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Twitter hints at new threaded conversations and whos online features

8/31/2018

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Twitter hints at new threaded conversations and who’s online features

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Twitter head Jack Dorsey sent out a tweet this afternoon hinting the social platform might get a couple of interesting updates to tell us who else is currently online and to help us more easily follow Twitter conversation threads.

“Playing with some new Twitter features: presence (who else is on Twitter right now?) and threading (easier to read convos),” Dorsey tweeted, along with samples.

Playing with some new Twitter features: presence (who else is on Twitter right now?) and threading (easier to read convos) https://t.co/aCVRxVDfy0

— jack (@jack) August 31, 2018

The “presence” feature would make it easier to engage with those you follow who are online at the moment and the “threading” feature would allow Twitter users to follow a conversation easier than the current embed and click-through method.

However, several responders seemed concerned about followers seeing them online.

@pandemona Not a fan of presence in this kind of space so would prefer opt-in if it happens. The reply threading looks promising and could be a big improvement as long as there’s still a way to read a thread without interruption.

— Staci D Kramer (@sdkstl) August 31, 2018

Twitter’s head of product Sarah Haider responded to one such tweeted concern at the announcement saying she “would definitely want you to have full control over sharing your presence.” So it seems there would be some sort of way to hide that you are online if you don’t want people to know you are there.

There were also a few design concerns involved in threading conversations together. TC OG reporter turned VC M.G. Siegler wasn’t a fan of the UI’s flat tops. Another user wanted to see something more like iMessage. I personally like the nesting idea. Cleans it up and makes it easier to follow along and I really don’t care how it’s designed (flat tops, round tops) as long as I don’t have to click through a bunch like I do with the @reply.

I also don’t think I’d want others knowing if I’m online and it’s not a feature I need for those I tweet at, either. Conversations happen at a ripping pace on the platform sometimes. You are either there for it or you can read about it later. I get the thinking on letting users know who’s live but it’s not necessary and seems to be something a lot of people don’t want.

Its unclear when either of these features would roll out to the general public, though they’re available to those in a select test group. We’ve asked Twitter and are waiting to hear back for more information. Of course, plenty of users are still wondering when we’re getting that edit button.





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August 31, 2018 at 06:30PM
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How to Write Effective Social Media Copy

8/31/2018

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How to Write Effective Social Media Copy

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The copy placed on social media sites such as Facebook is an important aspect of any marketing campaign — or it should be. Facebook has over 2 billion active viewers each month, and only a fool would ignore such a large audience, or give them stale, boring copy. Once a company is associated with crummy copy they become a joke on social media — and the loss of potential customers is enormous.

Smart marketing teams will spend just as much time, if not more, on creating quality copy for social media as they do for print media. A typo in a magazine ad is unforgivable; marketers should feel the same passion about bad, misspelled, ungrammatical social media copy. Farming it out to foreign sources just to save a buck or two and some time will bite marketers in the rear end at some point; when consumers see that a brand doesn’t take them seriously on social media, they in turn won’t take the brand seriously, and thus will migrate elsewhere with their purchasing power.

To make social media copy effective, always remember to follow these important hacks:

Decide what you want to say

Social media like Facebook and Instagram are insatiable when it comes to copy. New copy is needed on a daily, sometimes on an hourly, basis. The pressure to throw just about anything into the yawning social media void just to fill it up is tremendous, but it’s a bad idea. It’s desperate, and the desperation will show through to viewers. Decide ahead of time on topics that have appealed to consumers in the past and that have been researched and show to be of interest to target markets, and then lay in a store of quality articles ahead of time. The mad rush to get something, anything, onto a social media site, will then diminish appreciably.

Don’t be afraid of reruns over crap

There will inevitably come moments when new quality copy is just not available. When that happens don’t turn to crap just to fill the gap. Either have the guts to say nothing if it can’t be said well, or, even smarter, pull up copy from six months ago and post it again, with some minor variations. Have confidence that good copy is worth seeing again.

Write about the customer, not about the brand

Show empathy and concern for the consumer, explaining how the product will help them with their lives, with their goals, with their dreams. Don’t cry up the brand as the Seventh Wonder of the World, but instead keep it realistic and relatable to the potential customer. Selling shoes, for instance, isn’t about the brand — it’s about the customer’s feet, and about their fashion sense. Use every bit of marketing data and analyses available to discover what makes the customer tick, not what makes the brand sound supernatural. If you need to hire a copywriter at any point, this would be it; figuring this out is alot trickier than it seems.

Cast a wide net

The social media audience is among the most diverse in the world. It includes all shades of political, religious, financial, national, gender, and age dimensions. Posting copy that excludes any particular group is folly. While targeting an audience is a basic marketing principle, ignoring any chance to interest a new group or niche is like cutting your nose to spite your face. Is there any group with money to spend that a marketer should refuse to market to? Of course not! So use a lot of ‘sniper’ copy — copy that targets small exclusive groups.

Keep it relevant

Share only the most important and pertinent information with viewers. There’s no room for shaggy dog stories or boring lists or flashy, meaningless graphics. Don’t try to entertain viewers, just inform them with the basic and memorable facts about the product or brand. Treating them like adults will result in them spending like adults. Ask questions up front to get them interested and engaged.

Key message first

It’s always fatal to start with a company or brand history. Get over yourself; the consumer wants to know only one thing upfront — “What’s in it for me?” Answer that question in the first paragraph of copy or get out of the way while a competitor nabs all the traffic by doing just that. Tell people how to save money or feel better or look better or do better in the very first sentence of copy. Every. Single. Time.

Keep it brief

If it can’t be said in twenty words or less it’s bad copy.

Active verbs, please

Run to your laptop. Pound out some copy. Leap up from your chair. Dash into your boss’ office. Shout that your copy is now alive with active verbs. Skip back to your desk. Keep exploding with new copy. Destroy the passive voice in every piece of copy from now on.

Bite size is best

When there’s a lot of information that just can’t be edited out of the copy, break it up into more digestible pieces for readers. Use bullet points, numbers, graphs and charts — anything but a long, stodgy paragraph that reminds readers of their college textbooks that they hated so much. Remember, relevant graphics are worth a thousand words.

Write like you talk

Effective copy is always conversational, simple, direct, and positive. Pretty much like regular conversation. If you’ve never heard a word or a phrase in a conversation, don’t put it in your copy. Period. Many top marketers find that using a voice-to-text app is extremely helpful and saves time when writing good copy. And don’t equivocate. It’s always good, clean, fun, economical, or healthy — never ever sometimes or occassionally.

