Author: Franz Malten Buemann

🖊️Small Business, Big Lessons is a podcast from Buffer that goes behind the scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they are questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys (so far). Check out the second episode here.In 2014, Buffer was offered a nine-figure deal from a giant tech company but our founder Joel Gascoigne turned it down. He’s not alone. While it may seem counterintuitive at first, sometimes saying no to big money can be the best move you can make for your small business. Oftentimes, if accepted, this money comes with strings attached that can alter your vision for your company. Choosing to do things on your own terms instead – but on a tighter budget –  can lead to a more sustainable business that allows you to make a greater impact as well. In season two, episode two of our podcast, Small Business, Big Lessons, we spoke to entrepreneurs who chose to walk away from the traditional venture capital (VC) funding path without any regrets. In this companion blog post, we’ll share their stories and why pursuing alternative models of funding was the right option for them.What’s been the status quo for fundingStarting a business from the ground up is no easy task and usually requires at least some amount of money upfront. Traditionally, startups and small business owners might consider VC funding as a way to gather large investments. VCs will typically come in during the early stage and will inject a lump sum of money into the business to help get the ball rolling. But just because an investor agrees to fund your business doesn’t mean they believe in your brand’s mission wholeheartedly. The traditional VC model operates by spreading a large amount of money across a range of companies, expecting at least some of them to fail. They earn back their investments by relying on the few startups and businesses that do succeed. Once an investor comes on board, they usually will retain quite a bit of control over the business as well, impacting a company’s culture and operations. Unfortunately, the VC funding model is conducive to fast pace growth – which isn’t always the healthiest environment for these businesses. You may already be seeing some of the downsides to traditional VC funding. So does Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Sparktoro, a small business revolutionizing audience research. Rand has a ton of experience in small business growth – he previously co-founded Moz, a SEO tool and software. He believes that this business model can actually hurt brands. Oh, hello!If you’re looking for ways to step up your marketing game, sign up for our 2x monthly newsletter.No fluff, just actionable advice you can read in 8 minutes or less.Next issue goes out Thursday (Dec. 16)!https://t.co/pkWvHw4y1p— SparkToro (@sparktoro) December 14, 2021 “What I believe is that if you don’t force companies to pursue hyper growth, they are more likely to survive long term, and survival long term gives options for being profitable and giving off dividends to investors,” Rand said. The other drawback here is that when entrepreneurs are approached by VC firms or angel investors –  individuals who use their own capital when investing – they can feel a ton of pressure to accept the deal, even if their vision doesn’t completely align with the investor’s goals. Holly Howard, a business coach who consults entrepreneurs on the best strategies to pursue for their brands, also believes individuals should be more cautious when fundraising for their small business. Holly understands that entrepreneurs feel pressured to accept deals that seem promising on the surface. But she recommends individuals take a step back and really reflect on the deal. “When we’re in a stressful situation, we sometimes undermine our own values, because we feel like we need that money, or we’re not sure if any other money is going to come through,” Holly said.If you don’t accept these huge injections of cash, you may be wondering how else can a business get off the ground? Well, here are three other small businesses that managed to succeed without VC funds.How these businesses gained more by pursuing alternative funding routesWhile VC funding can garner tons of press and media attention, it is by no means the only option for growing a business. When working with clients, Holly reminds them that there are alternative routes that can be better suited for their companies.