#;and we're taking the opportunity of sending the entire team too

[lordgrimoire]

So, an Idea, or AU I had regarding the good ol DPxDC.

I’m not sure what sort of disaster Amity’s ghost problem would be classified as, but think of what would happen if the local EMS (Emergency Services like Fire Departments, Law Enforcement, Emergency Medical, etc.) pretty much started jumping over the Mayor from the get-go? What if hard proof of these hijinx, for a brief time, were able to get out of Amity?

Well the Governor would probably have someone take a look, and once nonsense is confirmed (especially of its weird nonsense that looks a little to close to supers) they send in the National Guard, at first to keep an eye on the situation.

Then comes the Ghost Investigation Ward, and things go from moderately worrying to “WTF” real quick. And things start looking less Small Town USA and more Stalins Town USSR, at the height of Stalins Purges.

Admittedly it’s not immediate, and during the time between being put on “Indefinite Alert” and actually being relived this unit (I’m thinking a Battalion Sized force so about 1,200 soldiers/guardsmen total) ends up befriending the locals, and much to the Mayor, and GIWs, frustration, Phantom, as well as Red Huntress.

This leads to a standoff, the GIW can really only do what they want because of the Governments permission for them to do so, but engaging National Guard, who had not been federalized, may cause an issue or two. So they bring up the issue with someone who they think will back them up, their new boss Lex Luthor.

Now Lex isn’t a fool, but he figures out how the Justice League isn’t being called is due to a jammer the GIW set up and figures he can take a look around incognito like, or more accurately get trusted members of The Goonion, who he had Federally given approval to, to go take a look around.

When Alex gets the full story, and not just the GIWs original story but also updated info from the Doctors Fenton, who are now VERY worried, because they were wrong about Ghosts in more ways than they originally thought they may have been. Suffice to say, when Lex manages to get a copy of "The History of The Infinite Realms" and finds that Krypton's Afterlife is GONE, as in they did something similar to what the GIW is planning, he starts hitting the "Abort" Button with fury. Only to be told "Too late we're underway, we're going through a tunnel, what? What?" And now Lex decides Enough is Enough. Lex does two things, first he sends the GO order for the National Guard Battalion in Amity Park, then he starts trying to get a hold of the Justice League because "Listen I know you dislike me but I am willing to drop it all if you HELP WITH THIS BS THAT I JUST INHERITED!" Meanwhile back in Amity Things go from 0 to 100 faster than an Flash, that being the National Guard heard "GO" and immediatly started blasting. The Townfolks: Confused The Ghosts: Confused Team Phantom: Confused and Afraid The Ghost Hunters who are now studying Ghost Culture and the like: Very Confused and sorta getting Arrested. The GIW: Full of Bullet Holes, Screaming, and On Fire Meanwhile, The National Guard are waiting around two hours later with Phantom for any "Federal" News to come through: So the New President decided the Anti-Ecto Acts are BS, unfortunately they haven't been overturned yet so we're all most likely going to be marked as traitors. Mind if we hide out somewhere our bosses can't find us? Also the Justice League never actually knew any of the BS we've been going through, GIW Had some Jammer set up.

Phantom, Tired of all the damage and killing the GIW has caused in Amity Park: I'll try, but I'm not sure how much good it will do if the League shows up.

TLDR: Amity Park during it's entire run has a Battalion of US National Guard camped out in the outskirts/abandoned parts of town and they figure out most of the situation regarding Phantom not being the Villain Mayor Masters and the GIW Claim him to be. Following this logic they turned around and at the first opportunity attacked the GIW and pushed them out of Amity Park.

#dp x dc #danny phantom #dc x dp #danny fenton #dpxdc #dcxdp #dc x dp prompt

[the-firebird69]

You're a lot of things happening in Charlotte county it's Saturday, usually the county firings and speak to Monday and it's probably true yes. Hey we're going after these morons here I'm tired of hearing this threats I'm going to take them out and we're going after them as a team and want people to volunteer now.

We have a lot of other stuff going on and this stuff takes too long to do for whatever you get meaning to do nothing he is our son is doing it his wife remotely but these people are not doing anything

Improve the ordering again for them to be relocated from here and I'm adding something to it a time frame and they have it they say they're sending you back out good

Tons of warlock that's a big one they reloaded recently the eight points and it'll be empty soon. This is huge huge huge contingent heading their way and it's from DC it's coming down here and they're going to have a command center for the South and they're moving you idiots from the military forever.

Mac an initialized plan to quickly eradicate you people, it slowed and stopped pretty quickly. Right now they had a meeting and they're in one talking about what to do with you imbeciles. So far they decided to cut your pay off see if that does anything. The marlocks will be drawn to DC and will be fighting the trumpsters. Ideas like that.

The other things that are added to the formula that are happening shortly

You want to see what they'll do let's play the toys if offered an opportunity we also see that they are stuck up and arrogant and smug for extremely stupid people who messed everything up they are just real dummies and we see what our son is saying you can't be around someone like this you need to be ready to break their arm or throw them out of a vehicle all sorts of things as soon as I can be kind and get rid of them

You got a big day we have a big day set up today and a lot of things are happening in the globally a lot of idiots are evacuating tons of them going to the holes. And leave you later going to expand their entire force shortly doing this the next few days most likely Australia and New Zealand crab hacks already and more people want on. Everywhere on Earth there is giant holes it's only a few as big as town south and one of them is Brazil and people are checking yesterday found out that laser components are being installed and down very deep in the pit and adjacent to the hole this is a ship there but already about three or four diamonds for armed some people are going to those holes to check even when it's with chips and if I didn't get those components are there and thier moving fast. Donald Trump is saying our sons of trump trouble and he is trying to make a vision occur and I'm so sick of that a****** next door, I have to have a piece of him today I'm going to.

There's a whole bunch of stuff more happening and we're going to announce it in a moment I got to get this out

Thor Freya

It's huge it's about the tap Root holes and which I get it other holes too little gigantic

Hera

Zues

Olympus

[studentsoutofbed]

2022

Wow. Another year gone again. They say that the older you get, the quicker time passes. Turns out I've now only got one full year until I'm in my 30s. I do feel so grown up now. If 2021 was the year I learned, 2022 was the year I changed. Life is good again. I still have bad days. I still wake up some mornings after a bad dream and wish it would all go away. But most mornings I wake up with life in my belly.

I started writing this at the end of 2022, but I will finish it in January.

This was the first year since Covid that has been almost entirely normal. Hell, I can't even remember when we had to stop isolating for COVID, or when we stopped having to wear masks?

I've really tried to make the most of it. It can be hard. In the big city, with so many friends, yet sometimes so lonely. I knew it would never be perfect, and I give myself grace for when I go wrong. But absolutely I've done so many positive things this year. I've started dating again. And lots of it. More than I'd like if we're being honest. But it makes me feel alive to get that feeling in the pit of stomach when I send a text. It's disappointing when it doesn't work out, but I have to believe that good things are coming.

This time last year, I made a list of 'resolutions' to try and uphold. Some of them were tangible and others less so. They were as follows:

1. Keep practicing mindfulness. Renew affirmations - This one didn't go great. I still practice mindfulness from time to time, but not as often as I'd like. I think I've abandoned the idea of affirmations. I'm still working up the courage to try therapy.

2. Try something genuinely new or adventurous every month - this is fairly ambiguous. I've probably not fulfilled it, but I think I've gone a fair way toward it

3. Walk 3,650,000 steps in the year - absolutely smashed it, over 4,100,000.

4. Cook at least one new recipe a month- definitely tried some, but other factors sort of got in the way!

5. Don't fear being needy with friends. Message them - I've definitely done this a few times!

6. Take on at least one new project or challenge at work - I don't think there's one particular thing here, but I've definitely done loads of extra stuff, and got my promotion.

