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Tag: gallup

  • With Social Media Advertising, Are People Just Tuning Out?

    Companies often believe they can use social media to increase brand awareness and tap into a new customer base. But, as Gallup findings suggest, consumers are highly adept at tuning out brand-related Facebook and Twitter content. These channels do not motivate prospective customers to consider trying a brand or recommending a brand to others.

    That’s the bad news from a new Gallup report on the “myth” of social media. The good news? Well, there’s not much in the way of good news. In a world of definite decline in organic reach and possible decline in paid reach, it’s best to treat your Facebook ad strategy like a character on Game of Thrones – don’t get too attached, because it’ll probably be dead soon.

    George R.R. Martin hyperbole aside, the takeaway is that engagement begets new engagement. Your fans are your biggest marketers, and it’s their social promotion that’s going to give you the best outcome – not paid advertising.

    Piece of cake, right?

    Let’s back up for a second.

    How has your social media engagement changed in the past few months? Are you worried you’re being tuned out? Let us know in the comments.

    For their report, Gallup asked over 18,000 consumers about how much influence social media has on their “buying decisions,” and the feedback was less than encouraging for social media marketers. A whopping 62 percent said that social media had “no influence at all” on their purchasing habits and 30 percent gave a tepid “some influence” response.

    Only five percent said that social media has a “great deal” of influence on their buying decisions.

    Things get a little better when you just ask millennials (at whom most of this social media advertising is aimed). Only 48 percent said they couldn’t give less of a damn about social media advertising.

    And then there’s this, which shows that preaching to the choir isn’t really that much of a sure thing either –

    “And while many companies correlate the number of fans and followers with their social media success, Gallup also finds that these metrics can be misleading. Of the consumers who reported ‘liking’ or following a company, 34 percent still said that social media had no influence on their purchasing behavior, while 53 percent said they had only some influence. When compared with more traditional forms of social networking, social media initiatives may actually be the least effective method for influencing consumers’ buying.”

    With this rather dismal outlook on paid social media advertising, it’s nice to know that brands can always fall back on authentic-feeling organic posts that engage consumers without the drag of having that “promoted” or “sponsored” label.

    Groan. Of course, we know that’s not true. With Facebook, specifically, organic reach has been on a major slide since late last year. Some have called it Facebook’s panda update, an algorithm change that brands and pages have chastised as a supreme money grab on Facebook’s part. The prevailing theory among those negatively affected by Facebook’s news feed changes is that Facebook slashed organic reach to force pages to pay for exposure.

    Hook ’em with the free promotion for years, yank the rug out, and watch chaos ensue. It’s a devilish plot that Facebook has vehemently denied.

    According to Facebook, the current way in which they deliver content to users is an improvement over how it used to be.

    “We’ve gotten better at showing high-quality content, and we’ve cleaned up News Feed spam. As a result of these changes, News Feed is becoming more engaging, even as the amount of content being shared on Facebook continues to grow,” said Facebook’s Brian Boland in a recent blog post.

    Except there’s a strong argument to be made that Facebook’s algorithms are simply bad at determining quality.

    Even so, Facebook says that all those calls for a completely unfiltered news feed – one that simply shows a real-time stream of all the content from everyone a user follows – are misguided.

    “Several other online feed platforms display all content in real time. But the real-time approach has limitations. People only have so much time to consume stories, and people often miss content that isn’t toward the top when they log on. This means they often do not see the content that’s most valuable to them,” says Boland.

    In Facebook’s mind, that unfiltered feed would “actually cause Pages’ organic reach to decrease further.”

    At least the company is acknowledging a decline in organic reach, right? Small victories.

    Alarming as that is, it may not be the most sinister trend when it comes to your content reaching (or not reaching) your fans’ eyes. A recent report from Flightpath suggests a decline in paid reach.

    Apparently, cost per reach has more than doubled for its clients over the last few months.

    “So what does this mean?” asked Flightpath’s John Lee. “It’s hard to say for certain but it could force companies to dish out even more money to reach the same number of fans. In other words, expect the cost of effective promoted posts to rise (especially as more and more brands start to utilize this advertising option).”

    Let’s pause and reflect on where that leaves us. Your organic reach is swirling down the drain, your paid reach may cost even more to reach the same number of eyes, and people are tuning out your social media marketing anyway.

    In other words, if (and it’s a big if) people even see your content in their feeds, most of them say that it has no effect on them anyway.

    Back to Gallup:

    “The potential of social media is still being debated. Companies are going to have to experiment to figure out what works best with their customers. The process may involve a lot of trial and error, but there is potential in social media that is not directly related to sales revenue. Companies have an opportunity to build communities with their customers in ways they could not before. But to get there, they must first engage their customers through other channels. Regardless of the hype surrounding social media, consumers are still most affected by their offline experiences.”

