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David Steinberg Zeta Global CEO Bio https://ift.tt/2KSjViL David Steinberg is a highly talented, driven individual with a vision for his workers and the future. Born in 1970, he’s been the force behind many successful business ventures in the modern world. Perhaps best known as the founder of Zeta Global, he’s always in search of new challenges and new opportunities. This company is but one of the many ventures that have seen his star rise and his accomplishments acknowledged. His long career began back in 1993 when he founded his first company. Since that time, he’s been one of the most important forces in the world of technology and other industries. Zeta Global is valued at over $1.4 billion and has annual revenues of more than $300 million. His Early LifeSeeking to use his talents, David Steinberg headed off to earn a degree at Washington & Jefferson College. A private college in Washington, Pennsylvania with a focus on the liberal arts. This background provided him with the right tools he needed in order to begin his career in business. After graduating in 1991, Steinberg started a company of his own scant two years later. Sterling Cellular, Inc began as a venture in which he ran out of his parent’s basement. Their home in a suburb of Washington, D.C. was the place ideal for a start. His parents helped with a loan. He also found capital with help from the use of credit cards. By the time it had been in business for a single year, the company enjoyed over a million in revenue. A New VentureFour years after starting this company, it had a dozen locations and over twenty-two million in sales from happy clients. David Steinberg was not satisfied, he wanted to harness the power of the internet to bring in even more sales. To that end, he broke up the company. He sold off the company’s retail, in-person locations and then founded a new company: Inphonic, Inc. Inphonic, Inc took off just as quickly as the first company he started. Within a seven-year period, it had hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and became the world’s largest seller of phones on the net. His Work at XL Marketing Corp Pre Zeta GlobalIn 2007, he began another venture that allowed him to use his talents once again. CAIVIS Acquisition Corp allowed him to use his talents for spotting companies with potential and bringing his own spin and capital to help them see new opportunities. They purchase small companies and help them grow via the use of varied media including the internet. David Steinberg is able to provide such companies with services they need such as human resources to help them expand into new markets and find capital. Part of his goal is to help with expansion and thus increase their overall market value. This strategy led to his ongoing involvement with Zeta Global. It’s a position he holds today where he occupies the much-valued role of company Chief Executive Officer. He has continued to raise capital for the company today. The post David Steinberg Zeta Global CEO Bio appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog November 26, 2019 at 10:31PM
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You can take my Dad’s tweets over my dead body https://ift.tt/2DlcKvg Editor’s note: Drew is a geek who first worked at AOL when he was 16 years old and went on to become a senior writer at TechCrunch. He is now the VP of Communications for venture equity fund Scaleworks. There are a few ways that people use Twitter, but for the most part the ones who have pushed the social platform into the national lexicon are regular users who like to communicate with each other using the thing. They’re the ones who use it a lot. They’re the ones who make Twitter go. Now, mind you, I’m an extreme case. I share a lot. I’ve shared my cancer diagnoses, my stem cell treatment, new jobs, my wedding. And the loss of my father Barry.
Today, Twitter announced that it will reclaim dormant accounts. That is, if you haven’t logged into yours for a long time, it is considered inactive and will be included in the reclamation process. At first I thought that was pretty cool. There are a ton of accounts that get squatted on, forcing new users to use crappy AOL-like names, such as Joe583822. No fun at all. And these accounts aren’t even in use! As in not active. No big deal. But then I saw this:
My heart sank. And I cried. You see, I didn’t think about this. It is a big deal. My father’s Twitter account isn’t active. He passed away over four years ago. My Dad was a casual tweeter at best. He mostly used it because I, well, overused it. And it was charming. Once in a while he’d chime in with a zinger of a tweet and I’d share it humbly with the folks who kindly follow me.
He got a kick out of that, and so did I. I still do. I still read his tweets, and from time to time I still share them with you. It’s my way, odd or not, of remembering him. Keeping his spirit alive. His tweets are timestamped moments that he shared with the world. And Twitter is sweeping them up like crumpled-up paper and junk in a dustbin.
Surely, my father isn’t the only person who has passed away and left a Twitter account unkept — or, as the company puts it, “inactive.” I can think of a few others. And I get even more upset at the thought of their thoughts disappearing. I might not remember everyone we’ve lost, but not being able to recall something they’ve said or shared in the past is depressing. When people ask me why I use Twitter so much, it’s mostly because I see the platform as a living organism. It’s not perfect. In fact, it’s awful sometimes. Lately, a lot of times. During events and during holidays it’s almost as if that tiny little app on my phone has a pulse. And a heart. Because of course it does: It’s full of human beings with feelings and real thoughts. That’s what makes Twitter Twitter.
And just because someone’s pulse no longer beats doesn’t mean their thoughts no longer matter. I sincerely hope that Twitter didn’t think about this first and reverse course. Perhaps they’ll offer a way to memorialize an account. I don’t have my dad’s login. I can’t “wake up” his account to keep it safe. I am truly sad at the thought of losing some of his quirky nerdy tweets. Especially this one:
My dad thought I was the only person on the damn site and I never corrected him or schooled him on Twitter. He used it the way he wanted to, and that reminds me of the person he was. If you take that away from me, then what is Twitter anyway?
