Prominent figures in the technology industry have recently expressed their thoughts on how Artificial intelligence (AI) might significantly impact the workforce by cutting out numerous professions and leading society to reconsider how individuals spend their time. These forecasts were discussed during a conference where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman delved into AI’s possible influence in reshaping employment opportunities. As AI continues to advance and be integrated into various industries, there is a growing concern about the displacement of human labor, potentially resulting in job losses for many. However, some experts argue that AI and automation could create new jobs and industries, requiring workers to adapt and upskill to remain relevant in the changing job market.

There is a great vid on this discussion last Tuesday. Listen Here.

Unequal distribution of the effects of AI on society

Altman indicated that the unparalleled shifts prompted by AI would not impact everybody equally. However, he anticipates that society as a whole will see improvements, with specific demographics experiencing the majority of these transformations. The CEO of OpenAI highlighted that individuals most affected might have difficulty coming to terms with AI taking over their occupations and re-establishing their sense of purpose. As AI continues to become more prevalent, it will be crucial for governments, educational institutions, and organizations to provide the necessary resources and support to help those facing displacement in the workforce. By fostering adaptability, re-skilling, and promoting lifelong learning, societies can ensure a smoother transition and enable individuals to harness the potential of this technological revolution, turning challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.

Experts anticipate that incorporating AI in various sectors will result in increased overall productivity and further technological advancements. Nevertheless, the approaching possibility of job loss due to AI has ignited conversations on potential solutions, such as retraining and workforce preparedness initiatives, to dampen the societal consequences of these technological advancements.

Collaboration between industry leaders and policymakers to discuss potential solutions to AI-driven job loss

Industry leaders must collaborate with policymakers to ensure a seamless transition and address the economic hurdles created by the AI-driven shift in the job market. Creating comprehensive strategies for reskilling and upskilling workers impacted by these changes will be essential in maintaining employment and fostering innovation. Furthermore, promoting continuous learning and adapting to new technology will help bridge the talent gaps, ensuring a more inclusive and prosperous future for all.

Featured Image Credit: GoogleDeepMind; Pexels; Thank you!

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An effective social media marketing campaign is imperative to any small business’s near and long-term success. Today, more than ever before, social media has become one of the most vital tools for communicating with consumer audiences.

For any small business owner and novice entrepreneur, effective social media management tools can be a key element to establishing their brand, attracting customers, and boosting sales.

However, today, things are more complex than they were several years ago. Social media management has become a full-time job, often requiring small business owners and entrepreneurs to dedicate not only the necessary resources to develop and deploy actionable social media campaigns but effectively managing their time to create and publish new content.

The cost of social media management

Investing in social media management can often be one of the best business decisions any owner or entrepreneur can make. Yet, employing the right person or team can drive up initial startup costs, and this can be a pain point for upcoming businesses that are not yet established enough to afford these services.

Several sources indicate that the average cost of social media advertising can range anywhere from $15 to $200 per day. Effective social media account management can cost companies an average of $12,500 per month. Keep in mind that this is still relatively small compared to larger firms and corporations that can spend anywhere up to $50,000 per month on their social media management.

Other costs that need to be calculated include content creation, $7,950 per month; platform management, $5,000 per month; and social advertising, which can cost an average of $5,000 per month. Some experts suggest that in general, small businesses need to allocate at least between $500 and $5,000 per month to social media management.

For any small business, these figures may be entirely outside of their financial position, especially during their startup phase. What’s more, business owners tend to overlook other important factors, such as effectively planning their social media campaigns, understanding their target audience, and leveraging available data.

While some small business owners and entrepreneurs may be able to manage these responsibilities themselves, as the business begins to scale and they are required to oversee other essential duties, managing their social media presence often takes a backseat, which can have long-term effects on their customer engagement and brand visibility.

Effective online time management

As a new business owner, you might already be overseeing several vital aspects of your business. This requires a detailed and thoroughly planned schedule to ensure you reach your targets and complete important projects before moving on to the next thing.

As part of your planning, allocating sufficient time to manage your social media and other online activities can help you better understand how social media campaigns work and which aspects of your social media strategy require further adjustment.

Instead of spending too much time online and not getting the results you are looking for, here’s a breakdown of considerations to keep in mind when planning your social media campaign and strategy.

Understand your social media presence

Building any business requires creating a brand easily recognized among potential competitors. Your brand, or brand voice, will be the physical representation of what your business provides and how you differentiate yourself within the marketplace.

Once you have a picture of what your brand might look like, you can determine how your social media strategy will align with your overarching goals. Allocating enough time to establish a brand voice before anything else will help drive the conversation about what you should include within your social media presence and how you will communicate this with your audience.

Develop key social media goals

The next step would be to think of specific social media goals you want to achieve within a given time frame. Your social media goals should align with the broader business strategy, such as building better customer engagement or gaining more online store visibility.

Using these metrics alongside one another can help you establish a forward-looking plan to ensure you achieve these goals effectively while adjusting as the campaign unfolds.

Let’s say, for example, you are looking to boost recognition for your online store. Using social media as a key marketing tool, you will need to consider the type of content you will need, such as videos or images, and on which platforms you will promote your store.

From here on out, you can begin to decipher how often you will need to post or publish new content. Depending on your available content, you can start to design a publishing strategy, such as posting every day for the next five days, until you’ve reached a specific viewer count or a specific number of engagements.

Understanding how both business goals and social media can align will help you develop a more thorough strategy that ensures you don’t waste time on posts or campaigns that don’t deliver the results you’re looking for.

Get to know your target audience

Another way to save a lot of time and valuable resources is to consider your target audience or the people you are trying to reach. Knowing where your customers are online will help ensure you meet them at every touch point most valuable to you and your business.

Knowing who your target audience may be will help you determine the type of content you need to create and how it will need to be displayed on social media. Remember that target audience research is one of the key components to building a successful social media and marketing strategy, which further ensures the near-term success of your business goals.

Remember to keep your target audience in mind when crafting new content; understanding the demographics, occasional challenges, and their interests will all be key elements of your strategy.

Consider the platform you want to use

Instead of spending countless hours trying to manage several different social media platforms, start small with a platform you are already familiar with.

Make sure to use a platform that can provide you with the key analytical and insight tools that will help you better understand how effective a campaign may be, and whether you need to make any changes along the way.

Next, consider being proactive on one platform at a time. Once you have gotten most of the intricacies under control, and have a firm understanding of how to properly engage with your target audience, begin developing a new strategy for a second or third platform.

Remember to keep your business in mind and how the social media platform you’re using will fit with the type of products and services you are offering to your potential target audience.

Automate specific activities

Customer engagement is now a twenty-four-seven responsibility and requires your attention around the clock. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible, and sometimes you forget to respond to a customer query or reply to a direct message.

While missing a few responses here and there won’t tarnish your business reputation, not having enough time to appropriately respond to everyone’s questions could leave you with more significant near-term problems.

There might be days when you don’t have the time to post new content or even share the news about a new product. On other days you might be out of the office or even under the weather, and who will handle all your responses and social media management?

Having the right automation tools can save a lot of time — and ensure your social media accounts remain active around the clock, even if you’re not around. Automation tools can respond to messages, help resolve customer queries, schedule posts, and automatically publish these on your social media accounts.

Take a bit of time to learn about all the current automation tools and how these can help alleviate your social media marketing — and further provide you with on-demand solutions.

Create a digital calendar

Another way to keep track of everything is to create a digital calendar. With a digital calendar for your social media, you can keep tabs on everything happening in your business. From having to order new merchandise to when delivery is expected, lining up important events, and even helping to better control your social media management.

With a digital calendar, you can sync different activities to ensure you stay on top of your game and never miss anything. You can include essential days or times you need to post on social media to ensure you get the best engagement.

You can even set reminders of when an older post can be reused after several weeks or months to constantly reduce the need to create new content. A digital calendar can help you keep track of which days of the week your content received higher engagement rates, and how you can adjust your strategy so that you only post on these days.

Instead of having one calendar that can become cramped and packed full of activities, you can now have a separate calendar specifically for social media. This helps to organize all your important events and dates and ensures you don’t miss any important events that might require your attention.

Allocate time to launch new campaigns

As part of your schedule, you must make sure you allocate enough time in your week to launch new social media campaigns. You’ll want to block off an hour or two of your day to make the necessary adjustments before launching your plan.

You will need to have enough time in your schedule for planning and execution. While this might not seem like the most important part of your day or business in general, you must spend quality time understanding how your plan works, your target audience, and the type of goals you are trying to achieve through these actions.

Schedule time for other marketing responsibilities

While social media may be an essential aspect of the overarching marketing plan, you must also schedule time to focus on other marketing efforts.

You will need to allocate days of the week or specific hours within your day to focus on marketing strategies such as building an email marketing list, crafting new newsletters, designing new campaigns, or calling prospective clients or suppliers.

While a lot of marketing may take place on social media, keep in mind that this isn’t the only form of digital marketing, and there are several other techniques you will need to take control over to ensure you have a foolproof marketing campaign that delivers the results and engagement you are looking for.

Why it’s important to manage your social media with a digital calendar

With the right tools and more importantly a digital calendar, you can effectively monitor your business’s online presence while at the same time developing new ways to increase customer engagement and boost brand recognition.

Other benefits of using a digital calendar to organize your social media duties include:

Effective time management

Instead of aimlessly spending time on social media or online, you can now use a digital calendar that will help you plan and organize everything you need to keep track of within one place.

Automation

Syncing your digital calendar with your social media accounts can help you automate several activities, such as posting, responding to customer queries, or creating notifications for when to publish new content.

Cost-effective

Using a digital calendar alongside your social media planning is a cost-effective method to ensure you get the necessary results and that you have increased engagement with your clients at all times without wasting precious time or resources online.

Staying Informed

Instead of being in the dark, you will be informed when new developments occur or you might need to adjust your social media strategy.

Final Words

Proper social media management is an effective marketing tool that any business requires to stand out against its competitors and create customer engagement with its target audience.

However, without the right tools, social media management can be an arduous task for any business owner, leading to long-term drawbacks and impacting the scalability of their business.

Using a calendar to help you keep track of your social media management strategy will help you create more engaging content and effectively use your time. With a digital calendar, you will be able to stay up to date about any changes. When you need to publish new content, most importantly, it will allow you to allocate the necessary time to properly plan and launch any new campaigns without sacrificing much of your daily schedule.

Published First on Calendar. Read Here.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Andrew Neel; Pexels; Thank you!

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The podcast world is enormous. In 2022 the growing market boasted over five million podcasts with 70 million available episodes. There are 100 million active listeners in the United States alone. The industry as a whole generates billions of dollars in revenue and is worth tens of billions of dollars more.

No matter how you look at it, podcasting is having a moment. As with all successful tech-based movements, though, podcasting also comes with its fair share of challenges.

One of the biggest struggles is the complexity that comes with successfully executing a top-level show. With so much competition out there, it’s important for creators to generate content that can compete. The solution thus far has been to use a growing number of software tools to execute each stage of a successful podcast.

That’s where PodUp (previously ShowPlatform) is shaking things up. The revolutionary platform is restoring simplicity to the podcasting game.

The Challenge: Managing the Prolific Podcasting Tool Chest

The laundry list of apps required to pull off an effective podcast in 2023 is intimidating. Along with recording, editing, and publishing software, podcasters need to consider investing in applications that can help them manage:

• Workflow to shepherd their episodes from production and publishing through to marketing and promotion.
• Additional content creation tools include transcription services, guest invitation apps, image editors, and ticket management platforms.
• A website, e-commerce, and blog to host content, sell merch, and function as a central online “hub” for their podcast brand.
• Social channels to help with brand awareness, community building, and individual episode promotion.
• Video and live stream functions for bonus content and repurposing of audio episodes.
• Back-end tools from ad and affiliate management to SEO optimization, file organization, customer relationship management (CRM), and more.

The worst part of this exhausting administrative and creative to-do list is that the abovementioned avalanche of responsibilities is hardly comprehensive. It is just the tip of the iceberg. The list of tools that podcasters require to pull off a quality show is growing by the year — sometimes by the month.

Even within each category listed above, podcasters must make dozens of choices, too. For instance, the need for a workflow tool alone could be solved using Asana, Trello, Monday.com, ClickUp, and countless competing options. Each one offers unique value, and a show’s management team must research and decide which platform will integrate with the myriad of other tools they’re already using.

The lack of integration and natural overwhelm that comes with so many needs and even more options to address them is what inspired Nathan Gwilliam to create PodUp.

PodUp Is Simplifying the Podcasting Process With an All-in-One Platform

Formerly known as ShowPlatform, PodUp is an innovative podcasting invention from industry veteran Nathan Gwilliam. The founder ran his own successful show for an entire year before realizing how much money he was pouring into the many different technologies required to make that success possible.

The entrepreneur saw a need, and his answer was PodUp. To execute his ambitious vision, Gwilliam brought together an international group with over 20 years of experience growing digital ventures. PodUp’s core team brings experience from major corporations, including Sony, IBM, PayPal, and Apple.

Together, this group fleshed out Gwilliam’s vision, turning it into a comprehensive platform that integrates dozens of different products into a single, all-in-one podcasting solution.

PodUp doesn’t just do the grunt work of an army of different apps. It also integrates the dozens of other apps still required in the podcasting process. For example, the platform can be distributed to 18 audio streaming services, including prominent names like Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Pandora.

It also integrates social sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as various top-tier analytics, calendar, CRM, and email platforms. By bringing these capabilities and integrations into a single location, PodUp has created a one-stop shop software solution that dramatically simplifies the podcasting process.

PodUp Goes Beyond the “Episode” and Syndicates the “Show”

Simplification is a core philosophy of PodUp, but Gwilliam’s vision didn’t stop with efficiency. He also wanted to help creators take their content to the next level.

With that in mind, PodUp’s founding team looked beyond individual episode creation and focused on helping creators build shows. That process starts with episode creation, but that’s merely the first step.

From there, a successful show repurposes its audio into video, text, images, social, and even memes. This creates a multi-faceted content library for each episode, which can then be pushed out to various platforms. PodUp makes all of this possible from a single tool.

The in-house PodUp syndication process can exponentially impact a show’s overall growth. The platform doesn’t leave creators to guess at their progress, either. PodUp’s dashboard helps to monitor and analyze KPIs (key performance indicators) and deep, detailed analytics.

As a show grows, the platform also provides elite organization and backup capabilities to keep track of everything. Podcast managers can save and organize content in multiple formats. This makes referencing and collaborative sharing quick and easy. If questions arise, the brand provides 24/7 support to help creators use the software and successfully manage their shows.

PodAllies Streamlines Production Even Further

While PodUp makes it easier for a business to create a show efficiently in-house, the creators behind the platform have also launched an even simpler solution: PodAllies. 

This is a “do it for you” production service that utilizes the PodUp technology and platform. In this case, it passes the bulk of the production process off to a third-party service. This is a lifesaver for a busy CEO or leadership team that is looking to save not just resources but time, as well.

PodUp Is Creating Efficiencies and Lowering Costs for Podcast Producers

The end result of PodUp’s all-in-one podcasting solution is an efficient and effective way to keep up with cutting-edge podcast production and promotion best practices. The tool has an impact on a show’s profitability, too. The sheer number of applications that this single platform eliminates can lead to as much as $8,143 per year in savings.

On top of that, the ability to quickly and efficiently manage a podcast can lead to faster growth. This, combined with the platform’s built-in monetization tools, can lead to streamlined monetization and higher revenue.

From simplicity to efficiency to monetization, PodUp is setting the stage for creators to take their shows to the next level. The platform’s combination of software and services is helping entrepreneurs, businesses, and agencies alike manage their podcasts with an alacrity that is hard to find in the oft-overwhelming world of modern podcasting.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels; Thank you!

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If you use any social media platforms – Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc. – you likely know that people are using them to sell items they no longer want or need, from clothing to cars to landscaping materials to furniture to more. Given that there are nearly 5 billion people using social media, it is no surprise there was this progression.

Describing Social Commerce

Social commerce is simply using social media platforms to sell goods and services. Sellers can be individuals or companies.

Although originally conceived to share pics, memes, and photos, a variety of platforms have commerce features built in. That includes TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest.

According to Statista, global sales using social media are estimated to be $1.3 trillion in 2023. This is expected to rise to nearly $3 trillion by 2026. Not only are users selling goods and services already but some generations, millennials and Gen Z especially, are using social media platforms as search engines for items they are looking to buy.

Social media selling is incredibly popular in Asian countries. Estimates show that nearly 90% of people in Thailand have purchased from a social media platform. In the UK, 54% of buyers have made a purchase from TikTok and in the United States, 36% of social media users are expected to buy from social media, with these stats also coming from Statista.