    So, social media for community building, not just pitches? Once again – it sounds nice, but even ‘community building’ requires visibility. And visibility is, well, uh…

    Is social media advertising (especially on Facebook) even worth it anymore? Even if you can get eyes on your content, are you worried that people have found a way to simply tune it out? Let us know in the comments.

  • Navy SEALs Recruit Heavily From Seven Sports

    Navy SEALs Recruit Heavily From Seven Sports

    Former athletes and the Navy SEALs. To succeed in both the athletic arena and as a SEAL requires toughness—both physical and mental—as well as strength and endurance. In the past few years, the Navy has identified which athletes are most likely to survive the highly rigorous and intense SEAL training program, and the answers might surprise you.

    The Navy SEALs are a “unique breed of warrior who conduct[s] special operations in any environment” and the training to join this elite group within the military is rigorous and intense, which has historically a drop-out rate of 70 percent.

    In 2010, the Navy, with the help of Gallup, identified seven sports that breed athletes who have the highest rate of becoming a SEAL—water polo, swimming, triathlons, lacrosse, boxing, rugby, and wrestling. Of that group, water polo players had the highest odds of making through SEAL training, odds that doubled if they played the sport in college.

    “It’s a physical job,” said Scott Williams, public affairs officer for Naval Special Warfare Command, told The San Diego Union Tribune. “So we need guys who have a competitive spirit and are used to hard work and training.”

    Other pursuits that predict success in the SEALs is regular participation in alternative sports such as skiing, mountain climbing, and martial arts, earning a bachelor’s degree, and having regular hobbies like chess or woodworking.

    Based on the Gallup results, the SEALs have placed an emphasis on recruiting athletes from those sports in the hopes that the military-minded will join and make it through the training program. William Hart, a former SEAL who retired from the Navy in 2012, talked to The San Diego Union Tribune about the recruiting effort of these athletes:

    “My last assignment in the military was what they were calling the recruiting directorate, and that was essentially functioning as an advertising tool or raising-awareness effort to make the availability of special warfare training known to the best possible candidates. So we were putting on tours and giving short lectures and workouts to college-level sports teams, varsity-level high school teams. The idea there was to get the right kids through the door, say, ‘Hey, here’s an option. Here’s something you could do when you grow up.’ ”

    As noted on the Navy SEALs website, “SEALs take their name from the environments in which they are trained to operate: sea, air and land. Their small highly trained teams usually work quietly at night conducting some of the nation’s most important missions. SEALs are constantly deployed throughout the world to protect national interests.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Federal Taxes Too High, Say Americans

    Federal Taxes Too High, Say Americans

    With the deadline to file 2013 taxes approaching fast, more Americans are now coming face-to-face with just how much they own Uncle Sam. As the U.S. has always had an interesting relationship to taxes, it isn’t surprising that most Americans are somewhat unsettled by the amount of federal taxes they owe.

    A new Gallup poll released today shows that a majority of Americans believe that federal taxes are too high. The survey found that 52% of Americans feel this way about their federal taxes, while only 42% believe the taxes they pay are “about right.”

    This percentage of Americans unhappy with their tax burden is up quite a bit from just two years ago, when just 46% of Americans believe federal taxes were too high. However, this percentage is much closer to 50% than in the past, such as in 2001 when 68% of Americans thought taxes were too high. The percentage has been around the 50% mark since 2003 – likely a reaction to the Bush Administration income tax cuts.

    The Gallup poll also tracks the percentage of Americans who believe their federal income taxes are too low. This year’s survey puts that percentage at 3%, not surprising and not far off from historical numbers.

    While the majority of Americans this year believe their federal income taxes are too high, a majority also believe that the amount they are paying is fair. Gallup found that 54% of Americans believe their federal income tax payments are fair, down from 55% last year. This percentage has been dropping since 2003, when 64% believed they were paying a fair amount.

    The split between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of fair taxes is predictably wide. Only 37% of Democrats said they believe their federal income taxes are too high, while 69% of them believe they are paying a fair amount. A full 57% of Republicans believe federal income taxes are too high and nearly half of them (49%) do not believe they are paying a fair amount.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Small Businesses Struggle With Finding New Customers More Than Anything Else [Report]

    Gallup and Wells Fargo recently released results from their Q1 2014 Small Business Index.

    The study found that attracting customers, targeting business opportunities, and finding new business were among the top challenges for small business owners in the U.S. 21% of owners cited these (combined) as the top challenge. Behind these, but significantly lower in percentage, were government regulation, the economy, healthcare/Obamacare, hiring qualified/good staff and retaining them, financial stability/cash flow, and costs/fees of running business/having enough money for capital investment.

