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weeklyfangirl · 4 years

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Frat Boy Pt. 22

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7 (1), part 7 (2), part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12, part 13 , part 14, part 15, part 16, part 17, part 18, part 19 , part 20, part 21

Hope everyone is keeping themselves mentally/physically well... here’s the next update in your adventure. Please safely read from home ;)

The sun moved slowly up my window, illuminating the dancing dust in the air. Even though I knew dust didn’t have feelings, it all still looked very peaceful, suspended there in space.

I wanted to be suspended, floating, with no obligations or pressures.

Instead, I watched time slip by, slowly, as the shadows stretched along my floor and I lay still, wrapped in a giant Winnie-the-Pooh sheets burrito.

I called in sick the past three days to work and to all my classes, my lack of attendance probably dropping me a letter grade in a few classes. Instead of checking on my academic scholarship, I begged Renny to drop off Dr. Rhinecuff’s papers for me. She did, lamenting about how his office smelled like roast beef and how she probably needed a nose job from it shrivelling up from the stench. Tired, I sent her three hearts, ignoring all of her calls and voicemails.

In a random bout of restless energy, I looked up the University of Oxford in England. No one would know me there. And maybe that wasn’t a bad thing when you didn’t even know yourself. I stayed on their site for an hour, avoiding my take-home assignments, and speculating which classes I could take in the spring semester. My eyes grew tired though, and even if I were accepted as a transfer student, it wasn’t like I could ever afford it without scholarships.

I closed the computer.

It’d been cloudy, rainy. The random storm that’d come in from Mexico lasted longer than the usual morning fog that’d roll in and out by the time it was 9 AM. This storm lingered, heavy, full clouds looking to burst and unleash a steady rain for three to four hours before the clouds rested, storing up all they could until the next downpour.

My parents didn’t question me when I came in, used to my random visits. But when I went straight to my room without saying hello, rain-plastered hair covering puffy eyes, my mom basically collapsed at the sight.

She followed me to the bed, trying to see my face, but I buried it in the pillow, ignoring the way the purple fringe tickled my nose.

“What’s wrong sweetheart?”

I just groaned. Her voice was too gentle, too well-intending for the dark thoughts sitting in my mind. She’d be heartbroken if she heard them.

She huffed, not out of annoyance, but distress. “What’s bothering you?? Is it Renny? Did you breakup with Harry?” All those reasons were too simple. She ran her hands lightly along my legs, but I cringed away from her touch. It was something I rarely did. She paused. “You can tell me anything...”

I shook my head against the pillow, my last attempt to tell her to leave without speaking. She waited a moment longer.

“Okay,” she said. And that was it.

Father didn’t ask questions, not even when I was here for the third consecutive day. Mom had probably come to her own conclusions, and shared them with him.

“Mom said you aren’t feeling too well,” he said over cereal one morning, confirming my suspicions. It was the first time he’d broken our three-day spree of comfortable silence.

“What else did she tell you?”

He shrugged his shoulders, his usual buoyant self replaced with a quiet voice. He looked at me, and all I saw was pity. If I were him, I’d probably look at me the same way. I hadn’t showered in a while. “Well don’t let anything get you down. You’re too smart for that.”

He’d tried. He’d put in an effort. I just nodded, scooping up another spoonful of cereal. He followed suit.

And that was that.

A week passed like this.

But overnight, the clouds had blown away, and the sun came back full-force this morning just in time for the weekend, renewing my guilt. That traitor.

I’d cried all of Monday and Tuesday, but when the last tear was shed in the middle of a New Girl episode, I was empty. My tears didn’t leave anything to replace them with.

On Wednesday, a phone alarm reminded me I had a therapy appointment. I hit snooze multiple times. It was only when I got up to pee, and I hated what I saw in the mirror that I threw on an oversized sweater to go over my pajamas and headed out the door.

“Is it good?” I asked.

Her hands reviewed my wants list.

“That’s just a coffee stain on the corner..just...ignore that bit,” I added.

She surveyed it briefly, not really focusing on it. “Were you honest?”

I nodded.

“Then there isn’t good or bad. It’s just your truth.”

“But I still feel… I don’t know. I don’t think I know what that is. I don’t feel like I’m… progressing. Doing anything towards that,” I said.

She looked at me with a level gaze. “Then that’s your truth. And that’s okay for right now.”

I shot her a glance.

“I see a common struggle with people your age. They feel this….” -She adjusted, quirking her head- “immense pressure to be perfect, to figure it all out, to achieve success so early.”

“Everyone’s doing it,” I began. “They’re getting internships, keeping up their grades, involved in ten clubs, doing community service…” I could’ve droned on, but didn’t.

“You have an internship, your grades are good, you’ve joined a sorority, and up until recently you’ve been involved in tutoring. Those are extracurriculars.”

I couldn’t argue with her.

“Is it too much?” she asked.

Too much. It was everything I’d been feeling until I’d felt nothing. But hearing her list off what was waiting for me just beyond her doors made me feel the weight of it all over again.

“I’ve just been overwhelmed.”

“Who have you been thinking about?”

She noticed I started picking my hangnail.

She started gently, knowingly. “Has it been Harry?”

“Ow,” I cursed. A bit of blood prickled up where the hangnail used to be.

“He seems to be a major stressor in your life. Would you agree?” The clock ticked behind her, filling the silence. Her hands rested in her lap, while mine swiped away the bit of blood. I could never remember my therapist’s name, but somehow it wasn’t important.

“Yeah, but … I mean …. there’s a lot of stressors.”

“Like his friends?”

His friends, in the abbreviated story I’d told her, stood in place for the gang. I’d used terms like … intimidating, mean, basically painting them as bullies who didn’t like us together. I wasn’t expecting to get much therapy from a lie. “Out of curiosity, if I were to tell you something… would you be obligated to report it to the police?”

“Not necessarily.” Her legs crossed, creased brows zeroing in with a laser focus. “Has something happened to you, Y/N?”

I swallowed hard, the truth lodged in my throat. But I had gotten too used to the weight of the secret. “I was just curious…” My mind raced to change the subject, and I blurted about Zayn’s art show.

“Do you think this panic attack was induced by this heightened sense of scrutiny from Harry’s friends?”

“Probably.”

“You said there were others. What are your main stressors?’

I settled in, more comfortable with this question. “There’s financial stressors, for one. And it’s exasperated here.”

“You’ve been dealing with financial difficulties for a while, now. Have you been feeling this anxious the entire time, or has it been recent?”

My foot tapped impatiently. We both knew the answer.

“Your panic attack was a first,” she explained, gently. “Some new factor in your life pushed you there.”

I picked at the hangnail, wincing. It was gone. My skin was raw.

“Maybe it all links back to Harry.” She waited a moment to see if I’d speak. When I didn’t, she leant back, and pulled out a new sheet of paper, scribbling something down. “I want you to write a pros and cons list about your relationship with him, for next time. When your feelings are overwhelming, it helps to get everything on paper. In a list. Puts things in perspective.”

I drove home, her words had pushed themselves into my empty shell and now they clinked around, jostling up my insides like a pinball machine and giving me a headache.

Just because I hadn’t left the house all week didn’t mean I didn’t feel guilty for ditching work. God, I did. It killed me. I knew I was lucky to get that internship. Harry had mentioned how people killed just to get on the waitlist, and I didn’t doubt it. An OC internship with, if not the top, at least the most publicized private practice? I mean, I was typing in appointments next to a Southern Stanford grad if that speaks to the competition here.

And here I was, retreating back to my house, too drained to face the world.

As for Harry, after what I’d said to him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t want to talk to me ever again.

I’d been so cruel.

I was weak.

I felt guilty for feeling this way at all.

And then I would watch the dust again.

It was a cycle.

About three blocks from my house on my way back from the therapist session, a familiar car passed me. It happened suddenly, unexpectedly, like most things do. We made eye contact before he passed, and my foot instantly lifted off the gas when my eyes connected with my brain. I whipped my head around but the matte black maserati sped up, disappearing from sight.

What was Harry doing this far from campus?

My heart beat erratically as I pulled into the driveway, and it was only seconds before I made it into the house. Father held up a hand in Grandpa’s old room. Phone call. Trudging silently to my own, I wrapped myself in a blanket burrito.

I’d been avoiding my phone, but I caved this time, checking J’s social media to see if he’d posted anything about being in the area to prove I WASN’T crazy and DIDN’T just hallucinate. Nothing. I tossed my phone on the other side of the room before I spiralled.

It didn’t matter. I was in my room. Alone. Safe. I focused on the dust.

Two little knocks disrupted my exciting mind game - which dust particle would fall further than the other.

“You’re turning ripe,” Father noted. His briefcase was still in his hand and he was coming startlingly close to my depression burrito.

“What are you doing-!?” I protested. But it was too late. He ripped the sheets off, exposing me in the t-shirt I’d been in since Monday. “Your mood won’t change if you don’t make an effort.

Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’re coming to the water with me.” He hesitated at the door. “Shower first.”

In the car, a sense of comfort washed over me. He’d been right. Clean wet hair smelled nice and felt good slicked around my head. Even if Mom would complain I’d “catch cold,” it felt good to feel something. Dad’s speakers switched between classic rock and reggaeton as I sipped on the chocolate shake we picked up from the Shake Shack. It was a short drive away to the harbor, and once parked, a shorter walk to the public docks.

Our feet dangled above the water. It was too cold to go swimming this time of year, but my body buzzed with yearning despite the goosebumps on my skin. I wanted to feel encompassed by salty water. I wanted to be submerged, where everything was muted, a barrier between me and the world. Between my wet hair and the icy shake, I could pretend my body was as cool as the water below me. I could just…. dissolve.

“So what’s going on?” he opened up the conversation. “You having a hard time at school?”

“I don’t like the sorority.”

His brows raised, not expecting me to be so honest so soon. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, don’t you hate that shit?”

I looked at him, almost shocked he’d agreed with me.

The boats squeaked as they rocked with the rolling tides coming in from the ocean. I watched as a duffy boat wandered to the end of the jetty - where the harbor opened to the ocean. I took another big gulp of my shake, feeling the cold run down, freezing my esophagus.

“I liked frats, but sororities are different,” he mumbled, spooning his shake into his mouth. He’d gotten his usual Neapolitan, and it’d somehow stayed solid on the drive over. We hadn’t been to the Shake Shack in years, but I guess seeing his daughter waste away beneath her comforter was enough to break the dry spell.

“Why? Because its girls?” My lips were breaking into a smile without my consent. He didn’t make sense.

“They’re more catty.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Dad! That’s verging on sexist.”

“Eh, I don’t know. I’m just saying things. Did you tell Mom you want to quit?”

I shook my head.

“Yeah…” he looked out at the boats, a quiet understanding passing between us. “She was really excited for you to join.”

“It’s not all bad…”

“Well if it’s not making you happy, don’t do it. Your mom doesn’t want you doing anything you don’t want to do. I was in a frat to shoot the shit with friends and it was something fun to do instead of study. If it’s not something fun for you, drop it.”

I could hear the words he was telling me, but it was like they were rolling off my shoulders, not really penetrating. He made it sound so easy, but it seemed like it was a million times harder than that. Everything was entangled, just as Harry had said. Not to mention Renny. If I quit, I felt like I’d lose her forever, too. I knew I could use a better friend, but that couldn’t erase the years of memories we had together. Losing Renny would feel like losing a part of myself. Not that I knew who that was anymore.

“Dad?” I asked. The question that'd weighed on my mind ever since I got home rested on the tip of my tongue.

“Yeah?”

“This is going to sound weird, but did you see Harry today?”

“Yeah. He stopped by,” he said, casually, spooning another mouthful.

I practically choked. “What? Why?! Weren’t you going to tell me?”

“Y/N, I’m working. I have a thousand things bouncing around in my head all the time.”

“And?!!?”

Harry couldn’t reach out to me beforehand? He drove by but- what? Didn’t even want to see me?

He sighed, not understanding the urgency. “He just stopped by, said hi. That’s all.”

My brows stitched. “Why would he say hi to you? What’d he say, exactly?”

“Oh, come on, I don’t know. I can’t remember-”

“Dad!”

“All right, all right. Hi, how are you…” -his brain tried to remember- “he asked if you were doing okay. Then he left. He was nearby for a family brunch or something.”

“He asked about me?”

“Yeah. I mean, he didn’t go on and on, he just asked a question. He was in a rush.”

The shake froze me from the inside, and the breeze froze me from the out. But while I shriveled into myself, my guilt grew. “Dad?”

He hummed.

“Why are people so fake?”

He looked out at the harbor, peaceful for a winter’s morning. Only one small fishing boat headed towards the harbor’s edge, the sole fisherman at the helm facing the wind with the grace of a husband dealing with a temperamental spouse.

Father looked to our shoes as a random swell came, the water rising perilously close to our soles. Then, with all the untapped wisdom I seldom remembered parents had, “People are fake because they don’t know who they are,” he said.

He got a call from the restaurant and drove us home.

In bed the next day, I ignored the pros/cons assignment, watching New Girl and making collages of Oxford in a word document until my eyes were burning from blue light exposure. I knew I was pushing it staying this long away from school, away from my problems. I was pushing myself, seeing how far my apathy could go. I woke up Thursday night at 2 AM from the rain pouring against my shutter and anger pricking my insides.

Harry was the reason I was in this position. As well as Viv, who fucked Harry. And Kiki, who gave me a DG Pretty Please, that just so happened to involve Harry.

I wanted him, but I wanted him to fuck off. Nothing was changing. Nothing was getting better.

It was all Harry, Harry, Harry, and no matter what, I ended up feeling insane.

At one point, I was going to have to choose myself.

I rolled over, blindly reaching for a pen, and scribbled in the dark.

If my therapist wanted a list, she’d get one helluva list.

-----------

“I’m glad you’re going, honey.” Mom released me from the lung-crushing hug.

I’d created enough Oxford collages and daydreamed about a new life until I couldn’t think of any other imaginary scenarios (or postpone collegiate life any longer).

The Friday sun had set. The game had already started. I thought about the crowd, all the people I’d see…

“Can I just stay the weekend?”

“Oh.” Her arms dropped from my sides. “Didn’t you promise your friends that you’d go?”

Renny. I’d promised Renny. Singular friend. My hand was in a fist, thumb rubbing anxiously over my fingers. I didn’t listen to her voicemails, there were seven of them. But she’d texted me fifty times in the past twenty minutes, declaring that she’d Venmo me gas money if I’d come to the game.

I’d been in my hole long enough.

“Yeah, I did.”

“Well, you COULD stay-”

I broke away, shaking my head. If I let her coddle me another minute, I think I’d crumble all over again.

“I love you,” she reminded me. “You’re my precious angel.”

From the living room, the muffled applause from the game show Father had fallen asleep to faded further as I left.

Momma’s robe-bundled frame waved on the driveway, her sad smile burning in my mind long after she disappeared from view.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Come on, come on, come ON.

The path to the stadium took forever. No shame, I was full-on running, braless, fresh pit-stains on display as I booked it to the gate.

It was completely dark now, and the usual fleet of cop cars seemed to have all but disappeared the week I’d been gone. Only one passed me by, and the rest of the student body probably all congregated around the stadium.

When I saw the art studio, I slowed. It was completely dark, except for one entry light. The paintings would still be displayed... My pounding heart told me to keep running, and I hesitated, listening to it for a moment before walking to the door. I tugged on its metal handles, parts of me seizing up as it opened, giving way to my touch.

I crept into the space, feeling like an intruder as I walked through the exhibit.

For some reason, I expected it to look differently, to see it blurred together as I’d seen it before in a panic.

I was still hanging amidst the vines, but this time the paintings looked less threatening. Maybe it was the fact that I was alone, maybe it was because I’d already felt the worst of it.

Each piece was sold.

I looked over my shoulder a couple times before letting out a small shout. A tester.

It echoed in the space.

I did it again, louder, at my full about-to-be-murdered capacity.

I must’ve looked absolutely mental, but as I heard my shout reverberate around me, at least I felt something.

Five charcoal sketches in particular ran horizontally together.

Lust / Longing / Love / Lost / Loss

Had he seen all of this in me? He’d certainly seen other bits I hadn’t shown him.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out. Renny. Without thought, I started her stream of voicemails.

Y/N where the FUCK are you!? Zayn’s concerned and I’m concerned and you’re not in the room-

Next.

Are you really sick? Or is this just some BS excuse. Or is this real and Harry gave you tonsilitis or something. I want to hear your voice. Ilyyyyy.

Next.

It’s meeeeee. Niall’s busy and you’re sick and I don’t know what to dooooo. Housewives isn’t as fun without-

Next.

BABE WHY AREN’T YOU ANSWERING ME CALLS DO YOU HATE ME, AND YES I MEANT TO SAY ME INSTEAD OF MY I HOPE YOU’RE LAUGHING-

Next.

DUDE. You will not believe what just happened- Harry just stopped by.

My thumb paused, letting it stay.

I was avoiding his texts because I think he’s a dick. Well, he IS a dick, even if Niall said he was going through a lot. It’s still not an excuse. But Harry LEGIT found me on campus, like not even when I was with Niall at the house, but at our APARTMENT...I-hold on. Ew, pastrami professor just passed me. What are the odds? OKAY BUT SERIOUSLY, I almost punched him when I opened the door because remember last time he basically told me off. But… I don’t know. It was different this time. He seemed… so concerned. Frazzled. I don’t even know the word to describe it. Ugh, if you were here you would be able to TELL ME what the word is. I miss you. Come back.

The voicemail rolled into the next.

I’m just pretending to talk on the phone right now because the boy I hooked up with last year is staring me THE FUCK down right now-

A creak in the pipes startled me, and the voicemail was all but forgotten.

My heart beat fast.

It was very, very quiet.

With one noise in the dark, the art pieces turned menacing. An oil painting in the corner of the room morphed into the Styles’ portrait. It wasn’t here. It couldn’t be here. I squinted, blinking through the dark. The portrait I thought I’d seen was just a painting of two silhouetted men facing each other. My heart still beat like I’d just ran a marathon though. I wasn’t about to be a part of the next horror movie “art comes alive.”

I booked it out faster than I came, answering Renny’s call on the way.

---------

“Thank fucking finally,” Renny huffed, leaning over Lynn to draw me in a hug.

“You didn’t miss much,” Lynn said, looking past me towards the game. I sat on Renny’s other side so she was in the middle, but when I looked at the scoreboard - Home, zero. Guest, two - I knew it was a done deal. Some people had already left, but half the stadium was still here, either hoping for a miraculous recovery or refusing to put their tails between their legs for pride’s sake. I noticed a group of parents in Chapman gear huddled together, waving their flags. No Mary or Lionel Styles in sight.

“How’s he been?” I asked. It’s like my head already knew where to turn, because as soon as I looked to the field, I found him. On the bench, elbows on his knees, head bent over.

“How’ve YOU been?” Renny asked. “I was seriously about to drive over to your house and check on you.”

Someone beat you to it. The thought was sour. For as much as Renny could claim her undying love for me, I was struggling to see the actions to support it. Everyone was disappointing.

“He’s been playing like shit,” Lynn answered.

“Brought back some...” His sentence died. Of all people, Zayn stood there, stopped, popcorn in hand. “Hey, Y/N.”

Felix stood behind Zayn, giving me a small wave. Zayn was clearly waiting for me to make the first move, but I turned away to the field. I didn’t know what to say.

From my peripheral, I saw them sit down by Lynn.

As soon as he did, it hit me like a flashfood. I knew what I was feeling. Anger. Discomfort. Shame. That he could expose me so easily, that he’d looked through my clothes in a way I never permitted. That he could sit down so comfortably without apologizing, as if nothing had happened.

Renny leaned in. “Are you okay?”

“No.”

She flinched at the abrupt answer. “Do you want to leave?”

I stopped myself from saying yes. I didn’t want to have to climb over Zayn to get out of here. That would be more than uncomfortable.

“No, I’ll tell you later.”

I didn’t speak the rest of the game, pretending not to hear him cheer or laugh or make a snide remark to Felix every other second. Like the annoying click of a fan when you’re trying to fall asleep, Zayn’s every move made anger shake my bones. Lynn gave me sympathy looks every once in a while. It wasn’t like me to be this quiet, and even with our friendship being as new as it was, she knew that much.

The crowd didn’t roar this time. They were silent as the clock hit zero, staring blatantly at its twin beneath Home. The Guest team’s few Minnesota supporters jumped like little beans on the other side of the field, but their cries were faint.

We’d lost.

Everyone stood, and Renny linked her arm with mine. A familiar habit. “We’re going to Viv’s for some post-game depression drinks now.”

But I stopped her.

“I think I want to go back to the room,” I winced.

“Come on, PLEASE? It’ll be fun, you were barely here for the game.”

“I don’t know, depression and Viv in the same sentence… You really know how to sell a party.”

“Aren’t you coming, Y/N?” Lynn made moves to follow the rest of the crowd that was funneling out of the stands.

I shook my head at the same time Renny nodded hers.

She huffed. “Why not? It’s going to be chill. We lost. It’s not going to be like the usual ragers.” She popped her hip, completely deadpanned. “You haven’t seen another college-aged person in a week.”

“Yeah and there’s a reason for that.”

Concern washed over her, voice lowering. “Tell me.”

As if on cue, Zayn and Felix stopped their descent down the bleachers and looked up at the girls, waiting for them to join. It was all I could do to not scream at them.

“Later,” I said. “You’re leaving now.”

“I don’t have to leave right now, it’s not starting yet...” Renny began, but Lynn gave her a look that said yes, they were leaving now.

“She wants us to help set-up,” Lynn explained.

“But it’s a small thing, right?” I teased Renny.

My bestie rolled her eyes, lips pinching. “Are you SURE?”

I nodded, sitting down on the cool metal bleacher again. Renny took a step towards me, a sad look on her face, but I held up my hand.

“I’m fine,” I said, when I felt anything but. “I just want to wait until the crowd leaves.” I picked up the popcorn bag she’d left behind and threw a handful in my mouth with a cheesy, hopefully convincing grin.

She grimaced, briefly looking back to Lynn who was anxiously waiting. “Fine. But we’re still talking about this later. I friggin miss you.”

She left with the others, funneling out towards a party she’d probably stay at until the early morning.

I didn’t want to go back to the room. I didn’t want to go anywhere.

The lights were so bright on soccer fields. Bugs flew in and around, racing each other faster than the dust in my room. It wasn’t until the janitors walked past me that I realized I’d been sitting there for too long. I reached in the popcorn bag, but my hand came up empty. They’d gone overboard on the salty butter, but somehow, I’d still managed to eat all of it.

