Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

The video above is a good look at the anxiety and dissatisfaction we feel when faced with limitless choice. Professor Renata Saleci explores whether too much choice actually hinders rather than helps us.

Top 10 List of Small Business Resources – http://crowdspring.co/YeXH7U

Publicity Stunts: When Good Ideas Go Bad | crowdSPRING Blog – http://crowdspring.co/12tZE8V

Surprise! 5 Startup Costs You Might Not Have Thought About – http://crowdspring.co/XFSA4p

The Skinny on Using Crowdsourcing for Your Business | The Frugal Entrepreneur – http://crowdspring.co/YeY3vh

5 Customer Experience Metrics Every Successful Company Tracks | The Buffer blog – http://crowdspring.co/XG6UKj

The Law on Fonts and Typefaces: Frequently Asked Questions (read the comments too) – http://crowdspring.co/OLBOeR

14 Revealing Interview Questions | Inc – http://crowdspring.co/12pHjtI

The Ultimate Guide to Customer Acquisition | KISSmetrics Blog – http://crowdspring.co/YqAcvD

7 Usability Mistakes That Will Kill Your Online Sales | KISSmetrics Blog – http://crowdspring.co/Yqw271

Publicity Stunts: When Good Ideas Go Bad | crowdSPRING Blog – http://crowdspring.co/12tZE8V

The Law on Fonts and Typefaces: Frequently Asked Questions (read the comments too) – http://crowdspring.co/OLBOeR

Surprise! 5 Startup Costs You Might Not Have Thought About – http://crowdspring.co/XFSA4p

People First – http://crowdspring.co/Z1BMoZ

More founders reject VC money | Crain’s New York Business – http://crowdspring.co/XG0OJS

Women Entrepreneurs Out Earn Men By 14% | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/Z7FT2B

How to Configure Your Startup Team | by Mark Suster – http://crowdspring.co/YfL8JB

The Skinny on Using Crowdsourcing for Your Business | The Frugal Entrepreneur – http://crowdspring.co/YeY3vh

Why entrepreneurs struggle with MBA hires – http://crowdspring.co/10agAQi

B- environment merits B- effort – http://crowdspring.co/XWTkzb

No Business is Too Big to Fail or Too Small to Succeed – Sobering stats on business failures | by Brian Solis – http://crowdspring.co/12y71fD

The Confessions of an Arrogant Startup CEO | Francis Pedraza – http://crowdspring.co/YzJchW

Why Aren’t More Women Entrepreneurs in Tech Accelerators? | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/12ybZc5

Crowd-Sourcing as a Path to Innovation – http://crowdspring.co/YfE5Ar

Don’t Launch | by Eric Ries – http://crowdspring.co/ZdASpg

In Defense of Working Mostly From Home – http://crowdspring.co/YuwKQt

Do You Have Entrepreneurial DNA? A Test to Help You Decide | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/Z7cdCZ

Amazon Rock Solid, Netflix Still Struggling With Customer Satisfaction | Enterprise Irregulars – http://crowdspring.co/12ych2F

“Any organization … can develop faster, more effective, cheaper solutions to problems by challenging its people.” – http://crowdspring.co/ZguTjJ

Why Startups Fail – http://crowdspring.co/YzKJog

5 Things Founders Shouldn’t Skimp On – http://crowdspring.co/Z1C2nU

Crafting a Pricing Plan to Maximize Freemium Growth – http://crowdspring.co/Zf0RwB

Your Brain Is Hooked on Being Right | Judith E. Glaser-Harvard Business Review – http://crowdspring.co/Z4PeIK

The Ultimate Guide to Customer Acquisition | KISSmetrics Blog – http://crowdspring.co/YqAcvD

10 Things Sheryl Sandberg Gets Exactly Right In ‘Lean In’ | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/YzL2zj

What is 500 startups business model? Answer: http://crowdspring.co/13DupHQ 

7 Usability Mistakes That Will Kill Your Online Sales | KISSmetrics Blog – http://crowdspring.co/Yqw271

On Facebook, Sharing Can Come at a Cost | NYT – http://crowdspring.co/YqBbfj

“Why bosses give gifts instead of cash: Gifts make you work harder.” – http://crowdspring.co/Zdu7nr

“Anything–even doing laundry–will help you dream up new ideas better than sitting in a meeting” – http://crowdspring.co/YqAN0c

5 tips for startup founders from startup founders | Gigaom – http://crowdspring.co/Yqy5YA

Founders: It’s ok to take time off | StartupCFO : Mark MacLeod – http://crowdspring.co/Z4NRK0

The Entrepreneur’s Hoax, and Why I Won’t Play Along – http://crowdspring.co/Z4NwXO