The Social Media Shopping Experience

If you’ve spent any amount of time on platforms like TikTok or Instagram, you’ve very likely seen a celebrity of some type, whether an actor or an athlete, promoting a certain product and encouraging you to buy it. In addition, you’ve probably seen digital stores and products on marketplaces and many social media platforms.

Commerce in a Changing World

The pandemic of 2020 changed the way people around the world interact with their environment and how they achieve tasks, and shopping is no exception. It was during this time that influencers discovered live streams, which resulted in their followers shopping for the products they endorse or recommend. This is called entertainment selling and continues to trend throughout the world.

The idea behind entertainment selling is that social media users are exposed to short-form videos that pop up in their feeds or “suggested for you” sections on their social media platforms. The theory is that this targeted marketing promotes faster buying decisions. And, these in-feed videos are targeted to their audience, using machine learning algorithms, so much of the time the products and/or services are relevant to you, increasing the chances that you’ll buy.

Many social media platforms have a “store” tab somewhere that takes you directly to the shopping portion of the application. For example, it’s called “Marketplace” on Facebook and allows you to search for specific items or simply browse the goods and services placed for sale by other users. Another example is the product showcase tab on TikTok that lets users see videos and live streams that promote specific items.

What to Know About Selling on Social Media?

Social media sales are a way for legacy and new businesses to get a brand out there and increase their customer base.

If you are considering expanding your operations to include selling on social media, there are some things to consider.

• Make it easy for buyers. This is your chance to make a good first impression and interact with potential buyers, so make it count. Once they’ve found you, take this chance to send them to your website or storefront so they can purchase your products or services. With a few extra steps, you can make it easy for them to become a customer.
• Build a customer base and a community – you’re putting your brand on social media to reach more potential customers. You want enough interactions to be front of mind, but not too many to cause irritation. Selling on social media is a two-for-one because you engage with your customers and sell to them in the same place.

Statistically, social media is currently one of the best ways to increase brand awareness. Consider that 79 percent of TikTok users discovered new brands on the app, according to a TikTok user survey.

It takes time to build a social media presence and get your goods/services noticed. But, thanks to Fameswap, you can buy established accounts that may contain your target audience.

• Use customer data to improve performance. Most brands make use of social media as a part of their sales and marketing strategy. It turns out that brands that operate on multiple social media platforms are much more successful. This is by as much as 494% higher, according to some estimates.

By analyzing social media data, you can identify which products to showcase and also how to encourage buyers to choose your products over the competition. by using direct messages, targeted ads, or live streams.

Consider This

While there’s definite value to social commerce, it’s best to fully understand how it works to determine if it’s the right choice for your brand. Success depends on finding the right platform with the target audience for your products/services. Success won’t occur for every brand in this way. You’ve got to find the platform where your potential buyers are spending their time.

Whatever platform you choose, remember that you will still face some of the same challenges as opening any other storefront or marketplace. This includes:

• aggregating orders that might happen in a number of different channels,
• where to base fulfillment operations
• how to integrate legacy and digital operations.

A tech expert can help bridge the gap between your traditional methods of selling and your social media selling platforms.

In Conclusion

Selling on social media is an ideal complement to your website. Plus, it opens new channels for buyers to find you and your brand.

Marketing and selling goods on social media makes sense for many brands and businesses. It creates awareness of what you have to offer, can drive your sales, and increase your customer base.  By watching trends, you can improve your marketing to drive further sales and find new customers.

Setting up a shop takes a bit of time and effort at the front end. But, it pays off in dividends once your shop opens. Now is the time to get on board the trend.

The post The Future of Social Media: Selling on Social Media Platforms appeared first on ReadWrite.

In recent years, centralized social media platforms have faced growing criticism due to issues like restricted API access and censorship disputes. As a result, the need for decentralized alternatives has become apparent. DeSo, a decentralized social media system leveraging blockchain technology, is emerging as a potential solution. This article explores the rise of decentralized social media and its potential to revolutionize online communities.

See also: Which Countries Have The Internet Censorship?

Traditionally, users have relied on centralized social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter for interaction, content sharing, and participation in discussions. However, recent incidents have shed light on the limitations and vulnerabilities of these platforms. Reddit faced backlash when it restricted API access, leading to subreddits going dark in protest. The discontinuation of third-party apps due to rising API costs further highlighted the drawbacks of depending on centralized systems. Similarly, Twitter faced criticism when reading restrictions were imposed on newly created and verified accounts, raising concerns about user control, censorship, and system manipulation. These examples underscore the need for a paradigm shift that empowers individuals and protects the integrity of online communities.

DeSo, a startup founded in 2019, utilizes blockchain technology to address the limitations of centralized social media networks. Unlike conventional platforms, DeSo keeps user identities, profiles, content, and social networks entirely on-chain. This decentralized approach grants users complete control over their interactions and content, preventing restrictions or censorship at the protocol level.

DeSo has recently announced a $1 million incentive to encourage the development of a Reddit alternative using its own blockchain. This initiative highlights the growing demand for user sovereignty and decentralized social media alternatives. Nader Al-Naji, the creator of DeSo, believes these demonstrations against centralized platforms reflect a broader societal shift towards individuals claiming ownership of their social media information, similar to the ownership of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

DeSo offers a range of monetization tools, including creator coins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), tokens, and tipping. By leveraging blockchain technology, DeSo empowers content creators to directly monetize their work, bypassing traditional intermediaries and retaining a greater share of their revenue.

The decentralized structure of DeSo also ensures users have complete control over their content. With on-chain storage, DeSo guarantees that content remains accessible and cannot be subject to censorship or removal, in contrast to centralized platforms. Users can freely express themselves and engage in discussions within a more open and democratic setting.

Since its launch, DeSo has garnered significant interest and support from investors and the cryptocurrency community. The company raised $200 million in fundraising in September 2021, with prominent backers including A16z, Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia, Pantera Capital, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. This financing underscores the growing interest in decentralized social media solutions and reflects confidence in DeSo’s concept.

The DeSo community has already fostered over 150 projects, indicating the platform’s expanding ecosystem. While the market capitalizations of these projects may currently be modest, their existence highlights a thriving and growing community of users and developers keen on exploring the potential of decentralized social media.

See also: What’s Next for Tech Censorship?

In addition to its social networking protocol, DeSo has introduced Openfund 2.0, a decentralized exchange platform. This in-app concept offers users a simple and secure way to exchange tokens within the DeSo ecosystem. By leveraging blockchain technology, Openfund 2.0 ensures transparency, immutability, and eliminates the need for intermediaries, enabling direct peer-to-peer transactions.

The introduction of this decentralized exchange platform enhances the user experience within the DeSo ecosystem, providing a comprehensive set of tools and services for both users and content providers.

As controversies surrounding centralized social media platforms continue to grow, the need for decentralized alternatives becomes increasingly evident. DeSo’s decentralized social media protocol offers a compelling solution that empowers users, allows for direct monetization, and prioritizes user control. By leveraging blockchain technology, DeSo provides transparency, immutability, and resistance to censorship, fostering a more democratic and user-centric online community.

Although DeSo is still in its early stages, its rapid expansion and backing from notable investors indicate a promising future. As more users and developers gravitate towards decentralized social media platforms, online communities are poised for a profound transformation. The development of decentralized social media has the potential to fundamentally change how we communicate, share information, and build communities online.

In conclusion, decentralized social media platforms like DeSo provide an effective alternative to centralized platforms by addressing their limitations and weaknesses. DeSo is at the forefront of the decentralized social media revolution, offering powerful features, content management tools, and monetization opportunities. The future of online communities appears to be decentralized and more focused on user sovereignty as individuals assert ownership over their social content.

First Reported on: CoinTelegraph

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are the challenges of centralized social media platforms?
A: Centralized social media platforms face issues such as restricted API access, censorship concerns, and limited user control over content. These limitations have raised the need for decentralized alternatives.

Q: What is DeSo?
A: DeSo is a decentralized social media system that utilizes blockchain technology. It offers users complete control over their social media content and interactions, addressing the drawbacks of centralized platforms.

Q: How does DeSo differ from centralized social media platforms?
A: DeSo keeps user identities, profiles, content, and social networks entirely on-chain, ensuring user control and preventing censorship or restrictions at the protocol level. In contrast, centralized platforms control and govern user data.

Q: How does DeSo empower content creators?
A: DeSo provides various monetization tools, including creator coins, NFTs, tokens, and tipping. Content creators can directly monetize their work without relying on traditional intermediaries, enabling them to retain a larger share of their revenue.

Q: How does DeSo ensure content regulation and censorship resistance?
A: DeSo’s decentralized structure and on-chain storage ensure that content remains accessible and cannot be censored or removed. Users have the freedom to express themselves and engage in open discussions without concerns of censorship.

Q: Why is the development of decentralized social media important?
A: Decentralized social media platforms like DeSo provide users with ownership over their content, enable direct monetization, and foster a more democratic and user-centric online community. It offers transparency, immutability, and resistance to censorship.

Q: Who has invested in DeSo?
A: DeSo has received significant backing from investors and the cryptocurrency community. Notable investors include A16z, Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia, Pantera Capital, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Q: What is Openfund 2.0?
A: Openfund 2.0 is a decentralized exchange platform introduced by DeSo. It enables users to exchange tokens within the DeSo ecosystem in a secure and transparent manner, without the need for intermediaries.

Q: What is the future of decentralized social media?
A: The rise of decentralized social media platforms like DeSo indicates a potential shift in how online communities engage and interact. Users and developers are embracing the concept of user sovereignty and exploring the possibilities of decentralized social media.

Q: How can decentralized social media impact online communities?
A: Decentralized social media platforms offer greater user control, content ownership, and monetization opportunities. They foster a more open and democratic environment, allowing users to engage in discussions and share information without concerns of censorship or manipulation.

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The realm of artificial intelligence (AI) has made significant strides in generating text and graphics from simple instructions in recent years. However, the next frontier in AI technology appears to be audio. As we witness the rise of music creation based on word prompts, AI language tutors, and voice simulators, companies like Voice.ai are leading the way in voice-altering technology. Recently, speech.ai, the parent company of Voice.ai, announced that it has secured a $6 million investment to propel its voice-changing technology into new markets.

Voice.ai has experienced remarkable growth, largely driven by word-of-mouth marketing. The company’s Discord channel has amassed over 120,000 subscribers, attracting a diverse range of users, including gamers, content producers, vloggers, and enthusiasts of popular apps. Voice.ai offers users the ability to create new voices or choose from an extensive library of pre-created voices contributed by other users. These tools are available as applications for Mac, PC, Android, and iOS, enabling users to utilize the voices for recordings or live sessions in real-time.

See also: Voice.ai’s Real-Time Voice Changer Technology Attracts $6 Million in Funding

With the infusion of fresh capital, Voice.ai plans to expand its technical team and develop additional software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs) for platforms like Unreal, Meta, and Unity. The company also aims to broaden its language support and explore new applications for voice, including singing. Given the existing waitlists for its services due to high demand, Voice.ai may allocate some of the funds to enhance server capacity.

In the competitive landscape of speech-to-voice and voice-to-speech services, Voice.ai stands as a formidable player. Notable participants in this space include Snap, which acquired an AI voice assistant for contact centers, and Spotify, which purchased Sonantic for its AI speech platform technology. Other companies like Sanas, Murf, and Acapela are active in accent modification and synthetic speech creation. Voice.ai differentiates itself by positioning as a consumer-oriented AI speech modification tool, as opposed to solutions primarily aimed at businesses. By making speech AI technology accessible and affordable to the general public, Voice.ai aims to democratize its usage.

What sets Voice.ai apart is its unique approach to voice alteration. The company places strong emphasis on preserving key aspects of a speaker’s speech, such as emotion, timing, and emphasis. This distinguishes Voice.ai from other firms that merely replicate voices or offer costly voice-to-voice services to production studios. By changing the voice’s tone, Voice.ai produces entirely original output in real-time, appealing to individuals seeking to enhance their audio quality and amplify their online presence.

Currently, Voice.ai boasts a user base consisting of 70% men and 30% women. However, the company anticipates attracting new user groups, including individuals who use avatars matching their voices, those seeking privacy protection, transgender individuals desiring voices that align with their identities, and those experimenting with entirely new online personas.

The recent fundraising efforts led by Mucker Capital and M13 indicate investors’ optimism about the future of Voice.ai. Mucker Capital, renowned for its successful mobile ad firm AdMob, sees Voice.ai as a catalyst for transforming the AI developer community, drawing parallels to AdMob’s influence on mobile app developers. The M13 team, led by former Digital Ocean COO Karl Alomar, is committed to encouraging developers to embrace and integrate Voice.ai’s technologies.

Voice.ai is spearheading the voice AI revolution, empowering individuals to shape their online sound. The company’s user-friendly and cost-effective solutions are democratizing speech AI technology, opening up new possibilities for consumers, developers, and the broader AI industry. Voice.ai offers a distinctive and easily accessible platform for individual expression and creative exploration in the online space by preserving the essential components of a user’s speech while altering the voice.

As Voice.ai continues to grow and evolve, it is poised to revolutionize the way people interact with audio content. With its recent investment, the company is well-positioned to expand its reach, enhance its technology, and cater to the diverse needs of its expanding user base. By democratizing speech AI technology, Voice.ai is paving the way for a future where individuals have greater control over their online presence and can express themselves in new and exciting ways.

First Reported on TechCrunch

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Voice.ai?

A: Voice.ai is a company at the forefront of AI technology, specializing in voice-altering solutions. Its platform allows users to modify and conceal their voices in real-time, offering a range of customizable options.

Q: How does Voice.ai’s voice-altering technology work?

A: Voice.ai’s technology focuses on preserving key aspects of a speaker’s speech, such as emotion, timing, and emphasis, while changing the voice’s tone. Unlike other companies that replicate voices or provide costly voice-to-voice services, Voice.ai generates wholly original output in real-time.

Q: What are the applications of Voice.ai’s voice-altering technology?

A: Voice.ai’s technology has various applications. It caters to gamers, content producers, vloggers, and users of popular platforms. Users can create new voices or choose from a library of pre-created voices for recordings or live sessions, enhancing their audio quality and online presence.

Q: What platforms are supported by Voice.ai’s tools?

A: Voice.ai’s tools are available as applications for Mac, PC, Android, and iOS, ensuring accessibility across different operating systems and devices.

Q: How has Voice.ai gained popularity?

A: Voice.ai’s growth has largely been driven by word-of-mouth marketing. It has amassed over 120,000 subscribers on its Discord channel, attracting a diverse user base and gaining traction among gamers, content creators, and users of various popular apps.

Q: What are Voice.ai’s plans with the recent $6 million investment?

A: With the infusion of fresh capital, Voice.ai aims to expand its technical staff and develop additional software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs) for platforms like Meta, Unreal, and Unity. The company also plans to expand language support, explore new voice applications such as singing, and potentially allocate funds to expand server capacity to meet demand.

Q: How does Voice.ai differentiate itself from other speech-to-voice and voice-to-speech services?

A: Voice.ai differentiates itself by focusing on providing a consumer-oriented AI speech modification tool. It emphasizes affordability and accessibility, making speech AI technology available to the general public. Unlike other solutions, Voice.ai prioritizes preserving important speech characteristics while altering the voice’s tone.

Q: Who are the competitors of Voice.ai in the voice-altering market?

A: Voice.ai faces competition from various companies in the speech-to-voice and voice-to-speech market. Notable competitors include Snap, which acquired an AI voice assistant for contact centers, and Spotify, which purchased Sonantic for AI speech platform technology. Other active players in accent modification and synthetic speech creation include Sanas, Murf, and Acapela.

Q: What is the user demographic of Voice.ai?

A: Currently, Voice.ai’s user base comprises 70% men and 30% women. However, the company expects to attract new user groups, such as individuals using avatars matching their voices, those seeking privacy protection, transgender individuals looking for voices aligning with their identities, and individuals exploring new online personas.

Q: What is the significance of Voice.ai’s recent fundraising efforts?

A: The recent $6 million investment in Voice.ai, led by Mucker Capital and M13, demonstrates investors’ confidence in the company’s future. Mucker Capital, known for its successful mobile ad firm AdMob, sees Voice.ai as a catalyst for transforming the AI developer community, much like AdMob influenced mobile app developers. The M13 team, led by former Digital Ocean COO Karl Alomar, aims to encouragedevelopers to adopt and integrate Voice.ai’s technologies.

Q: How does Voice.ai contribute to the AI industry as a whole?

A: Voice.ai is contributing to the AI industry by democratizing speech AI technology. Its user-friendly and cost-effective solutions make AI accessible to the general public, opening up new opportunities for consumers, developers, and the broader AI industry. Voice.ai’s innovative approach to voice alteration and its commitment to preserving important speech aspects set it apart and have the potential to reshape how people interact with audio content online.

Q: What can we expect from Voice.ai in the future?