Even with everyone off the field though, I didn’t feel alone. An older Hispanic woman taking out the trash saw me walking down and opened up the bag.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling.

She just smiled in return, nodding her head as she continued down the aisle.

Leaving the field’s gates, I was prepping for another mini run-for-my-life-and-back-to-the-dorm anxiety episode, when I heard someone shuffling. There were faint groaning noises, and I sped up my pace.

For a flash second, I thought someone was winning the “sleep in the locker room” bet, but when I tossed my head-back mid-run, I stopped so quickly, I almost tripped.

“Harry?”

There, in the dark, barely concealed by the shadows, he stumbled out. His abdomen looked… glossy? But then the light reflected crimson.

I ran to him as he fell, his white jersey stained with blood. “Oh my God, oh my God…” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “What happened?! Are you okay!?”

He pushed me back. “M’fine.” But his voice was strained. He stumbled again, and I reached out before he fell.

I thought the blood from his shirt had fallen from a bloody nose, but his hand moved to my arm in a vice-like grip, revealing a gash in his jersey, I saw more liquid pool out from his gut and I almost gagged.

“You are BEYOND fine. You aren’t fucking fine!!”

“We have to leave. Have to… get out of here.” He grimaced. His face, his beautifully chiselled face was swollen on one side, his lip cut from impact.

“Okay. OKAY. I need to call the cops. The cops. I’m going to call them.” Shaky hands took out the cellphone, but he threw it down. “HARRY!”

“Take me to the physical therapy room?”

I looked at his chest. “You’re bleeding. A LOT.” My free arm reached for the tossed phone, but he tugged me back.

“No. They’ll write a report. I can’t have a-” he winced, sucking in a breath, and I reached for the phone again. “DON’T. Fucking hell. Don’t call anyone.”

My eyes racked his frame again, and I immediately applied pressure to his ab area, right where the gash was. He sucked in a breath, unleashing a string of curses I couldn’t hear right now. “Oh my God,” I breathed.

“Answer me,” he growled.

My mind scrambled for his question… he wanted me to take him to the physical therapy room. “YES! Yes. I have the- fuck, yes, I know where the keys are.” I looked at him again. What the FUCK.

“Stop freaking out,” he grunted, but he weakened the next second, his eyes fluttering before coming back to me.

“Okay, hold on. Hold onto me. Keep applying pressure.”

The physical therapy room wasn’t too far, bits of blood that’d fallen to his shoes marking our path.

“Why aren’t all the cops here?”

“They’re on rotation. The parties... they’llbestationedthere-JESUS.” We paused, letting him catch his breath. But it was shallow. Too shallow.

“Can you wait here for a second?” I asked.

He nodded, resting against a lamp post.

I hurried to the lockbox located behind the planter, punching in the code and unlocking it at lightning’s speed.

I didn’t know if there were cameras. I didn’t know if this was illegal.

I didn’t care.

We made it through the doors, and he was just about to sit on the table when-

“WAIT!” I ran to grab several rags and laid it beneath him before heaving him up. The soft cry he made when sitting down was like a knife through my own chest.

I grabbed scissors, cutting his t-shirt. I didn’t have time to linger, I didn’t have time to notice the way his tattoos were completely concealed by a red current. There were two wounds. One, deeper, the other, more shallow. Both in the lower left abdomen, just above a prominent v-line.

I wiped around the area, pausing above the gashes. “This is going to sting,” I warned.

There wasn’t fear in his eyes. He watched me, and I, him, as I pressed it against the open skin. He trembled, wincing, mouth opening in silent exclamation.

“You’re doing good,” I whispered.

“So are you,” he gritted out.

I swallowed, reaching for the butterfly bandages. But as soon as I did, more blood rushed out. I held a rag to him. “Save your breath. You need it.”

The thin white bandages seemed too little in the wake of his wound, and just as one bandage was placed, he cringed away, regretting his decision to move almost immediately.

“Fucking hurts,” he groaned.

“Stop moving! I need to close the wound up. You’re bleeding too much.”

“Y/N, just take me home. Call Lionel,” he panted.

“I’m calling 911 if you don’t let me at least attempt to close this wound because if we leave now you’ll bleed out.”

“You’ve done enough, please-”

“STOP. TALKING. I’ll call him after.” He saw a flame behind my eyes, and quieted, too weak to protest much more anyway. I came closer, and this time he didn’t flinch. The butterfly bandages at least minimally shrunk the open gouges.

With no other choice, I left him there alone, running across campus to my car and driving back in less than five minutes. It was illegal to drive through student walkways, let alone drive 60 mph, but there wasn’t a choice. I kept picturing Harry passing out, his limp God-like body, turned mortal, weak, bleeding out all over the training room floor. My foot hit the gas pedal harder. I could’ve been a damn marathon winner/race car driver. Let the cops add “speeding” to the file they already had on me.

Once we were both in the car, I looked over at him every two seconds. An entire roll of tight gauze around his abdomen kept the wound from bleeding out, but it was still turning pink. It was the second time blood would have been on my car.

Of all the revenge daydreams I’d had, I would’ve settled for Harry seeing me make out with Andre on the dancefloor over THIS. Would he die in my car? Would I be responsible?? I looked at the cheesy Angel pin my mom had given me for my car mirror. Never Fly Faster Than Your Guardian Angel Can Fly. Where was my angel now??

“Where are we going?” He asked, between fading in and out.

“To your house.”

His hand grabbed mine on the wheel and I practically swerved into the center divider from shock.

“HARRY!”

“We need to go to my house,” he said suddenly, panicked, as if I’d told him the opposite.

I placed our interlocked hands above the console. A safe distance away from the wheel in case he lurched again.

“Don’t worry, we’re going there. We’re going to your house. You’re just in shock, it’s okay,” I cooed, but it was desperate. And it was definitely not okay.

“They’ll ask… less..less questions...”

His grip was unbearably tight for three long seconds before it relaxed.

“Stay with me. Stay awake,” I urged. Harry’s lids kept drooping and I was desperate, blasting the Air Conditioning to an uncomfortable temperature.

Lionel picked up on the second ring.

“It’s Y/N. I think Harry’s been stabbed-”

“What?!”

“- I told him we should call the cops, but he was adamant we call you instead.”

“Seal the wound with whatever you can-”

“I did that. Not well, we didn’t have wound sealant- Okay, I’m rambling. I don’t know what to do, but he needs to see a doctor. Immediately.”

There was a long pause.

“Hello?” my voice wavered.

“Bring him to the practice.” The voice over the other line was that of a doctor, matter-of-fact, somber.

Hoag Hospital passed me, a nagging thought telling me that’s where we should be going - where there was paperwork, evidence, some legitimate accountability. But I wasn’t his father. I wasn’t responsible.

“On my way. I’m getting off the freeway now.”

The call ended, and as I looked at Harry, fading dangerously out of consciousness, my hands trembled more from fear than cold. Out of all the reactions, I hadn’t expected this one. The voice on the other line hadn’t seemed surprised at all.

come talk to me about the chappie or just about how you’re doing! now’s the time to stay connected :)

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amphtaminedreams · 3 years

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COVID-19, Negligent Manslaughter, and a Timeline of Tory Indifference

“I feel sorry for Boris Johnson. He is doing the best he can in the situation and I don’t think anybody else could have done a better job.”

[exhibit A: a gem somebody that I’m Facebook friends with reposted earlier]

It’s a sentiment that I cannot quite wrap my head around. I sit here hopeless and furious and trying to hold back tears because it’s been almost a year since England first went into lockdown and yet here we are, almost 100,000 dead, in an even worse position than we were before whilst other countries begin to slowly return to normality. It is clear to me who is to blame for this, however there are a large proportion of people who don’t want to “politicise” the actions of the PRIME MINISTER with regards to his approach towards handling a virus sweeping the country he GOVERNS.

Typically, these kind of posts making the rounds on social media will be accompanied by some kind of photo of Boris Johnson looking somber as if to suggest that the way things have played out were beyond his control and that he is some kind of broken man beleaguered by the suffering he has, despite good intentions, inadvertently caused.

This one in particular of Johnson with his head in his hands is a staple. In reality, this is a photo taken back in 2018 whilst he was receiving flack from party members for comparing Theresa May to a suicide bomber (for her handling of Brexit, ironically) as well as from the papers due to his rumoured (now also proven, in a completely non-surprising turn of events, to be true) affair with his former aide, Carrie Symonds.

So let’s shut this narrative-where we should feel for Boris because he’s doing his best, and apparently a better job than anybody else could’ve done in his situation- down right here. In a supposedly developed country with one of the world’s largest economies, if we’re talking by proportion, our COVID-19 death toll is up there with the worst of them. It seems that every other state figurehead (bar a small handful), and I mean almost every single one of them, is doing a better job. People love to throw figures out there about how densely populated we are to combat damning statistics as if we haven’t got just as many factors playing to our advantage, as if it’s unfair to compare our response to Germany’s or Japan’s or Singapore’s (both of which are far more densely populated) or New Zealand’s or Vietnam’s, but we are an ISLAND with world-leading technology and infrastructure and healthcare equipment and professionals and a relatively high standard of living. In what world is almost 70,000 dead in a country with abundant time and means to prepare a response reflective of said country’s leaders doing a good job?

Apparently we’re supposed to believe that Johnson feels some sense of moral responsibility for this astronomical failure. A man who refuses to acknowledge the multiple children he has fathered outside of his marriages and who has had repeatedly engaged in affairs and one-night stands throughout said marriages. A man who continued to cheat whilst his most recent wife was receiving treatment for cervical cancer, for fuck’s sake. Yep, a real stand-up guy.

So where does this idea that Johnson must feel remorseful for this catastrophe come from? We haven’t seen a second of remorse or a hint of accountability for the lives lost from him nor any members of his cabinet. That much is really no surprise; I have this hypothesis, and it’s not a stretch, that these people do not have an ounce of empathy in their bodies. These ridiculously privileged, privately-educated individuals who have had everything handed to them their entire lives simply cannot put themselves in the shoes of the average working person and that is the problem. Unable to recognise that what distinguishes them from most others is little more than the luck of being born into wealth and the abundance of recourses and connections that has entailed throughout their lives, they see us as beneath them-as less intelligent, less driven, and thus less deserving of the status and respect they enjoy. They see us as a bunch of whining, unmotivated idiots who do not recognise the chokehold they have over our media nor the fact that everything they do is a desperate grab to keep money and power within the hands of a select group of people, an exclusive members club from which most of us are barred (just take a simple Google search and watch Jacob Rees-Mogg’s opinion of the Grenfell victims or the buried Johnson speech where he talks about how inequality is essential). They know that we will squabble amongst ourselves about who is to blame rather than wising up to the truth which is that every decision they make is fuelled by cronyism and the inability to make and follow through with difficult choices, the pandemic being no exception. The supposedly self-made elite see the life of the average working class person as having far less value than their own, and their parties actions over the last 10 years have made that very clear.

It was in December 2019 that the first case of COVID-19 was declared to the World Health Organisation and on March the 11th that they announced they considered it as a pandemic. In Wuhan, people were dying of pneumonia in their clusters. And what was Boris Johnson doing in this time? Well for starters, here in the UK we didn’t even have a pandemic committee-Johnson had scrapped it six months before. If years of benefits cuts and defunding of the NHS in favour of funding nuclear weapon programs, keeping British troops on other people’s lands, and tax breaks for the mega corporations that donate to their party didn’t convince you that the Conservatives have little regard for human life, them getting rid of this committee-whilst a pandemic has been declared year after year as the greatest threat to mankind-should have been the first sign of trouble. As if that wasn’t enough, he also skipped five of the COBRA (meetings are made up of a cross-departmental committee put together to respond to national emergencies and PMs routinely attend those pertaining to crises on the scale of COVID-19) meetings addressing the situation. Whilst other countries were closing their borders and stocking up on PPE, Johnson and his ministers were selling PPE abroad and simply telling people to wash their hands to the length of the tune of happy birthday. Their only policy was one of “herd immunity”, which was in fact not a policy but just an abandonment of their party’s public duty disguised as one, intentionally obfuscated with pseudoscientific jargon.

Even thinking the absolute worst of politicians you would hope that when it came to the point where the UK’s non-response to COVID-19 was becoming an international disgrace, Johnson and his ministers would take proper protective measures if only to save face. But when they eventually seemed to do so, it became clear that the priority was not the safety of the ordinary people affected by the virus. Outsourcing their test and traces system to companies such as Serco, Sitel, Deloitte and G4S rather than public health services, Conservative ministers could not resist attempting to line the pockets of their friends and benefactors in the process. According to the Guardian, instead of reaching out to the experts or using publicly funded services to handle COVID containment measures, the Conservative party has awarded a disgusting £1.5 BILLION WORTH of contracts to businesses with explicit connections to its MPs and donors, the majority of which lack any relative experience of the tasks they’ve been trusted to carry out. Unsurprisingly, the National Audit office found that when awarding contracts relating to the production of COVID-19 protection measures and treatment needs, there was a “high-priority lane” for suppliers referred by senior politicians and officials; companies with a political referral were 10 times more likely to end up winning a government contract than those without. On top of this, it is not hard to draw a link between the late initiation of lockdown measures and preemptive openings of pubs and restaurants against scientific advice to the interests of frequent donors such as Wetherspoons owner Tim Martin. Even if one chooses to ignore the blatantly obvious correlation between the owners of the businesses whose profits were prioritised over safety concerns and the number of those owners who donate to the Conservatives, party officials at the very least were reluctant to follow the lead of many other countries in financing furlough schemes themselves and instead avoided this responsibility by using loose lockdown measures to leave it down to the discretion of small business owners, who couldn’t themselves afford to furlough staff, whether or not to stay open.

Time and time again, as the government flounder and fuck about, favouring personal desires to keep their powerful, high-paying jobs and to satisfy the corporate allies who make this possible, blame has been shifted from the public to care homes to NHS workers and back again whilst we, the public, make the biggest sacrifices of all under the illusion that we were being guided out of this pandemic rather than lied to and thrown under the bus. Whilst the elite continue to pick and choose what rules apply to them, it’s students and the elderly and the vulnerable paying the fines and scrabbling to afford basic living costs and hoping that they don’t lose someone dear to them.

Don’t get me wrong, a large proportion of the public have contributed to the spread too with their selfishness and entitlement and the arrogance it takes to develop a sudden refusal to acknowledge basic science from experts who have studied in the field their whole lives so that they can justify their need to go to the pub (speaking of, it’s absolutely HILARIOUS how many “mental health advocates” are suddenly coming out of the woodworks on football avi Twitter after they’ve spent years calling people on mental health Twitter attention seekers). And don't get me wrong, there were inevitably going to be casualties of this pandemic. But it didn't have to spread to this many people, and there didn’t have to be so many deaths due to a lack of preparation, and this wouldn’t have been the case if it weren’t for the inherent apathy of the Conservative party towards the lives of people of lesser status than them, the reluctance to put those lives before party interests. I wish I felt like there was an end in sight, I wish there was some positive takeaway from all of this, but even now, we continue to see corners being cut with the vaccine lauded as our saving grace and anti-maskers gathering outside hospitals to chant about how “oppressive” it is to be urged to wear a bit of cloth over their faces for the short periods of time in which they leave their houses and all I can think of is the selfishness that runs like poison through our country. It makes me sick and leaves me to question desperately where we go from here. I don’t like unanswered questions, I don’t like feeling politically directionless, and I don’t like the growing fear I have about the state of the world which seems to intensify every single day. In the UK at least, it’s starting to feel like nothing will ever change-we’re told we live in a democracy and yet mainstream media is owned by the people whose interest is to keep their Conservative friends in power. The stronghold they have over print media in particular allows them to continually get away with smearing and defaming every person who comes along and seems to want to actually help ordinary people, without being challenged, to the point where the only kind of “opposition” we’re left with promises nothing but a big boss approved tactical reshuffling of the status quo (which they call “electability”); it doesn’t feel like democracy when the majority of the country are being fed misleading information and convinced against voting in their best interests.

This is the result of that. The state we find ourselves in is the inevitable result of being manipulated into helping the elite build their protective wall whilst the rest of us scrabble to get in and step on each others heads along the way, the people inside shouting over that it’s those even more vulnerable than ourselves that are taking our places. Outside the wall, the earth is falling from beneath our feet, and instead of throwing over the ropes to help us out, the people inside are stockpiling them so they can secure their firm place above ground and then later flog the rest. How many more people have to die before we reach some kind of widespread realisation of that? Where do we go from here and what do we do? Well for one, we can stop spreading those god-fucking-awful textposts on Facebook and get our heads out of our arses. Wear our masks over and wear them over our fucking noses. Have some fucking consideration for others. Don’t wait til an issue affects you personally to give a fuck about it. AND START HOLDING THE FUCKING PRIME MINISTER AND HIS MINISTERS AND HIS ENTIRE PARTY AS WELL AS THE OPPOSITION MPS THAT HAVE SAT BY THE SIDELINES AND ALLOWED THIS TO GO ON WITHOUT PROTEST ACCOUNTABLE. That would be a good start.

I’m so tired. Things didn’t need to be this way, and yet because of the selfishness of the few, thousands upon thousands are dead. It’s not about “throwing around blame”, it’s not about “throwing around” anything, it’s about expecting a leader to do his best to protect lives. If that is “throwing blame”, let’s get things clear, I have no issue with hurtling it torpedo style at those who handed out a death sentence to so many in this country rather than do anything that might compromise their own privilege. Honestly, pass me the shovel after and I’ll happily bury the wreckage in the ground. Who wants to join?:-)

#rant #politics #anti capitalism #anticapitalist #covid-19 #covid #england #labour #socialism #fuck the tories #fuck the torys #fuck boris #rant post

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manjuhitorie · 5 years

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Hitorie’s various antics + bonus bursts of trivia - Mid June-July 2019

I’ll begin this long digest with news of ygarshy’s recent involvements! Because he has been dipping his toes into a few pools of waters and his bass is *chef’s kiss* precious.

It’s been disclosed that he played for the song ‘Shadow Tag’ on Ken Kamikita’s new album! Kamikita is a singer songwriter, also once known as KK, who belches out vivid vocals from his diaphragm while the substructure of skilled technique is there as instrumentals, holding it together sturdy. His songs are very thought-provoking alone, yet music isn’t his only reign as he writes scripts for his shows, he puts careful consideration into his visuals: and abracadabra! ygarshy is continuing to be supporting Wasureranne yo with concerts for the summer.Concurrent reports consist of ygarshy smiling, poker facing to hide his smile, yet his smile seeping out because of Shibata’s noble passion for music. Shibata will do risqué shouts or gatling release the word "sex" out of his mouth, when which yg will subtly sip his water in a means to dodge, or just knifesharp glare at him. I love these drunken bards. Wasureranee yo's twitter posts clips of them performing after ever show also!

Also Wasurerannee yo with The 50 Kaitenz↑ good. June 8th was the Kankaku Pierrot x Hitorie concert, which was originally meant to be a joint show for their tour, yet was now turned into a jamboree of respects and thunder... Rie themselves were unable to attend yet Kan-ero nevertheless performed a cover of Ao, Polaris, and clenched a spiritual presence...! The cover of Ao is a tear trenchcoat I'm a trench of water... Kan-ero so good...

I was finally able to tell Shinoda-san that “These lyrics are way too long.”. For the sake of today I had to spend the whole week sleeping on the couch, as my bed is practically buried by all the alphabet He wrote, yet still I simply want to thank him for leaving us with so many words. They’re really all so cool. I’m sorry for being unable to sing them well. Let’s meet up again soon. The photo shows a large cloth-covered bed-like surface strewn with printout papers of World End Dancehall, Montage Girl, Imperfection, and Senseless Wonder lyrics.... Because..... The setlist for Village Man’s Store’s concert on 6/13 went like this. 1. Senseless Wonder 5. Montage Girl 7. Imperfection 13. Ao Encore 1: World’s End Dancehall

Thanks for coming to our show, “The Holy Land Pilgrimage - Village Man’s Store VS Hitorie”! Utmost love and gratitude goes out to Hitorie and all of you who made this day possible. P.S. Hitorie, cheers to doing even more with you in the future. From vocalist: Mizuno Gii. Mizugi “I sent Shinoda-san a LINE message reading “I'm going to be playing this song and this song and this song and~~... at the next show”. And normally right, you’d think someone’d reply “Sorry ‘bout making you do this” right? Yet Shinoda replied “Why’re you doin’ that many lololol” Han (drummer): “He laughed at you" After all is said and done, have y'all properly purchased 'Tsuiraku, Kurushiku wa Lucky Strike’ yet or what. It’s fire isn’t it

youtube

((I hate(love) how Mizugi has (14 years old pun) in his profile, (63 years old) in this MV while dressing up as a slanky old man, and is actually 31 years old.)

When is the rain going to stoppp

youtube

There's a lot of people who dislike Weezer's Green Album but I like Green Album Is it cause the music takes such a different turn? Reply from Saito Shinya, the vocalist and producer of ONIGAWARA: The drums suddenly neatened up so it hit by surprise. Also Matt Sharp left. SND: Ahhh so it’s because of Matt Saito: Fans of their first-second album’s more squishy sound went into denial I think

I can’t believe 'Sayonara Dake ga Jinsei da' isn’t here *The late 90's band 'Eastern Youth’ has uploaded the majority of their discography unto music streaming sites. Except for the niche EP which SND is fond of, but all their albums are cool so zipper your lips and open your eyes shuuush!

Is Tanktop Shoutai's new video out yet They're a posse of blurred out faces with burlesque bases. Their current series is one where they dress up as Yugioh characters, roleplay them with accurate voices and cult-like enthusiasm, before the instigation of the series’ famous ~Shadow Games~ together. Which are all uhh, epic card games, yeah, like tabletop Jenga or or Mariomaker or electric Russian roulette, pick them up like they’re Kuribos. It’s a riot.

I’m sure I’ve said this for the umpteenth time now but, my favorite album from syrup16g is “delayed" syrup16g are an indie band who began in 1993 and keep resurging again to pop off. With performances in Budoukan and high Oricon points on their back. This pivotal album of theres is mellow with whimpering instruments and ephemeral sounding visuals and it's really nice, thank you SND.

