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This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: Recently, my company hired someone who was extremely racist. He worked with me on his first day, where he dropped an awful racial slur six times. I was shocked so did a little social media sleuthing and found his horrifying Twitter page full of xenophobic and racist tweets and posts. We fired him. However, after speaking to a friend who is in HR, she said we couldn’t simply fire him for being racist. Now, obviously our lawyer and HR rep disagreed with that because he was fired. But what say you? Are racist posts and hate speech enough to fire someone? She seems to think we should have put him on an improvement plan first. I think at that point it’s too late and having a racist employee puts our employees of color at risk unnecessarily. I am proud of the way the company handled it, but she thinks we opened ourselves up to legal liability. She said his racism was apart of his “political opinion” and you can’t fire someone over their political opinion. But “racist” is hardly a political opinion, it’s hate speech. So, I won’t ask if we were “wrong” to fire him, but could we have potentially opened ourselves up to legal issues by firing him based solely on racist tweets and his racist comments said to me but directed at other people? I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here. View the full article

Social media, be it Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, have become the most popular platforms by hundreds of millions of users across the world. This has opened up opportunities for businesses to connect with customers, allowing them to maximize the income of their business. In addition, you can use social media sites to also make some money on the side. There are also opportunities to make money through social media without the need to sell anything. In this article, we show you things that can help you make money on social media. Why Small Businesses Should Use Social Media to Increase Income As part of a marketing strategy, social media can help your small business interact with customers. With social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest you can build brand awareness, increase your customer base, increase sales, and connect with current and potential customers. The following points further delve into the power of social media: You expand your reach through social media: with an estimated 4.2 billion social media users, companies are capitalizing on it. You can use Instagram or Pinterest to showcase your products or even advertise your products and services. More and more people are buying on social media: By adding ‘buy’ buttons on their social platforms to generate more sales. This is because customers can buy directly without ever leaving the social media platform they are on. Help create real connections with your brand: Through social media, you can create real human connections with your brand. With it, you can introduce your customers to your brand story as well as showcase the benefits of your products and services. Drive traffic to your website/online store: Through social media posts and ads, you can drive traffic to your website or your online store. By sharing some great content from your website to your social channels you can encourage click-throughs. Generate leads: Through social media, you can help increase lead generation by increasing interest among potential customers. Here’s a quick word from Learn from Shopify that helps you: ‘Learn How to Make Money on Instagram (Whether You Have 1K or 100K Followers).’ The Best Ways to Make Money on Social Media Before you start exploring the details of the list, here is a handy table you can reference that summarizies the most effective methods for earning money on various social media platforms. #Way to Make Money on Social MediaDescription 1Promote Your Small Business Products and ServicesUse your social media accounts to interact with your audience, promote your brand, and sell your products and services. 2Sell Digital ProductsLeverage your social media channels to sell digital products such as templates, software, eBooks, and more. 3Join Networks and Promote Affiliate ProductsExpand your reach by joining affiliate network programs and earning commission for new leads or sales from your posts. 4Sell Your Music on SoundcloudUse your creative skills to sell your original music on Soundcloud and earn from plays and audience insights. 5Collaborate with BrandsUse your unique niche and large following to collaborate with brands and influence their target audience. 6Sell Coaching ServicesOffer your unique skills and knowledge as coaching services to those interested in self-development or learning new skills. 7YouTube Partner ProgramUnlock your YouTube channel's earning potential by joining the YouTube Partner Program and earning from ads on your content. 8Sell Rights to Your ImagesLeverage your social media account to sell rights to your digital artwork or photographs. 9Join Influencer NetworksUse your influence to market products for brands in an authentic way and earn income from sponsored posts and paid social sharing opportunities. 10Run a Facebook GroupCreate and manage a Facebook group to reach your target audience and build a community around common interests or goals. 11Manage a Social Media Account for Another BusinessUse your social media management skills to help other businesses in their social media outreach and earn an income from it. 12Charge for Sponsored PostsCreate sponsored content for companies and brands in need of social proof to market their goods and services. 13Advertise as a Blog Content WriterUse social media advertising to offer your services as a blog content writer. 14Become an InfluencerBuild a reputation for your knowledge and expertise on a specific topic, become an influencer, and earn from promoting products for brands. There is a lot of money to be made through employing social media business ideas. People are making a living without selling a single product. Those who have a large social following can use their profiles to get paid by brands, sell their knowledge, offer consultations, and more. Below are some ways where you can learn how to make money on social media. Promote your Small Business Products and Services on Social Media Social media accounts can help you interact with others by sharing and creating content through communities. With it, you can promote your brand and business, tell customers about your goods and services, find out what customers think of your business, attract new customers, and build stronger relationships with existing customers. Promoting your business through social media platforms is cost-effective. You can use it to promote and drive traffic to your online store and also supplement sales to your brick and mortar sales. Sell Digital Products Using Your Social Media Channels Besides promoting your business social media can be used to sell digital products as well. A nifty way to make money is through selling digital products simply through social media. Unlike websites, social media platforms are designed to help you sell digital products with little fanfare within just a few minutes. Plus, if the product you sell is digital you don’t have to worry about shipping or even inventory. With digital products such as templates, software, eBooks, photography, music and so you can sell them an unlimited number of times with little effort. Join Networks and Promote Affiliate Products You can also expand your reach to potential customers by joining networks and making money through affiliate marketing. Through affiliate marketing, you can earn money by just adding tracked affiliate links to the text of your social media content. By joining affiliate network programs, you stand to get paid in commissions for new leads or sales you bring when visitors click on the links. Sell Your Music on Soundcloud If you are creatively inclined you can sell your music through SoundCloud. Here you can sell your original music through SoundCloud if you sign up on the platform’s SoundCloud Pro or Pro Unlimited subscriptions. You get unlimited upload time, get paid for your plays, access to advanced audience insights, and more. Collaborate with Brands Social proof is the new word of mouth, more and more consumers today trust influencers over paid advertisements. Thanks to their huge following, bloggers today can talk directly to a company’s target audience. From posting product reviews to hosting video tutorials, bloggers have the power to influence large segments of consumers. If you have a unique niche, you can showcase your expertise to make your blog stand out while also collaborating with brands that might be tied to your niche in the process. Brands will benefit as their customers yearn for honest messages that speak to them from a user’s perspective. Earn Money Through Selling Coaching Services If you have a unique set of skills or are passionate about something, perhaps you can offer coaching services. Many people are looking for self-development or learning new skills. You can tap into this demand if you have a specific niche that is of value to other people. Make Money with the YouTube Partner Program Through blogging, you can unlock your YouTube channel’s earning potential as well. By joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) you not only get a strong platform but also access YouTube’s resources and features which includes getting access to ads being served on your content. However, you will need to keep in mind that you will need to get lots of views and clicks on YouTube to make meaningful revenues from your content. Sell Rights to the Images on Your Social Media Accounts If you have some great pictures or digital artwork of yours that people are interested in purchasing then you can use social media account to connect with people interested in purchasing your creations. Join Influencer Networks There are many ways to make money on social media. Sponsored posts are just one way that bloggers can earn an income from their blogs. Brands today are looking for influencers to market their products to their followers in an authentic way. Here, influencer networks are a great way to start with sponsored posts and paid social sharing opportunities. If you are early on in your blogging experience, it might be easier for you to start with using influencer marketing, which are third-party agencies that will do the hard work for you. These networks serve as intermediaries, connecting you with brands without requiring direct contact. This can create opportunities for you and provide valuable experience with sponsored posts, which you can showcase on your blogger resume. Influencers or bloggers can register to collaborate with a network, and brands associated with that network can access analytics for campaigns conducted within that group of influencers. Some networks might demand exclusive collaboration. Some examples of influencer networks include: izea CreatorIQ Upfluence AspireIQ Linqia Run a Facebook Group Facebook offers you a huge reach complements to its over 2 billion active monthly users. By creating Facebook groups of your own can be an inexpensive and effective way to reach your target audience. It helps you build a community around common interests or goals and drive can even help drive traffic to your blog or website. Manage a Social Media Account for Another Business In today’s marketplace, no business can ignore the importance of social media in achieving success. If you are a successful blogger who creates content that attracts a large audience, you can leverage this to assist other businesses with their social media outreach. By utilizing your skills, you can earn a decent income on the side by providing social media management services, with potential earnings ranging from $14 to $35 per hour. Charge for Sponsored Posts Companies and brands are ever more looking for social proof to market their goods and services. You can help them achieve these by producing sponsored content. This could be by way of product reviews, promotions, or backlinks to a sponsor’s website, but always remember to let your audience know that you are offering paid content. In terms of payment, several factors can play out, including your reach, your niche, and whether your posts include images, videos, and audio. Advertise as a Blog Content Writer You can also offer your services as a blogger by opting for social media advertising as well. For example, Google and Facebook ads offer an inexpensive option to get your targeted advertisement for your marketing needs as a blogger. Become an Influencer You can also try your hand as an influencer. An influencer is someone who has the skill set to influence people’s purchasing decisions through his or her authority, knowledge, or relationship with his or her audience. social media Influencers are people who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic and offer regular posts. Brands are more than willing to pay social media influencers as they help create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote. Top Tips to Get More Social Media Followers and Drive Sales It can be difficult to