“Fundraising is such a broad question,” she said. “And oftentimes, when people come, they think it’s a very narrow question, you know, their concern is just raising money, and they don’t realize the broad spectrum of possibilities.”At Buffer, we’ve followed a somewhat non-traditional approach when it comes to growing as a startup. In 2018, we bought out our main venture capital investors. Even before then, back in 2014, Joel defied expectations when walking away from Buffer’s largest acquisition offer to date. But the decision didn’t come easily. It was only after many thoughtful conversations with the executive team that the answer became clear. In these meetings, Joel really reflected on Buffer’s mission and one specific question he asked himself was, “Are we done yet?” “It was great because it led to really thinking deeply about, ‘why are we doing this?’ ‘What more can we do here?’ What do we gain if we take [the deal] and what do we lose?’” Joel said. Something that helped @buffer in the early years: Asking “what is wrong with how other businesses are run?” and doing those things differently.Something that helps us as a ~12 year old business: Asking “what is wrong with how our business is run?” and changing those things.— Joel Gascoigne (@joelgascoigne) October 1, 2022 Ultimately, Joel realized there was still so much more he wanted to pursue with Buffer, and he knew the journey wasn’t over yet. Another reason he declined the large offer from the tech company had to do with their plans for the future of Buffer. Had that company taken over, the reality was Buffer would no longer be a remote and transparent company. “Where I really gained clarity was more in the cultural choices we made, especially the movements we ended up being a really big part of at the time, that was remote work … and then the other one was transparency,” Joel said. “Which to this day, we’re probably still one of the most transparent companies in the world.” By turning down this offer, Joel was able to keep Buffer’s core values intact.A friends and family round has given Harlow more flexibility with their businessHarlow, a small business that helps freelancers organize their work, was founded in 2021 by Samantha Anderl and Andrea Wildy. The duo knew they didn’t want to build a company that only valued growth, which is why they decided from an early stage that VC money wasn’t for them. Instead, they opted to do a family and friends round, which is a type of crowdfunding where many individuals – whether they be relatives or friends – can invest in your business. This kind of funding typically comes with fewer restrictions. A huge benefit of this is its led Harlow to have a variety of great investors who truly care about their business. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Harlow (@meetharlow) “We lean on our investors all the time. If we’re struggling with any aspect of the business, there’s somebody on the cap table that can help us out,” Andrea said.  “And we were also able to be picky about the types of people that invested in the business and we’re really proud of the fact that over 50% of our investors are female.” This model of funding has also forced them to be very deliberate with their financial decisions. But Samantha believes this ultimately allows them to run the business in a more sustainable way as it forces them to deepen their existing connections. “We can’t just come out of the gates and spend, you know, $50,000 a month on paid advertising to grow and get the word out there. Again, that kind of comes back to the benefit of community and building your audience in a sustainable and lean way,” Samantha said. Both Andrea and Samantha are happy with their decision to crowdfund, as they know this has allowed them to run the Harlow the way they originally envisioned.Personally investing allowed Paynter Jacket to be more creative and intentional in their approachBecky and Huw co-found Paynter Jacket, a clothing company that releases four limited edition jackets each year, with 100 percent of their own personal savings. The co-founders were still early on in their careers, so the savings didn’t amount to much at the time. Still, they were able to stretch the money to cover all of their main costs: web designs, fonts, fabrics, and their manufacturing process. Becky believes the fact that they had a limited budget which consisted entirely of their own money played a huge role in their eventual success. “We had to make decisions that we felt were the right ones. We had to really consider those. I think also having a constraint definitely makes you more creative with your outcome … and it’s continued the way that we work today,” Becky said.Their personal savings weren’t enough to cover the manufacturing costs initially, which is why they decided to use the ‘make to order’ model, which has now become an integral component of their business. Paynter Jacket’s latest release: The Italian Denim Carpenter Jacket (Courtesy of Paynter Jacket)Today, Paynter Jacket drops sell out within minutes. This success has grabbed attention from multiple investors, but