7. Say something nice when you can - can definitely do this more

8. Do something nice when you can - and this

9. Travel again - Yep! Ticked off 4 new countries, and some staycations too

10. Eat a little better - hmm

11. Volunteer for something - I definitely tried at times - I'll keep this in mind

12. Just try your best - most days I do my best, and any day that's not my best is forgiven.

At the end of this post I will consider some new resolutions for 2023. I think some will be more measurable.

For now though I shall continue with my review of this year, in the usual way.

Falklands Take 3 - With Rose wanting to move in with Chris, we had to move out of our flat. It felt like a perfect chance to go back to the Falklands, and not pay rent whilst I was there. Another opportunity to save up some more money. But more importantly, a chance to rewrite the narrative. I saw one of those inspirational Instagram posts that said 'Laugh in the places you've cried'. That really stuck with me. I can safely say that every single tear I cried in 2021 during my time down south was replaced with a laugh this year. None of this is to downplay some of the times I had in 2021, and particularly the positive impact the people around me had. But this year was all positive. Quarantine was only 5 days this time, and also in the UK. It wasn't fun like the year before, but it definitely went quicker. The next 12 weeks were an absolute blast. At work, I was the experienced one, the person to come to with questions. That felt empowering. The team were amazing. The mess was so much friendlier than it been subsequently. I had many fun nights drinking in the bar, or in Stanley. Some shifts were really fun. My birthday night we took over the mess and did karaoke. There was the night we dressed up to watch Antz in the common room. I finally managed to visit Sea Lion Island, and I returned again to Saunders. In my last week, we had a dinner party at Katie's house. Just the met team. I honestly don't think I've laughed that much in so long. The place is dark and haunting, and it can engulf you, but in a such a beautiful way. It exhibits and almost Stockholm Syndrome like hold on me. I'm genuinely so excited to go back.

Holidays - One of my goals was to travel again. I managed to tick off 4 countries (maybe 5?) In 3 trips. Me and Chris went to Kosovo and Macedonia as a cheap replacement for Norway, where we were supposed to do a marathon. It was a cheap time, but it was a great mix of city sightseeing with beers, a nice relaxing canyon trip, and a big mountain walk. For only 5 days we packed it all in. I then went to Athens and Brussels for a couple of nights each. They were really enjoyable in their own ways, but they did make me question how I should handle my solo trips now. I thought I'd treat myself to hotels, but it just made me a bit lonely. Maybe a rethink this year.

Weddings with uni people - 2 sets of my uni friends got married this year. Will and Pippa in August, then Luuk and Georgina in November. They were both so beautiful in different ways. For Will and Pippa we made a long weekend in Devon out of it. I don't get the chance to spend that much time with these guys these days, so it felt like a real throw back. Similarly for Luuk and Georgina's, it felt so wholesome. I hope I can hang out with this lot a bit more this year.

Bill's wedding - this was special in a different way, as he asked to me be his best man, just before I left for the Falklands. It didn't allow me to help in any way whatsoever, nor to sort a stag. I felt bad, but I couldn't do anything about it to be fair. I was so proud to have that honour. It's good to know that I have friends like that.

Ashbury - as always. What a privilege to spend 3 days with the best ones from the first days. I'm so glad we're still a tight group, and I'd love to hang out with them more.

It feels a bit empty to have such few things here. I think maybe that's one of the positives this year. It's been moments and days that have been excellent. And there's been loads of them. Just vibes.

I do need to dedicate some space to my Nanny. She passed away at the end of the year after a few months of deterioration. I miss her terribly. My grandad is still not himself now, although my mum is back to normal, on the outside at least. I am so glad I came back to Bristol fairly regularly in those months, to get to see her one last time. Love you.

And we come to my goals for 2023. Last year I decided to make goals that would enable me to slightly alter the way I live my life. Goals to encourage me to do more, and pay more attention to the relationships I have with friends and family. This year I want to be more specific with some of them. And so.

Run a sub 4 hour marathon

Run a sub 1:45 half-marathon

Send a V4 bouldering route

Be able to do 20 pull ups (maybe a bit tricky, but stretch goals init)

Travel more again

Go camping

Eat better

Do more things that frighten me

Get out of bed!

Try therapy (haven't done it for the last two years so not expecting big things from myself here)

Be proud of myself

These goals have some more physical aspects to them, and some pretty specific. I feel like I'm currently in the shape of my life, and I need to make the most of it. I should be in my prime so why not help myself.

2023 feels like it's going to be a transition year for me. I am going to the Falklands again in September for the end of the year. It will feel like a bit of a time bomb, especially when it comes to summer. I'm expecting big changes in 2024, and this year is leading up to it. Maybe that means it's a really good chance to have loads of fun. Make the most of my 20's and all that.

All I ask of myself is to do my best. To embrace change, but hold on to what matters. Spend time with family, with friends. Work on myself. Bad days are just that.

[trumpbucks556]

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[thesassenachswiftie]

Lover Chapter 7: “Afterglow”

Read on AO3

Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5 // Chapter 6

Summary: A chance meeting at a football game from Jamie's perspective, and what happens under the bleachers.

Notes: Thanks so much for reading and all your kind comments on the last chapter! I promise we're almost "Out of the Woods" as far as angst goes (for now).

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter 7: Afterglow

Jamie’s heart was still aching a month after Claire left him. However, his pride kept him from reaching out to her. The truth is, he’d forgiven everything she’d done and everything she could do long before that day. For him, that was no choice. That was falling in love. He threw himself into his work on the farm and his family. Helping Jenny with meals, driving the children to various practices and scout meetings, helping Ian with the unending harvest September brought.

On this particular Friday evening, Jamie found himself at his nephew Ian’s homecoming game. He tried to pay attention to the game, but he really couldn’t wrap his head around the complexities of American football. It was so stop-and-go--what exactly was a ‘down’? It reminded him of battle maps of the Rising he’d seen in a history textbook when he was in high school in Scotland. Naturally, his thoughts drifted to Claire. As the cold September air wrapped around him, he felt it was fitting. His heart had been cold, frozen without Claire’s light and love for the past month. He could have buttoned his jacket, but what was the point of feeling warm?

He didn’t even realize it was half time, until he heard the marching band start playing.  Everything around him was bright and alive, he felt like an island, detached from his surroundings, drifting in the waves. In truth he’d been living like an island all month. He decided to get some snacks to distract himself. He hadn’t sat like this without a distraction all month. At least with Kitty’s soccer games he could focus on the game. Here, where the game was an enigma to him, he needed a task to deter his restless mind.

           “I’m going to go get something to eat, anyone want anything?” he asked his family.  A barrage of orders came at him from his nieces and nephews, and he recited them back--intentionally messing up their orders (much to their amusement) before correcting himself and making his way up the bleachers.

           It was on his way back down that he spotted an unmistakable mop of curly brown hair and almost dropped the snacks he just shelled out twelve American dollars for. Sassenach. His heartbeat immediately picked up to match the beat of the marching band. God, she was beautiful, but she looked so fragile there, cold and alone, head down, wearing a muted blue grey jacket that seemed to match the air around her. He suddenly realized how stupid he’d been all month to ignore her. He’d punished her with silence. How many times had he typed a text to her only to erase it without pressing send? How many times had he pulled up her contact but couldn’t press the call button? Now seeing her like this, she looked so utterly broken. It was excruciating to see her so low. Had his own pride allowed him to do this to her? I blew things out of proportion now you’re blue. He wanted to wrap her up until he saw that beautiful spark light up her face again. He just wanted to lift her up and not let her go. Before he knew it he was beside her, “Claire?”

           “Hi Jamie, fancy seeing you here!” He had no idea how to reply, it was as if he had gone mute. He just stared into those whiskey eyes that looked so full of sorrow. He almost started to reach out to her, forgetting the concessions he was holding. Luckily, she offered to help him carry them and before he knew it they were headed down the bleachers together.