gather a huge following. As a blogger, you can only monetize your content when you have a huge following. When done right, you can easily generate a good following and build a reputation of a captivated audience. Below are some tips to get more social media followers and drive sales. Choose a Specific Niche and Target Audience Your blog’s success depends on you finding your passion and creating compelling content. Not only that your niche should not have too much competition as your blog will need to compete against highly rated sites. You should also avoid focusing on a smaller niche with little or no demand, as it will impact your potential following. Look to strike a balance between an overdone niche and one with little room for growth. Choose a subject that you are knowledgeable about and one that people can take insights from. Here you will also need to get an accurate picture of your target audience are whether in terms of age, level of knowledge of the subject matter, and other factors to make an impact. Focus on a Single Social Media Platform To start, you will need to focus your content on a single social media channel or risk not capturing the right amount of followers to make your blog worth looking into. You will need to identify your target readers and then identify the social networks that they prefer. If your blog post is geared more towards professionals and businesses, you might want to consider using LinkedIn. If your target followers are more visual you may sway towards Instagram or Pinterest. Increase Engagement Rates Part of increasing your fan base is to get more engaged followers. Make sure that your content is important enough or interesting enough that people share, link to, like, and even comment on it. Make sure to reply to comments as well as collaborate with other content creators Build Trust Building trust takes time. For readers, it is the little things that get them to trust you. It falls on your track record of creating useful content that serves them, and the consistency and reliability of your content. Offer Free Products Nothing attracts people more than free stuff. Offer up promotional coupons, free templates, how-to guides, and other useful stuff to integrate yourself with your audience. Create Content Regularly to Build a Social Media Presence You must consistently create content that your audience finds valuable. Establish a content production calendar and ensure that you produce content regularly and reliably. Use the Right Hashtags Hashtags are important as it helps direct more followers to your blog. Posts with hashtags have higher rates of engagement. Makes sure that the hashtags are funny, interesting, easily recalled, and in good taste. Provide Valuable Content Never forget that readers come to you because you offer them something that they need. So create content that is of value to your reader and an easy way to do this is to think from your readers’ perspective. Use Analytics to Understand Your Audience Use social media analytics to understand your audience. Through it, you get insights on who your followers are to tweak your content to align with their needs. Also, use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technics to maximize your audience and income with ad sales. Have a Social Media Strategy You will need a social media strategy to help drive more traffic to your own website or blog. If done right a huge bulk of your readers can come from social media networks as such formulate a social media strategy that helps boosts your traffic. What social media platforms can you make money on? Twitter: You can earn money by ghostwriting tweets for individuals or brands looking to keep their accounts active, engaging in affiliate marketing by promoting products for a commission, selling your own products directly to your followers, or acting as an influencer where brands compensate you for promoting their products or services. Instagram: On this platform, you can learn how to make money on social media by collaborating with brands as an influencer, promoting affiliate links in your posts or bio to earn a percentage of the sales generated, or generating income from ads shown on your IGTV videos—this option is available to users with a significant follower count. Pinterest: On Pinterest, you can make money by promoting a brand’s pins to your followers, promoting affiliate products within the platform where you’ll earn a commission on any sales, or selling your own products directly to users who discover your pins. Facebook: You can make money on Facebook by promoting other brands through sponsored posts or your own Facebook page, engaging in affiliate marketing where you get a percentage of any sales made through your affiliate links, or selling your own products directly to your followers through a Facebook shop. LinkedIn: On LinkedIn, you can earn money by running advertisements for brands as part of their marketing strategies, incorporating affiliate links into your posts or articles, and directly selling your own products or services to fellow professionals within your network. YouTube: You can monetize this platform by posting video content and earning ad revenue once you reach a certain number of subscribers and watch hours, engaging in affiliate marketing by promoting products in your videos for a commission, making sponsored posts where brands pay you to feature their products, or collaborating with brands on video content. TikTok: On TikTok, you can make money through brand partnerships, live stream gifts, the TikTok Creator Fund, affiliate marketing, or selling your own products or services. TikTok also provides an opportunity for influencers to get paid for sponsored posts. Snapchat: Snapchat offers opportunities for monetization through Snapchat’s partner program, where creators can earn a share of the revenue from ads shown in their stories. Influencers can also make money by partnering with brands for sponsored posts. Reddit: While it may not be as conventional as other platforms, you can still learn how to make money on social media through Reddit by promoting a brand, engaging in affiliate marketing, or directing traffic to your own website or product. Keep in mind that Reddit has stringent rules regarding self-promotion, so it’s crucial to provide valuable content and adhere to community guidelines. Twitch: On Twitch, users can earn money by becoming a Twitch Partner or Affiliate, which allows them to earn a share of the revenue from ads shown on their streams. Users can also receive direct donations from their viewers, get a cut from the sale of games promoted on their page, or earn money from sponsored streams. How many followers do you need on social media to make money? To start monetizing from your social media, you will need to have a huge following. For example, with Instagram, you need a minimum of 5,000 Instagram followers and 308 sponsored posts a year to generate $100,000. Youtubers will need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year to start earning. With Facebook, you will need to have at least 10,000 followers and 30,000 +1 minute views. Image: Depositphotos This article, "How to Make Money on Social Media: Tips for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Social media, be it Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, have become the most popular platforms by hundreds of millions of users across the world. This has opened up opportunities for businesses to connect with customers, allowing them to maximize the income of their business. In addition, you can use social media sites to also make some money on the side. There are also opportunities to make money through social media without the need to sell anything. In this article, we show you things that can help you make money on social media. Why Small Businesses Should Use Social Media to Increase Income As part of a marketing strategy, social media can help your small business interact with customers. With social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest you can build brand awareness, increase your customer base, increase sales, and connect with current and potential customers. The following points further delve into the power of social media: You expand your reach through social media: with an estimated 4.2 billion social media users, companies are capitalizing on it. You can use Instagram or Pinterest to showcase your products or even advertise your products and services. More and more people are buying on social media: By adding ‘buy’ buttons on their social platforms to generate more sales. This is because customers can buy directly without ever leaving the social media platform they are on. Help create real connections with your brand: Through social media, you can create real human connections with your brand. With it, you can introduce your customers to your brand story as well as showcase the benefits of your products and services. Drive traffic to your website/online store: Through social media posts and ads, you can drive traffic to your website or your online store. By sharing some great content from your website to your social channels you can encourage click-throughs. Generate leads: Through social media, you can help increase lead generation by increasing interest among potential customers. Here’s a quick word from Learn from Shopify that helps you: ‘Learn How to Make Money on Instagram (Whether You Have 1K or 100K Followers).’ The Best Ways to Make Money on Social Media Before you start exploring the details of the list, here is a handy table you can reference that summarizies the most effective methods for earning money on various social media platforms. #Way to Make Money on Social MediaDescription 1Promote Your Small Business Products and ServicesUse your social media accounts to interact with your audience, promote your brand, and sell your products and services. 2Sell Digital ProductsLeverage your social media channels to sell digital products such as templates, software, eBooks, and more. 3Join Networks and Promote Affiliate ProductsExpand your reach by joining affiliate network programs and earning commission for new leads or sales from your posts. 4Sell Your Music on SoundcloudUse your creative skills to sell your original music on Soundcloud and earn from plays and audience insights. 5Collaborate with BrandsUse your unique niche and large following to collaborate with brands and influence their target audience. 6Sell Coaching ServicesOffer your unique skills and knowledge as coaching services to those interested in self-development or learning new skills. 7YouTube Partner ProgramUnlock your YouTube channel's earning potential by joining the YouTube Partner Program and earning from ads on your content. 8Sell Rights to Your ImagesLeverage your social media account to sell rights to your digital artwork or photographs. 9Join Influencer NetworksUse your influence to market products for brands in an authentic way and earn income from sponsored posts and paid social sharing opportunities. 10Run a Facebook GroupCreate and manage a Facebook group to reach your target audience and build a community around common interests or goals. 11Manage a Social Media Account for Another BusinessUse your social media management skills to help other businesses in their social media outreach and earn an income from it. 12Charge for Sponsored PostsCreate sponsored content for companies and brands in need of social proof to market their goods and services. 13Advertise as a Blog Content WriterUse social media advertising to offer your services as a blog content writer. 