Becky and Huw aren’t interested as they don’t want to lose control over their vision for the brand. They’re very intent on being a different kind of clothing company, one that’s moving away from the fast fashion approach. For Huw, investing their personal money has made him even more connected to the business – and he and Becky don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. “We’re building real businesses, not businesses that we hope that one day we’re going to flip or sell…,” Huw said. “We love what we do. We want to be doing this for as long as we can. As long as we can keep getting away with it.”By foregoing the VC approach, you can provide more stability for your employeesWhat makes up a small business are the employees and team members who embrace the mission, put in the work, and create a unique culture. But more often than not, these very individuals become collateral damage – a consequence of following a traditional VC funding route. This is because VC funding leads to a high risk approach where people are seen as cogs in the machine. “I don’t understand how these high growth, high risk companies can attract people to them,” Rand said. “Who wants to work in an environment where it’s like, okay, ‘now probably next year, we’ll be out of business and have no jobs.’ What a pitch as an employee!”Fortunately, other investment models can put your employees first – not your business growth. When you create a beneficial atmosphere for your workers, you’ll often see your team members’ output and happiness will increase. That’s what we found at Buffer when we transitioned to a four-day work week in 2020. Your employees’ well being should be a huge factor in how you approach your business growth as they’re essentially the heart of your company.Staying true to your vision and higher purposeAri Weinzweig of Zingerman’s community of businesses turned down what many would consider an offer of a lifetime – opening up a store in Disney World. If he had pursued the offer, it’s safe to assume this would create a world of opportunities for Zingerman’s. Yet, for Ari and his business partner Paul Saginaw, the decision to pass on one of the biggest companies in the world wasn’t difficult at all. “The longest part of the conversation was how the [Disney team] wanted to explain to me why I wasn’t understanding how great of an opportunity it was,” Ari said. “And I tried to say, ‘I’m honored that you’re asking – it’s a really great compliment. But it doesn’t fit our vision.’ And finally, at the end, I just said, ‘if you want to open a Disney in Ann Arbor then we could talk.’” You may be a bit confused as to why exactly Ari chose not to partner with Disney. The entrepreneur practices visioning, that is, laying out clear goals of what success looks like for Zingermans, and he sticks to those goals when considering all business opportunities. Ari always knew he wanted to open up a community of businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan specifically. Opening up a store in Disney World and venturing out of Michigan would mean straying from his initial vision, which is why it was so easy for him to say no to the offer. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zingerman’s Community (@zingermanscommunity) By sticking to these values, Ari has learned not to be reactive when making decisions, but intentional instead. He believes this has allowed him to keep his community at the forefront. While he does acknowledge this approach can lead to limitations, he believes these are good limitations to have. “And theres problems that go with [turning down big money] — you’re constrained. But it’s the constraints of your choosing, and you’re choosing to make your art in a way you feel really good about,” Ari said. Understanding your business’s higher purpose is essential when considering accepting money from investors. Holly believes that all entrepreneurs need to thoroughly assess who they talk money from, especially because this decision could mean releasing control over their vision. “What people tend to overlook when they are in the fundraising process is that they should be vetting the investors themselves,” Holly said. “You still want to understand if there’s mutual respect for values, and especially if there’s mutual respect for your vision of where the company is going.”All of these companies – Buffer, Harlow, Zingerman’s, and Paynter Jacket – turned down big money offers and are thriving to this day, proving that money isn’t always the answer when growing your business.Want more on turning down big money? Check out the full episode.The businesses we interviewed in this episode have further insights to share about turning down big money and its value for brands. Check out the full episode here.