           When she agreed to sit with him his heart was soaring. If simply sitting next to her was all he could have for the rest of his life, it would be enough. I don’t wanna lose this with you. They were actually able to talk and even flirt a bit as she tried to watch the game, but his eyes couldn’t leave her. He felt so comfortable with her, they just seemed to fit together effortlessly. She was so close he could smell her shampoo, something herbal that he couldn’t quite pin down. It wasn’t fruity or overpoweringly floral like some women he had met in his life--it suited her. Having her there, inches from her made him feel bold. He formulated a plan in his head to get her alone, he needed to be closer to her, but not with his entire family right there.

           He had ended his bold, flirtatious exchange by winking to make it abundantly clear what he was asking her. She had seemed responsive. Her face lit up like it had so many times over the summer they shared. He was starting to sweat despite the chill in the air pacing underneath the away team’s bleachers as he waited for her. How long should he wait? What if she wasn’t coming? What if she saw this opportunity to leave again? It’s all me, Claire, just don’t go, please, come to me mo nighean donn.

           After what seemed like an eternity, she came to him. He heard her feet soft on the gravel, approaching him in the dark. He saw his opportunity, and met her, taking her in his arms as soon as he could, ready to take her mouth as he had imagined so many times in the past month.  How many times had he imagined kissing her again? How many times had he tried to recreate their last night together—conjuring the thought of pinning her hands behind her back and making love to her in the soft light of their hotel bed.  He wished he had committed every moment to memory, not knowing it could have been their last. None of that mattered now, his Sassenach had returned to his arms--but just like that, she was gone again running away--but he wouldn’t let her go this time. Don’t walk away. He pulled her back and set her straight. Poor, beautiful, broken, Claire collapsed before him. He sat with her, trying to calm and comfort her, when she could speak, she confessed she was afraid.  

           “Claire, there now, what are you scared of?”

           “I don’t wanna--I don’t wanna do this to you” she sobbed, choking out the words.

           “Claire, what are you talking about?” he could see the pain on her face and he needed to explain, needed to say his piece. “I’m to blame Claire, I see your pain, I should’ve come after you, I shouldn’t have let you leave.”

           “He, it’s all me, in my head. I’m the one who burned us down. I just tried to leave you again, but it’s not what I meant. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know if we can put this back together. I don’t know what’s going to happen to us.”

           “Is this it? Chemistry ‘til it blows up, ‘til there’s no us? Is that what you want?” He placed his thumb under her chin, lifting her head so their eyes could meet. She didn’t look away. “Claire, please just tell me what you want.” Tell me that I’m all you want.

           “I--I don’t know what I want. I thought I did, but now--” she paused. Jamie could tell she was thinking, and let her mind work as he stared into her beautiful amber eyes. Claire could see her pain reflected in his own eyes. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him a month ago in the car, she knew now if she had she would have seen it then too.  He was just as broken as she was. Why’d I have to break what I love so much? Her tears started flowing freely again. “Oh Jamie, I put you in jail for something you didn’t do. I’m sorry that I hurt you. How can you ever forgive me? After all I’ve done--how can we be just fine, how can we be together?”

           “I forgive you, I’ve forgiven you. I swear to it, I wanted to text you, to call you. I let my pride get in the way. I just need to know, Claire, I need to know where your heart’s at now. Tell me that you’re still mine. I need to hear you say it.”  

           Claire realized in that moment that she was fighting with true love. It was like boxing with no gloves--futile, hopeless and most of all painful. She couldn’t keep herself from him no matter how hard she tried.  I thought I had reason to attack, but no. What did she want? She wanted him. She wanted him to be the one by her side, the one she told when she finally got into a residency program. The one to celebrate life’s victories big and small. The one to be there as she put her life together. She knew she couldn’t put it back together without him. He had bared himself to her, and she knew he wasn’t going to let her get away with silence. It was her turn to share her feelings. “Jamie, I want to be with you. More than I’ve ever wanted anything. It terrifies me, but I can’t help it. I’m drawn to you; I can’t explain it”

           Jamie’s hand was still on her face, thumb stroking her cheek, as she spoke, he took her hand in his other hand, entwining their fingers together. Something about this moment told him this love was worth the fight. “Aye, Sassenach, I feel it too. I don’t ken what it is, but I think we’re meant to honor it.” Claire nodded in agreement. They had been drawing in closer to one another as apologies and declarations were made in the dark. Each moment they shared under the bleachers, their faces inched closer together. “Claire, I would very much like to kiss you” he whispered, “May I?”

           “Yes” came her breathless reply.

           Instantly, their mouths were joined. Slowly, tentatively they reacquainted their lips before opening to each other fully. Tongues finding their way back between open lips, teeth finding their way to lower lips. All the pent-up passion of the last month culminated into one enduring kiss.

           Claire finally managed to pull away, realizing where they were. For a moment, they basked in the afterglow of their reunion, meeting again after a painful month of separation, each living a half life. “Jamie,” she panted, slightly out of breath, “take me home.”

           “As ye wish, Sassenach.” he replied, rising to help her to her feet and slipping his arm firmly around her and kissing the side of her head as he led her to the car.

End Notes: This chapter actually has two complete iterations. I orginally wrote it as "Me!" and it worked pretty well, I was actually pretty proud of myself for using such a catchy pop song for such an emotionally weighty chapter. However, as I started to write Chapter 8, I realized "Afterglow" didn't fit after they'd already hashed everything else out. The title really threw me, because we're "meeting in the Afterglow" in the future, but the lyrics hold the emotional weight. I think I'll post the "Me!" chapter as an outtake in case anyone wants to read it, since I am pretty proud of it. Stay tuned for that later.

Thanks again for reading!

#lover #afterglow #outlander fanfic #outlander fanfiction #outlander fic #inspired by taylor swift #angst #fluff #jamie fraser #jamie x claire #claire beauchamp #outlander

[babieyangyang10]

violent ends (chapter 4)

(chapter 4)

series masterlist

genre: hunger games!au

pairing: huang renjun x oc, na jaemin x oc

warnings: mentions of prostitution, language, violent deaths, fighting, angst, fluff, + possible nsfw.

previous | next

"So, each of the districts get their own floors. Since you're from two, you get the second floor." Doyoung explains as we step out of the elevator.

As we walk into the apartment, I stare in awe at the glamorous quarters.  There are many giant glass columns and a random display of silver trees and rocks.

"Here is the living room and your rooms are over here. How about you freshen up for dinner?" suggests Doyoung. 

In my room, I am met by a bed with a silky, soft comforter. I make my way into the spacious bathroom and hop into the shower. Inside, there was a panel with hundreds of buttons that regulated water temperature, pressure, and even provided massaging sponges.

After finishing, a heater dried my hair and body completely. I pressed another button and a box began sending electrical currents through my scalp, instantly untangling my hair.

Returning the bedroom in comfortable clothes, I see a strange-looking remote on the bed-side table. Intrigued, I begin pressing random buttons. As a result, the window showcasing the lights and building of the Capitol changes into different sceneries.

First, there was a city street filled with cheerful families walking together. After pressing a different button, a dry and deserted desert appeared on the screen.

Switching it once again, a scene showing several mountains peaking through behind a forest of trees. I felt a pulling-feeling in my chest. My throat also feeling slightly choked-up.

During the holidays, every year Taeyong would take me into the mountains of our district. He would pretend to be my knight in shining armor, while I was the princess in distress.  He'd never tell anyone, but sometimes it was even the other way around.

It's also where he taught me how to hunt and find my own food. How to determine between what is the good food and what is the not so very good food.

It was the only time I remember us ever truly being kids. Not soldiers, just a thirteen and seven year old exploring the big, exciting world together.

Then everything went to shit after Taeyong went to the games.  That year, the Gamemakers had chosen a forest for the terrain. However, it was filled with dangerous wild dogs, wolves, and spiders. The spiders had enhanced speed and were extremely venomous. However, the wild dogs were capable of changing their form and copying the voices of the tributes.