Facebook allows you to memorialize someone’s page and that’s pretty great. Unfortunately, my father’s page was deactivated and deleted without my having been consulted. By the time I realized it was gone, Facebook told me there was nothing it could do. It was really traumatizing for me and my other family members. So many interactions there, thoughts, smiles. A timeline. No, a time capsule. Just gone. Like my dad. Big tech companies are good at a lot of things, but what they seem to lack is collective empathy and heart. When humans use the things you build and you stop treating them like humans, but rather like bits and bytes and revenue dollars, you’ve given your soul away. And maybe it’s just me getting older, but I’ve had about enough of it. To quote the late great Barry Olanoff:
Think about it, Twitter. Do better. Because every time you make me question your humanity, I’m one step closer to not being that whale of a user that helped get you here in the first place. Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com November 26, 2019 at 10:06PM
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Skweezer Review + Top 10 Alternatives to Check Out https://ift.tt/2QRtm5E If you’re using Instagram, chances are, you want to get noticed. Gaining an engaged following is crucial for success, whether you’re a business or an influencer. You need an audience to see your posts. Attracting Instagram users the old-fashioned way can take a great deal of time. Fortunately, there are tools out there that can help you boost your following and get quality engagement at much quicker rates. These allow you to buy likes, comments and followers or use automation to do the hard work for you. It’s a great way to save yourself time and gain momentum as you’re building your social media presence. However, you may worry whether these sites are worth the investment. After all, some Instagram bots have been shut down due to questionable practices. Read on to learn more about one Instagram growth tool, Skweezer, along with 10 alternatives to check out. With this information, you can decide which ones may fit your Instagram marketing needs. Top Skweezer Alternatives
What Is Skweezer?Skweezer is a third-party marketing service. They focus exclusively on helping you to grow your Instagram profile. Skweezer doesn’t currently offer services for any other social media platform. It allows you to purchase likes and followers for your business or brand’s Instagram profile to help you get a jumpstart on building a successful presence on the network. Skweezer claims to only deliver real followers. The followers they use are within their own network and are paid a share of Skweezer’s profits for following you. This method is supposed to help to lower any risk of being penalized by Instagram. Features of SkweezerThis service offers a number of features, along with various plans to meet a variety of budgets and needs. Skweezer lets you purchase followers, views, likes and comments. There are different price points based on the feature you wish to purchase and the volume you choose. Again, Skweezer claims to use only real followers within their network. These followers aren’t bots; therefore, you can expect to obtain engagement as you continue to grow your content. Followers can be delivered all at once or gradually. Receiving them gradually is preferred by many because it appears more natural. Because the followers are real and active accounts, it is possible you could occasionally lose followers here and there. Skweezer says they will compensate for any loss by refilling them for free. Buying followers helps you to grow your audience more quickly than doing it on your own. Skweezer claims that buying followers from them is “harm-free” and “fully risk-free”. As far as video views go, they say they will begin delivering your ordered views within 24 hours and that they do not drop. Skweezer’s software instantly recognizes when you upload new content. They promise likes within one to five minutes. There are two options when it comes to comments. You can write your own or choose to have comments randomly generated. One claim that Skweezer offers is that they can get your Instagram account verified. Proceed with caution regarding this, as there seem to be mixed reviews on this feature. In order to proceed, you’ll need to answer some questions on the Skweezer website to determine eligibility. Then you can purchase a package that moves you forward in the process toward verification. This verification process can include a case study, PR articles about your company or brand and submission for Instagram’s verification. Plans and Prices for Skweezer ServicesPrice points vary for Skweezer services, based upon individual feature and the amount desired. Let’s take a look at the prices on both the high and low end in order to give you an idea of costs. Prices are accurate as of this writing and are on a monthly basis. Prices for Instagram followers start at $7.00 for 250. The high end will cost you $179.00 for 20,000 followers. Instagram active followers is a new plan that combines likes and follows. You can try it out for $17.00 per month to get 150 followers with 100 likes and views per post. The large package costs $99.00 each month and includes 5,000 followers with 500 likes and views per post. Next up is Instagram comments. Start with five comments for $2.99. Their highest priced comment package runs $28.99 for 100 comments. For automatic likes in which the Skweezer system automatically detects your new content and sends likes to it, the price range goes from $15.00 for a hundred likes for 30 posts to $495.00 for 5500 likes for 30 posts. Finally, you can pay only for Instagram views if you’d prefer. These start at $1.19 for 100 views and go up to $99.99 for 150,000 views. As you can see, there are a wide variety of options available to you, based upon your specific needs. An advantage to this is that you can customize a package that can deliver your desired results. Pros and Cons of SkweezerAs with any product, Skweezer has its pros and cons. There’s always some risk to buying into any product or service. It’s good to keep that in mind. Let’s take a look at the good and the bad of Skweezer. Pros:
Cons:
Final ThoughtsThis service could be worth a try, as it does seem engagement through their network could be legitimate. However, there are some issues that are concerning. The fact that they offer a questionable Instagram verification claim is worrisome. In addition, lack of comprehensive, fast and accessible customer service is a major downside. Consider trying Skweezer at your own risk. Let’s take a look at the top 10 alternatives to Skweezer you may want to look into. 1. ViralRaceViralRace is a trustworthy Instagram growth service that lets you buy 100% real, engaged followers and high-quality views. They push your content out to genuine Instagram users who are predisposed to like content such as yours. This is your target audience, not just randomly selected users. You can choose rapid or gradual delivery of followers with this service. In addition, you can get likes automatically as soon as you post. ViralRace is a respected engagement marketplace. It can help your company or brand to gain the social proof necessary to gain new business and collaborations. They can also help you to reach Instagram’s explore page more quickly. 2. YoViralYoViral is in the same vein as ViralRace. This tool also connects you to real Instagrammers who will proceed to view and like your content. You are free to dictate the speed at which the engagements come in, whether you want them all at once or spread out over time. Buying a monthly plan gives you the advantage of receiving likes within 30 seconds of posting to Instagram. Well-known influencers and brands are using this service to give their engagement a boost. With their easy two-click set up process, you can get started in just seconds. 