Finish with a dynamite CTA

An effective Call to Action separates the sheep from the goats in the marketing game. Once the viewer is informed and excited about the brand or product it’s time to strike while the fire is hot — get them to commit by supplying contact information, signing up for an email newsletter, or (best of all!) purchasing something. A viewer who won’t do anything or commit to anything is still just a potential customer — and not a very good one at that. And once a consumer responds to your CTA make sure that every single step from then on is nothing but positive reinforcement for the prospect.  

 

The post How to Write Effective Social Media Copy appeared first on Social Media Explorer.





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August 31, 2018 at 12:58PM
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Leverage Simplicity In Design To Improve Sales

8/31/2018

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Leverage Simplicity In Design To Improve Sales

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Reaching an audience and convincing them to buy your product, use your services, or follow your brand involves a multitude of strategies. Search engine optimization (SEO), landing pages, calls to action, lead magnets, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads all demonstrate that digital marketing is a complex field. It can take years to master just one of those strategies. The idea of implementing all of them effectively is overwhelming.

Budding internet entrepreneurs often spend many days fussing over button shapes and colors to squeeze out a few more conversions. If getting involved in that kind of minutia doesn’t thrill you, turn your attention to simplicity.

Simple websites convert better

Back in 2012, Google conducted a study to determine what types of websites users consider attractive. Researchers found that users judge a website as beautiful within 1/50th of a second, and “visually complex” websites were consistently rated as less beautiful than the simple ones.

All those sleepless nights spent tweaking the radius of your buy buttons could have been avoided by creating a simple design.

Elements that support a simple website include:

  • Fewer images. This point goes against the latest trend in site design, and for good reason. Too many images will get in the way of a visitor’s attempt at navigating your site.

    Before placing an image on a website, you should know why you’re using that specific image. The location of each image should also be intentional. If you’re adding images to fill in space, fill out a template, or because it looks good, your images will work against you.

  • Concise copy. Sentences can be condensed more than you think. Concise copy presents information without beating around the bush. For example, “I think I’m going to have to buy a new pair of shoes” can be condensed to, “I’m buying new shoes.”

    Visitors read condensed copy faster and easier than long, drawn out copy. The same is true for product descriptions, especially when your product is purchased by aesthetics. For example, nobody buys engagement rings because of the way they’re described. Purchases are made based on looks and price. A simple, one line description is enough. Anything more would be a distraction.

  • No stock photos. This is sad news if you’re addicted to stock photo websites, but no matter how cool stock photos are, they don’t help you get sales. There are rare exceptions, but generally speaking stock photos should be avoided completely.

    The stock photo industry exists as a platform to help photographers make money. It’s not an industry intended to support web design.

  • Familiarity. The familiarity principle describes the fact that people tend to prefer what’s familiar. This applies to website design, since users unknowingly develop preferences for the aesthetics and placement of design elements. For example, blogs used to house sidebars on the left but today that feels weird and unfamiliar. We’ve all been conditioned to prefer right-hand sidebars.

    This might explain why many squeeze pages do better with the opt-in form located in the upper right corner. It’s not complicated – it’s preference.

    Another aspect of familiarity is making sure your website design looks like other designs in the same industry. An in-depth study was performed on the company Skinny Ties when they revamped their site in 2012. Prior to the revamp, their website didn’t even resemble an ecommerce site. The Google study referenced above has before and after screenshots of the Skinny Ties website for reference.

  • Simple navigation structure. The mega menu craze might be over, but people continue to create complex navigational structures that confuse and frustrate visitors.

    Don’t link every page in your navigation menu. Don’t try to categorize all of your content, either. The important pages need to be part of the main menu, but other, internal pages should be made discoverable as a visitor makes their way through your site. Reveal relevant pages to visitors as they proceed. Not all internal pages are relevant to home page visitors.

    The best example for this type of navigation is eBay (or any other major retail website). eBay presents basic category navigation as a main menu. When you click on the “electronics” section, brands and sub-categories revealed.

    Less is more

    In every industry, when experts are called in to save lost sales, the first suggestion they make is to reduce menu items and eliminate complexity. The concept that less is more defies conventional wisdom, but it brings in the money. Moving toward simplicity and away from complexity is an effective marketing strategy of its own.

    The post Leverage Simplicity In Design To Improve Sales appeared first on Social Media Explorer.





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August 31, 2018 at 12:08PM
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How to Increase Sales by Personalizing the Customer Experience

8/31/2018

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How to Increase Sales by Personalizing the Customer Experience

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Successful brands put the customer first.

They monitor their customers’ behaviors and leverage their needs to enhance the buying process. You can also boost your revenue by optimizing the customer experience.

If you want to take this concept one step further, you need to focus on one important element that will increase sales.

Personalization.

Personalizing the customer experience is a winning strategy. In fact, 96% of marketers agree that their efforts to personalize their customers’ experience advance their relationships with customers.

Furthermore, 88% of marketers say they’ve seen a measurable improvement in their businesses after implementing customer personalization tactics.

But only 33% of businesses feel confident they have the tools to properly personalize the customer experience.

That’s what inspired me to write this guide.

Some of you may already know you need to create a more personalized experience for your customers, but you just don’t know what to do. Or maybe you’re trying to improve your existing efforts.

Regardless of your situation, I’ll explain what you need to do.

These are the best ways to increase sales by accommodating the needs of your customers and personalizing their experience.

Encourage your customers to create profiles

One of the first things you need to do is allow your customers to create profiles on your platform. Those profiles will help you implement other strategies as we continue through this guide.

Once the accounts are created, you’ll be able to monitor the behaviors of your customers based on their profiles.

Your customers are perfectly comfortable with you tracking their habits as long as it’s improving their experience.

monitor behavior

As you can see from these numbers, customers want you to:

  • make it easier for them to shop
  • give them relevant offers
  • provide them with a more personalized experience
  • improve their experience on multiple channels

Not only are your customers comfortable with you monitoring their behaviors through their profiles, but they actually expect it. In fact, more than half of consumers say they expect brands to anticipate their needs so they can receive relevant suggestions.

You’ll eventually be able to recommend products based on shopping and browsing behavior, but we’ll discuss that in greater detail later.

The best way to encourage your customers to create accounts is by making it as easy as possible for them.

They don’t want to take tons of unnecessary steps to set up their accounts. Make sure you limit your form fields needed for the account creation.