14Become an InfluencerBuild a reputation for your knowledge and expertise on a specific topic, become an influencer, and earn from promoting products for brands. There is a lot of money to be made through employing social media business ideas. People are making a living without selling a single product. Those who have a large social following can use their profiles to get paid by brands, sell their knowledge, offer consultations, and more. Below are some ways where you can learn how to make money on social media. Promote your Small Business Products and Services on Social Media Social media accounts can help you interact with others by sharing and creating content through communities. With it, you can promote your brand and business, tell customers about your goods and services, find out what customers think of your business, attract new customers, and build stronger relationships with existing customers. Promoting your business through social media platforms is cost-effective. You can use it to promote and drive traffic to your online store and also supplement sales to your brick and mortar sales. Sell Digital Products Using Your Social Media Channels Besides promoting your business social media can be used to sell digital products as well. A nifty way to make money is through selling digital products simply through social media. Unlike websites, social media platforms are designed to help you sell digital products with little fanfare within just a few minutes. Plus, if the product you sell is digital you don’t have to worry about shipping or even inventory. With digital products such as templates, software, eBooks, photography, music and so you can sell them an unlimited number of times with little effort. Join Networks and Promote Affiliate Products You can also expand your reach to potential customers by joining networks and making money through affiliate marketing. Through affiliate marketing, you can earn money by just adding tracked affiliate links to the text of your social media content. By joining affiliate network programs, you stand to get paid in commissions for new leads or sales you bring when visitors click on the links. Sell Your Music on Soundcloud If you are creatively inclined you can sell your music through SoundCloud. Here you can sell your original music through SoundCloud if you sign up on the platform’s SoundCloud Pro or Pro Unlimited subscriptions. You get unlimited upload time, get paid for your plays, access to advanced audience insights, and more. Collaborate with Brands Social proof is the new word of mouth, more and more consumers today trust influencers over paid advertisements. Thanks to their huge following, bloggers today can talk directly to a company’s target audience. From posting product reviews to hosting video tutorials, bloggers have the power to influence large segments of consumers. If you have a unique niche, you can showcase your expertise to make your blog stand out while also collaborating with brands that might be tied to your niche in the process. Brands will benefit as their customers yearn for honest messages that speak to them from a user’s perspective. Earn Money Through Selling Coaching Services If you have a unique set of skills or are passionate about something, perhaps you can offer coaching services. Many people are looking for self-development or learning new skills. You can tap into this demand if you have a specific niche that is of value to other people. Make Money with the YouTube Partner Program Through blogging, you can unlock your YouTube channel’s earning potential as well. By joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) you not only get a strong platform but also access YouTube’s resources and features which includes getting access to ads being served on your content. However, you will need to keep in mind that you will need to get lots of views and clicks on YouTube to make meaningful revenues from your content. Sell Rights to the Images on Your Social Media Accounts If you have some great pictures or digital artwork of yours that people are interested in purchasing then you can use social media account to connect with people interested in purchasing your creations. Join Influencer Networks There are many ways to make money on social media. Sponsored posts are just one way that bloggers can earn an income from their blogs. Brands today are looking for influencers to market their products to their followers in an authentic way. Here, influencer networks are a great way to start with sponsored posts and paid social sharing opportunities. If you are early on in your blogging experience, it might be easier for you to start with using influencer marketing, which are third-party agencies that will do the hard work for you. These networks serve as intermediaries, connecting you with brands without requiring direct contact. This can create opportunities for you and provide valuable experience with sponsored posts, which you can showcase on your blogger resume. Influencers or bloggers can register to collaborate with a network, and brands associated with that network can access analytics for campaigns conducted within that group of influencers. Some networks might demand exclusive collaboration. Some examples of influencer networks include: izea CreatorIQ Upfluence AspireIQ Linqia Run a Facebook Group Facebook offers you a huge reach complements to its over 2 billion active monthly users. By creating Facebook groups of your own can be an inexpensive and effective way to reach your target audience. It helps you build a community around common interests or goals and drive can even help drive traffic to your blog or website. Manage a Social Media Account for Another Business In today’s marketplace, no business can ignore the importance of social media in achieving success. If you are a successful blogger who creates content that attracts a large audience, you can leverage this to assist other businesses with their social media outreach. By utilizing your skills, you can earn a decent income on the side by providing social media management services, with potential earnings ranging from $14 to $35 per hour. Charge for Sponsored Posts Companies and brands are ever more looking for social proof to market their goods and services. You can help them achieve these by producing sponsored content. This could be by way of product reviews, promotions, or backlinks to a sponsor’s website, but always remember to let your audience know that you are offering paid content. In terms of payment, several factors can play out, including your reach, your niche, and whether your posts include images, videos, and audio. Advertise as a Blog Content Writer You can also offer your services as a blogger by opting for social media advertising as well. For example, Google and Facebook ads offer an inexpensive option to get your targeted advertisement for your marketing needs as a blogger. Become an Influencer You can also try your hand as an influencer. An influencer is someone who has the skill set to influence people’s purchasing decisions through his or her authority, knowledge, or relationship with his or her audience. social media Influencers are people who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic and offer regular posts. Brands are more than willing to pay social media influencers as they help create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote. Top Tips to Get More Social Media Followers and Drive Sales It can be difficult to gather a huge following. As a blogger, you can only monetize your content when you have a huge following. When done right, you can easily generate a good following and build a reputation of a captivated audience. Below are some tips to get more social media followers and drive sales. Choose a Specific Niche and Target Audience Your blog’s success depends on you finding your passion and creating compelling content. Not only that your niche should not have too much competition as your blog will need to compete against highly rated sites. You should also avoid focusing on a smaller niche with little or no demand, as it will impact your potential following. Look to strike a balance between an overdone niche and one with little room for growth. Choose a subject that you are knowledgeable about and one that people can take insights from. Here you will also need to get an accurate picture of your target audience are whether in terms of age, level of knowledge of the subject matter, and other factors to make an impact. Focus on a Single Social Media Platform To start, you will need to focus your content on a single social media channel or risk not capturing the right amount of followers to make your blog worth looking into. You will need to identify your target readers and then identify the social networks that they prefer. If your blog post is geared more towards professionals and businesses, you might want to consider using LinkedIn. If your target followers are more visual you may sway towards Instagram or Pinterest. Increase Engagement Rates Part of increasing your fan base is to get more engaged followers. Make sure that your content is important enough or interesting enough that people share, link to, like, and even comment on it. Make sure to reply to comments as well as collaborate with other content creators Build Trust Building trust takes time. For readers, it is the little things that get them to trust you. It falls on your track record of creating useful content that serves them, and the consistency and reliability of your content. Offer Free Products Nothing attracts people more than free stuff. Offer up promotional coupons, free templates, how-to guides, and other useful stuff to integrate yourself with your audience. Create Content Regularly to Build a Social Media Presence You must consistently create content that your audience finds valuable. Establish a content production calendar and ensure that you produce content regularly and reliably. Use the Right Hashtags Hashtags are important as it helps direct more followers to your blog. Posts with hashtags have higher rates of engagement. Makes sure that the hashtags are funny, interesting, easily recalled, and in good taste. Provide Valuable Content Never forget that readers come to you because you offer them something that they need. So create content that is of value to your reader and an easy way to do this is to think from your readers’ perspective. Use Analytics to Understand Your Audience Use social media analytics to understand your audience. Through it, you get insights on who your followers are to tweak your content to align with their needs. Also, use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technics to maximize your audience and income with ad sales. Have a Social Media Strategy You will need a social media strategy to help drive more traffic to your own website or blog. If done right a huge bulk of your readers can come from social media networks as such formulate a social media strategy that helps boosts your traffic. What social media platforms can you make money on? Twitter: You can earn money by ghostwriting tweets for individuals or brands looking to keep their accounts active, engaging in affiliate marketing by promoting products for a commission, selling your own products directly to your followers, or acting as an influencer where brands compensate you for promoting their products or services. Instagram: On this platform, you can learn how to make money on social media by collaborating with brands as an influencer, promoting affiliate links in your posts or bio to earn a percentage of the sales generated, or generating income from ads shown on your IGTV videos—this option is available to users with a significant follower count. Pinterest: On Pinterest, you can make money by promoting a brand’s pins to your followers, promoting affiliate products within the platform where you’ll earn a commission on any sales, or selling your own products directly to users who discover your pins. Facebook: You can make money on Facebook by promoting other brands through sponsored posts or your own Facebook page, engaging in affiliate marketing where you get a percentage of any sales made through your affiliate links, or selling your own products directly to your followers through a Facebook shop. LinkedIn: On LinkedIn, you can earn money by running advertisements for brands as part of their marketing strategies, incorporating affiliate links into your posts or articles, and directly selling your own products or services to fellow professionals within your network. YouTube: You can monetize this platform by posting video content and earning ad revenue once you reach a certain number of subscribers and watch hours, engaging in affiliate marketing by promoting products in your videos for a commission, making sponsored posts where brands pay you to feature their products, or collaborating with brands on video content. TikTok: On TikTok, you can make money through brand partnerships, live stream gifts, the TikTok Creator Fund, affiliate marketing, or selling your own products or services. TikTok also provides an opportunity for influencers to get paid for sponsored posts. Snapchat: Snapchat offers opportunities for monetization through Snapchat’s partner program, where creators can earn a share of the revenue from ads shown in their stories. Influencers can also make money by partnering with brands for sponsored posts. Reddit: While it may not be as conventional as other platforms, you can still learn how to make money on social media through Reddit by promoting a brand, engaging in affiliate marketing, or directing traffic to your own website or product. Keep in mind that Reddit has stringent rules regarding self-promotion, so it’s crucial to provide valuable content and adhere to community guidelines. Twitch: On Twitch, users can earn money by becoming a Twitch Partner or Affiliate, which allows them to earn a share of the revenue from ads shown on their streams. Users can also receive direct donations from their viewers, get a cut from the sale of games promoted on their page, or earn money from sponsored streams. How many followers do you need on social media to make money? To start monetizing from your social media, you will need to have a huge following. For example, with Instagram, you need a minimum of 5,000 Instagram followers and 308 sponsored posts a year to generate $100,000. Youtubers will need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year to start earning. With Facebook, you will need to have at least 10,000 followers and 30,000 +1 minute views. Image: Depositphotos This article, "How to Make Money on Social Media: Tips for Small Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Survey respondents have specific suggestions. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Survey respondents have specific suggestions. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