3. Social EmpireSocial Empire is a growth service that works with SoundCloud and YouTube in addition to Instagram. They provide auto likes, followers and views for your Instagram page. They promise to use the safest promotion techniques so that your account stay safe. If you’re not happy, they do offer the peace of mind of a comprehensive refund policy. They have a wide assortment of packages for purchase, so you can customize your choices to meet your needs. A bonus to this site is their fast 24/7 customer service. 4. AudienceGainAudienceGain is a social media marketing company that provides promotion services for a wide variety of social networks, not just Instagram. They also work with YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook and Twitter. This is good news for anyone that manages accounts across platforms. They provide views, likes and follows from genuine accounts using organic methods of promotion. Their website is user-friendly, and the ordering process with AudienceGain couldn’t be easier. You’ll be impressed with their lifetime retention warranty, too. Your order will be processed within 24 hours, and delivery is fast. 5. FollowersUpFollowersUp is promotion service for Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Again, this is great for anyone in charge of multiple accounts across platforms. You can buy likes and followers on this platform. They promise delivery of up to 25,000 Instagram followers in just two to three days. They offer an intuitive and easy to use website. Turnaround time is fast, within 24 hours. You can expect engagement from high-quality accounts. Though there’s no live chat for customer support, email is available. They can also be reached through WhatsApp. 6. Media MisterMedia Mister boasts success in promotion across platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Targeting options are available to help you reach the audience you desire. Their website is well-designed to help you navigate all of the services available. Customer service is available through live chat and is quite responsive. Though you may lose followers over time, Media Mister offers a robust retention program that will compensate for any losses. 7. FeedPixelFeedPixel provides quality social media boosting services. It also supports multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. They claim to offer more followers, likes and comments than other services and do seem to be well-reviewed across the internet. One bonus they offer is a personal assistant who will help to guide you in your social media growth. 8. InstaShopInstaShop is an Instagram growth site that offers a wide range of packages to meet the needs of all sorts of marketers. They offer genuine, quality engagement in the form of followers, likes, comments and views. Customer service is outstanding. In addition, you can expect fast delivery of the features you choose. 9. IG InstantYou can buy real Instagram likes on IG Instant. This is a simplified service that focuses exclusively on likes, which can be quite beneficial. Purchase from 100 to 50,000 likes depending upon your needs. They deliver within minutes and offer 24/7 customer support and a secure site. 10. GetAFollowerIf you’re looking for promotion services on multiple networks, GetAFollower is another one to consider. They can service Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, among others. Not only can this resource help you get more followers, likes and comments, they go above and beyond. You can also purchase views, impressions and mentions. This is a nice alternative to many other options out there. They have a number of ways to help you including live chat, email support and an extensive FAQ page. There you have it, a comprehensive review of Skweezer. While it offers some good features, it’s likely there are other alternatives that may serve your Instagram growth needs more professionally and thoroughly. Consider checking out any of the 10 alternatives listed here for more options. The post Skweezer Review + Top 10 Alternatives to Check Out appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog November 26, 2019 at 08:44PM Twitter will free up handles by deleting inactive accounts https://ift.tt/2qP9Bkz Those who’ve attempted to snag their preferred Twitter handle know what a pain the process can be. Users can squat on an account for years, holding onto handles in spite of long stretches of inactivity. As spotted by a BBC reporter, Twitter looks to finally be getting proactive about the situation. The service confirmed the move in an email to TechCrunch, writing,
As noted, the service has an inactive account policy in place, though it traditionally hasn’t done much to enforce this. The company encourages users to, at the very least, log in and Tweet ever six months. Now it’s taking the added measure of reaching out to inactive users, prompting them to log in prior to December 11, or risk being deleted. As for the timeline of opening up those accounts, Twitter’s not saying. And the fine print on the inactive account policy page still notes that the service does not “generally accept requests for usernames that seem inactive,” short of perceived trademark infringement. A spokesperson noted in an email to TechCrunch that the accounts “may” become available, though the process of removing old accounts will likely take a number of months. Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com November 26, 2019 at 03:03PM
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How to Add Facebook Pixel to Your WordPress Website https://ift.tt/2XORcjX New users often find it difficult to add a Facebook pixel to their WordPress website mainly because they don’t know where to start. Facebook pixel helps you optimize your Facebook ad campaigns by gathering information about your visitors and then generating an audience that is more relevant to your business. In simpler words, Facebook Pixel helps you target your ads better and get better click-through rates and conversion rates. There are two ways you can add Facebook Pixel to your WordPress website, manually and through a Facebook pixel plugin. In this article, I will take you through both the methods and show you how you can add a Facebook pixel to your WordPress website. How to Add Facebook Plugin ManuallyWhen you add a Facebook Pixel manually, you just copy the pixel code and paste it on the header of your WordPress website. To get started with this method, you need to create a Facebook Pixel ID first. If you haven’t created one, you can do that from here. Once you’re on this page, click on the Get Started button. You will be asked to enter your name and website. Click Continue and then click Manually add pixel code to your website Once you move forward, you will see the Pixel code that you will have to copy and paste on your WordPress website’s header. If you scroll down this page, you will see some more options to help you collect more information about your visitors. There is also an option to test your code to see if it’s working properly or not. Adding Facebook Pixel Plugin to Your WordPress Website Via a PluginFacebook pixel plugins give you more than just the ability to add the pixel code to your website; they also let you create custom audiences. For this tutorial we will be using Pixel Caffeine, a popular Facebook pixel plugin, to add a pixel to your WordPress website. Start by installing the plugin on your WordPress website. Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will see this page. You can either start by entering your pixel ID or you can connect your Facebook account, in which case it will be easier to install the Pixel and you will get all the advanced features as well. For this tutorial, we will use Facebook Connect. Once you allow the plugin to connect with your Facebook account, you will have to choose the ad account that you want to connect to. Once you have selected the ad account, click on Apply to set up your Pixel. Pretty simple, isn’t it? Now that you have installed the pixel, click on the Dashboard tab to track the activity on your Pixel. You can also set up Custom Audiences and Conversion Events directly from your WordPress dashboard. Final WordsNow that you know how to set up Facebook Pixel to your WordPress website, you will be able to filter out your audiences and better optimize your Facebook ads. Your ads will now be more targeted and will reach the right people which will improve their click-through and conversion rates. If you think the plugin I used in this article is not the right one for you, you can also check out this list of the best WordPress Facebook pixel plugins to choose from. Social Media via Quick Sprout https://ift.tt/UU7LJr November 26, 2019 at 08:40AM
