tradition of its own in the U.K., but such betting is not legal in the United States. BetMGM, one of the world’s top sports-betting companies, said it would not have any bets up. But Eaton noted that in the unregulated, illegal space, one of the biggest sites has $10 million wagered so far in pope bets. Fantasy “teams” of cardinals In Italy, betting on the papal election—and all religious events—is forbidden. Some people in Rome are making friendly, informal wagers—the equivalent of $20 on a favorite cardinal, with the loser pledging to host a dinner or buy a pizza night out. Others are turning to an online game called Fantapapa, or Fantasy Pope, which mimics popular fantasy football and soccer leagues. More than 60,000 people are playing, each choosing 11 cardinals—as if for a soccer team—whom they believe have the best shot at becoming the next pope. They also draft the top contender, or captain. As with online wagers, the No. 1 choice for fantasy players has been Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, closely followed by Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. “It’s a really fun game to play with friends and have a laugh,” Italian student Federico La Rocca, 23, said. “Initially my dad sent it to me ironically, but now that it’s going to be the conclave, I decided to have a go and try it.” La Rocca said he chose Tagle because “he looks like a nice guy and fun person.” Players’ selections determine the number of points they rake in. But what’s the jackpot? “Eternal glory,” joked Mauro Vanetti, who created the game when Francis was hospitalized earlier this year. Vanetti said he and his co-founder are against gambling, but they wanted to create something fun around the event. “It seems like in Italy there’s a certain inquisitiveness about the mechanisms of the Catholic hierarchy, but it’s a critical curiosity, a sarcastic and playful curiosity, so we were interested in this jesting spirit for such a solemn event,” Vanetti said. “In some ways it deflates the sacredness, in a nonaggressive way.” Some concerns about betting on a solemn event Beyond simply picking who the next pope will be, players and gamblers also can guess how many tries it will take the cardinals to choose the leader, which day of the week he’ll be elected, what new name he will decide on, or where his priorities will land on the progressive-conservative scale. While the game and some of the bets have a novel or fun nature, anti-gambling advocates have raised overall concerns about legal gaming and the growing popularity of wagering on all manner of events. A study published last fall found that 10% of young men in the U.S. show behavior that indicates a gambling problem, which is a rising concern in other parts of the world, too. And for gambling around the papacy in general, some have raised religious concerns. Catholic teaching doesn’t go so far as to call games of chance or wagers sinful, but its Catechism warns that “the passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement.” It says gambling becomes “morally unacceptable” if it gravely affects a person’s livelihood. Hui reported from London. AP writers Giovanna Dell’Orto in Rome and Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed. Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. —Maria Grazia Murru and Sylvia Hui, Associated Press View the full article

Key Takeaways Income Variation: Business owner earnings fluctuate widely, influenced by factors like industry, location, and business size, making it crucial to set realistic financial goals. Average Earnings: Sole proprietorships earn between $20,000 and $100,000, LLCs range from $50,000 to $200,000, while corporations typically exceed $100,000 annually. Key Influencers: Market research, funding options, business models, and location play significant roles in determining income potential for business owners. Profit Margins: Understanding average profit margins across industries—like retail (25%) and consulting (40%)—helps in evaluating potential profitability and financial success. Regional Differences: Earnings can vary significantly based on location, with urban business owners generally earning more due to larger markets, while rural areas may present lower income opportunities but could have reduced operational costs. Comparison with Salaried Roles: On average, small business owners earn more than salaried employees, highlighting the growth potential that entrepreneurship can offer despite its inherent income variability. Curious about how much business owners really make? You’re not alone. Many aspiring entrepreneurs wonder what kind of income they can expect when they take the leap into ownership. The truth is, earnings can vary widely based on factors like industry, location, and the size of the business. Understanding these nuances can help you set realistic financial goals and make informed decisions. Whether you’re dreaming of starting a small local shop or a tech startup, knowing the potential earnings can shape your strategy and motivate you on your journey. Let’s dive into the numbers and uncover what business owners typically earn. Overview of Business Owner Earnings Business owner earnings vary widely based on several key factors, such as industry, location, and business size. For small business owners, understanding these variances is crucial for setting realistic financial goals. Average Income Ranges Sole Proprietorships typically report earnings between $20,000 and $100,000 annually, heavily dependent on the owner’s efforts and market conditions. LLCs may see average earnings ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, as these business structures often include limited liability and tax benefits that can influence net income. Corporations often yield higher earnings, typically exceeding $100,000, due to their ability to attract investment and scale operations. Influencing Factors Industry: Service providers, like consultants or contractors, often earn lower initial incomes compared to retail or technology-focused businesses. Market Research: Conducting thorough market research illuminates potential customer bases and aids in estimating expected sales, crucial for financial planning. Funding: Options like venture capital or angel investors can boost a business’s growth potential, directly impacting potential earnings. Business Model: An effective business model aligned with customer needs can enhance profitability, whereas poorly defined models might not sustain financial success. Location: Operating in areas with higher consumer spending, such as urban centers, often leads to better earning opportunities than rural locations. Profit Margin Considerations Understanding your profit margin is vital. Typical margins range as follows: Industry Average Profit Margin Retail 25% Food Service 15% Consulting Services 40% E-commerce 20% Growth Strategy Impact A clear growth strategy can dramatically affect your earnings. Implementing effective marketing techniques, such as SEO and social media outreach, helps boost sales and customer acquisition. Additionally, focusing on product development and innovation can lead to new revenue streams and increased profitability over time. Recognizing these elements ensures you can navigate your financial goals as a small business owner effectively. Factors Influencing Business Owner Income Income for business owners often varies based on multiple factors. Understanding these elements helps you set realistic financial expectations and create effective strategies. Industry Variability Industry significantly impacts earnings for small business owners. For example, technology entrepreneurs can expect higher income averages, with owners in computer and mathematical occupations earning around $113,140 per year. In contrast, business owners in floral design might only make about $35,500 annually. Variability in demand and profit margins across industries plays a critical role in shaping your earning potential. Industry Average Income Computer and Mathematical $113,140 Retail Median 25% profit margin Food Service Median 15% profit margin Consulting Services Median 40% profit margin E-Commerce Median 20% profit margin Your choice of market influences customer acquisition, sales processes, and overall business model. Business Size and Structure The size and legal structure of your business also affect income. Small businesses structured as an LLC often generate larger profits compared to sole proprietorships or partnerships, with earnings ranging from $50,000 to $200,000. Corporations typically see even higher figures, often exceeding $100,000. Sole Proprietorship: Typically earns between $20,000 and $100,000 annually. LLC: Income can range significantly, influenced by market conditions and operational efficiency. Corporation: Often achieves higher average incomes due to more extensive funding options and growth potential. The legal structure you choose determines your tax obligations, funding options, and limitations in liability. Formulating a solid business plan that considers these elements will aid in optimizing earnings and ensuring sustainable growth. Average Income Figures for Business Owners Business owners face diverse income levels based on various factors, including structure, size, and industry. Understanding these figures can help you set realistic financial expectations as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey. Small Business Owners The average annual salary for small business owners in the United States is approximately $71,813, according to Payscale data. Most small business owners, about 86.3%, earn less than $100,000 per year. Income varies significantly among self-employed business owners; incorporated business owners reported a median income of $50,347 in 2016, while unincorporated owners reported $23,060. Average annual revenue for small businesses typically ranges around $46,978. Revenue can fluctuate substantially based on employee count; businesses with 1-4 employees averaged $387,000, while those with 10-19 employees averaged $2,164,000. Establishing a solid business plan, understanding your market, and identifying effective funding options can enhance your income potential in a small business context. Franchise Owners Franchise owners often experience different income dynamics compared to independent small business owners. The average income for franchise owners varies widely due to the specific franchise, industry, and location. Initial investments can range from $10,000 to over $500,000, depending on the franchise model and associated fees. On average, franchise owners earn