Think about what information you need from the customer that will help you personalize their experience.

Basically, anything they’d provide you with during an optimized checkout process is enough to create a profile.

Add a simple checkbox to the checkout that says something like “create a customer profile” to accomplish this.

Both you and your customers will benefit from this option. The personalized content on their profiles will improve their experience and ultimately drive more sales.

Segment your email subscribers

Collecting email addresses needs to be a priority for your business. But if you want to personalize the customer experience, you need to make sure you’re delivering relevant content to their inboxes.

The best way to do this is by segmenting your email lists:

segment emails

Although everyone who signs up to receive emails from your company might be interested in your brand, it doesn’t mean they have the same wants and needs.

You need to learn how to write marketing emails that don’t get marked as spam.

Grouping your subscribers into separate lists will ensure they don’t receive irrelevant information.

Let’s take customer profiles as an example. If a customer creates a profile during the checkout process, you’ll know their address because they need to provide you with shipping and billing information.

Your customers in Texas shouldn’t be getting the same emails as your customers in New Hampshire if your company is advertising a winter sale.

Those subscribers in Texas don’t care about discounted winter hats and ski pants.

That’s why segmented email campaigns can result in a 760% revenue increase.

Marketers say 58% of their revenue comes from emails that are properly segmented and targeted.

Recent studies show the differences between segmented emails compared to non-segmented campaigns.

Segmented emails have:

  • 14.3% more opens
  • 101% more clicks
  • 4.7% fewer bounces
  • 9.4% fewer unsubscribes

Higher opens and clicks paired with fewer bounces and unsubscribes put your company in a great position to increase sales.

Store information for faster checkouts

Again, customer profiles are important here.

Make sure you ask for the information required to complete a purchase only once. After that, you can store the information to expedite the purchasing process in the future.

Each step a customer has to take to buy something decreases the chances they’ll complete this action.

Having to enter their name, address, and credit card information into your platform every time is tedious. The whole reason why they created a profile was to improve their experience.

Take a look at how Delta uses this strategy:

delta 1

By saving credit card information in their customer profiles, people can book a flight fast and easily. They don’t even need to have their cards on them.

Every ecommerce company needs to incorporate this strategy.

Customers will be able to add items to their carts and complete transactions with just a few clicks. This will help you improve your conversion rates and drive more sales.

Implement geotargeting practices

As I explained earlier, you can use the customer’s location to personalize their experience.

In addition to segmenting your email lists by location, you can also tailor the content on your website based on the country your customers are browsing from.

Take a look at this example from the SAXX website:

saxx

Their customers are primarily located in the United States and Canada.

While the two countries may be similar, the company still wants to offer tailored customer experience based on the location of their customers.

For example, Canadian customers will want to see measurements of clothing in centimeters since they use the metric system. And people browsing in the United States will see “color,” while the Canadians will see “colour.”

Yes, any English-speaking person can understand American English, but not having the site customized to the customer location can still hurt the company’s sales.

By allowing its website visitors to choose their country, SAXX ensures they’ll be shown the right content.

Those of you who have an international brand need to take this process one step further. Look at the options on the Nike website:

nike 1

Your website isn’t the only platform that can be personalized based on location.

You can use your mobile app to pinpoint the exact location of your customers as opposed to broader locations, e.g., the state or country.

When someone downloads your app, ask them to agree to share their location with you so you can track it. Then, you can send them notifications using geofencing technology.

With geofencing, you can set up an area around one of your store locations. When an app user enters the location, they’ll get a notification that encourages them to make a purchase.

For example, let’s say you own a restaurant chain.

Someone with your mobile app walks within a block of one of your locations during lunch time. You can send them a discount off their lunch purchase that day.

Create a customer loyalty program

When you’re implementing customer personalization tactics, you shouldn’t aim to generate a one-time sale.

You want these efforts to lead to customer retention, resulting in recurring purchases. That’s why you should come up with an effective customer loyalty program.

Studies show 82% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands offering loyalty programs.

Plus, loyal customers spend more money. Just look at these numbers:

loyalty

Customers who have purchased from your brand multiple times add items to their carts at a higher rate, have higher conversion rates, and generate more revenue per shopping session.

You can set up your loyalty program in a few different ways.

The most basic option would be to give your customers a reward after a predetermined number of visits or purchases. You’ve seen these before.

You may go to a local food truck outside of your office for lunch. They probably have some kind of a punch card that rewards you with a free sandwich on your tenth visit or some other reward scheme.

But the best customer loyalty programs reward their highest spending customers.

Set rewards based on spending tiers. This will give your customers an incentive to spend even more money.

Allowing them to track their progress on their customer profiles or from the mobile app will improve their personalized shopping experience.

Listen to customer feedback

According to research, 68% of consumers abandon a business because they don’t feel the brand cares about them.

That’s why you should use surveys and interviews to generate more money for your business. This will show your customers you value their opinions.

However, just asking your customers to provide feedback isn’t enough.

You actually need to make changes based on those suggestions.

But first, you need to analyze the results of the feedback. Don’t just implement changes for the sake of it—that won’t deliver a return on your investment.

But if you notice that a large percentage of your customers are providing similar feedback and suggestions to improve your process, you should take that very seriously.

Implementing these changes will make your customers realize they are part of your process and create a bond with your brand.

Recommend relevant products

I briefly mentioned this earlier, but I wanted to discuss it again in greater detail.

You already know you need to use the information provided in the customer profiles to personalize content for them. But there are certain pieces of extremely valuable information that you can’t get via a form field: what the customers are looking for and what they are buying.

But you can find out that information through the browsing and purchase histories of your customers. That information will allow you to suggest relevant products to them.

If you do, consumers will be more likely to buy from your brand, whether you operate online or in person:

browsing history

Recommending products to your customers also narrows their options.

Roughly 40% of consumers left a website to buy from a competitor instead because they felt overwhelmed by too many options. Don’t let this happen to you.

If one of your customers recently purchased a surfboard and a wetsuit, it’s safe to say they’ll be spending time at the beach and in the water. So you could suggest something like a paddleboard and sunscreen because it’s relevant to their purchase history.

Let your customers be part of the personalization process

Combine your personalization strategy with an interactive process.

If a customer doesn’t have a profile, you can still get more information from them to personalize the content they see.

For example, Warby Parker has a feature on its website I love. Obviously, glasses aren’t a one-size-fits-all product.