14 Revealing Interview Questions | Inc – http://crowdspring.co/12pHjtI

Good interview with Jason Fried on his next book (REMOTE) and remote work | Quartz – http://crowdspring.co/YtD9eO

Why we have our best ideas in the shower: The science of creativity | The Buffer blog – http://crowdspring.co/Z1Btu7

What are you passionate about in a company? – http://crowdspring.co/Z1BdeH

Daring Fireball: Open and Shut – http://crowdspring.co/YnCrQj

5 Customer Experience Metrics Every Successful Company Tracks | The Buffer blog – http://crowdspring.co/XG6UKj

Publicity Stunts: When Good Ideas Go Bad | crowdSPRING Blog – http://crowdspring.co/12tZE8V

The Banner Industrial Complex Under Threat | Digiday – http://crowdspring.co/Z1CUJ3

Why Agencies Can’t Work from Home | Digiday – http://crowdspring.co/12pGHEf

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Every so often a company gets a great idea about how they might garner so great free publicity. Perhaps some manager or marketing team thinks to themselves, “If we can only get some free press, we could be huge!” The wheels start turning, the ideas start to flow, the budgets get prepared and the next thing you know they are ready to launch the next stunt that will win them the market share (they think) they deserve.

Many companies large and small have attempted PR stunts and there are some great examples of successful events large and small that have worked out for the sponsoring company: think Red Bull’s Stratos Mission, with it’s daredevil leap from the edge of space, or Kentucky Fried Chicken’s giant logo in the Nevada desert, or even the granddaddy of them all, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. These efforts and others like them garnered tons of free press coverage for their sponsors, generated millions of impressions, and ultimately led to increased awareness and  sales.

But for every successful PR stunt that is launched by a wide-eyed marketing team, there are dozens of unsuccessful efforts littering the road. Even though the old saw, “there is no bad PR” is still widely subscribed to, real damage can be done when an attempt at a PR stunt fails, in truth the damage done to a sponsoring company’s reputation can be immense (not to mention the expense). Here are 5 legendary examples of PR efforts gone horribly, terrible, awfully wrong. #fail has never had better friends than these!

1. Summer in NYC; World’s Largest Popsicle Melts. Go Figure.

In 2005 the marketers at drink brand Snapple, had a great idea: let’s build the world’s largest popsicle! They figured that consumers and media would flock to cover the story when they unveiled the giant treat in New York’s Union Square. The popsicle would be 25 feet tall and would weigh over 17 tons! Wow.

The crowds did indeed gather and the media as well as the folks from the Guinness Book of World Records were all set to document the entire event. But, as Murphy’s law dictates, when something can go wrong, it will and it happened that  the temperature shot up into the 80s in New York City that day. Who would have thought? The giant, frozen kiwi-strawberry-flavored confection began to melt and before they knew it sticky fluid was pouring onto the street and sidewalks. The police were forced to close off several blocks of downtown Manhattan and the fire department had to be called to rinse away the sugary syrup.

Not surprisingly, Snapple declined to make a second attempt to break the official record, which had been set in Holland in 1997 by a 21-foot ice pop. Oh well.

2. We Built This City. PR Destroyed It.

Back in 1896, executives at the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway were looking for a way to gin up some excitement, build awareness, and gain some customers who would be willing to buy tickets to Texas. One marketing guru named William Crush came up with a killer idea: create a “temporary” city and the stage a train wreck for an audience of paying spectators. Genius!

The new town, named Crush, was built in short order, just for the purpose of having a place for the crash to happen. They erected buildings, set up tents, and even erected a grandstand. Two trains were designated to travel around Texas to advertise the event. The railroad offered discounted tickets for anyone who wanted to travel in to see the “Crush crash” and over 40,000 took them up on the offer. For one day, Crush became the second-largest city in Texas. A special track was built and special safety measures put in place but, shockingly, things didn’t go according to plan.

The two trains were set on “full speed ahead” mode and the crew leaped to safety in plenty of time. What no one counted on was that the boilers would explode on impact. When the two trains collided at 45 miles per hour, the debris flew into the crowd killing three people and injuring dozens more.

William Crush was fired, the town was torn down after the day of the crash and the railroad gave  the victims free passes! Of course the passes were only good for use on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas.

3. Identity Theft Role Reversal.

In 2007 Todd Davis, CEO of the identity theft protection company LifeLock, decided to pursue a great new marketing effort. The idea was that he would become the face of the company and use his own image as well as his personal information, including his real social security number, to advertise and promote the company’s services. The effort lasted for more than 2 years, and the company garnered some great media in that time.