A: As Voice.ai continues to grow and evolve, we can expect the company to expand its reach, enhance its technology, and explore new applications for voice-altering technology. With its recent investment, Voice.ai is well-positioned to further innovate and cater to the evolving needs of its user base. The company’s commitment to individual expression and creative exploration in the online space suggests that it will continue to empower users to shape their online sound and push the boundaries of voice AI technology.

The post Voice AI Splits Away From Enterprise-Focused Text-to-Speech appeared first on ReadWrite.

It’s probably drummed into you now that networking is an essential part of professional success.

But how do you effectively network with people? It’s harder than it seems on paper.

But if you’re seeking a job or looking for new business opportunities, you need to have meaningful connections.

Fortunately, there are interesting tips and strategies to build meaningful professional connections with ease.

Here are my eight best tips to network for success, no matter what your goals are.

1. Be a connector

When you think of networking, it’s often about putting yourself out there and achieving something for yourself. 

However, this approach limits you. There’s another approach you can try instead – which is to be a connector.

This means building meaningful connections in the professional world by leveraging your relationships to create value for others. 

That is, you introduce people to each other, help establish rapport and trust, and set the stage for future collaboration and new business opportunities.

As a connector, it’s essential to be strategic about whom you introduce to whom. You want to make sure your introductions are relevant, timely, and beneficial for both parties. 

For example, if you have a colleague who’s looking for a job in a specific industry and you have a friend who works in that industry, you can connect them to each other. 

This thoughtful approach to networking proves that you’re not just trying to gain something from the connection but that you genuinely care about helping others.

This will also keep you ‘top of mind’ in your network, and they’ll reach out to you whenever they can return the favor. 

2. Attend a workshop or class

Joining a college class or an online course gives you the opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge from industry experts.

They offer insights and ideas that can help you achieve success in your career. 

Even attending a workshop or webinar related to your industry is an excellent way to build your skills. 

But also to network with like-minded individuals who share similar interests and goals. 

Doing a course, workshop, webinar, or class means that you’ll get access to top minds in a specific field. And you’ll connect with professionals relevant to your industry.

You can learn from them, gain valuable insights, and form lasting relationships that may lead to new business opportunities. 

You’ll also establish your reputation and grow your social capital in the industry.

And finally, attending workshops and classes allows you to keep an eye on your competition and stay ahead by knowing the latest in technology and thought leadership. 

3. Join a mastermind group

Mastermind groups are powerful tools for networking and professional development. 

They are small groups of like-minded individuals who meet regularly to discuss challenges, set goals, and support each other. They’re different from typical networking events because they limit how many people can join and their meetings happen regularly  – often once a month.

By being part of a mastermind group, you can learn from the experiences of others and gain valuable insights into different industries and professions. Moreover, these groups allow you to share your own knowledge and expertise, which, in turn, can help other members achieve their own goals. 

Most importantly, joining a mastermind group provides you with accountability and support.

Joining a mastermind group is a very specific and often rewarding way to grow and build professional connections.

Many successful people join mastermind groups as a way to discuss issues they can’t anywhere else and to grow to the position they want.

The other members of the group can help you expand your network, leading to new opportunities for collaboration and business growth.

4. Create a personal brand

Building a personal brand can seem daunting, but the rewards of standing out in a crowded marketplace are well worth the effort. 

One effective way to start developing your brand is by establishing a strong online presence. 

To do this, share your insights and unique perspective on social media or through a blog and watch your audience grow. 

By consistently demonstrating your expertise and knowledge, you’ll be able to attract individuals who share your interests and values.

There are many ways that you can leverage online platforms for your personal brand building and networking. And the results can be spectacular. 

Here are some interesting social networking statistics you should know:

• 87% of B2B buyers have a favorable impression of a salesperson introduced through their professional network
• 84% of executives use contacts and information from social networks in their purchase process 
• 31% of B2B professionals believe social selling helps them build deeper relationships with clients
• Sales reps with 5000+ LinkedIn connections meet or surpass sales quotas 98% of the time

There’s so much you can do if you leverage social media the right way to build your personal brand. With consistent effort, you’ll establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and find opportunities you never thought possible.

5. Volunteer to speak at events

If you’re ready to play a more active and leading role in networking activities, then speaking will be the right step for you. 

Volunteering to speak at events related to your industry or interests is an excellent way to make a name for yourself. 

You not only get to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience, but you also draw people to talk to you. 

If you have something interesting or groundbreaking to say, then you should take the plunge and sign up to speak at the next event related to your industry or interests. 

You can then leverage this experience and share it on social media or your website to build a positive reputation. 

6. Invite experts to share their opinion for a content piece

People love to be approached for their insights and ideas. 

By inviting experts to share their opinion for a Q&A post, webinar, or blog post, you’ll get a positive response from them. 

And the process will help you build relationships and add value and credibility to the content being produced. 

Reach out to established professionals in your industry with a prepared set of questions. Also, approach the conversation with a clear understanding of what you hope to achieve, and use a respectful and thoughtful tone. 

Be specific about the topic you’d like them to discuss and the format of the content piece, whether it be an interview, guest post, or quote. Be sure to offer something of value in return, such as exposure or networking opportunities.

By working with experts, you’ll provide your audience with diverse perspectives and expert insights and boost your content profile. 

This type of content creation process will lead to more opportunities for collaboration and networking too. 

And, so, this strategy should be considered a valuable tool in any professional’s networking toolkit.

7. Follow up with a handwritten note or small gift

In a world where most communication is digital, taking the time to send a personalized gesture can leave a lasting impression. 

Consider sending a handwritten note or a thoughtful gift to someone you have recently met, thanking them for their time or congratulating them on a recent achievement. Such actions stand out. And can go a long way towards building and strengthening relationships.

And even if a physical note or souvenir seems impractical, then go the extra mile and do something that leaves your personal imprint even with a digital gesture. 

For example, instead of a regular email, how about sending an ecard? 

Or, instead of your usual computer signature, how about a scan of your handwritten signature? Even the use of an emoji in the right place can make all the difference. 

The point is to be more personalized and to make an extra effort. This will pay off when people remember you and come to you with business.

8. Attend events outside of your industry

Attending events outside of your industry can provide a unique opportunity to broaden your perspective and make connections with individuals you may not have otherwise met. 

These events could include cultural festivals, sporting events, art exhibits, or even charity functions.

By attending such events, you can demonstrate your capacity for well-roundedness and enhance your personal brand. This could open up new and unexpected career paths and provide opportunities to connect with people you may not have met otherwise.

Attending events outside of your industry can also help you develop skills that can translate to your professional life. 

For example, attending a cultural festival could help you better understand and appreciate diverse cultures. It could also improve your social and interpersonal skills. 

All of which will benefit you when working with clients or colleagues from different backgrounds.

Also, participating in community events will help you build stronger relationships with local businesses and organizations.

Getting involved in this way will foster goodwill towards your organization.

Conclusion

Building meaningful, professional connections requires effort and persistence. And by following the tips and strategies outlined above, you can build a strong network that can help you achieve your professional goals. 

Remember that networking is not only about what you can gain but also about what you can give to others. By focusing on building relationships and helping others, you can create a powerful network that will serve you well throughout your career.

The post Networking for Success: Strategies for Building Meaningful Professional Connections appeared first on ReadWrite.

The metaverse: You’ve heard of it. You’ve likely read about it. You may even be aware of how more and more companies across all industries, from software enterprises to luxury brands, are scaling into the metaverse. As this transition has been taking place over the past year, editorials have been flooded with articles explaining what the metaverse actually is. But why does the metaverse matter? And more importantly, what does it mean for the future and will it even last or just fizzle out into another fad?

The metaverse is the next stage in the evolution of virtual and existing humanistic technology experience. It blurs the lines between the physical and digital world – a true meta-technology that enables new business models, forms of commerce, entertainment, communities, and experiences. The metaverse will fundamentally change and improve the way digital communication works. This also applies to how brands communicate with their customers, how celebrities connect with their fans, and how knowledge content is shared. Through the metaverse, a multitude of new business models will be developed, the true scope of which we only see hints of today – just like social media did ten years ago.

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It is abundantly clear how much social media changed the world this past decade – it changed how we consume news, how political campaigns are publicized, and the nature of our communities. On the business side, social media provided new channels of engagement, vastly greater reach, branding opportunities, and other value-adds for every business in every vertical. It created new professions, skill sets, and new technologies to manage the various social platforms. Social media changed everyone’s daily life – regardless of region, age, gender, or politics. The metaverse has shown every sign that it will follow in social media’s footsteps. 

What is most telling of all, is the actions taken by one of those titans of the social media revolution. In recent months, even while mired in controversy, Facebook announced a shift in business strategy, sizable future investments in the European region, and a company rebrand. Oh, and that company rebrand also came with a complete name change. 

Think about that for a second. One of the biggest, most easily recognizable companies in the world just did a complete makeover purely out of the belief that the metaverse is the next era of social tech and it needs to reposition itself now. This should signify to everyone in the world either a) the company is completely inept in branding, strategy, and all things business; or b) this whole metaverse “thing” is for real.

Clearly, industry and thought leaders believe the latter. Increasingly, businesses around the world are recognizing this same truth about the metaverse and are making the jump with both feet in. Already the industry has its influencers, strong believers in the metaverse, who have been investing in new solutions dedicated to this new virtual reality. These personalities are important to the industry, as they help spread the word and explain this new concept, which is sometimes too dense for the mainstream. 

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With Facebook’s rebranding, we are one step closer to making the metaverse the norm, and, yes, there is a mass of pundits who believe the social media giant is making this move just to wash themselves of bad PR. But those critics are only focused on the political and social reasons behind this strategic move and don’t truly consider the real impact and value of the metaverse. After all, would a tech giant change its core identity and business if it did not believe in the business potential of its investment – regardless of the additional benefits? 

But how can anyone definitively say the metaverse won’t fizzle out much like its virtual predecessor? After all, ARVR also generated a huge buzz for years and was the talk of the town, but it never fulfilled the initial potential that experts foresaw. Naturally, every technology has key differences, but in this case between ARVR and the metaverse, that difference directly relates to its pervasiveness and accessibility by the general populace.

As cool and fun as the technology and experience were each time someone put on the headset, it never took hold because it was always scripted with limited human interactions. Add to that the requirement of extraneous devices and apparatuses which users need to purchase and one can see why its demand never matched its market potential. But the metaverse is fundamentally different. The same hurdles that ARVR struggled to overcome are instead some of the core features and attractions of the metaverse.

The metaverse is an open world where its users are able to interact with the environment and each other. Why is the ability for human interaction significant? Because no matter how interesting a storyline is, by definition it is finite with a specific goal and end. Users don’t always want to follow a set path. It’s human nature to want to explore spaces while connecting with others – it’s why open-world, highly customizable games such as Fortnite are so successful. Unlike virtual experiences up to this point, the metaverse allows for social and cultural exchange and can be organically integrated into our daily lives. 

For example, while social media is an active part of our daily lives, brands still struggle to communicate with customers in an effective way. Often, social media posts fail to connect emotionally and consumers might be wary of companies trying to push messages and products on them. The metaverse opens up a new door of opportunities allowing for a stronger connection with users, who are willing participants.

Fundamentally, the metaverse will ensure that “online” is not just about efficiently accessing information. Hard information is only 20 percent of human communication. That’s what the internet has been about for the last few decades. And if hard information is needed, a regular webpage is still often the optimal format. But people want more than to be informed and always have. It’s why ads convey human themes with the goal of invoking emotions and memories with sex, wonder, beauty, comedy, etc. The metaverse addresses the remaining 80 percent of communication – proximity, gestures, feelings, memories, etc. 

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The metaverse is not just a visual or technological experience, but a human one. The social capabilities provided mean the technology will become pervasive and have staying power, much like social media continues to do. But the metaverse will allow people to do things that they’ve never been able to do on the web – the same is true for businesses. These are the reasons why businesses after businesses are investing in the metaverse, much like they did a decade ago in social media, recognizing its potential to make life a little easier and better. 

By connecting everyone in a new virtual world, the metaverse has the potential to enhance human experiences and improve business relationships with customers. The idea that digital marketing is merely a tool to sell more will be left behind as it evolves alongside the metaverse, connecting businesses to people in a more humane and personal way. Customizing virtual worlds and allowing for online meet-ups in virtual reality enables businesses to become closer to clients. At the same time, it empowers customers by allowing them to actively participate. While it may still be a new concept, society is ready to embrace this technology and take the online experience to the next level.

The post The Future of Connectivity: The Metaverse appeared first on ReadWrite.

On Oct 11, 2019, the high precision surveillance along 50 km of the entire route traversed by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s convoy in India by four drones designed by Anna University made us wonder at the possibilities spurting from something like 3 cm resolution at an altitude of 100 m.

But on the other hand, the drone attack in Saudi Arabia in Sep 2019, which mopped away some five percent of the global oil supply, and reverberated a difficult question. Will drones continue as the benefactors of humanity or they will become a weapon for mass destruction and terrorism in the future?

Three factors exist with drones. The need for good technology, huge investment, and fast adoption. All three levels can conspire in a scenario where the antithetical opportunities for prosperity and destruction may coexist subject to our drones of the future. See our review of the best drones.

Introduction to Drones

A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be made to fly autonomously by a dedicated remote unit. It has the capability to perform certain operations in the air dictated by the computer program whereas flight mode controls are assisted by tracking devices such as GPS.

The origin of drones attributes to the need realized by the government and military for intelligent warfare devices since the 1960s. During the Vietnam War, the US Army actively used drones for surveillance purposes followed by the later use by the Israeli military in 1982 during the Lebanon War.

However, with the advancement in technology, drones were later customized into different forms for many commercial applications. To the great benefit of mankind have come assistance in accessing harrowing situations, finding missing people, creating 3D maps, surveying landscape, wildlife conservation, pipeline inspection, traffic monitoring, weather forecasting, and firefighting, agriculture, photography, video making, academic projects.

Even delivery services — especially in pandemic situations, may find a comforting benefit for all of us.

The cost of drones depends on size and functionality. The mini version drones which fit in the palm may cost as less as $100 whereas the military-grade drones which fit in a backpack can cost tens of millions of dollars. One of the largest military drones is 47.6 feet long MQ-4 Global Hawk which is wider than a Boeing 737 airliner.

One of the most popular drones in the market was the DJI Phantom 3 known for professional cinematography. The drone uses an advanced technology that is inherited by the latest drones such as the Mavic Air, Phantom 4 Pro, Inspire 2, Walkera Voyager 5, etc.

How Drones Work

A drone is made of light composite material to reduce weight and provide high altitude coverage. The motor operation is achieved by a compact high-torque multi-propeller system that makes this device highly independent and provides fail-safe features in a way that even if any motor inside this device stops working; it will keep on flying as it gets support from propellers that are working in a group.

These propellers are operated by remote ground control systems (GSC) using radio waves, including Wi-Fi. Most of these devices contain removable batteries so that it can stay in the air for the long run. The flight time can increase with the use of powerful batteries in design.

The rates of rotation and other parameters are relayed by the gyroscopes and sensors to computers that use algorithms to make adjustments to the positioning of the drone. This keeps the drone balanced, hovering consistently and moving forward, backward, or vertically.

Computer algorithms assist the drone operator in controlling the drone’s descent. While the drone pilot can control where and when the drone moves, it is the computer positioning algorithms that ensure an automatic stability level.

Navigational systems, such as GPS, are fixed in the nose of a drone which communicates the precise location of the drone. Optionally, an onboard altimeter can communicate the altitude vectors and keep the drone at a specific altitude, if commanded by the controller.

Evolving Technologies

The latest high tech drones of today are successfully outdoing previous versions in a variety of ways.

• Collision avoidance systems – Obstacle detection sensors are used to scan the surroundings, while software algorithms produce the images into 3D maps allowing the drone to sense and avoid obstacles. The most popular example is the latest DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom which have obstacle sensing on all 6 sides.
• No Fly Zone Feature – In order to increase flight safety and prevent accidents in restricted areas regulated and categorized by FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), the latest drones from DJI and other manufacturers include a “No Fly Zone” feature which gives a warning on entry into these zones.
• FPV Live Video Transmission – The FPV (First Person View) based technology consists of a video camera which is mounted on the drone and broadcasts the live video using the radio signal to the pilot on the ground.  This gives real-time onboard experience to the ground pilot allowing the drone to fly much higher and further than one can from looking at the aircraft from the ground.
• Smart Interface – Most of the drones today can be flown by a remote controller or from a smartphone app, which can be downloaded from Google Play or the Apple Store. Such a manufacturer-specific app allows for full control of the drone.

New Areas and Business Prospects

The drones used for commercial applications are flourishing. This shall give different businesses a large scale opportunity to boost their revenue and help global economies grow in unimaginable ways.