    In other words, the biggest challenge facing small business, by far, is simply getting new customers.

    eMarketer has put out some charts based on data from the study. Here’s a look at the challenges, and how businesses view them:

    With that data in hand, eMarketer turns to March data from Huzzah Media about the most successful marketing tactics that help small businesses “grab prospects’ attention”.

    Friend referrals is by far the most successful at 52.2%, followed by advertising at 33.2%. Coupons and press articles have surprisingly little success at 3.5% and 1.3% respectively. Check out the report for the full graph and further analysis.

    The data for the Small Business Index comes from telephone interviews with 603 small business owners, conducted from January 2nd to January 6th.

    Image via eMarketer

  • Mississippi Still the Fattest State, Shows Poll

    Last month a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed encouraging data suggesting that future generations may be slimmer than the current population of America.

    Despite the good long-term news, the population of aging Americans is still continuing to get larger. A Gallup poll last week found that over 27% of American adults could be considered obese in 2013. This is the reason health professionals and the CDC have labeled America’s high obesity rate an epidemic.

    Today a new Gallup poll shed a bit of light on which U.S. states are disproportionately contributing to this high obesity rate. The poll shows that Mississippi is the largest state in the U.S, with 35.4% of its population estimated to be obese. Mississippi is followed by West Virginia (34.4%), Delaware(34.3%), Louisiana (32.7%), and Arkansas (32.2%). In contrast, the least obese (relatively, of course) states were Montana (19.6%), Colorado (20.4%), Nevada (21.1%), Minnesota (22%), and Massachusetts (22.2%).

    The Gallup survey used self-reported height and weight measurements provided by survey respondents. Even so, the poll results align with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data that has been released over the past few years.

    Of course, along with higher rates of obesity have come higher health risks for the heavier states. According to Gallup data the 10 most obese states on average have a lifetime high blood pressure disease rate of 35.8%, significantly higher than the 26.4% rate seen in the 10 least obese states. Poll results also show that people in the least obese states are eating healthier foods and exercising more than those in top obese states.

  • U.S. Obesity Rate Up Again in 2013

    Earlier this week the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new statistics showing that obesity among children ages two to five has dropped significantly over the past decade. This is a positive sign for America’s future health, but the current state of obesity in the U.S. is still being described as an epidemic by health professionals.

    Gallup today released new poll results showing that just 27.1% of American adults could be considered obese last year. This represents a nearly 1% increase over the 26.2% of Americans that the organization estimated to be obese during 2012.

    Since the Gallup poll is based on self-reported height and weight from survey respondents, this estimate is quite a bit lower than government estimates of obesity. The latest estimate from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that nearly 35% of Americans over 20 are obese.

    Even so, the Gallup survey also found that the percentage of normal weight and overweight Americans dropped in conjunction with the rise in obesity. The percentage of normal weight Americans dropped to 35.2% in 2013 and the percentage of overweight Americans dropped to 35.7%, according to the poll.

    The poll data shows that older and middle class Americans are becoming larger at a faster rate than others. Adults from age 45 to 64 saw their obesity rate jump 1.8% year-over-year and those age 65 and older saw their rate rise by 1.1%. The obesity rate among Americans with an annual income between $36,000 and $89,999 jumped 1.7% in 2013 and those with even lower incomes had a percentage increase of 1.1%. Other demographics with obesity rates rising faster than the national average include those living in the Midwest (1.2%), those living in the South (1.1%), and women (1.2%).

  • Wyoming, Mississippi Among the Reddest U.S. States

    With Americans now more-or-less hating congress, it might seem that U.S. voters could unite around a few common issues, such as a functioning legislative branch. It turns out this isn’t the case, though, as a new poll is showing that Americans and America are just as politically polarized as ever.

    The new Gallup poll shows that certain states remain heavily conservative or liberal. The survey asked respondents how they classify themselves politically.

    Unsurprisingly, the most conservative states in the U.S. were in the south and the midwest. Wyoming tops the list of most-conservative states with over half of its population (51.4%) identifying as conservative according to the poll. Mississippi (47.9%), Idaho (47.5%), Utah (46.9%), and Montana (45.2%) follow.

    Oddly enough, 2012’s most conservative state, Alabama, seems to be becoming significantly less conservative. Alabama now ranks as the tenth most-conservative state according to Gallup. Kansas and Nebraska, both heavily Republican-identified states are conspicuously missing from the top 10 most conservative states, implying that Republican voters in those states may see themselves as something other than conservative.