Nobody wants to sit there pinching, poking, and squinting at their phone just to view your website. So it should come as no shock that 50% of people will use a business less often if their site isn’t mobile friendly, according to Google.
But how can you be sure that your website is mobile friendly? Sure, you could check it on your own smartphone. But what about the hundreds of other kinds of phones and tablets that your visitors are using?

Today we’ll cover a selection of mobile friendliness tests that will give you clear answers and actionable tips. For each test, we’ll put our own site through the wringer, so you can make an apples-to-apples comparison of the results. Then we’ll take a look at what it means to be mobile friendly and how it can impact your SEO. But first… what even is a mobile friendliness test?

What is a mobile friendly test?
10 Best Mobile-Friendliness Tests
What does it mean to be mobile friendly?
Does mobile friendliness affect SEO?
Is responsive the same thing as mobile friendly?

A good mobile friendliness test will look at a wide range of factors. These include technical factors such as:

Site speed
CSS and Javascript use
Plugins like Flash or Java

They’ll also include usability factors like:

Is the text readable without zooming?
Does the content fit the screen without scrolling sideways?
Are links and buttons easily clickable?

But while most mobile tests will consider the same factors, not all of them will give you the same results. That’s why we’ve assembled a list of the 10 best mobile friendliness tests to consider.

1. Website Grader

Get Your Grade Right Now
Website Grader is HubSpot’s own test, powered by data straight from Google Lighthouse. It offers a 30-point assessment of factors that affect your mobile friendliness. Then it shows you easy-to-understand recommendations to improve your site.
Not sure what the recommendations mean? Click through into free video lessons on how to optimize a responsive website for mobile.
What stands out:

Also grades your website’s performance, SEO, and security at the same time.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
2. Google Mobile Friendliness Test

Instead of a grade scale, like some other tools, Google’s mobile test offers a simple pass/fail. Either your “page is usable on mobile” or your “page isn’t usable on mobile.”
If it isn’t, you’ll see a list of reasons why it failed. (We’ve included a screenshot below of the results from a failing website. Their URL has been hidden to protect the innocent.)

The one downside of Google’s Mobile Friendliness tool is that it only tests individual pages and not your website as a whole.
What stands out:

Clicking on the reasons for failure will show you a screenshot of the affected area.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
3. Page Speed Insights

Google’s Page Speed Insights is like the bigger, stronger cousin to their Mobile Friendliness Test.
Instead of a simple pass/fail, you’ll get individual ratings on various performance metrics that have a direct impact on your user experience. The upshot to this is that you’ll get a much more in-depth understanding of your website’s performance. The downside is that if you don’t already understand these terms, you’ll have some studying to do.
This makes Page Speed Insights ideal for sites that are supported by a web developer or dev team.
What stands out:

Provides a detailed list of diagnostics and actionable improvement opportunities, along with an estimate of potential time savings.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
4. MobiReady

MobiReady starts by offering interactive visualizations of how your site looks on various devices. Beneath that it gives you a score between 1-5, and compares that to the scores of the top 1,000 Alexa sites for context.
Underneath all of that, you’ll get a list of results, both good and bad, that explains the what, why, and where to find these issues.
What stands out:

Any failing results include a link that points towards how to fix it.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
5. WebPage Test

WebPageTest’s results start with simple summaries that are easy to understand, even if you’re less technically inclined. For those with more dev skills, clicking on these results will take you on a deep dive into your performance issues and related tips.
After that, you can switch to one of 14 different categories of results, including your core web vitals, content, and image analysis.
What stands out:

See how your page loads as a filmstrip, short video, or waterfall of processes.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
6. Pingdom

Pingdom provides you with both a letter grade, as well as a score from 1-100. Beneath that, you’ll get a short list of performance improvement recommendations. Clicking on them will reveal plain-language explanations for your problems.
These explanations won’t turn a novice into an expert, but they provide a good place to start.
What stands out:

Allows you to choose the geographic region of your test. (For example, North America, Europe, Asia, etc.)

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free
7. Bing Mobile Friendliness Test

Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test is a fast and simple tool that’s good for a quick check-in.
Just like Google’s Mobile Friendliness Test, Bing’s tool gives you a simple pass/fail, along with a list of reasons why. Unlike Google’s test, many of Bing’s reasons don’t come with any explanation.
What stands out:

Shows a simple rendering of what your site would look like on a mobile device.

Offers actionable tips: Kind of
Cost: Free
8. SiteChecker

SiteChecker gives a grade on a scale of 100, and a wealth of information about your site’s performance. And while they call it a Mobile Friendliness Test, you’ll get a large list of improvement recommendations for both desktop and mobile.
You’ll see suggestions for content, coding, linking, social media, and more. And for each issue, you’ll find a “how to fix” button that provides info on why it matters and what to do.
What stands out:

Also provides a detailed accounting of your site’s CSS and Javascript files.

Offers actionable tips: Yes
Cost: Free with 7-day trial
9. WooRank

WooRank is a marketing SaaS that’s known for its SEO extensions and plugins. Their website scoring tool will analyze the performance of your site, including its mobile friendliness.
In a matter of seconds, they’ll give you a score between 1-100; however, you’ll need to sign up for their service to see the reasons behind it. This makes WooRank’s test a good option for those who are already in the market for a suite of SEO tools.
What stands out:

If you sign up for an account, your results are connected to the rest of their tools.