• Shipment services – According to the recent reports, Google and Amazon are developing their own drones so that shipment can be delivered by air in a much shorter time. Facebook is planning to develop giant drones to carry the signal to remote locations for internet access.In 2018, Boeing announced it had prototyped an unmanned electric VTOL cargo air vehicle (CAV) that can carry up to a 500-pound payload. As a part of WEF’s “Medicine from the sky” initiative, Telangana Govt has adopted a framework to use drones for last-mile delivery of essential medical supplies such as blood and medical samples in an effort to increase access to health care to communities across the state. Drones are also in use by news reporters to gather information from inaccessible locations.
• Collaboration with IoT – An integrated system of Drones with on-ground IoT sensor networks can help agricultural companies monitor land and crops, energy companies survey power lines and operational equipment and insurance companies monitor properties for claims and policies. In 2015, an experiment was conducted in Austin, Texas in which drones successfully spotted the IoT networks that were present in residential and business areas of the city.
• Measurement and estimation – Drones can measure and record the height of crops, buildings, and mountains. This is done by using remote sensing technology called Lidar that illuminates the target with a laser and calculates distance and height by measuring what is reflected back.
• Atmospheric studies – Drones can fly to unsafe and inaccessible areas to measure air quality, check for the presence of specific micro-organisms or atmospheric elements, and even detect earthquakes.
• Live recording –  Television sports networks use Drones nowadays to capture sporting event footage that would otherwise be difficult to acquire.

Given such sprawling grounds of new applications, here are some recent business predictions on drone economy:

• PricewaterhouseCoopers has valued the drone-based businesses service market at more than $127 billion, with the top industries being infrastructure at $45.2 billion, agriculture at $32.5 billion, and transportation at $13.0 billion.
• The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) predicts the drone industry will create more than 100,000 U.S. jobs and add $82 billion to the U.S. economy by 2025.
• Goldman Sachs predicts a $100 billion market for drones between 2016 and 2020, with the military making up the bulk of it with $70 billion spending. It is estimated that consumer drones will take a $17 billion share of that market, with commercial and civil government use making up $13 billion.
• The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research quoted in its 2017 report that the global drone market may increase four times by 2022 from its 2015 value and surpass a net worth of $22 billion that includes drones used for both military and non-military purposes.

The above data clearly indicates that drones are here to stay, and so is the threat they pose if they land in unsafe hands.

Threats due to Proliferation

No matter how impressive drones might appear, for now, they can become dangerous weapons in the future. The increasing popularity of drones and ease of usage is a reason for a number of privacy, security, and safety concerns. Hence the importance of finding a way for them to safely coexist with manned aircraft is growing increasingly urgent.

• Privacy threats – These mischievous spies in the sky can take pictures of individuals in their homes or other private locations. For example, a magazine like Splash News assembled about 200 photo sets of small episodes from the lives of the celebrities.  Drones have also been found in potentially unsafe areas such as urban locations and near airports.
• Collisions – The increasing drone traffic may lead to midair collisions and loss of drone control. The threat of drones flying too close to commercial aircraft has prompted calls for regulation. For instance, in June 2019, Iran shot down a US military surveillance drone. The impact was the deterrence of major airline routes across the world to avoid attack by mistake on entering the country’s airspace.
• The possibility of civil attacks – Drones are relatively cheaper in comparison to conventional weapons and yet can achieve far more destructive results. It is this easy-to-procure, easy-to-operate, and foolproof technology that makes it an attractive weapon of mass destruction. In a 2017 study, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDR) said that the same characteristics that make drones attractive to militaries can make armed drones particularly susceptible to misuse. According to a report in the Penn Political Review, many armed groups such as the Houthi rebels, Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Libyan militias, Ukrainian separatists, Kurdish Peshmerga, Al Qaeda in Syria, Colombian FARC are known to possess and use drones. Besides, the recent case of the Saudi Aramco oil facility drone attack proves how the expensive anti-missile detector systems turn ineffective for drones because of their low altitudes and slow speed.
• Hacking – Drones in some ways are like flying computers carrying an operating system and software with programmable code that can be hacked. Drones have been developed to fly around seeking other drones, hacking into their wireless network, disconnecting the owner, and taking over the control.

Safety Regulations by the Government

Over time, regulators around the world have taken steps to prevent the possible misuse of drones.

• China: Any drone weighing more than 15 pounds or flying higher than 400 feet requires a license from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
• UK: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) mandates the registration for drones weighing more than a half-pound and prohibits flying above 500 feet.
• U.S: FAA specifically mandates certain regulations such as Remote Pilot Certificate for commercial drones and registration for speeds up to 100 mph, daylight-only operations with appropriate anti-collision lighting, and the prohibition of UAV operation over non-participants under a covered structure or inside a covered stationary vehicle.
• Europe: SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) is planning the roll-out of U-space foundation services, including e-registration, e-identification, and drone geofencing and full integration with manned aviation for the avoidance of interference and collision with commercial aircraft.

Conclusion

Drones are the spectacular gifts of technology. Their expansion at large scale is inspiring almost all the countries to develop their drones for different applications. A drone of today is a combination of all advanced technologies like microcontrollers, GPS, Wi-Fi, and sensor units. They need to work in a synchronized fashion which is giving business to many companies and start-ups. Besides, the profusion of drone kits, easy to learn programming languages, and course material on the internet makes it easy for novices to build and code a drone.

The role of the government is vital in such a scenario to enforce the development of low-cost detection systems. Such systems should be advanced enough to spot malevolent drones and to build strong regulations. Lest the trespassers will misuse this precious technology.

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YouTube utilizes watch-time as a modus operandi in which it uses algorithms for suggesting videos, especially in terms of ranking. YouTube has grown tremendously and is the most visited video platform site in the world. It has become an imperative source of income for influencers, advertisers, marketers and other business-related figures.

Millions upon millions of video content is available on the YouTube platform. Everyone wishes to have at least one viral video can propel their YouTube channel to the elite level. Everyone wants to gain a higher ranking to receive the most clicks and viewership.

Only the ones who have upgraded their ranking gain that privilege. However, this is not an easy challenge. It requires strategy and work. And therein lies the question, how can you increase watch time to elevate your YouTube ranking. We will discuss that in detail in the following.

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What Is YouTube Watch Time?

YouTube watch time is basically the amount of time a viewer has viewed the video. It gives you an idea as to what viewers like and what attracts them. It also gives you an insight into what they dislike if they ever refuse to click on your content again.

Increase YouTube Watch Time

First things first, do you have a YouTube channel of your own? Do you hope to gain a source of income from YouTube? Your prospects can materialize when your channel acquires at least 4,000 watch hours in one year with 1,000 subscribers. Passing these criteria will enable you to apply for the YouTube Partner Program or YPP. This paves the way for you to gain monetary support from ads.

Now the real question remains, how can YouTube watch time be increased in 2023?

You will find the answers to your question below.

• Create Quality Content Videos

YouTube was created on 14th February in 2005. It is currently the second most trafficked website in the world. 500 hours of video are uploaded on its platform every minute. The competition is naturally fierce and merciless. To crease watch time, you must upload videos that focus on standard and quality.

Content makes all the difference in this aspect. You need to empathize with their mind frame of your target demographic. You need to envision yourself according to their lens and question what kind of content would make you want to stay and watch the entire video.

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The content needs to be effective, charged, and visually appealing. Once you gain an idea as to how you want to portray your videos, you will create a platform that will get you viewer traffic at a quick pace. You can also gather information from veteran YouTube rs who have ample knowledge of what makes the YouTube community tick.

• First 15 Seconds are Crucial

There are endless amounts of YouTube content being streamed and recommended. The average YouTube viewer can only give a couple of seconds to a video that passes his page. If he happens to come across a new video from your YouTube page.

Remember that he will ask himself the following questions.

Should I look into this video?

If I click on it, should I continue watching it?

These answers lie in the first 15 seconds of your video.

If your 15 seconds do not have the effect of piquing your viewer’s curiosity? He will immediately lose interest and move on to another content. The result will be them leaving your video platform. This only serves to drive down your watch time dramatically.

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This is why you need to ensure that you make the initial seconds of your video interesting and engaging to the point it captures the viewer’s interest. If you can pull off this strategy, you will gain more viewers to your page, eventually rendering you with a healthy watch time.

• Expand Your Subscriber Base

Building upon your subscriber base is the most important thing you can do once you establish your own YouTube presence. The more viewers you receive, the more the subscriptions climb to your page. This growth in viewership directly propels the watch time of your videos the moment you upload them.

Growing your subscriber base can be tricky. So, use the following tactics to grow your subscriber base:

Optimize your YouTube Channel, promote your videos on social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. You will cater to a specific audience that will provide you with organic subscriber growth.

You need to generate social proof. Social proof is similar to the scale of popularity your channel has amassed. When viewers enter your channel, they will realize that you have an impressive number of subscribers. They will subscribe as well, and through that, subscribe — and these people will become your content viewers, thereby increasing your YouTube Watch time.

• Select Clickbait Titles & Thumbnails

YouTube Titles and thumbnails represent what the viewer will perceive as your content. When people are searching for videos about a specific subject matter, they will see a long list of titles and thumbnails, which will be the deciding factor if they want to view the video.

If your title is well designed, then you will get the benefits of attracting more subscribers to your channel. The same thumbnail and titles will be recommended to other viewers who are searching for the same content. This will render your content appealing to various advertisers who hope to capitalize on a growing YouTube channel.

• Focus on Audience Retention

Audience retention basically is the average percentage of a YouTube video watched by viewers. Once you upload your video, you need to keep a close eye on the audience retention report. This will enable you to increase the watch hours on YouTube. Keep focusing on the audience retention of every video you upload on your YouTube Page.

The Audience Retention report will give you an insight as to where your viewership is dropping and where it is peaking. This information allows you to make the necessary modifications to retain your audience and increase traffic.

Increasing your video’s retention rate will enable you to gain more viewers attracted to your content, thereby elevating YouTube Watch Time.

• Use Long-Tail YouTube Keywords

The usage of long-tail YouTube Keywords can benefit your subscription. The target audience will be able to drive more traffic through its usage and increase your watch time in the process. This will enable you to beat out your competitors.

There are a myriad of techniques for creating long-tail keywords for content usage. But you can acquire them in a simplistic manner which is through YouTube’s suggestion feature. Use the YouTube search bar to type in the work you know your audience is interested in. There, you will get a list of long-tail keyword ideas that you could incorporate for your own content.

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You can use any form of content you want pertaining to ads, information, entertainment, etc. You will get an abundance of long-tail keyword ideas that can prove useful for the YouTube content you have built for yourself. This will eventually lead to an increase in YouTube Watch Time for your platform.

• Create Video Playlist

What if it comes to your knowledge that there is a way to increase Watch time on YouTube in more hours even though people have not watched your videos?

To elaborate further, if a viewer starts watching your video and continues to the next one on the playlist, you will still get credit for an increase in watch time. It also doesn’t matter if the videos in the playlist belong to other people. You will receive credit regardless.

Playlists usher viewers to a more gradual viewing experience which has the potential to increase your YouTube watch time. You can create different Youtube video playlists to encapsulate all your videos.

Make sure your playlist is organized in sequences. Ensure that the videos are based on relevant content. Playlists that are effective in gaining viewership have the ability to attract viewers to more of your videos in one viewing session. This enhances your visibility and advances your YouTube watch time.

If you are an avid YouTube user, you may have gotten a clear picture of how you can use watch time as a crucial metric measuring success on YouTube. The main prospect for any would-be YouTube influencer is to gain income or capital. YouTube has become a source of livelihood for many individuals and enterprises alike.

Generating revenue has allowed different generations of people to do what they love and create the content they like. The challenges associated with increasing the watch time may seem daunting. But in the end, it’s all the more worth it.

The post 7 Awesome Ways to Increase YouTube Watch Time (2023) appeared first on ReadWrite.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of social media, Twitter has remained a prominent platform for public discourse, breaking news, and global conversations. As the new CEO takes the reins, Twitter is set to undergo a transformative journey, often referred to as Twitter 2.0. With a focus on enhancing user experience, addressing misinformation, and expanding monetization opportunities, the future of Twitter holds promising changes. In this article, we will delve into the key aspects of Twitter 2.0, exploring the features, strategies, and potential impact on users and businesses alike.

Twitter 2.0 aims to provide users with a more intuitive and streamlined interface. With a focus on simplicity, the platform will introduce a redesigned layout that enhances readability and ease of use. The new interface will feature improved navigation, allowing users to effortlessly discover relevant content, trending topics, and conversations. Additionally, Twitter plans to introduce customizable themes and layouts, empowering users to personalize their experience.

Recognizing the significance of conversations on the platform, Twitter 2.0 will introduce novel features to facilitate meaningful interactions. The new threaded replies system will make it easier to follow conversations, promoting engagement and fostering a sense of community. Furthermore, users will have the ability to prioritize and filter replies, ensuring a more personalized and relevant experience.

To enhance content discovery, Twitter is implementing advanced algorithms that analyze user preferences, interests, and engagement patterns. These algorithms will power personalized content recommendations, ensuring that users are exposed to relevant and engaging tweets. Additionally, Twitter 2.0 will introduce curated topic feeds, enabling users to explore specific subjects of interest and access real-time updates.

Twitter is doubling down on its efforts to combat misinformation and promote factual content. Twitter 2.0 will introduce fact-checking features, allowing users to verify the accuracy of tweets. Verified information will be highlighted, providing users with a reliable source of information and reducing the spread of false or misleading content.

Recognizing the importance of maintaining a safe and inclusive environment, Twitter 2.0 will introduce enhanced moderation tools. These tools will empower users to report and flag abusive or harmful content more efficiently, enabling swift action from the platform. Additionally, Twitter will invest in machine learning algorithms to proactively identify and remove harmful content, ensuring a safer user experience.

Twitter 2.0 aims to foster transparency and trust by providing users with insights into the algorithmic decisions that shape their Twitter experience. By offering visibility into the factors influencing content recommendations and trending topics, users will have a better understanding of how their feed is curated. This approach aims to mitigate concerns around algorithmic bias and provide users with a more transparent social media experience.

Twitter 2.0 is set to introduce new monetization features that empower creators to monetize their content and grow their audience. From subscription-based models to exclusive content offerings, creators will have a range of tools at their disposal to generate revenue and establish sustainable careers on the platform. These features aim to foster a vibrant creator ecosystem and incentivize high-quality content creation.

Twitter recognizes the importance of supporting businesses and advertisers on its platform. Twitter 2.0 will introduce new advertising innovations, providing businesses with enhanced targeting options, improved analytics, and more immersive ad formats. Additionally, the platform will expand its suite of business tools, enabling seamless customer support and streamlined communication with followers.

In a move that aligns with the growing popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Twitter 2.0 plans to integrate NFT capabilities directly into the platform. This integration will allow users to mint, trade, and showcase NFTs within their Twitter profiles, providing a new dimension to self-expression and creativity.

As Twitter embarks on its journey towards Twitter 2.0, users can expect a transformed experience that prioritizes simplicity, safety, and monetization opportunities. With enhanced user interface, fact-checking features, and transparent decision-making, Twitter aims to empower users to engage in meaningful conversations while combatting misinformation. Simultaneously, the platform is poised to offer new revenue streams for creators and improved advertising tools for businesses. As the new CEO spearheads these changes, Twitter 2.0 holds the promise of a more inclusive, informative, and vibrant social media landscape.

First reported by: Ghacks.net

The post The Future of Twitter: A Look into Twitter 2.0 appeared first on ReadWrite.

There are enormous gains still to be had in sales performance. I am sure you agree; salespeople are athletes. For instance, everyday salespeople step into a world where all that matters is performance. If an elite athlete such as Tiger Woods labeled his tools as short of very effective and said that he only spent 23% of his time was spent on golf-related activities, there would likely be a massive shake-up in his environment. Our startup *Touch is on a mission to transform the status quo.

Two staggering statistics make it clear that there are issues in the sales field. We need to get salespeople back into flow.

1. Just 15% of salespeople describe their sales tools as very effective.
2. 77% of a salesperson’s day is spent not selling.

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How can we expand sales performance?

First, it really helps to understand peak performance before you aim to make improvements.

Peak performance is a state that is also known as apeak experience, the zone of optimal functioning and flow. (Brain performance center – a literature review.)

Secondly, there are a few useful questions leaders and salespeople should start asking themselves. It’s critical to become curious about creating a peak performance environment for salespeople:

• Where and with whom can we observe this state being accessed most often?
• What are the conditions and factors that create this state?
• What is currently blocking salespeople from reaching this state?

Understanding and implementing the conditions for peak performance in your own life — in particular the concept of flow — will help your sales ability and many other business related issues.

Observe elite athletes that understand flow.

Tiger Woods and other elite athletes describe the state or experience of flow (or being in the zone) extremely well.