Media outlets have been making misleading headlines like “A manga opposing the legalization of euthanasia”, and I bet there’s a lot of people are blindly dissing Death Harassment now Death Harassment is a comic written by Yoshida Yori, challenging the problems which could come with euthanasia, and a society which might pressure departure unto the unwilling. Euthanasia has been becoming a uproarious subject in Japan, ever since a woman fled to Sweden because she suffered brain diseases, and wanted to die while still preserving her sanity and dignity. People are now starting to welcome the prospect and yearn for a mercy fate but, please consider the demerits and the demoralization also, is the message. I translated the comic for fun also here.

This evening as I was eating soba alone, in front of me were a middle-aged couple throwing curses at each other with sullied mouths, but by the time I finished my soba they were smiling together. I think that’s perfectly peachy. That reminds me, I ate 4 whole eggs today. I think I ate too much.

My habit of getting the urge to play with people only at this time of the day, is really bad. Posted at 3 AM JST.

Yumao, also at 3~ AM JST. Bubble milk tea for sensible people has been gaining traction on twitter but, the fact that it's not Chinese tea milk tea is the nonsense to me. There was a post about purchasing uncooked tapioca pearls at a Seijou Ishii (an exotic super market chain), and putting them inside of a convenience store bought bottle of cheap tea. Budget bubble tea. In regards to Yumao’s comment, the Chinese oolong tea is such a standard I’m assuming he’s referring to that. Is this more flavor wars, the civil wars over various flavors of integrated foods from equal or same brands is rampant throughout Japan’s domestic history. It’s kinoko VS. takenoko etc. Why such fervor over flavor YUMA

I gotta buy toothpaste I can’t sleep whatsoever so I thought if I drank I would get sleepy but I drank and it’s somehow backfired by revitalizing me so now I got no idea what the fuck to do, I’m screwed I’m screwed I know that feeling when your stomach is in a frenzy, too well

I haven’t heard the term “moe” used in a while I kinda want to go heavy on it now Replies: "Shinoda you’re moe” “Shimoeda” “Your expression when you got kicked was so moe" (He was kicked by yg during SLEEPWALK ref: the 6/1 report)” “The term moe technically d- (*The definition copypasta-ed from wikipedia*).” Within a split second replies have already turned into hell so I’m putting the lid back on moe, please forgive me Damn it’s hot.

I saw Tokyo Syoki Syodo in concert for my first time today. It was the best. I seriously thought I was gonna burst into tears. It might be a long time since I was last this excited to see a band live - it's been a long time since I even saw a concert live but still,,, I was surprised by how much of the lyrics to Saisei Button I subconsciously remembered. It just shows that Tokyo Syoki Syodo's songs are that good. They are a group who indulge in the typicality of cutesy culture, instagram filters, sparkling make-up, and all while flexing the power to whack you with whamming hard rock. He mentioned them again in his June 9th twitcast also, calling them natural and epiphanic to how bands can just be just as they are. I have no doubts that this is my top-played song these past few months. This is my anthem. -Saisei Rock, their most recent music video, check it out! I don’t even know how many years I’ve lived at this point but it’s not commonplace to find a song this great.

This example will only be understood by super like-minded folk, but I haven’t felt this way since I got obsessed with Sakasama Cider.

He’s expressed countless times how much he likes this song and the artist, Gucha Gucha's, Though the story behind SND’s partiality may be ultimately uncertain, it can be easily understood from one listen. The guitarist and cofounder of the Gucha Gucha’s, Shimoyaka, borrowed Shinoda’s guitar for their first live. Chikyuu Monogatari chapter 3 uses Shimoyaka as a model. Shimoyaka has posted porn on forums, getting banned from youtube, he was on a team with infamous Shotacon Kurage, here’s SND’s cover of Sakasama Cider playing over the team, nowadays he does retro~modern gaming livestreams or his own cooking episodes because he got kicked off a cooking show, he slipped at the Niconico Douga Game Party, he’s videos are quite civil now though Shinoda even joined him for a stream and is watching them often. Shinoda on the July 9th live said not verbatim “When I heard Sakasama Cider and ‘Sad Delay-chan’’ live, I was amazed by Shimoyaka that he can actually make good songs. Justice doesn’t have to be one-sided~ Gucha Gucha’s are unrefined and shitty and helpless, but then they bounce back up with a sudden good song and it’s irresistible. I’m always yearning to meet those sort of exciting experiences.

We are people who clench our fists until our palms are red with blood, and we keep going on singing. Though we tend to forget it

Happy birthday ygarshy!! ygarshy's birthday is on June 17th and I hope you celebrated. SND’s birthday is also on June 6th. And I Hope. If not they can still be celebrated 365/24. Because even SND had proceeded to tweet these words of celebration at…. 12 o’ clock AM June 18th. Right when the clock changed!!

Look at this simultaneous trickery. Then Yumao RT-ed them both. I love you Rie… I love you so much...

I liked when Brocken Jr. was hit by Prisman's rainbow shower and super fucking glowed. (Timestamp 1:38) Also Mariposa’s victory pose was freakish-, ly cool (Timestamp 3:14) Kinnikuman is branded as Ultimate Muscle foreignly, if you recognize it! This youtube video is is a short promo reel celebrating the 40th anniversary of the series, Yudetamago has been in it for the long haul and is well honored by the lords of the wrestlers.

Wooooooooooah

I wanna eat a negitoro bowl Raw tuna and scallions plomped on top of a bowl of rice The special issue of Kinnikuman, I didn’t think it would put me on the verge of tears like this. Chairman takes way too many goods to the table. Plus everyone is cheerfully chit-chatting about how absolutely maniacal of a character Robin Mask is. Robin Mask really is one loony mister. Most characters are weirdos on thin ice but Robin Mask is in a whole different league of weirdo so,,, Also for the 40th anniversary, an original episode was spotlighted in the 29th issue of Shounen Jump magazine. and taken for another spin! Chairman, AKA Harabote Muscle, had an emotional arc in it too. Robin Mask I'm guessing is as rambunctiously malicious as ever in it.

The final episode of Sarazanmai had me bawling like a baby.

A photo of the possession of Kinnikuman -Supermen Dictionary-.

futurrrrrrrreee funnnnnnnnnnnk

I spent about 4 hours dancing alone in the club I am a party person Party people(パリピ is just ENG articulated into JP)* is a slang which means just that. It’s believed to have been originally popularized by a song called Let’s Party People from Illmania. Since then it’s curved to hold different nuances for all kinds of different people also. It can indicate ‘avid partygoers' or ’normies’ or it can just be for people who’re having a good time.

Puuuuuuussssshhhh! An issue of 100M, an upcoming shounen manga by the author Uoto. It's bout a runner who’s world revolves around his sport and nothing other, who then meets a boy who runs only to forget the troubles of the rest of the world. The story spurts off from there. 笑顔いっぱい！ https://youtu.be/QXuGweSMxUI @YouTubeさんからときめきメモリアル　キャラソング【おサカナになりたい～1000wに願いを～】～虹野沙希～（TokimekiMemorial music） https://youtu.be/rV16KgKKUi8 @YouTubeさんから YUNG BAE - Fly With Me https://youtu.be/BWgQvj0Nd_U @YouTubeさんから TenmaTenma - September https://youtu.be/6VsJgk5Qw6s @YouTubeさんから ~~~A slew of various song recommendations~~~

People that're posting pics of ramen while talking about being on a vegan diet, and people who gang up on them both, aren't they all becoming a clusterfuck of boringness without even heed to their actions

People who were peacefully posting their favorite music until suddenly bursting blustery onto the net, ain’t that the definition of emotional instability SND are you heeding your own actions Seven-eleven when are you gonna sell microwavable mugimeshi (rice with boiled barley mixed in) Task-san (a trusty companion of all of Rie’s, and an even more lovable animator who runs most of Minaken): *Replied to SND with a photo of Seveneleven brand microwavable mugimeshi* SND: So they do have it

As I was frying some fried eggs, it hit me, people who heedlessly throw heavy words at other people tend not to let anyone else complain about the heavy weights they themselves may put onto other people huh.. But actually that’s not necessarily true so whatever

I just recently caught up with Murata-sensei’s version of One-Punch Man but, thanks to the insanity of the quality level, Tatsumaki has gotten so sexy I burst out laughing See: ONE VS. Yusuke Murata

Clever folks, I’m positive you could figure out who my favorite One Punch Man characters are. There’s two of them. The answer is King and Unlicensed Rider Oops there’s Zombieman too

I’ve noticed that washing ashtrays squeaky clean seems to put me in a better mood The Marías - Cariño youtu.be/QHVp9xiUr9U @YouTubeさんから The Marias are soo good The 3 monkies game, the host is so cockeyed that I’m laughing out loud I think he’s talking about サルヂエ(Sarudie), a quiz show about 3 people donned in hyper-realistic monkey attire, overseeing the “homo sapiens” as they try to solve unique questions. Which are usually twists on daily life concepts, find the difference, or digesting puns on pop culture. The word Sarudie(猿知恵) itself refers to something which seems profound but is actually simple and shallow, like monkey business etc, and the hosts are spoofs of The Three Wise Monkeys, while they hooked in a lot of famous figures to be the quiz undertakers. I want the DVDs. Though if SND is talking about a different 3 monkey game then I’m oopsie-doopsie. I heard a voice for the first time in a while

I can feel my manga-artist muscles crippling

nico.ms/sm35308083?ref… #sm35308083 #ニコニコ動画 It’s here!!!!!!!!!! Ref his tweet from earlier 'Is Tanktop Shoutai's new video out yet’. So if any youtuber works with a band on a music video then everyone’s going to assume they’re Starmie next I guess A recent cause of discourse was the twitter account A Starmie Who Wants to Quit My Band(@shhf9kr)*. It originally was suspected of being the side-account of KANA-BOOM's bassist, Meshida, due to the timing of the account's appearance and the unsettling content. Meshida had gone missing for about a week’s time, much to relief he’s returned home, but upon return he’s now taking a break from the band to heal from pressure/anxiety… Which is a huge worry in itself (On top of Alexandros’ drummer going on hiatus because of physical issues and then MONGOL800.....) though for now we only have the power ease his soul.. BUT ANYWAY - This Starmie twitter account tweeted “I’m so far gone with band work that I’ve devolved into a Starmie. ~~~~ I feel so disgusting.” on the exact same date as the dilemma. As the situation progressed the details Starmie revealed about financial problems and wage didn’t match up with KANA-BOOM, so they’ve continued to suspected to be SEKAI NO OWARI, now signing salient as someone named Ishihidari from BASEMENT TIMES, the writer of a snazzy sassy J-Rock blog and band of that same name. Shinoda here is a direct reaction to Starmie’s recent tweet under the lines of “I hate having to work with a youtuber.” Yeah SND you're 100% right, it's now on the radars of us curious critters. Why is the J-rock scene such a pain hoho. I bought new shorts but it’s chilly out today so I’m in a sort of pickle

I tried out lo-fi hiphop style for a change of pace and I ended up making songs I get to feel like I’ve done good work as easy as fast-food, lo-fi hiphop is good Maybe this is fine, we have flowers here (The word in the insta video means "to hide from the rain")

I don’t wanna add screentones

He used a southern accent on this, unlike his usual slurry casual city boy tone. I notice that southern JP seems to simplify the connotation of tone by omitting certain sounds or replacing them with vowels and then they’ll proceed to make the whole phrase more musical, it’s like ending your sentences with a “~” but it’s a whole accent done that way~ vowels are cute, gimme more~ Or maybe not idk It’s a hardship to even work on my manga because of my back pains, people who’ve actually wrecked their back must go through serious hell Kobayashi Doumu (*ref: later in this post): *sends SND a photo of himself hospitalized with crutches and bandages for his back* I was watching Kura-kyun’s stream but, does that guy actually still live in Aichi…? This seems like a rabbit hole I don’t want to dip my toes so I’ll take a step back but… Shotacon Kurage is a long time streamer who seems to get up to a lot of unfavorable antics. のどちんこって呼び名、いくらなんでもメチャクチャ過ぎないか No matter how you put it, isn’t the nickname “throat schlong” just a little too messed up Kids super often call the uvula part of the mouth by that nickname I don’t like the rain because I can’t go out drinking

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ボディメンテナンス怠るべからず

A post shared by シノダ (@snd_vs_snd) on Jun 27, 2019 at 11:14pm PDT

One mustn’t slack off on their self-care The drawing says “Shoulder pains”.

シノダ「地球物語 35話 – BABYBABYの夢 – 」 | MEETIA After a 2 month break period, the 35th issue has been topped off. It’s full of all the ideas and memes I’ve accumulated over the whole 2 month span, so please if you may, take it easy on me. And please give it a read. Shinoda “Chikyuu Monogatari: Chapter 35 - Dreams of BABYBABY - meetia.net/manga/shinoda-… #meetia

Shiohigari, fantastic artist of 1 panel light-heavyhearted gags, girls who share their feelings and a Picasso-esque mascot named after himself. He also happens to share many interests with SND and a decade-long historic friendship with him: That part there, that’s the Robin Mask moment! During the Survivor Match for the Kinniku Throne Arc, the match against Kinnikuman Zebra and Parthenon! SND: I’ve been exposed Trivia: ●The title "Dreams of BABYBABY” is a reference to the song by TANUKI of the same name. SND’s interest in future funk grows. ●The Chikyuu Monogatari chapter has a parallel to a Kinnikuman scene. When that manga went on hiatus for 3 months due to an illness of the author's, right in the middle of a fight scene's cliffhanger, he returned and doubled-down on it. By making the characters do this:

And SND’s comic has this parallel:

“Wake up!” “Please excuse me. How could I not get sleepy after being left here for 2 months….”“Are we allowed to say this stuff, I’m sorry Yudetamago-sensei.” ●Please keep having fun Shinoda-sensei.

I made 10 lo-fi hiphop songs *They’re magnificent and they’re incoming, check his Instagram for the ongoing bonanza! https://www.instagram.com/snd_vs_snd/ Laundry is so draining Harassment sentences are going to such extremes that now it’s as if they’re the one’s doing the harassment meow, said the kitten who’s sleeping next to me There’s not actually any kitten sleeping next to me: it’s the imaginary friends in my head

What an article. Don’t be releasing things like this into the world. Do they have no dignity, mishandling words while trying to write about the subject of words. Emo, in terms of usage and genre, has especially been through a lot of change. But upholding only the era you lived in and then proceeding to feel nostalgia and begrudging the next generation for being different is amazing in itself, not to mention their absolute subjectivity combined with presumptuous usage of “Us”.

Or, so had spoke the kitten sleeping next to me... In reference to his retweet of this article: https://letters-to-you.life/emoi It’s a petty, convoluted text rebuking the masses for a simplicity and resisting the implacable evolution of language. The word “emoi” in Japan (which is super equivalent to the English "emo") is transforming from not only the emo band subculture or a descriptive of emotional experiences, but also to mean the likes of an adjective for any emotion-evoker and the author is uhhh conservative. Let us get emotional over things!! wowawa lived through all the evolution also and he’s still an enthusiastic user of all definitions of “emo” too...

I’ve been cooking nukaduke at home recently and all I have to say is that home-cooked nukaduke is the best.

Trivia: Yumao lives together with his super duper saikou cool mother, Yurika.

My nukaduke paste is getting better and better, and the pickles I’m making are amazing. I need to consider cutting back on the salt a bit though.

Ah nukaduke is emo

Yumao has nowset his location to nukaduke, hunger ensues

Kobayashi Doom congrats on a good run & Congrats on the new issue #SupportForLet’sMeal

The picture shown is SND’s face was drawn in the background of Meshi ni Shimashou(Let’s have some food!), a manga by Kobayashi Doom. It’s a story which digs into the lives of a a manga artist and her assistant, who bask in the dying embryos of production and then cook meals with crazy twists or gimmicks to restore their “MP”. There’s an official sneak-peak preview of it here! It’s only available in JP though… If you like the look of it please feel free to yell at your local manga provider to officially translate it, Kobayashi Doom is someone SND is so undeniably influenced by. Especially their series Negi nee-san. A webcomic about a surreal girl drowned in surreal antics. It’s usually rooted in nonsense and that’s the grandest appeal. The visuals consist of copy-pasted collages, intricate professional art dynamics, cute girls, to stoic jokes such as “’seven eleven is an integer so seven & I is a complex number” and mostly references to mathematics or science or Jojo. The most parroted one is “Yes” “Not yes”. Also worthy of mention is that things resembling Negi-neesan’s various nameless beasts will show up as backdrop etc. in SND’s manga Chikyuu Monogatari. And most importantly here, there’s even a comic about Shinoda on that link, with the Let’s Meal characters! It reads: Madare ”Who's that?" Omega "From the band 'Hitorie',His name is Shinoda and he seems to be a zealous fan of mine, (sign reads: zealous whatever food hall) He told me he wants me to experience his recent works so he sent me the mp3"Madare “Ooh Isn’t Hitorie that [insert amazing praise here]“. Omega “Look, he’s even wearing a Negi-T (Negi-nee-san’s surreal brand) in this video” (Reference: In the Talkie Dance MV he wears this one) Woah　Click-click Omega “So now, I’ve listened to it 100 times but in sheer honesty I don’t know anything about rock besides the band Ningen Isu so I thought I’d use this comic as an equivalent of an answer to him, a sort of "guess my feelings" quiz. Madare “I see you're popping your conman skill again. (You’ve even beaten me with that skill before )” “I’ve been eavesdropping. Time to cook a meal and get together with him” Omega “I like it." *The chorus lyrics to Hitorie's NAI from ai/SOlate are written on the top left corner, Kobayashi Doumu on the right, and the beastly text written next to the youkai-looking Shinoda in slide one I believe is an feisty ateji encrypting ‘For Shinoda’. SND replied to that comic too! Saying “Even insane miracles can happen huh, Doom-sensei thank you so much!! No this is seriously sick, wtf…." Q.E.D. Kobayashi Doom is strangely important for SND’s character development.

This isn’t specifically concurrent with my current feelings but The text on the video reads “I like you I like you!l I snuck a glance at myself in the mirror and my back has a hunch far worse than I even imagined SND’s RT: ONE BY ONE RECORDS, the indies label, is hanging up the hat after 12 years of service…. Ahhhh… Congrats and good luck on future ventures oh employees.. Key to this article is the band, JONNY. A Weezer cover/original group of which, a certain familiar chestnut-headed rock hero played for. I’ll save the stories of the explorations into that beloved dark past dungeon for another day but, yes, click that link and you’ll see, that glasses fella is a young Shinoda in the flesh. I woke up in the middle of the night. Have a listen to this if you plan to go to bed anytime soon. instagram.com/p/BzV23p6HpRl/… Written on the drawing is “Poyashimi”, which simply means “Oyasumi (Good night)". It was originally just a misspell due to “O” and “P” being so close on standard keyboards but, it’s cute so it’s been adopted in it’s own rights. Can been paired with “Pokita (= Okita = I just woke up)” in the morning. Cute. I wanna go to the beach instagram.com/p/BzawsWGHaGg/…

I wrote MUNEYAKE but I myself don’t have any muneyake heartburn, that’s all there is to it I couldn’t make the bubble tea visible without making the emblem on the hat invisible, and just fought a weird-ass battle with this https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzh7fqRnkBQ/?igshid=1hmx49pswt6ns … “Yasumi" means like “take a breather"

I recorded drums for Sasaki Sayaka’s song, the ending theme for 'Ultraman Taiga’. I used a big and powerful setup for this. The broadcasts start on 7/6. I can’t wait. Also Taro's son is crazy. Ultraman Taro's son is the main character of this new spinoff tokusatsu series! The ending song is called “Hitotsubishi” and will premiere along the first episode, I’ll update this if an official video arrives later, so we can listen to it! I watched the first episode of Taiga, I’m think I’m gonna cry.

This morning a drunken me slipped while walking down the stairs, and turned into the Kinnikuman side of the Kinniku-Buster. My butt hurts. Smack down on the floor, legs aflight.

colormal’s concert was downright fantastic, everybody listen to colormal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ83BZ_BIHA&feature=youtu.be

colormal, a galvanized nerd who turned his hobby into a hopping constitution for his livelihood, his quest for the alternative rock. He makes music alone and he’s namely even inspired by Shinoda’s past solo project “cakebox”. He’s bound to mention a cakebox song in his interviews, on top of a whopping list of other western or indie bands. His music itself has flows of climaxes into unfluctuating concord and it’s either guitar or guitar with pretty effects and I enjoy it SND. His filling bassist, Matsuyama, was even thrilled! https://twitter.com/mtymJb/status/1147537998898069504

My body isn’t able to finish even the small size ramen with full toppings. “Mashi” is a trademark menu option of the chain Ramen Jiro. It’s under the lines of “Pile it up”. You can choose to pile up a bit of everything like Shinoda seems to, or you can choose from specific topping such as veggies or meats. If you ever go into such a ramen shop, try shouting “yasai mashi mashi!” or “buta mashi mashi!” for a heap of piggie.

Tokyo Shoegazer are definite They’re an indies band who had a concert in Shinjuku that day! One of their most recent tweets draws my attention 👀 The wheat and grated yam beef meal at Yoshinoya is delectable but, the sign says the large rice portion and refills are given for free until 11 PM, but when I go there’s a fee on the large portion, how am I supposed to interpret this Reply: I work at Yoshinoya but the free portions and refills is a recent offer, the menus just haven’t been reprinted to represent it… The meal packages generally all have free refills and large rice portions. Shinoda: Thank you. Ref: their ENG menu. Feel free to use this information if you ever get the chance to go to a Yoshidora!!(?) SWEET https://www.instagram.com/p/Bznm6DTH-Gs/ I want to see Siamese Cats live They’re a definite J-rock band who have tinges of psychedelic and a sort of 80’s pop style to their music. They had an outdoor show the day before SND tweeted this, but they also have a 10th Year Anniversary Celebration concert this December. SND GO! Siamese Cats - Escape Eve (Official Video) 2018　　シャムキャッツ - 逃亡前夜 https://youtu.be/5Jtd5nmI0Fc

salad days was on Amazon Prime so I gave it a gander but it was really fucking good. The walking alone Straight Edge scene or at the beginning when everyone was partying together until strange people starting flooding in one by one and the safety of the concert went downhill Or how the terminology “emocore” doesn’t resonate at all with people who were directly associated with it at the outset.