Because of this, the entire Career pack was slaughtered alive. Taeyong was the only one who managed to escape. Wounded and without supplies, a twelve year old boy from District 11 named Dong Sicheng had found and formed a alliance with him. Sicheng had shared all of his supplies and even nursed him back to health.

On the last day, they were approached by the last remaining tribute. Taeyong, spotted him and fired an arrow straight into his heart. As he turned around to check on Sicheng, he was met with the boy clutching a harpoon, longed deep in his chest.

Dong Sicheng slowly died in Taeyong's arms.

After the cannon went off, the Captitol announced over the speakers that Lee Taeyong of District 2 was the winner of the 64th Hunger Games.

No longer did he take me to the mountains. Honestly, we never did anything together. Since then, the closest I ever got to be to him was the one time when the rest of my family stood by him during his stop in District 2 during his press tour.

I've always wondered how he felt. Wondered if  he blames himself for what happened. However, I never wanted to intrude. It's not like I ever got the opportunity to ask him, anyways.

However, since I'm going in the games soon. I hope to eventually work up the courage to sit down and have a real talk with him. The real Taeyong, not the victor or mentor he acts like in front of everyone else.

I opened the door to see Doyoung, Renjun, and Taeyong sitting at the dining room table.

Once I sat down in the acid-green chair, Taeyong began talking, "The plan for tomorrow is the same for the both of you. You go to group training. Spend time practicing something your weakest at. Swing a mace. Throw a spear. Tie a decent knot. It doesn't really matter, just save showing off for the private session with the Gamemakers. Are we clear?"

Renjun and I both nod our heads at him.

"Well, have the two of you gotten to know any of the other tributes yet?" pries an interested Doyoung.

"I haven't. Although, Athena seems to be checking out the competition, already."  Renjun answers, nonchalantly.

"Wonderful!" Doyoung innocently chimed, "It's never too early to start considering possible alliances. Are you going to ask anyone to join the two of you?"

"Oh, we're not-" Renjun and I said at the same time. We're laughing as if he's said the funniest joke in the world.

"We've always maintained our own completely different strategies. Renjun prefers to be the predator. There's no doubt in my mind that if he does want to work with others, it'll end up being an alliance with the other Careers. " Renjun just silently nods in agreement.

"And what about you?" asked Doyoung.

"Let's just say I prefer not to walk around with a huge target on my head. I want to team up with someone well-liked, so we can get resources through sponsors." I explained.

"Like Na Jaemin?" sneers Renjun.

"You know people have been calling him the Prince of Panem. He's made quite the impression, already." Doyoung chimes, "And he's not the only one. People have been raving about you, Athena. They've even started calling you, the Golden Girl."

"That's good." Taeyong quietly adds to the conversion, "If you keep this up you'll get lots of sponsors."

Doyoung suddenly blurts, "In fact, most people think Jaemin and you would make a good couple."

At this remark, Taeyong drops his knife loudly on the table, while Renjun chokes on his drink. My mouth begins opening and closing like a fish, struggling to come up with a reply.

"We're done for tonight. You two should go to bed now." Taeyong orders, not hiding his agitation.

Quickly, we all return to our rooms. I crash on my bed and stare up at ceiling.

Jaemin and I as a couple?

Where did they even dream up that possibility from? I mean, we only had one barely two-minute conversation. People really do amaze me sometimes.

My thoughts are broken by a barely-there knock at my door. I groan and force myself off the bed.

I roll my eyes, before opening the door and saying, "Renjun, would you kindly please fuck off?"

However, the person standing there was definitely not Renjun. I tilt my chin up to see no other than Lee Taeyong, towering over me.

"Oh, sorry." I frown, embarrassed.

"Can I come in?" He politely asks me.

I step to the side and allow him inside. Once he's fully in, I closed the door behind him.

"Finally decided to talk to me, huh?"

He just stays silent, just letting me say whatever I please.

"You know, I thought you'd at least be happy for me. I mean, you of all people should know that this is the best thing that could ever happen to me." The emotions I've been holding in for the past 10 years are finally coming to the surface.

Taeyong looks at me with pity, "Athena, there are some things you don't know. Things that the school or our parents never taught us."

"What are you even talking about?" I pressure.

"After the games, you couldn't see me for a reason." He took a heavy breath, "Sometimes, if a victor is considered desirable, the president gives them as a reward or allows people to buy them for money. It’s not just me either, the same thing happened to Finnick Odair a year later."

"What do you mean, 'buy'?" I swallow.

"For sex."

It’s quiet.

"I was given no choice. He said that he would kill both of our parents and even you if I didn't obey." His eyes begin tearing up, "Athena, you don't know how much I wanted to come see you and teach you things."

"Taeyong." I whimper.

I felt sick to my stomach. How could they do that to him? He was just a thirteen year old kid. Even worse, how could I let myself hate and be jealous of him, when all along he was the reason I was still even living?

"I know I'm a horrible brother, but please listen to me when I say the Capitol uses everyone, including you. You have been taught that this, the games, are normal and something to be proud of. You haven't even seen how horrible it is for the lower districts. They can barely make it through one day without starving. They have basically nothing, while the Capitol is feeding off them."

Anger rises up in me. I look around at all the expensive things in the room. Think about the large amount of fancy food I've consumed while in the Capitol. I'm furious, because I've been lied to and tricked. Furious for Taeyong and all the others the Capitol has taken advantage of.

I jump into my brothers arms and completely break down. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean what I said Taeyong. It was stupid. I'm stupid."

"It's okay. You didn’t know." He shushes, while holding me.

“Listen to me. If you-“ he corrects himself, “When you win this thing, I’m not going to let him do anything to you, okay?”

“Taeyong, can I tell you something? I’ve just never got the chance to.” I ask.

He nods.

“What happened to Sicheng wasn’t your fault. You understand that, right?”

He painfully looks down at the floor, before slowly nodding.

“I’m serious, Taeyong. It’s not your fault.”

By the time he looks up, I am able to clearly see him. Underneath the years of pain, hidden away was a vulnerable boy. The tears come falling down his cheeks.

We spend the rest of the night talking about our past, telling stories. Both laughing and crying together.

My brother and I.

#nct au #nct smut #nct imagines #nct #nct dream #nct dream smut #jaemin #jeno #renjun #haechan #taeyong #doyoung

[fluffychubbyrose]

Tony Stark x Chubby Self Conscious reader.

One Shot.

Requested.

Warnings- Slight Language, Slight NSFW so slight if you blink you'll miss it, Tony Stark might be more OC than some may like, insecurities, and light bullying.

(Also I don't own any of these pictures I just made the collages.)

Tony decided today instead of staying in the tower and relaxing, maybe having a movie marathon or something that we should go shopping to get me some more clothes since I keep telling him that I only have a few outfits to wear that are comfortable when he asks why I'm wearing the same outfits again and again.

The outfits are mostly my old sweats and sweatshirts along with a couple of baggy dress shirts and dress pants that I feel comfortable lounging around the tower or going out in, because they cover me completely and hide my plushness from the prying and judging eyes of other people.

I've been wearing the same outfits on rotation for the past month or two instead of wearing the new dresses or skirts I said I loved and fit good when he bought them for me, even when they were a bit snugger and showed more skin than I'd like them to. But at the time they seemed like a great idea to get because while they were a bit snug, they were beautiful, soft, and lovely material that highlighted my figure and bust. But lately I haven't been as confident as I was when I first got those outfits and wore them around and out and about.

But now looking at myself in these dresses, skirts, and tight shirts they just show to much of me and dont look right on my body anymore, they show too many of my rolls and plushness. "You need more than a measly few outfits to wear love and you know it. If those clothes we bought didn't fit comfortably you should have just said something and we could have gotten a different style or size for you that would have been more comfortable."