about $50,000 to $125,000 annually, but some top-performing franchises report earnings exceeding $250,000. Factors like brand recognition, established business model, and customer acquisition strategies contribute to success in franchising. Emphasizing innovation and effective marketing can further bolster your franchise’s profitability. Understanding franchise agreements and seeking legal advice during the setup can help avoid pitfalls and enhance revenue generation. Comparison with Salaried Employees Business earnings often differ from salaried employees’ income due to varying structures and profit potentials. Understanding these distinctions helps you gauge your financial prospects in entrepreneurship. Average Income Comparison The average small business owner salary ranges from $70,781 to $99,979, while typical U.S. salaried employees earn between $50,000 and $70,000 annually. These figures highlight that small business ownership can lead to higher income potential as profitability grows. Income Type Average Salary Small Business Owner $70,781 – $99,979 Salaried Employee $50,000 – $70,000 Factors Impacting Earnings Business owners face unique financial elements that employees might not consider. Profitability relies heavily on various factors such as: Industry: Certain sectors yield higher earnings. Technology or finance business owners typically earn more than those in retail or services. Ownership Structure: Your chosen legal structure, whether LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation, affects taxes and profit distributions. Business Model: A well-structured business model directly influences revenue streams and scalability. Scalability can lead to significant growth in income. Revenue Variability Income inconsistency is common for small business owners. Your earnings might fluctuate due to market shifts or operational challenges. Utilizing strategic marketing, understanding your target audience, and enhancing customer acquisition efforts can stabilize this income. Embracing innovation in your product development and focusing on branding also substantially impacts revenue and overall profitability. Neglecting these elements could lead to stagnant income, unlike traditional salaried positions with consistent paychecks. Financial Implications Consider the implications of taxes, accounting, and cash flow management as a small business owner. Salaried employees typically have taxes withheld automatically, while business owners must actively manage and plan for tax liabilities. Fostering a solid budgeting strategy and maintaining expenses closely will help maintain financial health. By grasping these differences between small business ownership and salaried employment, you can create actionable plans tailored to achieve your business goals effectively. Regional Differences in Earnings Earnings for business owners can vary significantly across regions in the United States. Location impacts income due to differences in cost of living, market demand, and economic opportunities. Urban Areas: Business owners in metropolitan regions often report higher earnings due to a larger customer base. For example, cities like New York and San Francisco provide access to diverse markets and higher-paid clientele. Rural Areas: Owners in rural areas typically face lower income potential. Limited market size and fewer customers can restrict earnings. However, lower operational costs may balance this out. State Impacts: The economic environment of each state influences income levels. For instance, business owners in states with lower taxes, such as Wyoming or Texas, may retain more earnings compared to those in higher-tax areas like California or New York. Industry Variation: Earnings also differ based on local industry presence. Regions with a strong tech scene, such as Silicon Valley, attract entrepreneurs who often earn higher incomes. Conversely, areas supporting traditional industries may offer less lucrative positions. Market Research Necessity: Conducting thorough market research can help you understand the earning potential in your specific area. Analyze competitors and consumer behavior to gauge how local factors might affect your income as a small business owner. By recognizing these regional differences, you can strategize effectively, setting realistic income expectations based on your location and industry. Conclusion Understanding the income potential as a business owner is crucial for your entrepreneurial journey. By recognizing the factors that influence earnings, you can better navigate the complexities of ownership. Whether you’re considering a sole proprietorship or a corporation, it’s clear that your industry and location will play significant roles in your financial success. As you plan your business strategy, keep in mind that setting realistic financial goals is essential. With the right approach to market research and an effective growth strategy, you can enhance your profitability. Your path to entrepreneurship might be challenging but with informed decisions, you can achieve the income you desire. Frequently Asked Questions What is the average income for small business owners? The average annual income for small business owners is approximately $71,813, with 86.3% earning less than $100,000. Earnings can vary widely based on business type, location, and market conditions. How much do franchise owners typically earn? Franchise owners usually earn between $50,000 and $125,000 annually, with top performers exceeding $250,000. Earnings depend on brand recognition and effective marketing strategies. What factors influence business income? Business income can vary significantly due to factors such as industry type, location, business size, and ownership structure. Understanding these variables can help set realistic financial goals. How do income levels differ between business structures? Sole Proprietorships typically earn between $20,000 and $100,000, LLCs range from $50,000 to $200,000, and Corporations often earn over $100,000 annually. What are the average earnings in different industries? Average earnings vary by industry: technology entrepreneurs earn around $113,140, while floral designers earn about $35,500. Profit margins also differ, such as retail at 25% and consulting at 40%. How do earnings compare between small business owners and salaried employees? Small business owners earn between $70,781 and $99,979 annually, while typical U.S. salaried employees earn between $50,000 and $70,000, highlighting the potential for higher income in entrepreneurship. Why is location important for business earnings? Location significantly impacts income due to variations in cost of living, market demand, and economic opportunities. Urban areas typically provide higher earning potential compared to rural areas. What is the impact of market research on earnings potential? Conducting thorough market research helps entrepreneurs understand their specific earning potential based on regional factors and industry trends, enabling them to make informed business decisions. How can small business owners improve their profitability? To enhance profitability, small business owners should focus on developing a clear growth strategy, effective marketing, and continuous innovation within their business operations. Image Via Envato This article, "Understanding How Much Do Business Owners Make and What Influences Their Earnings" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Key Takeaways Income Variation: Business owner earnings fluctuate widely, influenced by factors like industry, location, and business size, making it crucial to set realistic financial goals. Average Earnings: Sole proprietorships earn between $20,000 and $100,000, LLCs range from $50,000 to $200,000, while corporations typically exceed $100,000 annually. Key Influencers: Market research, funding options, business models, and location play significant roles in determining income potential for business owners. Profit Margins: Understanding average profit margins across industries—like retail (25%) and consulting (40%)—helps in evaluating potential profitability and financial success. Regional Differences: Earnings can vary significantly based on location, with urban business owners generally earning more due to larger markets, while rural areas may present lower income opportunities but could have reduced operational costs. Comparison with Salaried Roles: On average, small business owners earn more than salaried employees, highlighting the growth potential that entrepreneurship can offer despite its inherent income variability. Curious about how much business owners really make? You’re not alone. Many aspiring entrepreneurs wonder what kind of income they can expect when they take the leap into ownership. The truth is, earnings can vary widely based on factors like industry, location, and the size of the business. Understanding these nuances can help you set realistic financial goals and make informed decisions. Whether you’re dreaming of starting a small local shop or a tech startup, knowing the potential earnings can shape your strategy and motivate you on your journey. Let’s dive into the numbers and uncover what business owners typically earn. Overview of Business Owner Earnings Business owner earnings vary widely based on several key factors, such as industry, location, and business size. For small business owners, understanding these variances is crucial for setting realistic financial goals. Average Income Ranges Sole Proprietorships typically report earnings between $20,000 and $100,000 annually, heavily dependent on the owner’s efforts and market conditions. LLCs may see average earnings ranging from $50,000 to $200,000, as these business structures often include limited liability and tax benefits that can influence net income. Corporations often yield higher earnings, typically exceeding $100,000, due to their ability to attract investment and scale operations. Influencing Factors Industry: Service providers, like consultants or contractors, often earn lower initial incomes compared to retail or technology-focused businesses. Market Research: Conducting thorough market research illuminates potential customer bases and aids in estimating expected sales, crucial for financial planning. Funding: Options like venture capital or angel investors can boost a business’s growth potential, directly impacting potential earnings. Business Model: An effective business model aligned with customer needs can enhance profitability, whereas poorly defined models might not sustain financial success. Location: Operating in