Netflix's March slate has plenty of variety, from reality TV to true crime docs to sci-fi comedy. John Mulaney is back this month with a new live weekly talk show, Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, a sequel to his 2024 live event Everybody's in L.A. The show, which will include on-screen guests and live calls from the audience, will premiere on March 12 at 10 p.m. ET with 12 weekly episodes on consecutive Wednesdays. Netflix also has new comedy hours in March from Andrew Schulz (LIFE, March 4), Bert Kreischer (Lucky, March 18), and Chelsea Handler (The Feeling, March 25). For reality TV fans, there's a new installment of Love is Blind: Sweden (March 13) as well as the follow-up to the first season, After the Altar (March 6). Netflix is also taking over Temptation Island (March 12), which originally aired in 2001 and was revived in 2019 for five seasons. The new competition show Million Dollar Secret (March 26) is Netflix's response to Peacock's popular series The Traitors, putting strangers through a series of games to figure out the identity of the millionaire. Netflix has a handful of true-crime documentaries this month, starting with the film Chaos: The Manson Murders (March 7), based on the 2019 titular book by Tom O'Neill and directed by Errol Morris. At the end of the month, Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer (March 31) will look at the Gilgo Beach murders from the perspective of the victims. The series is directed by Emmy winner Liz Garbus. Finally, The Electric State (March 14) is a new sci-fi comedy film directed by the Russo brothers and starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt. The film is adapted from Simon Stålenhag's graphic novel of the same name and follows an orphaned teen's quest to find her brother after a robot rebellion. Here's everything coming to Netflix in March—including the next installment of Formula 1: Drive to Survive (March 7) and lifestyle show With Love, Meghan (March 4)—and everything that's leaving. What's coming to Netflix in March 2025Available soonKhakee: The Bengal Chapter—Netflix Series Available March 1The Potato Lab—Netflix Series SAKAMOTO DAYS—Netflix Anime 50 First Dates Annie (2014) Beginners Black Hawk Down Blade Runner: The Final Cut Blood and Bone Cell 211 Do the Right Thing Friday High-Rise The Holiday Ma National Security Next Friday Pride & Prejudice Runaway Jury See No Evil, Hear No Evil Sicario Ted Vampires Wedding Crashers Available March 3Hot Wheels Let's Race: Season 3—Netflix Family Available March 4Andrew Schulz: LIFE—Netflix Comedy Special The Graham Norton Show: Best Bits: Week of February 21, 2025 With Love, Meghan—Netflix Series Available March 5Just One Look—Netflix Series The Leopard—Netflix Series Medusa—Netflix Series Available March 6Barbie & Teresa: Recipe For Friendship Tyler Perry's Beauty in Black: Season 1 Part 2—Netflix Series Larissa: The Other Side of Anitta—Netflix Documentary Love is Blind: Sweden: Season 1: After the Altar—Netflix Series Power Rangers Available March 7Chaos: The Manson Murders—Netflix Documentary Delicious—Netflix Film Formula 1: Drive to Survive: Season 7—Netflix Documentary Nadaaniyan—Netflix Film Plankton: The Movie—Netflix Family When Life Gives You Tangerines—Netflix Series Available March 8SAKAMOTO DAYS—Netflix Anime Available March 10American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden—Netflix Documentary Available March 12Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney—Netflix Live Event Temptation Island—Netflix Series Welcome to the Family—Netflix Series Available March 13Adolescence—Netflix Series Love is Blind: Sweden: Season 2—Netflix Series Available March 14Audrey The Electric State—Netflix Film Available March 15SAKAMOTO DAYS—Netflix Anime Available March 17CoComelon Lane: Season 4—Netflix Family Inside: Season 2—Netflix Series The Walking Dead: Dead City: Season 1 Available March 18Bert Kreischer: Lucky—Netflix Comedy Special Love & Hip Hop New York: Seasons 3-4 The Outrun Available March 19Twister: Caught in the Storm—Netflix Documentary Woman of the Dead: Season 2—Netflix Series Available March 20Bet Your Life—Netflix Series Den of Thieves 2: Pantera The Residence—Netflix Series Wolf King—Netflix Family Available March 21Go!—Netflix Series Little Siberia—Netflix Film Revelations—Netflix Film Available March 22SAKAMOTO DAYS—Netflix Anime Available March 25Chelsea Handler: The Feeling—Netflix Comedy Special Available March 26Caught—Netflix Series I Survived a Crime: Season 2 Million Dollar Secret—Netflix Series Available March 27Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure—Netflix Documentary Survival of the Thickest: Season 2—Netflix Series Available March 28The Lady's Companion—Netflix Series The Life List—Netflix Film Available March 31Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer—Netflix Documentary Promised Hearts—Netflix Film Rhythm + Flow Italy: Season 2—Netflix Series What's leaving Netflix in March 2025Leaving March 121 Bridges A Haunted House A Haunted House 2 Aloha Blended Cinderella Man Due Date Free State of Jones Green Lantern In the Heart of the Sea Inception Legends of the Fall Little Mr. Peabody & Sherman Oblivion Scooby-Doo Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Seven Years in Tibet Sixteen Candles Stand by Me Still Alice The Angry Birds Movie The Other Guys Leaving March 3Ravenous Leaving March 15The Autopsy of Jane Doe Leaving March 16A Walk Among the Tombstones Leaving March 23The Machine Leaving March 24Oldboy Leaving March 25No Escape Leaving March 27Happy!: Seasons 1-2 Leaving March 30Godzilla vs. Kong Mad Max: Fury Road Leaving March 31The Windsors: Seasons 1-3 View the full article

