Inc.com

Face it: Your cell phone is becoming your window on the world. These new technologies from innovative companies are on the front-lines of mobile development.

The numbers tell the story: by the end of 2012, the mobile market had ballooned to a staggering $19 billion marketplace. In 2008, it was a paltry $0.7 billion.

The thesis is obvious here ("mobile is important!"), but what's less obvious (and patently cooler) is the innovation happening on the front lines of mobile development, right now. Whether you use a iOS or Android, your mobile device is becoming your remote control for the world, and as you might have guessed, plenty of that cool mobile innovation will be on display--and definitely in use--in Austin this March. Here's are a few technologies by innovative companies we have our eyes on.

1. Fleksy, a better touch-screen keyboard

The founders of Syntellia are inspired by the "application of artificial intelligence in everyday technology." Their first product, Fleksy, is a new type of touch-screen keyboard. If you've ever been frustrated by typos or auto-(in)corrects, Fleksy provides a refreshing new take on typing with an appealing user-experience. They also claim that Fleksy's predictive text algorithm is so good that even if you've missed every single key, Fleksy will determine the word you're looking for. Founded in 2011 by Kostas Eleftheriou and Ioannis Verdelis, Syntellia has raised $900k in angel investment from a coterie of investors, including from Fortify.vc.

2. Desti, a new type of travel search engine

Think Pinterest meets TripAdvisor--Desti helps people plan trips easier. Within the app, users can search a destination--say, Monterey Bay. Desti then pulls up local hotels and attractions, and lets users sort by a variety of categories, like whether or not an activity is kid-friendly or "romantic." This is Desti's main value over its competitors, which typically only let users search by one or two criteria--and then save collections. "Our mission is to make travel planning as fun and painless as possible," the company notes. The company was founded in Menlo Park, California, in 2011 by Imri Goldberg and Nadav Gur, and has raised nearly $2 million in seed funding from Horizons Ventures.

3. Younity, a "device unification" application

Younity makes a great promise for anyone who's ever been frustrated by the phone/tablet/laptop/desktop juggle: "All your files, on all your devices, all the time. Without the syncing." With Younity, users can access everything from music files to Excel documents, all from your iPhone. Users must first download the app onto each platform they want to be streamed, and from there, Younity automatically begins streaming data. The core value of the app is the ability to literally search everything you've ever accessed or saved from one device--and even better, it's all stored on a personal, private cloud. Younity is a product of Entangled Media, a start-up founded in 2010 by Erik Caso and Mike Abraham.

4. OneTok, a platform for developers to add voice control

Why type when you can speak? If Siri opened the world to the idea that search could be voice based, OneTok gives developers the ability to integrate voice controls into any app they build, using the company's patented voice integration technology. Consider OneTok's own case study, High Street Bank: "When the user says, for example, 'Where is the nearest ATM?' the app returns a map of the user's location with the nearest ATMs clearly marked." OneTok was founded in 2011 by Ben Lilienthal and Jerry Norton, two "Voice over IP" industry leaders, and have raised about $1.5 million in seed investment from family and friends.

5. PAR Works, augmented reality on your phone

Your smartphone's camera is more than just a camera--it's a powerful tool that can recognize the data in front of it. PAR--or Precision Augmented Reality works--takes advantage of data overlays to provide some pretty stunning information for advertisers, real-estate brokers, and consumers alike. Unlike typical data-overlay technology, which uses a phone's location to orient the overlay, PAR works has a nifty little trick--with each overlay, there are, essentially, links to more information within the app. This technology also has brilliant possibilities for the world of advertising and branding--in that it can recognize labels, signs, and products without help from a QR or bar code. PAR's technology was developed by Dr. Jules White, Dr. Mani Golparvar-Fard, and Hyojoon Bae at Virginia Tech.

A new survey provides a detailed picture of what kinds of people are starting companies.

Mention "entrepreneurs" and you may conjure up the image of a gaggle of college-aged Zuckerberg clones, each outfitted in an identical hoodie.

But the Startup Environment Index, a survey of nearly 1,500 people who founded businesses last year released this morning by the Kauffman Foundation and LegalZoom, paints a more nuanced picture of the oft-characterized group.

While the report confirmed some well-known common ground among entrepreneurs--including red tape frustrations and a reliance on personal savings for initial capital--the data revealed some significant differences between male and female founders and their businesses.

Highlights of the report include:

1. There's a blackout age for female entrepreneurs. According to the report, female entrepreneurs are most represented within age groups 18-29 and 50-55--with smaller percentages of women founding businesses between ages 30 and 49.

Though anecdotal research was not part of the survey, the numbers leave plenty of room for speculation in a week that included the release of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In about women in the workplace and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s elimination of the company’s work-from-home policy.

Still, Kauffman Foundation acting director of Reaseach and Policy Dane Stangler told Inc. the higher concentration of entrepreneurs among very young women could be a good sign. “Younger women—I would hope that their higher relative share represents a step towards more diversity in the world of entrepreneurship,” said Stangler.

And while most companies are founded by individuals in their thirties or forties, the highest percentages of male entrepreneurs are within age groups 40-49 and 60-plus.

2. Male entrepreneurs are less educated than female. The report stated: "A higher percentage of men in the sample have no more than a high school (or equivalent) degree, while greater shares of the female business owners have master’s and professional or doctorate degrees."

Stangler said he feels this may account for the spike in female entrepreneurs in their 50's—women may be taking time in their thirties and forties to pursue advanced degrees.

3. Companies founded by male entrepreneurs still pull in higher revenues. Female-owned businesses account for approximately one third of those that fall within the $0 - $49,000 revenue tier, but only one sixth of the $1 million plus group. According to the Index: “The gender imbalance of the entire sample is not only reflected in the revenue numbers, but worsens with higher revenues."

Other highlights from the report include that the term “start-up” can be misleading—the majority of entrepreneurs think long and hard before formalizing their idea.

Only nine-percent of entrepreneurs surveyed worked on their business concept for less than a month before legally incorporating. In fact, more than three quarters of those surveyed said they considered their idea for anywhere from one month to three years before legally forming a company.

For Stangler, this is the most striking piece of information—and area of ignorance— revealed by the survey.

“Most academic research into entrepreneurship is based on firms only after they’ve legally incorporated, which means we’re excluding a lot of activity,” said Stangler. “It’s just a reminder of how much we don’t yet know.”

Yahoo's Marissa Mayer is wrong. Telecommuting prevents co-workers from wasting time and energy.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently insisted that Yahoo employees come into the office rather than work from home in order to increase "communication and collaboration."

Apparently, Mayer believes that innovation will emerge from more meetings, including those that take place in hallways and lunchrooms.

As if.

One of the HUGE advantages of telecommuting is that it decreases the pointless socialization and personal interaction that can consume hours of a workday.

More importantly, telecommuting isolates people from coworkers whose social behaviors make everyone around them less productive.