Unfortunately for Mr. Davis, who claimed that his identity was safe because of his company’s services, it didn’t turn out quite as planned. Sure enough he ultimately had to admit that his own identity had been stolen thirteen times and that 87 other thieves had made the attempt. Davis’s information was used to secure a loan, set up bank accounts, open cell phone accounts, and even charge over $300 to a gift-basket company. Multiple lawsuits were filed, and the company was fined $12,000,000 by the FTC for making false commercial claims.

4. Flyover, Schmyover – How the DOD Rolls.

In September of 2001, New Yorkers were shocked by the low-flying arrival of two jumbo jets over lower Manhattan. They watched in disbelief as the two aircraft flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. About 8 years later, they were horrified to see another jumbo jet doing a low-altitude fly over near the tip of lower Manhattan, this time circling the Statue of Liberty. Who could blame them for thinking it might be another terrorist attack.

But, no, it was not another incident of aircraft being used as deadly weapons, but rather a dimwitted attempt at a photo-op staged by the Air Force. Surprisingly, neither the city’s emergency responders not the Mayor had been warned that the flyover was taking place that day.

Widespread panic ensued in downtown New York with thousands of  workers and residents calling 911, streaming out of their buildings, and making panicked calls to their friends and families. The aircraft continued their maneuvers, got their shots and flew off, never suspecting the stir they had caused.

A statement released by the Department of Defense had this to say, “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption.”  Duh.

5. Aqua Teen Hunger Fail.

The Cartoon Network is known as much for outrageous marketing as it is for outrageous content. In 2007 one of Cartoon Network’s marketing firms launched a new campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a show featuring characters represented as fast-food containers, including one called Frylock and another named   Meatwad. Metal forms covered with colored lights in the shape of these characters were hung in public places in 10 U.S. cities, including several in various locations in Boston. One day shortly after the “signs” were placed, a Boston city worker noticed one of them on a highway on-ramp, complete with wires dangling and lights flashing. The police were called and the bomb squad brought in to defuse and detonate the thing. Dozens of roads, bridges, and transit stations were shut down, and the press and social media exploded. Within a week, Comedy Central and the show’s producers and marketers had issued an apology and agreed to pay up to $2 million to the city of Boston.

Back in 2011, we announced a monthly cS Award to honor quality work by designers and writers in the crowdSPRING community.

The March cS Award

For the past couple of months we have focused on challenging the community to find the best way to brand themselves or their companies. This month we want to put your skills to work on something a little different. Advertising. crowdSPRING is curious to see what kind of advertising creativity we have in the community, so we are launching this project to see what you all can do. We want you to come up with a campaign, an ad, a graphic, a stunt, a PR strategy, a Social Media storm, or anything you can think of that will help a very special “client.”

YOUR CHALLENGE? Create a “campaign pitch” for the United States Congress! As we know Congress’s approval ratings are in the basement and they could use some help improving their image through creative advertising, marketing, PR, social media, etc. Basically we will ask you to help improve the Congressional brand image through a campaign or tactic. We are looking for anything fun: entire creative campaigns, or partial campaigns – anything really: print ads, mailers, internet campaigns, social media, stunts, PR wherever your imagination takes you!

So… the March cS Awards will be given to the 3 Creatives who submit the coolest, most interesting, craziest, or most engaging campaign, ad, tactic, or effort for the US Congress! To be eligible, you just need upload at least 1 entry while the project is open. Remember that we are offering 3 awards, so be sure to participate!

Good luck to everyone!

And now…. the February cS Award Winners….

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Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

The video above is a look at some of the crazy (and fun) things people do to have fun and entertain. Some pretty incredible and inspiring examples.

Productivity On the Go: 10 Apps to Help You do Business! – http://crowdspring.co/139Lx8d

Study Reveals Brand Marketers Mostly Clueless And Inept At Localization – http://crowdspring.co/XuQiBU

How to Make a Landing Page That C.O.N.V.E.R.T.S. – Conversion Tips and Examples | KISSmetrics Blog – http://crowdspring.co/Xzh1NV

How To Treat Your Employees | TechCrunch – http://crowdspring.co/XA39mg

6 Secret (Until Now!) Laws of Business – http://crowdspring.co/15T9H6j

Surprise! 5 Startup Costs You Might Not Have Thought About – http://crowdspring.co/XFSA4p

Productivity On the Go: 10 Apps to Help You do Business! – http://crowdspring.co/139Lx8d

How To Rewire Your Brain for Positivity and Happiness | The Buffer blog – http://crowdspring.co/15ReJQR

How to find and get the most out of an entrepreneurial mentor | CNET News – http://crowdspring.co/15AGehp

