#does anyone have any tips on how to do hashtags on this site? I’m still iffy on whether I’m tagging these well lol

[midnighthybrid1]

DJ Subatomic Supernova Fan Art I did back in 2022.

This guy, what a lad. He’s one of my favorite characters, but I have to admit I really enjoyed all of the characters (even the NPCs) a whole lot.

Though I’m not quite as into No Straight Roads anymore like I used to be, the game still holds a special place in my heart, as it inspired me a lot in my artistic endeavors and helped me meet some cool peeps.

If you like music-based games with awesome character designs and a good story, I highly recommend checking out NSR someday.

Hope you like my drawing, and that you have a wonderful day!

Likes and Reblogs are appreciated! DO NOT REPOST MY ART!

#no straight roads #nsr djss #NSR #myart #my art #space #space theme #canon character #dj subatomic supernova #no straight roads djss #djss #does anyone have any tips on how to do hashtags on this site? I’m still iffy on whether I’m tagging these well lol

[blindbeta]

Your Content and Accessibility For the Blind

Hello everyone! I was thinking about accessibility and wanted to make a post to help creators. This is going to cover general accessibility for blind people interacting with your content. Some of it may be obvious to some and this is by no means comprehensive, so feel free to add anything you think of that is helpful. Also, I wanted to include some ideas for DeafBlind people, but I am not DeafBlind or D/deaf, so I simply listed some general accessibility ideas. If anyone has any other tips or things to consider, please add them in a comment or message and I’ll include it here.

Remember, blindness exists on a spectrum. This post will focus on making things accessible for totally blind people, although these tips can also be beneficial for people with residual vision who use screen readers to reduce eye strain, for small text, for clarity, etc. D/deafness and DeafBlindness are also on spectrums. Some DeafBlind people have some hearing, some vision, a little of both, or none of either. If someone asks you for better or different accessibility services for your content, listen and try to accommodate them as best you can. I have provided some links and resources here to attempt to explain accessibility for blind people, which will include blind people who are DeafBlind. The point is accessibility issues can come from both sides whether it be the audio or visual sides.

Some general helpful links:

AFB’s Advice for image descriptions here

Screen-readers here

Improving Accessibility for the DeafBlind community here

How DeafBlind People Use Technology and The Importance of Braille and Transcripts: Understanding Assistive Technology

Online Content:

GIFs, Pictures, Fan-art, PSA and info posts, Memes, Screenshots of Text Posts or Screenshots of Twitter Threads- Provide an image description on your original post! This is the best option, as you probably know your content best and what you wish to draw attention to. More importantly, every reblog will include an image description, which means the blind person doesn’t need to hunt for an image description in the reblogs! If you know more than one language, include image descriptions in those languages.

Note: Always include descriptions when you post images with or about blind people or characters. Particularly fan-art you made of blind characters. If you don’t, consider why and think about how it would feel to be shut out of something about yourself.

What should you include?

Write Image Description in brackets and include End of Image Description at the end for clarification. As for what you should describe, it depends on what the picture is. Include where it is from. For example, “a screenshot of a Twitter thread by BlindBetaIsAwesome”. Include the text and describe any GIFs or images it includes. Write everything out as they appear. Describe emojis as well. When writing out screen names or hashtags, capitalize the first letter of each word. Otherwise screen-readers read it oddly. For example instead of #accessibilityfortheblind try #AccessibilityForTheBlind. If you think someone will want to search a name, include a link.

You should describe what is important in the image, especially for conveying information or humor. General ideas include: image origin, who is in the image, what they’re doing, any relevant colors or clothing, objects they’re holding, their facial expression, any emojis, and any text in the image. Blind people do like to know about color. For NSFW stuff, include ‘NSFW’ at the start, but other than that, yes, blind people also generally like NSFW things described.

Fanfiction:

Generally, fanfic is very accessible to screen-readers and Braille Displays. However, there are a few ways you can make it more accessible.

Pictures: Include alt-text for any images you post such as artwork or character social media posts. Describe it like you would any other image. Alt-text is different from an image description because instead of a screen-reader saying “image” when it finds an image, it will describe the image. An image description is the text included beneath the picture that everyone can see. Including some kind of description, especially for plot-relevant images, can allow all blind readers to experience the fic.

Chat conversations: Again, for hashtags and screen names, capitalize the first letter of each word for the ease of screen-readers. For characters who don’t use capitalization much, you can add a hyphen between each word to make it easier to read like this: blind-beta-likes-fanfic-too.

Emojis: Screen readers can’t fully read emojis like this one that uses keyboard slashes and symbols to create an image ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (image description: emoji of a person shrugging with both palms lifted upwards. End description.) However, they can read emojis that come on a phone such as 🧁which screen readers read as “cupcake”.

Podfics are also good for hearing people with no vision or reduced vision. Having a podfic with good quality (maybe one that can describe images found in the story) will reduce some of the issues listed here and give blind people another, fun way to interact with content. However, I would try to keep in mind the things I mentioned above for the sake of screen-readers and Braille Displays, which are particularly important for some DeafBlind people who may want to read your fanfic and may not be able to hear well enough to use a screen-reader.

Lastly, keep in mind that any kind of comic may be inaccessible to some blind people. Write with them in mind. Include a message at the start of the story, maybe that it contains material from the comic, graphic novel, or print cartoon. If you know of a comic dub, link to it. If there is none, include details in the story so that a non-manga or non-comic reader would be able to understand.

Web-Comics/Web-Graphic-Novels:

First, I did research and found a comic book store for the blind called Comics Empower. Unfortunately, when I click the link provided on Twitter and the articles I read, the site seems to be down.

However, this is about you all and sharing your comics with blind readers. You have a few options:

Alt-text. This is descriptions directly ‘inside’ the image, which is not visible to everyone. You can read about alt-text for comics specially here and you can read general info for alt-text for screen-readers and Braille Displays here.

Image descriptions. These are descriptions of each comic page (hopefully with a paragraph for each panel) that can be visible to anyone. You can describe your comic, who is in it, what they’re doing, and what they’re saying, probably beneath the image.

Comic Audio Performances. These are accessible to both blind and sighted audiences. These are videos using actors for the dialogue, sound effects, and moving comic panels. Pros for this style include increased viewership, increased accessibility for the blind, and perhaps more revenue if you have a way to monetize the content. Cons include that it is more work, could potentially cost money when hiring actors initially, may not be accessible to anyone with hearing loss, and may still require a bit of audio description for some panels that are hard to follow with only sound effects.

What can you do?

A few ideas I had were to use a combination of image descriptions and audio performances to make the comics accessible to a number of people who may be blind, or DeafBlind. Having options is helpful. For ther issue of some panels needing extra description in order to make sense, I thought of including time-stamps and descriptions in the description section, labeling it as image descriptions for the blind. Include dialogue for reference. Or an audio description could be added such as:

Audio narration: “Bee sits on a couch writing.”

Sound Effect of a purring cat.

Audio narration: “Blind Beta picks up an orange cat and puts him on the couch next to them.”

Dialogue: “I’m so glad I have a cat to cuddle with!”

I will touch on this in the video section, but while it is sadly not possible to add audio descriptions onto YouTube as of 2021, you can add them manually through websites you like YouDescribe. For your comics, I suggest, reading about YouDescribe, downloading the app, creating a narration transcript for your web comic performance, and posting the described audio performance onto YouDescribe. Post both versions as close to the same time as you can, and include a link to the described version in the YouTube description. A glance at YouDescribe will tell you not all videos are available with descriptions and not all blind people are aware of this service. Not all videos are searchable in their library either. However, it is an option I wanted to include.

You could also simply include the audio narration in your main YouTube video if you would like. Or any combination of my suggestions you feel comfortable with.

YouTube Videos/Video Clips:

I wanted to cover YouTube videos and video clips shared on websites like tumblr. For small clips, image descriptions and transcripts could probably be listed together. I have seen this done and it seems to help people.

Again, the original poster should post the description with the video. This is because they know the most important parts and because all reblogs of the post will include the description, so no one will have to hunt down a description that may not exist.

For the clip or clip compilation, mention where the clips come from, who is in them, and what they are doing. You could probably have a separate paragraph for each clip and include times-stamps if possible.

For videos you post on YouTube, descriptions can be very helpful! Unfortunately, YouTube does not support adding an audio description track at this time. Ideally, YouTube would have a description track one could turn on and off such as with subtitles. Until then, if you want to add a description, you should add one yourself when you post the video onto YouTube or any other website.

Before I get into how, let’s go over something else.

What videos need descriptions?

-Recipe videos - especially ones with only text. Ingredients, steps, measures, methods, any flourishes or special scenery (such as when shopping for ingredients) should be described. Blind people don’t just want you to read the recipe to them. They want to know what is happening in the video and how it is being done.

-Tutorials - These often contain a voice-over and accompanying images to demonstrate. A creator can opt to simply include more visual description along with the other information in the voice-over or add extra narration later (see the “How?” section below). For these videos, make sure to avoid or expand on any visually dependent parts such as “click here” or “fold here” or “when you finish, it should look like this”. Videos that contain only text and demonstration, however, will need a more traditional audio description the same as any other video.

-Silent aesthetic videos - Sometimes containing music or focusing on natural noise, these videos are usually vlogs with soothing activities or daily routines. They often show scenery, pretty things, or tours. Because these videos are silent, sometimes containing only text, they are not accessible. However, they can be easy to describe, perhaps in a soothing or educational fashion.

-Music videos - Because these videos are by nature visual, they may not be accessible. They may also have inconsistent, poor, or changing lighting for aesthetic purposes or set changes. This means audio descriptions would be helpful.

-Text-based videos - Obviously these are not accessible or may be difficult to read depending on font size, style, or background. For these, putting the text in the description may suffice. Label it so that blind people are aware they are getting the same material. If the text includes pictures or short clips, you could also simply include your own narration on the video itself or see the “How?” section below for another alternative.

-Game Play-Throughs - Games can sometimes be completely inaccessible pe very difficult depending on the person’s level of site. A lot of video games a not accessible or difficult to play, with quick-moving graphics, perhaps small text, or other difficulties. Because of this, blind people may enjoy game plays on YouTube for video games and mobile games.

-Skits or other performances - Think of these as Netflix shows with audio description tracks. Blind people may miss out on some visual humor, plot elements, or other fun visual aspects like costumes.

-Original Films, Animation, Clips From Shows - Again, think of it as any TV show that needs to description to cover visual aspects of what is happening. Scenery, characters, what they’re doing, any text, facial expressions, etc.

Pet videos- Because pets are cute and they should be described! Especially because these videos are sometimes hard to follow, such as a pet doing a trick.

How? How Do We Provide This?

There is always the option to add your own audio descriptions. However, that way confuse already-existing narration or may not be possible for already-published videos. You may also have trouble speaking and wish for someone else to provide audio descriptions. The video may be a music video or one you want to remain silent for the aesthetic. You may want to add a description to a video you enjoy that is not one you uploaded personally.