Here are five very common types of workers who are harmless when working remotely, but toxic when you work with them in person:

Workplace vampires don't suck blood; they suck all the energy out of the room. The moment they come through the door, they have a reason why something won't work, a story that illustrates the futility of trying, and a list of unsolvable problem that need your immediate attention.

Telecommuting doesn't stop vampires from being pessimistic, but the fact that they must communicate their pessimism by a diffuse medium like email limits their ability to impinge their mood upon other people.

Volcanoes show an impassive face to the world while they silently collect a long list of the times they've been "disrespected" by the people around them. Rather than clearing the air, they let the pressure build, and then build some more, and then they explode into a tantrum that leaves everyone thinking: "Where did THAT come from?"

Telecommuting doesn't prevent volcanoes from exploding, but it does prevent them from exploding more than once. While temper tantrums can be indulged (and thus repeated) few volcanoes ever send out more than one nuclear SLAM-O-GRAM.

A frenemy claims to be your biggest cheerleader and the only person who's really "on your side." Meanwhile, the frenemy is subtly sabotaging everything that you do. Under the guise of advice, they sap your confidence. Or they promise to help you out, but then fail to deliver...always for a good reason, of course.

Frenemies don't exist in telecommuting environments because frenemies use physical presence and facial expressions to communicate their "friendliness" and hide their sabotage. Their true intentions are trivially easy to spot when you're online.

Parasites wait to see what ideas become popular inside a firm and then, when it's clear an idea has support and "traction," position themselves as the idea's sponsor and (by implication) the brains behind it. This is also known as "finding a parade and getting out it front of it."

Parasites don't thrive with telecommuting because working remotely leaves an automatic "audit trail" of who did what. Because there are fewer meetings, parasites have fewer opportunities to grandstand and claim credit.

Basket cases bring the drama of their private lives into the office and use the resulting chaos as an excuse for failing. At first, you feel sympathetic about their life challenges and respect them for soldiering on. After a while, though, you realize that the drama is who they are rather than a temporary handicap.

Telecommuting allows basket cases to deal with their drama at home, rather than transferring it to everyone else. Without enablers focusing on the distraction, only the work of the basket case suffers.

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Obamacare will soon be the law of the land. What's your strategy? (You do have one, right?)

After years of often bitter debate, health care reform--a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act, or if you prefer, Obamacare--will take full effect January 1, 2014. How will it affect your company? Good question. Like Tolstoy's unhappy families, every business will be made unhappy in a different way by the new law.

Or maybe not: For smaller companies, it could mean subsidies that make offering health benefits more affordable. Companies with 50 or more full-time employees, on the other hand, could face a range of penalties for failing to offer affordable coverage.

Most employers will not have to make big changes. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 94 percent of businesses that employ 50 to 199 workers already offer benefits. And a survey by Towers Watson estimates that employers paid an average of 76 percent of employees' total health costs in 2012--above the 60 percent threshold mandated by the ACA.

But no one knows exactly how much Obama care will affect premiums, which surged 97 percent from 2002 to 2012. The law's new mandates--such as requiring insurers to cover preventive care at 100 percent--could drive rates higher. And small employers that buy insurance through the newly created Small Business Health Options Programs, or SHOP exchanges, may find higher costs once they are lumped in with a general-population risk pool.

So we ran the numbers for four companies--of different sizes, in different industries, and in different parts of the country--to see how they plan to deal with all the changes. We've also put together a decision tree to help you learn which mandates, penalties, and incentives you might encounter, as well as a glossary of the ACA's key terms and concepts.

Case Study #1 | Kavaliro Staffing: Bracing for Higher Health Care Bills

Case Study #2 | Oren Elliott Products: This Manufacturer Cries Foul

Case Study #3 | Maiden Media Group: Bring It On. We're Ready

Case Study #4 | Sun King Brewing: A Microbrewery Asks Premiums or Penalties?

Yes, it's a lot to take in. But you really do not have any choice. And remember: The clock is ticking.

Why do so many female entrepreneurs find it hard to get a date?

Wendi Goldsmith, the CEO of Bioengineering Group, in Salem, Massachusetts, didn't get a single bite when she tried online dating after her divorce in 2003. Then she made one change to her profile, and the responses streamed in.

The one change? She stopped referring to herself as an entrepreneur.

It is conventional wisdom that gender stereotypes impede women who are trying to raise money or tap industry networks. Female entrepreneurs are often unfairly perceived as less serious, less aggressive, more likely to put family before business. But in the years I've been talking to entrepreneurs, I've discovered an opposite and equally insidious stereotype that is battering women's romantic prospects. The same woman who can't persuade a VC she's tough enough to build a business can't persuade a guy she's sweet enough to build a relationship.

I have heard the same story countless times from single female CEOs. Typically, women view men who exhibit the classic entrepreneurial traits of grit, tenacity, strength, and leadership as desirable partners. Men, by contrast, may view women with those traits as bossy or suspect they will have trouble compromising or settling into domestic bliss. "I've had people describe me as a professional shark," one female entrepreneur told me. "You can imagine how a man doesn't want to think that's who he's climbing into bed with."

We've come a long way from those Mad Men days when the only "career gals" were secretaries and stewardesses who served men in the workplace, then quit for the chance to serve them at home. The genders are approaching parity in many professions, and 21st-century men seem to desire equality in their relationships as well. But sustaining an equal relationship with an entrepreneur is tough. Entrepreneurs refuse to conform to expectations, are comfortable making unilateral decisions, and reflexively put their needs--or the needs of their companies, which amounts to the same thing--first. Men have a nose for a potential power imbalance. If one does crop up during the relationship, they don't want to be caught on the wrong side of it.

And because archetypes are, by definition, embedded in our psyches and in the culture, some men are still put off by women who call the shots. The problem isn't isolated to the older generation. Women in their 20s have also bemoaned the situation. One such woman is Heather Saffer, owner of Dollop Gourmet Frosting in Penfield, New York. "Although men say they like the idea of a driven, ambitious woman, they don't necessarily know how to handle her independent nature, intensity, and attentiveness toward her business," said Heather, who is 29. "Men I date like the novelty initially but eventually tell me they can't imagine a life with someone like me."

Of course, there are plenty of female entrepreneurs in satisfying relationships and right-thinking men who love them. (One or two women told me their profession actually helped by draining the dating pool of all but serious prospects.) Such couples are to be congratulated on their happiness. And I won't be surprised if I receive indignant letters from a few in response to this column. But I do suspect that they are the exception rather than the rule.

Wendi Goldsmith's experience is more typical of what I've been hearing. After striking out with an online dating profile that described her as a "geologist and entrepreneur," she changed the wording to just "geologist," and her batting average improved significantly. "Men want the warm, fuzzy woman and not the one they think wields a hatchet," Wendi told me. "Many men are uncomfortable with, intimidated by, and ill equipped to handle a powerful woman. People assume that those with power aren't necessarily nice, and women are supposed to be nice."