Tiger Woods, Golfing Legend describing being in the zone – watch a video.

“I tend to have these blackout moments when I don’t remember, I know I was there, but I don’t actually rememberperforming the golf shot. The mind gets so entrenched at the moment; I guess my subconscious takes over.”

“Who knows what the terminology is, but there are many putts or many shots where I don’t remember hitting. I remember the ball flight, I remember preparing for the shot and once I hit the shot I don’t remember the ball leaving. It’s a weird sensation. The more intense the situation gets the more calmer I feel the more things slow down. For some reason, the last few holes take forever, but they may be happening a lot faster. A lot of times I don’t hear the noise, I don’t hear anything. I become so enthralled in that particular moment, hitting a shot, performing a task being mentally prepared for that shot. It’s almost as if I get out of the way.”

It is likely after watching this video or reading the transcript you can wind back to times where you experienced this state in your career, hobbies, or social life.

Athletes have long known being in flow is the key to their performance, and we should learn what we can from them.

Delving deeper into the concept of Flow.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is known as the ‘The godfather of flow’ and describes the state as follows:

A state in which people are so immersed in an activity that nothing else matters. One is so happily absorbed in what they are doing, that their thoughts and actions flow freely.

Interestingly, his research and findings led him to see that flow seems to occur most frequently in athletes. Other researchers like Jackson and Marsh (1996) further describe the flow state as:

A situation where personal skills equal or exceed the required challenges of the sport, and this experience is perceived as enjoyable, free from distractions, and typically leads to overall good performance.

In the Sales Industry with much talk of positive thinking — obscenely large goal setting, and forcing action (The 5 am club) in Salespeople to achieve results — generally — this concept flies in the face of the concept of flow.

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Flow is critical to sales performance.

There is an enormous variance of performance in sales — much like sports. Sport is an industry that has high failure rates and requires deep psychological resilience. And like Al Pacino reminds us in the film Any Given Sunday, it’s “the inches that make the yards.”

Marginal gains can be the difference between the average and the elite increases in sales, as well.

Achieving the state of flow consistently has the potential to unlock massive positive changes in Salespeople. In general, humans are all inclined toward experiences that promote happiness, creativity, and productivity; achieving a flow state just represents a natural objective of life.

One thought that arises, with the amount of money spent on self-development and growth within the Sales Industry, it’s surprising how few out there talk about the concept of flow.

Sales leaders need to understand the Challenge/Skills Matrix.

Consider great mentors of elite athletes like Butch Harmon, Pep Guardiola, and Phil Jackson. Is it likely to hear them draw focus on wild goals or focus on one game/shot at a time? To focus on just trying harder or increasing the efficiency of the body and equipment?

At the core of the principle of achieving flow is the Challenge/Skill balance. Leaders of top athletes understand the challenge and skill balance. It is far more subtle than most sales ideologies that encourage you to set or attract wild goals.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has discovered from his 40 years of study how the skills/challenge matrix affects performance and flow. If you are presented with a highly mismatched challenge with the skill set, see below the results of this.

(source –https://uxdesign.cc/getting-into-the-flow-what-does-that-even-mean-58b16642ef1d)

Take some time to look at this and think about the goals you or your sales team have in mind.

Sales leaders and salespeople need to think of the Skills/Challenge matrix as a critical mechanism for achieving flow. Achieving goals then becomes a byproduct of being in flow more consistently. We need to make sure we move sales teams away fromfeelings of anxiety and boredom and towards those associated with flow.

The 3 pre-requisite conditions for being in flow.

Thankfully, due to the extensive research, tools and learning are available for salespeople to understand the conditions to access the flow state:

1. Clarity of goal and immediate feedback.
2. A high level of concentration on a limited field.
3. The balance between skills and challenge.

If a salesperson is in flow, they experience these beautiful benefits.

1. Effortlessness – The greatest athletes look effortless and so should salespeople. Over time every unit of energy poured in should produce additional output.
2. The Feeling of Control – A state of security and relaxation in the sales environment. Confidence that you will take the right action in any situation presented.
3. An altered perception of time – The prefrontal cortex, parts of the brain associated with time, inner voice, ego become less active. This creates the time distortion experienced when in a state of flow.
4. The union of action and consciousness – Feeling at one with your sales performance, there is no thinking involved, the inner voice quiets, and you trust actions to take place.
5. Love of the process – You will love the process of seeking the goal as much as the achievement of the goal itself.

Here are the 4 principles that you need to adapt to perform like an elite athlete.

Principle 1 – An immersive sales stack

The definition of IMMERSIVE is – “characterized by deep absorption or immersion in something (such as an activity or a real or artificial environment).”

The term “immersive experience” refers to pulling a person into a new reality, enhancing their everyday life (by making it more engaging or satisfying) via technology.

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High performers are in immersive environments. Unfortunately, the salesperson is removing themselves from flow and peak performance as their sales stack may not be fit for purpose.

There are 3 major factors that are taking almost all salespeople out of flow on a daily basis:

• Some salespeople hate CRM’s as they can reduce speed and efficiency.
• The explosion in the requirement for data entry/CRM hygiene from management.
• Managing multiple communication and productivity software applications.

The average salesperson spends most of the day not, approximately 77%. Thus, it’s critical to spend time procuring your sales stack to optimize for immersion.

Principle 2 – Find and remove distractions.

To create immersion, you first to remove distractionsions. From many research bodies into the subject of focus and productivity, it’s clear distractions lower the quality of work and increase the error rate. To reach a state of flow, you need digital minimalism.

A salesperson needs access to all tools instantly. Currently, salespeople work from multiple channels, the CRM and productivity apps creating too much distraction in their day.

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Leaders need to make sure that salespeople clearly know what the next action is in every workflow and it’s accessible instantly. Investing time, money, and training to ensure that the sales stack enables superfast workflows with minimal energy expended is a priority.

Principle 3 – Find a way to measure flow.

Measuring if their salespeople are in a state of flow should be a part of the performance management process. From this measure and an understanding of the factors that affect the state of their teams’ flow, they can then tweak levers. This allows salespeople to achieve the state more often.

Many flow-based questionnaires offer an assessment of how often you are accessing the state of flow. I am a fan of the Flow Genome Project and their questionnaire; you can use it to understand your flow profile and implement steps to access the state faster.

From this critical information, you will naturally brainstorm ideas to adjust your sales stack, environment, and culture to optimize for flow.

Principle 4 – Focus on Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) speed.

What is JTBD?

Jobs-to-be-done was a concept created by Clayton Christensen back in 2003 and has become refined by Anthony Ulwick in a more recent book, surprisingly titled“Job to be Done.”

Ulwick defines a job-to-be-done as a task, goal, or objective a person is trying to accomplish — or a problem they are trying to resolve. These jobs can be functional, emotional, or associated with product consumption.

The efficiency in how a person completes a JBTD is critical to their performance.

Watching Athletes at the highest level, whether that’s Roger Federer playing tennis, David Beckham taking a free-kick, or Tiger Woods driving, you will notice the effortless efficiency. Extreme amounts of force and power are generated, pushing the limits of what the human body is capable of.

Thinks as an F1 engineering team does for their driver.

Being efficient is essentially “taking the shortest path toward attaining the desired goals.” Two, in other words, it describes the number of outputs gained from a given input.

Efficiency = output/input

If you increase your efficiency, you get more output for every unit of energy you spend. Here is our definition:

The time it takes to complete a workflow, without any sacrifice of quality at all.

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This is JTBD speed and it’s critical to access or remain inflow. All workflows related to your performance should feel almost instantaneous, but this is not the case right now for most Salespeople.

Conclusion

It’s time to bring flow to the world of salespeople. There is a natural and deep-seated need for humans to experience happiness, creativity, and productivity and flow is the way to meet this need.

Whether you are a salesperson or a salespeople leader, it’s critical to understand the issue of flow further. When you gain a deeper understanding, you can not only transform sales performance of yourself and your company — but you will change the entire experience of any task you decide to undertake in your life.

Top Image Credit: fede roveda; pexels

The post 4 Principles for Salespeople to Access the Flow of Elite Athletes appeared first on ReadWrite.

Handle Negative Comments on Social Media:- The dynamics of the business world have drastically changed in this digital era. Social media has disrupted the way businesses market themselves. Even with this, the customer is still the king, and every business revolves around them.

For this reason, many brands rely on customer feedback programs, online CRM, and social media marketing. Undoubtedly, these are excellent means of generating buzz around products and making a solid online foothold for brands. However, there is a dark side to these as well- the brutal negative comments on social media.

Online media is one of the best ways to showcase social proof of your brand. Comments, good and bad, both adversely influence customer loyalty. Positive reviews motivate and keep up your brand’s spirit to continue producing quality products and services.

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On the other hand, negative reviews and unwarranted internet trolls can have disastrous results and compromise your brand loyalty.

But are negative comments always detrimental to your growth?

The answer is NO.

As Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corporation, once said,

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

Acting positively upon receiving a negative review is the first step towards mending your mistakes and rising through challenges. You can take cues from renowned companies and learn the art of handling criticism in the social media space.

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This article sums up some of the innovative ways brands have used to handle social media policing. But first, let us understand why you must leverage digital media to grow your brand loyalty and use criticism for your good.

Social Media-Boon or Bane?

As per a study, at the beginning of 2021, there were around 4.33 billion active social media users globally. In addition, about 54% of millennials use social media for product research- they go through the customer reviews and observe how brands react to them.

Therefore, if your brand needs to build a trustworthy image among prospective customers, you must seriously consider your social media strategy.

How you verse your brand-building tactics online decides if social media is a boon or bane for your growth.

Anyone intrigued by your products is most likely to check your brand online. They weigh the quality you offer based on your interaction with your customers and the testimonials you have. Therefore, the last thing you need is a social media profile infested with spammy tweets, irrelevant posts, and poor comments from customers.

It is where social media can become a bane to your growth. As you expose yourself to the 4.33 billion users, negativity is something you cannot avoid.

You need to constantly check your social media comments and be proactive in handling such untoward situations.

But the question is how?

Monitor your Social Media comments – Always

Numerous tools help you keep watchful eyes over comments to your posts or if anyone has tagged you in a post or comment. Google Alerts, HootSuite are some of the easiest tools you can try.

These tools send you a notification the moment anyone comments regarding your company (direct and indirect). Basic keyword search and your company name generate the desired alerts.

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By searching your own company name — you never miss any possibility of social media interaction and keep yourself abreast of what customers are saying about your products and services.

While retrospecting comments, you may find some genuine ones and some which are fake ones.

Therefore to deal with each of those, you need to understand various types of negative comments you may encounter on Social Media.

So why not discuss them before we give you tried and tested tips to handle the negativity?

Types of Negative Comments on Social Media

Every customer utilizes the open-online platform to share their views and experiences with your brand in different ways. Here are three of the most common negative comments you can find on social media platforms.

Genuine Complaints

Not everyone is perfect, and neither are you. Even with the best customer experience strategies, you may find customers using the online public platform to share their dissatisfaction.

It could be due to poor customer service or a misunderstanding, or issues with quality.

Maybe you overpromised and failed to deliver the expected results. The reasons could be many.

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The comments are from a legitimate profile of an organization or an individual. These complaints help you understand the loopholes in your business and give you the chance to work through your weaknesses.

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Queries

Keeping your online eyes open to answer customer queries is a great way to induce fruitful customer interaction. Queries from confused customers may not be an ideal negative comment. However, it does reflect weak and unresponsive customer support if not answered promptly.

Imagine someone asked you how to unlock an app code, and you respond after a week. It would be useless to reply after a long gap.

Also, some of the questions raised on social media are accusatory and have a harsh tone. Even in these cases, you need to gather up your patience and answer their questions. It builds a strong customer relationship and is a testimony of your trustworthiness.

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Internet Trolls and Hate comments

Internet trolls and hate comments can bring you down more than anything else. These are usually comments from fake accounts that find solace in disgracing brands without any genuine issues. Such trolls and comments are typically termed cyberbullying.

Remember the time when Nike received unwanted flack for introducing plus-size clothing? Such

Trolls never have a genuine complaint and vomit hate on your posts just to spread spite and garner attention.

It is always a wise idea to ignore such comments. However, the sad part is that these comments and trolls often go viral and have the potential to stain your brand image.

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Ways Brands handle negative comments on social media

Listen and Act

Brands have mastered the art of listening and used their calmness and patience to beat the negativity in and around their social media handles.

An angry customer is most likely to mention your brand on various social media sites to seek your attention. You need to make sure you never miss any of those. Use the social media monitoring tools to track all mentions of your brand and hashtags, URLs related to your brand.

For this, brands leverage social media listening. Here, social media tools track all the conversations and interactions with their customers. You need to invest in such strategies to be able to take appropriate actions.

Be wise and creative, and ensure your words and actions do not instigate them to create unwanted traction on your online profile.

Timely Action

Speed matters a lot!

Yes, even in the social media space, customers expect a fast response from you.

And this is why brands are proactive in responding to genuine complaints and queries. Timely action is the best way to resolve a customer’s resentment towards your brand.

At least 37% of customers want a response within 30 minutes of posting their complaints. Another survey also indicates that Facebook users expect a response within 6 hours and Twitter within 1.

You need to take timely action and clear their queries or acknowledge their dissatisfaction. Once you do that, you must make appropriate decisions with your team and look into their issue as soon as possible.

Respond publicly, and then move to DMs

Focus on how rather than why!

Customers are least bothered about why something went wrong. Instead, they want legitimate and actionable decisions that acknowledge the complaints and clear their misunderstandings.

If you do not have an immediate solution, you can just acknowledge and start an open inquiry about the same. You can ask them to send personal messages to your inbox stating their issues.

This way, you can resolve the negativity without creating a public fuss about an issue. And for significant grievances, it is always a great option to resolve issues privately over direct messages or emails or phone calls.

Always remember- Public response first!

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Sincerely Apologize

The customer is always right- even when the customer is unreasonable.

You need to understand you have to prioritize your customer’s POV even if you disagree with it. You must apologize and be sincere about it. Because no matter what, customers are the fuel that runs your business.

A sincere public apology for accepting your mistake will only add credibility and transparency to your brand’s value. Your apology could be from a representative or the CEO itself, depending on the depth of the allegations you are facing.

Even if you disagree with the customer’s point of view, you should still say “sorry.” Those words seem to be the first step to resolving the conflict. Make sure your apology looks genuine and not just a general message.

87% of customers feel good about a brand connecting to them with personalized messages and not generic robotic ones. A personalized message has the customer’s name, summarizes the issue, includes sincere apologies, and puts forth measures to resolve them.

Remember how Myntra had to change its logo when one of the users felt it offensive against women? While many disagreed with the user’s point of view, Myntra went ahead and made the changes.

When a big brand like Unilever announced that they would get off online platforms with harmful content, everyone was surprised. Moreover, it spotlight a serious issue that is often overlooked – Internet trolls and inappropriate hate speech.

While complaints and queries help you connect with your customers more and grow your credibility, some experiences leave a trail of backlash and trolls. These are usually toxic and contain inappropriate content from fake social media pages.

They may not even have been one of your users but just linger around your comment section to tarnish your brand image. While social media platforms ensure online safety with strict guidelines, you can not ignore hate speech, cyberbullying, and harassment.

The key is to identify such fake profiles and report them. Then, you can ignore such malicious activities or choose to confront some of them with truth and bring them to the public’s notice.

Never Argue with Customers

Be polite with your words!

Nothing breaks a relationship worse than the choice of wrong words. The same is true for your relationship with your customers. While dealing with negativity, you need to be emotionally stable. Unfortunately, you may get instigated by some allegations and try to prove your point.

While you must explain your part where it is due, never overdo it. Be wary of the words you use; it must not sound offensive.

If you follow brands, you must have noticed that they have a sober reply without any swear words even for the worst feedback. When customers see you are polite to your customers, they are likely to build a positive image for your brand.

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To summarize

Customers are the driving force of your business. Social media is the bridge between you and your customers. It is a place where customers connect with you based on their experience with your brand.

You’ll receive positive reviews praising your products and services, but you have to make peace with negativity as well.

You cannot and must not ignore negative comments that come from genuine profiles with legitimate issues. Unfortunately, Internet trolls and hatred are another part of the same story these days.

Negative comments are inevitable and can let your brand image down if not handled properly. You need to focus on a strategic plan to learn from the feedback and make positivity out of negativity at every stage of your social media journey.

Inner Post Images Credit: provided by the author; Thank you!

Top Image Credit: Edmond Dantés; Pexels; Thank you!

The post How Brands Handle Negative Comments on Social Media? appeared first on ReadWrite.

The power of influencer marketing is multidimensional, as it simultaneously affects different aspects of brand success: exposure, reputation, audience engagement, customer loyalty, and conversions. Influencer marketing is a way to tell your company’s story to the millions simultaneously through the mouths of those who already have the ear of your target audience. Here is word-of-mouth marketing in 2020 and beyond.