But with so many options, it can be overwhelming for consumers to find exactly what they’re looking for. To help narrow the results, the brand asks their customers some questions.

First, it asks if you’re browsing for men’s or women’s styles. Then, the questionnaire asks the type of fit you’re looking for.

warby parker 1

As you can see, the cartoon faces are all of men because that’s what I selected in the first step. It’s another subtle personalized touch.

Next, they want to know your color preferences for glasses.

After that, you need to provide them with the shapes of frames you prefer the most.

warby parker 2

The questions get even more detailed.

Warby Parker asks when you had your last eye exam. It also wants to know if you’re interested in eyeglasses, sunglasses, or both.

This relates to my last point about narrowing down the results. You don’t want to overwhelm your customers.

Now the product results will be based on the preferences chosen by the customer.

Write content from the first person perspective

Try to establish a personal relationship with your customers.

In theory, this is much easier for small business owners who actually see their customers on a regular basis.

But even if you’re an ecommerce shop or a global brand, there are still ways for you to create this type of relationship based on how you communicate with your customers.

By writing content from the first person perspective, just like I do when I blog, you will make your customers feel more comfortable. Write as if you’re talking to a friend.

You don’t need to be formal all the time.

Don’t get me wrong: you should still write using proper grammar and avoiding slang terms. Just write as if you’re having a casual conversation.

Do this with your emails, blogs, and content on your website.

Sign emails using your name. Your emails should be coming from [email protected].

Don’t send marketing emails from non-personalized addresses, like [email protected].

Craft personalized email subject lines and content

Let’s continue talking about your email marketing strategy.

In addition to segmenting your lists and writing content from the first person perspective, you need to learn how to craft subject lines that generate results.

After all, if nobody opens your emails, they’re useless.

Research shows that personalized subject lines have tons of benefits:

subject line

Your messages will get opened at higher rates and have more clicks.

As you can see from the graph, these clicks ultimately lead to improved customer satisfaction and higher sales as well.

Conclusion

Your customers want and expect a personalized shopping experience. It’s your job to deliver this to them.

Start by encouraging customers to create profiles on your website. When you add subscribers to your email list, segment them based on the information they provided you with.

Let customers store information in their accounts, expediting the checkout process.

Use geotargeting to show website visitors and app users personalized content based on their locations.

Implement a customer loyalty program. Listen to the feedback your customers give you.

Monitor their browsing and purchase histories to recommend relevant product suggestions.

Create an interactive personalization process to help your customers narrow product results.

Learn how to write content and email subject lines with a personal message.

Once you implement these personalization strategies, you’ll enhance the customer experience and ultimately drive more sales.

What strategies is your business using to personalize the customer experience?





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August 31, 2018 at 10:02AM
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How to Build Better Stories With Collaboration and Improv

8/31/2018

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How to Build Better Stories With Collaboration and Improv

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Want fresh ideas for your marketing content? Curious how improv techniques can help? To explore how collaborative storytelling can help you create engaging or interactive content, I interview Kathy Klotz-Guest. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing. In this episode, I interview Kathy Klotz-Guest. She's a storytelling expert and the author of Stop Boring Me. She also hosts a Facebook Live show called Yes, And Brand Show. Kathy explains why collaborative storytelling encourages your audience to engage with and share your content. You'll also discover how to turn ideas from a collaborative story session into awesome social media posts and videos. Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below. Listen Now Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show: Collaborative Storytelling Kathy's Story Kathy became a storytelling expert after working in technology and communications for 15 years. Although she worked in the tech and marketing world during the day, she was also telling stories on stand-up and improv comedy stages 5 or 6 nights per week. When she left her day job, her goal was to share how concepts from improv can help businesses. Improv is short for improvisational, and improv comedy is all about a team getting suggestions from the audience and building a scene based on those suggestions in real time without a script. It's collaborative, and Kathy thinks business storytelling can work this way, too. Specifically, because improv encourages the audience to participate and collaborate in the experience, the audience is incredibly engaged. As the improv team tells stories, people are at the edge of their seats. Also, with the audience's input, the stories go in amazing directions. The improv model is a huge contrast to the boring old models of storytelling in business. These models aren't collaborative. They're focused on the business instead of the audience. By bringing to companies the improv concepts of creating together and collaborating with audiences, Kathy thought businesses could create stories with their customers and partners, and have more fun. At first, Kathy tried these tactics in her day job running marketing and communications for a technology company. Then the birth of her son was a catalyst to move forward with her idea. That was 8 years ago. Today, she works with companies on their storytelling and communications. Specifically, Kathy helps companies identify where their communications aren't effective or collaborative. Many companies can improve communications among both internal teams and with their audience. To do that, she helps them rethink the entire storytelling experience so they listen to and include their audience. She calls this mix of improv-meets-narrative strategy collaborative storytelling. Listen to the show to hear Kathy discuss how the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a good example of improv. The Benefits of Collaborative Storytelling When you create stories with your customers and have more interactive experiences, you have higher engagement, better ideas, and a better sense of what your customers like and don't like. This collaborative effort begins internally. Teams often have untapped capital. However, because the team isn't communicating or maybe just doing the same things over and over, the team isn't developing fresh ideas. Another part of this collaborative style is reaching out to customers by asking them to finish a story, share what they like about it, or explain how they'd make it better. When you co-create a story with your audience, they're going to share it because people share things they help create. When you create with your audience, you increase their emotional investment in that outcome. Also,



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August 31, 2018 at 05:04AM
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How to Build Better Stories With Collaboration and Improv

8/31/2018

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How to Build Better Stories With Collaboration and Improv

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Scout mascot for Social Media ExaminerWant fresh ideas for your marketing content?

Curious how improv techniques can help?

To explore how collaborative storytelling can help you create engaging or interactive content, I interview Kathy Klotz-Guest.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is designed to help busy marketers, business owners, and creators discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview Kathy Klotz-Guest. She’s a storytelling expert and the author of Stop Boring Me. She also hosts a Facebook Live show called Yes, And Brand Show.

Kathy explains why collaborative storytelling encourages your audience to engage with and share your content.

You’ll also discover how to turn ideas from a collaborative story session into awesome social media posts and videos.

How to Build Better Stories With Collaboration and Improv featuring insights from Kathy Klotz-Guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

How to Build Better Stories With Collaboration and Improv featuring insights from Kathy Klotz-Guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.