He says with a sigh not budging about going shopping and seemingly pouting that I didn't tell him about the clothes not fitting comfortably until now especially since some of the ones I'm refusing to wear are his personal favorites. "I don't think they have any bigger sizes." I muttered. "Hmm what was that?" "Nothing give me a minute to get ready and we can go." I said heading to our shared bedroom to put some light makeup on, tame my hair, and change out of my sweats.

Once I'm finished I walk out and over hear Tony talking to someone so I stay behind the corner to eavesdrop. "Yeah Y/n and I are planning on going on a quick shopping spree but I'll see if she wants to go to afterwards and meet up with everyone and maybe I can talk her into getting a new bikini while we're out to wear to the beach."

"Okay we'll see you there but don't try to trick her into wearing anything she isn't comfortable with Tony." I think that was Steve he was talking to and said "we'll" see you there so is the whole team going to be there? If it's just us that could be fun but last time the "private" beach we went to was anything but. Luckily I had my one piece on and could cover up with my towel. Tony takes any opportunity and turns it into a party. "Me!?! Trick her! Never!" He said sounding appalled making me giggle and reveal my hiding spot.

Knowing very well that he's always up to something and trying to get me to do all kinds of crazy things from experiments in the lab, to getting me drunk from the expensive alcohols that he loves but I can't really stand the taste of. Knowing I was busted I walked around the corner and kissed Tony on the cheek from behind. "Oh there you are Y/n! Are you ready to go sweetheart?" He asks smirking at me with playful look for catching my eavesdropping. "Yeah I'm ready."

(Small timeskip to the shopping center.)

"Oooh I like this one!" Tony says swinging around showing me a nearly see threw black button up shirt with a plunging neckline. "Tony that's basically see threw I can't wear that!" I said embarrassed cheeks heating up at the thought of anybody seeing me in something like that. "Yes you can, if you only wear it for me!" He says with a cheeky grin. I sigh and continue look it through the rack of clothes in front of me.

Most if not all of these clothes are way to small for me. I sigh and continue down the isle looking for cute but comfy clothes that won't hug my body. Which is proving to be more and more difficult with nothing being in my size, and with Tony only picking out provocative clothing. I'm feeling more discouraged and upset by the minute deciding to give up on finding anything today I turn to tell Tony let's just go to the bathing suit store to pick out a new bathing suit for the "not a party at the beach" he managed to convince me into going to.

Until I see Tony with an armful of clothes that upon further investigation are a bunch of outfits I wanted to get but were way to small for me to wear there must be 20 something outfits in his arms while he's talking to the sales associate. "Hi, yes I need all of these 3-4 sizes bigger." He says dumping the clothes into her arms. Looking closer it looks like he got the biggest ones of each outfit which would only need to be 2-3 sizes bigger to fit me well. "I'm sorry sir but these are as big as we carry and besides these would just be a waste on someone like her if that's who their meant for. I mean no offense but they wouldn't even fit like they were made to on someone of her size." She spat sounding irritated and disgusted not apologetic by any means.

"The way they fit, or look, are up to her to decide. Not you or anyone else and say something like that again and I'll have your job by the end of the hour. So again I would like all of these 3-4 sizes bigger so they are comfortable for my girl over there." He motions to me with his head looking as pissed off as he sounds, and the way he said 'my girl' was very possessive. My eyes widen and my face heats up from embarrassment from what she said and the confrontation in general but I'm touched and happy with how he's defending me.

"And if you don't have any bigger sizes then custom tailor it to fit. If you need her measurements I'll send them to you. Here's my card and I expect to be contacted by the end of the day with all of these resized and ready for pickup." The women looks deathly pale after taking and reading the card realising she just offended Tony Stark. Knowing that his threat to her job moments ago was in fact real and emanate if she didn't comply. Seeing her so petrified makes a part of me smug knowing next time she'll think before she speaks at least.

"Yes! Right away, I'm so sorry sir they will be ready by the end of the day! You can pay for them then. I'll be right back." She squeaks out and runs off with the clothes with her head down and tail tucked between her legs hopefully feeling as embarassed and upset as am from her comments. I wrap my arms around my self with head down now that she's gone I feel tears pricking the edges of my eyes hearing her say that just proved what I've been thinking about myself is true that I'm so big that it's repulsive to be this size, hell I can't even fit into a single thing in this entire store without it being tailored to fit, that should say something.

"Hey don't listen to her sweetheart she's just jealous I'm with you and not her. Everything she said was just a spiteful lie trying to get under your skin." He says lifting my head up and wiping under my eyes where a few silent tears slipped past without me knowing. He kisses me softly and hugs me tucking me under his chin while his hands rub up and down my back. I snuggle closer with my eyes closed holding him tight. "C'mon Y/n let's go pick out that swim suit!" He says sounding excited and let's go of me grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the store and down to the next trying to get my mind off of the rude sales associate.

(Another small time skip where we just arrived at the beach.)

"Hey you guys made it!" Steve runs up in just his swim trunks, hair wet, and sand sticking to him like someone pushed him down onto the sandy shore of the beach just moments before. "Yeah we're just gonna go set up our stuff then we'll join you guys in the water." Tony replies with his arm wrapped around me. Steve smiles and nods then runs off down the beach. I'm not sure about getting into the water looking around there's a lot of strangers here all swarming the infamous Avengers wanting to get pictures with them or of them.

The beach isn't packed but it defiantly isn't as dead as it should be if just the team was here, and I don't want a rerun of what happened earlier especially now that Tony talked me into a bikini after all. Though I picked it out and hid it from his view until I changed into it. When I put it on and it actually fit really well supporting me and being snug but not tight when I wasn't expecting it to fit at all with just how small it looked, I couldn't just put it back and pick out a different one. (It's the bikini in the pic above.)

But thinking about it now I should have picked a much less revealing bikini, but I knew Tony would appreciate the colors if you know what I mean. So I put it on in the changing room and put my clothes back on over it, only taking the price tags up to the cashier so I could pay for it and said I wouldn't let him see it until we got here because I was worried I would loose my nerve and pick out another one piece bathing suit after all. Plus I knew that if I let him see me in it that we would never make it to the beach and would more than likely be banned from the store. So he's been rushing to get here and to get me out of my dress shirt and knee high shorts since I checked out at the store. "Hurry Y/n I can't wait to get into the water!" Tony yells twenty or so feet away and winks at me suggestively, dropping our things onto the sand not bothering to actually set anything up.

"Don't lie Stark you only want to see her in her new bikini! You don't really care about getting in the water!" Natasha yells back at him from a ways down the beach playing volleyball with Wanda and few other people I don't recognize against the boys. Both of them wearing their own bikinis. 'That's probably how Steve got covered in sand.' "How did you know about that?" He yelled back pouting harder than he would willingly admit, because she's seen me in my new bikini but he hasn't been aloud to. Natasha stopped playing and said something to a couple of the people I didn't recognize that were on her team and walked up with Wanda right behind her.

"Oh don't get your panties in a twist Stark she sent me and Wanda a few photos wanting some feed back before deciding which swim suit to get." She grumped at him. "But trust me you'll like what she picked out." Wanda said with a knowing smirk. My face heats up when his gaze locks with mine. "Oh I never doubted that I wouldn't like it. Now come on let's get into the water that's the whole point of going to the beach." He said pulling on my hand. "Fine but I have to take these clothes off and I'm not comfortable just stripping on the beach and you have get changed to."

I say holding my towel close to me nervous about showing so much of myself in front of everyone, especially in front of strangers. Tony not needing me to tell him twice took off to the changing rooms with his swim trunks yelling for me join him. "No way or I won't get to swim today! I'll change and be out in a few." I say while walking towards an empty room. I strip out of my clothes and look at myself in the full length mirror they had in the changing room. Feeling insecure and like this was a very bad idea all of a sudden.