The Best Cities For Women Entrepreneurs? It Takes A Lot More Than Promise | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/XIztUf

What makes a great startup | Solve for Interesting – http://crowdspring.co/XuzKdj

What “Disrupt” Really Means | TechCrunch – http://crowdspring.co/15HxcPA

3 Things I Did Wrong with My Last Startup – http://crowdspring.co/15N4i0q

The 7 Myths of Lean and How Analytics Can Help – http://crowdspring.co/15JPUGv

Startups, Throw Out Your Financial Models: The Argument For Lean Modeling | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/XDAAVc

Rehearsing failure, rehearsing success – http://crowdspring.co/15N69Cu

The depressing math behind consumer-facing apps – http://crowdspring.co/15JQ4NR

More founders reject VC money | Crain’s New York Business – http://crowdspring.co/XG0OJS

Don’t Tell Me Your History In Chronological Order | Feld Thoughts – http://crowdspring.co/15HzEFG

6 Secret (Until Now!) Laws of Business – http://crowdspring.co/15T9H6j

Don’t Spend More Money Than You’re Bringing In | Sprouter Blog – http://crowdspring.co/15QNpSM

Startup identity & the sadness of a successful exit – http://crowdspring.co/15QNfuC

The Non-Entrepreneur’s Guide to Startup Funding | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/Xu0f2C

Building an audience for first-time entrepreneurs – http://crowdspring.co/XGEBrZ

The Difference Between Apple HQ And Google HQ Says It All | Business Insider – http://crowdspring.co/XFRjui

How To Treat Your Employees | TechCrunch – http://crowdspring.co/XA39mg

The Truth About Founder Burnout – http://crowdspring.co/XDUCPp

5 Influential CEOs Weigh in What Makes a Good Leader | Entrepreneur – http://crowdspring.co/XGEk8m

5 Customer Experience Metrics Every Successful Company Tracks | The Buffer blog – http://crowdspring.co/XG6UKj

Play by your own rules – http://crowdspring.co/XBVwfn

When culture turns into policy – http://crowdspring.co/15BHHUI

An MBA is a complete waste of time and money for anyone who wants to create or join a startup – http://crowdspring.co/XuQtNE

Venture Capital Returns – http://crowdspring.co/XuPME1

The Rise of the Female Investor | WSJ – http://crowdspring.co/XzbwP3

From Crowdsourcing to Crowdstorming | HuffPost – http://crowdspring.co/15HxMNh

Is Twitter Really Worth $10 Billion? – http://crowdspring.co/XF8UiQ 

How to Make a Landing Page That C.O.N.V.E.R.T.S. – Conversion Tips and Examples | KISSmetrics Blog – http://crowdspring.co/Xzh1NV

When to Sell Your Company | Medium – http://crowdspring.co/XuzUl5

When people get confused about “BS metrics” – http://crowdspring.co/XL1t9U

“if you really want to dilute your ownership stake quickly, then assume that your vision is perfect.” http://crowdspring.co/XFQqSm 

Fully Distributed Teams: are they viable? – http://crowdspring.co/XtZVkd

The Yahoo memo and Marissa Mayer’s big innovation gamble | The Washington Post http://crowdspring.co/XFRDsX

3 Ways Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer Did Us A Huge Favor | Fast Company – http://crowdspring.co/15NBFAh

No more remote work at Yahoo – http://crowdspring.co/XAYSis

Good example of how bad data can lead to bad decisions … Marissa Mayer Is No Fool | Michael Schrage – HBR – http://crowdspring.co/XDMGNZ

Yahoo CEO Mayer Now Requiring Remote Employees to Not Be (Remote) | AllThingsD – http://crowdspring.co/XuOFEr

3 Neuromarketing Considerations For Landing Page Optimization – http://crowdspring.co/XC099a

18 Meta Tags Every Webpage Should Have in 2013 | iAcquire Blog – http://crowdspring.co/15BIcOA

Selling Out Or Growing Up? Why Paid Social Media Is Set To Surge | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/XDxu3r

5 Ways Brands Are Cutting Out Agencies | Digiday – http://crowdspring.co/YEkdYu

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In addition to a desktop computer at work and a laptop for home and on the road, I also own an iPhone 4s and an iPad 2. I am not a Road Warrior type – I travel perhaps 20 days per year – but do need to work when I am on the road and I am constantly on the lookout for ways to improve my productivity when away from the office. When I first got the a few years back, I had high hopes that it would allow me to leave the laptop at home when making trips of just a few days. Alas, despite having experimented extensively with using my mobile devices to get my work done, I found that they could not replace the laptop for meaning ful writing, or spreadsheet work, or even for blogging. My own work habits, unfortunately, require a full-size keyboard and a mouse or trackpad in order for me to maintain efficiency and productivity.