The fact that controversy which we’re still having today has existed since the 80’s is an astonishment  Also once the Smells Like~ MV wrought the knowledge of crowd-surfing (stage-diving) upon the world, and then the crowd became a flood of stage-divers so much that Fugazi lost his temper, that scene was so good

The joint show with Trouble Funk, when they were reflecting on what became the final Minor Threat show, everyone was vocalizing the horrors, the turmoil of it, yet I laughed when only Ian said it wasn’t that bad

Not disregarding how these types of issues really did exist those days, ultimately the concerts and their music really are awesome, the energy and thrill everyone held was amazing

Formidable figures such as Thurston Moore and Dave Grohl are shown looking back on the past, and then pops in J Mascis with such batshit indifference that I laughed again  Why does Ian MacKaye not have a Japanese wiki page If it draws your attention here’s the link!:https://www.amazon.com/Salad-Days-Fred-Armisen/dp/B01MAV0YAH I’m not specifically feeling emo https://www.instagram.com/p/BzqVd4wnaOX/?igshid=nhnyzm9vipdi …“emoi”

#ヒトリエ #hitorie #long post #Shinoda played violin in the twitcast yesterday how do I report on this #SHINODA VIOLIN

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samuelpboswell · 3 years

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Boosting B2B Marketing Credibility with Social Proof and Influencers: 4 Tips

This is gonna be the greatest blog post EVER. Did you believe me there? You probably didn't. Sure, I might think it’s an awesome piece of content. But I’m not exactly an objective source. Now, if you were to come across a post on social media from someone you know and trust, linking to this blog post and saying it’s the best thing they’ve read all year? That’s a different story. Therein lies the immense value of social proof, which is only growing more impactful as businesses and society evolve into a new era. A survey from Kantar Media last year found that 93% of people trust brand recommendations from family and friends, while only 38% trust information from advertisers. Meanwhile, 84% of people say they trust online reviews as much as their friends. As a marketer, accepting this reality may cause some discomfort: We can’t control what people say! That’s why a great product and customer experience are table stakes. But when those pieces are in place, today’s marketers can take plenty of steps to strategically encourage and elevate social proof and influencer content.

Building Credibility for Your Brand the Right Way: 4 Key Steps

Going above and beyond with transparency, highlighting third-party voices, portraying influencer authenticity, and creating buzzworthy experiences are among the best ways to build credibility in our current business landscape. A closer look at each: #1: Embrace Radical Transparency In business, the term “radical transparency” is usually evoked as an internal management philosophy — keeping employees looped into everything that’s going on, good or bad, to increase engagement and investment. I feel the concept can also be applied externally. Heightened business transparency is largely happening on its own, in a digital environment where customers and communities can keep a closer eye on a company’s activities and positions. Why not lean into this transparency? When you proactively put everything out there for people to see, it fuels a perception that you’re not trying to hide anything. That’s a huge credibility booster. A few examples of transparency that might be considered “radical” but should really start to become the norm:

Openly acknowledge and address negative reviews instead of burying them

Share product/service pricing upfront instead of obscuring these important details

Own the mistakes you make as a company, and share what you learn from them

Recognize the relative strengths of your competitors in marketing materials, rather than playing up only their weaknesses

Be forthright about who your product or service is NOT a fit for

If there’s one thing business buyers don’t like, it’s surprises. Given the stakes, nobody wants to find out down the line that there’s an unexpected cost, or unmentioned implementation complexities, or unspoken functional limitations. Radical transparency helps eliminate surprises and can dramatically increase buyer confidence. #2: Put Third-Party Reviews and Analysis Forward As noted earlier, customers tend to be more interested in hearing what other people say about your solutions than what you say about them. That’s not to say a company can’t toot its own horn, but this should be balanced by objective third-party voices. Think about ways you can incorporate these trusted, unbiased perspectives into your own content. Highlight research from authoritative market analysis firms (e.g. studies from Gartner, Forrester, Nielsen) that helps establish a need for what you offer. Let trends and statistics do the talking. Build out authentic case studies that are more focused on illustrating your solution’s impact in a customer’s organization rather than just heaping lavish praise. And of course: Point prospective customers to user review sites so they can see for themselves how people describe experiences with your brand. A recent article at Forbes shares tips on getting more reviews and leveraging them effectively. [bctt tweet="“Customers tend to be more interested in hearing what other people say about your solutions than what you say about them.” — Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"] #3: Aim for Authenticity in Influencer Partnerships Influencer associations can be excellent sources of credibility for your brand … provided they are handled the right way. From our view at TopRank Marketing, that means taking a relationship-based approach more so than a transactional one. Influencers who are recognized, respected, and trusted in a particular industry or niche can be tremendously valuable advocates. But when your association with them is superficial, that value is lost. Customers will see through it. Nobody’s putting a lot of stock into the genuine sentiments behind a glowing social media post that has an #ad hashtag at the end. However, when you’re building long-term relationships with these influencers, to the point where they speak positively about your brand unprompted? When their audiences see them engaging with your people and co-creating impactful content? This is where the true credibility-boosting power of B2B influencer marketing lies. Helping forge these kinds of authentic influencer ecosystems is an area where our agency specializes, so feel free to give us a shout if you want to learn more. [bctt tweet="“Influencers who are recognized, respected, and trusted in a particular industry or niche can be tremendously valuable advocates.” — Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"] #4: Give People Something to Talk About Increasingly, this is the primary task of the new-age digital marketer: It’s not so much about coming up with different ways to say great things about your brand — it’s about coming up with different ways to get other people to say great things about your brand. How is this done? There are many ways, including:

Creation of compelling thought leadership that counters conventional wisdom and gets people talking.

Virtual events that bring together like-minded people around shared passions and interests pertinent to your industry.

Delivering notable customer experiences or content experiences that generate buzz on their own.

Providing exceptional employee experiences that compel team members to openly share how much they enjoy the company and culture.

Running polls, conversation-starters, and hashtags on social media that expand your brand’s relevant reach and connect it to key topics on your target audience’s mind.

Meanwhile, the type of radical transparency cited in Tip #1 can itself be a means to generate positive chatter about your brand and its credibility. In an older but still highly pertinent article for WIRED about the see-through CEO, Clive Thompson summarized why this is really the only way to go: “Here's the interesting paradox: The reputation economy creates an incentive to be more open, not less. Since Internet commentary is inescapable, the only way to influence it is to be part of it. Being transparent, opening up, posting interesting material frequently and often is the only way to amass positive links to yourself and thus to directly influence your Googleable reputation. Putting out more evasion or PR puffery won't work, because people will either ignore it and not link to it - or worse, pick the spin apart and enshrine those criticisms high on your Google list of life.” Be part of the commentary. Take the lead in key conversations. Engage with leaders in your space. Act in a way that inspires other people to speak highly of your brand. Credibility isn’t given; it’s earned. That’s a directive to which everyone across an organization must contribute. But marketers play a key role in earning and showcasing credibility for the brand, and I’d argue that it’s increasingly becoming our most critical job duty. Social proof and influencer marketing are vital cornerstones to doing it well. Looking for specific guidance on advancing brand credibility through your marketing strategy? Check out my post from last year featuring six tips for infusing credibility into B2B content.

The post Boosting B2B Marketing Credibility with Social Proof and Influencers: 4 Tips appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages https://www.toprankblog.com/2021/10/boosting-b2b-marketing-credibility-with-social-proof-and-influencers/

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krisroley · 3 years

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February 8th 2021

It might just be the time of year, but I find myself getting discouraged easily. It’s compounded by the fact that we’re coming up on a year since my job sent me home and everything that’s happened since then. The simple fact of the matter is I’m not where I want to be at almost any category of life you care to name. I’m currently making about half of what I was pre-May 2020, I’m struggling with staying in a creative mindset, I’m not necessarily hopeful that I will be able to realize a key hope of mine to regain the position I was previously in, and I’m not finding anything equivalent out there that I can do despite the experience. It leaves me in a pretty depressing place, and I’m not sure what my next move is. So when this happens, I try to move out of the mindset of what I can’t do to figure out what I can accomplish. I believe it starts with talking about the things I am passionate about. Demonstrating some knowledge. Possibly not being so unassuming about it?

A lot of the past year had to do with how my friends stayed creative and productive during the pandemic, and now I may be best served by turning this camera inward. Let’s see what happens.

After I wrote the above, I fired up my Feedly reader, and Seth Godin’s post today is very timely indeed.

So, let’s consult the imp in the back of my head that wants to know what the bleep I’m going to do to turn YET into DONE. I think first we have to define what DONE is, and I’m finding that a little hard to do at the moment. It’s a Jackson Pollack splatter of thought about what I don’t want to be doing anymore, and very little thought about what it is I would rather be doing, and whether I can do it for a living. Nothing new here, this has pretty much been the case for a few years now. I need to put these thoughts together. I don’t want to take phone calls anymore. I do want a job in a creative field. I want what I create to be able to help people. I want to be able to live comfortably on the fruits of that effort, which means not only the bills are paid, but that the wife and I are not worried about health insurance, and that the kids are taken care of.

So, maybe that’s what done is. If that’s true, then the next question—my favorite—is ‘What’s Next?”. What I’m about to write is the first time I’ve ever written this answer: I don’t know. I don’t know what the first step is, and if I don’t know what the first step is, I can’t figure the next one. Marie Forleo likes to say “Everything is Figureoutable”. I sure hope so, because being stuck in this place is a goddamn exhausting place to be.

Of course, as I said at the beginning, it could just be that it’s January and it’s cold, and that I hate everything right now. It feels like more than that, but maybe it always does and I’m not remembering it.

Oh, You Didn’t Know?

Joe Budden, who up until a few months ago had an exclusive deal with Spotify, is moving his podcast to Patreon. The Verge has some comments from Budden:

He says he proved the model, along with the potential of his audience, but didn’t want Spotify to use his fans and reach to prove the platform’s own worth and make money.

“For many years, the record labels and the system that I come from tricked us into thinking they were doing us a favor by capitalizing off our talent and basically loaning us money, and that’s been the standard the entire time,” Budden says, adding that he already knows how that system worked out for creators.

When Budden announced his split from the tech company, he said Spotify was “pillaging” his audience and only cared about how his show contributed to Spotify overall, not about his actual podcast.

Budden was a recording artist before he was a podcaster. If he’s aware that the record labels played games, I can’t believe he didn’t see the obvious. Streaming Services aren’t exactly known for treating artists differently, for a start, but let’s address what I think is the elephant in the room, which is the question of whether or not what you had was actually a podcast, because I think that question is fundamental to the problem Budden experienced. A podcast is not exclusive to a platform, and I’ll argue that point until I’m blue in the face. If I can’t subscribe to your show on a different platform than Spotify, then you don’t have a podcast, you have a show on Spotify. Spotify might have a big user base, but that user base is all you have. Spotify’s Q4 2020 earnings state that they have 345 million active monthly users, and that only 25 percent of those users listen to podcasts on the platform. That’s around 86.5 Million, and trust me, they’re not all listening to Joe Budden. Yes, he’s got a lot of downloads, but what he’s got on Spotify is all he’s going to get by staying there. Patreon is a huge and smart play, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes 3x on listeners and money at the very least.

(Note to self, get back on Patreon, it’s about to blow up.)

The Clothes Suck Anyway

Ah, exposure. SO great for paying bills, only the complete opposite of paying bills.

One of my favorite Twitter accounts is @forexposure_txt, and they receive posts every day from creatives who receive requests, demands, and straight-up meltdowns from people who believe it’s ok not to pay a creative for their work. However, in some cases, there’s the odd post about a company that lifts a picture, alters it, and uses it on their social media without attribution. Take, for example, Meg of Margate, a photographer who discovered a fashion brand called Ted Baker (no link, I’m not enabling this behavior) lifted a photo, photoshopped it, and post it on their Instagram “for engagement”. When called on it, they offered Meg a 200 dollar gift card from their store, which she declined. They then stated they didn’t have the budget to pay photographers, so they deleted the image.

Fine, but let’s be clear about what really happened here. A fashion brand that declared revenue of 617 million pounds in 2019 used a picture that didn’t own to drive traffic to their brand. They got likes and engagement for hours on that post. Then they told the photographer, sorry we can’t afford it, and just deleted the post. Ted Baker made money off that stolen picture, and they probably will have no liability for screwing a creative because it costs money to take people to court.

If this doesn’t make you angry, it should.

This seems like a good place to link to one of my favorite talks by Mike Montiero, “Fuck You, Pay Me.”

More Instagram Stuff

Instagram is now conducting a test to remove the ability to share feed posts within Stories:

You would assume that a lot of Stories updates are re-shared feed posts. The fact that Instagram is willing to reduce this seems like a positive sign for its development focus - but it might also indicate that people are viewing Stories less as a result of such shares, which has prompted Instagram to take action.

I can tell you that many of my stories are photos from other accounts that I think are amazing, and I do that to encourage my followers to follow them. If you remove the ability for me to do that, then I have to resort to a third party program—Repost—to post them to my feed, and I don’t want to do that. My feed should be for my pictures. I hope what they’re driving at is removing the ability to share one’s own feed posts as Stories, and I would completely understand why they feel it’s redundant. That’s not how I read this story.

In other Instagram news, it looks like IG and Twitter might be burying the hatchet soon and allowing integrations again:

That's an even bigger integration. As noted by Jane Manchun Wong, Instagram hasn't provided direct Twitter integration since it disabled Twitter card preview support back in 2012, which makes it annoyingly difficult to share content between the two apps. Now, it seems they're mending bridges, which could facilitate not just tweets in Stories stickers, but wholly new integration options which would enable direct sharing of Instagram posts to Twitter as well, fully integrated and formatted in-line.

That's not part of this proposal, and it may not ever be. But it would definitely be handy - and with Twitter seemingly now more open to such, it could pave the way for improved connection.

If true, this would look a lot cleaner than the screenshots we’re all doing right now anyway. Honestly, this horse has been out of the barn so long it’s dying of exposure.

Shot of The Day

#Joe Budden #Spotify #Patreon #Ted baker #For Exposure #IG Stories #social media #Twitter #Integrations #Winter #Seasonal Depression

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marrincostello · 4 years

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Local Business Marketing in Uncertain Times : Social Media Examiner

Wondering how to stay top-of-mind with your customers, even if you aren’t open? Looking for new, creative ways to continue to show up for them?

To explore how local businesses can market during uncertain times, I interview Bruce Irving on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.

Bruce is a local business marketing pro. He’s the host of The Local Business Podcast and the Smart Pizza Marketing Podcast.

You’ll discover how four local businesses are staying top-of-mind with their customers right now, and learn how to encourage your customers to return to your shop when the time is right.

Listen to the Podcast Now

This article is sourced from the Social Media Marketing Podcast, a top marketing podcast. Listen or subscribe below.

Scroll to the end of the article for links to important resources mentioned in this episode.

Note: This was recorded in the middle of April 2020, during the COVID-19 global pandemic—and we suspect some of the stay-at-home and social-distancing limitations will still be in place for a while.

The truth of the matter is that as of today, customers are afraid. Many of them don’t want to visit any local businesses, especially those where people gather closely together. As marketers and business owners, it’s up to us to stay top-of-mind and communicate with our customers throughout this time. Doing this ensures that they’ll still be there for us when life returns to normal.

What to Do First

Bruce feels the first few things businesses have to do right now is not to bury their heads in the sand or focus on the negatives of the situation. Take a proactive approach. Show up every single day and reassure your customers that you’re still around and that you’re going to be around when this is over. Notify and educate them on whatever changes you’re making in your business to adapt to the current circumstances.

Who knows how long this is going to last? And who knows what the “new normal” is going to look like when we do get out of this? A lot of local businesses out there are going to be completely different. Many businesses aren’t ever going to be able to go back to the way they were before this happened. Start thinking about your plan for the future, and then talk to your customers about that plan moving forward.

Look at the systems you have in place in your business. You have time now. You may not be open and all of those little things—maybe that system you wanted to put in place or those photos or videos you really wanted to set up—can be implemented now while you have that extra time.

Customers have short attention spans. When you close down—if you’re not showing up for them—they’re going to forget about you when they resume their regular lives.

Creative Ways to Stay Top-of-Mind

Bruce says now is the time to double down on content. Don’t be one of those companies that’s afraid to market right now. Be on point with your message, show up consistently, and double down on your message on the platforms where you hang out. You don’t want the next 6 weeks to go by without you showing up at all, and then all of a sudden, you reappear when everything’s back open. You need to be consistently showing up every single day.

Think about a content marketing plan. To visualize this, you could start a podcast and take your expertise on the air. You could start writing articles for local publications in your community to provide some free value or perhaps you might start your own blog.

Bruce recommends coming up with some sort of daily or weekly show on Facebook, Instagram, or any other platform. Use the show to talk to your customers about what you’re doing in your business, and to educate them. Be honest with them. Show them the processes and systems you’re putting in place. When they’re able to come back into your restaurant or business, they’ve seen you in the interim. You’re still familiar and they haven’t forgotten about you.

You don’t necessarily have to go live but Bruce prefers live video over pre-recorded. When people record a video, they tend to overanalyze it and delete it a thousand times before they put it out. Done is better than perfect.

When you do something, you’re going to stink at it in the beginning and you need to be okay with that. If you do it consistently over time, you will increasingly improve. When you do a live show, you just need to go and do it. There may not be many viewers. More people will come and they’ll see that improvement.

Show people how you make your products and what you serve. Bruce noticed that Disney recently started releasing recipes for the products and snacks they serve at Disneyland such as churros, Dole Whips, and Tonga Toast. They released social media videos and recipe guides so you can recreate those classics in your own home since no one can go to Disney theme parks right now. Any restaurant can take that example and run with it.

People are stuck in their homes, and as much as they may love cooking, they’re getting sick of the same old recipes every single night. They want to know what else they can make. They want to know how they can make that restaurant’s famous sandwiches at home. You can show a video of you doing that.

Or you can have a Tuesday-night online cooking class where people can learn something new that they can make with their families and enjoy. Then they’re going to show up, they’re going to try to recreate that recipe at home, and they’re going to come back for the next one if they were successful.

To illustrate, Bruce’s friend Mike owns the Tony Boloney’s pizza chain in New Jersey. Mike started doing a cooking class live on Instagram every Sunday. He demonstrates how to make things like stromboli, fresh mozzarella, and pizza, and he sells kits to go along with whatever he’s demonstrating.

All during the week leading up to his Sunday night live at 5:00 PM, Mike posts on social media about the kits people will need for that live video. People direct-message him and he sells them the product kits. Then every Sunday at 5:00 PM, he’s going live showing the process of making that item. Mike does the videos from his house and he involves his two very young sons in the process, which is often funny and really helps to humanize him.

9Tailors is a suit and clothing tailoring shop that has pivoted recently to making protective masks. In many areas, if you go outside or to any public place, a mask is mandatory. 9Tailors is creating cloth masks for people to purchase that look cool and are designed really well.

They’re making something different that they know is in high demand using the resources they already have at their disposal. That’s not a business model that can be used long-term but it’s a good quick pivot to keep that business going.

ZaRonis Pizzeria in Oshkosh, Wisconsin is a superhero-themed restaurant. For the last 5 months, even before this pandemic, they posted special offers in a private Facebook group for their community, almost like a VIP club. They also helped people out. If someone fell on hard times, ZaRonis supplied them with a meal. It turned into a huge group for the area, boasting nearly 7,000 members.

As soon as this whole catastrophe hit, that Facebook group completely supported this business and helped them out because ZaRonis had already been doing that for their community for the past 4 or 5 months. Now they’re creating packages for people in need in the area, including little meal kits.

They’re asking their distributors for additional items and packaging them together to donate to people who need food and help right now. The owner appeared on TV, which then led to monetary donations to help keep those kits coming. ZaRonis provided a service to the community in a Facebook group and the community decided to pay them back. It’s amazing press and when ZaRonis opens back up, there are going to be a lot of happy, loyal customers coming in.

Roger Wakefield is a plumber in Texas. He shares everything on YouTube and LinkedIn, demonstrating things like what to do if your toilet gets clogged or how to fix the sewer pipes to your house. He’s got around 30,000 subscribers on YouTube and he still gets local business as a plumber.

Bruce points out that in this industry, you want customers and you want employees. Likewise, Roger’s YouTube videos not only get him customers from his local area, they also bring people to him who are interested in becoming plumbers. Roger has people asking him, “Hey Roger, can I work for you? Because I see your videos all the time and I want to learn how to be a plumber.”

Become the Social Media Marketing Rockstar for Your Business

Meet your secret team that makes you look like a social media genius and empowers you to embrace change! We’re a genuine community of marketers from your friends at Social Media Examiner. And we’re here to support you. Think of us as your career insurance policy. We keep you focused on what matters. We make sure you won’t be left behind as the changes keep coming. Join the Social Media Marketing Society. Get access to monthly online training, expert support, and a thriving community of marketers who will empower you to succeed.

He has the best of both worlds. He’s getting customers and he’s getting the hardest thing of all—employees who want to become plumbers.

Staying in Touch via Email

What took most local businesses by surprise is that nobody could have anticipated a full stop. A lot of these businesses probably now wish they had email addresses so they could communicate more directly with their customers.

Bruce is a big advocate of email because social media platforms can change but your email list is the one thing you own. We’ve heard it all before but now it’s more important than ever because no matter what happens on these other platforms, you can still communicate via email with your customers.

Bruce’s clients are restaurant owners and they sell a lot through online ordering. When someone orders online, they have to enter their email address. Come up with some sort of strategy to incentivize your customers to give you their email. Give them a coupon code or a deal, have a special event, or do something that happens every time they order online from you. Come up with a good online-only deal so you can capture their email and communicate with them in the future.

Local businesses could go really far by taking a page out of the online business playbook. Bruce notes that a lot of online businesses offer free reports and eBooks. Similarly, you could put together a cooking guide or a video series in exchange for an email address. Another way of doing it is to offer an on-the-spot discount if customers are willing to give you their email address. Maybe you could even set up a frequent-diner program.

Digital copies of receipts are also a great way to get emails. A person who’s taking credit card information over the phone, for instance, can ask for the customer’s email address so they can send that digital receipt.

A lot of restaurants use Square as their point-of-sale system, which remembers customer information. Customers put their card in and Square recognizes them in the system and has all of their information saved. Square just emails them the receipt without them having to do anything. Most of these systems allow integrations with email management systems so you can either export or integrate it to send promotions or content.

Messenger bots are another great way to collect people’s contact information. You can run ads—connected to a tool like ManyChat—that send out a discount. It could be sent to people who have connected with you on social, visited your website, or watched one of your videos. The ad is based on one of those actions.

You can create and send a message that says, “Hey, we saw that you were on this page looking at this item. Would you like a 10% discount? Just click this button or type a comment below to get the coupon code.” That triggers the bot to collect their email address, their phone number, and their name. Then it distributes the coupon through Facebook Messenger.