areas with higher consumer spending, such as urban centers, often leads to better earning opportunities than rural locations. Profit Margin Considerations Understanding your profit margin is vital. Typical margins range as follows: Industry Average Profit Margin Retail 25% Food Service 15% Consulting Services 40% E-commerce 20% Growth Strategy Impact A clear growth strategy can dramatically affect your earnings. Implementing effective marketing techniques, such as SEO and social media outreach, helps boost sales and customer acquisition. Additionally, focusing on product development and innovation can lead to new revenue streams and increased profitability over time. Recognizing these elements ensures you can navigate your financial goals as a small business owner effectively. Factors Influencing Business Owner Income Income for business owners often varies based on multiple factors. Understanding these elements helps you set realistic financial expectations and create effective strategies. Industry Variability Industry significantly impacts earnings for small business owners. For example, technology entrepreneurs can expect higher income averages, with owners in computer and mathematical occupations earning around $113,140 per year. In contrast, business owners in floral design might only make about $35,500 annually. Variability in demand and profit margins across industries plays a critical role in shaping your earning potential. Industry Average Income Computer and Mathematical $113,140 Retail Median 25% profit margin Food Service Median 15% profit margin Consulting Services Median 40% profit margin E-Commerce Median 20% profit margin Your choice of market influences customer acquisition, sales processes, and overall business model. Business Size and Structure The size and legal structure of your business also affect income. Small businesses structured as an LLC often generate larger profits compared to sole proprietorships or partnerships, with earnings ranging from $50,000 to $200,000. Corporations typically see even higher figures, often exceeding $100,000. Sole Proprietorship: Typically earns between $20,000 and $100,000 annually. LLC: Income can range significantly, influenced by market conditions and operational efficiency. Corporation: Often achieves higher average incomes due to more extensive funding options and growth potential. The legal structure you choose determines your tax obligations, funding options, and limitations in liability. Formulating a solid business plan that considers these elements will aid in optimizing earnings and ensuring sustainable growth. Average Income Figures for Business Owners Business owners face diverse income levels based on various factors, including structure, size, and industry. Understanding these figures can help you set realistic financial expectations as you embark on your entrepreneurial journey. Small Business Owners The average annual salary for small business owners in the United States is approximately $71,813, according to Payscale data. Most small business owners, about 86.3%, earn less than $100,000 per year. Income varies significantly among self-employed business owners; incorporated business owners reported a median income of $50,347 in 2016, while unincorporated owners reported $23,060. Average annual revenue for small businesses typically ranges around $46,978. Revenue can fluctuate substantially based on employee count; businesses with 1-4 employees averaged $387,000, while those with 10-19 employees averaged $2,164,000. Establishing a solid business plan, understanding your market, and identifying effective funding options can enhance your income potential in a small business context. Franchise Owners Franchise owners often experience different income dynamics compared to independent small business owners. The average income for franchise owners varies widely due to the specific franchise, industry, and location. Initial investments can range from $10,000 to over $500,000, depending on the franchise model and associated fees. On average, franchise owners earn about $50,000 to $125,000 annually, but some top-performing franchises report earnings exceeding $250,000. Factors like brand recognition, established business model, and customer acquisition strategies contribute to success in franchising. Emphasizing innovation and effective marketing can further bolster your franchise’s profitability. Understanding franchise agreements and seeking legal advice during the setup can help avoid pitfalls and enhance revenue generation. Comparison with Salaried Employees Business earnings often differ from salaried employees’ income due to varying structures and profit potentials. Understanding these distinctions helps you gauge your financial prospects in entrepreneurship. Average Income Comparison The average small business owner salary ranges from $70,781 to $99,979, while typical U.S. salaried employees earn between $50,000 and $70,000 annually. These figures highlight that small business ownership can lead to higher income potential as profitability grows. Income Type Average Salary Small Business Owner $70,781 – $99,979 Salaried Employee $50,000 – $70,000 Factors Impacting Earnings Business owners face unique financial elements that employees might not consider. Profitability relies heavily on various factors such as: Industry: Certain sectors yield higher earnings. Technology or finance business owners typically earn more than those in retail or services. Ownership Structure: Your chosen legal structure, whether LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation, affects taxes and profit distributions. Business Model: A well-structured business model directly influences revenue streams and scalability. Scalability can lead to significant growth in income. Revenue Variability Income inconsistency is common for small business owners. Your earnings might fluctuate due to market shifts or operational challenges. Utilizing strategic marketing, understanding your target audience, and enhancing customer acquisition efforts can stabilize this income. Embracing innovation in your product development and focusing on branding also substantially impacts revenue and overall profitability. Neglecting these elements could lead to stagnant income, unlike traditional salaried positions with consistent paychecks. Financial Implications Consider the implications of taxes, accounting, and cash flow management as a small business owner. Salaried employees typically have taxes withheld automatically, while business owners must actively manage and plan for tax liabilities. Fostering a solid budgeting strategy and maintaining expenses closely will help maintain financial health. By grasping these differences between small business ownership and salaried employment, you can create actionable plans tailored to achieve your business goals effectively. Regional Differences in Earnings Earnings for business owners can vary significantly across regions in the United States. Location impacts income due to differences in cost of living, market demand, and economic opportunities. Urban Areas: Business owners in metropolitan regions often report higher earnings due to a larger customer base. For example, cities like New York and San Francisco provide access to diverse markets and higher-paid clientele. Rural Areas: Owners in rural areas typically face lower income potential. Limited market size and fewer customers can restrict earnings. However, lower operational costs may balance this out. State Impacts: The economic environment of each state influences income levels. For instance, business owners in states with lower taxes, such as Wyoming or Texas, may retain more earnings compared to those in higher-tax areas like California or New York. Industry Variation: Earnings also differ based on local industry presence. Regions with a strong tech scene, such as Silicon Valley, attract entrepreneurs who often earn higher incomes. Conversely, areas supporting traditional industries may offer less lucrative positions. Market Research Necessity: Conducting thorough market research can help you understand the earning potential in your specific area. Analyze competitors and consumer behavior to gauge how local factors might affect your income as a small business owner. By recognizing these regional differences, you can strategize effectively, setting realistic income expectations based on your location and industry. Conclusion Understanding the income potential as a business owner is crucial for your entrepreneurial journey. By recognizing the factors that influence earnings, you can better navigate the complexities of ownership. Whether you’re considering a sole proprietorship or a corporation, it’s clear that your industry and location will play significant roles in your financial success. As you plan your business strategy, keep in mind that setting realistic financial goals is essential. With the right approach to market research and an effective growth strategy, you can enhance your profitability. Your path to entrepreneurship might be challenging but with informed decisions, you can achieve the income you desire. Frequently Asked Questions What is the average income for small business owners? The average annual income for small business owners is approximately $71,813, with 86.3% earning less than $100,000. Earnings can vary widely based on business type, location, and market conditions. How much do franchise owners typically earn? Franchise owners usually earn between $50,000 and $125,000 annually, with top performers exceeding $250,000. Earnings depend on brand recognition and effective marketing strategies. What factors influence business income? Business income can vary significantly due to factors such as industry type, location, business size, and ownership structure. Understanding these variables can help set realistic financial goals. How do income levels differ between business structures? Sole Proprietorships typically earn between $20,000 and $100,000, LLCs range from $50,000 to $200,000, and Corporations often earn over $100,000 annually. What are the average earnings in different industries? Average earnings vary by industry: technology entrepreneurs earn around $113,140, while floral designers earn about $35,500. Profit margins also differ, such as retail at 25% and consulting at 40%. How do earnings compare between small business owners and salaried employees? Small business owners earn between $70,781 and $99,979 annually, while typical U.S. salaried employees earn between $50,000 and $70,000, highlighting the potential for higher income in entrepreneurship. Why is location important for business earnings? Location significantly impacts income due to variations in cost of living, market demand, and economic opportunities. Urban areas typically provide higher earning potential compared to rural areas. What is the impact of market research on earnings potential? Conducting thorough market research helps entrepreneurs understand their specific earning potential based on regional factors and industry trends, enabling them to make informed business decisions. How can small business owners improve their profitability? To enhance profitability, small business owners should focus on developing a clear growth strategy, effective marketing, and continuous innovation within their business operations. Image Via Envato This article, "Understanding How Much Do Business Owners Make and What Influences Their Earnings" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Dive into the findings on AI Overviews and Google Search. Is the promise of growing web traffic being fulfilled? The post Testing Google’s Post-AIO Traffic Claims appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At $179.99 (down from its original $299.99), the 27-inch Samsung Odyssey G55C curved gaming monitor is one of those deals that feels tempting on specs alone. SAMSUNG 27-Inch Odyssey G55C Series QHD 1000R Curved Gaming Monitor $179.