This is not to say that I don’t travel without my iPad; in fact I am quite dependent on that slab of aluminum and glass both at home and away. Although I primarily use it for content consumption – reading the NY Times and various books, magazines, and blogs as well as for consuming music and video – I also use a number of apps for simple business related tasks such as travel planning, banking, presentations, managing social media accounts, and even customer service-related tasks. As the devices get more powerful and the apps more plentiful, I am anticipating the day when I no longer need to schlep that laptop through airport security and no longer need to make sure I have handy the ever-present array of power supplies, cables, and adaptors necessary to get full use of the thing.

My chief concern with using the tablet as a meaningful business device is the inability to write and edit documents efficiently and the absence of true file management for the hundreds (thousands?) of documents, spreadsheets, keynote presentations, and graphic files that I need to access every day. Once we get to the point where my iPad can truly handle all of these files and can give me the ability to type, copy, delete, paste, and crunch numbers I will be amongst the first to jettison my 6 lb anchor (AKA my MacBook Pro).

Here’s is a list of 10 great apps that, while they don’t yet do it all, go far to increase productivity when mobile!

1. Plan your trip. There are plenty of good travel planning and management apps, but my personal favorites are Kayak, Hipmunk, and Tripit. Kayak and Hipmunk allow you to look up flights, hotels, and rental cars in highly usable (though quite different) interfaces. Kayak is a compelling app that allows you to save numerous searches, plan complex trips between multiple cities, and to filter your searches using powerful tools. Hipmunk, with its unique interface allows for quick visual comparison of search results and allows the user to sort the results based on everything from price to time to “pain” which is Hipmunk’s own ranking based on a combination of flight duration, number of stops or plane changes, and price. Avoid the pain! Tripit allows users to keep all of their travel information in one place and automatically scans your email accounts to search for travel information and create itineraries based on those confirmation emails from the airlines, hotels, and rental car agencies. Tripit is great for quickly looking up your travel schedule of flights, rental car pickups, hotel checkins, and meetings in an easy to navigate interface. Never waste time searching your emails to find that confirmation number again!

2. Manage your email. While the native email apps that come with smartphones and tablets are fine, there are better ones out there that will allow you to move quickly and efficiently through that over-stuffed inbox. Gmail for the smartphone is a powerful and intuitive app for managing multiple email accounts; if you are a user of Gmail online, you will instantly feel comfortable with the simple and clean interface. Mailbox is a new app (get on that waiting list) that offers powerful tools for archiving, scheduling, and viewing threaded email conversations  You can quickly move through that inbox, telling mailbox which emails to archive immediately, save to respond later, or deal with immediately. It is a new and surprisingly fun way to manage busy email accounts.

3. Get the bills paid. Like most of us, I juggle multiple bank accounts for work and home and often need the ability to make payments, check on their status, deposit checks,or quick budgets. Mint has a wonderful app that allows you to view multiple bank, credit card, and investment accounts all in one place; you can check you budgets set up banking alerts, and manually add new transactions to any account. Chances are also quite good that your own bank has an app that allows even more powerful access to individual accounts, allowing bill payment directly from your phone or tablet as well as the ability to deposit checks using your device’s camera. Buh-bye, ATM!

4. Access your files. One of the great challenges of being on the road (or even on the train to work) is accessing your various files on your various computers. Apps like Google Drive and Dropbox have very nicely solved this problem, and while editing those documents on your tiny smartphone screen may still be a challenge, the simple ability to quickly find and view those files is a powerful tool for business people everywhere.

5. Tweet your heart out. Because so many businesses are increasingly dependent on social media and the marketing opportunities they represent, it is critical that your devices give you quick, easy access to those accounts. Tweetdeck is a powerful app that allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts in one simple interface. Facebook’s app is simple and fun – easy to use on both phones and tablets, and gives you quick access to your timeline and newsfeeds.

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Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

The video above shows a very cool 3D printing pen – a project currently on Kickstarter. You’ve probably hard of 3D printers, but this takes 3D printing to another level of portability. Imagine drawing in three dimensions. For real!