A free website and mobile app called YouDescribe can help with that. It allows people to add audio descriptions to videos on YouTube. You can even describe videos on a wishlist. Find out more here.

If you describe your video or have it described, be sure to link to the YouDescribe video in the description of your YouTube version so that people can find it easily, or note that it is available on YouDescribe.

Here is a link to the website

And a link to the app.

This site may be a bit too niche, but I figure if it helps one person, I’ll be happy. My entire blog is niche, when you think about it- targeting writers who specifically want to write and read about blind characters. It’ll be fine.

Keep in mind that audio descriptions may not be accessible to all DeafBlind people. An inclusive option could be to include a description under your video so people with Braille Displays can read it.

Print Books, Audiobooks, Large Print Books, or Braille Books?

Let’s get into something you writers might be interested in. Books! Let’s say you wrote a book with a blind character. How do you make sure it can be accessed by blind readers? You want to have a few options.

Print books - These are accessible to people with reduced vision. It is also possible to scan print books to read with voiceover, but I can’t imagine many people buying books simply to scan unless they borrowed/found it. So it could be an option, I suppose. Scanning books also takes time because you need to do each individual page.

Audiobooks - Audiobooks are great. They are accessible to blind people who can hear. They are cheaper to produce than Braille books, take up less space, and are better for the environment. They can be expensive when you buy them. Libraries have extensive collections now, however, because libraries don’t usually have any Braille books and very few large print books, not all blind people use them, even for digital access. However,many blind people love audiobooks so it a good way to make sure your content is accessible.

As of now, my library app is accessible with a screenreader, so reading audiobooks is possible. E-books are not currently accessible with a screen-reader on this particular app.

Make sure to release your print books and audiobooks at the same time or as soon as possible. It isn’t fair for blind people to have to wait, although there are cases where not having an audiobook is understandable. Keep in mind that the less options you have, the less accessible your content will be.

Large Print Books - I used to get large print books myself. I would say it is less likely publishers will want to publish large print books because they are, of course, larger and take up more space. (Not as much as Braille books, but we’ll get into that.) As you may assume, they are also less popular with readers. Publishers make exceptions for textbooks, so if you are making a textbook or an educational book, particularly one with drawings, publishers might allow it. They also might consider making large print editions of children’s books. Large print books can sometimes be found at libraries, although they are usually crammed into their own limited section. That shows how rare it is for large print books to be printed compared to regular-sized books. I have an extra note about this in the children’s book section, but for the most part, I think you can get away with not having a large print edition of your book.

Braille Books - I should you one doesn’t just make a Braille book. Feelings toward them are generally complicated. They can wear down over time, cost a lot, and take up a lot of space. One volume of a book is several volumes of Braille books. Libraries don’t generally have them- you have to request them from various places like The National Library Service for the Blind (NLS). For more information about obtaining or borrowing Braille books, look here.

Braille Books have largely been replaced by refreshable Braille displays and audiobooks. However, they are still important. They can also help DeafBlind people, if a book cannot be read on a Braille display (see the section on e-books below). My suggestion would be to skip Braille books unless you are writing for children (see the Children’s Books section) or your book contains many diagrams that need to be embossed.

Children’s Books -

I wanted to briefly discuss children’s books. With children’s books, you will, of course, want to have a print book and an audiobook available, perhaps even someone reading the book on YouTube. If the book has pictures, descriptions of the pictures would be nice. This is also where I think large print and Braille books may be not only possible or more likely, but important. Children are just learning to read and will continue to explore a love for reading. Therefore, a lack of reading material can be challenging.

If possible, you may want to consider asking your publisher if large print or Braille versions are possible. While websites are available so that children can get books, you may want to ask for your book to be published in these formats if your story has a blind MC.

Braille literacy is declining in the blind community, with children (and frankly many others) choosing to use VoiceOver and audiobooks to read rather than Braille. Being able to read helps reinforce spelling, grammar, meaning in ways that are not possible with having things read to you. That said, children should also be encouraged to learn technology and use audiobooks when they feel comfortable.

If you are publishing a children’s book, particularly with a blind MC, consider what your options are for increasing accessibility.

E-Books:

This is one of the more accessible options, as it can be read with a screen-reader or Braille display. E-books are also common enough that they are released at the same time as print books. The text can usually be adjusted and readers usually have a Search feature. However, accessibility is still a problem with e-books. While authors cannot fix this, they should be aware of it. You can read about accessibility issues here.

-

I hope all this helped somewhat. I provide sensitivity reading for blind characters for anyone who is interested.

#blind #accessibility for the blind #blindbeta #writing #books #disability

[dlamp-dictator]

You know, I wanted to talk about the fun parts of the latest Arknights event, like how Texas and Waii Fu got into a fist fight in the streets of Lungmen. I wanted to start a small essay about how Granbelm’s Anna Fugo was a great and interesting villain and how Granbelm as a who was a pretty good mecha anime. I wanted to talk about how awfully predatory AFK Arena’s gacha system is.

But before all that, I think it’s high time I actually lived up the “X” part of Allen X.

So, I hate talk about current events, namely because they heavily date my posts. As such I usually save them for my end-of-the-year pieces that are dated by design. However, I don’t think I can quietly watch a lot of what’s going on in my country without at least addressing its existence.To be silent is to be compliant after all. I’ll try and keep this as brief as I can, but no promises. 

But like most of my Ramblings, some background.

As of me writing this, the date is May 31st, 2020. For those unaware, a George  Floyd has been killed by a police officer via strangulation a while back. As sad as it is for me to say, this is honestly nothing new in America. Racial discrimination and prejudice by law enforcement is, frankly, older than this country. However, this seems to have been the tipping point, as several states and larger cities have erupted into mass protest. For most of my research and feed searching, the protest have been mostly peaceful, and a lot of the violence has seemed to be done by White Nationalist groups like the Proud Boys and the KKK in an attempt to smear the peaceful protests, even by a few police officers.

My small town is as quiet as ever, but the world around me has exploded.

I’m usually seen as a quiet and thoughtful person for the most part in real life. I think only a handful of my friends actually know my temper can get razor thin in times of stress, and this has been a pretty stressful time for me. So... I’ll break this down as thoroughly as I can. I’ll try and stay calm and professional as I usually am in most of my ramblings, but I can’t make promises on that.

But let’s get to the first point.

Things are Scary

Something I was going to save for a future Art/Writing rambling, but I don’t think enough people have been admitting that things are very scary right now. In the same vein that I don’t think enough people admit art and writing is hard, I don’t think enough people, enough people with actual pull to their words, are admitting that, yes, things are very scary right now as of May 31st 2020.

In January we had a political situation that nearly started War World 3. In February we had the announcement of a global virus that is still just as contagious and deadly as it was then, and possibly was running about by late December. In either March or April I believe had major flooding in the state of Michigan, and now it seems we’re going to end May with civil rights protests where police and military are attacking protesters seemingly unprovoked.

And this is all very scary.

I know my words don’t have the same weigh as a celebrity or a political figure, but I feel that validation of basic human emotion is the key to coming to an understanding, so I’ll say again: this is all scary stuff. It feels like as my world continues to turn uninterrupted while the world around me is just turning more and more to ash. It’s like being in a safe haven while watching people run from a fire slowly approaching, and it’s scary. It’s outright terrifying. And I think it’s important to admit this and accept this. You can be afraid, you can say you’re afraid, you can cry and worry about how scary things are. Accepting those feelings is important, just don’t let them control you.

That said.

Allen X’s Take on Things

Here’s what I can say so far. 

A lack of police accountability has be a fact of life here in the US for years, decades even.

The police have far more power than we give them credit for.

While many of my dealings with police have been good, I get the feeling I’m the exception to the rule.

Our current federal leadership has been nothing short of ignorant, arrogant, and domineering toward not only minorities, but the general population.

Supporters of this leaderships are, frankly, remarkably ignorant at best, and criminally dangerous at worst. 

We have reached a point were basic health regulations such as wearing masks in the middle of a global pandemic is now a partisan issue. This is bad. 

We have reached a point where more police accountability during a time of global pandemic is now politically divisive. This is also bad.

I could go on, but these are the most pressing thoughts I have on our current situation and the nicest I can be about this topic while maintaining an air of professionalism. Like I said, things are scary. The more I look into things, the worse I feel about the state of this country. The only positive thing I can say is that it should all be over once election day comes. 

Now, here’s something else I’d like to state.

Allen X is Black

I never enjoy talking about my ethnicity on the internet. As someone who talks more about video games, anime, manga, and general niche “otaku” media, I feel like my ethnicity and race rarely play a role in my opinion of Asian media, as I’d always be viewing it as an outsider regardless. However, with this topic I feel I should at least state that there is a reason I use X as a stand-in for my pseudo last name. It was originally the name of an old self-insert OC, Allen X. Walker, but when I realized Allen Walker was already taken, I just left it to Allen X. A cheeky nod to both how a lot of only aliases of the early 2000s had “X” as a stand-in to keep original names, and a to my ethnicity, riffing on Malcom X, who used that letter as a stand-in for the last name our ancestors had stolen when taken to the US by force to work the plantations.

As I said, my race is rarely relevant to what I cover, but it does effect my everyday life. I get nervous when I say on my application sheets that I’m Black, wondering if that’d be a black mark. I get twitchy whenever I do my laps around my predominately white neighborhood, wondering if I’d get snide looks and sneers. I get agitated whenever anyone uses the n-word due to it never meaning anything positive in my past. I annoyed when people assume I’m either British or from the UK due to my not having the typical accent of most Black people since I lived in a white neighborhood for most of my life and took speech classes as a child to speak “normally”. Hell, I was bullied by the Black seniors in my high school as a Freshman for not being “Black enough”. And more recently, I was kicked out of the neighborhood I do my rollerblading laps in because that neighborhood suddenly became “private property” when some new neighborhoods moved in. New neighbors that are fine with me being ran over by a car, but not “trespassing” on their sidewalks.

Needless to say, I am very familiar with racism and prejudice. It doesn’t effect me as badly as the folks in the south and especially where these protests are, but I am familiar with it. And when I see these videos and tweets of the violence and police brutality, the anger of the people, it’s terrifying. It terrifying that this is real and is happening just a few states down south of me, and possible one state north of me. It’s terrifying that all this is happening so brazenly and with very few people in our system of government, at least at the executive level, doing anything about. And it’s terrifying that I’m not seeing this on too many major news channels and sites. That’s partially due to me rarely looking up the news aside from headlines, but most major places I’ve seen, save for maybe CNN, really haven’t been talking much about it, not as much as I’d like anyway. It’s all just a lot to take in, and those nervous moments I have due to my ethnicity start to make me shake with fear some days now.

But... I need to move on to the next topic, for the sake of my sanity.