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $299.99 Save $120.00 Get Deal Get Deal $179.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $299.99 Save $120.00 It’s got a 1440p resolution, a 1000R curve that pulls you into the action, a 165Hz refresh rate with FreeSync and G-SYNC compatibility to keep screen tearing to a minimum, and features like Samsung’s Virtual Aim Point and Contrast Enhancer adding a little extra gaming flair without overcomplicating the experience. On paper, that’s more than enough for casual and mid-tier gamers. That said, it’s not without its issues. If you’re sensitive to input lag or picky about motion clarity, the G55C might leave you wanting more. Fast-paced games show noticeable blur and smearing, especially with dark transitions, and the input lag at 165Hz and 60Hz can reportedly feel sluggish (oddly enough, gameplay feels snappier at 120Hz). Additionally, the backlight strobing feature, meant to reduce motion blur, introduces ghosting and can’t be used with VRR on. HDR is supported, but you’ll want to keep expectations in check—it gets bright enough to fight off some glare, but not enough to deliver meaningful HDR performance. It works decently with consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but you’ll have to tweak settings to avoid compatibility hiccups with 4K and HDR signals. You also won’t find any USB-C ports or a USB hub here, and there are no built-in speakers either. Plus, its narrow viewing angles mean once you move off to the side or stand up, the picture quality takes a hit—so it’s not ideal for couch co-op or multitasking with someone else. But for solo gaming on a budget, especially if you're playing slower-paced or story-driven games, it delivers a big screen with immersive visuals and decent contrast. If you're considering alternatives, the Dell G2724D Gaming Monitor makes a good case for itself with similar specs, but it comes at a higher price point of $314. View the full article

Government insists on retaining policy despite senior Labour figures blaming it for local election lossesView the full article

Negotiations accelerated after The President’s imposition of global US tariffsView the full article

The The President administration’s layoffs across the federal workforce have already left tens of thousands of employees without jobs or on indefinite leave. But many federal agencies have since been instructed to make even deeper cuts to their workforce. In total, at least 12% of the 2.4 million workers employed by the federal government could be impacted, according to the New York Times. For many workers, the sweeping cuts have upended the stability that federal jobs long promised. They also significantly impact women and people of color, effectively making them another attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts—something that has been a priority for the The President administration. The diversity of federal agencies An analysis by the National Women’s Law Center takes a closer look at how these job cuts are chipping away at the diversity of the federal workforce, which has historically mirrored the demographics of the overall U.S. workforce. As of September 2024, nearly half of federal workers (46%) were women and about 41% were people of color. (Since the administration took down current demographic data on the federal workforce in March, the NWLC analysis draws on data from September 2024.) Among the agencies that have been ordered to further reduce headcount, women accounted for an even higher percentage of their employees relative to the overall federal workforce, according to the NWLC. The administration wants to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, where women comprise 64% of the workforce. The Department of Education’s workforce, of which 63% are women, has already been slashed in half—and President The President is striving to shutter the agency altogether. Proposed layoffs at a number of other cabinet departments and agencies where women and people make up the majority of the workforce could impact tens of thousands of employees. Black workers, for example, account for 36% of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as compared to 18% of the overall federal workforce. Latinos and Indigenous workers, too, are employed at higher rates by certain federal agencies that have been marked for layoffs, relative to the overall workforce. How probationary workers are affected The The President administration has targeted probationary workers, in particular, who are not entitled to the same rights as federal workers with tenure. Probationary workers are typically in their first year of service or have recently been promoted to a new role. They also lack the protections that other federal workers have against being fired without cause. Nearly 25,000 of these workers have reportedly been fired; some were temporarily reinstated in response to court orders, but a new ruling in April granted The President the ability to fire them yet again. Probationary workers are often younger and earlier in their career, but they’re also more likely to be women: The NWLC reports that half of probationary employees across the federal workforce are women, but in certain departments, well over 60% of them can be women. The same is true among people of color, who make up 46% of probationary workers overall and a far larger percentage of those workers at specific agencies like the Treasury Department and the Social Security Administration. The benefits of a federal job Beyond offering a measure of job stability, federal roles are often a source of solid benefits that are harder to come by in the private sector, like 12 weeks of paid parental leave. Federal jobs also offer greater salary transparency and narrower wage gaps, mitigating the pay inequities that are more likely to impact women and people of color in the workplace: As of September 2024, women in the federal workforce were paid 95 cents for every dollar that men earned, a stark contrast from the 83 cents per dollar earned by women across the U.S. workforce. (The NWLC found that some departments had even narrower gender wage gaps prior to the recent layoffs.) View the full article

Google introduces AI Max for Search, expanding query reach, adaptive creative, and better controls to boost performance while maintaining transparency for advertisers. The post It’s Official: Google Launches AI Max for Search Campaigns appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Hot on the heels of Oura’s AI Advisor, another app feature from the smart ring company is leaving beta and becoming available to all users: meal logging. But this isn’t just another calorie tracking app—Oura’s Meals feature provides feedback on what you’re eating and when, without judging you for how much. Oura Ring 4 $349.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Get Deal Get Deal $349.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Glucose tracking is also coming to the app, and Oura has announced a partnership with Dexcom to sell the Stelo continuous glucose monitor, which can be purchased without a prescription. If you use the Stelo monitor, you can view some glucose statistics in the Oura app, including how your blood glucose responds to the meals you track. How Oura’s meal tracking worksOnce you have the Meals feature enabled (it’s rolling out to everyone today, the company says), just tap the plus sign in the lower right corner and select “Log a meal.” The simplest way to log a meal is to take a photo of your food, but don’t worry if you forget until your plate is clean. You can tap “Text input” at the bottom to type in a description of what you ate, or select one of your recent meals if you’re repeating something you ate within the past few days. The app takes a few seconds to think, and then it tells you what it believes you ate. (You can correct it if it’s wrong—more about that below.) Then it gives you some text feedback about your meal and a little section of statistics judging whether the meal was high or low in protein, fiber, and other factors—mostly macronutrients, but also how “processed” the meal was. The feedback encourages you to eat more protein and vegetables, without getting negative about your choices, and I appreciate that. Oura says in its press release: “Oura’s guidance avoids penalizing food choices, instead presenting non-judgmental insights that help members make informed choices based on their health objectives, whether that’s improving energy levels, maintaining metabolic health, or enhancing dietary balance.” The advice is gentle and the results are usually correct Credit: Beth Skwarecki Oura’s conclusions about what’s in a food photo have usually been correct for me, but sometimes it misses an ingredient—for example, it might log a “rice and beans bowl” but not notice that there was also chicken in the mix. The description might suggest that I could include protein next time. As I said earlier, this is no big deal, because you can correct this at the bottom of the screen. Scroll down and you’ll see a list of the ingredients or components of your meal. You can remove components that weren’t actually there and add anything that the AI missed. I found this process quick