Diversifying Offerings and Delivery Methods

A lot of businesses, especially local businesses, are now wishing they had an online offering to turn to because they’re so reliant on the physical location. Today, the drop in sales is motivated by COVID-19. Tomorrow, it could be because a big employer moves out of town and a bunch of jobs are lost or because a train terminal shuts down and there’s not as much foot traffic. There are so many scenarios that can happen.

The good news—if there is any—is that if your business is closed, probably everybody else who sells similar products is closed, too. It’s not like the guy across the street is open and thriving and you’re closed. So here’s your opportunity to do the thing that you’ve always wanted to do. If you’ve always wanted to transition your business to online, get going with it. There’s an opportunity now to do that.

A lot of people don’t understand how big online restaurant delivery is. It’s huge. There are three billion-dollar companies—Uber Eats, DoorDash, and GrubHub. All they do is service online restaurant orders. They create ghost kitchens, get people to order using SEO from a website that they direct people to, then send the order off to the restaurant, and go pick it up. You can do all of that yourself.

You have to have the patience and time and put in the work, but all of that can be done on your own. Create a website, tell people that the website exists, and create content pushing people to that website. You can do all of that now. If you’re closed, you have time to do that.

Some of these restaurants might not even have a physical walk-in location—they’re just doing online orders. Bruce knows five restaurants that don’t even have a location that you can pick up from or walk into—they’re 100% digital ghost kitchens.

Bruce’s friend Ric Gruber has a pizzeria in Chicago. He uses GrubHub and Uber Eats as a way to create new restaurants based out of his existing restaurant.

To visualize this, Ric went to GrubHub and Uber Eats and created a salad company. Why? Because he noticed that while he has great salads, his restaurant wasn’t coming up in search on GrubHub for salads because they’re labeled as a pizza restaurant. So he created Ric’s Salads, and it’s just a website where people can order his salads on GrubHub.

Happily, it comes up in the top three of local searches for salads. It emails him at his pizzeria as Ric’s Salads but he makes them from Ric’s Pizza. It’s almost like a business within a business. He also does that to validate products. When he wants to test some products out, he’ll do it on Ric’s Salads because if Ric’s Salads goes out of business, he doesn’t really care.

Some food businesses want to expand beyond their local radius. Bruce realizes there’s a big movement for frozen products now, especially in the restaurant space. People are trying to figure out how to create their items and freeze them for delivery. Businesses have the time to figure things like that out right now.

If you’re a national company, you probably already have some sort of online platform. Domino’s is one of the best digital companies out there; they just happen to serve pizza. Their pizzas aren’t great—there’s probably a hundred pizzerias in your area that are better than Domino’s—and yet they sell more pizza than those others because they dominate digital.

They know what you’re going to order because you’ve ordered from them before and they know what time you order, so they send you emails based on triggers from your past experiences there and they follow you online. They are a digital company that happens to sell pizza.

Encouraging People to Come Back In (When They Can)

Before the restrictions are even lifted, Bruce says to take a look at your business and how you’re making money. If you’re a business that’s closed right now because you can’t have customers come to you, look at your business model and figure out how you can prevent this from happening in the future.

Can you sell online? Can you sell courses or tutorial videos that you can monetize so you have multiple streams of income? When this is over, if there’s a second wave of the virus or if something else happens, make sure you’re not caught like you are now and completely closed with no revenue.

Different people are taking different levels of precaution so some people won’t be ready to return to restaurants for a little while longer. Even when everything opens back up again, we’ll probably avoid being around large crowds for another 6–12 months.

That 6- to 10-foot buffer zone between people is probably going to be the new normal for a long time. It’ll be really important for businesses to use social media to convey the sanitizing precautions that they’re taking to make sure that their physical business is safe for people to come into.

A lot of companies weren’t quick to adapt. They thought their businesses would be fine and they didn’t need to get their message out on Instagram. A lot of those businesses are really hurting. Nobody’s calling to say, “Hey, can I ask you a couple of questions about your business? Are you wearing gloves? Do you have masks on? How do I order from you?” That’s not what happens.

People go to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter and look up these businesses to see what they’re doing. Those businesses that were slow to adapt to social media are now scrambling to get on there and show the safety steps they’re taking. The businesses that have been on social media for a while and already have that in place are the ones that people trust more right now.

Key Takeaways from This Episode:

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on how local businesses can market during uncertain times? Please share your comments below.

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This content was originally published here.

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avadatechnology-blog · 5 years

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Top 5 Reasons Why You Need a Virtual Assistant

A lot of individuals tend to link the word assistant with wealthy, successful, on E-News kind of celebrities. However, the number of small scales business owners you see and visit every day that uses virtual assistants may surprise you. There’s a laundry list of reasons a small scale or medium scale business owner is being less productive than he ought to be: personal errands are killing productivity, ignoring core tasks, business is growing, bogged by repetition, etc. Business method Outsourcing (BPO) is the act of outsourcing business processes to a virtual assistant. By finding honest virtual assistants skilled, a small scale or medium scale business owner will delegate body tasks and effectively get-back additional hours in his day. Here may be a list we have compiled for small or medium scale businesses owners, the prime 5 reasons you need to hire a virtual assistant.

1. Buried in Administrative Tasks Small scale business owners tend to ignore the every day tedious tasks till the pile is sufficiently big they cannot see over it, and easy daily tasks become intimidating-impossible. A virtual assistant will take away this headache for a small scale or medium scale business owner, and comparatively cheaply, too. The primary step is to try to do an analysis of your business activities over the course of every day for a whole week, writing down the minor tasks that are taking over time. Two musts: Do write down every single factor you are doing, the devil is within the details. If you aren’t thorough, you may overlook cogs in your productivity wheel. Don’t rule out something as a task a virtual assistant couldn’t do, as a result of the most likely will

2. Social Media The elephant within the space is Social Media. As a small scale business owner, it’s crammed down your throat that you just have to be compelled to be everywhere Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest…the list goes on-and-on. However the truth of the matter is you don’t, you can get help. The truth is that being is every place isn’t doable for a small scale business, as well as profitable. The end point is that you just ought to acquire your name on all of the Social Media channels, however participating on them isn’t essentially your best bet. A number of the foremost booming small scale or medium scale businesses have used one Social Media channel, employed a virtual assistant to manage the content calendar, and maximized their time by being hyper-engaged with one community. A virtual assistant will beware of the ‘monitoring’ for you, whereas the business owner focuses on the connection building half

3. Lead Generation Lead generation is the name of the sport for small scale or medium scale businesses on the web. whether you are doing campaigns to your web site, cultivating interest via social media accounts and web site contact forms and comments are simply a couple of samples of powerful sources of leads. Lead generation may be a terribly long manual task, though. The process is arduous and needs a great deal of elaborate attention on the method. A virtual assistant will simply type through all of the leads, execute touch-point campaigns to work out the worth of every lead, and aboard those potential clients into your customer lifecycle. If the virtual assistant proves effective, you’ll be able to begin to expand his role into new lead generation campaigns

4. Research, Content Creation & Blogging Thought leadership are a few things that get thrown around a great deal online, however, the premise is very valid. As a small scale business, you would like to be seen online as one thing Indian agency is associate degree authority on your space of specialty. Whether that’s accounting or the food service industry, you’re mercantilism quite an honest or service; you’re mercantilism associate degree expertise. By making value-added content around your product or service, you’re adding to and increasing the expertise for the patron. Your virtual assistant couldn’t solely notice the content to schedule in your monthly social media calendar; however, he might produce terribly fast and straightforward to consume content for your journal or other social media channels

5. Accountancy Bookkeeping may be the foremost necessary of all the tasks a virtual assistant can facilitate or manage. Keeping tabs on bills, invoicing, payroll and alternative monetary matters is imperative to small scale businesses. By outsourcing your accountancy system to a virtual assistant, small scale or medium scale business owner will free-up a big quantity of your time every week. Not only are bills paid on-time; however you increase the probability of finding monetary inaccuracies or problems a great deal sooner. Giving access to accounts and passwords because it pertains to your business finances may be a huge step, however finding a virtual assistant in a position to get rid of the headache of accountancy will convince be very useful to small scale or medium scale businesses. A good virtual assistant will be the distinction between productive associate degree non-productive small scale or medium scale businesses. By outsourcing body and non-core tasks through a virtual assistant or BPO, small scale or medium scale businesses liberate it’s time to maximize business efforts. Cost-efficient business administration solutions are wildly out there, and as a small scale or medium scale business owner you ought to positively scrutinize taking advantage of one.

Read More...https://www.renownedsolutions.com/

#virtual assistant #Accountancy

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entrepreneurmind-biz · 5 years

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Blogging - All You Ever Wanted To Know, But Were Too Afraid To Ask

The Complete Blogging Manual

If you are already blogging, then you might want to read this just to see if you’re getting the full benefit from your blog. Or to find out if your blog… um… sucks.

Because frankly, most blogs do.

If you don’t yet have a blog, then you’re likely leaving money on the table and you don’t even know it. Blogging is a great way to reach your audience, build rapport and get people interested in handing you money for your products and services.

Plus, believe it or not, blogging can be a lot of fun!

Let’s get started…

You Already Have Blogging Skills

You might think that blogging takes a great deal of talent, but anyone, with a little coaching, can blog.

Yes, that absolutely does include you. 😊

A Few Tips To Get You Started…

There aren’t any right answers or perfect formulas. It’s okay to follow your intuition and even experiment.

Don’t compare. Don’t get bogged down by comparing your blog to other blogs. Someone else will always get more attention and more retweets. Learn from others but stay true to your own unique strengths.

Don’t give up. Your blog might take off in 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years. In the meantime, keep blogging. It’s a learn-as-you-go process, and if you’re tenacious, you will find your audience and they will find you.

Focus on your passions. It’s difficult to blog for years about a topic that bores you to death. Write about what you love and the passion will show.

Be flexible. You might think your blog is about one thing, and 3 months in you realize it’s about something entirely different. That’s okay. Most new bloggers don’t find their footing right away because it takes time.

Be consistent. Blog at least once a week or more often. Blogging once a month won't get you the search engine traffic, brand awareness or customer connections you're looking for.

Know your 'why.' Focus more on 'why' you're blogging than 'how' to blog. Don't get so bogged down in technical details that you forget why you're blogging.

Why Are You Blogging?

Facebook and Twitter might be less intimidating, but blogging offers much greater potential to your business. If our content is the fuel that runs the social web, then blogs are the engine.

Benefits of blogging include:

Creating brand awareness. Keep in mind that you might very well be your own brand, depending on your business.

Becoming an authority in your field. It doesn't matter how much you know if others don't know that you know it. Share your expertise with the world and let them know you can help them.

Selling stuff. A blog is an excellent platform to show people how to do things and the best tools to get those things done.

Catching the attention of leaders in your field. Create round-up posts where you ask the movers and shakers in your niche to answer a question or two. It's a great way to introduce yourself to others in your field. Don't forget to link to their sites, too.

Creating partnerships. Do you want to partner with other marketers? A blog showcases your talents and point of view, making it easier to create connections that lead to profitable joint ventures and partnerships.

Search engine traffic. Google loves blogs because they are updated regularly with new information that is helpful to searchers.

Social media traffic. Share your new posts on social media and ask others to share them as well.

Building your email list. This might be the biggest one of all since a good email list allows you to sell products at the touch of a send button.

Blogging Action Steps

Decide to be committed. Whether you're starting a personal or business blog, be prepared to keep at it for at least 2 years. There are no shortcuts. It takes time to find your following.

Not sure of your passion? Write out 30 different blog post headlines that you would like to write. Now look over the headlines and find the common theme. Is it aligned with your business goals? Adjust and refine as needed.

Conduct an audit. Every six months, ask yourself these questions:

What posts were the most fun to write? How do you write more of these?

What posts received the most interaction or feedback? What did you learn from them?

Are you still enjoying this topic, or do you need to broaden your scope?

Use deadlines. To keep yourself from procrastinating, let your readers know when you'll be making your posts. For example, Monday and Thursday morning, or whatever. Then publish at those times, even if your post isn't perfect.

Stop worrying. Yes, sooner or later a troll will say something harsh. But 99 out of 100 people will be kind. Don't let one or two negative people keep you from publishing your posts.

Make it personal. When you write a blog post, try to connect the subject matter to your own experiences, your story or your perspective. This creates a personal touch and helps you to connect with your readers.

Stop Thinking Like a Writer and Start Thinking Like a Blogger

Blogging is different than the writing you did in high school or college because your audience is different.

Your readers are likely mixing business with pleasure when they visit your blog. They want new information, they want to solve a problem, or they're curious. But they're also hoping to be entertained, too.

If you have an easy-going manner that sounds like you're speaking to readers one-on-one, you'll do well. Injecting humour is even better. Be approachable and genuine. In other words, be yourself, or an even better version of yourself.

Tips to Help You Write Like a Blogger

Find your voice. Don't be a carbon copy of other bloggers; be yourself. You have unique experiences and viewpoints that you can bring to your blog and make it different from anything else out there. Think about how you make friends - you show the person who you really are, and they either like you or they don't. It's the same with your blog readers. Be yourself, be genuine, have a personality, and those who connect with you will stay with you and become your biggest fans because of who you are.

Don't bury the lead. Most blog readers are short on time and want their info NOW. If you wait until the end of your post to give them the good stuff, they'll never see it. You have to start out with the big benefit first and let them know right away why this post is going to make a difference in their day or their life.

Keep it short. Most blog posts could benefit greatly from going under the knife. If a sentence doesn't move the post forward, then delete it. The same goes for entire paragraphs. Shorter posts tend to work best, especially when you're new to blogging. Authority posts - those long 3,000+ word posts - are something you can work up to as your reputation builds. In the beginning, keep posts short with one main idea in each post.

Become a headline pro. There is NO getting around this - you're going to need to become an expert at headlines. Without a compelling, tweetable headline, your work will never be read. Consider writing the headline first and tailoring the post to the headline, rather than working the other way around.

Screw up. That's right; make mistakes. Be imperfect. Be human. The best bloggers are real life people who let you know they make mistakes. If you try to get every single blog post just peachy-keen perfect, you'll never publish anything. Write it, edit it, post it and move on. When you make a big enough mistake, correct it. If you make a whopper, let your readers know you goofed. They'll love you for it.

Rewrite. We said it's okay to screw up, but that doesn't mean you don't want to put your best foot forward. Write and then rewrite, because people will spend more time reading your posts if they enjoy them. Go over your writing and find the places that don't quite make sense or are downright confusing, and then fix them. You might read your post aloud since this can help you find the bits that need fixing.

Be honest. Are you sad? Depressed? Angry? Stressed? Disappointed? Worried? There is awesome power in authenticity. Write about it. You'll find some of your readers are going through the exact same thing you are. Plus, it's therapeutic for you and for them to get it out there.

Entertain. Yes, you might be writing about a business or some other serious topic, but that doesn't mean you can't entertain, too. Use stories, humour and the element of surprise to turn even dry material into something fun and interesting.

Mix it up. Use videos, photos, interviews, infographics, reviews, humour, cartoons and anything else you can think of. Be innovative.

Bring in, other authors. Once your blog has a following, bring in other writers to spice up the conversation. You might consider asking a provocative question, taking one side yourself, and having another writer take the opposing point of view.

Blogging Skills 101

As a blogger, you need to bring one or more skills to the blogging table. Of course, any and all of these skills could be learned. But I'll bet you've got at least two of these 6 skills already tucked into your own person blogging arsenal - you just didn't realize how valuable they are.

Skill #1: Story Telling

Humans are wired to pay attention stories, which is why the best bloggers tap into their natural ability to tell a great tale. Whether you're telling the story of how you failed before you found success, what you did when confronted with an obstacle, how you faced a fear or simply what you did this morning, telling stories is a great way to connect with and entertain your audience.

Skill #2: Teaching

Why do you see so many blog posts that begin with, "How to‚Ä¶?" It's because people are looking for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. If you can explain how to do something, then you can teach. And in teaching, you can make a real difference in the lives of your readers, too.

Skill #3: Persuasion

Do you have a point of view that you would like to get across? For that matter, do you enjoy being somewhat controversial? Posts that take a definite stand, especially on a hot topic, tend to get shared on social media a LOT. And if you're skilled in persuasion, you might even be able to change minds and bring people around to your way of thinking.

Skill #4: Curation

Assembling and organizing information is a skill you almost certainly have already. Huffington Post started out as a curation site, and even today they still pull media from different sources while also creating their own original content.

Skill #5: Self-Expression

You have dreams, goals and desires. You also have fears, challenges and doubts. By describing the world inside your mind, you're giving others the gift of knowing they're not the only one who feels or thinks the way they do. And you can help them to overcome their challenges by showing them how you're able to conquer yours, too.

Skill #6: Reporting

This is accessible to almost anyone. Even if, at this moment, you know very little about your chosen topic, you can still act as a reporter for your readers. Find out how things are done, who are the experts and what they know, and report back on your blog. A great example of this is brand new make money online people, who write about their journey as they progress. They report on what works and what doesn't, as well as what others are successfully doing to make money online.

The Blog Itself

There's really no need to overcomplicate your blog. Here are a few tips for getting your blog up and running quickly and easily:

WordPress. You can use WordPress to build your blog as a stand-alone site or integrate into your current website. Pay for a quality premium theme - it's worth the extra money. Pick something professional looking and easy to use.

Track. Use tracking analytics to know where your traffic is coming from and which posts are resonating with readers.

Publish fast. Don't spend weeks on one blogpost. Instead, create a diverse publishing calendar, determine which posts are a hit with readers, and let these popular themes dominate your blog. Publish often and fast to get plenty of feedback that helps guide your next blog topic selections.

Variety. Test a variety of posts to understand which topics and formats resonate with your readers.

Track traffic. Know where your traffic is coming from. At first, it might only come from your website and email list. But after 30 to 60 days, you might see traffic from search engines. Pay attention to how many times your posts are shared via social media, too.

Hot phrases. Pay close attention to which search phrases contribute the most traffic, track these search phrases to specific posts, and study which parts of the post-trigger the search engine rankings. Then quickly follow up on any success by writing posts that target these well-performing keywords.

Pop-ups. Use a pop-up to gather subscribers. Offer something awesome in return for their email address. Your free gift should ideally be something your ideal reader would PAY to get because that's how valuable it is to them. For example, a report or video that solves their biggest problem or gives them the benefit they most want would be ideal.

Types of Blog Posts

News. Odds are you're not going to be breaking news, but you can do something called newsjacking. Newsjacking is simply mixing your own opinions into an existing news story. You start by finding a current event that is either relevant to your business, or one that can serve as a segue into a point you want to make.

Instructional. This is perhaps the most common type of post. It teaches the reader how to do something, either step-by-step or in general. These are great for SEO because they contain the sort of language that matches search queries. For example, "How to make lasagna."

Your own interest. When you find something that you find interesting, tie it to your main theme and write about it.

Summary. When you read an article or watch a video that is particularly interesting, write a summary of it in relation to your main topic with proper attribution.

Round up. Write a fascinating question that your readers will appreciate, such as, "What one thing can you do to greatly improve your memory?" or "Starting from scratch with no connections, how can you make $10,000 in 30 days?" Then contact leaders in your niche and ask them to answer that question. Put all the answers together in one post, along with a link to each expert's website.

Tools. Whatever your niche, what are the tools or resources that will help your readers accomplish their goal? (HINT: It's okay to use affiliate links here as long as you reveal you might be earning commissions if they purchase.)

Spotlight. Write a post about somebody in your industry, or even on one of your customers. Engage readers emotionally with this person's story. Bonus points if it's a recognizable name.

Attracting Readers

To attract readers to your blog and convert them into subscribers and customers, here are a few tips:

Give away your best content. It sounds counter-intuitive but giving away the best information possible can induce people to subscribe and purchase.

Advertise. Add your blog to your current marketing efforts, including adding a link from your main website, letting your email list and social media know about new posts and so forth.

Guest post. Writing guest posts for other blogs with a link back to your own blog can send anything from a trickle to a ton of traffic.

Use simple SEO. Get a simple course on basic SEO to learn how to do this or hire someone to show you. It's not as difficult as you might imagine doing things like optimizing blog titles, optimizing content, targeting certain keywords and so forth.

Host-Guest Bloggers. Open the door to other bloggers. This lightens your workload while providing new voices and perspectives. And it brings in new traffic, as the guest posters promote their posts to their audiences on social media.

Making Your Blog Pay

Turn your readers into customers by:

Building an email list. Offer something enticing and free for your blog readers. All they have to do is give you their email address, and they get the free item, whether it's a video series, report, book, e-course and so forth. Nurture your list and promote products on a regular basis.

Accept advertising. You can sell advertising on your blog with pay-per-click or CPM (Cost per thousand impressions.) Google Adsense is the popular pay-per-click method, and ad networks use the CPM method. You could also sell advertising on your own, without using a network. You'll make more money, but there is more work involved, too. Most bloggers prefer not to place any advertising on their blogs, except for their own ads.

Sell affiliate products. You can join an affiliate network and place your affiliate links on your site. This can work well if the links are in context with teaching something. For example, a blog post on how to set up a website could easily include a link to a premium WordPress theme, to a web host, and to an autoresponder company.

Sell your own products. This is perhaps the very best way to monetize your blog. Sell your own products and services and keep all of the profits for yourself. You won't need huge amounts of traffic as you would if you were selling advertising. All you need is a core group of enthusiast fans who know, like and trust you.

"Wait! This is starting to sound like a lot of work. Tell me again why I should be blogging??"

Because blogging allows you to:

Attract an audience

Establish authority in your niche

Build rapport and engagement with your audience

Create opportunities, both personally and professionally

Organize your thoughts and learn more about your niche

Tell your own story the way you want it told

Meet new people and build your professional network

Stand apart from the crowd

Refine your writing skills

Share your knowledge

Validate your expertise

Build your email list

Make money

Taking Action

Even if you're feeling intimidated at the prospect of blogging, don't let that be your excuse not to get started.

You can always create a throwaway blog. Simply use a free blogging platform, write a new blog post every day for 30 days, and then start over with your real blog.

The experience you'll gain with the free blog will be priceless. Plus, since it's anonymous, you are free to make mistakes without worry. I guarantee, after 30 blog posts in 30 days, you will be ready to start blogging for real.