What Must be Said

Like before, I feel like there are things that must be said. To be silent is to be compliant, and while my own position in life is a little to fragile to break out the picket signs and parade the streets, I will at least use my online voice to state what I feel must be stated, if only to say what I do and don’t agree with. 

With that said:

Injustices by the police and general law enforcement must be given accountability.

The murder of innocent minority, racial or otherwise, is wrong and must be given the proper punishments.

The lack of care toward healthcare, workers’ rights, civil rights, and so on must be ratified.

Law enforcement should never be seen as or used as a force of fear as it currently is now.

And during a health pandemic like we are now, safety should be a prime concern before anything else. For the police to be acting as they are now makes me fearful of the future.

The fact that I have to say any of that, the fact that any of that is controversial is appalling. The fact that a simple hashtag like #blacklivesmatter is controversial is appalling. The fact that I even hesitated to write that hashtag to maintain professionalism is appalling. It sickens me a little to live in a country where any of that is said, written, or typed with a hint of hesitation or worry. It’s just... so appalling.

That’s all I have to say on this subject, at least in this tone. My purer, more raw thoughts I’ll save for my friends and family in private.

But... I think that leaves us with one question left before I end this. Which is...

How Did We Get Here?

Folks, I am a knowledgeable man, but I don’t consider myself an intelligent one. I didn’t study years of the underlying racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and antisemitism that lead to our situation.

However... I am very sarcastic and sharp-tongued man. I don’t show that side of myself often here on the internet aside from jokes and jabs at nonsensical things like anime, as it breaks my typical persona of an analytical and professional man, but I think I can sum up what’s happening by paraphrasing single quote that I feel many of the wrong people have used to justify their own feelings of injustices. So with that said:

What do you get when you cross an abused and patient minority with a society that abandons them and treats them like trash?

“I’ll tell you what you get. You get what you fucking deserve.”

Anyway, ideally I’ll have a much happy topic to talk about later this week. Like Arknights. Like I said in the beginning, A former mafia delivery girl got into a fist fight with a kung fu detective, a lot of fun things happened in the latest event.

#your dictator is speaking

[berniesrevolution]

It is somewhere between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning and, as per usual, I am flicking through internet tabs. Without really taking anything in, I am dividing my attention between a recipe for broccoli and peanut butter soup (one which has been in my favorites tab for maybe three years, still never attempted), some news story about a terrible event in which many people have needlessly died, and the usual social media sites. Scrolling down my Facebook feed, in between the enviable holiday snaps and the links to more sad news stories—people don’t talk very much on Facebook any more, I’ve noticed; it’s mostly a conduit for the exchanging of links—a picture catches my eye. It’s a cartoon of a friendly-looking blob man, large-eyed and edgeless, wrapped up in blankets. The blob man is saying “It’s okay if all you want to do today is just stay in bed and watch Netflix.” I draw up my covers, nodding to no one in particular, and flick to a tab with my favorite old TV show.

The above story doesn’t refer to any particular night that I can remember. But the general theme is one that I’ve played out again and again. I’m not sure I’m ever going to make that soup.

If you’re a millennial with regular access to the internet, you’ve probably seen similar images to the cartoon I’ve described above. They’re usually painted in comforting primary colors or pastels, featuring simple illustrations, accompanied by text in a non-threatening font. They invite you to practice “self-care”, a term that has been prominent in healthcare theory for many decades but has recently increased in visibility online. The term generally refers to a variety of techniques and habits that are supposed to help with one’s physical and mental well-being, reduce stress, and lead to a more balanced lifestyle. “It’s like if you were walking outside in a thunderstorm, umbrella-less, and you walked into a café filled with plush armchairs, wicker baskets full of flowers, and needlepoints on the walls that say things like ‘Be kind to yourself’ and ‘You are enough,’” says the Atlantic. Though the term has a medical tinge to it, the language used in the world of self-care is more aligned with the world of self-help, and much of the advice commonly given in the guise of self-care will be familiar to anyone who has browsed the pop-psychology shelves of a bookstore or listened to the counsel of a kindly coworker—take breaks from work and step outside for fresh air, take walks in the countryside, call a friend for a chat, have a lavender bath, get a good night’s sleep. Light a candle. Stop being so hard on yourself. Take time off if you’re not feeling so well and snuggle under the comforter with a DVD set and a herbal tea. Few people would argue with these tips in isolation (with a few exceptions—I think herbal tea is foul). We should all be making sure we are well-fed, rested, and filling our lives with things that we enjoy. In a time where people—especially millennials, at whom this particular brand of self-care is aimed—are increasingly talking about their struggles with depression, anxiety and insecurities, it’s no wonder that “practicing self-care” is an appealing prospect, even if it does sometimes seem like a fancy way to say “do things you like.” What is concerning is the way that this advice appears to be perfectly designed to fit in with a society that appears to be the cause of so much of the depression, anxiety, and insecurities. By finding the solution to young people’s mental ill-health (be it a diagnosed mental health problem or simply the day-to-day stresses of life) in do-it-yourself fixes, and putting the burden on the target audience to find a way to cope, the framework of self-care avoids having to think about issues on a societal level. In the world of self-care, mental health is not political, it’s individual. Self-care is mental health care for the neoliberal era.

Illustration by Lizzy Price

As I write, the U.K. Prime Minister, Theresa May, is tweeting about World Mental Health Day and suicide prevention. She is not the only one; scrolling through the trending hashtags (there are several) one can find lots of comforting words about taking care of yourself, about opening up, confiding in a friend, keeping active, taking a breath. One such tweet is a picture of an arts-and-craftsy cut-out of a bright yellow circle behind dull green paper, designed to look like a cheerful sun. Printed on the sun are the words “everything will be so good so soon just hang in there & don’t worry about it too much.” All of us have probably seen some variation of these words at many points in our lives, and probably found at least a little bit of momentary relief in them. But looking through other tweets about World Mental Health Day reveals a different side of the issue. People talk about the times they did try to seek help, and were left to languish on waiting lists for therapy. They talk about the cuts to their local services (if they’re from somewhere with universal healthcare) or the insurance policies that wouldn’t cover them (if they’re in the United States). They talk about the illnesses left cold and untouched by campaigns that claim to reduce stigma—personality disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia. They talk about homelessness and insecure housing and jobs that leave them exhausted. They talk about loneliness. And, in the case of Theresa May, they talk about how the suicide prevention minister she promises to hire will have to deal with the many people who consider suicide in response to her government’s policies. These are deep material and societal issues that all of us are touched by, to at least some degree. We know it when we see people begging in the streets, when we read yet another report that tells us our planet is dying, when we try to figure out why we feel sad and afraid and put it down to an “off day”, trying not to think about just how many “off days” we seem to have. We turn to our TVs, to our meditation apps, and hope we can paper over the cracks. We are in darkness, and when we cry out for light, we are handed a scented candle.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #current affairs #mental health #neoliberalism #neoliberal capitalism

[dxmedstudent]

Hey dx. Any tips for being speedy, efficient and time-effective when on-call (both clerking and ward cover)? I'm a new f1 and struggle with this a lot. I don't know how to be thorough, run everything past a senior AND be time-effective and my seniors are getting annoyed with me.

Hello!There’s no easy way around it; being oncall requires a level of efficiency that is almost superhuman at times. Quite simply, there’s often just a lot to do, and we’re all just trying to do the best that we can. So if you’re still learning the ropes, absolutely don’t let it make you feel bad. Experience really does help, and there’s no easy way to gain experience. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t try to foster some good skills and make a conscious effort to improve; I think it’s great that you’re thinking ahead and trying to do your best. In general, I recommend my hashtag #tips for new docs or #tips for new FY1s, because I’ve got some posts that specifically dump quite a bit of advice for getting through on-calls.

I’m putting this behind the line because it is long :)

Clerking:For clerking, there’s usually a proforma in most trusts that covers the basics, and allows you to work through a system without forgetting anything obvious. If there isn’t, try to stick to a clerking layout that works for you. For example, I’d usually start with presenting complaint and the history of that, work in a review of systems by this point (and add in anything I think of later when I examine them), work my way through their medical and social history, then explore their concerns and expectations, and finish on drug history and allergies (why? Becuase I find writing up drug charts in the middle ruins my flow, but by the end you’re basically just chatting and wrapping up loose ends, and if there’s anything I am likely to forget and have to go back to ask, it’s allergy history, until I realise I can’t prescribe anything without asking that question!). You may find a different order works for you; the only thing that matters is getting all that information down, and letting your brain process it to formulate a diagnosis and therefore plan of action. The tricky thing is that patients will sometimes go off on a tangent, and you have to weigh up the importance of getting back on track with just not being rude or seeming like you don’t care. I usually let them talk for a short while about something that is irrelevant, then explain that we can explore X thing later, and that I’ll make a note of it, but right now we need to focus on Y. They say that at the beginning of a consultation, if you let someone talk for 1-2 minutes, they will almost always give you most of the information that you need. So the general rule is that you start off with open questions ‘What’s brought you in?’ Or ‘What’s the issue today?’ etc, and then, once they’ve had a chance to  say what’s on their mind, you can hone it down with closed questions to find out exactly what you need to know. It takes practice, and some people are still going to be vague, and others will still go on tangents. with time you realise how to most efficiently get investigations done; rather than wait for A&E to do it, sometimes I’ll take bloods/cannulate myself (because waiting longer for the result would be worse for the pt and myself because I’ll be 3 patients down the line by that point), or I’ll request imaging or ask nurses to prepare a treatment before I’m done wrapping everything up and documenting, if I think it needs to happen urgently. Start treatment as soon as possible, but if you are worried, then get senior help involved early. Even if you can’t quite post-take yet, you can always discuss them with an SHO or reg.

Ward Cover:Ward cover is its own kind of hell, and it’s really hard to be efficient when your bleep keeps going off, and you get all sorts of jobs that are different levels of urgency and severity. I would advise you to take a few sheets of paper with you, and be prepared to write down your bleeps and jobs as they happen.Firstly, I triage the jobs I’ve received at handover in terms of severity; sometimes I write numbers next to the names in order of priority, at other times I just remember which order I’ve decided to do things. There will be jobs you’re asked to do at particular times (that ABG in 2 hours’ time, those bloods in the morning) that you’ll need to remember to do. Then, as you get bleeped, write down the number first (in case you get a barrage of bleeps in rapid succession), then, once you call, write down each patient , leaving space between them so you canfill in some details and put a mini tick list next to each one. Do not put down the phone until you have the following: Name and Surname, DOB and hospital number, and bed number on the ward (plus ward name); anyone escalating concern regarding these patients in anything other than an arrest situation has time to get you these pieces of information. Be kind and patient with the nurse or student nurse on the phone, but explain that you need as much information as possible to be able to do your job. Whilst you’re on the phone, you can use the opportunity to ask the nurse to help you; ask for a new set of obs (if not done; usually they’ll call you just after doing one). If they can take bloods, ask them if they can please so. If they can get kit (like a catheter, or NG tube) ready, ask them if they can please do so. Things like bladder scans, female catheters, NG tubes, sometimes bloods and cannulas and cultures can sometimes be done by nurses. Each hospital is a little different, but after a short while you’ll kow what you can reasonably ask for help with. Don’t take the mickey; nurses will value and respect you if you’re clearly not just trying to make them do all your work. Explain that you’ll be around as soon as you can, but that if they can do XYZ it’ll help you deal with the patient faster. In turn, be helpful to the nurses and if you can see they are busy, then do simple things like repeat a set of obs etc yourself. When you walk onto the ward, find the nurse who called you, and make sure they remain accessible for support or to action whatever plan you agree on; sometimes people will want to walk off and do other things, but remember this rule: if the patient is clinically sick enough for them to call you to see them rapidly, they are sick enough for the nurse looking after them to stick around within reach when you are assessing or treating them. If the nurse looking after them is on their break, someone else will ahve to cover and give antibiotics/fluids/nebs etc. Sometimes this means politely asking people to stick around with you if it looks like they are about to walk off to do something relatively unimportant. Yes, they will have their other jobs, too, but a sick patient should be everyone’s priority first and foremost. You should never hold them back from other work unnecessarily, but if things look or sound dire, make sure you have all hands on deck. Even basic life support requires 2 people; you cannot and need not handle a sick patient alone.