and easy. In a few taps, the app would then tell me that I did a great job getting both protein and fiber in my meal, and the stats would look correct. The text feedback on the meals is sometimes helpful, but at other times is too vague and generic to be of any real use. The few shreds of cabbage in my rice bowl contain anthocyanins? I don’t actually care. Garlic was valued in ancient civilizations for its medicinal properties? Great, that’s super important to know when I’m logging some garlic bread as a snack. I do sometimes enjoy that it suggests a way I could improve the meal next time—usually by adding some veggies or protein—but when I do log a meal with veggies and protein, it then just suggests that I might want to have the meal with “extra veggies” next time. I loved seeing a graphic of my meal timing Credit: Beth Skwarecki I’ve been disorganized with my eating lately, sometimes snarfing down snacks throughout the day and not sitting down to a real dinner until late in the evening. I know that late meals can affect my sleep, and that mealtimes are important for setting your body’s clock. So I was delighted to see that Oura tracks the time of meals as well as their content. Each meal I log is shown on a circle that represents my day. My sleep times and wind-down (bedtime) hours are shown in blue and green, respectively. There’s a yellow dot for each meal I logged today, and a yellowish area showing the times I normally eat. Right now, the app judges my mealtimes as “irregular.” Harsh, but true. I can see on the circular graphic just how late I’ve been eating. Where Oura’s Meals feature falls shortThe functions of the Meals feature seem to work quite well, but so many functions are missing. For example, I can only see that nice graph of meal timing after I log a meal! There’s no way to access it just to take a peek. I tried asking the AI Advisor about my meal patterns, and it describes them to me in text, but says it can’t generate graphs or images to share with me. I also wish I could see a summary of how I’m doing on protein, fiber, level of processing, and the other factors Oura tracks. But again, these only show up when you log a meal, and aren’t available otherwise. The Advisor will describe them to me in broad terms (“Your meals show balance, but your fiber and added sugar trends stand out”) but I hoped for better. Another feature it’s missing—which I’m actually OK with—is that it doesn’t seem to care how much food you’re eating. It doesn’t know how many grams of protein I’ve eaten, and certainly has no clue about the number of calories. On the one hand: excellent. I don’t need another app assuming that I want to lose weight or making me measure everything as I log it. “Yes, that’s rice” is so much easier to tell the app than “I ate exactly 205 grams of rice.” But on the other hand, the recommendations would make more sense if the app had a sense of balance. Did I eat a lot of chicken breast and a small amount of candy today, or the other way around? Those would be drastically different eating patterns, worth giving drastically different advice. View the full article

Instacart is launching a new stand-alone app called Fizz, designed for groups to order snacks and drinks ahead of parties for a flat $5 delivery fee. The platform, developed in collaboration with the hugely popular event invite app Partiful, enables partygoers in the 30 U.S. states where alcohol delivery is legal to add items to a shared cart from nearby participating grocery stores. Instead of splitting the bill, each user is prompted to pay only for what they’ve added, with an option to include a tip for the shopper. Back in February, Instacart’s chief product officer, Daniel Danker, approached Partiful CEO Shreya Murthy about partnering on the app. The teams began development in earnest in March, with Danker crediting artificial intelligence and mutual enthusiasm for the app’s rapid progress. “There aren’t a lot of consumer apps being built these days, and there aren’t a lot of people solving some of these really core needs for customers in a simple and delightful way,” Danker tells Fast Company. Murthy says she was intrigued by the opportunity to address the common challenge of figuring out what to bring to a party—and finding time to pick it up. “Think about the last time you went to a house party. There was probably this implicit social expectation for you to bring a bottle of wine or a pack of beer,” Murthy says. “As for me, as a guest who would go to parties, that was actually kind of annoying because I’d forget. . . . And I can’t show up to this party empty-handed. “We basically productized BYOB,” she adds, referring to “bring your own bottle.” Instacart is one of the biggest players in the gig economy. It went public in September 2023, and its shares have risen nearly 57% since then. Partiful, launched in 2020, has also seen rapid growth—it reported a 600% increase in user activity in 2024 and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025. Fizz incorporates Partiful’s web-friendly design, meaning users don’t need to download the Fizz app to place orders. Party hosts can either start a cart and share the link in a group chat or create a typical Partiful invite and toggle the “group order” option to generate a shared cart on the event page. Guests can then add their items and see what others have selected. Each person pays for their share, while the host schedules the delivery and pays the $5 fee. Fizz orders will be fulfilled by Instacart shoppers. Danker notes that the more items in a cart, the more shoppers will earn. He also anticipates higher tips due to the low delivery fee. “If people didn’t feel like they spent a bunch on fees,” he says, “then they feel really generous when it comes to the tips.” View the full article

Lucas Kraft’s friends knew him as the guy who always had an antacid. His recovery from bulimia left him with gastrointestinal damage, which made him reliant on over-the-counter digestive medicines. But they were also filled with chemicals that didn’t mesh with his health-conscious SoCal lifestyle. Luckily, his brother Noah had an eye for predicting where consumer interests are headed. He founded Doppler Labs, the buzzy 2010s startup hoping to create an in-ear computer, three years before Apple launched their AirPods. Doppler Labs was too early, but Wonderbelly—the brothers’ digestive health brand—has been right on time with its focus on clean ingredients and opposition to existing giants of OTC medicines. In the late 2010s, clean beauty was already surging. Whole Foods and Erewhon were on the rise, but they were siloed within wealthy communities. But a new and growing swatch of health obsessives—both within and without Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement—has put Wonderbelly in an unusually dominant position. The superstores came knocking: First Target, then CVS, and now Walmart. Wonderbelly products now feature prominently at 2,500 Walmart stores nationwide via a fleet of endcaps. These offerings include reworked packaging as well as a debut multisymptom product designed to compete with Pepto-Bismol. Noah contrasts Wonderbelly—which is sold as an OTC product with health claims that are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration—with the $53 billion supplements market. “Supplements are the Wild West. They are unregulated, so when you take a supplement, it’s hard to determine whether it works or is a placebo,” he says. “As an FDA-regulated OTC medicine . . . credibility is key. Growing the the old-fashioned way Medicine moves slower than Noah’s native tech world. The brothers incorporated Wonderbelly in 2021, before spending two years deep in product development. (Noah got antsy in this period, so he made an app to track digestive health.) When the company’s clean Tums alternative was ready in April 2023, Target was immediately on board. The retailer asked to place Wonderbelly in 2,000 stores, but the Kraft brothers needed more time, eventually agreeing to 650. Even that pared-back retail presence was important to Wonderbelly’s vision to build its brand credibility the old-fashioned way—in brick and mortar. “People buy medicine as a bottom-of-funnel product,” Noah says. “You go into your supermarket, you’re picking up bananas, and you grab some Tums. It is not the sort of thing where you go to someone’s website like you do with Casper.” With more stores, Wonderbelly brought more products. For the company’s CVS launch, it debuted a clean Gas-X alternative. Now, with Wonderbelly’s new placement in Walmart, it’s rolling out a clean Pepto-Bismol challenger. Wonderbelly intentionally positions itself against these name brands; it’s not interested in customers shopping for generics. Even the store placement matters—the company isn’t interested in selling in Whole Foods or Sprouts, because they don’t carry Tums. “We don’t want to sit next to apple cider vinegar,” Noah says. Wonderbelly’s bet is that, when given the choice between a chemical-filled name brand and a cleaned up alternative, the premium customer will choose it instead. The strategy has been lucrative. While he declined to disclose specific financials, Noah notes that the company hit profitability in April. As of April 2024, Wonderbelly was valued at about $53 million, according to market insight tool PitchBook—a number that Noah confirmed is still roughly accurate. Jeff Behm, Wonderbelly’s VP of sales, points out that the company will double its sales year over year, having reached 100,000 points of distribution. (It helps that the company is incredibly slim: Wonderbelly has 12 employees, and Noah has no desire to hire more.) The Walmart launch is poised to skyrocket sales by introducing 2,500 colorful endcaps nationwide. Walmart has a different customer, than the deep-pocketed shoppers that frequent the likes of Erewhon and similarly priced boutique grocers that dominate the “clean” space. So Wonderbelly created a new, cheaper $9.99 version of its antacid—with fewer tablets—to meet Walmart’s “everyday low prices” mandate. It seems to have paid off: Looking at the first-week data from the brand’s soft launch, Noah says sales are where he expected them be after three months of a concerted marketing push. “Customers are familiar with these legacy brands, and they’re going to stay connected to these legacy brands,” says Kristin Piper, Walmart’s vice president of wellness merchandising. “Some customers are looking for innovation, like [what] Wonderbelly is bringing to the space.” Navigating a MAHA minefield The Krafts grew up in Los Angeles, where their mother enforced a clean