Listen Now

Listen now: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Collaborative Storytelling

Kathy’s Story

Kathy became a storytelling expert after working in technology and communications for 15 years. Although she worked in the tech and marketing world during the day, she was also telling stories on stand-up and improv comedy stages 5 or 6 nights per week. When she left her day job, her goal was to share how concepts from improv can help businesses.

Improv is short for improvisational, and improv comedy is all about a team getting suggestions from the audience and building a scene based on those suggestions in real time without a script. It’s collaborative, and Kathy thinks business storytelling can work this way, too.

Specifically, because improv encourages the audience to participate and collaborate in the experience, the audience is incredibly engaged. As the improv team tells stories, people are at the edge of their seats. Also, with the audience’s input, the stories go in amazing directions.

The improv model is a huge contrast to the boring old models of storytelling in business. These models aren’t collaborative. They’re focused on the business instead of the audience. By bringing to companies the improv concepts of creating together and collaborating with audiences, Kathy thought businesses could create stories with their customers and partners, and have more fun.

This image is a screenshot of the Keeping It Human website. The header has a white background. On the left is the logo, which is the business name. The first word, keeping, appears in turquoise blue. The next word, it, is orange, and the I is dotted with a smiley face. The next word, human, is turquoise. On the right are details about the business owner: “Kathy Klotz-Guest, MA, MBA Keynote speaker, author, storytelling strategist, improv comedian”. Navigation options appear in white text on an orange background. The options are Blog, About, Books, Speaking, Shows, Comedy, Services, Humor, Contact Kathy, and a search icon. Below the navigation options is a slider image with a turquoise background and a green shaggy monster with purple striped horns, thin legs, and big white feet with claws. The monster has one droopy eye, and its open mouth reveals two fangs and a red tongue. To the left of the monster is the following text: “Spare the marketing air. Abolish jargon monoxide and boring marketing.”

At first, Kathy tried these tactics in her day job running marketing and communications for a technology company. Then the birth of her son was a catalyst to move forward with her idea. That was 8 years ago. Today, she works with companies on their storytelling and communications.

Specifically, Kathy helps companies identify where their communications aren’t effective or collaborative. Many companies can improve communications among both internal teams and with their audience. To do that, she helps them rethink the entire storytelling experience so they listen to and include their audience. She calls this mix of improv-meets-narrative strategy collaborative storytelling.

Listen to the show to hear Kathy discuss how the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a good example of improv.

The Benefits of Collaborative Storytelling

Collaborative storytelling brings fresh ideas forward.When you create stories with your customers and have more interactive experiences, you have higher engagement, better ideas, and a better sense of what your customers like and don’t like.

This collaborative effort begins internally. Teams often have untapped capital. However, because the team isn’t communicating or maybe just doing the same things over and over, the team isn’t developing fresh ideas.

Another part of this collaborative style is reaching out to customers by asking them to finish a story, share what they like about it, or explain how they’d make it better. When you co-create a story with your audience, they’re going to share it because people share things they help create. When you create with your audience, you increase their emotional investment in that outcome.

Also, when you collaborate with your employees, customers, or partners, they may finish the story differently than you and make it better. They can help you identify a gap in your story or envision a more powerful ending you never would have thought possible.

Listen to the show to hear Kathy discuss how breaking the fourth wall (speaking directly to the audience) relates to collaborative storytelling.

Tips for Beginning a Collaborative Story

Kathy shares some basics that can help any team or business get started with collaborative storytelling. She shares an example of how you can start a story and ask your audience to finish it. She also explains how the “Yes, And” concept from improv helps keep ideas flowing and how you can map a session so you have a record of the ideas a collaborative session generates.

Ask the Audience: To begin a collaborative story, you can ask your team or audience how they would improve a piece of content. Or create a story with a beginning and a middle, and ask people how they’d end it. For instance, years ago when IBM stopped making PCs, they asked their partners to help them write a new story for IBM. The result was the IBM Smarter Planet initiative.

This image is a screenshot from IBM Smarter Planet. At the top is a light gray bar. From left to right on this bar, the following appears: IBM 100 logo, Icons of Progress drop-down menu, United States (which indicates the user’s country). Below the gray bar is a white page with details about the initiative. Under the heading “Smarter Planet” are the following options: Overview, Transforming the World, Cultural Impacts, The Team, and In Their Words. To the right of these options is a large 100 logo. The 1 is striped like the IBM logo, the first zero is an photo of the earth, and the second zero is an illustration of the earth. Kathy Klotz-Guest says IBM Smarter Planet is a good example of using collaborative storytelling to develop fresh ideas for your company by collaborating with your partners or customers.

For a smaller business like Social Media Examiner, Kathy might ask people who attended Social Media Marketing World what they did differently after attending the conference. Ask attendees to make themselves the hero of the story. As attendees write their stories, they can help the company write its story, too, because the company learns how it helps people do better in the world.

To ask for attendees’ stories, you might begin with the company’s own story, following the format of “Everything was great. Then, this disruption happened. We grew.” Explain how people needed different things, the conference added programming, and now more people come back every year. Then say, “We want to hear your story. What has Social Media Marketing World helped you do?”

Another part of this request is to encourage your audience to take that story, make it their own, and share that content with their own audience. You can also include your staff in the process because they’re part of the company’s story, too.

“Yes, And”: The concept of “Yes, And” is the heart and soul of improv. It means that when you’re telling a story, you don’t deny or block what someone adds to the story. By constantly integrating the new ideas each person adds to the story, the story takes unexpected turns.

To demonstrate this, one time on stage, Kathy’s character was a mom, and then somebody added werewolf to the character. She then endeavored to become the best werewolf mom this side of Silicon Valley.

Yes, And can help your team generate more stories.To avoid blocking someone’s idea, it’s helpful to remember that you don’t have to build or fund every collaborative story your team generates. If a story is off-brand or doesn’t fit your future plan, that’s okay. Deciding what ideas will or won’t work comes later.

When you can let go of the urge to block ideas, people are free to build on each other’s ideas. The beauty of “Yes, And” is that your story may include some unusual ideas you can’t use, but because you listened and continued building with “Yes, And,” you also generated ideas that you just never saw or imagined possible.

When you use “Yes, And,” listening is important. It’s human nature to think about what we’ll say next or where we’re eating lunch. However, when you’re truly listening, your gut may not like an idea, but you’re present enough to see the idea in the spirit of “Yes, And.” With that mindset, you can respond positively with an idea that builds upon it or a question like, “Can you tell me more about this?”