Once you have taken some messages, your triage order of priorities might have to change; ‘review patient’s sore toe’ has to come below ‘ patient is wheezy and struggling to breathe’ or ‘febrile patient, ? sepsis’.  That way, when you work through, you’ll feel like you are dealing with the most urgent things first. Anything non-urgent left at the end of the night can be left for the day team; you can chat with them in the morning if you want to make sure it’s not missed. Meanwhile, if you find yourself overwhelmed with sick patients, talk to your seniors. Call your fellow FY1 covering the other side. Call your SHO. If things are dire, call your reg. You have people who can help you, so let them know if you have too many sick patients to handle, or if you’re not sure how to triage them. If you’re swamped with bloods/cannulas, most ward sisters can help with those in a pinch, as can site managers. Most site managers can also certify the dead; this is a low priority job for me overnight (dead patients aren’t getting any deader if you ‘confirm’ they are dead 1h later, and live patients are more important), but you’re usually not the only person who can do that job. Remember to prioritise based on clinical urgency first and foremost. It’s OK to tell whoever is calling you that ‘I’ll try to come when I can, but I have sick patients to see, first”. If the issue is something non-clinically urgent like “relatives want to discuss grandma’s laxatives at 10pm but you’ve never met grandma and you have 3 septic patients and a crash call first”, it’s perfectly OK to tell the nurse this: you will try to come when you can, and the relatives are free to wait (visiting hours permitting) as long as they wish. But you cannot guarantee that you will come any time soon, or at all, as you have sick patients to see at this point in time. If they wish to speak about a plan put in place by the day team, you recommend they call the ward in the morning to book a meeting with the day team to discuss their concerns. I rarely tell my colleagues or patients ‘no’ outright, because I do want to help whenever I can, but I’ll be honest if a particular job has to be low on my priority list because I have sick patients to see. This is also true for talking to the nurses escalating concerns on the phone, or cheekily grabbing you in passing to rewrite 5 drug charts once you finish seeing a sick patient, when you’re power-walking your way to your next patient. Do those jobs if I have nothing to do, but if you’re busy, apologise and explain that you’ll do them when you can; people are reasonable when you are.

If you miraculously have not too much on your plate, then I like to ask the ward if there are ‘any other issues’ before I leave it to go to the next ward (because walking those long corridors after they bleep you for paracetamol 30 mins later is a time waster). You can still tell them that you’ll come back to do some jobs, or just tell them that some jobs are something the day team can handle, if you think it can/should wait. But it can avoid that annoying ‘running between the same 5 wards constantly every 15 mins for pointless stuff they could have told me earler’ feeling’. Also, just let the nurses know that you’re one person covering X number of wards (and probably hundreds of patients) so it’ll take you a while; many of them just don’t know what ward cover looks like at night from a doctor’s perspective. A lot of nursing students or nurses are shocked when we chat about that kind of stuff. There’s absolutely ways to have that conversation without being snippy or coming off as defensive. Take your break when you can. I like my break around 2-3 am on a night shift, because that’s when things tend to settle. But if things pipe down for you a bit sooner, take that opportunity whilst you can. Try to drink plenty of fluids, even if it means availing yourself of vile NHS tea or coffee or tap water. When you feel like the world is ending, it’s time to drink something and have a biscuit. 

Ward Rounds:For ward rounds; make sure your blood requests are always out for the phlebotomists before they come around. If you have new patients in the morning, try to see if you can get those cheeky requests put in in the morning just before the phlebs come around.  For the ward round, you’ll have to work out a system to prepare the notes for your consultant as fast as possible, depending on how many juniors you have, and your consultant’s personal way they like things done. If there’s 2 or more juniors, I usually tag team it with them; we both see half the patients, but whilst I’m getting the notes for one ready, they can see one with the consultant. Some consultants love this approach, others hate it. In terms of the ward notes, different specialties will like different kinds of basic notes. I’ve laid out mine quite differently depending on consultants’ preferences and how different specialties run things. But most are amenable to something like the following layout as a rough rule:

(date and time in the margin)

Dr X ward round.(I use the  Dr Y/Dr Z, bleep 1234 model when it’s just me and the registrar)

(age) (gender) and brief summary of salient points/presenting complaint.

e.g 64 year old female presenting with SOB and cough, purulent sputum, 4 days.

Then their brief medical background

Then a list of current issues.For example 1) CAP, on day 3 amox and clarithro. 2) UTI, 3) hyponatremia, 4) ongoing physio

You can then briefly write out any bloods and investigations under their own heading.

Following this, I leave a gap for talking to the patient and examining them. There will usually  be a SOAP framework for assesing them on observation. I draw out my little lungs and hexagonal abdomen so I leave enoug space.

Finish up with impressions/issues (leave a gap for a list), and then plan (definitely leave a gap for a list).

The best notes I ever saw utilised a lot of bullet points and numbered lists; it was care of the elderly/geriatrics, so everyone naturally had like 5 comorbidities minimum, 6 issues at any one time, and long, long lists of plans. And I’ve taken that with me into future jobs. Never be afraid to take up space in notes; making things clear, well-spaced and easy to read will always serve you better than cramped-close set notes that are barely legible. Give your notes space to breathe, but don’t write any more words than you need to, when preparing them.

It’s a rough and meandering, far from exhaustive bunch of tips, literally off the top of my head, but I hope this helps :)

#personal #my life #mrcp #askdx #ask dx #anonymous #anon #anons #asks #questions #dx dates #dxdates #dating

[louiphotography]

Starting a photography business… how to keep a sane mind.

By no means has this been easy, my current 9 to 5 is with a financial institution that changes processes/procedures almost daily… so it’s saying a lot that getting into photography has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to work through. I want to take a few moments to discuss a few examples of how I structured my plan. By no means do you have to follow this as a guide, it’s simply a few tips I wish I had been given and hopefully you can learn from some of the hiccups I went through! Further below I will dive into each of these further however here’s a quick recap of the topics will cover in this post: 

Social media

Organization

Helpful services to leverage

Portfolio

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Let’s first start off with social media. It’s easy to feel that this channel isn’t going to really make a difference in your business including learning, growth, and overall success… but you’d be wrong. Everything I know about photography (outside of “gut feelings”) is from self taught social media. Social media does not hand you the answers, but it gives you great direction to go off and practice until you find that best fit for YOU. Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube are my main go-to’s. Not only does this give you an opportunity to find inspiration whether that be styles/locations but also things that could take you years to figure out… experienced photographers are happy to clue you in on. Often there are going to be demographics that you meet with each source, for example there are some people who just refuse to download TikTok, however you likely could still connect with them via Facebook or Pinterest.

Make sure that when you are first starting out and find a name/brand that you want to build, go through and create an account on each of the above platforms to reserve your name (or close to the name if not available). Whether or not you use each one, you at least want to avoid someone else from utilizing your handle on a social media site- that can get confusing! The other piece of advice I’d give is to get organized. We will discuss this more in the next section, however have a plan for social media usage. This could include ideas that come to you to post, when/how often you want to leverage each account, and tracking what you’ve done on each platform. I’ll provide you examples of what this looks like for me in the next section. To sum this up, leverage social media! 

Avoid: setting up social media accounts before you have a set name. I did this before I registered my business, and my original idea ended up not being available through my state. Not fun to go change all emails/accounts and in some cases make new accounts! —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————Next up is organization, and it’s the topic I feel most passionate about. My corporate job has created a monster who loves spreadsheets and honestly it has helped my business immensely. It will be easiest to just bullet point the programs I use, and what I use them for:

Excel spreadsheet tabs

Items to do

Social media ideas

Social media usage tracker

Location wishlist

Shoot ideas

Shot lists

Expense Tracker (taxes)

Folders within external hard drive

Sessions- break down by year, subfolder for client, then within each client folder they have a “edits” subfolder, within that a “social media” subfolder

Social Media- subfolders for created IG posts, IG stories, Pinterest pins, TikTok, marketing, welcome guides, session guides, recap guides

Branding Pack- all the color schemes, logos, fonts that I use for my company brand

Business documents- anything related to registering the business, all emails saved from the state or IRS, receipts subfolder taxes

Purchases- where I keep any items I got from Creative Market (fonts/graphics)

Notes app

Post templates- I keep a note for each type of post I may make during the day, so I don’t have to find my commonly used format/hashtags for each social media platform

Ideas list (for when I’m on the go and can’t update my excel sheet) however I make it a point to update my excel each night before bed

Calendar app (I leverage this to schedule myself weekly tasks). For instance:

Monday- Engagement, check in with people and see how their weekend went, post your weekend in photos and post weekend challenge results

Tuesday- Content creation day for the next week (or more if possible for backup)

Wednesday- Schedule content for the next week (or more if possible)

Thursday- Weekly blog write up

Friday- Photography challenge jar to accomplish over the weekend

Saturday- Shoot as much as you can/focus on photography challenge/work on any extra “to-dos” such as Lightroom practice

Sunday- Shoot as much as you can/focus on photography challenge/work on any extra “to-dos” such as Photoshop practice

Even writing that felt like a lot… and truly it is. Starting a business and getting into the “groove” is NO JOKE. Now image this on top of your regular 9-5, actually having consistent photoshoots, the client management aspect, possibly having a family or spouse, and trying to manage your health both physical and mental. If you have a loved one that is starting a business, GIVE THEM A HUGE and maybe some Starbucks! Again these are not things you HAVE to do when starting your business, these are just items I feel work for me. 

Avoid: Having NO organization plan whatsoever or feel as long as you take some notes here and there, it will be sufficient. There is so much information available to us that I would write down pages of information and when I’d review, it was too overwhelming and I would want to quit. Play around with it and see what works best for you!