Best Social Media Tools For Your Small Business – http://crowdspring.co/Xpl2Ek

Money on the Mind: Small Biz Financial Stories of the Week – http://crowdspring.co/XanBgF

Empower Your Small Business, crowdSPRING’s Small Business newsletter: social media tools, content marketing, happiness – http://crowdspring.co/XrQkdO

Lean vs. Mean – Small Business and Responsibility | crowdSPRING Blog – http://crowdspring.co/We36hD

Can Money Buy Happiness? The interesting science of happiness – http://crowdspring.co/15ppFoo

Why Being First to Market Isn’t Always Best | SCORE Small Business Success Blog – http://crowdspring.co/YENLFl

How should one go about pricing their software product? | Quora – http://crowdspring.co/Yus3DQ

The psychology of how being told what to do impacts our productivity – http://crowdspring.co/XgwBAZ

Mobilize Your SEO: Making the Most Out of the Mobile Search Opportunity | SEOmoz – http://crowdspring.co/XlU8Ar

Creating a Marketing Routine – http://crowdspring.co/YHk1aF

Brutally honest … We’re not crushing it – http://crowdspring.co/XeIeZ0

9 Tech Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Success | Entrepreneur – http://crowdspring.co/VANtUS

Misfit Entrepreneurs | Dan Pallotta-Harvard Business Review – http://crowdspring.co/YBTmMs

The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Mediocre People – http://crowdspring.co/Xgwvcl

How Stripe built one of Silicon Valley’s best engineering teams – http://crowdspring.co/XlTT8w

Mobilize Your SEO: Making the Most Out of the Mobile Search Opportunity | SEOmoz – http://crowdspring.co/XlU8Ar

Google Shopping: New Revenue Stream Or More Of The Same? – http://crowdspring.co/YENVfZ

Should you work for free? – http://crowdspring.co/YHkoCf

Top 10 Posts on Product Management from the Industry’s Best | Sachin Rekhi – http://crowdspring.co/YFjEgN

Zappos’ culture coach: how ‘squishy’ stuff like culture took us to a billion dollars in revenue | VentureBeat – http://crowdspring.co/XlSI92

“Hire slow, fire fast” is not only overused–it’s also complete bullshit.” – http://crowdspring.co/XiOjnn

Leadership and the Law of Replication | Michael Hyatt – http://crowdspring.co/XlWHSY

Why Invasive Marketing Will Come Back To Bite You | Fast Company – http://crowdspring.co/XlT2EP

Tips for low cost startup marketing … Low Hanging Fruit | Wade Foster – http://crowdspring.co/Xgwjdi

Valuable insight on product management & UX … An interview with Ryan Singer | Inside Intercom – http://crowdspring.co/YHhn50

Ten Things Young CEOs Seem Likely To Get Wrong – http://crowdspring.co/XsPgrY

Obama CTO Harper Reed on Keeping Sane in a High-Pressure Environment – http://crowdspring.co/YFikuv

The psychology of how being told what to do impacts our productivity – http://crowdspring.co/XgwBAZ

An odd and perhaps tunnel-visioned way to define “entrepreneurship”? … There is no finish line for entrepreneurs – http://crowdspring.co/XgynC0

Sam Yagan of OkCupid: How a Crazed Call Sparked a $90M Business – OPEN Forum – http://crowdspring.co/XeKYFH

How should one go about pricing their software product? | Quora – http://crowdspring.co/Yus3DQ

How CEOs Stay So Productive | Fast Company – http://crowdspring.co/Yu8oE0

Iterations: How Founders Can Fight Through The Great Fragmentation Of Talent | TechCrunch – http://crowdspring.co/Xgwoh7

8 things your VC won’t tell you | The Next Web – http://crowdspring.co/Xgw1D6

Can Money Buy Happiness? The interesting science of happiness – http://crowdspring.co/15ppFoo

Conversion Rate Optmisation: 9 Killer Tips to Pimp Your Landing Page | Taiyab Raja – http://crowdspring.co/YByzZA

Best Social Media Tools For Your Small Business – http://crowdspring.co/Xpl2Ek

5 Ways Brands Are Cutting Out Agencies | Digiday – http://crowdspring.co/YEkdYu

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Do you want to know how you can best leverage social media to help your small business succeed and increase revenues?

In a moment, we’ll look at some of the best social media management tools that will help you do more with less. Let’s first take a minute to help you understand why you should take the time now to decide whether you should invest some of your marketing and advertising efforts in social media. Making the wrong decision can threaten the future of your business.

It’s no secret that social media has become an important marketing channel for small businesses. Last year, we highlighted the results of a 2012 study showing that small businesses were significantly increasing their social media budgets. This was not surprising – it has become increasingly apparent that many (but not all) small businesses see good results when they invest in social media (see below graphic, from our infographic showing how small businesses are using social media. In fact, some small businesses can leverage social media in creative ways to indirectly support their marketing. For example, some small businesses deliver customer service through social media. Others leverage sites like Pinterest to build communities and to communicate with potential customers.