    The most liberal states come as no surprise either with nearly all found on the coasts and Washington D.C. topping the list at 38.1% liberal. Vermont (32.4%), Massachusetts (30.2%), Delaware (29.3%), and New York (28.2%) round out the top five most liberal states.

    Though individual states are still heavily split, it does seem that Americans may be trending toward moderation. Gallup found that more Americans still identify as conservative than liberal, but that the gap between the two has now shrunk to just 14.6%.

    Image via Angr/Wikimedia Commons

  • Americans Now Turning on Their Own Congress Members

    It’s been a cliche in American politics for some time that voters think congress is doing a terrible job, yet believe that their own member of congress is working hard in their best interests, as well as those of the U.S. as a whole. Now, with congressional approval ratings falling to new lows, it seems that voters are even beginning to form new opinions of their own congress members.

    Gallup today released a new poll that shows only 46% of U.S. adults now believe their own U.S. representative deserves to be re-elected. According to Gallup this is the lowest that percentage has ever been in one of its surveys.

    Related to this is another record low found in the survey, that only 17% of American voters now believe that most members of congress deserve re-election. This represents a huge shift from the 36% that though the same way in late 2012.

    These shifting opinions have undoubtedly been caused by the deadlock the current congress faced throughout much of 2013. Repeated in-fighting over fiscal cliffs and budget deadlines in the past few years came to a head last October, when congressional Republicans allowed the U.S. Government to shut down in protest over the Affordable Care Act (AKA “Obamacare”). More than two-thirds of Americans now believe that the current congress is the worst seen in their lifetime.

    Image via U.S. Government

  • Percentage of Uninsured Americans is Dropping

    Percentage of Uninsured Americans is Dropping

    Much debate has surrounded the Affordable Care Act (AKA “Obamacare”) since the legislation’s health insurance markets went live late last year. Since that time some encouraging numbers have shown that the program is working, at least a little. In December 2.2 million Americans signed up for health insurance using either the Healthcare.gov website or a state-sponsored healthcare exchange site. Now it appears that Obamacare’s heath insurance mandate is having a significant effect on the percentage of Americans who are still without health insurance.

    Gallup today released a new poll showing that 16.1% of U.S. adults were still without health insurance during early January. This represents a slight drop from the 17.3% who were still uninsured during December, but a much more significant drop from the 18.6% peak that number reached in mid-2013.

    According to Gallup’s survey, unemployed Americans are benefitting most from the new legislation. The percentage of unemployed U.S. adults in January without health insurance was measured at 34.1%, down from the 40.8% who were uninsured in December.

    Women are also becoming insured at a faster pace than men, with the percentage of uninsured American women seeing a nearly 2% drop from December to January. This is more than double the 0.6% drop in the percentage of uninsured for men during the same period, despite the overall percentage of uninsured women (14%, as of January) already being lower than that of men (18.3%).

    Though these poll results seem to show that Obamacare is reducing the number of uninsured Americans, Gallup is cautioning that recent numbers may not represent a long-term trend. The percentage of uninsured Americans has been falling since mid-2013, possibly indicating that other factors are influencing health insurance coverage in the U.S.

  • Two-Thirds of Americans Dissatisfied With Wealth Distribution

    With the U.S. economy still slow and the wealth gap as large as it has ever been in the U.S., more and more Americans seem to be growing dissatisfied with the way wealth is spread throughout the country.

    A new Gallup poll today shows that a full two-thirds (67%) of U.S. adults are either “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the way income and wealth are distributed in the U.S.

    Though this percentage varies by party affiliation, even a majority of Republicans (54%) are still dissatisfied with wealth distribution in the U.S. Democrats are very dissatisfied with the state of wealth distribution, with three-quarters (75%) telling Gallup they are somewhat or very dissatisfied. Independents fall in-between the parties, but are much closer to the opinion of Democrats with 70% dissatisfied with current wealth distribution.

    Though the gap between the richest and poorest Americans has been wide for quite some time, there are now signs that the country’s belief in the fairness of the American landscape is faltering. Gallup has found that only 54% of U.S. adults are now satisfied with the opportunities Americans have to get ahead through hard work. This represents a significant shift from 2001 when over three-fourths (76%) of Americans still saw plenty of opportunity for those willing to work hard. That percentage began dropping fast after 2008, when over two-thirds of Americans (68%) still held that belief.

  • Majority of Americans Dissatisfied With U.S. Direction

    As the American political landscape continues to become more polarized, a large majority of Americans continue to be dissatisfied with the state of things in the U.S.