Wendi didn't end up with any of the men she dated through that site. Instead, she married Brian Balukonis, whom she'd met through an engineering association 15 years earlier. During those years they had rarely discussed business, and Brian had no idea when they started dating how successful and demanding Wendi's company had become. That ignorance turned out to be fortuitous. "If I had known she was a successful entrepreneur, I would have been a little intimidated and unsure about pursuing her romantically," Brian told me.

"Ideally, someone gets to know you as a person before you wear the scarlet letter of an entrepreneur," Wendi said.

Of course, accomplished women in any profession risk a similar response. But female entrepreneurs point out key differences between themselves and their peers in other high-powered pursuits. For one thing, traditionally employed women often have predictable schedules. Even a surgeon or a senator can frequently wrangle free evenings or weekends. Not so the entrepreneur, who is the first responder to any company crisis and the last to turn off the office lights. In addition, a woman in a corporate environment who answers to a boss may simply be less scary to men. As one female CEO put it, "Just the word CEO is more intimidating than HR manager at XCorp."

A more critical difference is the expectation--in men's minds, at least--that conventionally employed girlfriends or wives can walk away from their jobs, or at least cut back their hours, if the relationship or family life demands it. Ironically, the same concern over women's priorities that hurts them with investors also hurts them with romantic partners. Investors worry that female entrepreneurs will sacrifice their businesses for their personal lives. Prospective boyfriends worry they will make the opposite choice.

Sometimes a man grows impatient with a woman's preoccupations because he discounts the value of her business. "When a guy owns a business, people think he's Mark Zuckerberg," says Nancy A. Shenker, CEO of theONswitch, a marketing strategy firm in Yonkers, New York. "A woman says she owns her own business, and people think she's stringing beads in her basement."

So what do they do, these women looking for love with that scarlet letter E emblazoned on their chests? Sadly, some feel compelled to act the part they think a prospective partner desires. Feeling guilty that their leisure time is so limited, they let their dates call the shots about where to go and what to do. They don't arrive at dinner crowing because they nailed an account or buzzing about expansion opportunities. As one female CEO put it, "Entrepreneurs can be intimidating, and I don't want to intimidate. In order to date, one needs to keep the true self hidden."

Others refuse to make such compromises. They don't consider entrepreneurship to be a preexisting condition, something for which they should be penalized. Rather, it is something for which they deserve respect. In these women's view, their ambitions, their busyness, the magnitude of their challenges, and the number of people who depend on them position them to raise their own romantic standards. In the dating game, they demand partners who both want to and are able to keep up. "We have a construct in our culture, that someone needs to be the boss," says Carissa Reiniger, founder and CEO of Silver Lining, a software company based in New York City. "Maybe in business that's so, but not in a good relationship. I want my equal."

Perhaps the best advice for single entrepreneurs is to treat dating like starting a company. Cast a wide net when seeking opportunities. Be willing to negotiate, but never sacrifice your core principles. And hope you find a customer who truly appreciates all you have to offer.

We challenged Vaynerchuk--co-owner of wine retailer Wine Library, CEO of the social-media strategy firm VaynerMedia, and (he's set on it) future owner of the New York Jets--to speak freely. Not a problem.

What company do you not want to start but wish someone else would?
A competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment. Vince McMahon is one of the greatest storytellers of all time, but WWE's not striving for the kind of innovation it's capable of.

The biggest myth in business is...
That one person can't will a company to victory.

What's your theme song?
"Everyday I'm Hustlin'," by Rick Ross.

Describe your power outfit.
Nike Airs, jeans, Demario Davis No. 56 New York Jets jersey.

Who gives you the best advice?
My intuition. One of my biggest flaws is I don't take advice.

What have you sacrificed for success?
Family time and leisure. That's all. I don't want to see things. I have no interest in going to Egypt and seeing the pyramids. I'm just not that kind of dude.

What's the most embarrassing thing you're willing to admit here?
I peed my bed until I was 12.

If you could time travel, where would you be right now?
Exactly where I am. I'm shockingly hungry and wildly content.

What's the best part of the day?
Waking up. It's so cheese. But the best part of my day is something different every day. It's having a chance to do all those things every day that matters, so, really, it's waking up.

Which TV or movie character would you like to go into business with?
Richie Rich. I'm 37 and really ambitious about buying the New York Jets someday. Richie Rich had lots of dollars and seemed like a pretty chill guy to get them from.

What's your favorite local business?
Paul Molé Barber Shop, on the Upper East Side. I like my barber, Michael. We talk.

If you were to start your own political party, what would the platform be?
Bringing America fiscally back to its hardworking hustle of generations ago, while socially bringing America to the future.

Here, Vaynerchuk talks at length about success, family, social media, his obsessions, and much more.

Thanks to a 9-year-old Oscar nominee, puppy-shaped purses are all the rage--and the company that makes them is scrambling to keep up.

The Oscars can be like gold to the apparel industry: Get a celebrity to wear your brand on the red carpet and sales for the next year take care of themselves.

Last Sunday, a pint-sized star thrust a puppy-shaped purse--and the company that makes them--into the spotlight.

Nine-year-old actress Quvenzhane Wallis, who was nominated for best actress for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild showed up to the awards ceremony slinging a fluffy tote made by Poochie & Co. She's been quoted as saying the dog purses are her "signature look" and she's brought one with her to most of her press appearances in the run-up to the awards show.

And just like that, business at Poochie & Co.--a division of the family owned and New York-based Cuddlie Accessories--has gone through the roof. Puppy purses are currently sold out until May.

Though she declined to divulge current sales numbers, division president Leslie Palmer said the company has experienced a double-digit increase in growth since this time last year. One highlight for Palmer came the day after the Oscars, when Poochie & Co. received more than 4,000 page views to its newly established website.

Poochie & Co. was branded as its own entity within Cuddlie Accessories in 2011 and had been selling dog purses for five or six years prior. But lately, Palmer says, business has gotten hectic. Poochie & Co has received numerous international requests for bags, and the division’s small staff of about 20 people has been working until 8 o’clock every night.

What’s more, she says, the Chinese factories that Poochie & Co. relies on for its manufacturing shut down in the weeks leading up to Oscar night to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

“We kind of sold out two weeks ago,” she says.

Normally, Palmer explains, the retailer orders enough purses in advance that the factory closures do not present a problem. This year, however, no one was expecting the demand one child actress would create.

The brand recognition that Wallis has created for Poochie & Co has been invaluable, says Palmer.

What's next for the accessories company?

“I didn’t check my crystal ball,” she warns, but Poochie & Co.’s future may hold a further expansion of existing products, like matching fashion for girls and--gulp--cat purses, plus the incorporation of new breeds to their dog line.

Here's how an underdog racing team challenges Nascar's elite.