There is power in social media influencers.

The power in social media is generated by influencers — individuals whose content resonates with broad audiences, impacts their lives, changes their mindset, and even affects their purchasing decisions because of their authority, knowledge, or position.

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.” — Seth Godin

Influencer Marketing: What Is It and Why You Need It?

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing tactics to enter the trust circle of potential customers. These people are an automatically loyal community since your brand is introduced to them by a person they already trust. Customer loyalty is the primary factor impacting the buying decision, particularly in times of a recession, when uncertainty toward the future is soaring in the air. That’s why it’s so crucial for companies to invest in building trust and give customers more confidence.

Influencer marketing is fueled by an ancient but still actionable word-of-mouth method. It allows you to accelerate online brand expansion by partnering with a thought leader who can be the first to start the word-of-mouth chain nourished by helpful content instead of ads. According to McKinsey, word-of-mouth marketing generates two times the sales of paid advertising. At the same time, Deloitte reports that customers acquired through word-of-mouth have a 37 percent higher retention rate than by any other means. 

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Customers come and return to a brand trusted by influencers. They are considered experts who always keep abreast of the latest industry trends and recommend something really worth attention. To drive brand growth and success, businesses should learn more about influencer marketing and actively leverage it in the digital age.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing: a New View

Influencers build friendships, not “brand” relationships

If you ask customers what kind of relationships with a brand they’d like to have, you will likely hear about something similar to friendship. People want to feel appreciated and know that brands care about selling and empowering and inspiring them. Influencer marketing is the key to building human connections between a brand and its target audience. 

Interacting with a brand through a prism of the influencer’s positive feedback, customers feel more value in what the brand does and creates. They start associating its products and services with authoritativeness and reliability as they are recommended by the leading niche experts, aka thought leaders. Influencer marketing transits brand-customer relationships to a more personal level and makes them friends.

It allows you to discover what resonates with your customers.

When partnering with influencers, you can explore what types of content, messages, and visuals work best with your target audience. Influencer marketing allows you to promote your brand and conduct “field studies” on the influencer’s social media pages, investigate how they are interacting with potential customers, and what drives audience engagement. 

By monitoring and analyzing influencer-audience relationships, you can learn more about your customers, define better strategies for your future marketing campaigns, and improve products.

It helps provide anticipated WOW & emotion-driven engagement.

Leveraging the benefits of influencer marketing, you can introduce your brand engagingly and creatively. Influencers are mostly driven by creativity, curiosity about getting new experiences, and desire to bring value to their followers. They invest time and effort in producing highly engaging content that targets people who might be your potential customers. 

Making your brand intro a part of the influencer’s amazing content, you significantly raise chances of making the WOW effect, creating an unforgettable first impression, and driving continuous customer engagement. It helps provoke the person’s thoughts about a product and forths the first emotional interaction with it. 

Companies should care about creating emotional bonds with a target audience because they are fertile soil for growing customer loyalty. Consumer loyalty is a significant business value since it helps smooth sharp edges of customer experience and keeps conversions up. When emotional connections are damaged, rational (or even critical) thinking rears up again, and it may negatively impact sales in the future.

It promotes a brand through useful content instead of ads.

People trust advertising much less than before. On the contrary, word of mouth still is relevant and actionable even today. The sunrise of new digital innovations has just given it a new boost. Today, most of our words are digital and can spread at wind speed across the web. You can add your brand more significance and amplify word of mouth arising around it by producing quality content that inspires people and helps them tackle the most actual problems. 

At the same time, you can also save time on content production and reach a new audience with the help of influencer marketing. Influencers may endorse your brand and introduce it to their followers, involving your brand information in their own content. 

It is a highly cost-effective digital marketing channel.

Social media influencer marketing is becoming one of the most actionable digital marketing channels, even if compared to email marketing, paid search, display advertising, and affiliate marketing. According to Convince & Convert, 22% of digital marketing managers find influencer marketing the most cost-effective customer acquisition channel. As reported in a study conducted by Tomoson, influencer marketing brings a $6.50 return on investment for every dollar spent.

Is Influencer Marketing Worth It? 

Influencer marketing is a goldmine that may help companies keep the target audience’s attention in the highly competitive digital world. Is it worth investing in? Only you can answer it for sure. However, before you do it, just look through the above-mentioned values arising when someone influential talks about your brand once again. 

A successful collaboration with thought leaders can help you increase brand awareness, conquer the hearts of a new audience, gain its loyalty, grow brand popularity, and multiply revenue. It’s a powerful machine producing new, exciting human-brand interactions bringing plenty of benefits for both of them.

The post Word-of-Mouth Marketing in 2023: The Power of Social Media Influencers appeared first on ReadWrite.

TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms to date.

From a marketing standpoint, the social platform has enormous potential. However, the app is also known for attracting a particularly young audience. With these factors in mind, how might TikTok affect digital attraction for banks?

TikTok has the potential to be a powerful marketing tool. For example, videos posted on the app can garner thousands to millions of views. For the FinTech industry, TikTok may be ideal for increasing digital attraction.

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This article will explore what digital attraction for banks is, and how TikTok can be useful. By discussing the advantages of the platform, we will strive to answer the question:

A Closer Look at Digital Attraction for Banks

When discussing digital attraction, it is crucial to examine the role of the customer.

Building digital interest in products or services requires businesses to understand their audiences. Therefore, learning more about your audience is key to learning how to attract them. 

Banks must approach digital attraction the way someone might approach a new relationship. A solid foundation of trust must be established first.

Digital attraction has 3 core components

•       Empathy: Showing a customer that there is complete understanding of their problems
•       Compassion: Demonstrating a high level of care for the customer’s well-being
•       Ease: Soothing customer worries by providing planned out solutions

Fulfilling the core needs is essential for guiding customer’s through the buyer’s journey. It places the business or professional in the role of a trusted guide or advisor. In this role, the guide can then lay out the exact plan of action for the customer to take. 

It is important to understand that digital attraction can take time. Like in relationships, trust and loyalty build up over time. Giving the relationship with customers space to breathe is key.  

This focus on the needs of the customer requires banks to examine their target audiences. Looking at demographics helps identify missed opportunities with specific groups of people.

Additionally, to learn more about their customers’ needs, banks must develop buyer personas.

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A buyer persona is a highly detailed profile of your target customer. It will describe their specific wants, needs, and problems.

Creating multiple buyer personas will help compartmentalize your audience. From these, targeted ad and marketing campaigns can better attract each persona.

Finding Banking Clients Digitally

Once you have determined your target audience, there is the matter of reaching them.

Three main kinds of digital marketing are used for attraction:

•   Content Marketing: This is where you’ll find a lot of blog writing and social media sharing. Content marketing uses keywords and tags to help find the desired customers.
•   Email Campaigns: After piquing a customer’s interest, it is crucial to keep the brand on their mind. Email campaigns help nurture relationships with customers until they are ready to commit.
•   Paid Advertising: Paid advertising, such as PPC and social media ads, can be highly useful. They can gain impressions from highly targeted audiences and demographics.

Typically, a strong digital attraction strategy will include a combination of marketing methods.

Determining the specific needs of customers is essential. This process helps to both onboard new customers and retain existing relationships.

Trends in Digital Attraction for FinTech

An increasing digital attraction for FinTech and banking requires paying attention to ongoing trends.

Mobile-friendliness and intuitive designs are two important components of FinTech. Both of these come into play for digital attraction.

Having a FinTech platform optimized for mobile use provides tremendous value to customers. Likewise, an intuitive and responsive design is also helpful in attracting customers.

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Besides mobile friendliness and design, several other digital factors affect digital attraction. These include:

•   Branding: The way a FinTech company or bank brands itself is important. Branding helps to make a business more relatable to the customer.
•   Social Media Presence: Social media is a valuable and powerful tool. It helps connect professionals directly with their customers. Plus, there are millions of users across the many social platforms. This makes social media a great place to seek out customers.
•   Video Content: While written content is good, visual content can be more effective. Video content goes hand-in-hand with changing technologies. This makes it a complementary element for digital attraction.
•   Engagement: For financial professionals new to the digital space, engagement is crucial. It helps you to connect with customers. Driving up engagement will help to attract more new customers to the company.

Using Social Media as a Tool for Digital Attraction

Since the days of MySpace, social media has only continued to grow. Over the past decade, social media has come to dominate the digital space. This growth in popularity makes social media a powerful tool for digital attraction.

Using social media as a primary digital marketing tool has several benefits, including:

•   Building and Maintaining Relationships: Social media provides a much closer connection to audiences. Responding to comments and engaging with followers is important. This will help to both build and maintain relationships with customers.
•   Boosting Revenue and Traffic: Heavy digital traffic passes through social media every day. Finding ways to direct this traffic to a business account is critical. It can help boost both sales and traffic on your pages.
•   Creating a Digital Reputation: Customers trust businesses that offer transparency and accessibility. A strong social media presence can help achieve both. In addition, social media helps professionals build a digital reputation that can significantly affect success.
•   Staying Ahead of Competition: Many top brands already use social media. These companies have acknowledged and benefitted from the advantages of social media. As such, establishing a presence on the platforms is the key to staying ahead of the competition.

This article will focus on digital attraction through TikTok. However, all social media platforms have powerful potential.

Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest have all shown massive capabilities for boosting sales. These platforms are also great for building greater brand awareness.

Meanwhile, platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter can help build a professional network. 

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Creating a widespread social media presence aids in increasing digital attraction. A truly strong social media strategy will make use of multiple platforms.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence plays a significant role in digital attraction.

If social media is the hero, then AI is the brainiac sidekick supporting the hero from afar. Social media provide the opportunity for tremendous growth. Once this growth occurs, however, it can be hard to keep up with the new influx of followers.

This is where AI comes in. The most common use for AI on social media is the creation of automated chatbots. These chatbots can serve several functions, including:

•   Virtual Shopping Assistants: AI is super useful for helping customers to navigate a site and find the products or services they need.
•   FAQ: FinTech is a new concept to many average consumers. Having AI set up to respond quickly to frequently asked questions is crucial. AI can help manage the influx of questions and concerns through automation.
•   Customer Support: As a business’s following grows, the volume of messages received per day increases. AI helps provide 24/7 customer support even when a human representative is unavailable. A chatbot will often include a responsive and conversational design. This will help troubleshoot specific problems a customer is experiencing.

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It is important to be cautious of the overuse of AI on social media. Many consumers see social media as the best way to connect directly with brands. If a bot authors every message sent to customers, this can feel disingenuous and be a turn-off.

Examining the Power of TikTok for Digital Attraction

Since its initial release in 2016, TikTok has grown immensely.

The social media app focuses mainly on short-form video content. However, users can also leave comments, send direct messages, and create direct responses to other videos.

Compared to other social media, the ability to go viral on the app is much more common.

TikTok uses a combination of both hashtags and an algorithm. This helps to create a personalized feed for each unique user.

Thinking in terms of digital attraction, this personalized content is key. It will help financial institutions on the app to target their ideal audiences.

Here are a few important considerations for using TikTok to drive digital attraction:

•   Influencer Marketing: Like all social media, TikTok is full to the brim with influencers. Taking advantage of this and partnering with influencers to promote a business is smart. This will help a company to reach a much larger audience.
•   TikTok Ads: TikTok offers a few different styles of ads. As it stands now, Facebook and Instagram still reign supreme in offering effective social media as. However, using TikTok ads now can help businesses prepare for the future as the app continues to grow.
•   Bite-Size Education: Though TikTok is primarily used by younger people, finance is still a profitable niche on the platform. The key is to offer short and simple video content centered around education. Providing useful educational resources on finance will help build trust in an audience.

The Demographics of TikTok

In the U.S. alone, TikTok had roughly 65.9 million users in 2020. Statista predicts this number to increase at a rate of 22 percent each year.

TikTok’s most notable demographic is the age group it attracts. The app has a reputation.

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Here are some stats to consider about TikTok’s age demographics in the U.S.:

•       People aged 10 to 19 make up 25 percent of the user base in the U.S. This gives them the title of the largest age group on the app.
•       The second-largest group is aged 20 to 29 and makes up 22.4 percent of the user base.
•       The third-largest group is people aged 30 to 39 and makes up 21.7 percent of the user base.
•       The fourth-largest is aged 40 to 49 and makes up 20.3 percent of the user base.
•       Finally, people aged 50 or above make up only 11 percent of the app’s users.

Looking at these numbers, it’s clear to see that TikTok attracts more than just teens.

While the largest group is also the youngest, people aged 20 through 49 also make up a significant portion of the user base.

TikTok and FinTech

Finance and teenagers are words not commonly used together. Yet, despite this, the topic of finance is a hot one on the teenager-dominated TikTok.

When looking at TikTok’s userbase, there is a clear interest in both finance and technology.

On the finance side, users are particularly interested in the following topics:

•       Investing and the stock market
•       Cryptocurrencies
•       Personal finance tips and advice

Younger generations often get a bad reputation for being irresponsible with money. However, money and finance are major points of concern for many Gen Z adults.

The Common Stressor

81 percent of Gen Z adults view money as a common stressor, according to a 2018 American Psychological Association survey. 46 percent of those surveyed also reported stress over the economy.

As a result, financial videos on the platform can perform very well. It all depends on the content being produced and targeting the right audience.

Connecting with Younger Generations and “Fin-fluencers”

With the rising interest in investment and cryptocurrency, a new breed of influencer has emerged – the fin-fluencer.

We have already discussed the usefulness of connecting with social media influencers. Focusing on influencers who create FinTech-related content is highly recommended.

Some younger consumers are inherently distrustful of branded accounts. They don’t want to feel like they are being tricked into making purchases or decisions.

By focusing on fin-fluencers, banks can access audiences already interested in learning more about finance. In addition, this is an excellent method for attracting

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customers who may be resistant to brand accounts but fans of influencers.

Final Thoughts: Is TikTok the Digital Attraction Hub for Banks?

So, is TikTok the future of FinTech marketing? The answer is – maybe.

Like any social media platform, TikTok has its pros and cons. Having a fairly young user base can make it more difficult for brands to connect. However, the younger audiences found on the app are not without interest in finance.

The key when using TikTok is to leverage its best features to your advantage. For example, connecting with influencers in the finance niche and providing educational resources are two great ways to build a loyal TikTok following.

As more banks embrace FinTech and digital transformation, digital attraction will continue to swell in importance. When used wisely, apps like TikTok can help banks to find new audiences and future success in the years to come. 

Image Credit: cottonbro; pexels; thank you!

The post Will TikTok Take Over Digital Attraction for Banks? appeared first on ReadWrite.

While social media can help you land a dream job, many mistakes can lead to a failed job interview, but there’s one mistake that employers see all the time: you. Of course, you may think it doesn’t matter what you post on social media. Still, research shows that 70% of hiring managers will Google potential candidates and check their profiles before scheduling an interview.

Even if they don’t find anything incriminating, your posts might give them enough reason not to hire or promote you. No wonder they’re looking — remote recruitment is getting more and more popular.

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Mistakes Job Candidates Make On Social Media

Avoiding mistakes job candidates make on social media sounds like common sense. For example, never post anything personal about yourself on the internet, especially when it comes to drinking alcohol or using drugs. But we’re living in a world where people often break these rules without thinking twice because they’re feeling invincible behind their keyboards and phones.

The problem is that many job seekers are making these same mistakes, and it’s becoming harder to find a new job when employers know everything about you.

1. Posting too much personal information on social media

Among the 10 biggest mistakes job candidates make, posting too much personal information is one of the biggest. People who apply for jobs nowadays might be required to provide their social media accounts upon application or even during interviews.

That way, employers can evaluate how effective the person may be in dealing with other people while working in their company. Aside from this, Facebook photos can also give false impressions about your personality. Online search histories could demonstrate careless behavior while using other devices.

Employers are indeed scrutinizing potential employees’ social feeds more closely these days — but take heart. Having some levity and a sense of humor can go a long way toward making you seem like an energetic, fun-loving person. Try posing as your own fictitious character or having some non-work friends pose as you — that way, you can share out-of-context sound bites and silly photos.

2. Photos with alcohol or drug use in them

Photos with alcohol or drug use in them can have a negative impact on a job interview. Employers will most likely think that the candidate is participating in illegal activities, and the lifestyle of the company you work for might not be a good fit for you.

If an employer has offered a position to the candidate, they may not accept it because of these pictures. In addition, once an employer hires someone, they have to go through background checks and screenings before they hire the person.

If there are photos online of you doing drugs or drinking alcohol, it will be hard to get a job. Even if there aren’t any pictures of you doing such things on social media, an employer might be able to search your name and find what they view as “questionable” material.