    A new Gallup poll released today shows that only 23% of U.S. adults say they are satisfied with “the way things are going” in their country. This result, which was found during an early January survey, is not an outlier for American satisfaction in the past decade. It nearly matches the 24% average that Gallup found for American satisfaction during the entire year 2013.

    Though this latest finding is average, it does represent a significant increase in satisfaction from just a few months ago. In October Gallup measured American satisfaction with the direction of the U.S. at only 16%. October was the month in which House Republicans forced the U.S. Government shutdown and the month in which the botched rollout of the Healthcare.gov website began.

    With a Democratic President in office, Democrats are significantly more satisfied with the state of affairs in the U.S. than Republicans and independents – a state that has persisted since President Obama took office in 2009. The latest poll results show that 40% of Democrats are satisfied with where things are headed, while only 12% of Republicans are. Only 19% of Independents are satisfied with things, which falls well within the around 10% to 30% that have said the same over the past six years.

  • A Fairly Ridiculous Amount of People Still Own VCRs

    The list of “things that killed the VCR” is pretty lengthy – I mean, just start naming semi-recent technological advancements in the way human beings consume TV and movies and you have your list right there. Digital cable, DVDs, Netflix, DVR – the VCR, though perfectly useful in its time, is simply a relic of the past.

    Right?

    Well, not exactly. Gallup recently conducted a poll concerning Americans and their tech preferences, and there’s a lot of good data there. But the most interesting piece of data (at least to me), is the one that says 58% of American adults still have a VCR. Sure, that’s dropped from 88% in 2005, but still. 58%?

    In fact, here’s a list of things that, according to the Gallup research, are found with less frequency in an American home than a VCR.

    • Desktop computers (57%)
    • Dumb phones (45%)
    • iPod (45%)
    • Gaming console (41%)
    • Streaming service (39%)
    • Tablets (38%)
    • Satellite TV (34%)
    • E-readers (26%)

    Yes, Americans apparently own VCRs at more than double the rate of Kindles.

    As you might expect, VCR viewership is more common among older adults. While only 41% of those aged 18-29 still own a VCR, 74% of those aged 65 and older do.

    I guess grandpa still needs some way to record those golf tournaments.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • U.S. is Experiencing an Average Flu Season

    The weather is cold across much of the U.S. and the flu season is now nearing its peak.

    A new poll out this week from Gallup shows that 2.8% of American adults in December reported being sick with the flu the previous day. This percentage represents a slight uptick from the 2% who said the same thing in November.

    Despite the rise in flu reports from November and a bit of hyperbolic reporting, this phenomenon is a common one for the flu. Flu cases generally peak just after the a the new year and subside until sometime around mid-year.

    In fact, nearly everything about this year’s flu cases is common. The 2.8% of reported flu cases per day in December measured by Gallup is the same as those seen in 2011 and 2012. The 2009 flu season was slightly higher with 3% daily reports in December, and 2010’s mild season saw only 2.5% of U.S. adults reporting flu symptoms. Last year’s flu cases spiked significantly during the end of 2012, with Gallup’s poll numbers reaching 3.2% in December.

    Though Americans in southern states are less likely to report having had the flu, Gallup is warning that, considering CDC data and the extremely cold weather in recent weeks, the south could see increased flu infections during January 2014.

    Gallup’s survey also covered whether Americans have had a cold in the previous day. December’s average rose to 8.9% from the previous month, a figure that is the lowest seen since December 2010’s relatively low cold cases (8.7%). Cold cases reported to Gallup in December 2012 hit 9.9%.

  • How Optimistic Are Small Business Owners Going Into 2014?

    The rise of the internet has certainly made it easier for small business owners to build and market their livelihoods. However, these opportunities are tempered by the fact that small businesses must work extra hard to stand out in the largest crowd imaginable.

    Standing out from the crowd online is especially challenging given the quickly-evolving nature of the internet. Though most businesses have managed to get a foothold in social media in recent years, new evidence is showing that the sands of the internet may be shifting once again. Young people are now using traditional social media such as Facebook less, favoring more personal and closed off platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat. It’s not surprising, then, that small businesses are often kept on their toes, scrambling to market themselves on a variety of platforms that may or may not prove effective.

    How will you market your business in 2014? Let us know in the comments below.

    In 2013 small businesses were greeted with a myriad of opportunities large and small, yet many small business owners are still unsure of what may be coming in the new year. A new Gallup poll released this week shows that about half of U.S. small business owners (49%) are neither more optimistic nor less optimistic about their business’ future heading into 2014. A full 28% of them are less optimistic about the new year, and only 23% are more optimistic about what 2014 could bring.

    Certainly some of this unease can be pinned on the fact that small business owners must always be wary of the new and unexpected, plenty of which could easily sink a small business.