Let them do the selling for you. By Jody Padar Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Jody Padar. View the full article

Let them do the selling for you. By Jody Padar Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA Go PRO for members-only access to more Jody Padar. View the full article

Tax pros handling 41% of e-filings. By Beth Bellor Go PRO for members-only access to more Beth Bellor. View the full article

Tax pros handling 41% of e-filings. By Beth Bellor Go PRO for members-only access to more Beth Bellor. View the full article

The good news: they’re preventable. By Ed Mendlowitz Tax Season Opportunity Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Edward Mendlowitz. View the full article

The good news: they’re preventable. By Ed Mendlowitz Tax Season Opportunity Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Edward Mendlowitz. View the full article

Donald Trump recently surprised the world again by signing an action to end what he describes as the “forced use” of paper straws. Although there is some merit in the argument the White House presents that paper straws simply aren’t fit for purpose, what the paper straw revolution represents is the power of individual change in enacting progressive policy. Much like recent EU legislation which required all plastic bottles to have caps attached by a tether, the removal of items that tend to be easily littered is a way to help people be more environmentally cautious without any extra effort. Unfortunately, the paper straw appears to have failed in this endeavour. We should not stop this trajectory because of one fail, however. Even if paper straws are not a viable option, we mustn’t let their fate undermine all initiatives to reduce the impacts of single use plastics. The story behind the move away from plastic straws began in 2015, when a disturbing video of a turtle having a plastic straw removed from its nose went viral. Unfortunately this appears to be a common occurrence, with a video of a turtle with a plastic fork in its nose posted only a few months later. This shows plastic straws themselves are not the issue and that there is a wider problem that everyone should be aware of: plastic that ends up in the ocean is often mistaken for food and eaten by wildlife. Paper problems Admittedly, anyone who has used a paper straw will agree that they are not a viable alternative to plastic. The obvious complaint is that they get soggy too quickly. But there are several unseen components that show the switch to paper may not be as great as we once thought. To begin with, in an effort to keep them water-resistant, paper straws themselves are coated in plastic. This means they cannot be recycled. As they are an organic material, they release greenhouse gas when they decompose in landfill—they can however safely be incinerated, something that is not widely recommended for their plastic counterparts. As the demand for paper straws skyrocketed, this created a deficit in production, leading to the development of new manufacturing facilities, construction that in itself has a significant environmental impact. Meanwhile, the heavier weight of paper straws can lead to an increase in freighting fuel consumption and associated emissions. Flimsy plastics are more likely to be littered Anything, however, is better than plastic. A somewhat misleading statistic that plastic straws account for a mere 0.025% of ocean plastics has been circulating in the argument to bring them back. Although this is true by volume, it is not a correct representation of the sheer number of individual straws recorded in the environment which is suspected to be as many as 8.3 billion, about one per person on earth. The fact straws are so small and lightweight is a big part of the problem, since smaller and more easily fragmented items are far harder to collect. As litter, they punch above their weight. A child’s plastic beach toy may weigh as much as a few hundred plastic straws, but if littered the straws would do more harm to the environment and wildlife, and would look worse. As straws are made of polypropylene, a flimsier more brittle type of plastic, it doesn’t take much effort for them to break apart into bite-size pieces. Because of this, straws turn into microplastics much quicker than the toy, which has a higher chance of eventually being picked up. To this day, straws continue to be on the top 10 types of plastics found on beaches, and we have yet to see any videos of larger pollutants like those beach toys being pulled from the nose of any animal. Although we could argue indefinitely as to which straw materials are worse (reuseable metal or glass straws require water and a cleaning agent, another potential contaminant) the overarching sentiment is the most alarming component of Trump’s announcement. Paper straw pressure came from below The move towards paper straws was a refreshing direction in environmental preservation, in that it was initiated locally and by producers, not through legislation. In the summer of 2018 Seattle became the first U.S. city to enforce a ban on plastic utensils, straws and cocktail sticks. Soon thereafter, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Alaska Airlines, and many others announced they would stop the sale of plastic straws. Later that year, the U.K. government and European Union began consultations for national bans which came into effect in 2020 and 2021 respectively. In 2019 Canada followed suit with a ban coming into law in 2022. It was not until July of 2024 that the then U.S. president, Joe Biden announced his plan to phase out single-use plastics (although the fact sheet and official press release has now been removed from the White House website). This was several years after the global movement got underway—accompanied by the first complaints from Trump on the topic in 2019. It is important to note that both the EU and U.K. bans on plastic straws included stirrers and cotton bud sticks. However their removal from the market caused little to no controversy, mostly because there are adequate alternatives. Litter producers can drive change What the movement towards paper straws represents is the power of producers to drive change, in a bottom-up approach. A similarly encouraging scenario can be seen in attitudes towards polystyrene. Back in 2019 Dunkin’ Donuts announced it would stop using foam cups in certain U.S. markets, and delivered a full removal of the cups in the U.S. by early 2020, while in January 2025 California introduced a state wide polystyrene ban. Meanwhile, negotiations on a global plastics agreement remain indecisive. In the wake of a pattern of stalemate and regressive policy, it is on the consumers and producers to take action. We must continue to support producers who invest in innovation to address these issues in a way that makes our lives easier and cleaner. Randa Lindsey Kachef is a research affiliate at King’s College London. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

Billionaire owner says overhauled section will focus on ‘underserved’ viewpoints View the full article

Kyiv obtained some concessions from the Trump administration, but no postwar security guaranteesView the full article

Oh, you’re here because you captured the image of someone’s Instagram Story and want to know if they’ll get a notification about the screenshot, à la Snapchat? We’ve all been there, but they’re not going to find out if you took a screenshot of their grid post or story, at least not through a notification. There are a few instances where an Instagram user might be made aware that you’re sharing their content, though, or at least filing it away for later. Here’s everything you need to know about taking screenshots, saving, and sharing in Instagram, so you can lurk in relative peace. Can you screenshot someone's Instagram Story or grid post?If you screenshot someone’s grid or Story post, they do not get a notification. Ditto for screen-recording a video post. For better or worse, I am extremely good at creeping around on the app; I do it all the time. If any of the people whose content I was saving got a notification about it, I’d know by now. And I’d tell you. Can you screenshot Instagram direct messages?This is where things get dicey. In a standard Instagram direct message, you can screenshot with no problems. If you toggle on vanish mode, however, you lose that ability. This is a new change to vanish mode that appears to have only gone into effect within the past few weeks. I saw a few people posting about it and tested it myself. It's true: If someone screenshots your chat thread in vanish mode, you get a notification that says, "@theperson took a screenshot." If you screenshot the thread, you also see the notification that "you took a screenshot." It makes sense because vanish mode is supposed to be more private. When you toggle it on (by holding the bottom of your screen and dragging up within the thread), all the messages you send and receive in that chat disappear when you back out of the screen. The other person you're chatting with is supposed to have a reasonable expectation that their messages won't stick around for long, so it stands to reason they deserve to know if you took a recording. This does not apply to messages that are sent in chat threads without vanish mode turned on. It looks like this: The new way Instagram narcs on you. Credit: @ellefs0n/Instagram Has Instagram ever alerted users to other screenshots of their content?That said, there used to be one other way people could see if you’d taken a screenshot of something on Instagram. It was minor, but that’s what made it insidious: Up until very recently, if someone sent a photo directly to you via Instagram direct messaging, using the in-DM camera feature, and you took a screenshot of it, they would get a notification. It looked like this: The old way Instagram used to narc on you. Credit: @ellefs0n/Instagram To demonstrate how that looked, I asked my recipient to screenshot the first picture I sent and to open and view, but not screenshot, the second. The photos were sent in real time, using the camera icon in the bottom left, next to the typing box. As you can see, a little circle icon (it looks like a camera shutter) appeared next to the first one, which meant a screenshot was taken of it. A photo taken with the regular camera and sent from the camera roll did not produce a screenshot notification. Why am I telling you this? Instagram only recently changed this, but it did so in phases. The last time I checked, three months ago, if you screenshot a photo taken with the in-app camera, there was no longer a notification. Now, Instagram prevents it with a pop-up message that says, "You can't screenshot or record this. It's only meant to be replayed once." If the sender toggles on the "replay" option for the photo taken with the in-app camera and the receiver screenshots that, there is still no notification. That's a major change from just a year ago, when a notification would pop up, so this is clearly something always in flux. If and when it changes again, I'll let you know. Other ways to see if people are sharing your Instagram contentTaking screenshots on Instagram is safe, as we've discovered, but there are other ways a person might be able to figure out if you’re disseminating their content or saving it for future review. Technically, you'll still be anonymous, but it could be traced back to you with a little bad luck. If you have a business account, not a personal one, you have access to some additional features that can come in handy if you want to know whether people are sharing your content among themselves. Under your grid posts, you’ll see a button that says “View insights.” Tapping this will bring you to a page that shows how many accounts were reached, how many were engaged, how many people tapped through to see your profile, how many were following you already, and all kinds of other interesting data. You’ll also see, right at the top, a string of four numbers: How many accounts liked it, how many comments it got, how many shares it got, and how many saves it got. Credit: @ellefs0n/Instagram The shares and saves are important here. The rightward facing arrow that looks like a paper plane is your shares. The rectangle with a triangular cutout that looks like a bookmark is your saves. If you check this, you can’t see who is sharing or saving it, but you can get a sense of how many opps (or fans!) you have. Above, see that nine people shared my post and six saved it. What were their intentions? These are the questions that keep me up at night, but alas, I may never uncover the culprits. Bear in mind that if you save or share a post—meaning you send it to someone else via DM, share it to your own Story, or copy the link to send it to someone off-app—if the person has a business profile, they’ll at least know someone did. Depending on the content of the post and how many followers they have, they could narrow it down to you. (To check if someone has a business account, tap their profile. If there’s a descriptor under their name, like Journalist, Blogger, or Public figure, or buttons like “Contact,” they have a business profile.) If you're the one worried someone has shared your post with ill intentions, don't get ahead of yourself. Ask yourself first if you shared your own post to your Story, which would count as a share and increase the number next to that paper plane icon. Speaking of Stories, anyone with a business profile can also see the data related to their Story posts, both when the posts are active in the 24 hours after they are shared and in the Story archive. Next to the eye-shaped icon that indicates viewers, there will be an icon with three rectangles that looks like a bar graph. It reveals how many accounts were reached, how many engaged with the post, how many replies it got, etc. It also reveals shares. Below is an example of a time one of my Stories got 11 shares. I was able to figure out who shared it by looking through the views and taking note of the viewers who were not my followers. Sensing nasty intentions, I blocked the original sharer. If you share someone’s Story in-app, the accounts with whom you share it will appear on the story’s viewership list, which could easily implicate you. Credit: @ellefs0n/Instagram Does any of this matter? No, we should all launch our phones into the nearest trash can Sabrina van der Woodsen-style and go touch grass. But there are ways people can sniff out whether you’re sharing or saving their Instagram posts, even though they won’t get a notification if you screenshot. View the full article