It is best to avoid having pictures of yourself with alcohol or drug use because it will make you look bad to prospective employers. It can also make an employer think you are a heavy user of substances, even if you’re not.

3. Anything that could be interviewers can take negatively like profanity or uncensored nudity

Posting anything that interviewers take negatively, like profanity or uncensored nudity, can hurt your job interview because the company might not approve it. Sometimes this might happen because the company doesn’t want to bring that kind of attention to themselves. So if you are currently looking for a job, keep these things in mind before posting any content on social media.

It’s important to realize that employers are looking for any negative content when looking at your social media page. A company might not want something like profanity or uncensored nudity on its own site. If you post it on your social media page, it might cause the company to reject you before they even interview you. It’s always best to avoid anything that can hurt your chances of securing a job interview.

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4. Not posting anything at all on social media during the job search process

Posting things on social media during the process of looking for a job is generally seen as an excellent way to demonstrate your online presence. However, it’s important to realize that employers are looking for any negative content when looking at your profile and messages.

This means anything you post can actually hurt your chances of getting interviewed. Even if not posting anything at all might seem like the safer choice. You need to find the middle ground to avoid one of the most popular mistakes job candidates make.

Simple: Put nothing but safe replies or likes on Facebook and LinkedIn messages, just in case.

Pretty soon, you start thinking twice before sending another message. There’s always a chance that potential bosses who may be watching out for information could be taken negatively. Whether it’s about themselves, their company, or their personal beliefs doesn’t really matter. It becomes an even bigger challenge for Twitter, where every post is a direct statement. It’s tough to not put your personality into what you are Tweeting about. Following the rules becomes a lot harder than just signing off for good.

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5. Over-posting about your new job once you get it

It’s important not to post too much about your new job after you get it. This can hurt your chances of keeping the job if the employer reviews what they find on your social media page. One way to avoid this is by waiting for at least six months before posting about your new job. Posting too many times in a short amount of time may make you seem to brag or don’t care about the position.

The worst thing you can do, though, is posting about the job even before the company has guaranteed you a spot.

They can see it as unprofessional, and you never know what will happen once they do the background check. Plus, if other group members also applied for the position, they might not feel too happy about their chances of getting it when they see your constant postings on social media sites.

It’s important to realize that no matter how much you enjoy your new job, it’s not worth risking if you aren’t 100% sure that you can keep it.

Your social media profile should be treated with the same sort of professionalism as a resume. You want to give off a certain impression. Sharing too much detail could do the opposite-so; make sure you’re always careful when posting about work.

6. Hiding behind a professional profile picture while still using an alias online

Many people choose to use a fake social media profile picture when they are on social media for their job search. The reason is simple — they want to avoid mistakes job candidates make. The problem is that this can hurt your career by giving off the impression that you are hiding.

Employers will often Google an applicant’s name, including their alias, before considering them for the position.

Your online persona must remain consistent with who you are in the professional realm. For example, an employer might check up on you to see how well you represent their company. Choosing a profile picture for your social media sites that is professional, typically smiling, and preferably contains no one else in the shot can help avoid unnecessary questions. It’s also best not to use an alias or nickname when posting comments or writing posts.

7. Uploading photos of your children to Facebook without considering how they might affect future employers

Being a parent is a special experience, and children absolutely deserve to be shown off to their family and friends. However, an employer who sees those photos might not see you as someone they want on staff because those images may seem like you’re unable to focus on your job.

The last thing a company needs is a distracted employee during work hours with responsibilities for the safety of others.

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8. Oversharing about your personal life

It’s one thing to schedule an interview with someone you already know. But there’s no reason to overshare on social media with strangers before the interview. And if your connections know what you’re up to without even meeting them, why not make a stronger first impression instead of seeming like a braggart?

For example, maybe you want them to understand that you’re looking for a new position in your industry. So you upload some pictures of yourself doing things related to your desired career field. And then keep adding more images as the years go by. That way, when they finally see your face for the first time at that job interview, it’ll feel like they already know you because they’ve seen the evolution of who you are as a professional.

9. Making jokes about current events

One of the biggest mistakes job candidates make is to show disdain for the company and its industry. Making jokes about current events and throwing shade at other people in your industry can hurt your chances of getting a job offer.

This mistake is a little different from the others because it has a lot of components, but here are a few tips:

– Don’t make jokes about anything topical

– Avoid criticizing anyone on social media who is an important influencer for your desired company

-Never make fun of anything that could be perceived as a stereotype.

10. Complaining constantly on social media about work, bosses, and co-workers

Complaining about work on social media can be a huge mistake. If you’re constantly rambling about how much work sucks, then bosses and co-workers are going to take note of that attitude. They could then decide that they don’t want someone working for them who has an unhappy disposition.

Some people are also more sensitive to seeing negative comments about their work environment than others. By being negative about your work or workplace on social media. You might run the risk of other employees getting offended or feeling bad for pointing out flaws in their own company.

11. Liking too many questionable political sites on Facebook

If you like too many questionable political sites or pages on Facebook, then this could hurt your chances of getting the job interview. The employer may think that you’re not conservative (or liberal) enough for their company. This can also lead to some applicants feeling like they will have to censor themselves to get the job.

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Conclusion

The 10 biggest mistakes job candidates make on social media can vary, but there are a few things that an employer will never let slide. Posting too much personal information or anything that could be taken negatively, like profanity or uncensored nudity, is sure to lose you the opportunity for a company’s position.

It’s important to consider how your posts affect others and any consequences they may have before posting them online. Hiding behind a professional profile picture and using an alias is also not advised. Employers will want to know who they are hiring, which could make the process more difficult than necessary.

Another example is complaining about work or bosses on social media. Employers will notice and may not want to hire you because they don’t think you’ll match their company culture.

You also have to consider how posting anything could affect other employees. This includes political views that might offend someone else’s personal beliefs. It can sometimes feel like a chore to refrain from self-promotion when looking for a new position, but it can distract from the interview process.  It might, indeed, be best not to post at all while searching for jobs, especially for the corporate ones.

Image Credit: anna tarazevich; pexels; thank you!

The post 11 Biggest Mistakes Job Candidates Make On Social Media appeared first on ReadWrite.

Social media is a weapon of mass marketing. Brands like Nike, GoPro, Starbucks, have been dominating the social media space and encashing on the social media addiction of humans. Leading marketing aficionados agree that social media is a powerful tool that every brand must utilize to rule the digital world. But all these super successful bands have such unique social media feeds. How do you come up with such amazing social media ideas?

If the same question has been bugging you, we have got it covered for you.

In this write-up, we have mentioned some simple yet interesting social media ideas to keep your brand’s feed fresh.

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1. Channelize the Power Of Micro-Influencers

Reaching out to industry influencers is an effective way to promote your products among a target audience. However, most influencers with a blue tick charge a hefty amount for a single Instagram post or tweet. Startups don’t have such an amount reserved for their marketing campaign. This is where micro-influencers can come to their rescue.

These are people who have a following between 10k and 100k. However, their following is much more loyal. Their conversion rate is much higher as they have a greater engagement with their following. These micro-influencers connect with their fans on a much more personal level.

Out of so many social media ideas, another great one is to get the micro-influencers to use your products and promote them in front of their fans. You can always share their posts using your product on your page to give a fresh look to your brand page and fill it with real-life people using your product.

2. Personalize the Feed With Selfies or Videos

While most brands like to keep their social media pages like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter professional, it is a great way to add a personal touch to personally connect with your fans on a personal level. In addition to having product images or ad copies and other things, you can add your pictures of videos.

Don’t go all out and put your personal life on display on your business social media page. One in every 10-15 posts is fine for social media. Even if you are creating videos, make sure your videos don’t go overboard. They should be well-balanced with your business profile yet give a breath of fresh air to your business’s social media presence.

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3. Generate Curiosity With BTS Video Stories

With 92% of the marketers rooting for videos in their marketing strategy, it is important to have some kind of video on your page. BTS videos or Behind The Scene videos are a great way to keep your followers engaged and curious about your next campaign.

Whether you are shooting for an upcoming advertisement, planning for your next video, packing products, work-in-progress, or simply a BTS of people working in your office, such videos always generate curiosity. Give them a sneak peek into the creative process, the set-up, and the people to make them come back for more updates.

4. Regram, Retweet, And Share What Inspires You

Your brand’s social media page might become too overwhelmed with your product images and video. Give your audience some breathing space by posting content created by others once in a while. It would not just be something different for the followers but lessen your efforts too.

All you need to do is find some good quotes and share them on your page. Anything that inspires you, news about your industry, meaningful post, or anything else can be reshared on your social media. Not just that, you can also find people who have tagged you on social media and share their posts on your feed.

You don’t have to be all in-depth with each of your posts. It can be anything light, entertaining, or interactive.

Don’t shy away from regramming (reprogramming), retweeting, repinning, or resharing other’s content. And make sure you have given due credit to the original creator. By taking the “re” spin — it breaks the flow of your posts and gives you some time to create something more creative.

Also, it’s a great way to show your followers that you are a part of a conversation, and tagging you would get them featured on your page.

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5. Make Use Of Reels & Short Stories

We all know that video content will reign in the coming years. And social media platforms are not shying away from encashing on this user behavior. Instagram and Facebook have come up with a short video concept in the form of reels and short stories respectively.

The human attention span needs a little excitement. People are no longer interested in spending minutes on a single video. Such short video content can be great for catching their attention.

You can use these reels or short stories to showcase more about your product or services. These can also be used for showing the testimonials of your clients. There are several filters, stickers, audios, and other things. There are different challenges as well on social media. You can always use the trending ones in a creative way to gain popularity for your brand.

6. Co-Marketing Goes a Long Way

A great way to amp up your business’s social media profile is by teaming up with another popular brand. There are different brands around you that are also looking to add versatility to their social media page. Co-marketing saves your efforts and helps you reach out to a newer audience base.

For example, a fitness brand can collaborate with a fashion designer to launch its own line of fitness wear. This way, you can have your name promoted on their social media and vice versa.

You can always team up with another brand that targets the same niche. This way, you’ll be able to reach out to their audience with synced efforts.

7. Tag-A-Friend Always Enhances Visibility

People love sharing pictures with their friends and tagging them on awesome posts. An amazing post idea is to get more engagement with ‘tag-a-friend’ posts. These posts could be all about some habits of people, memes, quotes, incidents, places, gifting options, or anything based on the industry you are in.

All you need to do is ask people to ‘tag-a-friend’ who comes to their mind first on seeing the post.

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Such posts get conversations started in the comments and can boost your social media engagement. They gain much more visibility and your brand easily reaches out to more people that might become loyal followers really quick. Create posts that compel to be shared and ensure

8. Get Your Followers to Generate Content

Zomato, a leading food delivery app in India, recently announced a campaign. It asked its followers to create video ads for the brand and the best ad would win Rs 25 lakhs. This initiative got the brand a huge increase in following and gave it a whole new feed to showcase the followers. People loved the videos it kept sharing from the creators and it gave the feed a fresh look.

As a startup, you need not announce such a big-scale campaign. You can simply give away some freebies, a monthly membership, or similar things to your followers to create content. Encourage your followers to generate content for you and showcase that on your feed. This would not just create a new look for your feed but also help build trust that people are actually using your product.

9. Data-Rich Posts Get Maximum Shares

Have you recently conducted a survey or research? Do you have some numbers that can help others in the industry? Go ahead and create some interesting infographics or simple pictures with some interesting findings. These are sure to get a lot of shares among the industry peeps.

There are many tools in the market like Canva that can help you go innovative with the post. Make sure to use your brand colors to personalize the picture. Take inspiration from Hubspot’s Instagram page. They’ve brilliantly used their brand colors in creating info-rich pictures. Industry peeps love sharing them and get a lot of engagement online.

You can even have important numbers from your blogs or similar stuff and convert them into pictures to share on your social media pages.

10. Previews and Teasers are Great for Curiosity

Before launching any product, creating excitement for the same is imperative. This can be a great way to break the monotony of your social media feed and ignite excitement. Whatever new you are planning to announce, share a glimpse of it on your social media. It could be a simple BTS video, launch teaser, event preparation, or anything.

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With the new feature of short videos like Reels, Short Videos, and Fleet, it is easier to create a video on the spot and share it with your followers. Create a buzz with it. Create FOMO or countdown for any new event, sale, launch, etc., to get maximum presence. Posts like launching soon, stay tuned, half pictures, etc., also look great when used smartly on social media to generate curiosity.

11. Maintain Consistency Around Brand Image

While it is great to experiment with your social media feed, a little bit of consistency would be great to create a lasting impression. Whether you use the brand colors, logos, fonts, images, or anything else, make sure that it has some element to reflect your brand.

Your brand voice needs to be consistent. There are many followers that might recognize your brand through visual means only – by the way your posts look, your style, etc. Make sure to retain such visual elements to ensure these followers can tell your brand out.

Other Social Media Strategies for Startups

While those are some awesome social media ideas for your feed, there are other social media strategies that can help strengthen your brand image. Be it Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other platform, here are some simple and cool social media strategies for startups.

• Host Free Giveaways

Just the mention of the word ‘FREE’ grasps instant attention. And as a startup, you need not offer something extravagant in such giveaways. You can keep it small, even a discount coupon, trial membership, demo, or something similar. Announce it on social media and get more tags, mentions, and likes through such giveaways.

• Live Stream Your Events

Video content is going to grow exponentially in 2021 and live videos will be a large part of it. The Covid times have made live videos even more popular. Almost every industry is pivoting its way of interacting with its customers and live videos are one of the most effective means. You can also make your followers participate in your events or simply have sessions with them talking about your brand answering their questions, etc.

• AMAs Are Great For Engagement

A new trend that set out on social media was about AMA or Ask Me Anything. Whether we take Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media, many brands and celebrities are hosting such sessions to increase their engagement. This way you can engage with them and answer their questions about your brand.

• Takeovers Are Effortlessly Raging

Another thing that many of the social media pages are doing currently is takeovers. That is, you give your social media page to be handled by someone else. They bring a fresh perspective to your brand and give it a new look to your feed. This takeover could be for a day or a week. And the best part is, you have to put in zero effort. The person taking over would handle your social media feed for the time period.

• Ask For Followers’ Opinions With Polls

People love it when their opinions are valued. Get polls before starting with a new product. You can have polls for different things and get to know their interests, likes, dislikes, and much more. This would help you get a closer insight into what’s going on in your followers’ mind about your brand,

• Organize Highlights For Professional Look

Another cool way to make your social media brand page look even more professional is to organize the entire page. Don’t make it look cluttered and unkept. A quick way to do the same is by organizing the highlights that are present on your profile.

• Ephemeral Content Never Dies

As ironic as it is, ephemeral content has been increasing in popularity since Snapchat came up with the idea. And this concept of short-lived, disappearing content is going to be here for a long time. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, all have the concept of disappearing content. Make use of this amazing social media idea to infuse the fear of missing out in your audience.

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On an Ending Note

Social media is a double-edged sword. It can help build massive loyalty for your brand in a short time. But at the same time, a small error in messaging can instantly hurt their sentiments, leading to PR nightmares.

Follow the 80:20 rule on social media to keep churning out new content without putting too much on the shoulders of the content creators. It is important that your brand’s feed remains versatile yet consistent to offer new content but remind them that it’s your brand in the end.

Make sure that you are regular with posting. Plan ahead and have a social media calendar in place. Make sure your feed never dies and is consistently offering some content to keep your brand alive in their memory.

The post 10+ Social Media Ideas that Startups Must Follow in 2021 appeared first on ReadWrite.

You know things are bad when the comedians have it in for you. In November, Sacha Baron Cohen went viral. The comedian has pulled some pretty good pranks in the past, but this video didn’t show him fooling a politician as a rapper or playing a journalist from Kazakhstan. The vid showed him as himself delivering a speech to the Anti-Defamation League. The focus of the speech was Internet companies in general and social media in particular. He called them “the greatest propaganda machine in history,” attacked Facebook, and called on platforms to slow down and check facts before publishing content. But where does social media think it’s going now?

It’s not just comedians who think that social media needs disruption.

Elizabeth Warren has called for the break-up of what she calls “Big Tech.” Amazon, Facebook, and Google, she says, have too much power over the economy, society, and democracy. “They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. In the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.” Her administration would unwind mergers and break up all three companies.

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Other tech firms are feeling the pressure.

Twitter, now a channel for outrage and anger, has tried to pre-empt criticism by banning paid political advertising. YouTube influencers now have to head into the boxing ring to keep the audience’s attention. And China’s TikTok is the talk of the town while Snapchat is nowhere to be seen.

What’s going right with social media? What’s going wrong? And why will social media be alright in the end?

The reason that politicians and others are so worried about the power of social media is that it’s still so popular. Facebook has nearly 2.5 billion monthly users.