regime. Lucas describes a house full of “alternative brands that always tasted so much worse.” That includes drinking imitation milk at age 5. Noah points out that they weren’t allowed to drink Diet Coke. The brothers have mostly carried this clean ethos to their adult life, leading Lucas to count the ingredients on the back of his medicine bottles. Though Wonderbelly’s antacid has six ingredients to the average of 20 in Tums, that model of ingredient numbering can be reductive, especially in medicine, where some foreign chemicals are crucial to the product’s transportation around the body. So Wonderbelly makes its definition even clearer: non-GMO, vegan, free of artificial dyes, sweeteners, talc, titanium dioxide, parabens, and gluten. The siblings’ timing with Wonderbelly couldn’t have been better. The consumer wellness market skyrocketed coming out of the pandemic. “Clean beauty,” once a miniscule portion of the makeup market, is now valued at more than $8 billion. Consumers are buying Oura Rings and drinking kombucha. It’s also not lost on the Krafts that their product appeals to a broad enough consumer base to include those buying into the “Make America Healthy Again” movement. “We strongly believe in science, but we also align heavily with a lot of the things that the MAHA movement is pushing for,” Lucas says, adding that he and his brand are still positioned for people eating food that can upset their stomachs. “Antacids usually don’t come after you’ve had a big meal of kale salad.” MAHA’s reach is also broad, and has spurred actions that range from Sweetgreen eliminating seed oils in its food to the state of Utah banning fluoride in drinking water against prevailing medical consensus of the element’s public health benefits. As a result, the Krafts have had to be somewhat judicious about who they associate the brand with. “There have been several instances where we’re talking to someone and then we go to their socials, and we’re like, ‘Thanks for the support. Please don’t mention our company name,’” Noah says. View the full article

Google Ads today announced AI Max, a new tool to reach untapped queries and tailor ads with a single click. Rolling out globally in beta later this month, Google said AI Max integrates its most advanced targeting and creative tools into Search campaigns. Smarter matching. Broad match and keywordless tech help advertisers tap into high-performing queries they may have otherwise missed. Google AI learns from existing keywords, creative, and URLs to identify new opportunities. Real-time creative adaptation. New “text customization” (formerly “automatically created assets”) creates headlines and descriptions tailored to a user’s query – adapting on the fly to match emerging intent. Final URL expansion sends users to the most relevant landing page. Granular controls: Locations of interest let advertisers target users based on geographic intent at the ad group level. Brand controls allow the inclusion or exclusion of specific brands. Enhanced reporting includes clearer data on search terms, headline performance, and asset KPIs like spend and conversions. By the numbers. Initial tests of AI Max have delivered positive results (especially for large household brands), according to Gooogle data: Advertisers using AI Max have seen up to 14% more conversions at a similar cost-per-acquisition. For those still relying mostly on exact and phrase match, the lift can hit 27%. L’Oréal reported 2x higher conversion rates and 31% lower costs by tapping into net-new search queries with AI Max. Australia-based MyConnect used AI Max to boost leads by 16% while cutting cost-per-action by 13%. Why we care. AI Max helps go beyond traditional keyword strategies, giving the potential of bidding on untapped group of high-intent searches not being currently reached. It also dynamically customizes ad creative in real time, increasing relevance and conversions without adding complexity. With PPC managers who manage large accounts across several clients, it could serve as a fast, low-effort way to scale results and stay competitive as search behavior evolves. Bottom line: Google wants advertisers to move beyond traditional keywords, and AI Max is the new on-ramp to that goal, with automation, adaptability, and actionable insights leading the way. View the full article

A bipartisan group of President Donald The President’s critics is launching a new organization, dubbed the Cost Coalition, to highlight The President’s struggle to control rising costs in the early months of his new presidency. The group expects to be especially active ahead of upcoming elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to preliminary plans shared with The Associated Press this week ahead of a formal announcement. The Cost Coalition will push its message through a combination of paid advertising, social media, press interviews and on-the-ground events with small business leaders, veterans and the faith community. Terry Holt, a former spokesperson to former President George W. Bush and former House Speaker John Boehner, both Republicans, is serving as a senior communications adviser along with Andrew Bates, a former spokesperson for former President Joe Biden, a Democrat. “In 100 days, Donald The President put the best-performing economy in the world on a crash course toward recession. The President’s tariffs—the biggest middle class tax hike in modern history—are making everyday prices skyrocket and wreaking havoc for businesses large and small,” Holt and Bates said in a joint statement. “Next up are grossly inflationary tax cuts for the wealthy that will only saddle future generations with staggering debt. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or anything else, Donald The President’s agenda is an economic crisis threatening your livelihood and standard of living.” The new group enters a political landscape already packed with powerful voices fighting to shape the national conversation little more than 100 days after The President began his second term. The Republican president vowed to “end inflation” on Day 1, but he has focused more on immigration, culture wars and exacting revenge against his political adversaries while launching a global trade war that has pushed some costs higher and threatens to send the U.S. economy into recession. The President late last week said on his social media platform that there is “NO INFLATION” and claimed that grocery and egg prices have fallen, and that gasoline has dropped to $1.98 a gallon. That’s not entirely true: Grocery prices have jumped 0.5% in two of the past three months and are up 2.4% from a year ago. Gasoline and oil prices have declined—gas costs are down 10% from a year ago—continuing a longer-running trend that has continued in part because of fears the economy will weaken. Inflation did drop noticeably in March, an encouraging sign, though in the first three months of the year it was 3.6%, according to the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge, well above its 2% target. The Cost Coalition will be led by a team of veteran operatives who played key roles for Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful presidential campaign: Republican strategist Austin Weatherford, the leader of “Republicans for Harris”; Rev. Jennifer Butler, Harris’ national faith and engagement director; Libby Jamison, the Harris campaign’s national director of veteran and military family engagement; political strategist Leslie Gross, a veteran of the Obama-Biden administration; and George Holman, who served in the Biden administration. A spokesperson declined to say how the new group will be funded, except to say it has “seed contributions” from some large donors in both parties and will also rely on grassroots donations. As a project of the American Values Alliance, the organization will be set up as a nonprofit with a hybrid political action committee. As such, it won’t have to publicly disclose all of its funding sources. —Steve Peoples, AP National Politics Writer View the full article

Key Takeaways Protect Personal Privacy: Avoid posting sensitive personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers, and location tags to safeguard your privacy and mitigate risks of identity theft. Steer Clear of Controversial Topics: Refrain from sharing strong political or religious opinions, as these can alienate audience members and damage your brand’s reputation. Mind Your Photo Content: Share only professional and appropriate images; unflattering or party-related photos can harm perceptions of your brand. Maintain Respectful Communication: Avoid negative comments about others, as they can lead to reputational damage and loss of business opportunities; focus on promoting a positive environment. Verify Your Information: Always fact-check before sharing information to ensure credibility, as spreading misleading content can damage trust with your audience. Engage with Feedback: Actively monitor and address customer feedback on social media to demonstrate commitment to satisfaction and improve engagement. In today’s digital age, social media is a powerful tool that connects you with friends, family, and the world. But with great power comes great responsibility. What you share online can have lasting effects on your personal and professional life. Understanding what to avoid posting is crucial for maintaining your reputation and privacy. Imagine sharing a moment that seems harmless, only to realize later it could jeopardize your career or relationships. From oversharing personal details to posting controversial opinions, some content can come back to haunt you. This guide will help you navigate the murky waters of social media and ensure your online presence reflects the best version of yourself. Overview of Social Media Risks Social media platforms provide powerful tools for small businesses to engage audiences and market products. However, sharing certain types of content can introduce significant risks to your brand and online presence. Understanding these risks is crucial for effective social media marketing. Oversharing personal information can lead to privacy breaches. Your customers will trust your brand more when they feel secure with their data. Avoid posting sensitive details, such as your home address or personal phone numbers, which can expose both you and your customers to unwanted attention. Controversial opinions or polarizing posts can negatively impact brand reputation. While authenticity matters, maintaining a professional tone across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter strengthens brand consistency. Steer