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Now let’s get into the systems/services I use that have really made a difference! Yes I pay for each one of these, it can add up, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

PicTime- Delivering client galleries on a professional platform and provides them high quality products for purchase (1 FREE month code- M275PS)

Honeybook- online service for client management, helps automate tasks for example “as soon as client sends in XYZ document, the system shoots them the contract to sign”. It saves so much time! (20% off)

Lightroom- Photo editing

Photo Mechanic- Photo culling system that helps me go through thousands of photos in a JIFFY prior to Lightroom importing, works in tandem with Lightroom to flag which photos you’d like to edit, and will import directly for you.

Canva- Program to build social media content, I also used this for building all guides for my business.

Creative Market- online marketplace for creatives to sell their graphics/fonts/templates. They also will have weekly freebies that are amazing!

Avoid: signing up for things before you need them. For instance, since I’m starting out and have minimal clients, I haven’t pulled the trigger on customized accounting or even quickbooks. Once I find a consistent client stream, I will certainly do this however I personally feel confident in my tracking/organization for taxes purposes at this time.. I’m not going to pay hundreds for an accountant before I actually need it. As small businesses starting up, money can be tight, I would really do your research on what you need vs. what you think you should do because you saw it on the internet. Again I am not a financial master, this is just my two cents!

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Portfolio time! This is something that I was so worried about when starting… if I’m just starting, how am I supposed to get clients?! My honest answer- ASK PEOPLE! Ask your friends, mother, neighbor… anyone you feel comfortable working with! Not only does it give you a chance to practice, but they get free photos (saving hundreds mind you). Now, this also depends on what you want to shoot, but when you are starting you really should shoot anything purely for practice. This also helps you really nail down what you want, you may think couples are fun to shoot, but when practicing you find that families are where you have the most fun. The only way to really know is to shoot- for example I have such a huge passion for travel photography, my favorite photos I’ve taken are from trips. However there is no way to constantly practice traveling… I have a job, oh yea and Covid is a thing! I always have a blast shooting families/couples/individuals so for the time being I am throwing all my effort into creating the best experience/product for those clients. Eventually with practice I can get to that “end game” dream, but no one is above practicing and putting together a solid portfolio to show what you can do.

It will be very hard to get any paying client to trust you enough to book, without examples of what your results look like. If you are going to offer family shoots, I recommend having at least 2-3 full session examples you can showcase to a potential paying client. I also found that creating guides that not only showcase your work, set an expectation for pre & post session, and then having a professional gallery to deliver images is HUGE for the client experience. At the end of the day, there are a ton of photographers, but I want you to focus on how you set yourself apart in the experience you provide (this is what clients will remember and share)!

Avoid: Thinking your first session will be how your pictures will always look! Even if you like them, you will find your photography game will change/grow with each client. Take each session seriously, learn all you can, and try to prepare… but do NOT get dow on yourself if everything doesn’t go 100% perfect, as long as you take steps to avoid it the next session. This has been such a learning experience for me, and continues to be each day.  I’m always happy to talk through things if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email or direct message at the below resources. Keep your chin up, it doesn’t get easier, but you will continue to get better!

E: [email protected]

@thelouiphotography

#newphotographybusiness #photographybusiness #newsmallbusiness #photography #photographer #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #newphotographer

[bellarosepope]

5 Things to do Daily to Market Your Book Before it’s Even Finished

If you want to be successful, you need to market your book before it’s even completed. Here are a few simple things you can do daily to get the word out.

I’ll be honest. I had no idea how much you really need to market your book – before it’s even done! I was actually very naïve about the entire writing to publishing process before I decided I wanted to be an author. But the second I made that decision, I was all over the Internet doing research – another thing all aspiring authors should do before their book is completed.

I Googled the shit out of the different avenues of publishing and once I decided self-publishing was definitely for me, I narrowed my searches. And guess what?

I was basically clueless about how much work I’d really need to do.

Obviously, this didn’t deter me. It was just an eye opener. I learned that becoming an author isn’t just about the writing. It’s a business. And all businesses need great marketing in order to succeed.

Why you need to market your book before you’re done writing it.

I think it’s actually less about marketing your book as you’re writing it and more about marketing yourself as a writer in general. There are a lot of people out there who don’t see the point in spending their time marketing their writing.

Those people usually didn’t do their research about the publishing and selling process of being an author and they also probably won’t find much success when their book is released.

Don’t be that person.

You need to market your book as you’re writing it and even during the different stages. Why? Because who the hell is going to buy your book if nobody knows it exists? You need a fan base. You need to build interest and get your name out there. 

Without doing this, there won’t be anyone to buy the book you worked so hard to write. You’ll have to rely solely on someone randomly happening across it online and with millions of books out there, those odds aren’t very good.

But how do you market your book when it’s not even done yet?

It seems nearly impossible but I promise it’s not. There’s tons of helpful advice on how to market your book while you’re still in the stages of writing it.

But before we jump right into those details, let’s talk about what you need to do right away when you know you want to be an author. These are a few things I did within the first month or so of deciding I wanted to be an author:

Make social profiles – I’m talking about all the social profiles: Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, and any other ones you can think of. Try to make them all the same name, too. For example, on every single form of social media, my username is BellaRosePope. This is the name I’m going to be published as and, luckily, it was actually available on all platforms. If the name you’re going to use for publication isn’t available by itself, you can try adding things like “YourNameAuthor” or “BooksByYourName.” Any way of keeping it simple and memorable is best.

Make an author website – Yes, you do need a professional author website with a domain name that matches your social handles (preferably). Again, I was lucky that BellaRosePope.com was available to begin with. If you can’t afford to purchase a domain and hosting, you can get free hosting through different website platforms, but it will have the website after your name. For example, if I didn’t buy this domain, my website would read BellaRosePope.wordpress.com. This looks much less professional.

5 things you can do daily to market your book – before it’s done

There really isn’t an all-around checklist you should be following daily. However, I found these methods extremely helpful for me personally and they’re things I do every day or at least once or twice a week to grow my platform and establish myself as a writer.

1. Document your writing process

You can do this on your social platforms or by blogging or even both. I personally do both. When I have something extensive to share or I feel as though I have some tips that have helped me a lot personally, I’ll blog about it and post it on my website (like what you see right now) so I can help others, too.

You can even just post little updates on your social profiles. I find Twitter to be the best place to write short updates about how far I’ve written or if I passed a specific goal I had set. Tumblr is also a great place to post updates, as well.

Here are a few things you can talk about if you’re not sure what to share about your writing process:

New goals you make for that week

Anytime you surpass said goal

When you have a great new idea and want to share how awesome you are (I do this a lot :p )

Updates on edits

Issues you’re having in specific parts

Excerpts of chapters

Questions when you’re having trouble

Songs that inspired specific scenes

Pictures that are reminiscent of your book

2. Get social on Twitter

Twitter is actually a huge hangout for writers in the community. There are tons of them out there just looking for other writers to mingle with. Liking, replying, retweeting, and even messaging different writers can help expand your social network and you may even find new friends or possible critique partners.

But why should you connect with other writers when you want to market your book to readers?

Because writers are readers. I don’t think I’ve ever met or heard of an author who never read or didn’t like to read. Perhaps they’re out there, but the very large majority of other writers love to read.

Not only could they potentially buy your book when it’s published, they may also offer you advice for your writing journey since they’re writers, too.

In order to find other writers on Twitter, just search and use the following hashtags:

#amwriting / #amediting

#writer / #writers

#fantastywriter (that’s for me, you should use #yourgenrewriter)

#writingtips

#author / #aspiringauthor

#writerprobs / #writerproblems

#storyteller

Really, you can use any hashtag that gets the message across that you’re a writer. You can also pick up on hashtag use as you connect with more writers in the community.

3. Follow others in the writing community

Every single day I get on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr and I go through the same hashtags listed above and I find writers I think I would get along with. I stalk their profiles and websites and get to know a little bit about them. Then I’ll comment on a few of their things and just connect with them. This is a great way of building your platform base and gaining a following.

4. Join writing events online

A lot of people host daily events for writers, especially on Twitter. These aren’t huge things. More often than not, they’re usually just another writer who posts a theme for the day and you share a piece of your writing based on that and use the appropriate hashtag.

A few that come to mind right away from Twitter are:

#SlapDashSat hosted by @SlapDashSat

#Thurds hosted by @iamfunkhauser

#FriDare hosted by @Micascotti

#SciFiFri hosted by @SciFiPrompt

You can also find free writing events on Twitter by following @writevent. A number of authors also hold writer chats on different days of the week via their Twitters.

Here on Tumblr, there are TONS of “writer tags” you can participate in if you’re tagged. You can even make up your own and tag other writers. Here’s an example of one I invented (that people really hated – in a good way lol). This allows people to market themselves as a writer while also expanding your reach.

5. Share details about your writing

Do this all over the place. Talk about your book. Talk about the world you created. You can even talk about how you got started writing in the first place. So long as everyone within earshot (screenshot?) knows you’re a writer by what you share, it’ll work.

An author who does a great job of this and building hype for her book in general is Jenna Moreci. She hosts an event here on her Tumblr @jennamoreci every Tuesday called TSCTuesday where she answers your questions about her upcoming book, The Savior’s Champion, and people get PUMPED.

In general, you just need to get the word out that you’re writing a book and will publish it someday. You’ll have more success as an author if people know and remember you.

The most important part of being an author – aside from actually writing the book – is knowing how your market your book. You need people to know who you are and that you have a book in the works. It will build interest and excitement, which will lead to more sales when you finally get published!

                                        Read More Tips From My Site Here

#writer #writing tips #writing #amwriting #tips for writing #marketing your book #market your book #book marketing #book hype #author #aspiring authors #aspiring author

[mbaljeetsingh]

The Developer New Year's Resolution Guide: How to Make 2020 Your Big Breakout Year

New Year's Resolutions can be a strong motivational tool. They can help you take your skills to the next level.

But they can also backfire, leaving you exhausted and deflated.

In the past, I have used New Year's Resolutions to great effect. But I've also scrubbed out on some resolutions, too.

In this article, I'll show you how to avoid common New Year's Resolution mistakes.

I'll give you some tips for "right sizing" your commitment.

We'll talk about:

The 3 things developers who succeed with their New Year's Resolutions have in common

Tips for choosing the right resolution for you

And I'll even suggest some popular resolutions developers are committing to together.

In short, this article will give you everything you need to kick off your big, triumphant 2020.

Do New Year's Resolutions Actually Work for Developers?

Resolutions are a type of "commitment device." They're a contract with your future self.

Resolutions are a powerful tool for getting results. But they're not magic.

There are 3 things that go into a successful New Year's Resolution:

Relevance

Accountability

Support

Let's take a more detailed look at these three factors, and exercises for each of them that you can use as a "gut check."

Factor #1: Relevance - Do You Really Care?