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WordPress Helpdesk and Support Ticketing Plugins to Enhance Customer Experience https://ift.tt/2pRsDGC Setting up an efficient helpdesk system is a crucial aspect to success when running an eCommerce business. If you have a WordPress-WooCommerce online store, there are several options to help you integrate a helpdesk. When it comes to a helpdesk or support ticket plugin, the choice that you make is dependent on a lot of specific business requirements. In this article, we will discuss some of the important features to look for in WordPress helpdesk and support ticket plugins that will help improve customer experience. We will also explore the features of some of the best solutions. Characteristics of a good WordPress Helpdesk solutionA good helpdesk solution should essentially help in better customer experience. You need to ensure that it offers a comprehensive set of features to help you provide exceptional customer experience. First, let us try and understand some of the advanced features of a superior WordPress helpdesk solution: No restrictions in number of agents and ticketsWhen you check out some of the popular helpdesk solutions, you may see many of them have restrictions when it comes to the number of agents who can use it. This may not be a great feature when your business is going through a rapid growth phase. Paying additional charges every time a new agent is added to the team may not be a great outcome for a small business. So, look for WordPress helpdesk and support solutions with no restrictions in terms of number of agents and tickets that can be handled at a time. Simple interface to manage ticketsThe support agents will be mostly accessing the helpdesk system through the admin backend. This interface needs to be smooth and user friendly for agents to help them respond quickly to customer queries. An Ajax-based interface will quickly load tickets without reloading the page. Agents should also be able to view tickets in custom order and to sort them quickly using varied filters. Basically, if support agents are able to handle the ticket dashboard smoothly, they will be able to respond to customers quicker as well. eCommerce integrationIf you are running an eCommerce store, you have to integrate the helpdesk system to your store to make the customer support process streamlined. With the help of a support system integrated with eCommerce, your customers will be able to raise queries by associating them with specific products. Similarly, the agents will be able to see the purchase history and other details of the customers they are interacting with. The customer experience on your web store will be much superior if you have a helpdesk system that smoothly integrates with the eCommerce platform. Workflow automationIf you have a big store and a considerably large number of products, your customer support process too will be complex. There will be a set of actions that happens before a customer query is replied to and resolved. A good helpdesk system will help you automate such routine actions in your customer support workflow to make the process faster. Sending notifications, assigning to an agent or department, adding priority tags, etc.can be easily automated. Self service and canned responsesNot all customers will have the patience and time to wait for a support agent to answer to their queries. A lot of your customers will be willing to find answers on their own. By integrating with a knowledge base, you will be able to provide a good self service option through your helpdesk. In fact, this will help reduce the number of queries and make the system more efficient. Similarly, predefined answer templates or canned responses can help agents respond faster to repetitive queries. You may have to look for knowledge base integration and canned responses feature before zeroing in on a WordPress helpdesk solution. Analytics toolsGood analytics insights are key to improving any digital solution. Obviously a good analytics dashboard can help your customer support system be much more efficient. On the analytics dashboard, you should get a good view on the resolution rate, response times, individual agent performance, queries related to a specific product, etc. The WordPress helpdesk solution that you choose should have a good analytics dashboard to help you measure performance without hassles. Best WordPress Helpdesk and Support Ticket pluginsNow, let us explore the features of some of the popular WordPress helpdesk and support ticket plugins. WSDeskWSDesk is one of the most popular WordPress helpdesk and support solutions that you can choose to enhance customer experience. It integrates well with eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. Even the basic version of WSDesk is feature rich with options to convert emails to tickets and unlimited agent profiles. Compared to other Saas-based solutions, WSDesk gives better control to store owners as it does not data in the cloud. The data related to your store and customers will be saved on your server itself and you need not depend on the service provider to access it. Feature highlightsHere is a quick look at some of the standout features of WSDesk.
A single site subscription of WSDesk will cost you $89. WooCommerce Help ScoutThis plugin helps you integrate your WooCommerce store to Help Scout customer support solution. That means you will have to subscribe to a Help Scout subscription plan as well to make full use of this one. With the help of a shortcode, you will be able to place a Help Scout support form anywhere on your website. Moreover, it lets you initiate a conversation with any customer right from the order details page. This is a comprehensive solution that will help you manage your customer support much more efficiently than relying on multiple tools. Feature highlightsHere are some of the exceptional features of Help Scout:
The single site subscription of the plugin has a price tag of $79. This is in addition to the Help Scout subscription. Zendesk for WordPressWith the help of a free WordPress plugin, you will be able to integrate Zendesk support system to your blog or website. On your website or blog, you can display a Zendesk feedback tab that will let users search the knowledge base, chat with an agent or submit a ticket. Users registered to your website will be automatically signed in to Zendesk as well. You will be able to turn blog comments to tickets to respond to users promptly. Please note, you will have to subscribe to a plan of Zendesk to be able to use it. Feature highlights
WPHelpdeskThis plugin will help you focus on enhancing the customer experience on your site with an organized approach to customer support. WPHelpDesk has a robust filtering system that will help you prioritize support queries. Depending on the size of your team, you will be able to customize it to get absolute control over your support workflow. With the help of add-ons, you can easily integrate it with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. Feature highlightsLet us take a look at some of the features of WP Helpdesk that will help you improve your support process.