clear of divisive topics that may alienate potential customers. Inappropriate or offensive content detracts from positive community interactions. As you create social media posts, ensure that your brand voice remains respectful and inclusive. Posting content that offends or discriminates can lead to backlash and harm audience engagement. Misleading information damages credibility. Verify facts before sharing data or promotions in social media campaigns. Trustworthiness encourages customer loyalty and builds your brand’s reputation as a reliable source. Ignoring customer feedback can hinder growth opportunities. Monitor engagement rates and social media analytics closely. When followers voice concerns or critiques, address them promptly to show commitment to customer satisfaction. By avoiding these risks, you can create a stronger social media strategy, enhance engagement, and boost brand awareness. Prioritize thoughtful content creation that aligns with your brand values, ensuring that your social media presence thrives. Personal Information to Avoid Posting When managing your online presence, avoiding the sharing of personal information is crucial. Oversharing can lead to privacy breaches and diminish your brand’s trustworthiness. Home Address and Location Tags Posting your home address or location tags creates vulnerability. Burglars often exploit travel plans shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Indicating that you’re away can make your property an easy target. Instead, share vacation highlights once safely back home. Additionally, disable location services on your social media accounts to protect your privacy. Phone Numbers and Email Addresses Publicly sharing your phone numbers and email addresses invites unwanted attention and spam. Scammers often harvest this information from social media posts across platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. Maintain a layer of privacy by keeping personal contact details private. Use direct messaging to communicate with customers or followers instead of public posts, ensuring you manage customer interaction safely and effectively. Sensitive and Controversial Content Avoiding sensitive and controversial content on social media is crucial for maintaining your brand’s reputation. Posts that are seen as insensitive, discriminatory, or provocative can lead to public backlash, significantly damaging your image and causing a decline in engagement rates. For small businesses, safeguarding your online presence directly impacts customer trust and brand loyalty. Political Opinions and Rants Sharing strong political opinions or engaging in rants can alienate portions of your audience. Political discussions often spark intense emotions, which might turn potential customers away. Keeping your content neutral allows you to focus on your social media marketing goals, such as boosting brand awareness and driving engagement. Instead of divisive topics, concentrate on value-driven content that aligns with your brand voice and supports community management. Religious Beliefs and Discussions Discussing religious beliefs can similarly lead to unintended backlash. While personal beliefs are important, they might not resonate with all your audience members. Opting for inclusive language and focusing on universal themes can enhance your social media strategy. Target your messages to appeal to a broad audience, ensuring that your social media posts foster a welcoming environment for all. Emphasizing storytelling and user-generated content can create a more engaging narrative that avoids polarizing subjects. Unflattering or Inappropriate Photos Managing your online presence involves careful consideration of what you post, especially photos. Unflattering or inappropriate photos can severely impact your brand and personal image across various social media platforms. Partying and Substance Use Sharing content that depicts partying or substance use can harm your professional reputation. Such posts can deter potential clients and partners, especially on platforms like LinkedIn. Just one post showcasing excessive partying can lead others to question your professionalism, which can become a barrier to business growth. Focus on content that reflects your brand values and engages your audience in a positive manner. Unprofessional Headshots Using unprofessional headshots presents an incomplete picture of you and your business. Ideally, each social media strategy should include a clear, high-quality profile photo that aligns with your brand voice. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram favor authentic images, but presenting an unprofessional image can hurt audience trust and engagement. Invest in a good headshot that showcases your commitment to professionalism, as this aids in building brand consistency and trust with your social media followers. Negative Comments About Others Negative comments about individuals or groups can severely impact your online presence and brand reputation. The consequences often include damage to your credibility, potential legal action, and loss of business opportunities. Treating everyone with respect and kindness on social media platforms is essential. Criticizing Employers and Colleagues Criticizing employers and colleagues on social media can trigger serious repercussions. Posting negative remarks about your workplace can lead to disciplinary action or job loss, impacting your professional reputation. Instead of sharing grievances publicly, address work-related issues in private discussions. Maintaining professionalism enhances your brand image and builds positive relationships with peers, vendors, and customers, ultimately improving social media engagement. Personal Conflicts and Arguments Discussing personal conflicts or arguments on your social media profile is generally inadvisable. Conflicts shared publicly can reflect poorly on you and your business, reducing community trust. Focus on promoting positive interactions instead. Sharing user-generated content showcasing happy customers or positive experiences fosters brand awareness and strengthens community relationships without airing personal grievances. Conclusion Being mindful of what you post on social media is crucial for protecting your personal and professional reputation. By avoiding oversharing personal details and steering clear of controversial topics, you can maintain a positive online presence. Remember to prioritize privacy by keeping sensitive information private and using direct messaging for personal interactions. Focus on sharing content that reflects your values and engages your audience positively. Ultimately, a thoughtful approach to social media can enhance your credibility and foster stronger connections. Stay aware of the impact your posts can have and choose wisely to build a trustworthy online image. Frequently Asked Questions What is the main focus of the article on social media? The article emphasizes the significance of being mindful about sharing personal information online. It discusses the potential risks of oversharing and posting controversial content, which can harm both personal and professional relationships. What are the risks of oversharing personal information on social media? Oversharing personal details like home addresses or travel plans can lead to privacy breaches and make individuals vulnerable to security threats. It’s crucial to manage what is shared to protect personal safety and reputation. How can businesses improve their social media strategy? To enhance their social media presence, businesses should avoid sharing sensitive information, engage positively with customers, and focus on neutral content that aligns with brand values. Regularly responding to feedback also fosters growth and trust. Why should controversial content be avoided by individuals and brands? Posting controversial or polarizing opinions can alienate audiences and damage reputations. Instead, it’s better to share inclusive, neutral content that avoids provoking backlash while still engaging followers effectively. What type of images should be shared on professional social media profiles? It’s essential to use professional headshots and images that reflect a positive, credible brand image. Unflattering or inappropriate photos may deter potential clients and damage overall reputation. How should personal grievances be handled on social media? Personal conflicts and work-related grievances should be handled privately to maintain professionalism. Public criticism of employers or colleagues can lead to negative consequences, including job loss. What is the importance of verifying information before sharing? Verifying information before sharing is crucial for maintaining credibility. Misleading or false posts can lead to misinformation and damage both personal and brand reputations, affecting audience trust. How can businesses use social media to foster community relationships? Businesses should encourage positive interactions by sharing user-generated content that highlights customer experiences. This builds community engagement and strengthens brand awareness without promoting divisive topics. Image Via Envato This article, "Essential Things to Never Post on Social Media for a Safe Online Presence" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Key Takeaways Protect Personal Privacy: Avoid posting sensitive personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers, and location tags to safeguard your privacy and mitigate risks of identity theft. Steer Clear of Controversial Topics: Refrain from sharing strong political or religious opinions, as these can alienate audience members and damage your brand’s reputation. Mind Your Photo Content: Share only professional and appropriate images; unflattering or party-related photos can harm perceptions of your brand. Maintain Respectful Communication: Avoid negative comments about others, as they can lead to reputational damage and loss of business opportunities; focus on promoting a positive environment. Verify Your Information: Always fact-check before sharing information to ensure credibility, as spreading misleading content can damage trust with your audience. Engage with Feedback: Actively monitor and address customer feedback on social media to demonstrate commitment to satisfaction and improve engagement. In today’s digital age, social media is a powerful tool that connects you with friends, family, and the world. But with great power comes great responsibility. What you share online can have lasting effects on your personal and professional life. Understanding what to