If you are looking for an easy way to monetize your site you should check out this free video training below from my friend and mentor Dean Holland. We usually charge over 200$ for this training, but as a valued reader of my blog, you can have instant access for FREE. It's packed with all the information you need to start monetising your blog. You'll also be signed up to my list and will start receiving daily tips and training from yours truly.

Let me know in the comment what you think of "The Complete Blogging Manual" and drop your website link so that I check it out. I feel very proud of this article and hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 😊

To your success

Fred

PS: For more digital marketing and motivation content follow the links below

https://www.facebook.com/entrepreneurmindset.biz/

#Blogging #Bloggers #DigitalMarketing #Blog

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reviewsolved-blog · 5 years

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10 Lesser Known Facts About SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of driving targeted traffic to your business website. In other words, It helps you to put your website in front of your customers when they Google the products and services you offer. By now, you might have pretty good knowledge of SEO and how it helps you in improving your sales. However, there are some lesser known facts of SEO that you should be knowing. Therefore, in this blog post, we are going to list ten lesser-known facts about search engine optimization.

1. Not all search engines consider links as a ranking signal

Yes, that is absolutely true. Google is the most popular search engine in the world. We all know that it uses backlinks as a ranking factor. However, it does not mean the other search engines also do the same. Let us give an example.

Russia is the world’s largest country. And in Russia, Yandex is the most popular search engine. This search engine does not take links as the ranking factor. In simple words, you can rank your website on Google’s first page without link building. The main reasons behind Yandex not considering links as ranking signals are spamming and black hat SEO. SEO experts believe Google is also heading in the same direction. That is in future you may not see link building is SEO.

2. Rich snippets do not influence your search engine ranking directly

Rich snippets are nothing but structured markup data added to the website by the webmasters so that search engines like Google understand the content on the website better. Many SEO agencies say they add rich snippets. Hence, most of the business owners come to the conclusion that rich snippets are the search engine ranking factor.

Rich snippets do not influence your search engine ranking directly. However, there are other SEO benefits of using rich snippets. That is they can index your pages faster. The other advantage is that it attracts potential customers and improve click-through rate.

3. Customer’s travel time is important

So what is a customer’s travel time? It is the physical time taken by a customer to travel from one place to another. Customer’s travel time is important, in fact, it is a very important ranking factor in SEO.

The websites that have poor on-page and off-page SEO strategies can rank better if they are near to the customer’s location. However, this should not be the only thing to focus on. Invest your time and money on digital marketing methods such as SMM, SEO, PPC, Email marketing, etc. So, if you own a local business, this lesser know fact about SEO can be useful to you.

4. Duplicate content won’t get you penalized

You might have seen on the SEO blogs or heard from your friends that Google penalizes for using duplicate content. Well, this is not true. This is one of the biggest myth in the SEO industry that people still believe.

So, will the duplicate content hurt your site? Well, it depends. Google sees duplicate content different from copied content. Duplicate content will not get you penalized, but copied content will. If Google finds your content is not unique, then it is not a penalty. Of course, Google expects you to create fresh content.

If you find a website duplicating your content, you can fill in a request form to remove the content under the digital millennium copyright act. Just in case, if you are using duplicate content, use canonical tags to tell search engine where the first official version appeared on the internet.

5. 75% of the people never scroll past the first page

SEO companies promise to rank your website on Google’s first page for a reason. Ranking on the first page is the most important goal in SEO. That is because 75% of the people never go to the second page of a search engine. If your website is placed in the second page, you need to contact an SEO agency today.

This information comes handy if you are suffering from a bad reputation. That is when your business name is search, your customers get to see bad things. In such cases, reverse SEO is done, and the bad links are buried in the second, third or fourth page of the search engine results page, where almost no one visits.

6. Among the top 10 popular sites, there are only two content oriented sites

Let us have a look at the world’s most popular sites. Here we go, Google, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, Amazon, Wikipedia, Twitter, Bing, eBay, and MSN. You might have already expected these sites to top.

If you watch closely, only two websites among these ten are content oriented websites. They are Youtube and Wikipedia. So, what you can understand from this? The other websites are content gates, where the direct content is not provided. So what makes the other eight websites to top the list. These websites allow visitors to do something, not only to consume content. Hence, it can be said that the use of the website matters the most.

7. Google can detect objects in the image

Not many know that Google can actually identify an object in the image. There is more surprise to it. Did you know? Object recognition is a ranking signal that can affect the online presence of any website. So, when it comes to SEO, never ignore images. Do not just upload images, as you do in your Facebook account. Optimize them so that you gain SEO benefits.

8. A video on your homepage can make a big difference

Youtube is now the world’s second largest search engine. How this became possible? Everyone likes videos and they prefer it over other forms of content. Even social media experts say one should focus more on videos because they by nature gain the attention of the viewers. According to a recent study, videos have a 41% higher CTR than text.

Social media marketers believe that platform we choose to upload our videos impact the ability to rank. So, as a business owner what platform you should prefer? Yes, you guessed it right? Youtube is the most loved video sharing platform. And it dominates Google’s search engine results page. However, there are other platforms that have some influence as well, for instance, Dailymotion, Metacafe, and Google video.

9. Google has indexed only 0.04% of the data

Yes, this is pretty much shocking. Google has estimated that the internet contains roughly 5 million terabytes of data. Out of which the search engines giant has indexed less than 0.1% of data.

So what we should learn from this? There is a lot of data on the internet. You can rank your website only if your web pages are indexed. If your web pages are not indexed, you can never rank them. So make sure your website is indexed regularly.

10. Search and email are the top two internet activities

We all know that the search is the top internet activity. However, we overlook the email part of it. Digital marketing experts usually say email is the most effective path to reach your target audience. Email is so good that social media, PPC or any other digital marketing method doesn’t even come close in terms of results.

Hence, one should not solely focus on search engine optimization and ignore email marketing. Email marketing is the best method to improve brand awareness, brand loyalty, online reputation, lead generation, conversions, and sales.

#seo #facts #reviewsolved #onlinereputation #removebadreview #removefakereview #removegooglemybusinessreview #deletefakereviews #deletegooglemybusinessreviews

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delesdiary · 5 years

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New Post has been published on http://delesdiary.com/2019/03/top-18-significant-instagram-benefits-to-businesses/

TOP 18 SIGNIFICANT INSTAGRAM BENEFITS TO BUSINESSES

Instagram is so huge because it is a platform for building a social network that connects people solely through visual elements, so it is a powerful way to capture and sustain attentions.

You might only be ignoring millions of potential customers by not joining this powerful social media platform. Take the tips you learned here and use them to start building your Instagram presence.

Your bottom line will be glad that you did.

1. It Helps To Connect and Effectively Engage With Customers

While most people think about sites like Facebook and Twitter when it comes to connecting with fans and engaging with customers online — you may be surprised to hear that Instagram has one of the most active and engaged user base.

Instagram is the perfect platform to connect with customers, listen to their feedback, and build relationships through the conversations you are able to initiate. You can share a photo of a new product and ask people what they think, or give them a sneak peek of a new project and see if they have any input.

What is better than having customers know you exist? How about the opportunity to engage with them on a daily basis? The fact is that people like to make their opinions known, especially if they like something, and Instagram is a platform for users to like, comment on and share their favorite posts. The more likes and comments you get, the more visible your company becomes. You can get more likes by taking high-quality photos, using local hashtags and partnering with other brands.

2. It Helps To Update People On Your Latest Offers and Promotions.

You can timely share photo updates about your business by sharing the latest activities or events that are happening in your business, such as: sales, product promotions and new collections. You can boost your sales with the use of popular hashtags like #sale #business #product. The use of hashtags will make it easier to find your campaign by users on Instagram.

3. It Helps To Generate Sales

Visual platforms like Instagram are doing more than just generating engagement, they are also driving sales. Creating professional-looking images to promote your products and highlight your services has never been easier or more affordable with the use of Instagram.

Be careful not to fill your feed with product photos with the same caption asking people to “buy now” or “shop online.” Instead, look for creative ways to display your products and let your images speak for themselves.

4. Instagram Offers Ads.

Similar to Facebook, business accounts on Instagram have the option of paying to promote their content. This practice is very beneficial, especially considering the statistics that demonstrate how receptive Instagram’s audience is to these types of advertisements.

Another benefit to advertising on Instagram is that the ads are capable of being highly targeted based on a user’s location, age, gender or interests. Businesses can also include links in their promoted posts, enabling users to click to learn more about them. Businesses are also able to feature ads in their stories.

5. It Helps To Reach New Audiences

Instagram makes it easy to discover new photos, new people, and new businesses. One of the ways that people discover new content on Instagram is through hashtags. Similar to other social platforms, when someone includes a hashtag in a post on Instagram, a link is created and you can view all of the photos that have been shared using that hashtag.

You can also use hashtags to pro-actively find potential customers.

Delesdiary

6. Instagram Syncs With Facebook.

In 2012, Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion. This purchase came with multiple benefits for businesses seeking to juggle these two platforms. The concept of Instagram and Facebook ads is very similar in nature because these mediums are under the same ownership; businesses are now able to run the same advertisement on Facebook and Instagram at the same time, adding seamless, easily-attainable integration. This means that any time a business runs an ad on either of these platforms, they can automatically double their reach!

In addition to hashtags, Instagram also has a Discover tab, dedicated to helping users find photos and connect with users that are relevant to them.

7. Instagram Provides Useful Analytics.

Measuring success on Instagram is quite simple. Of course, businesses can monitor their follower count and overall engagements activities, like views and clicks. But taking it a step further, built-in analytic reports help businesses easily interpret the results of their Instagram advertising campaigns. Useful analytics like these help businesses quickly identify which types of Instagram posts work best, setting them up for sustained success.

8. Instagram Provides High Visibility of Posts

One of the reasons Instagram posts receive such high levels of engagement is that posts are highly visible. There’s no Edgerank or other algorithm that selectively showcases your posts. Every single one of your posts will appear in the feeds of every single one of your followers!

Strategic use of hashtags can also significantly boost the exposure of your posts to new users who will like and comment on your posts and who may even follow you as a result.

Your posts also live on forever. They don’t disappear or get archived like old tweets. And they don’t get buried so far down your stream, like Facebook, that they get lost. A quick scroll through your profile showcases every single post you have ever shared. This is a great way for new followers to connect with your brand!

9. It Helps To Connect With a Targeted Audience

With 1 billion users and growing, your customers are on their Instagram. There may be a smaller number of your customers and it may take a while to grow your community to significant levels. But take advantage of the smaller community now to cultivate real brand advocates and loyal customers. Instagram users are passionate and active – they want to interact with you and get to know you.

10. It Helps To Drive Traffic to your Site

One of the most important things we all want is more traffic to our websites. And, yes, you can drive traffic from Instagram! Make sure you post a link to your site in your bio – this is the only place you can put an active hyperlink on Instagram. Mentioning your website or using calls to action (CTA’s) in your post comments are great ways to generate traffic to your site and to take advantage of one of the advantages of using Instagram for business. It is also recommended that you use a specific landing page from your website as the link in your bio in order to capitalize on visitors coming from Instagram.

11. Instagram’s User Base Allows You To Tap Into An Otherwise Unreached Customer Base

If your business is not present on Instagram, can you be sure that you’re reaching the over 500 million Instagram users that are active at least once a day?

Over 200 million Instagrammers actively visit the profile of a business every day, but your company will not be one of them if you don’t have an Instagram account!

Think of Instagram as a hand or extension of your company. The more present you are on Instagram, the more present you will be to your potential customers on Instagram.

12. It Strengthens Your Relationship With Your Followers And Potential Customers

Another one of the benefits of Instagram being an organic platform is that you can see a lot of engagement on your posts without having to pay for it.

Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.

Additionally, Instagram users “like” 4.2 billion posts per day.

With these kind of engagement rates, you can count on your ever-growing follower base to interact with your posts more and more, for free!

Whether they are liking the post or commenting on it, they are making the decision to interact with your post which shows interest in your brand.

Specifically within Instagram, once you like a post, it gets archived under your profile settings under “Posts You’ve Liked.” This means that Instagram users who like your company’s posts are simultaneously saving your posts to their bank of liked images that they can reference whenever they choose!

Businesses can capitalize on this opportunity to stimulate conversation and comment back directly with their followers. On Instagram, you can use the @ sign to tag users and reply directly back to someone who either liked the image or commented on the post.

The more transparent and responsive a brand is with their followers on Instagram, the more trust is built between that brand and its potential customers. The more trust a consumer has with a brand, the more likely they are to purchase from them over competitors.

13. It helps to Constantly Fuel Your Other Marketing Channels

One of the great things about the content you create in Instagram is that it can easily be shared across all of your different marketing channels.

All of the website traffic you send from Instagram can be retargeted on other platforms as well such as Facebook, Google etc. You can even use your Instagram posts to promote other marketing efforts you have going on and vice versa!

Within your Instagram Settings, you can enable social sharing to Facebook and Twitter, so that your photos will share automatically when you post them to Instagram. Even if you don’t want to share your photos on different networks right away, you can save your photo to your phone’s Camera Roll and easily access them when you’re ready to post.

14. Instagram Stories Makes Your Business Relatable.

Instagram is a great way to show potential customers that you are more than just a faceless corporation. This can be done through many of the app’s features, but you can really make an impression with live posts and stories.

The best way to use live stories is to show behind-the-scenes insights into your company and the people who work there. Some examples are videos that show how products are made, videos of office employees interacting with each other, and live Q&A sessions between you and your audience.

Instagram live posts are also an excellent way to build rapport, trust and credibility with followers, as well as showing that there’s a human side to your business. If consumers see you as more than an entity looking to take their money, then they may be more trusting of your brand.

15. It Allows You To Partner With Influencers.

When it comes to social media, you have your regular viewers, and then you have influencers. For those not in the know, influencers are online celebrities who will often promote a brand or product and take it into the mainstream.

A dependable influencer can bring your company’s sales to a whole other level through increased return on investment and access to demographics that you wouldn’t normally reach. If you use a well-known influencer, then they can spread word of your company or product to millions of followers with just a few posts.

16. The Use Of Hashtags Can Help Increase Your Visibility.

As a new business on the block, you may be intimidated by the competition, but with the proper use of hashtags, you can separate your company from the herd.

Hashtags are essentially keywords that summarize what your post is saying. Popular Instagram hashtags such as Coca-Cola’s #ShareaCoke, Charmin’s #TweetFromTheSeat and Calvin Klein’s #MyCalvins have rocked the industry, becoming pop culture cornerstones that have made these popular companies even more recognizable and beloved.

You may not be Coke or Charmin, but effective use of hashtags can do wonders to separate your business from the crowd.

17. It Helps You To Keep An Eye On Competitors.

Your company can use Instagram to keep an eye on your competitors and see how they interact with their followers. Watch carefully to find out how often they post, what they are posting and how they engage with their followers. You can use the information you gather to better define your own personal strategy.

18. It Offers Many Ways To Get Creative.

A great benefit of the photo-sharing app is the creativity it provides. On Instagram, your marketing team can go wild coming up with new ways to draw attention and add followers and new customers. Show the public that your brand has personality and that it is cool to shop with you by mixing it up with contents, shoutouts, vivid images, interactive videos and more.

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sempiternalsandpitturtle · 4 years

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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cornerstone Content

Is all content created equal? Should one piece of collateral be prioritised over another?

Your knee-jerk response might be to say, “Of course, I love all of my content!” or “You monster, don’t make me choose!”

As digital marketers and content producers, we may feel a certain, almost parental, attachment to our material. How do you decide which you prefer over others?

But despite what our parents tell us, everyone has a favorite. Lisa over Bart Simpson. Marcia over Jan Brady. Randy over Mark Taylor. Ivanka over Eric Trump. Sean over Julian Lennon. I could go on.

Digital content is no different. Some assets inherently provide more value – or, at least have the potential to provide more value – than others. They’re more important and more visible to site visitors and sales leads. They encapsulate everything you want to convey about your brand and what you can do for your customers.

If you haven’t already guessed, we’re talking about cornerstone content, and if you don’t nail this stuff, you could be missing out on the chance to rank for your most relevant and competitive search terms and establish a solid foundation to build out the rest of your content ecosystem.

What is cornerstone content?

As the name implies, cornerstone content pieces are the foundational assets that clearly establish who you are, what your brand messaging is and what value you offer to customers. If you were to distill your entire business into a handful of overarching talking points and value props, then you have the basis for your cornerstone content.

So, we’re talking homepages and other landing pages here, right? Not necessarily.

In theory, cornerstone content can be just about anything: blog posts, videos, infographics or, yes, homepages. It’s not the type of content that distinguishes cornerstone content, it’s the message. That being said, as we’ll soon see, given some of the parameters of cornerstone content, written material is best-suited for these means.

Cornerstone content needs to be informative, yet engaging. It answers common questions someone might have about your business and also showcases how your products or services solve some of the most pressing problems facing your clientele.

So, product pages, then? Not quite, or at least, it doesn’t have to be.

Cornerstone content may cover topics that are related to your business practice but not necessarily specific or unique to your services. For instance, if your creative marketing team created the robotic process automation article to end all robotic process automation articles, that could very well be considered cornerstone content even if it never once mentions your brand.

It’s informative, it’s engaging, it establishes your business’ high level of expertise in this field and, since it provides a rich, detailed explanation of an emerging technology that gets a lot of search traffic, it’s all but guaranteed to be a highly sought after piece of content for years to come.

You’re going to be linking back to that bad boy just about any time RPA comes up in your blogs or on social media. It’s a digital marketing golden goose. Who cares if it’s not explicitly tied to your products or services?

Too brand or not too brand

For many businesses, though, cornerstone content will be brand-specific, detailing in no uncertain terms what they can offer their clients. This material provides basic, essential information that any potential customer would need to know about your brand, which you can then build upon with additional resources and content – hence, “cornerstone”. It can operate as a hub of sorts, with a solid foundation to connect related content that may not be quite as exhaustive in scope, but still extremely important and informative.

With that in mind, pages and material higher up in your site hierarchy lend themselves better to cornerstone content. Something can’t really be considered a pillar of your brand messaging and overall digital content strategy if it’s buried deep on your site, now can it?

In that particular case stated above, you’re dealing with content that naturally lends itself to “cornerstone” status because it’s bound to get a high level of search traffic. In most instances, though, creating cornerstone content will involve taking webpages, articles, videos, infographics – whatever material you feel best reflects your brand and mission statement – and optimising them for search. It’s about giving that content the best chance to be found online because that’s the material that communicates your brand’s value in the clearest terms possible. Once a potential customer finds that content, they’ll understand what you’re all about.

Why is cornerstone content important for SEO?

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that cornerstone content is a crucial piece of today’s digital marketing puzzle. We’re always talking about the importance of high-quality, informative content and how heavily weighted subject matter expertise and depth is in Google’s algorithms. Surface-level material won’t cut it, and the more your work digs into a particular topic without venturing into the bone-dry world of academic writing, the better your webpage will rank.

In that sense, anything that could truly be considered “cornerstone” should perform extremely well with Google and continue to pop up (hopefully) on the first page of search results for associated search terms.

Fielding your content dream team

There’s an equally – if not more – important reason to consider the SEO impact of your cornerstone content. This material is the very best your website has to offer. It’s Michael Jordan, Lebron James and Hakeem Olajuwon all rolled up into one. It perfectly explains your brand values, service offerings and mission statement. It tells your customers and potential customers everything they could ever want to know about your business. But none of that will matter if no one can find it.

Optimising your cornerstone content is essential so it doesn’t get lost in the depths of the internet. Otherwise, all of that fancy writing and painstakingly crafted messaging will be worth next to nothing.

When properly executed, cornerstone content hits on all the major criteria that Google considers when ranking content. Is it well-written? You bet. Is it informative? Oh yeah. Does it demonstrate authority and a depth of knowledge around a specific topic and related search terms? Abso-bleedin-lutely.

Cornerstone content in action

Having said all of that, what does a real-life example of cornerstone content look like? Over at Yoast (who seem to have made cornerstone content development a pet project of theirs, btw), their crowning achievement in cornerstone content is an exhaustive guide on SEO copywriting. When I say exhaustive, I mean exhaustive. Get a load of this thing. If and when you finish reading this bad boy, you’ll feel like an expert on the subject yourself.

But is it the sheer length of the article that raises it up to the rarified air of “cornerstone” status? There’s a bit more going on here. If I had to go out on a limb, I’d say the keyword they’re targeting here is “SEO copywriting”. Just a hunch.

Based on that one phrase, you can pull a ton of related questions that site visitors might be asking themselves:

What, exactly, is SEO copywriting?

What’s the best way to approach SEO copywriting?

Where do search keywords come into play?

Yoast’s article is essentially a very long and very complete answer to all the potential questions related to “SEO copywriting”. You would be hard-pressed to find a more fully composed breakdown of the topic.

That example provides a pretty reliable framework to follow when creating cornerstone content of your own:

Step 1: Find a target keyword

Step 2: Identify all common questions related to that term.

Step 3: Answer those questions as fully as possible.

Don’t sleep on your linking strategy

Really great cornerstone content – we’re talking earth-shattering stuff here – will find an audience with other members of your industry. They may even begin linking back to it on their own sites because you’ve covered a particular subject so well that they cite you as an expert source.

Cultivating inbound links from respected sources is great for your organic ranking and helps your site build its Domain Authority. This is a huge coup for your site ranking, so take the time to create content that’s so well-researched and comprehensive that your peers take notice.

The more informative and valuable your content is, the higher quality your backlinks will be. Build up those credible links and you’ll be sitting pretty as far as search ranking goes. Any way you slice it, good cornerstone content builds strong Domain Authority.

Then there are internal links to consider. Cornerstone content pieces are natural candidates for backlinks since they provide comprehensive coverage on specific topics. Any time that subject comes up in a blog, you can link back to your cornerstone content.

We’ve talked about how important linking – both internal and external – is to search ranking before, and cornerstone content sets you up to capitalise on both fronts. So, yeah, we’d say cornerstone content is pretty damn essential when it comes to site performance.

Why do search engines like cornerstone content?

Google’s algorithms are by no means perfect (not yet, at least. But we have faith that our search engine overlords will get there one day).

From time to time, they need help sorting the seemingly limitless webpages tackling the same topic and determining which ones are the most important and relevant to users.

Cornerstone content can help cut through all of that noise – even noise created by your own blogs and articles – and showcase material that meets all of the most important criteria for high-ranking webpages. By focusing on a half dozen or so core articles and ironing them out to perfection, you’re essentially telling Google: “this is the best, most informative content related to these search terms.” It’s a win-win for both you and Google. Everyone’s happy.