Seeing all of my rolls and stretch marks in plain sight is making me feel ugly and disgusted with my self. I'm about to say hell with it all and put my clothes back on and say I'm feeling sick and that I want to go home even though Tony will know its a lie and will be worried about me, I can't handle this, I'm not ready, this is to much. That's when Tony's voice comes through the door. "Almost done in their my beautiful girl? You aren't going to keep me waiting all day are you? I could just come in there and get you if you'd prefer?" He purrs out but sounds worried.

I hurriedly wrap my towel around myself and unlock the door but I don't make a move to come out. "I'm not sure I can do this Tony. This is a bad idea I wanna go home." I'm hugging myself again degrading and upsetting thoughts are rushing through my head making me so overwhelmed that I don't notice Tony's in the changing room with me until he wraps his arms around me from behind making me jump. "Where's all of this coming from? Is it because of what that lady said earlier because she's wrong, so so wrong baby girl your beautiful in everyway!" I cringe trying not to cry knowing what he's saying is true but I can't help but let what she said and what I've been thinking lately get to me anyways.

I whimper and turn around in his arms letting him hold me again. "I'm sorry I don't know what's going on I've been more and more insecure lately for no real reason. That's why I don't wear those clothes you bought me anymore, they fit but they show to much of everything I hate and I wanted to cover up by wearing my old baggy clothes." I pull back looking up at him. Tony's silent for a moment looking at me with a thoughtful expression. "Well we'll just have to fix that now won't we?" He smiles softly grabbing my hand and leaning towards the door.

"Tony no I really don't want to go out there not like this at least." I say pulling back and looking down. "Like what? Your all covered up by your towel. I cant even see that little swim suit you bought earlier that I've been dying to see since we left the store. I love every single part of your body but if you don't want to go out there we don't have to. We can go home or stay right here in this changing room. Hell I bet if I text Capsicle he'll bring us something eat and drink then we can stay in here all day." I giggled at that imagining a confused and flustered Steve coming to the changing room bringing food and water.

"There's my girl." Tony coo's running his hands up my sides trying to tickle me. "Hey hey, No, Tony, Dont you dare!" I squeaked out jumping back hitting the wall of the changing room realizing I'm trapped my eyes widen and I'm about to yell at him again when he launches at me tickling me and I don't feel my towel falling while trying to squirm away laughing until I feel Tony's bare hands on my hips and he stops tickling me. I look up worried about the sudden stop in his "attack" and his silence until I see the desire in his eyes.

"As much as I absolutely love this." He leans close to my ear his grip tightening on my hips. "I'd love even more to see it off and on the floor." He kissed my neck once he finished. Making me gasp as heat floods my cheeks. He mumbles into my neck. "How about I show you just how beautiful you really are." Pressing his body up against mine nipping the sweet spot on my neck.

Let's just say I never got to go swimming in my new swim suit and Steve got more than just an eyeful when he came to check on us because we forgot to lock the door.

@lilacprincessofrecovery

[lalainajanes]

"both of us are trying out for the same chaser spot on the quidditch team and once it's clear we're the best there by far we start doing progressively crazier stunts to outdo each other" au

This went way off from the prompt! I have such a hard time with high school age sexy times, hence why they’re not in school.

No Time For Common Sense

Caroline’s limpingwhen she makes her way out of the shower stall, her flip flops slapping loudlyon the tile floors. The locker room is quiet since the other women trying outfor the team had been quicker than she was. She liked them all, which was abonus. They’d made plans to get together for brunch over the weekend, tocompare notes about their tryout experiences.

She’d heard them fileout a half hour ago, talking and giggling, while Caroline had still beenwincing through shampooing her hair. Her left side feels like one continuousbruise and her knee is screaming bloody murder courtesy of a rough landing.She’d barely managed to pull out of a spin before crashing into the ground, hadbeen thrown from her broom and hit the grass in a roll.

At least she’d managedto keep a hold of the quaffle.

That seemed like asmall victory now that Caroline can barely bend her leg but she’d take it. Stairsare going to be a bitch tomorrow. She’s dreading the lecture she’s going to getwhen she drags herself to Bonnie, one of Caroline’s oldest friends and currentmediwitch in training, to get it looked at.

It’s nothing shehasn’t dealt with before over the last few weeks. Tryouts for the New Orleansteam are notoriously brutal, sabotage not uncommon. There was one chaser spotopen this year and Caroline was determined to get it but she wasn’t the onlyone gunning for the position. She’d already made it through two cuts and therewas only one other person left in the running. The worst possible person.

In addition to being agiant pain in the ass Kol Mikaelson was also the brother of the team’s captainwhich was why Caroline was pushing herself, and her body, to such extremes. Sheknew she was better than Kol, thatshe would work harder. She only had to convince Klaus.

And she would.

A throat clears,startling her, and Caroline hand flies to the knotted towel at her chest,checking it’s secure. Her jaw drops for a moment when she sees Klaus loungingon one of the benches, looking perfectly at ease despite the humidity, thetendrils of steam floating around the room. “Can’t you read?” Caroline hissesbefore she can even think about reconsidering. “This is the women’s locker room.”

Klaus grins inresponse and she feels a little relieved that he seems completely unoffended. He’smostly seemed amused when her mouth had gotten away from her on the pitch – hadlaughed when he’d caught her muttering creative threats under her breath aftera beater hopeful with more biceps than brains had nearly taken her head off. Shegives him points for not getting pissy when her ire is directed his way. She’dhave been so pissed if she’d just killed her chances by snarling a reprimand,mild though it had been, at him. “I read perfectly well, sweetheart. I justthought I’d make sure you were alright. You hit the field hard. Left a bit of adent.”

Was he seriouslyconcerned about the grass? Klaus hada reputation for being kind of a dick but that was a little much. “I’ll send anote of apology to the groundskeeper,” Caroline replies, not attempting to hidethe sharp edge as she glares at him. She flips her hair over her shoulder,turning towards her locker. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

Klaus interrupts herwith a harsh noise, and suddenly he’s touching her. Caroline stills, lets out asoft pained noise when his fingertips brush over a particularly sore patch ofskin near her shoulder blade. “Sorry,” he murmurs, immediately lightening thepressure. “That looks bad.”

“It didn’t feelgreat,” Caroline admits, remembering how she’d felt like all her bones had beenjarred, how she’d laid there dazed and aching until Kol had touched down nextto her, taunted her until she’d dragged herself to her feet.

He hums inacknowledgement, pressing slow soothing circles into her skin. She relaxes intoit for a moment, head tipping to the side in relief before she catches herself,tossing a wary look over her shoulder, “If you’re the kind of skeeze who’sgoing to try to get me to sleep with you in return for a good word with thecoaches I will make you regret it.”

“That’d be a bituseless considering you’ve already been selected.”

It takes a moment forthat to sink in but when it does Caroline whirls, her wet hair slapping hershoulders, “Shut up.”

He looks incredulous,“You’ve been working yourself to death, Caroline. Have been taking franklyinsane risks in the drills and managing impressive plays. Of course you madethe team.”

The only thingstopping her from breaking out into a victory dance is the fact that she knowsit’ll hurt. And that she’s not sure her towel’s up to the strain. “What aboutKol?”

Klaus shrugs, “Honestly,Kol and I as teammates would be a disaster. One of us would likely end up deadand then those obligatory family dinners would be even frostier.”

He seems perfectlynonchalant, his eyes on her face, and Caroline finds herself relaxing. Sheoffers him a small smile, “Well, thanks for the info.”

“Your agent will begetting a call first thing tomorrow. Try to act surprised, yeah?”

Caroline can totallymanage that. Thank you, drama minor. “Will do.”

“I brought some bruisepaste,” Klaus tells her, hefting a familiar jar. “Will you let me help you?”

She bites her lip,considering the offer. She hadn’t allowed herself to flirt with Klaus, thoughshe’s definitely had the opportunity, and had sensed he’d be amenable, notwanting the distraction during tryouts.

Which were over now.