If your New Year's Resolution is to write your own compiler, you'd better be genuinely interested in compilers.

If your New Year's Resolution is to get better with machine learning, you should already be reading academic papers about neural networks for fun.

Your resolution has to be relevant to you. You have to get something out of it.

If you're not already passionate, you probably won't be able to manufacture enough passion to persist through the crush of distractions. You will struggle to actually sit down to put in the work.

Relevance Exercise

Close your eyes. (After you finish reading the rest of this exercise, of course. 😉)

Imagine yourself a few months from now. You've accomplished your resolution.

What's different? How do you feel about yourself?

OK - now try it. Close your eyes and do this.

All right. I'm going to assume you did this.

Now - if you didn't feel your cheeks tug upward into a smile during this exercise, I hate to break it to you. This probably isn't a resolution you're sufficiently excited about.

You should keep brainstorming until you find a resolution that does put a smile on your face.

Remember to tune out the hype surrounding different tools and projects. Resolutions are personal. Don't let anyone tell you how to dream.

Factor #2: Accountability - Do You Really Believe You Can Do This?

When you make your resolution public - either by telling your family about it or by proclaiming it on Twitter or LinkedIn - you are putting yourself on the hook. You are telling the world you're going to see this resolution through.

It's OK to back out of public commitments once in a while. I've done it. Most developers have. Failure is not fatal.

But you need to be careful not to develop a reputation for being a "flake." You need to deliver on your commitments most of the time. Otherwise people may just start shrugging off your grand proclamations. It's hard to come back from nobody taking you seriously anymore.

Remember that New Year's Resolutions are completely optional. You don't have to put yourself out there if you don't want to.

But again, there is risk and there is reward. If you can harness the power of a public commitment device, a New Year's Resolution can propel you to the next level.

Accountability Exercise

Think about the commitments you've made in the past.

Do you already have outstanding commitments that you haven't delivered on yet?

Are those commitments still worth pursuing?

If so, you may want to go ahead and tackle those first before adding even more onto your plate.

Now think about your resolution. Is it a long shot? Or is it something you can already visualize yourself doing?

Remember that developers are notoriously bad at time estimation.

It's better to set a modest goal than trap yourself in a self-imposed death march.

Factor #3: Support - Can You Leverage Positive Peer Pressure?

The final factor is social. Do you have friends who can embark upon the resolution alongside you?

Awesome. This is the way to go. You can help keep one another motivated.

Or do you at least have friends who understand what you're trying to do so they can cheer you on?

This is important. Because if your goal is to - say - create an entire website using only C++, or to reach 1 kyu on Code Wars in less than a year - people may not understand that goal or why it's challenging.

Don't make it any harder for people to care about whether you succeed.

This positive peer pressure can be critical. When you are extremely busy with work, or you're sick, or you've had a major life change - how are you going to stay motivated?

Most often, it's the people in our lives who keep us pushing forward. We don't want to let them down.

So find a peer group - or even curious family member - and get them to earnestly root for you in your quest.

(And note that the 3 challenges I recommend at the end of this article each come with their own peer groups.)

Support Exercise

Think about the person whom you'd most like to care about your resolution. Once you have someone picked out, read on.

OK - now imagine how you would explain your resolution to this person. How would you get them to care enough to ask, "How's your resolution going?" from time to time.

A Couple Other New Year's Resolution Tips

Now that you have a good idea of what makes a successful New Year's Resolution, here are a couple tips to make life easier for you.

Tip #1: A year is too long. Timebox your resolution to 3 months instead.

My advice for New Years Resolutions: Don't commit for the entire year. It's too daunting and you may scrub out. Just commit for the first 3 months. Then re-evaluate. The #100DaysOfCode challenge is a reasonable commitment, and people actually finish it. https://t.co/9AwgUI3ott

— Quincy Larson (@ossia) December 30, 2018

The whole point of a New Year's Resolution is to bring about a positive, sustained change in yourself.

The key word is sustained.

For some people, that change could be getting into shape, or getting out of debt.

For an ambitious developer, that change could be learning a new tool or contributing to a new open source project.

In order for the change to be sustained, it has to be systematic.

And that's where habits come in.

You don't need to do something for an entire year to build a habit. A few months will suffice.

So I recommend setting your New Year's Resolution to end before April. Then you can catch your breath and assess whether this is something you want to continue.

Tip #2: Figure out a way to make your resolution an unavoidable part of your day

Think about your future self - coming home tired at the end of the day, just wanting to watch a show or play some games.

How can you set your future self up for success?

By working your resolution into your daily routine, you no longer have to think about it as much.

If your gym is on the way home from work, you can just pull over and go in and work out. There's no more, "Oops - I forgot to do it."

The same thing works with coding:

Use daily recurring reminders. And yes - you ideally should be working on this every day at around the same time of day.

Use tools to block access to distracting websites during the time of day when you're working on your resolution. This can help you stay focused.

Tip #3: When in doubt, use a ready-made peer group and a ready-made challenge

If you've read this far and still aren't sure what your New Year's Resolution should be, no worries. I have 3 great options for you. You can just follow their rules, use their hashtags, and get started immediately.

The #100DaysOfCode Challenge

This is the granddaddy of coding challenges. It wasn't originally designed for New Year's Resolutions - developers embark upon it throughout the year. But January has become the most popular start time.

Here's everything you need to know about the #100DaysOfCode challenge - including its history and how to get started.

The #AWSCertified Challenge

AWS offers several cloud certifications, and they're a great addition to your résumé or CV. They can help you steer your career in a more DevOps (or Site Reliability Engineer) direction.

By the end of this challenge, you'll be both an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and a AWS Certified Solutions Architect.

freeCodeCamp has free courses to prepare you for both of these. (Shout-out to Andrew Brown at ExamPro who designed these courses and has graciously made them free to the public through our YouTube channel).

The rules:

Tweet out a photo of yourself giving a thumbs-up and announce that you are taking the #AWSCertified challenge.

Each day tweet at least one time about your progress and what you've learned or done, using the #AWSCertified hashtag

Each day, reply with encouragement to at least 2 other people who are also using the #AWSCertified hashtag.

Each time you earn a certification, print it out and pose with it.

That's it. Unlike #100DaysOfCode, there is no set end date to this. It's over when it's over. Which should only be a few months if you're working each day toward this.

Here are those video courses I was telling you about. For the Certified Cloud Practitioner:

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Training 2019 - A Free 4-hour Video Course

This week’s free technical course is an exciting one. Cloud computing with AWS. And you can earn a certification, too. As with all videos on freeCodeCamp’s YouTube channel, this is a full course with no advertisements, in a single video for your convenience. If you like it, consider supporting our …

And for the Certified Solutions Architect:

Pass the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Exam with This FREE 10-Hour Course

AWS Certified Solutions Architect is one of the most popular cloud computing certifications. In this full course taught by an expert trainer, you will learn the major parts of Amazon Web Services, and prepare for the associate-level AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam. Andrew Brown of ExamPro wi…

The #ProjectEuler100 Challenge - The "Dark Souls" of New Year's Resolutions

And for all the developers out there who love a challenge, I've created a brand new resolution.

This really force you to expand your math and computer science horizons. It is totally do-able by a new developer. (Thousands of people have completed the first 100 Project Euler problems over the years.) It's just brutally hard.

I love Project Euler and used it extensively when I was first learning to code. I love it so much that we added all 600+ Project Euler challenges to freeCodeCamp's Interview Preparation section.

These get progressively harder - to the point where people with math PhD's still struggle with them. But again, the first 100 are do-able for a lay person with some willingness to dig deep into wikipedia.

"You can learn so much on the internet for the low, low price of your ego." - Shawn Wang (@swyx)

— Quincy Larson (@ossia) March 19, 2019

Can you work through the first 100 Project Euler problems by the end of 2020?

Here's how the challenge works:

Publicly announce you're taking the challenge on Twitter by tweeting a photo of yourself giving a thumbs-up and using the #ProjectEuler100 hashtag.

Create a Git repository.

Each time you complete a challenge, add your solution to your Git repository and tweet a link to it.

Then scroll through the #ProjectEuler100 hashtag and give supportive feedback on at least 2 tweets by other developers.

Move on to the next Project Euler challenge. You can't skip ahead. You have to complete all 100 challenges in order. But you can use any programming language you want to solve these.

When you've finished all 100 of them, celebrate. You will have taught yourself a ton of math and computer science, and gotten a lot of programming practice along the way.

You can use the 20-year-old Project Euler website itself. Or you can use the freeCodeCamp.org version - which lets you code right in your browser, and has built-in tests.

Remember: you can look at other people's explanations of these Project Euler challenges, but do not copy other people's code.

Whatever New Year's Resolution you make, stick with it.

The power of New Year's Resolutions lies in their binding commitment. But if you can leverage this power, you can accomplish so much in 2020.

Happy New Year. And Happy Coding.

via freeCodeCamp.org https://ift.tt/2stXzyd

#IFTTT #Feedly

[digitalmark18-blog]

56 Influencers Share Their Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them [Expert Roundup]

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56 Influencers Share Their Biggest Mistakes and How to Avoid Them [Expert Roundup]

In 2017, influencer marketing saw an exponential growth of 198%. A lot of this can be attributed to its efficacy in building brand awareness and improving business sales.

A perfectly executed influencer marketing campaign looks incredible and does a whole lot of good for brands. An objective third party might even call it effortless and organic.

But let’s be frank.

There is no playbook. No rules or guidelines. No framework that you can use to design that perfect campaign.

Influencer marketing is a tricky landscape to navigate with its ever-changing nature and emerging trends.

Each day presents new challenges which leave even the best of influencers stumped about how to improve engagement.

What works for one brand may not work for another. This uncertainty leaves them more susceptible to making mistakes.

While some influencer mistakes are more common than others, it’s important to be aware of all of them. After all, only when you’re aware of any pitfalls, can you avoid them.

Typical Influencer Mistakes

Before we move on to hear from the experts, let’s take a quick peek at some common influencer mistakes.

Saying “Yes” to Everything

I’ve seen this a few times with new influencers. They tend to say yes to any brands that approach them without considering whether or not the brand aligns with their niche.

Other than that, they also tend to agree with anything the brand or agency tells them to do.

It’s important to question whether the brand and the content a brand is suggesting will fit well with your audience.

Ignoring FTC Guidelines

Another common influencer mistake I see new and experienced influencers make is ignoring the FTC guidelines.

According to the guidelines, it’s critical that brands and influencers disclose their paid partnerships to consumers to ensure they make informed decisions.

Not everyone understands which partnerships call for a #ad or #paid hashtag.

Buying Fake Follower and Engagement

The biggest influencer mistake an influencer can make is buying fake followers and engagement. Whether it’s through comment pods or using bots, either way, it’s just wrong.

I understand that it’s a numbers game, but using fake numbers only tarnishes your reputation and that of the industry.

There are many other mistakes influencers make. The important thing is learning from your mistakes and those of others.