How do you create cornerstone content?

I think we’ve pretty well established that cornerstone content is a crucial part of any successful digital marketing strategy (one might even say it’s a cornerstone of content marketing best practices).

So, how do you actually go about creating the kind of high-quality content worthy of that moniker?

The ingredients of good cornerstone content don’t differ all that much from any other pages or assets hosted on your site. Let’s start with the obvious: It needs to be good. Not just good. Damn good. Both in terms of quality and depth.

You probably noticed we never listed whitepapers as a potential type of cornerstone content. Why? Setting aside that whitepapers tend to be gated and thus not ideal for these purposes, they also tend to veer a little much into dry writing territory. Are there engaging whitepapers out there? Of course. But the medium doesn’t lend itself well to this particular type of content.

If you’re planning to create some cornerstone content from scratch, you better channel your inner Faulkner, because that prose needs to sing, baby. It doesn’t matter how technical your topic is, the writing needs to draw in readers. If anything, it’s even more important to have engaging, accessible prose when dealing with subjects that may be daunting to the layperson.

When finished, your content should cover so much ground that it’s the de facto bible for that particular topic. You want your content to be tailor-made to be linked back to from a wide variety of sources. Whenever that subject comes up, your page should be relevant, no matter what angle it takes on the topic or how authorative the source is.

How can content marketing software help?

If you need help identifying what ground your content needs to cover, consider employing a tool like MarketMuse to review what you’ve written and provide feedback and suggestions on how to optimise it for searchability. We all have blind spots, even with topics we think we know like the back of our hands. MarketMuse helps bring those missed opportunities to light.

MarketMuse also helps answer the question of how long, exactly, your cornerstone content needs to be. Saying that content needs to be exhaustively informative is one thing, but how does that translate into raw word count? MarketMuse offers suggestions on content length, so you can target a very specific number of words.

That being said, don’t worry about hitting that number exactly. Treat it more as a guide, just as long as you cover each topic area and answer all related questions.

Yoast SEO is another content marketing tool that is pretty useful for creating cornerstone content. In fact, users can actually tag a specific webpage or article they’re working on as cornerstone content, and the platform will analyse the prose, format, media, subject matter and other criteria with a more diligent eye. Like MarketMuse, Yoast SEO offers a wealth of valuable feedback on your content so you can fine tune each piece to maximise its search ranking.

Of course, content marketing software can only do so much. You’ll have to get hands-on with your cornerstone content to add the kind of depth, authority and relevance that Google’s algorithms are looking for. A few crucial points to keep in mind there:

It should have a wealth of research to back it up. Creating great content with a long shelf life takes time, so don’t try to rush it.

Aim for evergreen content that can stand the test of time and continues to be relevant for years to come. Painstakingly research your content to comprehensively answer the most common questions your audience may have. Do whatever it takes to build that authority and credibility – interview internal subject matter experts, do your own independent research, etc. – even if it means delaying publication a little bit.

Remember that cornerstone content is not a static webpage. It must be revised and updated to keep up with industry trends, best practices, common customer questions and technological advancements.

The ultimate goal of cornerstone content is to have valuable, informative pieces that rank in SERPs, so naturally, in-depth keyword research is a prerequisite for success. Creating solid cornerstone content takes a lot of hard work, and you want to be sure that it pays off by ranking for terms that people are actually searching for.

Like any other optimised material, cornerstone content should be as media-rich as possible, without becoming distracting or too busy. Including custom images, infographic, videos, embedded tweets and other media formats in the body of your article – again, with a restrained hand – helps craft a more compelling piece of content that’s more likely to be shared and linked to on other sites.

Cornerstone content takes a lot of time and effort to get right, and there really isn’t a way to speed up the production process without sacrificing the quality and depth of knowledge that this material requires. This isn’t assembly-line content that can roll on to your site ready to grab a few eyeballs and quick wins. It’s in it for the long haul, establishing your brand’s credibility and expertise, building your site’s Domain Authority with quality links and establishing a launching pad for other website content.

Is that worth the extra effort? You bet it is. Well-crafted cornerstone content puts you in a better position to rank for even highly competitive search terms. So, roll up your sleeves, queue up the “Rudy” soundtrack and get to it.

from http://bit.ly/39bfcDb

#content marketing

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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I sit in my living room, contemplating the slim, smooth aquamarine tube. Its color is a few shades removed from Tiffany blue, and it’s an inch or so longer than a cigarette. I do not smoke anything ever, but in order to psyche myself up for the full experience of the thing, I try to channel that famous picture of Audrey Hepburn on the Breakfast at Tiffany’s movie poster, a long, slim cigarette holder hanging out of her mouth.

This isn’t a cigarette, though. It’s a Breathe “citrus flavored vitamin B12 mist” — a.k.a. a vitamin vape. It costs $45 for three pens. And disposable vaporizer pens like this one, containing substances like vitamins and essential oils instead of nicotine “e-juice,” are increasingly being marketed to wellness-minded consumers.

After one drag on the vaguely sweet-tasting vape, I promptly start coughing, spewing out a fruity puff of vapor. It doesn’t really feel like wellness. It feels like a violation of my alveoli.

Vapes, or e-cigarettes, are all over the news right now, especially Juul, the brand that’s trendy among teens because of its sleek profile and fruity flavors. They’re so popular and so controversial that the Food and Drug Administration is now actively targeting manufacturers that push nicotine vapes; it may even move to ban some. There is growing concern in the medical and public health communities about the immediate harmful effects on young people’s developing brains and bodies and the unknown longer-term effects.

But there is another market popping up whose purveyors suggest vaping things that are not nicotine can be healthy. It’s a jarring visual to see what looks like smoke coming out of someone’s mouth in a wellness ad, except brands like Breathe and its sister brands VitaminVape, VitaStik, BioVape, NutroVape, and Monq are doing just that.

And like so many concepts that catch on in wellness circles, companies that sell these products take something with a veneer of scientific backing or credibility, couch it in language that sounds healthy, and then sell it to you via a marketplace with very little regulation or oversight. It’s not surprising that vape technology, which is so trendy right now, is the newest frontier for selling so-called wellness. But this technology is so new that it’s not clear if these vapes are helpful or harmful.

The Breathe vape is a good case study in how the wellness industry uses an inkling of evidence to package a product as healthy. The company’s founder, George Michalopoulos, is not a physician, but during a phone call, he said he worked in social media. He developed a B12 vape in 2013 for his personal use, he says, because he was a vegan at the time. (Many vegans need to take vitamin B12 supplements so they don’t become deficient.)

He says he was interested in it because he “enjoys the process of vaping.” He points to a few studies done in the 1950s and ’60s that showed promise for the use of inhaled vitamin B12 for people with deficiencies, which are linked prominently on Breathe’s site.

Michalopoulos says people have told him anecdotally that their vitamin B12 levels increased after using it and have shared “copies of their blood test results” with him. He also said he is paying an outside lab to perform a clinical study, sometimes done by supplement and skin care companies, mainly for marketing purposes so that they can quote data and make more specific claims. “I’d rather people understand that this is still a young science,” he says.

What he did not say in our phone call, but which I confirmed later, is that he also owns VitaminVape, which charges $39 for three pens. He founded it a few years before Breathe, which he launched at the end of 2017 to appeal to “vegans and B12 enthusiasts.” The website language, design, and testimonials are all the same as what’s on the Breathe website. The difference is that VitaminVape uses a synthetic form of vitamin B12 and Breathe uses a naturally-derived form. A representative said “serious vegans and wellness consumers” prefer the latter.

VitaminVape has been mentioned in several negative stories in the press exploring the legitimacy of these types of vapes, mainly pointing out that they are scientifically unproven and have potentially unknown risks.

Michalopoulos is savvy about the claims that he makes for Breathe. The site states, “Each diffuser contains 100s of breaths of natural energy with no caffeine, no sugar crash, no calories and no nicotine.” It’s considered a supplement, and as such, the company cannot make any specific claims about what it supposedly can do. There is nothing about veganism on the site. The FDA can issue a warning to supplement companies that make claims that seem drug-like. Michalopoulos says he tells people to check with their doctors first, but that recommendation is buried in an FAQ section on the site.

Breathe sells only one type of vape, which it claims delivers vitamin B12. According to the company, five to 10 breaths equals “approximately 333 mcg of B12 (>8,000% Daily Value).” Vitamin B12 is a substance humans do not produce themselves yet need for a variety of important bodily functions like forming red blood cells, promoting neurological functioning, and synthesizing DNA. It’s present in foods like meat, milk, fish, and eggs, which is why vegans are often deficient.

There’s also a rare disease called pernicious anemia whereby people can’t absorb vitamin B12 via their gastrointestinal tracts because they lack an important protein called intrinsic factor. Older adults and people with other gastrointestinal problems can also be susceptible to vitamin B12 deficiencies. They can get it via injections or nasal sprays or gels, according to Dr. Ron Crystal, the chair of the genetic medicine department and a practicing pulmonologist at Weill Cornell/New York Presbyterian. He’s also studied nicotine vapes and their propellants, which can include things like propylene glycol, flavorings of unknown origin, and glycerin.

What’s important to note, though, is that true deficiency is rare and you can’t self-diagnose it. Vitamin B12 deficiency can have vague side effects like fatigue, so doing proper lab testing through a doctor is crucial, according to Crystal. And taking too much vitamin B12 can have side effects such as rashes, acne, increasing blood pressure, facial flushing, and discolored urine. “It is a drug, essentially,” says Crystal.

“If you’re deficient, your doctor should prescribe what you should be doing. If you have normal levels, adding more doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t help,” he says. “The concept of just taking vitamin B12 to increase your energy and so on is a myth.”

But because some of the symptoms of deficiency are so vague, it’s a myth that has helped promote a long history of dubious vitamin B12 usage, popularized by celebrities. Who can forget the now-infamous episode of The Simple Life when Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie got vitamin B12 shots in their butts? (I, for one, cannot.) Madonna also gets them and supposedly once even administered one to Justin Timberlake. They’re commonly offered via injection or IV drip at wellness clinics; some services will even bring them to you.

There’s not a lot of evidence that you can absorb vitamins by inhaling them, though. There have been no studies more recent than the old ones cited by Breathe and others, except for a few on nasal sprays, which exist in prescription form. There certainly haven’t been any studies on B12 delivery via vape.

Normally when you take a vitamin (or eat food, for that matter) enzymes in your stomach and all along your colon break it down until its smaller chemical components can be absorbed into your bloodstream. Nasally, vitamin B12 can be absorbed across epithelial cells, which line the nasal cavities and airways. Epithelial cells act as a gateway for things to be absorbed or blocked. This is how medicines like asthma inhalers are able to penetrate into the lungs.

Crystal says if a person is deficient, “the concept that vitamin B12 can be absorbed through the lung epithelial cells is a rational concept.” But he says this with caveats: For one, the effects of delivering that aerosol via vape are totally unstudied. “You’re putting something inside your body and it’s unknown.”

With vaping, there’s also the matter of the propellant, as well as the other chemicals that help give the formula its flavor and convert it into an aerosol when you puff. Heating up the liquid ingredients could potentially affect how they act in the body and produce new chemicals. They “may cause some damage to the cells,” according to Crystal, though he says we just don’t know for sure yet how that would look long-term.

There haven’t been a ton of conclusive studies about vaping essential oils, flavorings, and propellants that can be in vaping fluids, but a preliminary study on cells suggest that some flavorings might cause cell damage. Breathe uses vegetable glycerin as its propellant, whose long-term effects when inhaled are not known. The bottom line is that no one really knows what kind of damage vapes, especially ones without nicotine, can do in either the short or long term.

The other potential problem is that because these products are considered supplements, they aren’t regulated by the FDA the same way drugs are. There’s not even a guarantee that the ingredients a company says are in a vape actually are there. Customers are expected to just trust that supplement companies are honest and that the ingredients are there in the amount they’re supposed to be. But studies, as in the one that was just released earlier this month that found 800 supplements were contaminated with prescription medications and other substances, prove that this is sometimes not the case.

Besides Breathe and VitaminVape, other brands on the market include VitaStik, which offers multiple combinations of essential oils and different vitamins, and Monq, which is just essential oils. Some brands call themselves a “mist” or “personal diffuser” or an “aromatherapy stick” and seem to want to avoid the word “vape.” Make no mistake, though: They are vapes.

The combination of an unproven mode of delivery plus a lack of regulation and transparency is something you’d be advised to stay away from. Even Dr. Oz, a person known to endorse all sorts of questionable practices, says to skip it. Need vitamin B12? Forget about Breakfast at Tiffany’s comparisons and … just eat breakfast.

Want more stories from The Goods by Vox? Sign up for our newsletter here.

Original Source -> These new vape companies want you to inhale … vitamins

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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zipgrowth · 6 years

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Britannica CEO Talks Google, Wikipedia and What Lil Pump Can Teach Us About Credibility

There was a time not long ago when people claimed to trust Google news results and Wikipedia articles more than the media outlets they linked to. In other words, up until pretty recently Googling was synonymous with a question answered. But that may be starting to change, at least according to one survey, as public trust in just about anything written continues to erode.

It’s almost enough to make you long for our analog past, when print texts like the Encyclopedia Britannica were the foremost authority on any subject they chose to converse upon. That’s certainly the sense you get in speaking with Karthik Krishnan, Britannica’s current CEO, who today doesn’t think much of search engines or their results—and especially of super competitor Wikipedia.

In a wide-ranging interview with EdSurge on trust and deception on the World Wide Web that sometimes strayed into bizarre territory (such as sussing out the internet’s definitive source on Miami rap artist Lil Pump), Krishnan spoke about convenience over quality, the problems with crowdsourcing and why we should once again consider paying for information. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

As always, what you choose to trust is up to you.

EdSurge: Before this interview, I did a little reading about Britannica on the encyclopedia. But it turned out I could only read the first 100 words of your own entry when I entered from Google. Is that gated information approach typical?

Krishnan: First off, I’m surprised our corporate information is gated. We have actually have almost 80 percent of our content available for free right now. It’s part of an evolution where the business models are changing. We at Britannica realize that it’s not enough to provide good information, but that good information needs to be easily available. And today most people discover that information using search engines. So if it’s not available or not searchable, then even though you have all this great value to offer to the world, that goes away.

Relevant content doesn’t mean that it’s right or reliable

And people trust our information. Because today with the internet what ends up happening is when you do a search on any of the major search engines, they provide you relevance. But relevant content doesn’t mean that it’s right or reliable. And you have multiple cases where a lot of bad information shows up on the front page of all these search engine result pages. We take pride in the fact that we provide verified and trusted information. Our goal is to help people cut through the clutter.

Does that mean you’re putting a focus on search engine optimization (SEO)?

SEO is definitely an area that we are focusing on. And we recently launched a product called Britannica Insights, which is an extension to the Chrome browser. The extension shows information on the top right of the search engines’ results page. And we only display information when we have something relevant to offer.

If you’re doing a search on, say, the French Revolution, we not only give you the fact box and all the dates, we also talk about the different types of participants. So we are able to provide not only an answer, but give people an opportunity to understand the whole concept at a very different perspective.

When you use the extension, users can click a link that takes you to Britannica’s webpage. Was part of a strategy to drive additional subscriptions to Britannica?

Any content that you click on and go onto the website is going to be available for free. So there is no compulsion for people to subscribe. We felt that to be true to our mission of elevating good information, we had to make a meaningful difference to the world. Right now there is no reason for people to subscribe. But longer term, I hope people will start gravitating toward a world where they feel that they’re willing to pay for reliable and relevant information. If that’s not the case, then the world is going to get more into clickbait. Most of the search engines are actually throwing clickbait out there, and people are trying to modify advertisements.

Who would you categorize as your ideal subscriber?

I would actually put the sweet spot around kids and parents and teachers. Because these are the people who are trying to provide great information. And most of our information is not newsy. It’s about the foundation of knowledge.

Students probably do understand one reliable source that comes up frequently on page one results: Wikipedia. Why would they would want to consider a subscription service in the age of the free encyclopedia?

People place a higher premium on convenience than they do the quality of information. That’s the world that we live in today.

As I said, most of our information is available for free on Britannica.com, even though the complete database is not available. The reason why you should consider paying is because with any kind of user-generated content, the answer could be right today and wrong tomorrow. Because there are competing factions that are going there and changing the information that’s out there. Do you really want to build your foundation of knowledge based on information that might not be true? And second, if you speak to most teachers they would say that Wikipedia is not a strong primary source of reference that should be cited.

What’s the solution for people who would never think to download an extension like this? Aren’t they most at-risk for falling for fake news?

I think one of the things that people value today is convenience. So why do people go to a search engine, or quickly ask Siri or Alexa? It’s convenient. People place a higher premium on convenience than they do the quality of information. That’s the world that we live in today.

We thought that by providing them easy tools where you install it once, and we only show up when we have relevant information to offer, we are starting to hit on the convenience dimension.

Some of the other things that we will be doing, which haven’t been launched yet, are focusing on making it convenient and easy for people to get to credible information. Because how often have you gone to the second page or the third page of a search engine’s results page?

Only when it’s about myself.

Right, when it’s about yourself. What ends up happening is credible information in a number of cases is buried in the back pages. But you and I have no time—even though you’re a journalist and I’m an educated person who believes in these things, so I pretty much exhibit the same behavior you do.

At the same time, if [good information] shows up on the top right of the search engine’s results page, it’s hard for you to ignore it. But unfortunately the SEO systems work based on social algorithms, which seem to promote popularity as opposed to really good quality information.

User-generated content has value, but at the same time, people have to use it with caution

What are your thoughts on crowdsourced editing, like the kind found on Wikipedia?

I think crowdsourced information is great. But let’s not pretend that everybody who goes onto the internet has good intentions. As a journalist, you adhere to a code of ethics, which says you’re going to represent things fairly. You’re going to be accurate and thorough in everything that you put out there. But unfortunately not everyone putting things out there adheres to that Hippocratic oath. And today people realize that they can actually use those platforms to push their own agendas. So ultimately that is the challenge that we’re trying to deal with. User-generated content has value, but at the same time, people have to use it with caution. And ultimately that’s not the mindset with which people operate.

[Editor’s note: At this point in the conversation, Krishna decides to cement his point about the variability of internet credibility by asking me to perform a search to contrast two user-generated articles on the rapper Lil Pump.

Lil Pump (via Instagram)

It’s a tough lesson to conduct over the phone, but after some wrangling I find Lil Pump’s Wikipedia page and his entry on Everipedia, a for-profit wiki with looser standards for article creation popular with fan communities. Where Wikipedia sticks to a brief outline of the rapper’s career and arrest record, Everipedia opts for a deeper dive into his social media presence, touring schedule and affiliations with other minor celebrities. There’s also a gallery of fan art, a passport photo for the artist and an unsourced estimation of his net worth.

To Krishnan, those extras make Everipedia the superior authority on all things Lil Pump (especially given that he does not currently have his own Britannica entry). “When it comes to user generated content, some of it seems to be more valuable than others,” Krishnan says. “The point is that search engines are supposed to do a great job of surfacing great content. And probably Everipedia is on page five when you scroll through the search results.”]

You appear to be stating that there’s a lot of misinformation on sites like Wikipedia. But most of the information you will read on Wikipedia is correct.

So the question here is it could right today, it could be wrong tomorrow, right? I don’t know if you followed the case a few weeks ago about the California Republican Party. [Editor’s note: Because of an instance of Wikipedia vandalism, in May Google listed “Nazism” as a core ideology of the Calif. Republican Party on its search results until corrected.]

The question here is, are you comfortable living in a world where you’re okay with information being right 80 percent of the time? Or have we as a human race dialed down our expectation to say that as long as it’s fine 80 percent of the time, we don’t care about the 20 of the time when it’s wrong? Is that the world that we need to be working toward, and is that good enough?

A 2005 study in Nature found a similar rate of “serious errors” between scientific articles in Wikipedia and Britannica. How do you guard against those errors in your process?

We go through a strict editorial fact-check process. Can errors happen? They can always happen. But are those errors based on proactive misinformation? The answer is no. Whereas with user-generated content the ability to provide misinformation proactively is extremely high.

And you’re also referring to a study that was done 13 years ago. The world has changed in the last 13 years. That might have been the case then with the comparison between Wikipedia and Britannica. But I think more and more, if you did that same study again, the results might be very different today. And I think you don’t have to look farther than the last few weeks. It’s not just that case of Nazism and California—there have been other cases that have surfaced as well.

People now feel that they can use these technologies as a platform to push their own agenda. It’s not because of Google or Wikipedia. It’s just the fact that people realize they can hijack these platforms to push their own interests. And search engine technology tends to surface this information without validating that information. To me, people have the right intent. I don’t think any search engine or any user-generated content site was built with the objective of duping the world. But unfortunately that’s what’s happening today.

This is strong rhetoric. Duping the world? It almost seems like scaremongering...

I don’t think it’s scaremongering. At the same time we’re not saying, ‘Don’t go to that source.’ I think each of us [Britannica and Wikipedia] have a value. We’re suggesting people to go to an information source that has some standards and something that you can trust.

We all look at the top few search results, and the question we are asking ourselves is, “Should we actually take the time to make sure that that information that we are consuming is valid?” We never came out and said, “This is the only solution.” Our goal is to help create tools and technologies that will help surface better information. And if it’s easy for you, we hope you will take that opportunity. And if you choose not to, there’s nothing we can do.

Britannica CEO Talks Google, Wikipedia and What Lil Pump Can Teach Us About Credibility published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

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lindyhunt · 6 years

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The Best B2B Lead Gen Campaigns for Every Channel

Lead generation for B2B is not about chasing a “secret method” that results in a ton of leads. Instead, building the best lead generation strategy for your business is more about understanding tried-and-tested channels, and finding the most effective combination of tactics for your unique goals.

A disciplined B2B marketer should understand the different dynamics, budgets, and expectations typical of each lead generation channel. This article will help you gain insights into each major channel for B2B lead generation, including social media, PPC, blogging, and email. Best of all, we'll show you effective strategies and impressive real-world examples for each.

Social Media Marketing Strategies

Social media is now a critical component of B2B marketing. It often doesn’t cost much for paid ads compared to traditional advertising costs, but offers broad mileage. However, unlike B2C where social media is among the most effective digital marketing channels, it’s more complicated in the B2B market.

What is the conversion rate of social media?

While there’s no single answer for B2B social media conversion rates, there are some calculated assumptions you can use to gauge efficacy. A Marketo study pegged social media conversion at 1.95%, vs. inbound at 3.82%, after studying more than 4,000 user account's data.