The most recent trend in social media has focused on “content marketing” – creating information that has value to others, and distributing/promoting it through various channels, including social media. We recently wrote about the content marketing trend – and the paradox for small businesses.

I asked at the start of this post whether you wanted to know how you can better leverage social media to help your small business. Time is your most precious resource and like most small business owners, you have very little spare time. How can you do more with less?

There are some free or low cost tools that will help you manage your social media efforts in a streamlined way. They’ll not only help you amplify your engagement on multiple networks, they’ll help you do it through one or at most, several, easy to use tools. And with most, you can collaborate with your employees to allow more people to help with your social media efforts.

Let’s look at some of the best tools.

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Much has been written about money and happiness. Perhaps Abraham Lincoln summed it up best when he said that “most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Did you know there is a science of happiness? Economists have spent a great deal of time researching happiness and money. Just like everything else, money has diminishing returns, even if generally speaking, people who are more wealthy are happier people.

AsapSCIENCE put together a useful short (3 minute) illustration. You should take a few minutes to watch the video below because it will help you to better understand the things that might make you happy.

More importantly, if you run a business or manage people, understanding the relationship between money and happiness will help make you a better leader or business owner.

Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

The photo above shows a young Bill Gates during his early days at Microsoft. This week, Gates participated in a phenomenal Reddit AMA (ask me anything). There’s a tremendous wealth of insight in his answers and the way he engaged the Reddit audience. I encourage you to spend some time reading the AMA – you’ll learn a great deal. The link is in the Other section below.

Lean vs. Mean – Small Business and Responsibility – http://crowdspring.co/We36hD

Why Good-Better-Best Prices Are So Effective | Rafi Mohammed-Harvard Business Review – http://crowdspring.co/WTMe0N

7 Incredible Web Design, Branding, Digital Marketing Experiences – http://crowdspring.co/X3dlqm

Will Software Eliminate Physical Retail? Not Quite. | LinkedIn – http://crowdspring.co/WTMAEO

Learn Faster Than Your Competitors: An Interview With Dan Martell | Rahul Varshneya – http://crowdspring.co/W3SBgS

Teaching the Support team how to fish | by Mig Reyes of 37signals – http://crowdspring.co/W3Tmq3

How to Beat Your Competition by Innovating in Ways They Can’t Copy | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/Ymkz5K

How do I find good technical co-founders? | Quora – http://crowdspring.co/WQYGOY

Why Humility is Essential for Every New Startup Hire – http://crowdspring.co/WUFzDB

Venture Math 101 – http://crowdspring.co/WQYRKb

Inside Google’s Culture of Success and Employee Happiness | KISSmetrics Blog – http://crowdspring.co/Yrcdd1

Metrics for Series A – http://crowdspring.co/YmYHHl

13 Entrepreneur Blogs that Educate, Enlighten and Inspire | Mavenlink Blog – http://crowdspring.co/WTKDbv

How to Beat Your Competition by Innovating in Ways They Can’t Copy | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/Ymkz5K

Checking off our our to-dos makes us happy, and others, too | GigaOM Pro – http://crowdspring.co/X4XMyn

Teaching the Support team how to fish | by Mig Reyes of 37signals – http://crowdspring.co/W3Tmq3

How should one go about pricing their software product? | Quora – http://crowdspring.co/Yus3DQ

How Much Equity Do Your Employees Deserve? The Dynamic-Split Model Breaks It Down – http://crowdspring.co/YmbJVw

STOP! Before You Add That Feature, Do You Know The Real Cost? – http://crowdspring.co/WROWEf

You are Your Start-up’s Culture | white spaces – http://crowdspring.co/WTOzsA

How CEOs Stay So Productive | Fast Company – http://crowdspring.co/Yu8oE0

“It’s often easier to make something 10 times better than it is to make it 10 percent better.” – http://crowdspring.co/Yrco8o

Phenomenal Reddit AMA … I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – http://crowdspring.co/YmLQ8c

I Don’t Do That Job Anymore | Danielle Morrill – http://crowdspring.co/X0gyHm

Good (short) video interview with Kevin Willer about the value 1871 Chicago offers entrepreneurs – http://crowdspring.co/X34lS6

My Battle With Content Marketing and Selling Out | Brass Tack Thinking – http://crowdspring.co/YpbIjF

Very good advice (that few people apply) … Denying miscellaneous – http://crowdspring.co/W3U3zH

Lessons From Uber: Why Innovation And Regulation Don’t Mix | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/WTOg0Y

What is someone going to stop doing when they start using your product? – http://crowdspring.co/VXThnN

Bosses as teachers, innovators, and terrors | GigaOM Pro – http://crowdspring.co/YmKlH5