The single site subscription of the basic version without add-ons will cost you $99. WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System This is another WordPress plugin that will help you set up a customer support system for your business. It will let you set up a customer support system with unlimited tickets and agents. It even allows guest users to submit a ticket. The plugin is Ajax based and helps to make your customer support system extremely fast. It comes with a set of add-ons that allows you to extend the functionality and features. You can opt for the free version or one of the paid options that comes with dedicated support and multiple add- ons. Feature highlightsHere are some of the notable features of this plugin.
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6 Steps to Create an Amazing Customer Experience Strategy https://ift.tt/2XSwijZ You may offer high-end products with the lowest price on the web, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee conversions or customer loyalty. There is a lot of competition out there, not just from Amazon but also smaller boutique sites that offer similar products. Customer experience is what sets you apart. It is the sum of all interactions that a customer has with your business, including interactions before and after a sale. It can include how they research products on your site, how they complete their transaction, what happens when they receive their product, and so on. Customer experience is one of the main factors that determine whether or not consumers will buy from your brand and become loyal customers. In fact, a PwC survey found that 17% of U.S. consumers will walk away after just one bad experience. And 59% of U.S. consumers will walk away after several bad experiences even if they love the company or product. This makes it crucial to set up a game plan to ensure that you deliver a positive and meaningful experience for your customers across every interaction. That’s why you need to have an effective strategy in place so you can take a more structured approach to enhancing customer experience. In this post, you’ll discover six useful steps to create an amazing customer experience strategy. Let’s get started. 1: Have a Clear Understanding of Your CustomersUnless you thoroughly understand who your customers are, you’ll have a hard time figuring out how to deliver experiences that appeal to them. Without understanding the situations that your customers face, you won’t be able to empathize with them and provide them with viable solutions. At the same time, it’s important to note that not all of your customers will experience the same issues or have the same pain points. So you need to start by creating accurate buyer personas, which are profiles that represent a common group of people. You can include demographics data like age, interests, buying behaviors, job profile, etc. to clearly define the characteristics of each persona. For an even more accurate picture of each persona, make sure you conduct surveys to understand your different types of customers. Use this data to build a customer experience strategy that effectively addresses the needs of all of your customers. Make sure you maintain a record of all surveys and personas so every department can easily refer to them when needed. HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool simplifies this process. You can name the persona, choose an avatar, and fill out all the details relevant to it to create an attractive buyer persona. You can easily store surveys in a shared Google folder or Dropbox. 2: Map Out the Customer JourneyCustomer journey mapping is essential to get a visual overview of the customer’s interactions with your brand from start to finish. This helps you get an even better picture of the customer experience at every touch point, so you can identify their needs and perceptions. Create an accurate customer journey map for each buyer persona to outline the key steps of their journey. How do they begin the journey and how do they normally interact with your brand? You can then outline their pain points, values, and motivations to better understand how you can enhance their experience at every touch point. 3: Collect Competitive InsightsCompetitor research can help you discover what kind of customer experience your competitors are delivering. What can you learn from them and what can you do better? There are plenty of ways to collect competitive insights to enhance your customer experience strategy. You can start by finding out where and how your competitors are getting their customers using tools like SpyFu. This gives you a detailed look at the organic and paid clicks your competitors are getting as well as their top keywords. These insights will help you understand user intent by identifying the top search terms people are using to find your competitors. Additionally, the backlink data provides you with information about which websites are sending traffic to your competitors. You can try to replicate this strategy to attract your audience where they’re most likely to be. You can further research your competitors’ customer experience strategy by going through the various channels where customers interact with their brand. This includes their website, social media, app (if they have one), and so on. Get a feel for what it’s like to interact with the brand and make a note of any mistakes they might be making. See if there’s anything you can replicate or improve for your own strategy. In addition, you can also conduct social media listening to see what people are saying about your competitors and the brand sentiment around their companies. What are the biggest complaints people seem to have about their products? What are they praising them for? Tools like Mention and Sprout Social can help you with this aspect of competitor research. 4: Make Reachability and Customer Service a PriorityCommunication is a major factor that influences the overall customer experience. You have to be available to your customers no matter what channel they choose to be on. Otherwise, you could miss valuable opportunities to engage with them. For this, you have to find out which channels your customers are most active on and ensure that your brand is reachable on those channels. The best way to get a clear and accurate picture of the performance of different channels is by using UTM parameters. Tag all of the links you share on different channels with unique UTM parameters and find out how those links are performing. You can simplify the UTM creation and management processes by using tools like UTM.io. This tool lets you create UTM templates that you can easily reuse and customize for each channel. So you can maintain a uniform naming convention that’s much easier to keep track of. Once you identify the top channels that your customers are active on, you can come up with a strategy to enhance customer experience on those channels. This will involve improving service convenience on those channels in addition to being reachable. Get familiar with each of the top channels and understand how people are using them to communicate with your brand. What kind of improvements can you make to enhance the customer experience? What other channels do they want you to be present on? Maybe you already have live chat support on your website, for instance. But people also expect chat support through social media. Or maybe you have people who expect 24/7 chat support, which may not always be a viable option for most businesses. In this case, you can also provide support through chatbots during non-working hours. You can study customer behavior, reviews, and engagement to look for opportunities to make improvements. You can even ask them directly through surveys. Cuyana provides convenient customer service by enabling customers to reach them through Facebook Messenger. They even provide customers with predefined questions to choose from, minimizing the need to type everything out. 5: Improve Purchase ConvenienceThe purchase experience is another major factor that influences the overall customer experience. Factors like how easy it is to find what they’re looking for, how seamless it is to navigate your site, how simple it is to complete their purchase, etc. will all play a role. So it’s crucial to keep looking for opportunities to optimize your site or app to improve purchase convenience. Make it as easy as possible for people to complete their purchases. The basic steps include:
You can further include useful and clever tools, videos, or images to guide their purchases. Bellyroy does a great job of this by showing what kind of items you can fit inside their wallets. 6: Connect Emotionally with the AudienceHow customers feel about your brand also influences their experiences. An emotionally connected customer is more likely to enjoy their interactions with your brand and therefore, have a better overall experience. In fact, fully connected customers are 52% more valuable than customers who are just satisfied. They also have a high lifetime value and are more likely to advocate for the brand. This makes it crucial to develop an emotional connection with your customers if you want to create an effective customer experience strategy. You need to come up with a plan to enhance their emotional connections at every touch point – right from marketing and sales to post-sales service. Aside from better employee training and advocacy, you can also make improvements in the marketing aspect of your business. Switch from bland and pushy ads to more intimate and humanized marketing tactics such as micro-influencer marketing. Micro-influencers are social media users who have some authority in their areas of interest. They are relatable to the audience because they are just like everyday consumers. As a result, they also have significant and highly-engaged following. Influence.co even found that micro-influencers drive much better engagement than macro-influencers. The average engagement rate could range anywhere from 2.5% to 6% for influencers with 2000 to 100,000 followers. This rate drops gradually as the following size increases. In other words, micro-influencers can drive relevant conversations around your brand and your products. So they can help you establish strong emotional connections between your brand and your target audience. Have them present your product or services in a way that will resonate with their followers. They could share their experience using it, demonstrate how it solved a problem in their life, etc. One of the most challenging steps is in identifying the best influencers to work with. You can simplify this process by using platforms like iFluenz. All you need to do is create your campaign and wait for the best-matching influencers to apply. So instead of conducting a grueling influencer search, you’ll have the most relevant influencers come to you. Final ThoughtsThese are the basic steps involved in creating an amazing customer experience strategy. But it doesn’t just end here. You also have to keep making improvements to your strategy based on analytics insights and customer feedback. Listen to your customers, actively collect feedback, and look for opportunities to adapt your strategy according to the changing needs of your customers. Social Media via Quick Sprout https://ift.tt/UU7LJr November 26, 2019 at 08:11AM
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How To Set Your Online Business Up For Success By Taking Care Of These 7 Areas https://ift.tt/2KRVFgA So, you are about to start a new business. And it seems challenging. Well, that is because starting something new almost always is just that – a challenge. And we are not talking about marketing your business only. Every step of the way can prove to be a challenge. And one you will have to overcome. However, no matter what happens, you will get a grip of it quite soon. On the other hand, there are some things you really need when you have a new business and these things are something we will discuss in the following article. Keep on reading make this whole process easier on yourself!
Just like everything else in life, you will need a solid strategy in order to start your business and make it profitable. Master your services and study your products before putting them on the market. Consult professionals in your field and get well informed. All these little steps and things will add up and help you make a business strategy that will lead you to success. And that is the main goal, isn’t it? Put your ideas on a piece of paper and start from there. Use checklists, reminders and calendars to stay organized at all times. Because – time does matter. More than it might seem at first. That is why you should use yours wisely. Start doing things in advance and you will end up thanking yourself. Trust us on this one. Source: pexels.com
Every business is unique and different from any other out there. Yours is new, and fragile. It won’t be that way forever, but one of the most important things you really need when you have a new business is a team you can trust and rely on. Choose your employees wisely and make sure you share the same values. You need a team that knows how to do business, and that enjoys doing it. Happy employees are the best employees. And no – you won’t make your team happy by providing them with the top salary. They need to share your vision and feel like they are a part of this whole process. Because they really are, and you should definitely acknowledge that from the early stages.
New business means getting to do something you have never done before. And you wouldn’t want to make any mistakes that can cost you time, energy and money. That is why it is always the best option to consult a lawyer and an accountant before you start doing business. Every country has different laws and regulations, and you wouldn’t want to break any of them. You know what they say – it is always better to be safe than sorry. This aspect is very important, and especially since you are planning on marketing your business on social media. Make sure everything is ironclad and ready to be put online.
Having a product or a service that you are ready to sell is one thing. Actually selling it is a completely different one. There are many marketing strategies you can choose from, however, you should always keep in mind that your online presence really does make an impact on your sales. In a big way. We are all witnesses of how much the internet affects our everyday lives. And things don’t really seem like they are about to change anytime soon. That is why you need to make a functional and optimized website for your business needs. People need to be able to find you online, at any given point. And once you make your website into everything you hoped it would be, you will be ready to market it on social media. But – not before. Your marketing strategy needs to be steady, well-planned and profitable. Source: pexels.com
Yes. Having a website is a great start when you have a new business. However, If you don’t have traffic on your website, a.k.a. visitors or users – your website won’t do you much good. That is why you need to work on your website marketing ASAP. You can always hire some SEO experts or a digital marketing agency to work on this for you, or you can even do it on your own if you are familiar with it. Both kinds of traffic, paid and organic, will help you boost your profits and grow your business in the years that follow and that is why investing in it isn’t such a bad idea. Even when you are just beginning. Do things the right way from the early stages, and you will thank yourself in the end.