Anecdotal stories, like the case of SaleCycle, suggest social media falls short in conversion rates compared to other B2B digital channels, despite its wide reach.

Quantity over quality seems to be the norm when it comes to B2B social media lead generation. This makes it an ideal channel for top-of-the-funnel awareness -- for instance, you might promote a downloadable ebook to capture quality leads with an initial offer.

There are two main channels you should focus on:

LinkedIn Ads

Facebook Lead Ad

Let's dive into each of these primary B2B social media channels now.

LinkedIn Ads

It’s no surprise that LinkedIn, the go-to B2B social network, has above-the-board figures when it comes to B2B social media conversion. LinkedIn is the top social media platform for B2B marketers, so it’s a viable channel to pursue.

Source: 2016 Content Marketing Institute.

However, investing your energy in a channel with high engagement rates doesn't automatically guarantee success. The tactics you use on LinkedIn need to:

Audience targeting based on buyer persona

Lending to the ad a newsworthy, topical angle

Continuously testing CTAs, images and copy

You can learn more about the nitty-gritty of LinkedIn Ad strategies from this LinkedIn-HubSpot 2-week free course.

Facebook Lead Ads

You should also integrate Facebook Lead Ads into your social media strategy. A 2017 survey by research firm BCG showed 60% of B2B buyers used mobile in their recent purchases. Additionally, online business queries have been shifting rapidly towards mobile for the past few years.

Since Facebook Lead Ads are designed for lead generation inside the world’s largest social media channel, they're especially potent. Facebook launched this service in 2015, after their analytics showed users found it difficult to signal to businesses their intent on Facebook mobile. Facebook Lead Ad solves this problem because it allows B2B users to sign up for your offer in just two taps, without leaving the social network. It’s both targeted to your audience and highly customizable.

Facebook Lead Ad isn’t designed to replace your landing pages. AdEspresso found their Landing Pages and Lead Ads had nearly identical cost-per-lead at around $0.94. While Facebook Lead Ad helps you capture leads inside Facebook, your landing pages are still necessary for capturing leads from organic search and PPC.

For more details, check out this step-by-step procedure on how to create Facebook Lead Ads.

Facebook Lead Ad lets your prospects sign up for your offer inside the social media mobile interface.

Examples of Great B2B Social Media Lead Generation Campaigns

Case #1: Use of scarcity and exclusivity. EntreLeadership used scarcity (a limited-time offer) to increase the value of their offer. Their slogan -- “Sharing Dave Ramsey’s business wisdom” -- rings exclusivity. It's a chance to gain rarefied insight. Their visual is also engaging, with the use of light colors against a dark background, while the key messages and CTAs are clearly highlighted.

Case #2: Asking for only the data you need. FreeAgent understands asking only for an email address during the first encounter greatly reduces opt-in friction at the early stage. More customer data can be gathered later in the campaign as leads are qualified with more product-specific offers. In the beginning, the email address-only approach guarantees a wider initial lead base.

Case #3: Give before you get. Digital Marketer doesn’t sell -- it gives something valuable away for free. That’s a compelling deal. Their image amplifies the message and the CTA is clear but subtle. Instead of selling anything, Digital Marketer simply hooks leads through the law of reciprocity, which makes users feel they should return the favor during a later engagement.

PPC Lead Generation Strategies

Pay-per-click (PPC) lead generation campaigns focus on a wide range of paid advertising platforms -- the most popular being Google AdWords and Display Network. However, you’ll find a wide range of PPC lead generation options outside of Google, including:

B2B review directories or comparison sites

Trade media display ads

Social media advertising

Affiliate marketing

What is the conversion rate in PPC lead generation?

The general consensus for Adwords conversion rate is 2.70%, and Display conversion is averaged at 0.89%. But the rates vary depending on your industry. It’s important to know your industry benchmarks. A good starting point is to ask the PPC vendor of their average conversion ratio across the board. This lets you evaluate your campaign results better.

Should PPC replace organic marketing? No -- they complement each other. For instance, many high-value keyword searches have only PPC ads above the fold like this:

In other words, even if you have good organic ranking, it may be buried under PPC ads. Google researchers ran statistical models on their SERPs to find out if paid search eats up organic traffic. The result showed 89% of traffic generated by paid ads isn’t replaced by organic.

An Example of an Efficient PPC Lead Generation Channel

Among the PPC platforms mentioned above, B2B review directories and comparison sites can provide a uniquely fresh lead source. In a crowded industry, other PPC channels are most likely already saturated by big players in your space, the ones with deep pockets.

For instance, in SaaS, a highly competitive industry across verticals, AdWords bidding is highly competitive, so you need to target a lot of relevant keywords. Sometimes competitors even bid for keywords against your own brand -- like this example, where Netsuite ranks higher for "Intuit Accounting".

For many SaaS startups and SMBs, having another lead source like B2B review sites provides the option to meet and even surpass monthly lead quotas. Let’s take a closer look at which popular marketing tools are used for lead generation by such sites. For example, here’s what FinancesOnline, one of the top software review platforms, offers:

1. Lead generation campaigns: The review site can link directly to a vendor’s sign-up landing page, encouraging people who read your review to try out your free-trial next. These campaigns can generate as much as 24% conversion rate.

2. Premium placement: In an increasingly commodified SaaS category, like a CRM where features are more standardized than unique, being included in a premium placement can make or break your sales opportunity. You have a much higher chance of attracting new leads if you’re listed among the most popular solutions, as prospects will usually only try out a few products. Make sure you get on such a list, because your competitors are probably already there.

3. Industry awards: When buyers are comparing your product to your closest competitors’, having your product stand out thanks to a featured quality award can have a critical impact on your sale. FinancesOnline, like many other review platforms, can give your product an edge with such awards.

Here’s how premium positioning on FinancesOnline looks like

It’s important you look for a third-party online marketplace in your industry, and get in touch with these middle-men to ensure your product is listed.

Blogging Lead Generation Strategies

Blogging is at the core of content marketing, which is a strategy that focuses on creating content that is interesting or valuable to your defined audience with the goal of attracting and sustaining online engagement for leads down the road.

A lot has been said about the benefits of business blogging. Let’s reiterate the major advantages that apply to the B2B market:

Drive traffic to your website. With the right SEO planning and editorial calendar, your blog gives you search presence, linking you to keywords being searched for by your prospects. Every blog post you write is one additional indexed page to get your content on Google.

Convert traffic to leads. A well-placed CTA in a compelling blog post can direct prospects to your landing page for leads.

Repeat business. A blog can delight existing customers with fresh content for repeat business or referrals.

How efficient is blogging for B2B?

As part of content marketing, blogging has its advantages. Here are three essential ones you should know:

Content marketing generates 3x more leads vs. traditional marketing (DemandMetric).

Businesses using content marketing experience 6x higher conversion rates vs. non-adopters (Aberdeen).

Custom content influences 61% of consumers (Dragon Search Marketing).

Blogging also establishes niche authority and places prospects within your sphere of influence. We don’t need to go far -- just search “inbound marketing” or its derivatives and you’ll come across HubSpot consistently.

How effective is blogging in the long run? At HubSpot, about 90% of the leads their marketing team generates each month come from blog posts that were published in many months or sometimes years ago.

Which content types drive lead generation?

The content types listed below are most effective when they align with your marketing goals. In short, the hard work is still on you -- you have to develop topics that are lead magnets to your audience.

Authoritative posts: Topics you’re an expert in.

Solid opinion pieces: Insights backed by data.

Original research: Commissioned for industry consumption.

How-tos: Tips, tutorials that address prospects’ problems.

Trending content: Piggybacks on popular topics relevant to your business.

Infographics: Information turned into digestible visual bits for easy consumption.

Videos: Did you know 72% of prospects prefer to watch a video than read to learn about a product? (State of Video Marketing Survey, Wyzowl 2017).

Examples of Great B2B Blogging Campaigns

Case #1: Running your blog like a media pro. HubSpot is influential when it comes to inbound marketing. But it didn’t happen by accident -- HubSpot's marketing team works hard to run their blog as a media site with a full editorial calendar and a team of writers and editors manning the front.

HubSpot’s blog publishes tips, listicles, ideas, inspiration, insights, reports, ebooks, white papers, videos, etc. all relating to inbound across its niche segments in marketing, sales and service. The blog even outperforms entrenched business media like Forbes and CNN Money in SERPs about inbound marketing.

Case #2: Know who you’re talking to. FreshBooks is clear about its target audience. In fact, the first step to having great content is to know your audience (your "Ideal Customer" personas). For FreshBooks, this means delivering “actionable insights into all aspects of running a small business.”

Case #3: Banner your thought leader. Have a resident thought leader and put his or her insights and opinions about your business and industry into your blog posts. Your thought leader should be writing regular posts to leverage SEO and brand association, both of which can result in more leads down the road. Even Seth Godin needs to write daily.

Email Marketing Lead Generation Strategies

In a world of posts, likes, and shares, email doesn’t look sexy, but it is as relevant today as it was years ago. In fact, email is often the bridge between marketing automation and CRM, two cloud solutions most widely used by marketers today. The email opt-in is still the starting point of lead generation and email marketing is the core of lead nurturing.

How does email marketing hold up today? Actually, it was the best B2B digital marketing channel in 2014, according to a Chief Marketer study. Two years later, in 2016, DemandWave released its State of B2B Digital Marketing Report, which showed email marketing is right at the top of digital channels driving leads and revenues for U.S. B2B marketers.

The advent of automated lead scoring, predictive analytics and AI algorithms only reinforce email marketing with laser-focused, personalized touches and real-time delivery. In short, email marketing is still one of your best tools to engage intent signals, distribute content and deliver pitches.

What is the conversion rate of email marketing?

You’re looking at two variables when it comes to email marketing:

Open rate

Click-through rate (CTR)

A GetResponse study puts the overall email open rate average at 82.20% and CTR at 21.69%. The report further divided the figures by location, with North America at 21.01% (open rate) and 3.50% (CTR). By industry, internet marketing has 18.05% open rate and 3.16% CTR.

Meanwhile, Marketing Insider Group puts email marketing conversion into another perspective: you earn $44 for every dollar spent on email marketing. The general consensus is, yes, email marketing has one of the highest conversion rates, corroborating the DemandWave findings above.

Which factors influence email marketing conversion?

It takes creativity to brainstorm your content or offer, but with that aside, email marketing is more like a science. You can measure it, analyze it, and improve it. Here are the key factors that affect your email marketing conversion rates:

Value offer: You must have a lead magnet to attract email sign-ups, whether it’s value content, freebies, deals, or anything that is interesting to your audience.

Landing page: Optimize it by having a clear offer of your lead magnet, compelling CTA, permission and appealing visuals.

Email subject line: Short, crisp, and compelling with clear benefit to the recipient.

Segmentation: Split your list into sublists for more targeted messages, which will allow you to increase you open and click-through rates.

Analytics: Run analytics to do regular clean-up of your lists and update it as necessary based on past recipient actions.

Examples of Great B2B Email Marketing Campaigns

Case #1: Storytelling. At its core, email marketing is about your message, and here’s where your skill in storytelling can weave magic into a bland topic like a business workshop, captivating the prospect’s interest. Perry Marshall, the best-selling author of Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, is a master of storytelling, able to hook seemingly unrelated subjects together, and all leading to his value offer.

Case #2: Use of humor. The visual allusion to the iconic film character used by Grammarly, the Godfather (and the cat!), is witty and helps engage readers for those few critical seconds. he vendor also uses a funny tweet at the bottom to cap the offer with even more humor. Note that the use of humor is tricky and can backfire if executed poorly; but in this case, it’s tightly woven into the offer’s message.

Case #3: Housekeeping. Email marketing isn’t all about the welcome -- some goodbyes are in order, too. Cleaning up your list is one step towards qualifying leads for higher conversions down the funnel. Hire Value makes sure its list is updated by sorting out inactive subscribers.

Top 10 Lead Generation Best Practices

Our brief case studies above didn’t happen by accident, but rather as a result of their marketers’ relentless pursuit of techniques that work efficiently. We’ve highlighted some of these above, but let’s leave you with this checklist on the 10 best practices in lead generation:

Target the right audience. Know your buyer personas. In B2B, your audience could be different people in different departments. Often, you don’t have an audience, but micro-audiences with varying interests and pain points.

Create lead magnets. Develop content or offers that pique the interest of your target audience. The best lead magnets use NLP techniques in marketing, such as, clear, tangible benefit, urgency, exclusivity, social proof, authority and immediate gratification.

Explore new lead channels. Search, social and top media sites are expectedly crowded with high-value sponsorships. You can, however, discover unique PPC channels like the B2B software review site FinancesOnline in our example above, or similar third-party marketplaces for your industry. Because these sites cater to your customers, they tend to have higher conversion rates and dominate high-value general organic search keywords.

Capture the right information. The rule of thumb is to get only the most basic customer data at the initial stage (e.g. name and email address) and, as you work the lead down the pipeline, ask for a little more data.

Score, sort, segment leads. Not all leads are valuable and not all have the same value. Based on your metrics, run a lead scoring tool to sort leads into proper segments, which will let you target your micro-audiences with personalized messages and offers. Today’s marketing automation software like HubSpot is very powerful and can automate this important process.

Blog consistently. Regularly posting content improves your SEO, authority, brand awareness, industry stickiness, and, generally, your web presence.

Integrate organic and PPC. These two complement each other. When executed together, they can fill in the gaps. For example, you can run paid search for any organic keywords for which you’re not ranking highly.

Benchmark your conversion rates. Don’t be content with seeing your rates improve month-to-month or year-to-year. Compare them with the competition -- that’s the true picture of your business’ competitiveness.

Automate. The best marketing automation will put your lead generation in auto-mode, by capturing leads from your campaign, scoring them, nurturing them throughout the lead pipeline and qualifying and handing them over to sales.

Go mobile. Mobile marketing is the next battlefield for B2B leads. More business buyers are using their smartphones in the purchase journey. Make sure your forms, emails, websites, and ads are optimized for mobile.

Those are some of the best B2B lead generation campaigns and techniques at your fingertips. Apply or reapply these time-tested techniques and share with us how much they improve your lead volume

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Baidu, Alibaba And Tencent: Strategies Of The Chinese Internet Giants

With the world’s biggest range of internet customers (731 million, as of December 2016), China stays one of the most up to date e-trade, social media and online offerings markets. But, the united states of America has a long manner to move with a view to attaining the net penetration degrees of evolved countries, as only around half of-of the Chinese population has access to the net. As Chinese net users develop, certainly the enterprise of the country’s internet giants grows increasingly. What’s greater, the presence of net giants inclusive of Google, Fb, and Twitter inside u. S . remains restrained, which leaves most people of the virtual market to local gamers. The important thing nearby players on the Chinese language era frontline are the trio known as the BAT companies – Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent.

Baidu Seeks Tech-led Boom

Baidu is often called ‘the Chinese Google’. The organization’s 2016 sales slightly underperformed against its 2015 effects, hence Baidu’s traders might be focused on sales and net earnings Boom in near destiny. A few analysts expect Baidu, who stay centered on the Pc marketplace, is going to lose market share to its competition, whose products are mostly designed for mobile customers.

Around 80% of Baidu’s general revenue comes from the phase of seeking services, and packages which include Baidu Encyclopedia, maps, photo seek, video seek, information seek, and so on. Final yr Baidu acquired a complete of $5.5bn in advertising sales, which accounts for 20% of the whole Chinese digital advert marketplace.

The opposite enterprise segments – transaction services (Baidu Pockets) and video streaming (iQiyi) – account for the relaxation in their revenues. IQiyi is the biggest online video platform in China (regularly benchmarked in opposition to YouTube) and maintains to invest each in licensed content and in-house manufacturing, given that exceptional content material is a prerequisite for gaining higher-margin subscriptions.

Keep Your Eyes on the Internet of Things

Final week, investors received a welcome breakfast surprise. Mobileye (NYSE: MBLY) changed into up 30%.

Intel, the mega chip organization, decided to shop for Mobileye, a vehicle sensor developer, in a $15 billion deal, inflicting huge profits speedy.

The aspect is, if your appearance on the back of Intel’s decision to buy Mobileye, you’ll see a subject matter that I have been telling you about for some time – self-rising, or independent, automobiles – that’s an important factor of the Net of things mega trend that is unfolding properly now. And as you could see, it’s making people massive amounts of cash speedy.

Now, there are trends associated with the self-using automobile subject that has equal capacity and is also happening right now.

Upward thrust of the Machines

You notice, the car is morphing from a mechanical machine, meaning that it’s pushed by means of such things as pistons and gears, to one that is digital. Second, the auto is growing right into a gadget that is linked to the Internet all of the time, and due to that, connectivity is something that may be used as a shared aid.

Associated with this stuff is the reality that because of legal guidelines that have been surpassed around the sector, clearly, all carmakers are making ready for most vehicles to be electric.

So, in different phrases, the whole way of creating a vehicle is going to be uprooted and modified.

This means it is a time of extremely good opportunity and, similarly, of splendid hazard.

For positive, groups that make the components which might be going to enter this digital, related, shareable and ultimately electric powered vehicle are going to gain.

And the corporations that grasp lower back, betting on mechanical, unconnected, unshareable and gas-driven automobiles, are going to move the bust.

The Version of the Destiny

The key second, I believe, is coming later this year when Tesla releases its Model three car.

The purpose why I trust that Tesla’s Model three is the key is as it’s going to be the first car that has absolutely all of the things that I noted. it is electric powered, packed with electronic additives rather than mechanical ones, and has the present day in self-rising abilities. Model three, like several of Tesla’s cars, is connected to the Net nonstop.

According to information reviews, over 400,000 humans have reserved a Model 3. Now, remember that those reservations are excessive-dedication: You had to put down $1,000 to do it. And the listing charge is $35,000.

Whilst you do the math, it means Version 3 is putting in to be a $14 billion product right off the bat.

Now, $14 billion seems like lots, however, it is nothing in comparison to the $147 billion that Trendy Vehicles is expected to generate in sales in 2017.

Russian Dwarf Hamsters Vs Chinese Dwarf Hamsters

Russian and Chinese dwarf hamsters were fighting for a while. O.Ok. now not sincerely, but a war of sorts has been occurring. For a long term, pet owners had been struggling with the decision between proudly owning Russian dwarf hamsters or Chinese dwarf hamsters. I actually love each a lot I would by no means be able to pick out one over the opposite. In this text, I will pass over each sorts hamsters and some of their variations and similarities.

The most significant distinction between these types of hamsters is looked.

Positive they’re each very lovely and very small, however additionally they appearance very distinctive. The Chinese language dwarf hamster looks greater mouse-like than different hamsters. He sincerely has a tiny tail (about an inch long). He is also greater slim than the Russian dwarf hamster, who once in a while seems greater like a small hamster-ball. They’re each across the identical size, about four inches long, even though there are species of Russian hamsters which might be a great deal smaller (the Robo Russian dwarf hamster only grows to approximately two inches lengthy).

Certainly one of my preferred elements about both Russian and Chinese language hamsters are their fur styles. They both have oh-so-incredible colorings and styles, however, they may be very unique from every other. The Chinese hamster usually has a black line that runs down his spine and a belly this is white. other Chinese language hamsters have spots of shade allotted across their backs. Russian dwarf hamsters, alternatively, come in a whole slew of colors and styles. This is because they have been bred especially as stunning pets for lots generations. They variety in colorings from white to sandy brown to darkish gray and feature some of the exceptional patterns that still including a dominant stripe down the lower back just like that of the Chinese hamster.

Not handiest do Russian dwarf hamsters vary in look from Chinese language dwarf hamsters, additionally

They have a fantastic distinction in conduct as well. One primary difference between the two is that Russian dwarf hamsters are greater social whilst Chinese hamsters are on occasion a chunk anti-social and feature problem with their roommates (particularly the girls!). however, despite the fact that they’ll be a chunk less social, the Chinese language hamsters are also much less problematic in that you shouldn’t worry approximately them nipping at you. This is something that the Russian dwarf hamsters tend to do more.

As you may see,

Chinese dwarf hamsters and Russian dwarf hamsters are both very similar and really one-of-a-kind at the identical time. they’re both extremely good pets to personal and I might advise you deliver them each a danger (although Chinese hamsters are more difficult to locate so you may have your choice made for you).

The Mesmerising Mehrangarh Fort – The Work Of Giants

A self-respecting king desired a grand and comfortable fortress. When one first-rate day he stumbled upon the appropriate vicinity, an isolated hill, he ordered his men to clean the region of its population. A holy man, who become called Chidiya Wale Baba became the simplest one dwelling at the hill. The hermit became acknowledged to feed the birds and communicate to them. Hearing the king’s plan he became all furious and cursed the king with recurrent droughts in his kingdom.

The appalled and reputedly terrified king requested for forgiveness to which the hermit laid a circumstance. A man needed to be buried alive upon the hill before they could lay foundations for the fortress’s construction. The king became dejected for there has been no one who he believed would volunteer for the noble but lethal purpose. The citadel’ construction felt like a lost motive and just before the king decided to name it off, A man by the call of Rajaram Mental volunteered for the deed. Ecstatic, because the king became, the everyday the provider and on an auspicious day, Rajaram turned into buried alive and that is how Mehrangarh fortress’s construction started out in 1459, with a curse.

The fifteenth Rathore ruler, Rao Jodha built the Mehrangarh castle in 1459 When he shifted his capital from Mandore to Jodhpur in a quest to comfy the capital. Enclosed with the aid of enforcing thick partitions and standing at a top of 410 feet above the city on a rhyolite hill, the potent Mehrangarh fortress guards over the blue metropolis of Jodhpur. An outstanding spectacle and an architectural masterpiece, it’s far one of the largest forts in India. because the time surpassed and different rulers obtained the throne, all of them made their additions to the citadel.

Full of history and legends, Mehrangarh incorporates of sixty-

Four toes extensive walls that elevate to round 117 feet.Access to the citadel can be received through seven subsequent gates. The maximum famous ones being Jai Pol (built in 1806), Fateh Pol (constructed in 1707), Death Kangra Pol and Loha Pol (final gate into the main complex). The Dedh Kangra Pol, that is the second gate, nonetheless stands witness to the cannonballs hits they as soon as withstood and reminds the site visitors of the bygone skirmishes. Just like in a variety of Rajput forts, the final gate displays the haunting site handprints. Bedecked in their jewels, widowed queens exceeded thru this gate for the closing time and immolated themselves within the funeral pyres.

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