Information gain in SEO is a metric that Google may use to evaluate the uniqueness of your content. View the full article

Google continues to lose ground among younger generations, with 61% of Gen Z and 53% of Millennials using AI tools instead of Google or other traditional search engines. That’s according to a new Vox Media survey. Why we care. We continue to see early signs that Google search may be starting to slip – from Google’s market share dropping below 90% for the first time since 2015 to other surveys indicating searchers are frustrated with search quality. Things are changing rapidly – from the rise of AI answer engines and generative engine optimization, to the growth of social platforms for discovery (e.g., TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest). Many brands and marketers are still adjusting to these shifts. By the numbers. When it comes to Google Search: 76% said that more than a quarter of Google Search shopping results appear to “be sponsored or promoted.” Only 14% described these sponsored or promoted results as “very helpful.” 42% said Google and search engines are becoming less useful. 55% said they get information from their community more than online search platforms. 52% said they use AI chatbots or alternative platforms (e.g., TikTok) for information instead of Google. 66% said the quality of information is deteriorating, making it difficult to find reliable sources. What they’re saying. According to a Verge slideshow summarizing the survey’s findings: “Legacy tech (e.g. Google) and social platforms are rapidly losing ground as trust and authenticity fades, with more people flocking to AI chatbots, niche communities, and platforms like TikTok. This signals a massive shift and opens the door for disruptive entrants that can offer more authentic, trusted experiences.” About the data. Vox Media partnered with Two Cents Insights to conduct the survey, collecting responses from more than 2,000 U.S. adults in December. The survey. The future of the internet is likely smaller communities, with a focus on curated experiences View the full article

Purchases of new single-family homes decreased 10.5% last month to a 657,000 annualized rate, according to government data issued Wednesday. View the full article

If you get an email from PayPal, proceed with caution: Scammers are using a legitimate PayPal address to send fraudulent purchase notifications to users in an attempt to gain remote access to your computer by convincing you to download malware. The phishing emails are being sent from service@paypal.com, which makes them seem real—but as Bleeping Computer reports, scammers have managed to exploit PayPal settings in order to trick recipients. How to spot the PayPal scamUsers targeted for this scam are receiving emails from PayPal notifying them that they've added a new mailing address to their account. According to Bleeping Computer, users who received this message did not actually add new addresses to PayPal, and in some cases, these notices are being sent to email addresses that aren't even linked to a PayPal account at all. The phishing email also includes variations of the following message: "Confirmation: Your shipping address for the MacBook M4 Max 1 TB ($1098.95) has been changed. If you did not authorize this update, please reach out to PayPal at +1-888-668-2508'" Scammers are hoping users will call the number to reach PayPal support about a suspected fraudulent MacBook purchase. But if you do, you'll speak with someone who will scare you into believing your account has been hacked and direct you to download and run software to fix it. Instead, though, scams like this intend to take over your system in order to run malware and steal money and/or personal information. Obviously, a phishing email received from a legitimate PayPal address is worrisome—plus, it can get past security and spam filters. As Bleeping Computer's reporting found, the scammers are first utilizing the platform's "gift address" feature (which is just an additional shipping address you can add to your account) and then automatically forwarding the confirmation with the fraudulent message through a mailing list so it looks like it came from PayPal. How to avoid falling victim to the PayPal scam One way to identify phishing scams is to check the address that the message is sent from, which may seem legit on the surface but clearly not when you look closer. In this case, that may not help much, but you should always be wary of messages that provoke an emotional response (like fear). If you get this email, you can ignore and delete it, though you can log into your PayPal account by going directly to the website or app and make sure nothing has been added to your account. Do not click links or call phone numbers listed in suspicious emails—instead, go directly to the website to access your account and locate official customer service channels if needed. Finally, never download anything from a suspicious email to your device. View the full article