That’s the aim of this expert roundup. So, without further ado, lets hear from the experts about the biggest influencer mistakes they’ve made in the past, and how you can avoid them.

Please note: This roundup has been structured in ascending order, and not according to expertise.

#1. Andrea Learned – Learned On

The biggest influencer mistake: I could definitely have owned it a bit earlier on in my career.

Whether you have 500 followers in your very specific niche sector or one million in another, if people are starting to “listen” to you and are re-sharing what you have to say – that’s a responsibility.

Be proactive, not reactive. Make your own policy about how you want to engage and what you most hope to contribute to the conversations.

You DO have a unique perspective and deep wisdom that can help others – and you probably have that right now. (You don’t have to be in the C-Suite to be an influencer, either – p.s.)

#2. Andy Crestodina – Orbit Media

The biggest influencer mistake: For years, I contributed to everything possible: contributor quotes, roundups, interviews and HARO requests. Some contributions went live, some never even saw the light of day.

I never paid attention or followed up. Then I gradually learned that a lot of these could be repurposed and combined into bigger pieces of content.

So now I save all of these little emailed conversations, quotes and contributions. They go in a folder and once a year or so, I dig in and look for opportunities to repurpose all of those answers …and it’s a gold mine.

It’s turned into a fast way for me to create high-value, keyphrase-focused content. It still takes work to hammer 12 contributions into an article, but it’s faster than starting from scratch!

The biggest influencer mistake is if you’re a bootstrapping influencer who came out of nowhere – in other words, you didn’t inherit millions from daddy you can spend on a publicist- then it takes consistent hustle to create and maintain your influence. And the more consistent you are, the more your influence grows every day, just like a savings account.

It helps to love what you do, but you also need to watch out for ADHD. One of the biggest influencer mistake I’ve made is jumping from one fascinating strategy or platform or channel to another a little bit too much.

I might get all focused in on Facebook video or Instagram for a while and neglect the other platforms and channels, and they don’t grow or benefit me as much as they could.

I haven’t been as consistent as I could have been with blogging every week, tweeting all the time and continually answering HARO requests.

The lesson is, you should create a consistent doable plan (don’t bite off more than you’re going to be able to chew), and delegate any parts of it that you can, or parts you find to be drudgery so that you get consistent results.

You can find affordable virtual assistants on websites like upwork or fiverr. Create an influencer growth plan and execute it consistently every week.

#4. Brian Hart – Flackable

The biggest influencer mistake: One of the most common and noticeable influencer mistake newbies make is losing site of what got them there in the first place.

In my case, it was my witty, edgy and honest tone that helped me stand out from others in my industry and prompted my online following to snowball.

Initially, I responded to this surge in influence by softening my tone and playing it safe, reluctant to take risks that could turn off a portion of my following, however small it might be.

What I found was that by trying to please everyone, I was no longer inspiring or motivating anyone.

Since coming to that realization, I have shifted my tone back to where it had been, embracing my true personality, passion and humor.

#5. Cameron Conaway – Solace

The biggest influencer mistake: My biggest influencer mistake resulted from a brief period of saying yes to whatever came my way.

I ended up taking on what for me was an exciting experience but not one that resonated with my audience.

The lesson: It’s essential for those considered influencers to have a deep understanding of the micro-audiences within their overall audience, and to make decisions accordingly.

#6. Chad Pollitt – InPowered

The biggest influencer mistake is at the beginning of this year I embarked on three high-commitment influencer projects involving ebooks and grossly underestimated the amount of time they would take to execute. The end result – grossly underpaid. It wasn’t the client’s fault, it was mine.

Whatever time you think it’s going to take to execute a high-commitment influencer campaign make sure to add another 20% to 60% (the range is broad because some people are better at estimating project timelines than others) to the estimate. That’s your cushion. One of the projects I worked on actually took me twice as long as originally estimated. Build in a cushion you’re comfortable with.

#7. Charlene Li – Altimeter

The biggest influencer mistake I’ve made is not pushing hard enough.

There have been a few times when I’ve succumbed to the pressure to post something, anything to just be present.

That’s not enough — every time I share or post, I need to push myself to be as relevant as possible.

If my palms aren’t sweating at least a little, I know that I’m just dialing it in.

The biggest influencer mistake: One of the biggest influencer mistakes I have made was letting the Agency or the Brand in the past in simple terms, “run the show.”

By that I mean, wait for the brand to suggest creative, activation platform, budget, etc.

What I have learned over the past 10 years working in this space is that this landscape is foreign to most people and they need to be advised on what YOUR capabilities, creative concepts, and dominate channels are.

In many cases it is easier for an influencer to ask for a creative budget and share with the client what creative and scope of work they can do within that budget.

This helps streamline the conversation and eliminate endless email chains. As the influencer we know what are audience interests and engagement behavior is like.

We need to run the show and educate the brand on the most authentic way to connect with our community! Try this tips to avoid influencer mistakes as an influencer.

The biggest influencer mistake I made as an influencer is not collaborating sooner with other influencers to collectively grow our businesses.

Not only do you get to form a deeper relationship with someone, but you can also leverage each others networks to grow faster.

#10. Chris Abraham – Gerris Corp

The biggest influencer mistake I’ve ever made as an influencer is not knowing my market value accurately without allowing either ego or insecurity to come into play.

When you’re being reduced to being an influencer, you’re professionally productized for your ability to meet business KPIs. It’s more akin to a cattle call or auditions.

If you dot all the I’s, you’ll be successful. But if you don’t know your value proposition, both positive or negative, then you’ll have less of a chance of being successful.

Don’t be either a primadonna or a shrinking violet. It’s only business, only showbiz.

The biggest influencer mistake is thinking that being named as an ‘Influencer’ has any other benefit other than helping get your foot in the door is a biggest influencer mistake you made as an Influencer.

I’ve been ranked as an Influencer various times, sometimes data was used, sometimes no data-backed method was used at all.

The only real benefit I’ve seen is it’s helped me get my foot in the door with potential clients, collaboration opportunities, speaking opportunities etc.

Once my foot was in the door, being named as an Influencer means nothing. I have to deliver on whatever is expected of me.

Because of this, my #1 tip is to focus on getting good at your craft, not becoming an influencer.

The biggest influencer mistake is when you’re considered an influencer, your community trusts you. They look to you for important information and ideas, and they’ll act upon your suggestions.

You have a responsibility to them first and to live up to their expectations. When you develop this kind of bond, endorsing products is all about what your community likes and needs.

Your fans will quickly tell you when they’re happy about what you’re offering through a collaboration with a brand, and what they don’t like.

Who you align with can be a win-win for everyone.

But, if you don’t fully research the company and product, and believe in the community benefits, then you’re fans will realize quickly that it’s not their best interest you have at heart.

The biggest influencer mistake: When influencer marketing platforms first launched, I threw my hat in the ring and received some great offers for promoting a brand via social media.

The problem was that it wasn’t a match for my followers and my community pushed back – thinking I just sold out.

I realized that I put a decade of trust and authority on the line for a few bucks… something I’ll never do again.

If you don’t believe in the brands, products, or people you’re promoting, don’t do it!

The biggest influencer mistake: One of the biggest influencer mistake you can make as an influencer is to forget how you become one.

Generally speaking, it’s because of some well formed set of messages or value you bring to your audience.

In my case, this was based on two decades of time invested in SEO and content marketing, and a willingness to freely share anything and everything I’ve learned.

At the heart of that was putting in the effort to learn the material very well, and then to ALSO put in the effort to the presentation or content that I developed around what I learned.

Over the past five years, I’ve had a couple of experiences where I ran out of time to put together a killer presentation for my audience for a speaking event.

My background on the material I’m presenting is usually strong enough that I can still do OK with such a presentation, but OK isn’t good enough.

I strive to provide the best possible experience for people to come hear me speak. When I know I’ve nailed it, it’s an extremely gratifying feeling, and when I realize that I fell short, it’s such a disappointment.

The lesson?

Never let lack of preparation be the reason you don’t give your best show on stage.

Each time you get on stage, it’s an opportunity to help people, and to make a difference in their lives, even if it’s only in some technical aspect of how they do their jobs. Don’t ever waste it!

The biggest influencer mistake I made as an influencer was taking on a brand as a favor to another client.

I knew it wasn’t a fit with my values but tried to make it work because I wanted to help my client out.

We stopped it after one month, it was the most work I’ve ever had to put into a relationship, and it wasn’t a win for either party.

I never made that mistake again.

#16. Gerry Moran – Cognizant

The biggest influencer mistake: Like they say when it comes to the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play—and the more you play, the more chances you have to win.

Winning in the influencer game is to be present on social, in blogs, and on search. Our common biggest influencer mistake is the inability to be found and be relevant—and it has been my biggest mistake.

The biggest challenge of any content marketer or social media expert is to create a regular cadence of educational and engaging messaging that rises above the content cacophony. This steady feed of content helps influencers remain relevant and top-of-mind. The problem for many of us, is we run a large brand’s content marketing or social media strategy and find it hard to carve out content creation time.

My five recommendations for any of us to fix this production and visibility mistake are:

1. Address Pain Points. Pay attention to your company’s or client’s ecosystem and identify acute and singular breaks in the system to write about.

2. Use Your Unique Voice on Social Media. Connect pain points with insights that you go ‘aha’, while using a unique voice.

3. Write Smaller Posts. Throw out the idea you need to write a 2,500-word blog post because it’s best practice. Just write something so others can find it.

4. Avoid Best Practice. If we all did things according to best practice, then we’d all be mediocre, right? Of course, you need to do things the ‘right way,’ however, innovation and creativity are not pages out of today’s best-practice playbooks.

5. Find Your Own Influencer to Kick You in The Butt. Find your own cheerleader or influencer to challenge your exposure or lack thereof. You need someone who will support and challenge you to get out there and share with the world, so it becomes a better place, even if it’s just content marketing (in my case).

So, get out there and win the influencer game by playing more to increase your odds of being found and having a positive impact!

The biggest influencer mistake: I want to give you some inspiration today.

People look at me and think I’m suppose to know everything, that I’m supposed to be the pro and the guru guy, and that there’s just a handful of us leading the way when it comes to social media, sales, and business.

Nobody always knows what they are doing folks. That includes Gary Vaynerchuk, Tai Lopez, Tony Robbins, or any other top influencer.

So instead of feeling bad, take action.

I’m still learning each month how to do things better.

The biggest influencer mistake I made in the past was thinking that I had “made it” and stopped trying to further grow in my knowledge.

The moment you think you’re the man (or woman) who is the top influencer, you stop growing and began to contract.

So never ever stop learning.

I am a top sales trainer but I’m still looking to improve my skills!

#18. Holly Pavlika – Inmar

The biggest influencer mistake: A personal tip, if you want to become an influencer then you need to take the time to answer everyone who reaches out regardless of who they are and their perceived level of influence.