avoid posting is crucial for maintaining your reputation and privacy. Imagine sharing a moment that seems harmless, only to realize later it could jeopardize your career or relationships. From oversharing personal details to posting controversial opinions, some content can come back to haunt you. This guide will help you navigate the murky waters of social media and ensure your online presence reflects the best version of yourself. Overview of Social Media Risks Social media platforms provide powerful tools for small businesses to engage audiences and market products. However, sharing certain types of content can introduce significant risks to your brand and online presence. Understanding these risks is crucial for effective social media marketing. Oversharing personal information can lead to privacy breaches. Your customers will trust your brand more when they feel secure with their data. Avoid posting sensitive details, such as your home address or personal phone numbers, which can expose both you and your customers to unwanted attention. Controversial opinions or polarizing posts can negatively impact brand reputation. While authenticity matters, maintaining a professional tone across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter strengthens brand consistency. Steer clear of divisive topics that may alienate potential customers. Inappropriate or offensive content detracts from positive community interactions. As you create social media posts, ensure that your brand voice remains respectful and inclusive. Posting content that offends or discriminates can lead to backlash and harm audience engagement. Misleading information damages credibility. Verify facts before sharing data or promotions in social media campaigns. Trustworthiness encourages customer loyalty and builds your brand’s reputation as a reliable source. Ignoring customer feedback can hinder growth opportunities. Monitor engagement rates and social media analytics closely. When followers voice concerns or critiques, address them promptly to show commitment to customer satisfaction. By avoiding these risks, you can create a stronger social media strategy, enhance engagement, and boost brand awareness. Prioritize thoughtful content creation that aligns with your brand values, ensuring that your social media presence thrives. Personal Information to Avoid Posting When managing your online presence, avoiding the sharing of personal information is crucial. Oversharing can lead to privacy breaches and diminish your brand’s trustworthiness. Home Address and Location Tags Posting your home address or location tags creates vulnerability. Burglars often exploit travel plans shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Indicating that you’re away can make your property an easy target. Instead, share vacation highlights once safely back home. Additionally, disable location services on your social media accounts to protect your privacy. Phone Numbers and Email Addresses Publicly sharing your phone numbers and email addresses invites unwanted attention and spam. Scammers often harvest this information from social media posts across platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. Maintain a layer of privacy by keeping personal contact details private. Use direct messaging to communicate with customers or followers instead of public posts, ensuring you manage customer interaction safely and effectively. Sensitive and Controversial Content Avoiding sensitive and controversial content on social media is crucial for maintaining your brand’s reputation. Posts that are seen as insensitive, discriminatory, or provocative can lead to public backlash, significantly damaging your image and causing a decline in engagement rates. For small businesses, safeguarding your online presence directly impacts customer trust and brand loyalty. Political Opinions and Rants Sharing strong political opinions or engaging in rants can alienate portions of your audience. Political discussions often spark intense emotions, which might turn potential customers away. Keeping your content neutral allows you to focus on your social media marketing goals, such as boosting brand awareness and driving engagement. Instead of divisive topics, concentrate on value-driven content that aligns with your brand voice and supports community management. Religious Beliefs and Discussions Discussing religious beliefs can similarly lead to unintended backlash. While personal beliefs are important, they might not resonate with all your audience members. Opting for inclusive language and focusing on universal themes can enhance your social media strategy. Target your messages to appeal to a broad audience, ensuring that your social media posts foster a welcoming environment for all. Emphasizing storytelling and user-generated content can create a more engaging narrative that avoids polarizing subjects. Unflattering or Inappropriate Photos Managing your online presence involves careful consideration of what you post, especially photos. Unflattering or inappropriate photos can severely impact your brand and personal image across various social media platforms. Partying and Substance Use Sharing content that depicts partying or substance use can harm your professional reputation. Such posts can deter potential clients and partners, especially on platforms like LinkedIn. Just one post showcasing excessive partying can lead others to question your professionalism, which can become a barrier to business growth. Focus on content that reflects your brand values and engages your audience in a positive manner. Unprofessional Headshots Using unprofessional headshots presents an incomplete picture of you and your business. Ideally, each social media strategy should include a clear, high-quality profile photo that aligns with your brand voice. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram favor authentic images, but presenting an unprofessional image can hurt audience trust and engagement. Invest in a good headshot that showcases your commitment to professionalism, as this aids in building brand consistency and trust with your social media followers. Negative Comments About Others Negative comments about individuals or groups can severely impact your online presence and brand reputation. The consequences often include damage to your credibility, potential legal action, and loss of business opportunities. Treating everyone with respect and kindness on social media platforms is essential. Criticizing Employers and Colleagues Criticizing employers and colleagues on social media can trigger serious repercussions. Posting negative remarks about your workplace can lead to disciplinary action or job loss, impacting your professional reputation. Instead of sharing grievances publicly, address work-related issues in private discussions. Maintaining professionalism enhances your brand image and builds positive relationships with peers, vendors, and customers, ultimately improving social media engagement. Personal Conflicts and Arguments Discussing personal conflicts or arguments on your social media profile is generally inadvisable. Conflicts shared publicly can reflect poorly on you and your business, reducing community trust. Focus on promoting positive interactions instead. Sharing user-generated content showcasing happy customers or positive experiences fosters brand awareness and strengthens community relationships without airing personal grievances. Conclusion Being mindful of what you post on social media is crucial for protecting your personal and professional reputation. By avoiding oversharing personal details and steering clear of controversial topics, you can maintain a positive online presence. Remember to prioritize privacy by keeping sensitive information private and using direct messaging for personal interactions. Focus on sharing content that reflects your values and engages your audience positively. Ultimately, a thoughtful approach to social media can enhance your credibility and foster stronger connections. Stay aware of the impact your posts can have and choose wisely to build a trustworthy online image. Frequently Asked Questions What is the main focus of the article on social media? The article emphasizes the significance of being mindful about sharing personal information online. It discusses the potential risks of oversharing and posting controversial content, which can harm both personal and professional relationships. What are the risks of oversharing personal information on social media? Oversharing personal details like home addresses or travel plans can lead to privacy breaches and make individuals vulnerable to security threats. It’s crucial to manage what is shared to protect personal safety and reputation. How can businesses improve their social media strategy? To enhance their social media presence, businesses should avoid sharing sensitive information, engage positively with customers, and focus on neutral content that aligns with brand values. Regularly responding to feedback also fosters growth and trust. Why should controversial content be avoided by individuals and brands? Posting controversial or polarizing opinions can alienate audiences and damage reputations. Instead, it’s better to share inclusive, neutral content that avoids provoking backlash while still engaging followers effectively. What type of images should be shared on professional social media profiles? It’s essential to use professional headshots and images that reflect a positive, credible brand image. Unflattering or inappropriate photos may deter potential clients and damage overall reputation. How should personal grievances be handled on social media? Personal conflicts and work-related grievances should be handled privately to maintain professionalism. Public criticism of employers or colleagues can lead to negative consequences, including job loss. What is the importance of verifying information before sharing? Verifying information before sharing is crucial for maintaining credibility. Misleading or false posts can lead to misinformation and damage both personal and brand reputations, affecting audience trust. How can businesses use social media to foster community relationships? Businesses should encourage positive interactions by sharing user-generated content that highlights customer experiences. This builds community engagement and strengthens brand awareness without promoting divisive topics. Image Via Envato This article, "Essential Things to Never Post on Social Media for a Safe Online Presence" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article