Offers actionable tips: Upon signup
Cost: Freemium
10. BrowserStack

BrowserStack’s tool is different from the others on this list, in that it’s actually a responsive design test. (We’ll explain more about the difference later on.) So while it won’t give you a grade, or a list of improvements, it will let you see how your site renders on over a dozen different devices.
We’re including it in this list because it’s extremely useful when used in tandem with another mobile friendliness test. Your visitors will judge your site on how it looks, just as much as they will on how it works.
What stands out:

Paid accounts can also run interactive testing on over 3,000 different browsers and devices.

Offers actionable tips: No
Cost: Free

What does it mean to be mobile friendly?
“Mobile friendly” means that your website (or app) looks good and performs well on a smartphone or tablet. Many factors contribute to mobile friendliness, but they all boil down to a good user experience.
To be considered mobile friendly, your site needs to be fast, simple, and easy to use no matter what device the reader is using.

Does mobile friendliness affect SEO?
Yes, mobile friendliness absolutely does affect your SEO. In a rare bit of transparency, Google announced in 2015 that they would be “boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results.”
That’s a big deal, considering that 64% of searches are done on a mobile device, according to research by Sistrix.
But what about desktop searches? Does mobile friendliness affect them? That’s a little less clear; however, in 2018 Google signaled its intent to switch to mobile-first indexing. That’s a fancy way of saying that Google would be considering your mobile version first when choosing what to index.
And while indexing and ranking are not the same things, we know that Google only maintains one index. That means it’s reasonable to assume your mobile friendliness may potentially influence how well you rank in desktop searches.

Is responsive the same thing as mobile friendly?
Responsive design is a great way to be mobile friendly, but they’re not the same thing. Think of mobile friendliness as the goal, and responsive design as the way to get there.
Responsiveness means that your website automatically adapts to whatever device the reader is using. The text and images will scale to fit the size. The layout will rearrange to suit the screen. And whether a visitor arrives on a smartphone, desktop, tablet, or even an e-reader, they’ll still find a quality user experience.
Don’t let a bad mobile experience put you in a pinch
As you can see from the screenshots, the scores that you receive can vary wildly. Because of this, it’s important not to get too hung up on chasing a number. Use your grade as a guide, but focus on the improvements, and work toward a great mobile experience for your visitors.

Is there a web app or some piece of software that can tell if a website is running Facebook or google ads? And if yes – then how many ads? https://preview.redd.it/5o1a3pg5k8t91.png?width=221&format=png&auto=webp&s=3fcade9d401af2f9961e2c3a2f177e8f7c469b89 The input can be Facebook URLs. I’m just tired of running Selenium bots. And not just if the website has Facebook pixel or Google analytics. submitted by /u/Premalone10 [link] [comments]