If you’re like me, you’ve heard plenty of talk about entity SEO and knowledge graphs over the past year. But when it comes to implementation, it’s not always clear which components are worth the effort. I’ve struggled to determine when and where entity concepts actually impact SEO, especially when time is limited. While modern search engines are semantic, traditional tactics like keyword research and link building still work well and often overlap with entity-based strategies. Through trial and error, I’ve learned when these approaches add value and when they’re just unnecessary extra work. So, for the practical SEO professional who doesn’t have endless time, how can we effectively leverage entities and knowledge graphs? More importantly, how do we justify the investment? How to leverage entities and the knowledge graph for SEO Many companies and websites are successfully using two powerful entity-SEO strategies: Building a knowledge graph for your website Develop a structured knowledge graph to: Establish relationships between new entities. Connect your existing entities to Google’s Knowledge Graph. Entity-based internal linking Instead of relying solely on keywords, use entities as anchor text. This strengthens semantic connections within your site and helps search engines better understand content context. Before diving into these strategies, let’s explore how they can improve rankings over traditional SEO. The SEO impact of entity-based strategies All this extra work can lead to ranking improvements, but only when implemented in the right situations, especially on existing websites rather than those built from scratch. If you’ve read my previous articles, you know I like using analogies to explain the “why” behind these concepts. A strong mental model makes it easier to adapt strategies to different challenges and, most importantly, to determine when and where they’re worth deploying. Clarity is king Imagine you’re evaluating several articles on the SEO changes of 2024. One may stand out, not because it’s flashy, but because it connects new ideas to familiar concepts. This intuitive process mirrors how Google operates. When content aligns with what you already know and then builds on it with clear, relatable explanations, it naturally appears more valuable. From a knowledge graph perspective, imagine overlaying two graphs. The better they align, the more easily a reader can grasp new concepts – especially when those new ideas are linked to familiar ones. Neuroscience supports this: our brains naturally form networks of knowledge by linking concepts in hierarchies and relationships. Think about how the Eiffel Tower immediately brings Paris to mind, then France, and even pastries. This is the direction Google is heading – mimicking the human mind by using interconnected knowledge graphs to understand and rank content. Dig deeper: Entities, topics, keywords: Clarifying core semantic SEO concepts Search engines aren’t broadly experts Now, imagine you’re reading a highly technical physics paper, a topic you’re unfamiliar with. Without a strong background, you’d struggle to make sense of complex ideas unless they’re broken down and connected to what you already know. Picture one article that includes a glossary or side notes, seamlessly teaching you new terms by linking them to familiar concepts before using them in context. In such a scenario, even without deep subject-matter expertise, you’d find that article much easier to understand and, consequently, more credible. This extra layer of education and clarity is precisely why content that bridges new ideas with established knowledge tends to be favored by both human readers and search engines like Google. Expanding on the analogy: Organizing the content for helpfulness Imagine that, after judging the articles, you’re tasked with organizing them into categories that reflect which prize each one should win. This mirrors how Google indexes content and determines which queries it’s relevant for. Articles that are clearly explained and tied to well-known subjects are easier to categorize and understand, much like content that aligns with recognized entities. As a result, these articles enjoy a wider reach, not just because readers trust them more, but because they can immediately see the connections to what’s relevant to their needs. Takeaways Aligning your site with entities offers two key benefits. Google can serve your content for more queries by clearly understanding its subject. It tends to favor content that is easy to interpret, often assigning it higher quality scores. These benefits are harder to measure since they don’t appear in clear metrics but function more like qualitative factors – similar to how humans assess communication clarity. Their impact extends across individual pages and the entire site, influencing overall quality scores. While their imprecision can frustrate SEOs, applying these principles can significantly improve rankings. Think of it like an essay contest: clarity is crucial to winning, even if it’s just one factor. A judge may favor your essay for its clarity but not explicitly cite it as the deciding reason. When these strategies might not be worth the effort The good news is that tools are available to implement strategies with knowledge graphs and entities. However, while they can certainly help, they aren’t a silver bullet. Just as in our essay competition analogy, an article being clearer doesn’t automatically make it better. Other articles might have more citations, come from more authoritative sources, or offer more meaningful content that resonates with users. These strategies are most valuable when clarity can give you an edge or a lack of clarity is holding your site back. The benefits won’t be uniform. For some sites, the impact can be huge, while for others it might be minimal. This is where an experienced SEO must assess the most pressing issues and allocate their limited time accordingly. Here are instances where it’s not worth it: Limited content or new sites: Building a comprehensive knowledge graph might be overkill if your website is new or has a small content inventory. The benefits of a detailed semantic structure become more apparent as your content grows. Niche or straightforward topics: Traditional strategies might suffice for websites focused on very niche or simple topics. If your content is already clear and easily understood by both users and search engines, the incremental gains from advanced schema or entity linking could be minimal. Resource constraints: These strategies require time, technical expertise, and sometimes financial investment in tools or services. If your team is small or already stretched thin, the return on investment might not justify the additional effort. Satisfactory existing performance: If your SEO efforts are already driving solid results, you may find that the marginal improvements from these advanced strategies aren’t significant enough to warrant a major overhaul. Think of these approaches as powerful tools in your arsenal and not a magic wand. Where is Google headed? Imagine that Google could hire experts in every field to determine which articles are the highest quality and best serve user intent. These experts would start by reading each article, meticulously examining their citations, and then assigning an overall quality score. Google’s knowledge graph enables machines to function like these niche experts in many ways. As these systems grow more sophisticated, their evaluations will increasingly mirror, and potentially even surpass, the judgments of human specialists. Dig deeper: Entity-oriented search: The evolution of information retrieval, explained Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. Now that we understand the impact of entity SEO strategies, let’s explore how each one actually moves the needle, plus tips and tools to help you implement them. 1. Schema markup for external and internal entity connections and disambiguation Using schema markup, you can connect entities across your site and link them to external references, creating a knowledge graph of your content’s context for search engines. By consistently adding markup across your pages, crawlers can see how entities relate, forming a connected graph rather than isolated data points. It’s important to note that Google evaluates schema markup page-by-page. To connect your entities across your site, you must consistently use the @id property. (Learn more in this article on ID Schema for SEO, LLMs, and Knowledge Graphs.) Connecting entities internally the right way In this example, each schema is independent, with no explicit connection between related entities. As a result, search engines may struggle to understand how these pieces of data relate. JavaScript { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "name": "Example Marketing", "url": "https://example.com" } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "John Doe", "jobTitle": "CEO", "worksFor": { "name": "Example Marketing" } } By using the @id property as shown below, you explicitly link the CEO to the organization. This connection creates a unified knowledge graph that clearly shows the relationship between the entities. JavaScript { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://example.com/#organization", "name": "Example Marketing", "url": "https://example.com" } { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "John Doe", "jobTitle": "CEO", "worksFor": { "@id": "https://example.com/#organization" } } Now, search engines understand that “John Doe” is the CEO of “Example Marketing” because the @id reference directly links the two entities. The right way to connect internal entities to external known sources Enhance your site’s clarity by linking entities to trusted sources like Wikidata or Wikipedia, which are part of Google’s Knowledge Graph. This adds context for search engines and validates your content’s authenticity and relevance. For example, you can use the sameAs property in your schema markup to link an entity on your site to its corresponding external reference. Consider the following code snippet: JavaScript { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Person", "name": "John Doe", "jobTitle": "CEO", "worksFor": { "@id": "https://example.com/#organization" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doe" ] } In this example, the sameAs property connects “John Doe” on your site to external sources like Wikidata and Wikipedia. (Note: These links are placeholders. Make sure to reference actual, existing pages from both databases.) Enhancing entity detection with tools Tools like TextRazor can help you identify key entities on your pages by analyzing the content and providing a list of entities and their relative importance. This insight lets you strategically choose which entities to mark up and connect to external references, ensuring your content is as clear and informative as possible. TextRazor can analyze your content, identify the most important entities on your page, and provide a confidence score for how accurately it maps them to existing entities.) Automating schema markup If you prefer automation, WordLift can automatically generate the necessary sameAs markup for your pages using advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques. Alternatively, you can use tools like Screaming Frog in conjunction with JavaScript to generate JSON-LD schema at scale. Connecting your site’s entities to external references and leveraging automation tools creates a comprehensive, crawlable knowledge graph that enhances your website’s SEO and overall clarity. 2. Internal linking based on entities Clarifying the relationships between your pages through internal linking is also crucial. When you link a page to a broader entity, you’re effectively signaling to search engines that the content is part of an interconnected network. This improves clarity and increases the likelihood that your page will rank for a wider range of queries. Tools like InLinks can automate this process. Still, there’s a lot to gain from a manual approach especially when creating hub-and-spoke content relationships. For example, you might: Use Wikidata or TextRazor to identify key entities on a page. Select one primary entity representing that page and use it as a natural anchor for internal linking across your site. This targeted approach reinforces your content’s contextual relevance and helps search engines better understand how your pages interrelate. When knowledge graphs and entities matter most Entity SEO can take many forms, but these two strategies – schema markup and entity-based internal linking – are among the most effective and increasingly popular. They help search engines better understand and rank your content by clarifying its structure and relevance. However, these strategies aren’t universally necessary. Their impact depends on factors like content volume, topic complexity, and available resources. For some sites, they can be transformative, especially when clarity is a weak point. For others, traditional SEO methods may still yield the best results. Rather than viewing entity SEO as a silver bullet, treat it as a strategic tool. When combined with proven SEO practices, it can help build a stronger, more semantically rich website that thrives in an evolving search landscape. View the full article