The wait is over. After a three-month off-season, the Nascar Sprint Cup Series returned in February. For team owners, the racing on the track isn't the sport's only action. Behind the scenes, owners are also jockeying for position for sponsorships--the fuel that keeps the sport going. As a small team competing against giants such as Roush Fenway Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, Front Row Motorsports has had to be creative in finding sponsorships and stretching its resources. Owner Bob Jenkins bought the struggling Statesville, North Carolina-based team in 2004 and has helped lead its resurgence both on and off the track. Front Row claimed a No. 3 finish at the 2011 Daytona 500 and, just as impressive, nabbed the No. 800 spot on the 2012 Inc. 5000 with a three-year growth rate of 427 percent. Below, Jenkins explains what it takes for a small race team to run against Nascar's big boys. --as told to Judith Ohikuare

The last race of each season happens in the second or third week of November. Ordinarily, there's a little bit of downtime between that and the Daytona 500 in February, but not this year. A new Nascar requirement has effectively made all old cars obsolete. Cars will now feature a completely different body style that will make them more closely resemble cars you see on the street.

We took the holidays off, but all winter long we've had fabricators building new cars, hanging bodies, and making sure everything fits. There was a delay in getting some of the hoods, and certain parts weren't available, but in the end, we got ahead of it.

Moving the teams from one location to another is a big deal. Logistically, there's a ton of work to be done. We have three transporters that drive the equipment to the races and back home every week. Then, we make flight arrangements for all of our crew members. We buy seats on a 727 owned by one of the big teams, like Roush Fenway Racing, and fly back with them at the end of a race.

Our strategy is a little different from almost every other small team because we build all of our cars. So many people come into this sport and buy or rent cars from a top team, but all they're really doing is taking someone else's car to the track and running it. In our case, I want us to have the capability to build our cars from the ground up, and have the knowledge and skill to work on them.

Nascar is extremely competitive on and off the track, and very much driven by sponsorship. In the past, teams could go to big corporations like The Home Depot or 3M and receive a big check, but social media is changing all that. Now that there are so many ways for companies to get exposure, race sponsorships have become a much smaller part of their outreach. Some sponsors will still commit large sums to racing because they just believe in it so much--but it's not enough to fill a field of more than 40 cars.

To me, business to business is the future of sponsorship in this sport. That's where we have found success. What we've done over the years is create a niche for companies that have a national presence but aren't necessarily household names, such as Window World and ModSpace. It's a win-win: Some emerging brands may be interested in sponsoring a racecar but don't have the budget to affiliate with one of the top teams.

We also reach out to suppliers to see if there's a way to leverage sponsorship programs out of those relationships. For example, Sherwin-Williams is a sponsor and one of our automotive-paint suppliers.

Buying technology for things like simulation programs is what makes this sport expensive. It's easy for small teams to get sucked up by the cost. Having multiple cars on the track enables us to share data from one car to another between practices.

We move up a couple of positions each year. This year, we would like to have both of our teams in the Top 25. Our legacy may not be that we won the most races or championships, but I think we're the team that does the most with the least. That's a tired cliché, but it's true. We're not always going to be the fastest, but we blend in pretty well.

Shutterstock's $76 million IPO has been called 'picture perfect.' Here CEO Jon Oringer confides two ways to help you follow in his footsteps.

Pope Benedict XVI will abdicate his post late tomorrow night. Scandals aside, what can you learn from the way the church is handling his departure?

As Pope Benedict XVI concludes his final week on the job, you can marvel at some of its eccentric details of his departure: the clothing, jewelry, the red shoes.

Yet the strange and ornate ritual prompts a question relevant to you (even if you're not religious, in any way): How should you handle the departure of your key people?

When I ran software companies, I remember vividly the chill that ran down my spine any time someone said he needed to have a private word with me. It usually meant that he was leaving. It is always hard for any CEO not to take this personally--even though, quite often, it isn't personal. But before you bow to what appears inevitable, ask yourself and your colleagues a few key questions.

1. Is Leaving the Answer?

Is a move to another employer essential to this individual's professional development? Are there other opportunities or needs within the business that might supply the same stretch? Many people believe they have to leave to grow--but it isn't always true. Check assumptions now before it's too late.

2. It's Not You; It's Me

Are there issues within the business that are driving talent away? If there are, however painful it is, you'll need to recognize them as early as possible. Sometimes the problem is other people; sometime it is you. Now is the time to find out. The great benefit of departing employees is that, without an agenda, they may now tell you the unvarnished truth.

3. Once It's Settled

Should the exit be fast or slow? There aren't any golden rules here and there are many ways for people to leave. Do your best to make this period fruitful and positive for everyone, however annoyed or frustrated you feel.

I will never forget learning that one of my junior employees was leaving, in search of professional growth. I hadn't seen his ambition. But I remember waking up in the middle of the night and realizing with a shock that he hadn't considered the options he had in the business. The next morning, I asked him about this, and he acknowledged that they had never crossed his mind. Over the course of the next week, he and I re-defined his position so that he would have more authority and learn more--and he took some financial advice. The net result was he stayed and did a brilliant job and was able, a few years later, to buy his home.

It doesn't always work out this way, of course. People need to move on and you often want them to, in order to create opportunities for new hires and internal candidates. But however you spin it, departures are emotional, and it's foolish to imagine otherwise. Allow time for the cement to dry.

And one last consideration: just as the Pope will still be at the Vatican, people usually stay friends with some of their former colleagues. Never imagine that just because someone has left, his influence has gone. Employees are typically more loyal to each other than to a company--which is all the more reason to make every departure, however complex, as positive as you can.

According to CEO Marissa Mayer, telecommuting costs "speed and quality." But research suggests otherwise.

The Oracle of Omaha got out of personal investing as fast as he could. Follow this logic and you could become a supreme success too.

It's hard to believe that so many personal investors swear by Warren Buffett's stock-picking methods. Why? Because when you look back at Buffett's early career, none of his best and biggest moves required placing stock market bets with his own money.

The secret to Warren Buffett's wealth is that he works like an entrepreneur. Sure, he uses the principles of value-investing to identify companies to invest in. But then he extracts wealth from those companies by pulling off entrepreneurial deals and executing on complex boardroom strategies.

If Buffett were a little more forthcoming, he just might cite the following reasons why you should stop trying to get rich by value investing your own money:

1. You don't have enough capital.

When Buffett was in his mid-20s, he tried investing his own money and found it incredibly frustrating. He'd invest all his holdings in stocks he'd identified through Benjamin Graham's buy-low-sell-high value-investing philosophies. But once those under-the-radar stocks started picking up steam, Buffett would discover some other undervalued stock that was much more promising. With his cash all tied up, he continually faced the miserable choice of either selling one stock before its value had peaked or letting a great opportunity pass by. Buffett came to realize he'd never get anywhere this way, and he reluctantly raised money from other people through investment partnerships so he could get his hands on more capital. In a sense, Buffett didn't start getting rich until he quit doing what most personal investors now regard as "investing the Warren Buffett way"!

