Tech news was everywhere this week! From the Apple Watch launch, to Google’s mobile algorithm change, to how technology is shaping business decisions everyday. We saw a lot of stories that might be of interest to small businesses and pulled a few of them into our roundup. Read on to learn more about ‘open startups’, how marketing automation saves you money, and the rise of social recruiting.

• This week, we saw the launch of Open Startups, an initiative that embraces transparency and openness by making the financial data of participating startups available to anyone. Courtesy of Baremetrics, a company that provides analytics for Stripe-based payments, anyone can follow the growth of the 7 startups who have joined the movement, in real time. Baremetrics’ founder, Josh Pigford, reports that over 125,000 entrepreneurs are already following this data in order to help them recognize how their own SMB is faring in comparison. Will it help you? [via VentureBeat]

• Did you see an unexpected drop in your Google rankings this week? On April 21st, Google made a change to their mobile search algorithm that impacted the order of how websites are ranked when users search from their phones. The new algorithm favors mobile-friendly websites, ranking them higher in search. Sites that were not mobile optimized have been demoted. Google’s webmaster blog can direct you to resources on how to improve mobile usability and provides a mobile-friendly test for your page. Read more about the change and how it impacted small businesses in Inc’s article. [via Inc.]

• Small businesses looking to save money should look towards investing in marketing automation. Through marketing automation, tasks like email communications and updating social channels are consolidated and simplified, freeing marketers to work on other projects. A one or two-man team can be transformed into an army of marketers. Click through to read Pardot’s post on 3 cost-saving benefits of automating marketing efforts.

• Globally, millions of people use social networking everyday, so it’s no surprise that “social recruiting” is an emerging recruitment strategy. Companies are using social networks and specialized platforms like Github and Dribble to source talent. Finding the right person for the right job is especially critical for small businesses, where headcount is valuable. Learn the 3 critical things that your company should be doing to recruit exceptional talent via social media. [via Entrepreneur]

• In this Small Business Spotlight, Justin Talerico discusses how Ion Interactive is able to work through the common problem of sales and marketing being divided. In his unique, dual role as CEO and CMO, Talerico is able to lead his company from a marketing perspective, aligning his teams by looking at the entire customer journey. Learn how to conserve sales resources in order to stop wasting time and energy.

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