As a leadership advisor, I’ve worked with countless executives who wrestle with failure—some fearing it to the point of paralysis, others glorifying it without extracting real lessons. Failure is inevitable. Growth is optional. The difference between leaders who thrive and those who stagnate isn’t the absence of failure—it’s how they respond to it. Fear of failure holds many organizations back, stifling creativity, slowing innovation, and fostering a culture of risk aversion. But failure, when embraced correctly, is one of the most powerful catalysts for growth. The problem? Too many leaders either avoid failure altogether or celebrate it without reflection. The key is courageous failure—the kind that fuels insight, builds resilience, and sets the stage for transformative breakthroughs. Why leaders fear failure Despite the lip service given to “failing fast,” many leaders still operate in fear of mistakes. The reasons are clear: Ego and Identity: Leaders often tie their worth to their success, making failure feel deeply personal. When setbacks occur, they don’t just see it as a professional challenge but as a reflection of their own competence and value. Cultural Stigma: Organizations reward wins but often penalize failure, even when it leads to progress. This creates an environment where employees become risk-averse, opting for predictable outcomes over bold innovation. Short-Term Pressures: Quarterly earnings, investor expectations, and performance metrics discourage experimentation. Leaders feel the pressure to deliver immediate results, making it difficult to justify long-term bets that may initially appear as failures. Psychological Safety Issues: When failure is punished rather than examined, employees hide mistakes instead of learning from them. This lack of psychological safety stifles open communication, preventing valuable lessons from emerging and limiting the organization’s ability to adapt. When fear dominates, organizations fall into a risk-averse cycle—defaulting to safe decisions, missing opportunities, and becoming stagnant. The courageous failure framework Not all failures are created equal. Reckless failures, failures due to negligence, lack of preparation, or poor execution, should be avoided. But courageous failures—those that come from thoughtful experimentation, calculated risks, and boundary-pushing innovation—are the seeds of progress. Leaders who want to leverage failure must foster an environment where learning is valued more than perfection. Here’s how: Define What ‘Good’ Failure Looks Like. Not all failures are worth celebrating. A good failure is one that teaches something valuable, aligns with strategic goals, and moves the organization forward. Clearly define the difference between reckless mistakes and courageous failures. Reframe Failure as Data. Instead of seeing failure as a dead end, treat it as an information-gathering exercise. Amazon’s Fire Phone flopped, but the underlying technology led to Alexa’s development—one of its most successful innovations. Encourage Micro-Failures. Instead of placing massive bets that can sink an initiative, create low-risk experiments to test ideas before scaling. This approach minimizes damage while maximizing insights. Normalize Transparent Debriefs. Establish post-failure debrief rituals that focus on what was learned, not who was to blame. Bridgewater Associates, for example, operates with radical transparency, analyzing mistakes openly to prevent them from repeating. Publicly Recognize Productive Failures. If employees only see success being rewarded, they’ll avoid risk. Celebrate well-intentioned failures that led to key learnings, just as you would a big win. Lessons from leaders who failed forward When Sara Blakely started Spanx, she made countless mistakes in manufacturing and marketing but saw each misstep as part of the process. She credits her father for encouraging her to talk about what she failed at each day—instilling a mindset of resilience and growth. Another great example is Oprah Winfrey, who, when she was fired from her first TV job, used the setback to refine her approach and ultimately built one of the most influential media empires in history. Companies that fear failure more than stagnation are already losing ground. The leaders who fail forward faster—learning, iterating, and growing—will define the future. So, before your next big decision, ask yourself: Am I playing it safe to avoid failure, or am I willing to take a calculated risk that could lead to something extraordinary? Failure isn’t the opposite of success—it’s the bridge to it. The only real mistake is not learning from the ones you make along the way. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I have worked in nonprofits for the entirety of my career (~15 years). I’m a highly mission-driven person, so I am generally a lot happier in my work when I feel strongly connected to the nonprofit’s aims. As an example, I’ve worked at both a public library and a private college, and I was much happier at the library even though the hours were longer, the pay less, and the work more menial — just because I felt like my work was contributing to a better cause. I was recently hired at a very small nonprofit that, on paper, seemed to tick all the boxes for me. However, having been there for a few months now, I’m growing increasingly uncomfortable with the way it operates. It’s a little difficult to describe while maintaining anonymity, but I think the best comparison would be a soup kitchen (very similar in terms of the services we provide and overall “goodness” of the mission). If you look at the hard data — which in my comparison would be organization budget vs. people served — the overall impact becomes … not very impressive. When you do the math, it’s like it costs our soup kitchen $50 for each individual meal served. (Again, this is not exactly what we do, but this is the best analogy I could find. We do not have any additional programs that could be justified as part of the expense while having a nebulous hard-data result, like educational programs.) I don’t think there’s any fraud going on. I’ve seen the budget sheets and everything seems to be accounted for; the director and founder does not pay himself an exorbitant rate (it’s actually fairly low, in my experience — in fact, identical to the other staff salaries, which are good for the area we live in but definitely not luxurious). I honestly think it’s just bad management (it’s a very recently founded nonprofit and the director had no prior experience in nonprofits) and, mostly, a giant blind spot where the director doesn’t seem to have recognized that the math ain’t mathing. I think when the org was first founded, the numbers were a little better, but he’s added staff over the years at a rate that our actual output doesn’t match. In addition to just making me unhappy, this disparity is affecting my work. Part of my job is applying for grants and other funding, and we are very often rejected. I can’t be sure, but I am assuming that the budget-to-services ratio is turning off a lot of funders. (Why would you give us $1,000 to feed 20 people a single meal, when the average meal cost in our state should mean that could feed 250 people?) It’s definitely obvious to anyone who pays a little attention; I have a good friend who works in a nonprofit of similar size and she pointed it out in casual conversation: “Wow, that’s like $X per person served.”) So I suppose I have two questions: 1. Is there any way possible to point this out to the director in a way that is constructive? Fixing it would require a complete overhaul of the entire organization, which isn’t my purview — but as I said above, it’s affecting the results I get for the work I do. I’m afraid I’m going to just blurt it out defensively if the director continues to moan about the fact that we get rejected for grants I’m applying to. No matter how eloquently you write, a lot of funders want the hard numbers. 2. Does this reflect poorly on me? Should I just get out? I very much get the vibe that this organization is just an outlet for our director to feel good about himself — he comes from money, and has never had a real job where he wasn’t working for family, so this essentially allows him to LARP as a do-gooder without making any real difference. If I do depart, is it worth mentioning in an exit interview, or would that just be seen as a cheap parting shot? I am grateful for any advice you might have for me. This job ticks a lot of boxes for me in terms of salary, commute length/hybrid work, and the actual tasks I’m doing, so I don’t know if I should just plod ahead while ignoring the giant elephant in the room. Nah, you should get out. You want to work for a mission-driven organization that’s making a real difference, and this isn’t that. This sounds very much like, as you said, a chance for the director to play at charity work without the accompanying results that make charity work worthwhile. You want to work somewhere that’s effective. This organization isn’t. If you were someone who just wanted a paycheck, it might not be a problem to continue on there. (Even then, it still could be a problem, depending on where the org’s funding is coming from; at a certain point there are ethical issues with working for an ineffective organization that’s taking funds away from more worthy recipients … although one can certainly argue that it’s incumbent upon funders to do enough research to see when that’s happening.) But you are someone who wants work where you have a real impact on the world, and you’ve seen enough to know this doesn’t check that very important box for you. Moreover, this job risks holding you back professionally, especially as a fundraiser. When you’re applying for your next job, employers will want to hear about the successes you had in this one, and if you can’t point to any, that’s going to be a problem! (Perhaps less so if you don’t plan to stay in fundraising, but even then you’d still want to be able to point to a pattern of results and this job doesn’t sound like it’s positioning you well to do that.) As for pointing out your concerns to the director, you’re actually situated very well to do that! As the person who applies for grants, it’s part of your job to know what funders are looking for and it’s entirely consistent with your job to explain that funders want to see a better budget-to-services ratio. Hell, if you really want to put effort into helping him see that, you could even try to arrange a few conversations with potential funders to get them to comment on either the org’s weakness in that area or what metrics they look for generally, so that you can then relay that back to your director. But even if you don’t do that, there’s lot of material out there that you can reference about what expenses are and aren’t considered reasonable when applying for grants. You’d be doing this not necessarily because you expect the director will overhaul the entire organization in response to it (he probably won’t, although who knows) but simply to try to break through the blind spot that he appears to have. If he’s moaning about being rejected for grants, this is a conversation that absolutely should happen. And yes, you can mention it in an exit interview too. It’s not a cheap shot to say, “As someone who’s in this field because I want to have an impact, I ended up being disappointed by the results we get for the money we invest, and would like to see a higher effectiveness rate as measured by X.” View the full article

Sensitive financial and health data belonging to millions of veterans and stored on a benefits website is at risk of being stolen or otherwise compromised, according to a federal employee tasked with cybersecurity who was recently fired as part of massive government-wide cuts. The warning comes from Jonathan Kamens, who led cybersecurity efforts for VA.gov—an online portal for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and services used by veterans, their caregivers and families. Kamens was fired February 14 and said he doesn’t believe his role will be filled, leaving the site particularly vulnerable. “Given how the government has been functioning for the last month, I don’t think the people at VA . . . are going to be able to replace me,” Kamens told the Associated Press Monday evening. “I think they’re going to be lacking essential oversight over cybersecurity processes for VA.gov.” Kamens said he was hired over a year ago by the U.S. Digital Service, whose employees’ duties have been integrated into presidential adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the downsizing effort. Kamens was a digital services expert and the VA site’s information security lead when he was fired by email at night, along with about 40 other USDS employees, he said. Millions of people use the VA.gov website monthly, Kamens said, and the department is responsible for securing private health and financial information including bank account numbers and credit card numbers. Others on the team will focus on protecting the site, but his expertise can’t be replaced, he said, noting he was the only government employee with an engineering technical background working on cybersecurity. “VA.gov has access to a huge number of databases within VA in order to provide all of those benefits and services to veterans,” Kamens said. “So if that information can’t be kept secure, then all of that information is at risk and could be compromised by a bad actor.” Peter Kasperowicz, a Veterans Affairs spokesman, said the loss of a single employee wouldn’t affect operations, and noted that hundreds of cybersecurity workers are among the department’s staff of nearly 470,000. Meanwhile, more than 20 civil service employees who’d also previously worked for USDS resigned Tuesday from DOGE, saying they refused to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.” Kamens said he was required to have a background check and a drug test before he was allowed to access any system containing veterans’ data. He said he doesn’t understand why Musk and DOGE shouldn’t have to jump through the same hoops. “I don’t think they should have access to that data,” Kamens said. “These are people who have never been background-checked. They’re not confirmed to be trustworthy.” Kamens also said he’s worried that DOGE is “trying to break down the walls of decentralization” that have kept data isolated in individual agencies. Centralization, he said, could increase the chances for abuse. He also described confusion since DOGE became involved—people didn’t know who their manager was, work became isolated, and people were “frozen out.” “The only motive that I can think of,” Kamens said, “is exactly because they want to be able to use that data to harm citizens that they perceive as enemies of the state.” —Brian Witte and Rodrique Ngowi, Associated Press View the full article

Purchase volume was flat last week and up just 3% compared to the same time a year ago when the market faced similar rates in the high 6% range. View the full article