2. You're risking what little capital you have.

Buffett was kind of a shy guy, and he didn't like the process of fundraising required to get his hands on other people's money. But he also recognized that other people's money would enable him to play a game called "heads I win, tails I don't lose." Under the rules of his early investment partnerships, Buffett enjoyed a big percentage of the gains if his stock-picking was good, and very limited losses if his stock-picking was bad. When people ask Buffett about his worst investment, he always points to his very first at age 21. It was a "heads-I-win-tails-I-lose" deal in which he lost everything on a failed gas station. Warren Buffett hasn't used his own money to go "all-in" on a deal since.

3. You don't need money to make money. You need people.

In some of his early investment partnerships, Buffett didn't just make clever bets on undervalued stocks and then wait for those stocks to appreciate. Instead, he pulled off boardroom maneuvers that often benefited his partnership at the expense of individual stockholders. Buffett organized alliances of other big investors who would follow his lead when he demanded that management take steps to raise the stock price. Sometimes management would buy out Buffett's alliances instead, helping make Buffett and his partners rich, but leaving all the little individual value-investors out in the cold. Buffett relied on his "know-how" to identify opportunities, but it was his "know-who" that made him rich.

All these details are plain to see in both of the definitive Buffett biographies: Alice Schroeder’s The Snowball, and Roger Lowenstein's Buffett. So why do so many personal investors remain under the spell of the mythical "Warren Buffett Way"?

The survey research I did for Business Brilliant, my new book, offers a clue. About 90 percent of people surveyed simply believe that it's necessary to put your own capital at risk in order to be successful, while fewer than 20 percent believe that it's necessary to get others to invest with you. Meanwhile, people who know better, those who've already become extremely successful, believe the opposite. Among this group, just 40 percent think you should only invest your own capital in order to succeed financially. And about 6 in 10 say it's important to get others to invest with you.

Successful entrepreneurs are more familiar with the real Warren Buffett because most of them have succeeded the real Warren Buffett Way, with more "know-who," than "know-how."

These start-ups could steal the spotlight at Austin's big tech show.

March brings South by Southwest Interactive, which means that some 25,000 entrepreneurs, marketers, journalists, and engineers will make their annual pilgrimage to Austin. Because the conference draws so many tech types together under one roof--and because both Twitter and Foursquare took off at previous festivals--SXSW has become the go-to destination for tech start-ups looking to make it big.

But conference buzz doesn't always lead to instant success. For instance, Highlight, a mobile app that lets you connect with people nearby, was one of the most hyped start-ups at SXSW last year. It failed to attract a large following after the event.

In other words, predicting the winners of SXSW is more art than science, but we'll hazard a few guesses. Here are four of the coolest start-ups heading south this year:

Leap Motion
Leap Motion might just have the must-see product demo at SXSW this year. The start-up developed a device, about the size of a flash drive, that lets you control your computer with hand gestures. Think Minority Report meets the Xbox Kinect--only cheaper, smaller, and more precise. The $70 controller--available for presale online--can track finger movements to up to one-hundredth of a millimeter. The San Francisco company, which launched in 2010, raised about $30 million in January, bringing its total funding to about $45 million. The company will begin shipping its first sensor in March--lining up nicely with SXSW.

Where to go: Leap Motion co-founder David Holz is set to speak at the Austin Convention Center on March 9. It's the featured session in that time slot, so get there early if you want a good seat.

Memoto
Memoto may be one of the most curious start-ups at SXSW this year. The Swedish company created a tiny "life-logging" camera, designed to be worn all day, every day to document the wearer's experiences. The device, which clips to a shirt collar or a lapel, takes two geotagged photos a minute. The photos can then be uploaded to a computer via a USB cable for sharing online. Memoto was one of 48 companies selected as finalists for this year's SXSW Innovative Accelerator awards.

Where to go: Memoto's CEO, Martin Källström, and his co-founders will demonstrate the product on March 11 at the SXSW Startup Village (a.k.a. the fourth floor of the Hilton across the street from the conference).

Eevzdrop
Eevzdrop is a bit like Instagram, but for sharing audio. The app lets users record a sound bite; add a location, text, and a photo; and share it with friends. Rommel Paraiso, CEO and co-founder of the Chicago-based company, is hoping to gain real traction among music bloggers and reviewers at the music portion of the festival.

Where to go: Check out Eevzdrop at the Startup Village, or email Paraiso for a private demo: rommel@eevzdrop.com.

OUYA
OUYA, a yet-to-be-launched video-game system, is expected to make its official debut at SXSW this year. An open-source competitor to Xbox and PlayStation, OUYA got its start on Kickstarter last year. Founder Julie Uhrman, a video-game industry veteran, reached her $950,000 funding goal in eight hours. The project fetched a total of $8.6 million, the second-highest amount ever raised on Kickstarter. Uhrman hired design guru Yves Behar, founder of fuseproject, to develop the console.

Where to go: Uhrman is a bound-to-be-talked-about keynote speaker. Catch her on March 11 at the Convention Center.

***

The SXSW Launching Pad

Twitter: It took off at SXSW 2007. Tweets tripled to 60,000 a day.

Foursquare: It launched at SXSW 2009. Months later, it had 60,000 users and $1.4 million in funding.

In an exclusive Inc. interview, Sir Richard warns against learning the wrong lessons from Steve Jobs.

Video Transcript

00:12 Eric Schurenberg: Steve Jobs is one of the few CEOs ever to challenge you as the most popular entrepreneur among Inc's readers and yet, Jobs did just about everything that you say a CEO shouldn't do. He was brusque with his employees. He interfered a lot with the creation of products. How could two so different entrepreneurs both succeed?

00:37 Richard Branson: It's very interesting. I mean Steve, I have an enormous admiration for... The whole world does, for what he achieved. But it was a very different approach. He was not a great delegator. He was very hands on, to the extent that every single little detail of an advert, he'd be second-guessing or... And somehow it worked. And, therefore I think "rules are also made to be broken" is another quite good rule. But personally, I think, that his approach for the vast majority of people running companies will not work. I mean he was brilliant himself at a whole variety of different things. He was not the best delegator and he was not the best motivator of people. If I was giving advice to people, I'd just say, look, "Be a good leader, treat people well, motivate them well, and don't try to second guess everything they do."

What is the one thing that distracts our smartest people, adds no benefit to business, and makes us less competitive?

Anxiety about the fiscal cliff last fall and the sequester this winter fomented great uncertainty for business. Washington often seems indifferent to its impact on the business climate, as if its mission is all a game and all about itself. But even if the two (or is it three?) squabbling camps in the nation’s capital stop manufacturing a crisis every quarter or two and somehow overcome their mutual distrust to chart a path forward, one drag on American business that seems unyielding and impervious to whoever is in charge is numbing regulation.