🖊️Small Business, Big Lessons is a podcast from Buffer that goes behind the scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they are questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys (so far). Check out the first episode here.Building and managing a community has become a significant piece of the successful small business puzzle for good reason — customers want it. Sixty-four percent of online community visitors say they’re visiting those sites more often, and 46 percent say the sites have become more important to them over time. This shows that digital spaces have become just as important as physical ones as more people interact online than ever. Creating that space in a meaningful way is vital for brands that want to connect with their audience.We’ve written about how to build a meaningful community for your business. Now, we want to share precisely how different businesses build community around their brands with the hope that it will inspire you. In this companion piece to the first episode of Small Business, Big Lessons Season 2, we break down the most significant learnings about community from small business owners who have built theirs successfully.Extending company culture to the audiencePart of the purpose of building a community around your brand is to extend your values and culture to the people that are meant to benefit from your product — the people you want to help.Holly Howard runs Ask Holly How, a consultancy that provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow their businesses while staying true to their purpose. She has used a culture-first approach to consultancy and adopts the following analogy when thinking about community.“We want to think about company culture as the soil […] It provides all of the nourishment, it provides the stability, it is the foundation,’ shares Holly.Of course, extending company culture and values to external parties relies on knowing what those look like in the first place. Values are very important to us at Buffer, and the same rings true for the businesses we interviewed in this episode.On identifying your company values and tying them to company culture, Holly says, “…ensure that your values are clearly defined and that nobody else defines your values for you. [Values] have to come from our own personal internal motivations. They can’t be something that we [outsource to a] focus group.”People aren’t islands and will always need a community of some sort to get by. Ari Weinzweig, co-founder and CEO at Zingerman’s understands that, saying, “We’re all products of a community. And so understanding that, we can either be passive about the community, or we can embrace that that’s the reality and then try to make it as healthy as possible. …the healthier the community, the healthier we are, and [vice versa].”Involve your team in community and culture buildingYou can’t extend your company culture without involving your employees. If your culture internally isn’t great, if your employees don’t buy in — it’ll be hard to get that out to an audience.“The internal company culture and the external community should mirror each other […] I like to say employees can’t deliver an experience they don’t receive. So if we’re selling this experience to our community we want to make sure we’re delivering the same experience internally,” shares Holly Howard.The idea of creating a great internal culture that feeds into your external community is corroborated by Kelly Phillips, co-founder of restaurant collective Destination Unknown, who actively transformed the service staff culture at her restaurants.Kelly shares that at Destination Unknown restaurants, to offer workers a stable income, the company uses a professional wage model where full-time workers are offered a salary with a bonus incentive. This differs from a traditional wage model where workers don’t know what they’re going to make as their pay is based on tips that leave servers at the mercy of guests. Workers are also incentivized by a bonus structure which is a monthly bonus based on good reviews. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Destination Unknown Restaurants (@destinationunknownrestaurants) Kelly reports that turning the traditional idea of how service jobs are paid in the US on its head has led to amazing results. “The company has noticed a better quality of life for people and better teamwork. Servers are helping each other because they want to get good reviews because that’s what their bonus is based on. And because they’re not as concerned with tipping, they can focus on providing guests with outstanding service that keeps them coming back.”🖊️Kelly has written further on the Buffer blog about putting employees first. Read it here.Bake community into the fabric of your company identityFrom fitness to web3, some spaces rely on community to succeed from the jump. If you’re in an industry where your potential customers rely on collaboration with others either for education or networking, community should be part of your company identity.Samantha Anderl and Andrea Wildt had a vision for the target audience of Harlow, a freelance management tool, before they even began building their product. So it made perfect sense to them to cultivate that community before they even started developing their tools.Freelance Friends: Here are 3 things you can do to get paid faster 👇 ▫️Add clear payment terms to your contract▫️Provide payment details upfront▫️Automate your invoicing + set auto reminders— Harlow (@MeetHarlow) September 29, 2022