    Gallup’s survey found that owners are still very concerned about the state of the economy, which continues to remain staid five years on from the beginning of the recession. Other outside factors that small business owners must contend with include the new Affordable Care Act (colloquially known as “Obamacare”) healthcare rules and other government intervention, including regulation and taxes.

    Gallup’s poll also found that small business owners are still worried about traditional small business concerns such as finding new customers, generating stable revenue, and hiring good employees.

    What are your concerns for your business going into 2014? Let us know in the comments.

    With unemployment still high and consumer spending increasing, it would seem that things in the U.S. are on-track for a small business renaissance in 2014. Likewise, economic indicators show that the country’s economy is slowly crawling back to relevance. So why should it be that so many small business owners have scant optimism going into 2014?

    The wider rollout of Obamacare certainly has implications for small businesses in the new year. Major provisions of the healthcare law are set to begin on January 1, potentially increasing the overhead of some businesses. The changes could be particularly hard for those businesses that have counted on fixed lower healthcare costs for some time.

    The Obamacare concerns also feed into overall concerns about the government. Though congress actually managed to pass a compromise budget in the closing days of 2013, the government shutdown in October highlighted just how dysfunctional the legislative branch of the U.S. government currently is. The current congress managed to reach record-low disapproval rantings, leading a majority of Americans to declare it the worst congress they’ve seen in their lifetime.

    Though the “do-nothing” congress could be seen as a good thing for businesses wary of any legislative intervention, it is also a constant source of possible major changes. Take, for instance, this year’s fight over states collecting sales tax from internet sales. While physical retailers would no doubt benefit from legislation such as the Marketplace Fairness Act, online retailers most certainly wouldn’t. This means that some segment of small businesses will be harmed either way, and having such legislation constantly up in the air means uncertainty for everyone, which could be yet another source for small business owners’ lack of optimism.

    For small businesses that rely heavily on Google for online traffic and new customers, 2013 was also a very unsteady year. In May Google rolled out its Penguin 2.0 update for its search algorithm, shifting search optimization (for better and worse) once again. Though that update doesn’t seem to have been as catastrophic for search rankings as previous updates have been, the additional Penguin 2.1 update in October added to the uncertainty that Google’s algorithm changes always create. This, for certain businesses, could be fueling the unease the feel around attracting new customers.

    Any or all of these factors are good reason for small business owners to temper their optimism going into the new year. Uncertainty is anathema to good business and is especially dangerous for small businesses. However many new tools and opportunities small businesses get in the new year, old issues such as the fear of government intervention and the constant scramble for new customers are as real as ever- and certainly enough reason to keep optimism in check.

    How optimistic are you for small businesses in 2014? Tell us in the comments below.

  • President Obama, Hillary Clinton Most Admired Among Americans

    Pope Francis may be Time’s person of the year, but Americans have several other people that they admire more than the Catholic Church’s newest leader.

    According to a new Gallup poll, Barack Obama is by far the man most admired by Americans. Of those polled, 16% mentioned the President when asked about the people they admire most. Obama has topped each year’s most-admired man poll since he was first elected U.S. president in 2008.

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the second most-admired person to Americans, with 15% of those surveyed mentioning her. According to Gallup this is Clinton’s 18th time as the most-admired woman over the past two decades. Other highly-admired women included Oprah Winfrey (6%), Michelle Obama (5%), Sarah Palin (5%), Condoleezza Rice (2%), and Malala Yousafzai (2%).

    Other men to make the list include former President George W. Bush (4%), Pope Francis (4%), former President Bill Clinton (2%), and the Reverend Billy Graham (2%).

    It is worth noting that Gallup’s polling was conducted in early December – after the President had come under scrutiny for both the troubled rollout of the Healthcare.gov website and his stance on the Syrian civil war. Though American admiration for Obama is far ahead of everyone but Hillary Clinton, the President is far less admired this year than in previous years. The people mentioning Obama as an admired figure this year was nearly half the 30% of Americans who mentioned him in 2012.

    Rounding out the most-admired women list are others who have all made the list is past years: Angela Merkel, Angelina Jolie, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Queen Elizabeth II, who has appeared in the top 10 of most-admired women 46 times since Gallup began tracking such responses in 1948.

    The list of most-admired men is filled out with the eclectic group of Bill Gates, Clint Eastwood, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Jimmy Carter, and Ted Cruz, the U.S. Senator from Texas who was instrumental in orchestrating the shutdown of the U.S. government this past October.

    Image via White House/Pete Souza

  • Americans More Wary of “Big Government” Than Ever Before

    With the U.S. Congress now seemingly more divided than ever, Americans are getting more suspicious of “big government.”