Twitter is still the place to be for breaking news and discussions. Influencers might now look like an identical series of make-up artists, beauticians, and attention-grabbers, but brands are still keen to use them. Some reports suggest that the price of an Instagram post rose 44 percent over the last year.

As far as social media is concerned, everything is great.

Platforms are still delivering services that people want to use, building audiences, and attracting advertisers. If it wasn’t working — it wouldn’t be popular. And if it wasn’t popular, there wouldn’t be a problem.

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What’s going wrong is actually one thing that’s gone right — and there’s one thing social media can’t fix.

The thing that’s gone right is the building of monopolies. That’s bad news for consumers but good news for the monopoly. Every business owner wants a lock on the market. Competition is a great principle — right up until someone else is trying to eat your lunch.

There are already a couple of fixes for that problem.

• First, the United States has anti-trust laws and regulators who are supposed to prevent companies from dominating marketplaces.
• The big monopolies are against the law, but can be given bigger teeth — and there’s a good chance they will be.
• Bigger monopolies reign and are building despite laws.
•  Monopolies are gaining in power and size despite the lobbyists declaring that the social media giants are paying to protect their interests.

It’s not entirely clear that drastic action is needed — or is it?

Facebook might have a monopoly now but so did MySpace until Facebook wiped it out. The rise of TikTok has shown that it is still possible for an innovative new product to disrupt the market and steal an audience.

Is the social media climate a winner-takes-all environment — but a new winner can quickly take it all away.

One new direction for social media could be a platform that offers users real control over their privacy and their data while still keeping them in touch with their old school friends. That could be much more dangerous to Facebook than anything Elizabeth Warren could think of.

The thing that social media platforms can’t fix is the issue of free speech.

Mark Zuckerberg’s argument for refusing to take political ads is that he can’t police the truthfulness of political advertising. He can only make clear who’s paying for it and who’s seeing it. Sacha Baron Cohen argues that social media companies are smart enough to create algorithms to remove white supremacist hate speech, and they may be.

But who should they be the ones deciding what speech should be removed and what should stay? Do we want the likes of Zuch and Cohen to determine what can and cannot be said? Is that what we want in the U.S.?

Someone has to program the algorithms — and someone will always object to the rules written into them.

It’s likely that the eventual solution won’t be in banning speech but in returning to the principle underlying free speech. Fair speech has to include the clash of ideas. Bad ideas will then be rejected and good ideas will advance. We’re not doing very well in that battle at the moment.

People’s judgments are struggling against an outsized flow of information and an ability to block out opinions they don’t want to hear.

The direction of social media is to make that situation change by improving education in critical thinking, in identifying misinformation, in overcoming our own biases, and in being willing to admit that we could be wrong.

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How do you police speech?

Social media firms have found themselves with products that are incredibly popular. The products have given the companies themselves temporary but huge monopoly power. Now, social media is having to grapple with one of society’s biggest questions: how do you police speech?

Social Media can’t answer that question. But as everyone else—comedians and politicians alike—try to answer it for them — social may well come up with answers that improve everyone.

The post Where Does Social Media Think it’s Going Now? appeared first on ReadWrite.

As Father’s Day approaches, selecting the perfect gift for the entrepreneurial dad can seem challenging. These are fathers who work hard to fulfill their responsibilities, juggling between the roles of a father and a business leader. They work tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to provide, protect, and pave the way for their families. Therefore, Father’s Day isn’t just an annual event; it’s an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the endless love and sacrifices our dads make every day.

Gifts, in this context, are expressions of love, gratitude, and understanding. An ideal gift resonates with the recipient’s personality, aligns with their interests, and caters to their needs. For entrepreneurial dads, who often dedicate a significant portion of their time to nurturing their businesses, gifts that blend practicality with novelty, reflect their passion for innovation, and that can offer them some relaxation is particularly meaningful.

Here’s a list of unique gift ideas, perfect for the business-savvy fathers who deserve the very best.

1. A Luxurious Barware Set

Every entrepreneur knows that some of the best business ideas emerge from casual conversations. A high-quality barware set serves as the perfect tool for these interactions. These sleek, stainless steel tools provide the perfect blend of elegance and function, making them a great addition to any at-home bar. It’s a tasteful gift that your entrepreneurial father will appreciate each time he entertains a guest or relaxes after a long day. Plus, there’s something special about a beautifully crafted cocktail that can’t be replicated in a commercial setting. A quality barware set can bring this exquisite experience home.

2. Stylish and Functional Desk Accessories

A clutter-free workspace helps to boost productivity. Gifting your dad some stylish desk accessories can help him keep his office neat and organized. Think along the lines of sleek pen holders, modern desk lamps, or minimalist charging docks. Not only do these items serve a practical purpose, but they also add a touch of personality to his workspace. It’s a way of turning his office into an inviting space that he’ll enjoy spending time in, potentially enhancing his creativity and productivity.

3. High-Quality Outdoor Footwear

Encourage your father to take a break and step into the great outdoors with a pair of  sturdy comfortable footwear. There are a variety of rugged options you can get that blend durability with comfort. This is an ideal gift for the dad who enjoys hiking, camping, or simply needs reliable footwear for his entrepreneurial adventures. Plus, a comfortable pair of shoes can also contribute to his overall well-being, encouraging him to take walks and engage in physical activity, which can reduce stress and improve creativity.

4. Mechanical Cuckoo Clock

In the fast-paced world of business, managing time effectively is crucial. Give your dad a fun and distinctive way to keep track of his schedule with a mechanical cuckoo clock. With intricate design details, these clocks are a nod to timeless craftsmanship and precision. As a bonus, they add a bit of whimsy and conversation to any office space. They also make for a compelling piece of wall art that never fails to draw attention and spark conversation, adding another level of charm to his office.

5. Subscription to a Premium Streaming Service

Unwinding with a good movie or show is a great way for your dad to decompress after a long day. A subscription to a premium streaming service like The Roku Channel can provide him with countless hours of entertainment, making it the perfect gift for the dad who needs a break from his busy schedule. This and other streaming services boast a diverse range of content, from critically acclaimed dramas to engaging documentaries that could spark his next big business idea.

6. A Personal Development Book

One common trait of successful entrepreneurs is their hunger for knowledge. Give your dad a renowned personal development book focusing on leadership, creativity, or business strategy. He’ll appreciate the thought behind a gift that contributes to his personal and professional growth. In addition, these books can provide him with a fresh perspective, inspire innovative ideas, and give him actionable advice to tackle new challenges, all of which could be instrumental in shaping his business strategies.

7. A Durable Tactical Bag

As an entrepreneur, your dad needs to stay organized on the go. A durable and versatile tactical bag will serve him well on his busiest days. You’ll want to get one with plenty of compartments for his essentials and one that is functional and stylish. This is a perfect gift for the dad, who is always prepared to go. It should also have a hard-wearing material and weather-resistant quality to ensure that it endures the test of time, no matter where his entrepreneurial journey takes him.

Give a Thoughtful Gift

Picking out the perfect gift for the entrepreneurial dad should always reflect his passion, personality, and lifestyle. From a luxurious barware set for hosting networking events at home to a durable tactical bag for his daily commutes, these Father’s Day gifts are designed to bring joy and utility into his life. So, this Father’s Day, let your gift be a testament to his dedication, resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit, as he deserves nothing less.

The post 7 Father’s Day Gifts for the Entrepreneurial Dad appeared first on ReadWrite.

Videos are high potential content for social media networks and can get you serious money. As per a report by Wyzowl, 2020, on average social media users spend over 16 hours in a week watching video content on online platforms. As a viewer watching reels on Instagram for half an hour may not be a big deal for you, but for brand marketers, it’s a big opportunity to advertise their product and services.

Social Media Video Metrics Ideas

There are two main aspects of video marketing.

The first aspect of video marketing is to set a goal and create an ad accordingly. You need to be clear on what you are expecting from your video ads; is it engagement, reach, conversion, etc.?

The second aspect is to monitor and track the performance of published videos. If you want to meet your goals and accomplish bigger targets on reach and engagement, it’s important to track how your published videos are performing.

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This cheat sheet is designed to help businesses uncover the true potential of video marketing. I’ve mentioned some best-performing video ideas and key metrics to monitor on individual social media platforms (automonkey).

Top 5 Engagement Generating Platforms

I’ve selected the five most popular and engagement generating mediums, given below:

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. Twitter
4. LinkedIn
5. Pinterest

Facebook

Video Idea for Facebook

It’s been a long time since Facebook introduced video content on the medium, and since then, it is becoming better and better for marketers. With organic reach, videos get 4 to 8 billion views daily.

Different reports show different metrics; hence we can not be specific on the number; however, it’s a pretty exponential number.

While posting a Facebook video, there are few peculiarities you need to know, like the majority of Facebook users view videos without sound (weird, huh?). Hence, adding subtitles and smart typography will instantly catch the attention of people scrolling through their feed.

If there is an essential sound in the video, make it clear to the audience by adding a text or icon at the start of the clip. The “Sound On” Sticker is best suited for this purpose.

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When Facebook is concerned, Live videos are proven to be king of the engagement. Live content creates 3x more engagement than non-live content.

Social Media Video Metrics: Facebook

In order to maximize views on Facebook, here are some metrics to look into:

• Video Reach: Total number of people who have seen your video
• Engagement: It indicates the frequency of users interacting on your posted video.
• Average video watch time: Time average of your followers watching the video.
• Peak live viewers: If you are streaming live videos on Facebook, this metric shows the most views you got on your video for one time.
• Minutes viewed: It shows the total number of minutes you get on your video.
• 1-minute video views: It indicates the number of users that have seen your video for at least a minute.
• 10-second video views: It indicates the number of users that have seen your video for at least a minute. (applies only for videos with a minimum 10 seconds duration.)
• Audience retention: It specifies the percentage of how well your video is holding up the viewers before they exit the video.
• Audience: This metrics showcases infographic data of your audience; this comprises location, age, gender, preferences, likes and more.
• Unique viewers: It represents the number of unique individuals who watched your videos.
• Top videos: It showcases a list of videos that gets maximum user attention.

You can also bifurcate the view into the Paid and Organic view. This will provide you with detailed information on the traffic source so that you make an investment in the right resources.

How to View Facebook Metrics?

Find Facebook metrics by clicking on the insight tab on your Facebook page.

Here you find an elongated list of Facebook metrics.

Instagram

Video Idea for Instagram

Instagram is a rainbow of video formats; it includes a mix of everything from traditional grids and square videos to story clips and live streaming. The immense popularity of Instagram videos led to creating a separate platform for videos called IGTV.

IGTV was Instagram’s big launch. Still, it failed to achieve the right momentum at first. However, the medium is updating new features and making it more convenient to use. It is now a big platform that features authentic and mindful media.

It is great for marketers to promote their brands with a limited budget. IGTV is not about boosting product values for a brand; instead, it is more useful to humanize the brand or sharing your brand’s story with your audience.

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Social Media Video Metrics: Instagram

To Maximize video views on Instagram, here are some metrics to monitor:

• Views: This indicates the number of users you viewed your videos for at least 3 seconds.
• Likes: The number of users who pressed the heart icon.
• Comments: It indicates the number of users who commented on your video.
• Profile visits: This will show you the number of people visiting your profile after seeing your posts.
• Saves: The number of viewers that saved and added your videos to their location.
• Messages: The number of times your video users shared your videos through messages.
• Follows: It indicates the number of users who follow your account after watching your video.
• Reach: It indicates the number of people to which your ad video was visible.
• Impressions: The number of times users viewed your video post.

How to View Instagram Metrics?

To see Instagram metrics mentioned above, just tab on your video post and choose View Insight. Your Instagram Insight tab will be open quickly, allowing you to monitor infographic data of your choice.

If you do not have enough static images, you can dig into the internet to find royalty-free stock images that are more relevant to your brand and less generic.

Twitter

Video Idea for Twitter

The demand for video ads on Twitter has doubled since 2018. Tweets consisting of videos generate ten times more engagement than the ones with plain text. With 2 minutes and 20-second video ads limited timeframe, Twitter stays true to its micro-blogging format.

It is excellent for lead generation and engagement as it is to the point. Edit small clips of long video recordings and publish them as a teaser. If you plan to host a webinar, Q&A session, or want to talk about a particular topic — Twitter features a live video option for you.

Social Media Video Metrics: Twitter

To Maximize video views on Twitter, here are some metrics to monitor:

• Impressions: It indicates the number of times users view your video posts.
• Social media views: It indicates the number of times users see your video.
• Total engagements: How many times users interacted with your Tweet.
• Likes: The number of likes you get on your posts.
• Details expand: The number of times users go through the details of your Tweet.
• Replies: It indicates the total number of replies your video tweet received.
• Retweets: It indicates the number of times people click on the retweet button to share your post on their feeds.

How to View Twitter Metrics?

Click on the video which you wish to analyze. Next, select View Tweet activity. You can now see all the videos you want to monitor.

LinkedIn

Video Idea for LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the mainstream social media platforms for a long time now. Still, it stepped into the video ad in 2018. Since then, they are continually evolving and improving their video ad capabilities, the platform has also introduced the live option. However, for many businesses, pre-recorded videos are the only option for video ads on LinkedIn.

Video ads for LinkedIn must include professional insights, case studies, or any clips that show your company’s expertise or talents. These ads deliver your professional messages in a more human and engaging way. LinkedIn is also an excellent medium to publish video testimonials too.

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Social Media Video Metrics: LinkedIn

To Maximize video views on LinkedIn, here are some metrics to monitor:

• Plays: It shows you the number of times users clicked the play button of your video.
• Views: Number of videos played for a minimum of 2 seconds.
• View Rate: It shows you the figure of total views multiplied by 100.
• eCPV (estimated cost per view): This is for paid ads; it indicates your ROI based on your spend money.
• Views at 25%: The number of times viewers streamed a quarter of your video.
• At 50%: The number of times viewers streamed half of your video.
• Views at 75%: The number of times viewers streamed ¾ of your video.
• Completions: It indicates the number of times viewers streamed 97% or more of your video content.
• Completion rate: The number of times viewers fully completed your video.
• Full screenplays: It indicates the number of users who viewed your video with full-screen mode.

How to view LinkedIn Metrics?

Tap on the ‘My profile’ icon visible on top of your home page. Go to Manage option and select Posts and Activity. Now find your video in the posts tab. Next, below your video, click on the Analytic tab.

To generate a high impact on your LinkedIn, make sure to add captions as many users nowadays steam videos with no sound.

Pinterest

Video Idea for Pinterest

Video Pins on Pinterest appear just like image ponds in the home feed, search result and in ‘more like this section. But Video pins are reported to be four times more memorable and engaging than pins with images, as per a study conducted by Millward Brown.

In fact, over 67% of Pinterest users said video pins inspire them to take action. Similar to Facebook, videos on Pinterest autoplay as soon as it marks 50% in view. To make your Pinterest ads more accessible, you must create a video that is not dependent on audio.

Pinterest videos are best suited for brand awareness campaigns as well as narrating a brand or product’s story. It provides marketers with two size formats for video ads, i.e., Standard-width-videos and max-width-video.

Standard width video size is of the regular pines while the max-width-video will stretch across the feed, so there is less distraction and more engagement.

Note that the maximum exposure will be costlier as minimum bids start high.

Social Media Video Metrics: Pinterest

To Maximize video views on Pinterest, here are some metrics to monitor:

• Impressions: It indicates the number of times your pins are shown in users’ HomeFeed, search results, or category feeds.
• Clicks: It indicates the number of times people tap on your pin for a closer look.
• Daily Views: It indicates the number of times people open your pins daily.
• Daily Saves: The number of times users saved your pin to a board
• Played by 95%: It indicates the number of times users almost finished watching your video pins.
• Total playtime: It indicates the total number of video play minutes.
• Video views: It shows the number of times your video pin was played for at least 2 seconds while 50% in view.
• Average playtime: It indicates the average playtime of the video in one day.
• Monthly Viewers: It showcases data of users who view your pin and take action on such as-like, repin or share.
• Monthly Engagement: Again, not sure how this differs from viewers, but the number is always different.

How to view Pinterest Metrics?

Go to your profile page by clicking on your profile picture. Next, click on the Analytic tap on the top-left corner. Next, select an overview. All of your key metrics will be visible on your screen, which you can easily filter based on device, source, format and more.

Improve your ad marketing with this cheat sheet

It is not required to run ads on all social media networks. However, when using more than one channel to market, you can simplify your task and time management by using high-performing video content of one medium on other networks.

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However, the metrics mentioned above will help you thoroughly analyze each social media channel and how the audience engages with your video ads on each platform. Once you have collected this information, you can effectively set a budget and efforts.

In conclusion, videos are one of the effective marketing tools. You generate maximum reach and engagement if you use video marketing correctly. Use the data mentioned in the blog and take your video marketing to the next level.

Top Image Credit: roman odintsov; pexels; thank you!

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