One important thing you need to do when you have a new business is to save money. Investing in your new company is something of an addiction, however, you should do everything that is in your power to avoid overstepping your budget. Look for clever ways to save money every step of the way. And the same goes for promoting your business. Paid marketing (PPC) is a great way to promote your business once your brand gains some reputation; however, you should consider collaborations with social media influencers and SEO services as the best option when it comes to marketing your new business online. Play it smart. Try to make some cuts, wherever and whenever you can. Try to find a reliable hosting provider, you can pick from the list I trust, implement referral programs, use email campaigns as a way to reach new customers. Just be creative and give it some time. The best solution will come to mind before rather than later. Source: pexels.com
This one is really important. And since you are building your brand from scratch, you have a great chance at success. Just give it some time and effort, and your brand will grow. Try to make your clients as happy as they can be with your product. Interact with your users over social media networks. Try to get as much positive feedback as possible. Gain followers. Get in touch with influencers. Make your users feel like they matter. Because they do. And social media networks such as Instagram and facebook offer you many options when it comes to building your brand’s reputation. Look for different strategies and tools to boost your brand’s reputation online and try implementing some of them. You can never know what will happen, however, if you don’t try – nothing will happen. Trust your instincts and give it your best. Stay on top of your game and success will come. No doubt in that. The post How To Set Your Online Business Up For Success By Taking Care Of These 7 Areas appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog November 26, 2019 at 07:29AM HOW TO START YOUR ANDROID SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY https://ift.tt/2qMmWKC Almost 10 years after its launch in 2009, Android, through Google Play, has since evolved to cater to more than 2 million apps worldwide. According to Statista, there is an immense 174-fold increase from 16,000 apps in the first year it was launched. No wonder why job opportunities for Android app development have increased over the past few years. If you are a seasoned developer who’s thinking of switching to Android app development, or a new developer who wants to grow initially in this specialization, this article will guide you on how to start your quest towards developing your first Android app. Below are some of the basic things to brush up on if you want to become an Android app developer. Install Your Software Development Kit (SDK) and Integrated Development Environment Software (IDE) for Android Development When choosing an SDK and IDE, it is important to know what kind of app you want to develop and for what Android version and/or device you want your app to run on. Both differ in so many aspects such as debugging features, language support, plug-ins, and user interface complexity. Remember that SDKs are more fundamental as compared to IDEs. IDEs just make programming easier as they are where you can accommodate all your app development tools. Some developers opt to use SDK software alone, but you can also explore the following SDK + IDE bundles for your Android app development: Android SDK + Android Studio The latest version of Android SDK is already included in Android Studio, so you don’t have to worry about installing separate applications. When building an Android app, it is convenient to use an IDE that has smart code completion features and accessible code templates. Android Studio allows this for Java, Kotlin and C/C++ languages. When you finish building your own features, make sure to save your codes in a Git repository (found in the VSC Tab > import version control), so when you create another app with similar features, it’ll be easier to incorporate. Visual Studio + Xamarin Visual Studio utilizes Xamarin as its sole-compatible IDE. With Xamarin, you will need the C# development skills. A cross-platform development tool, it allows creating not only Android apps, but also iOS, Windows, watchOS, and more. You may also need third-party code libraries when using this platform. Xamarin can be operated in all three editions of Visual Studio 2017 and 2019 (Enterprise, Professional, and Community). We recommend using the Visual Studio Community Edition first, as it is for free. Android SDK + IntelliJ IDEA IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE that comes in two editions, the Ultimate and the Community Edition. The Community Edition is a free version of the IntelliJ package that’s readily useful for professional app developers. It features basic coding assistance, debugging, GIT Support and JUnit testing to name a few. For professionals who are seeking to develop commercial Apps, the Ultimate Edition is a better choice because of its more advanced tools. It just comes at a price though. Write Your Codes Obviously, your codes depend on what app features you are planning to have. Do you want your app to work while offline? Do you need geolocation features? Maybe you would like to upload videos to your app. In order to make the development process fast and easy, there are numerous Android libraries available for your use. Here are a few of the most popular:
Test Run Your App You need to test your app on various Android devices or/and use an emulator. It is convenient as you can edit your code right away. Android Studio has a fast emulator that lets you simulate even ARCore apps. However, note that not all IDEs have a built-in emulator. Here are some popular external Android emulators you can use:
Developing an Android App might be challenging at first, but you’ll get the hang of it soon enough. If you face any kind of trouble along the way, professional Android app development services are always available to help you. The post HOW TO START YOUR ANDROID SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog November 26, 2019 at 06:08AM
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4 Creative Ways to Generate Organic Instagram Engagement https://ift.tt/35uWHqG Want more engagement on your Instagram posts? Wondering how to entice people to engage with you on Instagram? In this article, you’ll discover four out-of-the-ordinary ways to create Instagram posts that prompt people to engage with and click on your content. #1: Encourage Instagram Engagement With Brand-Relevant PuzzlesThe typical image or video post on Instagram can generate, at best, a few seconds of engagement. Why not give your followers a mind-bender to keep them occupied and engaged with your post? Research shows that participating in activities results in better recall than simply talking about them. Additionally, puzzles engage people longer. Quizzes and puzzles make people stop in their tracks and think for a minute. If you also succeed in tapping into your audience’s emotions, people will be more inclined to share the puzzles with their own networks. This generates engagement and provides interesting feedback for you. Keep in mind that the puzzle posts you create for Instagram should tie in with your overall brand message. Be sure to choose a theme that reflects your brand and its core message. Also, research topics that your followers will have an emotional connection with. Rebus PuzzlesMattress brand Casper’s core value proposition is centered around relaxation and good sleep. With this in mind, the brand effectively ties engaging Instagram posts with their branding by delivering rest-related rebus puzzles via the feed and