For the Harlow founders, they knew they wanted to build a product that would solve their audience’s problems. So instead of focusing on what they wanted to build, they went to their community and asked ‘what problems do you need help solving?’“…the best way to understand [customers’ problems], for any organization, is to be deeply connected to your community. So it just made sense for us to start connecting with freelancers early on in order to get that feedback to ensure that we’re building what they needed,” shared Andrea.Huw Thomas, the co-founder of Paynter Jacket, agrees with this sentiment and tacks on extra advice for thinking about building a community-first brand. “…the best advice I have for building a community is building it before you’re even ready. Before you have a product before you have launched, start building it. Start with family and friends, get them signed up, and then get their family and friends signed up and build it on Instagram, or whatever social media platform that you’re comfortable with.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paynter (@paynterjacket) When your audience knows that they can trust you for whatever reason, whether that’s authority or expertise, or even sentiment, it’s easier to convince them to buy or engage with your product.Samantha agrees saying, “We really want to build trust early on. If you build authority with your community, the more likely that community is to want to take a leap of faith and try out what you’re offering or share your story. We’d been building connections and meaningful relationships … when we finally did launch, we had a bunch of people cheering us on and being really excited about what we’re building and what we’re trying to help solve.”Curate a fanbase by building in publicWe’re avid advocates of building in public and have been talking about it, and doing it ourselves, for years now. This is because we understand how valuable it can be for companies and their audience. Some companies have found success sharing every aspect of how they are building with their audience – Paynter, which sells clothing in limited-release collections called Batches, is one of them.🖊️Fun fact: Paynter spoke to us about building in public in Season 1 of the podcast and an upcoming episode in Season 2. Subscribe and stay tuned for the latter!Becky Okell, co-founder of Paynter shares, “It’s really easy to mix up having an audience with having a community, but we think that they are two really different things, you can have a community and feel so part of something. And I think it’s all about how engaged you are with that brand or that business.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paynter (@paynterjacket) And although the audience for a clothing company might not naturally blossom into a community the way a fitness brand might, Becky emphasized the value of putting in the effort anyway. “As an online clothing brand, [community] is not going to happen unless we really invest, try, and work for it. [But] building a community for us was super important [and] working in public was a huge part of doing that.”Paynter’s strategy of attracting fans and community by building in public continues to bear fruit. Their audience is constantly engaged and sells out each collection of their jackets within minutes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paynter (@paynterjacket) The brand also actively takes steps to engage its community with frequent in-person meetups held in different cities around the world. This allows them to be present in their community and extend it beyond clothing. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paynter (@paynterjacket) Create authentic connections by putting your personality front-and-centerSolo, small business owners have an opportunity to connect with their audience based on the strength of their personality alone. Azikiwee “Z” Anderson, head baker and owner of Rize Up bakery in San Francisco, California, is a passionate advocate for putting your whole self into your business.Z shares, “The purpose behind my businesses the same purpose that is behind me, which is trying to make the world a better place. This is one of the first things I’ve ever done where I really feel seen, like my individuality resonates with people and that they’re excited to follow my story – it’s very freeing.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rize Up Bakery LLC (@rizeupbakery) Connecting with people by showing them the real people behind the brand and letting them know about your passion for what you do and how you operate can deepen your connection with them.Solving problems and being creative comes as naturally to Z as making great bread. He says about creating content for Rize Up, “A majority of the stuff that I put up is not really preconceived – I’m having a good time and so I show people what I’m doing.”Go beyond online spaces to meet your audience face-to-faceMeeting in person is an invaluable way to create deeper connections with your audience. We’ve interviewed companies that do this as part of their community building, and the podcast interviewees are no strangers to the value of face-to-face interactions.Sheena Russell is the founder and CEO of Made with Local, a Canadian snack foods company that has social impact baked in. She credits the community found by setting up at farmers’ markets in the early years of the company with the deep understanding and connection the brand has with its customers.Sheena looks back at their farmer’s market days fondly and shares, “the market research that we could do with all those customers that came by was invaluable. I think we [now] have a clear view of exactly who our customers are at Made with Local. I don’t think we’d be where we are today without having that foundation built of deep community connection.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Made with Local (@madewithlocal) And Z agrees that in-person interaction is powerful for building community. “It’s the easiest way to connect directly with people and have interactions where you matter to them and they matter to you…And so I wanted to be a part of that. And I wanted it to be a major part of what we do.”Becky and Huw have also found ways to take their online clothing brand to offline spaces. They kicked off “Paynter at the Pub” as an anti-Black Friday event. “we thought instead of having a sale or trying to sell anything, let’s just bring people together. And let’s do it physically this time, it’d be so nice not just for us to meet our customers but for our customers to meet each other.” They made it open to absolutely everyone in their community, not just customers. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paynter (@paynterjacket) Meeting their community in person was really powerful for the Paynter co-founders, “ It was just really special to put faces to names, to have a really good chat [and] for customers to meet each other. ”Shine the spotlight on the community — not the businessCommunity should be about the people within it — make it all about profit or your business, and you risk driving them away. And the best way to understand what your community needs from you is by listening to them, insist Harlow’s founders.“We’ve really learned how important it is to start by listening,” says Samantha, “and to start by advocating and by honestly just being selfless. So you have to give to get when you’re first building your community. It’s so important upfront to establish that trust and that authority. And you really can’t do that unless you spend the time listening.”Andrea follows up, adding, “I feel like I can’t stress that enough – that you can’t go into building community, just from the perspective of ‘what am I going to get out of it?’ It really does need to be more of a selfless act of ‘how can I connect? How can I listen? How can I help? What resources can I provide?’ And that’s where I think you’re able to build the more robust and meaningful connections with people.”Want more on cultivating communities? Check out the full episode.The businesses we interviewed in this episode have further insights to share about community building and its value for brands. Check out the full episode here. And for practical steps on setting up a community for your own business, see this full-length guide to community management.