Maybe she could celebrate with something better than Haagen Daas.

As long as they got afew things straight first, “Is this a regular thing for you? Do you nurse soremuscles and soothe the bruises of all your teammates?”

“Hardly,” Klausdenies. “If I offered I think they’d insist I had a concussion.”

“So why me?”

He doesn’t shift,makes no attempt to dodge her eyes. Merely tips his head to the side, thecorner of his mouth tilting up in a smile, “Surely you’ve noted my interest?You took great pains to avoid my attempts to engage you in conversation thatfirst evening when everyone went out.”

“And yet you kepttrying.”

He nods, conceding thepoint. “Admitting defeat is not in my nature, love. And I rather thought youlooked my way too often for someone who wasn’t interested.”

Ugh, she thought she’dbeen subtle. Caroline hadn’t been able to stop herself from watching him, cataloguingthe differences in his body and how he moved without quidditch pads. She’s beena little tipsy by the end of the night, and his shirtsleeves had been pushed up,the buttons at his collar undone. It was entirely possible she hadn’t been ableto mask her appreciation.

He’s waiting for heranswer, patient and expectant and she shakes herself. “I didn’t want things toget messy during tryouts.”

“And now that tryoutsare over?” Klaus asks, edging forward the slightest bit. Close enough that shecould reach out and pull him closer.

It’s a temptingthought.

Caroline takes a deepbreath and turns, giving him her back once more, gathering her hair over oneshoulder to keep it out of the way. She hears him open the jar, starts a littleat the coldness of it as he begins to spread it on her skin. “Sorry,” hemurmurs, and she almost jumps again in surprise at how close he is, his warmthemanating faintly along her back.

Caroline shakes herhead, doing her very best to stop her spine from melting under the soothingstrokes of his palm, “It’s fine.”

Klaus, it seems, isdetermined to drive her insane. He leans closer, and she feels his breathe onher bare shoulder. “Let’s hope this stops your pretty skin from turning blackand blue.”

This time she doesshiver. Klaus hand skims lower in response, tracing the edge of her towel. Shecan feel his question though he stays silent. She inhales, the slightest bitshaky, loosening the knot and letting the towel slip lower, so the entirety ofher back is exposed. His hands rest on her still covered hips gently, turninguntil he can sink down onto the bench with her in front of him. Her toes curl intothe tiles when she feels his exhale against the base of her spine.

She half expects himto tug the towel away from her unresisting fingertips but he continues his workon her back, moving methodically down the length of her spine, spreading thebruise paste outwards until her head’s rolled forward and she’s got her lipspressed together to keep in her moans.

She can’t quite stopthe noise of complaint from spilling out when he stops however. His answeringsound of amusement is low, a little rough, and she’s pretty sure he’s breathinga little harshly when he stands. “That should suffice. Can I drive you to yourhotel, sweetheart?”

Was he serious?!

She spins and shoveshim back onto the bench before she can talk herself out of it. Caroline gripshis shoulders and settles into his lap, pleased when his arms encircle herwaist. His cock is also quite clearly straining the zipper of his jeans, andhis jaw tightens when she rolls her hips against him. It was good to know shehadn’t made a total ass out of herself.

“That,” she tells himseverely, curling a hand around his neck, “was the kind of foreplay thatromance novels are built on. ‘Drive me back to my hotel?’ Puh-lease.”

The towel’s still gatheredaround her waist between them and his hands slip upwards, gliding over the bareskin of her ribs, his thumbs teasing the underside of her breasts, stillfaintly cool from the menthol in the bruise paste. “Did you have something elsein mind?” he asks, blinking up at her far too innocently for someone who’spractically feeling her up.

Caroline’s not reallyon board with the ‘practically’ part, arches her back in an unsubtle hint thathas the added benefit of grinding their lower bodies together in a way that hasKlaus hissing out a curse and Caroline’s eyes fluttering at the pleasure of it.In case that wasn’t enough of a hint she ducks her head, brushing her lips overhis. Klaus leans back slightly, head tipping up so his mouth catches hersfirmly, his lips parting in invitation.

One Caroline takes,delving into his mouth greedily, her fingertips skimming his throat, discoveringthe texture of his stubble as she tastes him for the first time.

She kisses him untilshe can’t breathe, goes in for another once she sucks in a much needed lungfulof air. Klaus is just as eager, hands beginning to wander and Caroline hums herapproval when he cups her breast, rubbing over the tight peak, testing herreactions. There’s something familiar about the callouses on his hand and hepulls back to watch her face, studying her reactions as he touches her, beforehis head dips. His mouth is hot on her nipple and Caroline runs her handthrough his hair as he sucks, tugs when she feels the edge of his teeth. Klaustakes that as encouragement, switching sides as his hands slide up her thighs.He traces the crease of where her leg meets her torso, a pleased rumble comingfrom him at the dampness he finds there. “Do not even think about being smug,”she warns him, narrowing her eyes playfully.

“Me? Smug, never.”

She’s about to callbullshit, because she’s observed him enough over the last couple weeks to knowthat Klaus has a more than healthy ego, when he tugs the towel the rest of theway off, leaving her naked and spread across his lap.

The lap that remainsfully clothed, which just isn’t fair in Caroline’s opinion. She makes quickwork of his shirt but doesn’t have time to consider the best way to get hispants off before he’s distracting her. He’s managed to insinuate his hand inbetween their bodies, stroking over her folds and she digs her nails into hisshoulders to steady herself as she tenses. Klaus kisses her collarbone, hisvoice a low rasp, “Tell me if I do anything you don’t like. Tell me what you do like.”

She nods mindlessly,pressing closer, letting out a sigh as his touch deepens, his fingers becomingslick as he learns her body. The words stick in her throat but Klaus doesn’tseem to need them, reading the twitching of her muscles, the whines and moansthat tumble from her easily until he’s got two fingers pressed inside of herwhile his thumb does lazy circuits around her clit.

Klaus doesn’t seem tobe having the same trouble speaking, murmuring delicious filth in her ear,telling her how good she feels around his fingers, how he can’t wait to feelher wrapped around his cock. “Let go, Caroline. Come for me,” he tells her, lowand demanding. She strains, rolling her hips against his fingers and shatterswith a sharp cry, trembling against him.

He’s mindful of her backas she comes down, the soothing strokes of his hands avoiding the areas heknows are bruised. She buries a smile in his throat, dragging her fingers downthe taut muscles of his abs. They firm even further under her touch, twitchingas she toys with his belt. “This needs to come off,” Caroline tells him, softand hoarse, a tone she barely recognizes. “Pants too.”

Klaus shows noinclination to argue, leaning back to help her strip his jeans away. It’sneither graceful nor smooth, her legs are a little wobbly and they almost spilloff the bench, but they manage. Caroline reaches down, circling his cock as shenips at his jaw, running her hand along the length of him teasingly. “I reallyhoped you locked the door,” she tells him, lining him up at her entrance. “Becausewe’re totally going to need another shower after this.”

His reply isunintelligible, a garbled groan as she sinks down swiftly, biting down on hisshoulder to muffle her own whimper.

They stop for anotherjar of bruise paste when Klaus drives her back to her hotel. Luckily, the bedin her room is very soft.

#klaroline #klaroline drabbles #klaroline smut #imma just going to call this a win for mini-ness #let me #thetourguidebarbie

[isearchgoood]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2UCxKqQ #blogger #bloggingtips #bloggerlife #bloggersgetsocial #ontheblog #writersofinstagram #writingprompt #instapoetry #writerscommunity #writersofig #writersblock #writerlife #writtenword #instawriters #spilledink #wordgasm #creativewriting #poetsofinstagram #blackoutpoetry #poetsofig

[camerasieunhovn]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[localwebmgmt]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[kjt-lawyers]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[thanhtuandoan89]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[noithatotoaz]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[drummcarpentry]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[xaydungtruonggia]

Marketing in Times of Uncertainty - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

Our work as marketers has transformed drastically in the space of a month. Today, we're grateful to welcome our good friend Rand to talk about a topic that's been on the forefront of our minds lately: how to do our jobs empathetically and effectively through one of the most difficult trials in modern memory.