When it comes to regulatory hurdles, it hasn’t seemed to matter who’s occupying the White House or Congress. The bureaucracy answers to itself. Its appetite is unlimited. There’s always a new form to be navigated, a line on a form daring to be understood, a government file cabinet hungering for paper, a hoop to be traversed, an ambiguity to be concocted. Typically, the rationale for all the documentation is barely evident. It too often feels like a competition--not against your actual competitors in business--but against the referees. And the rules are continually changing. You may be smart enough to run a business, but you can’t grasp the need for the paperwork. It’s a bureaucracy thing--you wouldn’t understand. Talk about "streamlining" recurs from time to time, but the system seems to regard the goal as an imposition, and it never sticks for too long.

Federal requirements for statistical information about our business--financial or operational--often compel us to mine for data that is not easy to retrieve, such as energy usage in kilowatt/hours or commodity consumption in pounds. As a small manufacturer, we do not have the manpower or the systems to comply with these requests without disrupting activities that create value for our business. Even if we could afford to hire someone specifically to push through this paper jungle, I’d much rather hire a productive steel worker. We’ve had to get outside help in filling out the forms, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. The robots on our factory floor have propelled our productivity and helped us win jobs from our peers in China and Germany--bending wire forms 100 times a minute and slicing through sheet metal a foot per second--but they can’t help fill out these forms.

We export material handling containers to 36 countries, but it takes about 20 minutes of paperwork for each shipment we make to a country that isn’t part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. (Paperwork for the NAFTA shipments takes three or four minutes, so that’s some progress.) We had an anxious event two years ago when we were fined $15,000 for overlooking a signature line on a form that we had correctly signed in two other spaces. That omission should have warranted a follow-up call or a letter for the missing signature, at best, not a hefty fine (which we were eventually able to negotiate down, but not out.)

Regulations impede job creation. They focus us on the wrong things. The regulations never seem to sunset, only multiply. They force us to invest resources into unproductive tasks. Our smartest people become distracted with chores that add no benefit and make us less competitive. Our clients do not care how good we are at filling out forms. Our economic rivals aren’t as encumbered. We’re energized by the challenges of designing and building innovative solutions for the materials handling needs of our customers. We relish vying for jobs in a global economy. We don’t fear our able competitors around the world. We shouldn’t have to fear so much regulation and bureaucracy at home.

What's all the fuss about? Many business owners I know are cheering about federal spending cuts that are scheduled to go into effect Friday.

The news has been filled with nothing but gloom and doom about the March 1 sequestration cuts. Many government agencies will be forced to (gasp!) cut anywhere from three percent to five percent of their spending. But most business people are familiar with these things called "budgets." And many I know are cheered by the upcoming sequestration. Why? Here are nine good reasons.

1. Business travel will be much better.

You've been warned that budget cuts will affect airport controllers and cause havoc in security lines. Can the FAA and TSA cut their multi-billion dollar budgets by five percent without throwing the air travel system into chaos? Probably, but shhhh--don't tell anyone! I want those annoying teenagers and screaming kids and overweight gamblers from Wichita heading to Vegas to just stay home! I'm sick of fighting for overhead luggage space. I can't take any more babies crying. I hate it when that guy sitting in front of me leans his seat all the way into my lap. I'm gagging from the smell of that burrito that some idiot in the next row brought on the plane with her. Keep scaring everyone with stories of long lines at security and airplanes falling out of the sky if sequestration takes effect. That'll keep casual travelers away. And the more they stay away, the more peaceful and efficient airports will be for the business traveler.

2. I can finally get a seat at the Outback Steakhouse in Bethesda.

Ever been to Outback Steakhouse? It's probably easier to overthrow the Syrian government than get a table there on a Friday night. Ever since the government has been the No. 1 growth industry, the Outback, T.G.I. Friday's, Applebee's and every other awesome restaurant in the greater DC area has been a total mob scene. I don't live near DC, but I've been to enough soccer tournaments in the region to know what it's like to wait in line for two hours just to eat a dilapidated Bloomin Onion. So thank God for the sequester. Now, with less money in their pockets and the prospect of actually finding work in the private sector, all those furloughed government employees who've been mobbing every decent place from P.F. Chang's to the Olive Garden will be forced to stay home and rip open a frozen pizza instead. That means more tables will open up for me and other visiting soccer parents. Hooray for sequestration!

3. Most small businesses will not be affected.

Contrary to the Armageddon predicted, most business people I know aren't fazed by a five percent budget cut. In fact, most small businesses will not really notice it. That's because there are between 20 million and 30 million small businesses in this country. These are pizza shops, gas stations, accounting firms, strip bar owners, and plumbers. Some, of course, will be impacted, particularly those that sell directly to the U.S. government, rely on federal grants, or have military contracts. And there will be others (like me) who will feel the bite indirectly because customers are in affected industries, like defense and education. And some will see revenue fall because they're located in regions where cuts will make a difference. But the good news is that the government next year must cut $85 billion from its $4 trillion in spending. You know the math. You cut stuff from your budget all the time. Life goes on.

4. Something is being done about the deficit.

Hundreds of thousands may lose their jobs. Government services may get squeezed. Flights may be late. Some businesses will suffer. Locusts, hail, and frogs may fall from the sky. This will all be painful. But not as painful as allowing the deficit to continue and the national debt to grow to more than 900 percent of U.S. GDP. Not as painful as passing down significant debts to the next generation and hampering the government from funding expansion, infrastructure, and defense because the country is unable to borrow any more to pay the bills. These automatic cuts are at least doing something about that problem And in an era where no one in Washington can get anything done, most of the business owners I know are happy that at least something is getting done. Even if it's just a five percent cut.

5. The IRS will have fewer workers.

The news that sequestration will have an impact on the number of workers at the Internal Revenue Service has brought tears to countless small business owners across the country. Tears of joy. Now you can cheat to your hearts' delight! You can charge through that anniversary dinner with the missus knowing that the odds of your being audited are even less than they were before. Ka-ching! I'm kidding, of course. But what will happen with fewer IRS customer service agents available to help you with tax questions? You never really trusted those guys anyway. And what business owner is actually asking the IRS for help? If you want to research a tax issue you probably tend to use that thing known as "the internet." Or call up those people known as "accountants." Can the IRS ever recover from a five percent cut in its workforce? Hope not!

6. There will be fewer grants for research.

There have been warnings that government agencies like the National Science Foundation (umm...who?) will be forced to cut grants for scientific research. That's a sad and terrible thing for the pharmaceutical companies and universities that are usually the largest recipients. Without that taxpayer money, they may be forced to dig into their giant stockpiles of cash or endowment funds to pay for something on their own. For a small business owner like me, I can only take great joy in watching university professor friends in my neighborhood who relied on those grants to fund their BMWs, vacations (sorry, I mean "sabbaticals"), and reimbursed college tuitions for their kids to feel what it's like to compete and be more like, er, business owners. That'll be fun.