    A new Gallup Poll conducted in early December has found that record numbers of Americans now view big government as a bigger threat than either “big business” or “big labor.” A full 72% of U.S. adults polled believe big government is the largest threat to America’s future, followed by only 21% who believe big business is the largest threat and only 5% who are most wary of big labor.

    Americans’ distrust in government has been steadily rising since Gallup began asking this question in 1965, when big government garnered 35% in the poll. Big government did fall to only 47% mistrust and big business distrust rose to 38% in the poll during the early 00s corporate scandals such as Enron. This happened again to a smaller degree at the beginning of the financial crisis and recession in 2008. Despite these momentary spikes in negative business perception, the upward trend of American mistrust in big government is clear and this year’s findings are the most distrustful Americans have ever been of government since the mid-60s.

    Distrust of big labor, on the other hand, has been slowly decreasing since 1965. Though 29% of Americans were declared big labor a bigger threat than government and business, that percentage has leveled out at around or lower than 10% since the mid-90s. This likely reflects the state of unions in the U.S. as a whole over the past five decades.

    Though Republicans are, predictably, the most mistrustful of big government (92% this year), even a majority of Democrats (56%) believe big government is a bigger threat than big business or big labor.

    Though this year’s poll does fit an overall trend, it also comes during at time in which government programs are coming under increased scrutiny. The botched October rollout of the Healthcare.gov website and House Republicans’ shutdown of the U.S. government caused American opinions of Congress to hit new lows. The year-long flow of revelations about worldwide and domestic NSA spying has also given big government opponents a perfect, modern example of the worst sort of government abuse.

  • Nurses Top 2013 Gallup Honesty and Ethics Poll

    Americans this year rated Nurses as the most honest and ethical profession. A new Gallup poll released today shows that 82% of U.S. adults rate the honesty and ethical standards of nurses as either “high” or “very high.”

    The nursing profession has topped Gallup’s honesty and ethics profession ratings since the firm began polling Americans about it in 1999, with the one-time, 9/11-related firefighter profession ranking highest in 2001. Nurses are followed this year by pharmacists (70%), grade school teachers (70%), doctors (69%), military officers (69%), and police officers (54%).

    Follow police officers is the clergy, a profession that 47% of Americans now rate above average in honesty and ethics. This is the first time the clergy have fallen below 50% in the Gallup poll, and the percentage of Americans how rating the honesty and ethics of the clergy as either “low” or “very low” has now risen to 11%. This represents a large shift in opinion of the clergy in the past three decades, as the profession had a 67% high/very high rating back in 1985.

    While the top of Gallup’s honest/ethical survey list is filled with healing professions, the bottom of the list looks like the butt of a joke. Only 20% of U.S. adults consider Lawyers to be honest and ethical, followed closely by TV reporters (20%), advertisers (14%), and state legislators (14%). The lowest-rated professions fit well with the stereotypes associated with those professions: car salespeople (9%), members of Congress (8%), and Lobbyists (6%).

    Congress’ low ethics rating mirrors Americans’ approval of the legislative body in general. Another recent Gallup poll found that Congress’ approval rating for 2013 is now just 14% – the lowest ever recorded since the firm began surveying U.S. adults on their opinion of congress in 1974.

  • Obamacare Disapproval Drops as Website Improves

    Obamacare Disapproval Drops as Website Improves

    House Republicans’ government shutdown in October did no favors for a congress that hit new lows in approval this year. However, the botched rollout of the Healthcare.gov website also shifted Americans’ opinions against the very law that Republicans were protesting against.

    Now that the Healthcare.gov website is finally moving toward functionality it appears Americans are softening their opinions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, colloquially known as “Obamacare“).

    A new Gallup poll conducted this week shows that disapproval for the ACA is dropping at a consistent rate. From the high of 55% of Americans who said they generally disapprove of the Affordable Care Act in November, the rate of disapproval for the legislation has now dropped to the slim majority of 51%. Approval for the ACA, which dropped to 40% November, has not rebounded with only 41% of Americans this week saying they generally approve of the legislation.

    Perhaps surprisingly, approval of the ACA is is up among both Democrats and Republicans since late November. Democrat approval for the law has begun rising after the October dip and now sits at 75%. Republican approval ticked up only slightly to 10%. Independent approval for the ACA, on the other hand, saw a significant drop to just 31% from the steady 38% to 39% it had been throughout November.

    With less than a majority of Americans actually approving of the ACA, Gallup is predicting that the healthcare legislation will once again be a major campaign focus for candidates in next year’s midterm elections. However, with a bi-partisan budget now looking like a real possibility it seems that Americans will not have to deal with another government shutdown over the issue.