Stories. In fact, puzzles account for almost half of their posts with the highest number of comments. While Casper doesn’t offer prizes for getting the right answers—just the thrill of having solved a puzzle—the posts create a ton of engagement. To illustrate, the post below got 3,800+ likes and 94 comments. In addition to still graphics, Casper also posts animated rebus puzzles to both their Instagram feed and Stories and in ads. This animated rebus pulled in 19,800+ views. Brain TeasersCuriosity is a publication that shares explanations of interesting facts and trivia. On Instagram, they use brain teasers to drive post engagement, platform views, and off-platform traffic, providing the explanations or solutions in content on their website. To get to those answers, viewers must view Curiosity’s Instagram bio to find the link to the relevant article. This puzzle post received 6,200+ likes and more than 300 comments. #2: Grow Your Instagram Following With an Emoji Scavenger HuntAnother creative way to engage your audience on Instagram is with a mind-bender where your audience has to find hidden emojis. Chanel and Stevo of How Far From Home started hiding emojis in their travel photos as part of a fun weekly game on their popular Instagram account. Content like this has helped them attract over 167,000 followers on Instagram. They’re indeed an enviable couple, quitting successful careers in advertising to travel the world. That’s the reason for part of the excitement surrounding them. The other part is the clever ways they hide emojis inside their travel photos. #3: Nurture a Community With a Recurring Instagram ChallengeGenerally, an Instagram challenge is when you choose a theme and ask your Instagram followers to share photos based on ideas that stem from that theme. The challenge may require participants to post photos daily, weekly, or monthly and the announcement is made in advance. Sometimes there are prizes, and other times there’s only the satisfaction of having participated. The challenge is always to think ahead and creatively. What are the benefits of a recurring challenge on Instagram? It’s a way to invite passive followers to actively create content you can use to fuel your own profile. You not only get content you can post on your account but also engage your audience at the same time. Designer and illustrator Joanne Hawker first launched her #MarchMeetTheMaker challenge in 2016. As the name suggests, this Instagram challenge takes place throughout the month of March. Here’s how it works. Joanne, the creator of the challenge, selects a theme for each day of March and then designers create something about their business based on that theme. The idea is to tell their business’s story in the context of an overarching theme. The challenge gives designers a platform to exhibit their work and grab free traffic. Get Expert Social Media Marketing Training!Want to keep ahead of your competitors? Need to master a social platform? Discover how to improve your social media marketing at Social Media Marketing World 2020, brought to you by your friends at Social Media Examiner. You’ll rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies, and enjoy extensive networking opportunities . Don’t miss the industry’s largest conference. Get in early for big discounts. Sale ends Tuesday, November 26th, 2019.CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORECreated by artist @jakeparker in 2009, the Inktober challenge helps artists create a habit of drawing daily, and thousands of artists participate annually. The best submissions get featured on the Inktober profile with one new drawing selected every day to reach a total of 31 drawings for all the days of October. Featured participants get a ton of exposure. To visualize this, book illustrator @tonigalmesdibuixos had some of his images featured in a post that received 63,400+ likes. Here are broad outlines to create Instagram challenges that are as interesting as the ones highlighted above. Plan Your Posts for the ChallengePlanning a month-long Instagram challenge is hard work. Ask friends and even active members of your community to come up with ideas that might be worthy of a challenge. When choosing a topic, pick something that fits with the overall mood of your brand. Pro Tip: Set reminders for posting the challenge on time. Often, I simply take a photo of the challenge and set it up as the wallpaper on my phone. Because I check my phone umpteen times a day, it serves as my reminder. Choose a Hashtag for the ChallengeThe challenge hashtag is key. Be creative and think of something unique and closely tied to your brand. Ask participants to use the hashtag in their Instagram captions so you’re able to track every image that’s posted as part of the challenge. All you need to do to find the posts is search for the hashtag in the search bar. Engage With Challenge ParticipantsEngaging with people goes a long way toward improving participation rates in your challenge. Take your time to engage with them by commenting or liking their content. Many participants will reciprocate the behavior with other participants, creating a chain reaction. This helps build a sense of community, too. Promote Your Challenge on Other PlatformsSpread the word about your Instagram challenge with the larger community outside of the platform. Promote it on your other social networks and even run paid ads to get it going. When Joanne and Jake started their respective challenges, they didn’t have a lot of participants initially. But after repeating the challenge over the course of a few years, the number of participants grew exponentially. #4: Generate Link Clicks With Instructional Videos in Instagram StoriesAccording to research by WR Hambrecht + Co, 7 days after a training session, participants forget 65% of the material covered. In 6 months, they forget almost everything they learned; the recall percentage is about 10%. However, an instructional video can give users a new level of experience that’s simply absent in other media. Visually stimulating and multifaceted, video engages viewers in ways that text can rarely achieve and helps people remember concepts and details. Smitten Kitchen posts instructional cooking videos in their Instagram stories, like this one for chicken curry. As an added bonus, they use the See More link to drive traffic to the full recipe on their website. Pro Tip: Consider doing your instructional videos live on Stories. There’s a certain level of vulnerability in live-streaming that’s impossible to replicate in recorded video. If you make mistakes, you own up and move ahead. You’re not allowed to dwell on the past. This makes live video inherently challenging and deeply exciting for both the viewer and the participant. ConclusionInstagram stories, videos, and contests all have great potential to tap into your audience’s emotions and generate engagement. But instead of the usual posts that businesses tend to share, this article focuses on four out-of-the-ordinary types of content that will pique your audience’s interest and encourage interactions. Puzzles that tie in with your overall brand message, emoji scavenger hunts, challenges around a relevant theme, and instructional videos are all ways to prompt your Instagram community to engage with your content. Discover the latest tactics and master social media marketing in 2020! Don't miss this event! What do you think? Which of these types of content will you try on your Instagram account? Do you have any other creative content suggestions to add to this list? Share your thoughts in the comments below. More articles on Instagram marketing:Social Media via Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner https://ift.tt/1LtH18p November 26, 2019 at 05:02AM |
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