We hope you've got a cozy seat in your home office, a hot mug of coffee from your own kitchen Keurig, and your cat in your lap as you join us for this week's episode of Whiteboard Friday.

Video Transcription

Howdy, folks. I'm Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and co-founder of Sparktoro. And I'm here today with a very special edition of Whiteboard Friday. 

I think that now is the right time to talk about marketing in uncertain epochs like the one we're living through. We obviously have a global crisis. It's very serious. But most of you watch Whiteboard Friday. Know that here at Moz, right, they're trying to help. They want to help people through this crisis. And that means doing marketing. And I don't think that now is the right time for us to stop our marketing activities. In fact, I think it's time to probably crunch down and do some hard work. 

So let's talk about what's going on. And then I'll give some tactics that I hope will be helpful to you and your teams, your clients, your bosses, everyone at your organizations as we're going through this together. 

The business world is experiencing widespread repercussions

First off, we are in this cycle of trying to prevent massive amounts of death, which is absolutely the right thing to do. But because of that, I think a lot of us in the business world, in the marketing world, are experiencing pain, particularly in certain industries. In some industries obviously demand is spiking, it's skyrocketing for, you know, coronavirus-related reasons. And in other cases, demand is down. That's because we sort of have this inability to go out.

We can't go to bars and restaurants and movies and bowling alleys and go do all the things we would normally do. So we don't need fancy clothes to go do it and we don't need haircuts — this is probably the last Whiteboard Friday I would want to record before needing a cut. And all of that spending, right, that consumer spending affects business-to-business spending as well. 

Lower spending → cost-cutting → lower investment/layoffs → environment of fear...

It leads to cost cutting by businesses because they know there's not as much demand. It leads to lower investment and oftentimes layoffs as we saw in the United States, where nearly 10 million workers are are out of work, according to the latest stats from the federal government. And that builds this environment of fear, right. None of us have faced anything like this. This is much bigger and worse, at least this spike of it is, than the Great Recession of 2008. And, of course, all of these things contribute to lower spending across the board. 

However, what's interesting about this moment in time is that it is a compressed moment. Right. It's not a long-term fear of of what will happen. I think there's fears about whether the recession will take a long time to recover from. But we know that eventually, sometime between 3 and 18 months from now, spending will resume and there will be this new normal. I think of now as a time when marketing needs to change its tone and attitude.

Businesses need to change their tone and attitude and in three ways. And that's what I want to talk through. 

Three crucial points

1. Cut with a scalpel, not with a chainsaw

First off, as you are looking to save money and if you're an agency, if you're a consultant, your clients are almost certainly saying, "Hey, where can we pull back and still get returns on investment?" And I think one of the important points is not to cut with a chainsaw. Right. Not to take a big whack to, "Oh, let's just look at all of our Google and Facebook ad spending and cut it out entirely." Or "Let's look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely." That's not probably not the right way to go. 

Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive. I would urge against looking at a say, one-week, two-week, three-week trend. The last three weeks spending is very frozen and I believe that it will open up more again. I think most economists agree. You can see that's why the the public stock markets have not crashed nearly as hard. We've had some bouncing around.

And I think that's because people know that we will get to this point where people are ordering online. They are using businesses online. They are getting deliveries. They are doing activities through the Internet over the course of however long we're quarantined or there is fear about going out and then it will return to a new normal. 

And so because of that, you should probably be looking something like six to twelve weeks in the past and trying to sort out, OK, where are the trends, where are their lifelines and opportunities and points of light? And let's look at those ROI-positive channels and not cut them too soon. 

Likewise, you can look inside a channel. If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend Seer Interactive's guide to cutting with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, and they look at how you can analyze your Google Ads accounts to find keywords that are probably still sending you valuable traffic that you should not pull back on. I would also caution — I've talked to a bunch of folks recently who's seen Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube and Google ad inventory at historically low prices. So if you have ROI-positive channels right now or your clients do, now is an awesome time to be to potentially be putting some dollars into that. 

2. Invest now for the second & third waves in the future

Second thing, I would invest now for the second and third waves. I think that's a really smart way to go. You can look at Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg and a bunch of folks have written about investing during times of recession, times of fear, and seeing how. Basically when we when we go through wave one, which I think will be still another two to six weeks, of sort of nothing but virus-related news, nothing but COVID-19, and get to a point where we're transitioning to this life online. It's becoming our new every day. And then getting to a post-crisis new normal, you know, after we have robust testing and quarantining has hopefully worked out well. The hospital systems aren't overwhelmed and maybe a vaccine as is near development or done.

When those things start to come, we will want to have now messaging and content and keyword demands serving. Right. And ads and webinars. Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don't even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up. 

3. Read the room

The third and possibly most important thing right now is, I think, to read the room. People are paying attention online like never before. And if you're doing web marketing, they're paying attention to your work. To our work. That means we need to be more empathetic than we have been historically, right? They are. Our audiences are not thinking about the same things they were weeks ago. They're in a very new mindset. It doesn't matter if they're business-to-business or business-to-consumer. You are dealing with everyone on the planet basically obsessed with the conditions that we're all in right now. That means assuming that everyone is thinking about this.



I really think the best type of content you create, the best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. Helps other people. It could be in big ways. It could be in small ways. 

The Getty Museum, I don't know if you saw Avinash Kaushik's great post about the Getty Museum. They did this fun thing where they took pictures from their museum, famous paintings and they put them online and said, "Hey, go around your home and try and recreate these and we'll post them." Is it helping health care workers get masks? No. But is it helping people at home with their kids, with their families, with their loved ones have a little fun, take their mind off the crisis, engage with art in a way that maybe they can't because they can't go to museums right now? Yeah, that's awesome. That's fine. It's okay to help in little ways, too, but help first. 

I also think it's okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus. Look, web marketing right now is not directly related to the coronavirus. It's not even directly related to some of the follow-on effects of that. But I'm hoping that it's helpful. And I'm hoping that we can talk about it in empathetic and thoughtful ways. We'd just have to have to read the room. 

It is okay to recognize that this crisis is affecting your customers and to talk about things that aren't directly related but are still useful to them. 

And if you can, I would try not to ignore this, right? Not not to create things that are completely unrelated, that feel like, "Gosh, this could have been launched at any time in the last six months, sort of feels tone deaf." I think everything that we do is viewed through the lens of what's happening right now. And certainly I have that experience as I go through online content. 

Do not dismiss the scenario. I think that that history will reflect very poorly. History is moving so fast right now that it is already reflecting poorly on people who are doing this. 

Don't exploit the crisis in a shameless way. I've seen a few marketing companies and agencies. I won't point them out because I don't think shaming is the right thing to do right now, but show how you're helping. Don't exploit by saying "It's coronavirus times. We have a sale." All right? Say, "Oh, we are offering a discount on our products because we know that money is tight right now and we are helping this crisis by donating 10 percent of whatever." Or, "We are helping by offering you something that you can do at home with your family or something that will help you with remote work or something that will help you through whatever you're going through," whatever your customers are going through. 

Don't keep your tone and tactics the same right now. Oh, yes, I think that's kind of madness as well. I would urge you, as you're creating all this potentially good stuff, new stuff, stuff that plans for the future and that speaks to right now, go ahead and audit your marketing. Look at the e-mail newsletters you're sending out. Look at the sequential emails that are in your site onboarding cycles. Look at the overlay messaging, look at your home page, look at your About page. 

Make sure that you're either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. Right. I don't think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don't think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it's the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere. 

All right, everyone, I hope that you are staying safe, that you're staying at home, that you're washing your hands. And I promise you, together, we're going to get through this.

Thanks. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!