If your team is struggling with “Yes, And,” it’s helpful to bring in an experienced facilitator. For instance, when Kathy was working with a very technical team whose members were total beginners to this concept, someone on the brainstorming team said, “Yes, and that idea sucks.” Everyone laughed, and Kathy was able to correct the issue and ask the team to start again.

To help teams new to the concept of “Yes, And,” Kathy typically starts the session with an introduction such as, “We’re going to generate some great ideas. I want to do something a little different and try some new things. If you’re not familiar with this type of stuff, just go on faith. We’re going to have a positive ‘Yes, And’ session.” She then explains what “Yes, And” means.

Yes, And can help your team reflect on how people operate.Next, Kathy leads a very short “Yes, But” exercise, which reflects how most people operate. They might agree or say they like an idea, but then focus on why the idea won’t work or why their idea is better, which invalidates everything that came before. By asking people to intentionally “Yes, But” each other, Kathy helps everyone understand why the “but” keeps ideas from going anywhere.

After the “Yes, But” exercise raises everyone’s awareness of how they shouldn’t communicate and why, Kathy leads a “Yes, And” exercise. She reminds people that they don’t have to make a commitment to the idea. They simply need to experience the idea flow and notice how amazing things happen when you hear somebody out. Kathy finds that this approach eases their way into “Yes, And.”

Group Size: Kathy recommends a group of four to six people. With just two people, the story-building can be too hard. With more than six people, the sessions can become a bit tricky because the group is thinking in a different way.

With four to six people, the process is manageable. You have enough people to develop interesting story branches and ideas. But the group is small enough that pulling people back into the flow if needed is easier, and everybody can feel heard.

Record or Map the Session: Kathy encourages people to record collaborative story sessions or have a graphic facilitator who maps out the ideas visually. These sessions produce amazing ideas that you never would have thought possible, but if you don’t record those ideas, you’ll forget some of it.

This record helps both during and after the collaborative story session. When you map ideas on a whiteboard, you can backtrack to the most viable ones during your session and create additional branches for a story. Also, even if you don’t use an idea right away, a record helps you revisit an idea after the session ends.

Listen to the show to hear how collaborative storytelling differs from brainstorming.

Content Creation With Collaborative Storytelling

To explain how to use collaborative storytelling to create content, Kathy offers a few examples. In her first example, you can identify a piece of content that has been successful and use collaborative storytelling to generate ideas for repurposing that content. For instance, say you have a SlideShare about 10 ways to use Instagram. With the collaborative storytelling model, each person uses “Yes, And” to add to each other’s ideas.

To illustrate how this works, Kathy and I do a brief collaborative storytelling session using her example:

Kathy: “How about 10 ways to help people grow their Instagram business?”

Michael: “Yes, and we create it as a brand-new 2-minute video for Instagram TV.”

Kathy: “Yes, and we create a traveling show where we visit small businesses and ask them on our IGTV how they’re using Instagram.”

Michael: “Yes, and while we’re there, we create an Instagram Live of the actual experience.”

Kathy: “Yes, and while we’re creating a live experience, we have people tell their stories and ask how they might tell somebody else’s story differently.”

After this first exercise, I’m fascinated and note that continually building on someone else’s idea is where the process becomes tricky. On one hand, actively listening and building on someone else’s idea is what makes the dialog interesting. But eventually, it’s hard to see how to take the idea one step further. I ask if Kathy recommends always building on the previous idea.

Use Yes, And come up with ideas for content repurposing.

Kathy says if someone’s idea sparks another idea you’re excited about, that’s the thread you want to pursue. Changing the direction is perfectly okay. You don’t judge somebody else’s idea or yourself. Follow the thread that’s most interesting to you; however, stay with the most recent idea and share your connected one.

You can also go back to the base idea and start a new thread. To illustrate this process, Kathy and I do a second collaborative story that begins with a blog post of 10 Instagram tips:

Michael: “Let’s create an article about each tip so we have 10 articles.”

Kathy: “Yes, and let’s create videos of each of those tips where we go into more detail.”

Michael: “Yes, and let’s republish those Instagram videos on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.”

Kathy: “Yes, and let’s connect those to some fun images and turn those into Facebook posts.”

Michael: “Yes, and let’s make sure that those Facebook posts tag people in our influencer crowd to help us get reach on those posts.”

Kathy: “Yes, and let’s ask those influencers to join in and create their own tip.”

After working in this way for 20 minutes, a team can generate several ideas for new content. The next step is to review the record of your session and identify which ideas are viable. Then decide which ideas you can implement in the short-term versus the long-term. The short-term ideas likely have more branches, so keep working on those. The long-term ideas you save and come back to later.

Yes, And can help your team generate more stories.Next, Kathy shares how a traditionally conservative bank used collaborative storytelling. The average age of the bank’s customer base was in their 50s, and the bank was trying to attract Millennial customers. The initial “Yes, And” session with the bankers generated the idea of making a group of Millennials the board of directors for a day and interviewing them about what they wanted.

Then Kathy facilitated another “Yes, And” session with a group of Millennials. Over a 2-hour lunch, the group pretended to be the board of directors and discussed what they’d like to see. Their ideas included a day for bringing your pet into the bank and accounts that helped support charities. As a result of this session, the bank developed new content and new types of accounts.

When Kathy worked with a ride-sharing company, the “Yes, And” session focused on how the company’s content could reflect the passions of its audience. Once the session got rolling, the ideas focused on the audience’s love for pets because a high percentage of this company’s audience has multiple pets.

As the team members listened to and built on each other’s ideas, a funny campaign for bringing your pet to the car-sharing service led to a funny video about a ride-sharing service for pets. From there, the ideas developed into a video that parodied how people use the service: Your pet wants to go to a doggy birthday party and uses the car service to get there.

Listen to the show to hear Kathy and me do our “Yes, And” example sessions.

How to Sell Collaborative Storytelling to Your Boss or Team

For anyone who wants to try collaborative storytelling in their own organization but isn’t sure how to get support from their boss, Kathy suggests starting small and getting a proof of concept. If you work in a small office, you can start to “Yes, And” your co-workers. Or find a small group that agrees to do a “Yes, And” session on their own. The session doesn’t have to be perfect.

After you generate some ideas, start testing these ideas in a low-risk environment. You might test a small piece of content online or run it by a couple of your ideal customers who’ll give you honest feedback. After you see what works and have a proof of concept, you can float the idea up to management and scale from there.