7. Medicare and Social Security are exempt.

Ths is wonderful news. I mean, it's not like those entitlement programs or any of the other government insurance programs that account for 40 percent of Federal spending need to be cut, right? Phew!

8. There will be fewer food and safety inspectors.

Will a five percent cut cause more food-related sickness and injuries on the shop floor? I'm sure most business owners are only hoping so. Doesn't the government realize that businesses absolutely love it when their products are found to kill people? Who needs profits when you can get all that publicity instead? And don't the people at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration realize that most businesses owners secretly desire to create the most unsafe workplaces possible for their employees because it's fun to watch valuable people get hurt on the job? How can you possibly be trusted to create quality products and safe work environments without tens of thousands of food and safety inspectors? And you're only going to cut five percent of them? I welcome you to cut more! That way my comrades and I can get back to making poisonous products and designing unsafe workplaces without the government's meddling.

9. I can focus on important things again.

As March 1 comes and goes, and news of the sequestration gets old, I can finally focus my attention on more interesting and important stuff. Like March Madness, Michelle Obama's new hairstyle, the Blade Runner, and whether or not Lindsay Lohan will need another round of rehab. All this sequestration talk has really taken my eye off the ball. It'll be good to get back to business.

A number of apps promise to translate text over the Web. But a new one goes a step further: It puts live interpreters only a click away.

Online translation services, such as Google Translate, have a come a long way. Even so, when you're traveling and get into a pickle or working with international customers and can't afford even a hint of miscommunication, humans still beat machines hands down--or at least so say the guys running VerbalizeIt.

The company, which is a TechStars Boulder alumnus, pairs folks who need translation help with live multilingual people around the world via a smartphone app. It's slick--after downloading the app you just create an account, tell VerbalizeIt what language you want translated into another and it gives you a phone number to call. Call it, and an automated voice will tell you it's connecting you with a translator. Voilà--the next thing you know, you're on the line with someone.

What's cool is VerbalizeIt gives every user five free minutes to try it out. I told the app I needed English to Spanish translation and the woman who took my call told me most people put her on speaker so she can interact with whomever the user is trying to communicate with.

The Backstory

VerbalizeIt founders Ryan Frankel and Kunal Sarda actually came up with the idea after harrowing experiences abroad. Frankel was in China when he became ill and couldn't make a pharmacist understand what medication he needed. And Sarda was pick pocketed and couldn't pay for a cab ride resulting in an irate Parisian cabbie who kicked him to the curb.

The New York-based start-up closed $1.5 million in seed financing last fall and says it has created more than 3,000 jobs around the world and has established partnerships with Skype and TripLingo.

"Machine translation works fairly well for text-to-text translation, but anytime you introduce voice into the mix, machines are still light years away from delivering a reliable solution," Frankel says. "Machines rarely get it right in a perfect scenario, let alone when you introduce different dialects, background noise, and the unspoken, such as emotion, customers, and local terminology."

Plans start at $5 for five minutes of translation up to $99 for 200 minutes.

For businesses that have ongoing translation needs VerbalizeIt offers rates according to volume and the type of solution. You can get live interpretation for $1.00 to $1.50 a minute, non-live document translation for $.07 to $.09 a minute, as well as audio translation for $2.50 to $3.50 a minute and video translation and subtitling for $1.30 to $2.50 a minute, depending on the language.

As for quality, Frankel tells me anybody who wants to do translation work for VerbalizeIt has to pass an exam not only based on language proficiency but also within functional areas of expertise. Not only that, every time you use a translator you're asked to give feedback regarding how well he or she performed. The highest rated translators receive the most opportunities to translate.

The Competition

One thing is certain, crowdsourced translation services are burgeoning. Gengo is another app that puts people in touch with translators who will convert written text into various languages--it boasts companies such as YouTube, Alibaba and Path as its customers.

You might also check out Babelverse, which last year was a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist and received funding from 500 Startups, among other awards.

"While there sure is a huge unmet need to break the language barrier in simple day-to-day situations where a bilingual can be very helpful, there are also many more critical or business cases where a professional linguist is essential," says Babelverse co-founder Josef Dunne.

Dunne says he's most proud of the fact that the multilingual translators receive a 70 percent revenue share. "Our mission, besides making interpretation affordable to more people, is for interpreters to receive a fair source of income," he says.

It might be a big differentiator, at least in the long haul when it comes to attracting talent. VerbalizeIt only pays novice translators $0.12 a minute for live over-the-phone interpretation. Top-performing translators with functional expertise make $19.80 per hour for live interpretation, which is only $0.33 a minute or $1.65 for five minutes.

In contrast, Babelverse pays its interpreters according to the tier of service, languages involved, and average cost of living in the countries where they are most spoken.

As an example, Dunne says an experienced bilingual interpreting a 10-minute informal conversation over the phone would receive approximately $5.80 with the user paying about $8.30. A professional interpreter would receive about $10 of the $14.30 the user would pay.

That said, Babelverse only has two solutions available now, both in public beta--simultaneous interpretation of conferences or live video. As examples, Dunne says the company's members have served the U.S. Senate as well as interpreted President Obama's State of the Union address last year.

The company, which has 5,000 members that speak 150 languages, has other products in the works, including a mobile app currently in private beta that puts people in touch with interpreters on-demand.

Good to Know

Want to know the difference between translation and interpretation? Dunne says it's an important distinction: "Interpreters listen to spoken language and translate orally, while translators work on written text," according to the Babelverse website.

In the business-for-sale marketplace, window-shoppers waste precious time and resources. Here what to look for in a qualified buyer.

Selling a small business requires a combination of time and patience--and no one wants their time wasted or their patience tested. So, as a seller, it's beneficial to weed out interested parties that don't really have the skill set, desire or funding to actually purchase the business. And, as a buyer, it's good to know what signals you as a serious buyer.

The road to buying a small business is paved with planning and preparation. The best way to determine whether potential buyers are qualified to see the deal through to completion is to gauge their intent and evaluate the amount of preparation they have invested in the process.

A potential buyer should have no problem providing information about his or her business qualifications. If a buyer has already owned a similar company, conduct basic research to determine his/her reputation in the industry. Ask yourself, does the buyer possess the necessary education and, if relevant, necessary/helpful licenses or certifications? If the buyer hasn't owned a business before, they should be able to thoroughly explain why this business is right for them and what qualifies them to successfully operate your business after the sale.

During the pre-negotiation stages of the process, it's critical to ask the buyer if he or she has an adequate down payment and how she plans to finance the remainder of the selling price. Additionally, you should ask the buyer to complete a Personal Financial Statement in which she outlines her assets and liabilities to provide some basis for you to verify that the buyer is financially qualified. Clearly, the buyer should have an adequate down payment, but serious buyers are also prepared to invest significant capital in the first year of ownership. If the buyer wants you to finance a portion of the sale (a very common requirement in today's challenging lending environment), the amount you need to finance, the risk you are assuming and the length of time you may need to be involved in the business in an advisory capacity are very closely related to the size of the buyer's down payment and access to other funding.