  • Majority of Americans Now View Tea Party Unfavorably

    For around four years now, the Tea Party movement has had a significant effect on U.S. politics. Candidates from the conservative movement have challenged incumbent Republican legislators, and have in some cases won. This has put pressure on the Republican party to double-down on some of its most conservative positions with a no-compromise attitude.

    Though the Tea Party movement remains popular among Republicans, it seems that the U.S. is moving in different direction. A new Gallup poll this week shows that a majority of Americans (51%) now have an unfavorable opinion toward the Tea Party. This represents the lowest favorability rating the movement has seen since Gallup began tracking the metric in 2010.

    The timing of the poll suggests that unfavorable opinions of the Tea Party movement may have increased in the past two months. In October, House Republicans shut down the U.S. government in protest over the rollout of the Affordable Care Act – something the Tea Party movement vocally opposes. Political analysts at the time suspected that the threat Tea Party Republicans in the House posed to Speaker John Boehner’s position was a large factor in why House leadership pushed the confrontation.

    Despite the actions of the Republican party in October, the Tea Party isn’t alone in its rising unfavorable rating. Gallup’s yearly congressional approval rating for 2013 is 14% – the lowest of any year ever recorded by the polling agency.

    The Tea Party movement can also still rely on solid support from Republicans. The new Gallup poll found that 58% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of the movement, while only 28% view it unfavorably.

    Slightly less than half of independents (48%) view the Tea Party unfavorably, and an large portion of them (24%) have no opinion on it.

    Democrats, of course, have a much different view of the movement. Only 10% of Democrats polled said they had a favorable opinion of the Tea Party, while nearly three-fourths of them (74%) have an unfavorable opinion of it.

    (Image courtesy NYyankees51 via Wikimedia Commons)

  • Congressional Approval Dropped to a New Low in 2013

    Though it seems as though congress has always had low approval ratings, Americans’ views of the legislative branch actually increased throughout the 90s. According to Gallup‘s yearly congressional approval ratings, however, that goodwill took a nosedive after peaking at 56% approval in 2011.

    This year congressional approval ratings have hit the lowest point ever recorded by Gallup since the company began measuring the metric in 1974. An average of only 14% of Americans approved of the way the U.S. congress handled its job in 2013. Each month of the year saw a congressional approval rating under 20% – another first for Gallup’s polling.

    This low rating was brought down by November’s monthly congressional approval rating of just 9% – the lowest of any month in the Gallup metric’s history. That month followed October, the month in which House Republicans shut down the U.S. government in protest over the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (AKA “Obamacare”).

    Now that the government is up and running again and the botched rollout of the Healthcare.gov website is being corrected, Americans are softening on congress during the holiday season. Congressional approval in December so far has reached a relatively generous 12%.

    Throughout congressional approval history Democrats and Republicans have sometimes had wildly differing opinions on congress depending on which party controls the legislature. For the current congress, however, nearly everyone is in agreement. An average of only 16% of Democrats approved of congress’ job in 2013, while only 13% of Republicans approved. Independents split the difference with a 14% approval rating average.

  • Over One Quarter of U.S. Uninsured Don’t Plan on Purchasing Health Insurance

    Over One Quarter of U.S. Uninsured Don’t Plan on Purchasing Health Insurance

    With the Healthcare.gov website slowly crawling toward full functionality, uninsured Americans are now faced with a choice. The Affordable Care Act (ACA, colloquially known as Obamacare) mandates that all Americans purchase health insurance while providing subsidized plans for those who cannot afford it. Those who still don’t want to purchase health insurance, however, will have to pay a fine.

    A new Gallup poll this week revealed that a substantial number of Americans are planning to do just that. The poll found that 28% of Americans who are currently uninsured plan to pay the fine rather than purchase health insurance. This represents a sizable portion of the estimated 17% of U.S. adults who do not currently have health insurance. Gallup estimates that these numbers mean around 5% of all Americans will opt out of insurance and pay the government fine.

    Diving deeper into Gallup’s poll numbers, it is clear that some Americans are choosing to eschew health insurance for purely ideological reasons. While only 15% of uninsured Democrats intend to pay the fine, nearly half (45%) of uninsured Republicans will not acquire health insurance and pay the fine. Despite these numbers, Gallup has stated that it is “unclear” whether Republicans will follow through with paying the fine or are simply using their survey answers as a form of protest.

    These poll results have remained largely unchanged from just a few months ago, before the healthcare exchange websites went live in October. Though Gallup saw a small spike in the proportion of uninsured Americans who planned on paying the fine in mid-October when the federal website was experiencing its worst outages, that percentage seems to have now stabilized.