In this screenshot of a web page that promotes the Yes And Brand Show, a slightly transparent photo of Kathy Klotz-Guest appears in the background, on the left side of the promotion. She’s a white woman with blond hair just below her shoulders. She’s smiling and wearing a light blue blazer. On the right side of the photo is text about the show. In the top right is the name for her business, Keeping It Human. Below that, the following text appears in black, except for hashtag, which is orange: “Fridays 10AM PDT The #YesandBrand Show w/ host Kathy Klotz-Guest”. Below the details about the time, the show’s tagline appears: “When marketing meets comedy, anything can happen.” Under this promotional image are more details about the show: “#YESANDBRAND is the weekly Facebook Live show where I chat about storytelling, and content with a fun twist. Always improvised. We take your questions. Check out past episodes!” The text “past episodes” is linked to a YouTube playlist for the live show.

You can also try this on live video with whoever shows up. Kathy does this on the Yes, And Brand Show all the time. People call and ask live questions, and they brainstorm. The show also expands on concepts from improv. Kathy talks to influencers, artists, and anyone doing cool stuff about where they said “Yes, And” along their journey, and how that led them to where they are today.

However, you don’t need a show to do collaborative storytelling via live video. You can simply host a live video, do this type of brainstorming with your customers or audience, and see what interesting ideas come from it.

Listen to the show to hear Kathy share more about the Yes, And Brand Show.

Discovery of the Week

When you need to eliminate distractions while you write, iA Writer has a simple interface designed to help you focus only on writing.

Whatever you want to write — blog posts, meeting notes, outlines, podcast show notes, tweets, Facebook posts, texts — iA Writer has several features that help you focus. In Focus mode, the app lets you dim out everything but the sentence or paragraph that you’re working on. The app also separates text and formatting, so that when you’re writing, you can just write. Formatting and editing come later.

This image is a screenshot of a promotional page for the iA Writer app. In the white header at the top, the iA logo appears on the left. On the right are the following navigation options: Home, Apps, Blog, Support. Then on a bright blue background are details about the app. The following white text appears on the blue background: “The Focused Writing App iA Writer removes distractions, giving you a calm, focused writing space.” Below this text is a video of someone typing using the iA Writer app. In the upper left of the interface is a menu of options for the app’s Focus Mode.

iA Writer takes up the whole screen of your computer or mobile device so nothing appears in the periphery. Also, you can use iA Writer on macOS or Windows for desktop computers, or iOS or Android for mobile devices. If you use any combination of these devices, you can sync your work. So if you write notes on mobile while you’re out and about, they appear on your desktop version, too.

Also, you can export your text to different file formats, such as DOC for Microsoft Word or PDF.

iA Writer costs $4.99 for the mobile app, and $29.99 for the desktop app. The app is a one-time purchase, so after you buy it, you own your copy.

Listen to the show to learn more about iA Writer and let us know how it works for you.

Key takeaways from this episode:

What do you think? What are your thoughts on collaborative storytelling? Please share your comments below.

Discover why collaborative storytelling encourages audience engagement, and learn how collaborative story sessions help you generate content.





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August 31, 2018 at 05:04AM
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4 Ways To Make Your Small Business More Efficient

8/30/2018

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4 Ways To Make Your Small Business More Efficient

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Running a small business has many challenges. So many that the very second you resolve one issue (such as getting enough funds for a new project), you end up running into another one (needing a certain contract signed or a new hire so that you can keep going with the said project). That’s why, as the business leader of a small company, there are lots of strategies you use to simplify your life. Because otherwise, you’d be spending every hour of every day at the office–and while you love to run your own business and it’s a dream come true to be doing what you’re passionate about, there’s something to be said for some downtime. And for a simplified way of getting through your tasks every day.

That’s why it’s so important to make your small business as efficient as possible. When it comes to saving time and saving money, here are some great ways to do that.

1 Invest in marketing solutions

When you’re first starting your business, it may seem like you can do it all. But a big trap that lots of business leaders fall into is that they don’t delegate their responsibilities as much as they should be. And when it comes to something like social media and SEO, it’s easy to think you can do it yourself. After all, most entrepreneurs, for their own brand and other businesses, have dabbled in the art of choosing the right keywords and setting up social media calendars that work. But if you want your business to run efficiently, doing all the work yourself isn’t going to cut it.

If you want to stand out among your competitors and show up first when someone Googles something related to your industry, you need to spend money on simplifying your marketing strategies. Take 180Fusion, for example, a company that will provide you with SEO, PPC, and social media solutions. By allowing them to focus on those aspects, you can work on what matters: your actual business, and running it well. After all, there are more than 2.3 million Google searches conducted each minute–and you need to be able to keep up with that!

2 Automate bookkeeping and employee payments

If you’ve ever sat down at the end of a busy quarter, and it’s suddenly tax season, it can be one of the most stressful times of the year. If you haven’t been keeping track of invoices right, or your business’s success has been up and down all year because it’s new, you’re going to end up spending hours figuring out taxes. That’s why it’s so important to automate bookkeeping. By using an app like Quickbooks, Xero, or Mint, you can automate transactions and connect these apps directly to your bank account.

In the same vein, automating employee payments will make your life easier. Instead of having to spend hours figuring out what to take out for taxes and how to bill hours, you can automate your payments with a service like EChecks. According to the EChecks website, “All you need is the recipient’s email address, and you’ll be able to create, sign and email payments from your computer or mobile device in a flash.”

Considering that, in 2017, 67 percent of small business owners said their top challenge was lack of capital and cash flow, simplifying transactions will save you a lot of grief.

3 Streamline communications

If you’ve spent an hour crafting a perfect email to a business partner about a potential marketing strategy, and now you’re stuck waiting for days or even weeks for an answer, you’re losing not only time but also money. That’s why it’s smart to get off of email as much as you can. Instead of emailing your employees an important memo, set up a meeting, so that if there are any questions, they can be asked right away. It may seem like scheduling a meeting will take extra time, but emails slow everything down.

Additionally, think of using services like Slack or Skype for Business for direct communication with employees throughout the day. And when it comes to communicating with your customers, set up a 24/7 helpline. Or, use AI chatbots so that you’re available even when no one’s in the office. After all, according to The 2018 State of Chatbots Report, 37 percent of survey respondents said they would use a chatbot in an emergency–and this number is sure to go up.

4 Outsource if you need to–and hire the right people

Finally, you need to remember that you don’t have the time or skills for everything, even if you have a lot of business experience. That’s why it’s so important for you to hire outside help for the parts of projects you might not have the capacity for.