We encounter a lot of incredible small businesses regularly at Buffer. Last year, we had the chance to highlight eight of them in season one of a new Buffer original series — Small Business, Big Lessons.We’re happy to share that the series is back! So start listening to Small Business, Big Lessons Season 2 wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll release a new episode every Tuesday for the next six weeks.Listen to Small Business, Big Lessons: Season 2In this series, we’re bringing you business stories like you’ve never heard before. We’re going behind the scenes with inspirational small businesses to explore how they’re questioning the best ways to build a business and uncover the big lessons we can learn from their journeys so far.This series includes interviews with:Holly Howard from AskHollyHowRand Fishkin from SparkToroBecky Okell and Huw Thomas from PaynterAzikiwee Anderson from Rize Up BakeryAri Weinzweig from Zingerman’sSheena Russell from Made With LocalSamantha Anderl and Andrea Wildt from HarlowKelly Phillips from Destination Unknown Restaurants, andour very own Joel Gascoigne from BufferLast season, we heard from innovative entrepreneurs using their businesses to redefine how great work happens.This season, we’ll hear from innovative small business owners building communities, turning down big money, and proving it’s possible to build a successful business while doing good along the way. We’ll talk to an incredible group of entrepreneurs who prove that you can run a successful small business on your terms.You’ll hear uplifting and inspiring stories from a new group of incredible business owners and a few familiar voices from season one, and you’ll gain insight from us here at Buffer.Be sure to subscribe to Small Business, Big Lessons wherever you get your podcasts, and you’ll be the first to hear about new episodes as soon as they’re released.Listen to Small Business, Big Lessons: Season 2

In June 2022, Mozilla Firefox 102 was released with a feature that strips query parameters from URLs that track users as they navigate the web. The feature is called “Query Parameter Stripping,” and the purpose is to protect the privacy of users who don’t want to be trailed online.
Now that Firefox has given its users the ability to strip query parameters, here’s what marketers need to know.

What are query parameters?
Query parameters are a set of texts that are automatically added to the end of a URL to pass on data. These parameters identify specific content or actions based on the data being passed.
Query parameters appear as a “?” followed by a series of text. To add multiple parameters, an “&” is added in between each branch. For instance: www.example.com/?branch&product
To better understand what a query parameter is, let’s use the link to this HubSpot blog post about using video to humanize your brand. The link to this blog post is:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-tips-from-wistia
However, if I were to click on this same link on Facebook, the URL would appear as:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-tips-from-wistia?fbclid=IwAR3NRxcZoMVwLND43N-5xVwa3VvYiL0xrq_Cfc5uiPPdk5qIPKZ9vBqPFCI
Everything after the “?” doesn’t make a difference in terms of where the URL takes you but it provides Facebook (and for the sake of transparency, HubSpot) information about who’s clicking, what they’re clicking, and why.
How do query parameters help marketers?
The information from query parameters helps marketers optimize their company’s websites to create a more user-friendly experience. Essentially query parameters play a significant role in evaluating the touchpoints consumers encounter online on their path to purchase (attributions).
Query parameters also help track content performance across different platforms — they also help companies figure out the right ads to have on their websites to boost ad revenue.

How will this affect marketers going forward?
For now, the feature is a setting that has to be manually activated by the Firefox user. Once activated, any significant navigation event — like opening a new window or tab, clicking links, or redirects between URLs — will result in the removal of query parameters from the destination URL.
This could impact attributions for sites like Facebook, HubSpot, and other websites using query parameters in the sense that some attributions may not be reflected accurately.
Going forward, marketers using query parameters should be aware that users of Firefox 102 and beyond may not accurately reflect attributions.
Marketers should also be prepared for the possibility that Mozilla could make Query Parameter Stripping a default setting in the future. Preparation could be using other methods to track user behavior. Another method would be to gather data through website audits to optimize the usefulness of your site to consumers.