Qualified buyers have probably thought about owning a business for a while, maybe even several years. A serious buyer should not have a laundry list of general questions for the seller--a possible sign that the buyer hasn't adequately researched the industry or business ownership in general. Instead, qualified buyers should ask detailed questions related to your specific business. The buyer might inquire about the reason you are selling the business or ask about the biggest challenges the company faces going forward. However, they should also get into specifics such as employee history, the nature of the supplier relationships (and contracts), sales history and trends, sources of future growth, key sources of competition, etc. By asking questions like this, the buyer shows his/her experience and business acumen. By answering these questions (after securing a signed NDA, of course) you begin to establish trust with the buyer and pave the way for a smoother selling process.

Casual buyers often lack general knowledge about the acquisition process and the business-for-sale marketplace. Serious potential buyers understand the framework of business sales and appreciate the environmental, organizational, interpersonal and individual factors that are involved in the buying process. Does the buyer understand due diligence? Is he or she knowledgeable about various business valuation methods? Has he researched the business's history? Ideally, the buyer should have a clear understanding of the business acquisition process and may even be able to provide you with a written acquisition and business plan.

Potential buyers should be enthusiastic about the business and treat you with respect. They should listen thoroughly to all the details being delivered and take it to heart. After all, no one knows your business like you and if the buyer is serious about buying it they should have a keen interest in hearing what you have to say. A disengaged or half-hearted buyer is a definite indicator that the buyer isn't serious. At the same time, the buyer should (as discussed above) be prepared, well equipped and have his/her own ideas without being pretentious.

As a business seller, your goal is to identify the right buyer as quickly and efficiently as possible. By incorporating a handful of common sense strategies, you can weed out non-qualified buyers early and increase the likelihood of a successful sale process.

The search game has changed, and success by simply building a high number of links is an SEO relic.

The practice of link building has ranged from spammy (like purchased links and link farms) to what could be considered remedial content marketing. However, the goals of traditional link building (simply increasing the number of links pointing to your website) have been rendered useless in a long-term perspective due to the latest and most impactful Google updates.

Why the shift? Historically, the simple act of increasing the number of links pointing to your website exploited the shortcomings of search engine algorithms and didn't directly improve the user experience. Since search engines are mostly concerned with providing a great user experience, these shortcomings were addressed by algorithm updates such as Google's Panda and Penguin. Today, cutting edge digital marketing firms have tossed traditional link building by the wayside in favor of a new concept known as earned media.

The "earned" in earned media comes from the concept that your brand can earn, rather than pay for, a placement within an online publications article feed. Earning this placement can only be accomplished through the creation of a truly value-add content centerpiece (the "media") that's custom-tailored for the specific community in combination with high-touch social media networking. To truly be considered value-add, the content centerpiece must be an online resource that educates, entertains or solves a problem.

This media is offered to the online community in a "teaser article" that highlights the main ideas behind the content centerpiece. A link to access the content in full is included in the article for the readers who want to know more. The users who submit personal information to download or view the content centerpiece are the most valuable of an earned media campaign.

The main purpose of link building is to increase the number of links that point to your website. Earned media campaigns also obtain links to your website, but this isn't the main goal. The areas of real business value generation are focused on growing lead lists, online sales and increasing brand awareness. These goals can only be accomplished through focusing the earned media campaign around a truly value-add content centerpiece.

Historically, link building efforts resulted in increased search engine rankings. Today, the algorithmic shortcomings that led to increased search engine rankings in the past have been addressed by the Panda and Penguin updates. Increasing the number of inbound links to your website has no value to the user--and this antiquated practice won't be part of the user-focused future of search engine algorithms.

Results from an earned media campaign include:
- Lead list growth
- Online sales & conversion growth
- Keyword portfolio growth
- Increased brand exposure in search engine results & social media conversations
- Increased online brand relevance, authority and awareness

Online content marketing has evolved from link building to earned media campaigns. This forward-thinking practice builds a continuous business alignment between search engines, your brand and the user. Earned media allows your brand to partner with search engines by adding value to the user through original content that educates, entertains or solves a problem of a specific target audience. If you haven't been convinced yet, here are 800 more reasons why Earned Media is the new advertising.

Can't keep up with all the updates from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube? Read on for latest changes you should know about.

Digital marketing evolves at rapidfire pace, and with all the attention paid to social media these days, it should come as no surprise that its advertising changes seem to lead the pack. Only six months ago, I wrote about Facebook advertising updates and much has changed since then and within the other popular social media networks.

Let's take a look at some of the key updates.

Facebook Advertising

• In July, Facebook launched Page Post Targeting Enhanced, giving business the opportunity to to target their Page posts by gender, age, Likes, education, interest, relationship status, and more.

• Facebook adds a paid-for Sponsored Stories-like component, Pages You May Like, to its mobile platform in August

• Also in August Facebook rolled out Sponsored Results, ads that appear below Facebook search queries, and a data appending option whereby advertisers could upload lists of email addresses, phone numbers, and user IDs to try to reach those users through ad targeting

• The December launch of Page Like Ads enabled small business owners to more easily create ads for mobile or desktop

• Facebook's Graph Search, launched in January, is rumored to be the foundation of Facebook's next major advertising land grab

• Auto-play video ads, confirmed to be on the way only a few weeks ago, appear to be coming in Facebook's future

A word of caution: Facebook seems to be locked in a constant battle with privacy advocates--frequently when Facebook rolls out a new advertising opportunity, it draws the ire of privacy advocates whose pressure ultimately forces a change in the advertising. So just evaluate each new opportunity with these expectations in mind.

Twitter Advertising

Twitter first started offering its advertising options in 2010 with Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends which later rolled out to Twitter's mobile platform.

Since then, it has conducted a few custom campaign experiments like teaming with American Express to pay with hashtags, but the biggest recent news in Twitter advertising came with its announcement this month that it has launched an API to allow brands to multi-manage and target promoted tweets.

LinkedIn Advertising

Back in 2010, I wrote a column on LinkedIn's booming advertising business, and things really haven't slowed down since. Including the advertising developments since then, LinkedIn has...

• Rolled out video advertising to its self-serve platform (August 2012)

• Unveiled an API program to manage and test multiple ads and campaigns at once

• Announced its forthcoming Sponsored Posts will launch to all later this year

YouTube Advertising

In June I wrote about YouTube's four TrueView ad options, but YouTube offers more advertising options like First Watch, Display Ads, Home Page Ads, and custom solutions.

YouTube also now offers a self-serve AdWords for Video solution, first announced last April.

Curious about the most popular YouTube ads? Check out its new Ads Leaderboard, which might help you craft your next video ad.

Regardless of the platform, you can be assured that as each social media network continues to try to monetize itself, more and more advertising options will arise. Trying to keep up with all the changes can be a job unto itself, so stay tuned!