Additionally, if you find yourself outsourcing in a certain area often, think about hiring a new team member. It’s worth having additional employees in the long term if they’re going to be managing a large chunk of your business tasks. Considering that 40 percent of employees surveyed said they planned on changing jobs in 2018, you’re sure to find someone who’s interested in working with you.

These are some of the best ways to make your business more efficient. What other strategies would work for your business and industry?

The post 4 Ways To Make Your Small Business More Efficient appeared first on Social Media Explorer.





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August 30, 2018 at 05:56PM
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Turns out not many people change their minds because of something they see on social media

8/30/2018

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Turns out, not many people change their minds because of something they see on social media

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Turns out, not many people change their minds because of something they see on social media

Image: Shutterstock / pathdoc

Angela Moscaritolo

for

PCMag 2018-08-30 17:49:11 UTC
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PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

Think your political rants on Facebook or Twitter are persuasive enough to get other people to change their opinions? Don't flatter yourself.

A recent study from the Pew Research Center reveals that exposure to opposing views on social media has not caused most Americans to change their own stance on issues in the past year. Just 14 percent of the 4,594 US adults surveyed between May 29 and June 11 said they have changed their views about a political or social issue in the past year due to something they saw on social media.

Image: Pew Research center

"Certain groups, particularly young men, are more likely than others to say they've modified their views because of social media," according to Pew Research Assistant Kristen Bialik. "Around three-in-ten men ages 18 to 29 (29 percent) say their views on a political or social issue changed in the past year due to social media."

Image: pew research center

More Democrats and liberal-leaning independents have re-thought their views because of social media posts this year than Republicans and conservative-leaning Independents have, Pew found.

"Although most people have not changed their views on a political or social issue in the past year because of social media, those who have also tend to place a high level of personal importance on social media as a tool for personal political engagement and activism," Bialik wrote.

Meanwhile, Pew conducted a similar survey with slightly different wording in 2016 and found that 20 percent of social media users had modified their stance on a social or political issue because of something they saw on one of these services. That time, the research firm asked users if they had ever done so. The more recent survey focused on whether users had in the past year.

This article originally published at PCMag here





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August 30, 2018 at 12:52PM
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Twitter announces new policy and certification process for issue ads

8/30/2018

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Twitter announces new policy and certification process for ‘issue ads’

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Twitter continues to roll out new policies aimed at increasing transparency, particularly around political advertising.

Amidst ongoing concerns about Russian election interference and misinformation on social media, the company recently announced political ad guidelines and launched an Ads Transparency Center where you can find more information about advertisers.

Initially, however, Twitter’s stricter standards were limited to ads for U.S. federal election candidates and campaigns. Now it’s announced a policy around the broader category of “issue ads.”

In a blog post, Twitter’s vice president of trust and safety Del Harvey and its general manager of revenue product Bruce Falck said the policy affects two categories:

* Ads that refer to an election or a clearly identified candidate, or
* Ads that advocate for legislative issues of national importance

In both cases, advertisers will need to apply for certification, which involves verifying their identity and location in the United States. Like election ads, issue ads will be labeled as such in the Twitter timeline, and they’ll allow users to click through and learn more about the advertiser. They’ll also be included in the Ads Transparency center.

Twitter Issue Ads

As examples of the kinds of issues that would be covered, Harvey and Falck cited “abortion, civil rights, climate change, guns, healthcare, immigration, national security, social security, taxes, and trade,” though they also said that list will likely evolve over time.

News organizations that want to run ads around their political coverage can apply for an exemption. (Since the definition of what is and isn’t a news organization can be blurry, there are specific criteria that they’d need to meet, like providing editorial staff information online and not being “dedicated to advocating on a single issue.”)

“We don’t believe that news organizations running ads on Twitter that report on these issues, rather than advocate for or against them, should be subject to this policy,” Harvey and Falck wrote.

Twitter says it will start enforcing the policy (which, to be clear, is currently U.S.-only) on September 30.





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August 30, 2018 at 12:33PM
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Top ways in which your smartphone can improve your health

8/30/2018

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Top ways in which your smartphone can improve your health

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Smartphones and other handheld devices are often much maligned for the negative impact they can have on our overall health – particularly when they are used to excess.

However, what is less often mentioned is how they can promote good health in many ways, and can provide ways of ensuring that we keep to our exercise routines, have a healthy heart, and even get a good night’s sleep. These health perks go well beyond the easy hit of dopamine that users get from accumulating likes of social media, which the epidemic of smartphone addiction is largely attributed to.

With that in mind, this article explores some of the top ways in which our extensive use of smartphones can be a cause for good in our lives.

Heart rate monitor

Your smartphone gives you access to a heart rate monitor, which can be a handy tool when doing serious exercise. Your heart rate provides a clear indication of your overall health, so it’s important to check this regularly.

Of course, there are several apps out there which offer this, so it’s always a good idea to read the reviews or check out some review sites before downloading – particularly if it’s not a free app.

Track your moods

Our emotions can impact on our overall health. For example, laughter and happiness can release endorphins and reduce stress, leading to an improve state of mental wellbeing. Conversely, negative emotions over a prolonged period can place us under intense stress and lead to mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.

Mood Tracker apps on your smartphone can measure your emotional output and monitor your mood, allowing you to pin down what causes your good or bad moods. This may allow you to create more of what makes you feel good, and less of what does the opposite.

Sleeping patterns

A good night’s sleep is crucial to good overall health. Poor or disturbed sleep can leave us feeling tired, stressed, and short tempered, whereas a healthy sleep pattern provides us with the optimum amount of rest required to carry out all our tasks in waking hours.

Your smartphone can track this, and can monitor your activity while you sleep. The apps which specialise in this can provide you with information such as what night you sleep best, how much noise you made, and how many times you became disturbed. This can help you to tailor your sleeping arrangements and remove anything that may be preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep.

Calorie counting

Sleeping well and getting enough exercise are important, as is watching what we eat. Calorie counting apps allow us to keep track of the amount of calories consumed with each meal, as well as the amount of salt, sugar and fat which are harmful to health if over-consumed.

Some apps can even provide meal ideas if you’re looking to deviate from your usual eating habits. This can be particularly useful if your app is telling you that you’re regularly overeating.

The post Top ways in which your smartphone can improve your health appeared first on Social Media Explorer.





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August 30, 2018 at 08:42AM
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