The TV Business: A Primer For The Uninformed | KIT digital – http://crowdspring.co/W3UD0i

The Value of Taking a Productive Pause – http://crowdspring.co/YmkJtT

3 Dumbass Start-up Mistakes That You’re Probably Making | Lifehack – http://crowdspring.co/W3T3eZ

I’m Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, and This Is How I Work – http://crowdspring.co/WTKR28

Learn Faster Than Your Competitors: An Interview With Dan Martell | Rahul Varshneya – http://crowdspring.co/W3SBgS

Why Good-Better-Best Prices Are So Effective | Rafi Mohammed-Harvard Business Review – http://crowdspring.co/WTMe0N

7 Incredible Web Design, Branding, Digital Marketing Experiences – http://crowdspring.co/X3dlqm

Will Software Eliminate Physical Retail? Not Quite. | LinkedIn – http://crowdspring.co/WTMAEO

Airbnb’s Big 2012: 4X Guest Growth And 2X The Number Of Listings In 192 Countries Worldwide – http://crowdspring.co/WR4Ezs

7 Incredible Web Design, Branding, Digital Marketing Experiences – http://crowdspring.co/X3dlqm

What The Shift From RSS to Social Media Means for Marketers | John Doherty – http://crowdspring.co/W5pfic

The TV Business: A Primer For The Uninformed | KIT digital – http://crowdspring.co/W3UD0i

Are Clients Becoming More Creative Than Agencies? | Forbes – http://crowdspring.co/X4XVC9

My Battle With Content Marketing and Selling Out | Brass Tack Thinking – http://crowdspring.co/YpbIjF

Brand execs explain what they want from agencies – http://crowdspring.co/X43Jul 

30+ Adobe Illustrator Tutorials Released in January 2013 | DezineGuide – http://crowdspring.co/YmqKXE

Business Cards – 40 Extraordinary & Creative Design – http://crowdspring.co/Ymt7tt

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I have written often about strategies small business can use to operate modestly, spend wisely, and reduce cost by taking a lean approach to operations, marketing, and production. At crowdSPRING we try hard to manage our business and our team using tactics and strategy that have allowed us to construct a sustainable business, provide value to our users, and build a wonderful team.

We have taken this approach because we believe that businesses large and small have a responsibility to all of their stakeholders to create an organization that profits, but does so fairly and never at the expense of customers, investors, or workers. When I think of the profit-making ability of our company, I think about it in terms of maximizing that profit, while adhering to some  very basic values and some very basic tenets of humanity. We are committed to providing a safe and secure workplace as well as returning a profit and, at it’s most fundamental level, this means that we pay fair wages, provide essential benefits, and respect the fact that each person who does work for us has differing needs and desires. Does this mean that we must charge more for our services because we have this approach? I would argue that it does not. Just as we must balance the cost of electricity for our office, hosting for our servers, rent for our office, and the capital expense of computers, furniture, and ping-pong tables against the prices that we charge, we must also bake in the expense of the health insurance, life insurance, and retirement benefits that we provide to our employees.

I have also written in the blog about Obamacare and its impact on small business; there is no denying that for many businesses there will be new cost associated with the new responsibilities that businesses are required to assume. For many businesses this will mean a cost that they might not have incurred in the past and they will need to determine for themselves the best strategy for their own business. But, it should not mean that they be motivated to reduce the size of their workforce or otherwise game the system so that they can avoid fulfilling their basic duties under the Health Care Reform Act. To be motivated simply by the profit imperative to evade basic coverage to workers is avaricious. By providing a reasonable package of benefits to workers all of the stakeholders of that business ultimately benefit.

When employees are given health and retirement benefits, they are strengthened by knowing that their have a safety net which provides for them and their families. Their day-to-day health needs are taken care of with no fear that a large expense may be incurred or that their children will be threatened by illness. Retirement benefits provide workers comfort that their hard work today will be compensated not just when the direct deposit for the current payroll is made, but that they will continue to be compensated even after they stop working.

The business itself benefits, not just from having a healthy workforce, but by strengthening its ability to vie with other companies for the best workers in a very competitive market. Increased productivity is also achieved through a virtuous mix of healthier, more confident workers along with a reduction in health-related absences and increased retention rates of the very best employees.

Finally, customers also benefit in multiple ways by interfacing with that healthier, happier workforce. The increased retention rates lead to workers who know your product or service more intimately and whose loyalty to the company increases over time, leading to higher customer satisfaction. Increased productivity also leads to more rapid improvements in a product or service via reductions in iterative cycles, innovative ideas being implemented, and deeper, more meaningful relationships being developed over time.

False color skull X-ray: Wikimedia Commons