I am connected to other influencers and I find all too often they will share my content but then when I directly ask them what they thought of the piece I only get crickets.

This makes an influencer feel used for their content and name.

Of course, I’ve made mistakes along the way because that’s how you learn.

I was in a Klout contest and in the spur of the moment chose a hashtag #momthevote which went a bit viral.

I had not done my research and apparently this other organization felt they owned that hashtag even though you can’t own/trademark a hashtag.

The organization got ugly about it. I apologized and changed my hashtag and they disappeared back into the atmosphere.

Moral of the story is: do your homework.

#19. Ian Brodie – Ian Brodie

The biggest influencer mistake: For me, the biggest influencer mistake is to rest on your laurels – to think because you’ve “made it” (in your own small world) that now it will all happen automatically and you don’t have to do all the things that made you an influencer in the first place.

Of course that’s not true.

You need to keep up with whatever it was that brought you influence in the first place: high quality blog posts, live video etc.

You need to keep being the person you were (e.g. interacting and helping your audience) and not somehow think you’re something special because you’ve been named in a few “top 10” lists and got quoted a few times.

The biggest influencer mistake is not re-evaluating the list of influencers I was connecting with on a regular basis.

When you start off and want to build influence you need to build the list of influencers and start building relationships with them.

But, you need to keep evaluating this list and watch out for the up and coming people.

If you can spot talent you can invest time in them at an early stage and this will reap huge benefits in the longer term.

#21. Jaime Masters – Ownerbox

The biggest influencer mistake: I’m sure I’ve made a ton of mistakes, but one of the biggest influencer mistake is caring too much what everyone else thinks.

I’m very opinionated in my business views, and trends and I wouldn’t share things that I thought would have too much controversy.

I remind myself a quote my father used to say, “There’s an ass for every seat.”

Everyone is going to have an opinion and online there will be a lot of craziness. But that doesn’t mean you have to keep quiet.

Shine that light! And set up a process to shield you from reading the craziness. Have your assistant go through comments and email before you.

The biggest influencer mistake is to worry about audience size and not the level of engagement.  I’m a big believer in always focusing on quality over quantity.

The biggest influencer mistake: Funny, but I didn’t know I was an influencer until now.

I guess the biggest influencer mistake I made along the way as an “influencer” was creating content that I thought was needed in the marketplace, and sharing it online.

It was a mistake because by doing something I am passionate about, I became an influencer by accident.

If you want to become an influencer, you can probably get there a lot faster by not following my path.

But then again, if you want to be influential and effective, you should share your passion with others.

So I would say the biggest influencer mistake you can make is to try and become an influencer in the first place.

The way to avoid that mistake is to be influential and genuinely helpful to your audience. If you can accomplish this, you’ll be an influencer without really trying.

The biggest influencer mistake is not getting everything in writing.

Make sure you have every part of an influencer agreement outlined with specifics–what you’ll provide, what they’ll provide, and the timelines for each and every deliverable.

Also, be sure that your contract specifies if you’re paid per activity (like an Instagram story) or for engagements (clicks on links).

Knowing what a company considers their KPIs for each campaign is also useful, as you can cite those data points in future negotiations.

The biggest influencer mistake is when working with brands, you need to make a strong concerted effort to promote the content as much as reasonably possible.

You may have to share a piece of work several times before your audience will see it and while it feels unnatural to share something so often, many of your readers and followers will have only seen it the one time they happened to catch it in their feed.

The biggest influencer mistake: I hate to say it but I’ve made this influencer mistake in my career. I let my ego get the better of me in relation to helping others.

When you’re able to drive a lot of traffic, connect a lot of people, or in some other way move marketing mountains for companies, you let things get to your head.

You don’t always treat people with the respect they deserve.

When someone with less experience asks for a favor, even if it won’t help you much in return, do the best you can to help them. Give back.

I think the biggest influencer mistake many influencers make is failing to pay it forward.

You worked hard to get where you are. Honor those with less experience who are busting their butts looking to grow and achieve success like you have.

The biggest influencer mistake is to remember just because you are an influencer doesn’t mean you are above people. When you first gain influence it’s easy to get overconfident and it’s important to remind yourself to use your influence to help others rather than feeding your ego.

#28. John Rampton – Calendar

The biggest influencer mistake: My biggest influencer mistake has been to not leverage my ability to influence as much as I could.

Becoming busy with a startup led me to produce less thought leadership content and miss opportunities where I could influence others through blog posts and articles.

To avoid that influencer mistake, I now take more time to identify all opportunities and then deliver my thought leadership to influence potential customers and other stakeholders.

I have a team that also helps to identify these opportunities while I also have automated much of the content sharing process.

#29. Johnathan Dane – KlientBoost

The biggest influencer mistake is trying to be an influencer before actually being one.

I think a lot of people focus on being everywhere and highlight that they’ve spoken at conferences, contributed to Forbes, or have 10k connections on LinkedIn, without haven actually built anything.

In my opinion, influence comes from practicality and a track record of something worth influencing from.

The goal is not to speak at conferences, write articles, or have connections – the goal is to build something that improves people’s lives.

The biggest and best influencers are the ones who try not to influence but let their walking do the talking.

The biggest influencer mistake: I’ve said things that were wrong. I’ve said things that were mean.

I’ve said things that sounded right and nice when I thought of them, but then somehow they came out the wrong way.

I’ve pushed members of my audience away because I got political.

I’ve been inconsistent in publishing content.

I’ve lacked focus. I’ve focused on the wrong things.

I’ve forgotten what I wanted to say while speaking. I’ve said things I wish I could unsay.

I’ve published writing with typos.

I’ve been proud. I’ve been arrogant. I’ve been insensitive. I’ve taken my audience for granted.

Despite all the mistakes I’ve made, there’s a clear winner for the biggest influencer mistake I’ve ever made:

Doing nothing.

If you want to be influential, you must do something.

Influence = action.

My biggest regret isn’t the video I wish I wouldn’t have made, it’s the video I wish I would have made.

It’s not the article I wrote that got me in hot water, it’s the article I never wrote, so I have no idea what would have happened.

“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’” – John Greenleaf Whittier

The biggest influencer mistake: My biggest influencer “mistake” was upload a picture with a famous politician of my country on social networks.

The reason of this picture was because we are working on a charity project, but a lot of people on social network attacked me for uploading that picture because they were thinking I was supporting the politician.

So, I think it is better don´t merge political issues with your personal brand because people could understand different things and affect your reputation.

The biggest influencer mistake I’ve made as an influencer is not analyzing the numbers.

If I could go back and start from the beginning, I would review our stats much more and in more detail.

Data is really the key to unlocking exactly what your audience likes (and doesn’t like) so you can focus on giving them the content they truly enjoy.

I would also focus more on engagement numbers and less on likes. Likes are great – but engagement is better.

When you have something people click on or comment on – that’s where you know you’ve made a connection and are serving your audience.

Once you uncover the trends and patterns, you can identify what works best for your brand and build better relationships with your community.

The biggest influencer mistake I have made about being an influencer is not realising soon enough that I was one. You just never know who you are influencing so be authentic and share what you know generously.

Plenty of people are looking for encouragement and we can all provide that with good quality content. Whether it be video tutorials, blog posts, podcasts or whatever else you are naturally good at.

Be Yourself – The World Is Watching!!

The biggest influencer mistake I’ve made is introducing myself at the start of presentations. What I do instead is get straight to what people are there to hear.

Compare this: “Hi, I’m Larry Kim and today I’m here to talk to you about the future of search engine rankings…”

To this: “Imagine a day in the not too distant future when everything we know today about search engine rankings is gone and replaced by machine learning algorithms.”

Don’t waste your intro by introducing yourself. People can always look you up.

Introduce your presentation content in an interesting way right off the bat.

The biggest influencer mistakes I have made so far in my journey as an influencer are some of the very same I have helped clients to overcome.

There are a few general misconceptions about the path people take to influence and their motivation for doing so. You may even have run into this line of thinking, yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, most of the speakers, authors, and podcasters I work with were initially reluctant to step into the spotlight; they aren’t trying to show off.

They are focused on their mission, their purpose, and their clients to the exclusion of nearly all else.

I was no exception. I was so focused on helping and serving others that I didn’t stop to consider leading from the front, rather than staying in the background. It simply didn’t occur to me that I should be on stage.

Leaders are passionate and devoted, so taking time to cultivate their own image is usually the last thing on their minds, until someone else steps in to point out that they are doing their potential audience a disservice by not sharing their expertise to a wider audience.

I was helping my clients to sell more books, get more and better paid speaking engagements, and grow their businesses through finding, engaging, and converting their ideal clients.

It took me longer than it should have to realize that I should be doing the same for myself.

To avoid the influencer mistakes I made make sure that you don’t overlook yourself while you are serving others.

Pay as much attention to your own business as you do to that of your clients. Show yourself the same grace you extend to others; it’s not selfish to take the time to focus on you.

Once you have looked inward and step up to share your vision, you will impact more people and change more lives for the better.

Your audience needs you, just as mine needs me. You can do this. Your time is now.

The biggest influencer mistake: When influencers don’t put an appropriate value on what they do, I think it’s a big influencer mistake. This can go two ways – overvaluing what your efforts or undervaluing your worth.  I’ve definitely made both mistakes.

I see many people who self-identify as influencers error on the side of overvaluing their ability to have impact.

Once achieving superficial popularity numbers in their network size, they’ll often equate those metrics with the ability to influence what the brand wants – sales, engagement, advocacy. Popularity alone is not the ability to influence change or action.

On the other hand, there are many subject matter experts with engaged communities of like-minded followers who are not cognizant of the influence they have. They don’t realize the things they do to be helpful have value and that their good nature can be taken advantage of.

Influencers mistake is avoidable by being aware and honest about the quality of their expertise, their network and how well their community engages.

Being accountable to performance for influencer activities should provide pro influencers plenty of justification for the fees they charge.

For subject matter experts, especially in the B2B world, don’t assume everything you do in partnership with a brand has to be solely beneficial to the brand.

The value exchange, whether in the form of exposure, access or compensation, should be equitable.

The biggest influencer mistake I made is when I got so angry about something that I had a lapse in judgment and heavily complained about it online.

Because of that, I’ve been told that I’m below others, that I’m lazy, a dick, a disgrace to entrepreneurs (even though I’ve never called myself an entrepreneur…), a spoiled crybaby and so forth.

What I got angry about is how food delivery services like Postmates don’t deliver to my door when every single other company like Pizza Hut, Dominos and small Korean restaurants have always found a way to make sure food gets straight to my door.

I only used delivery services twice a month, and half the time they failed to come up to my door.

This has led to arguments with drivers, with customer service representatives and so forth about how I couldn’t understand why other smaller companies were able to figure this out when a company that specializes in only one thing couldn’t figure it out.

To prevent this from ever happening again in my life, I have deleted all food delivery apps from my phone and have sworn to never order using a delivery service like Postmates again.

Sorry wifey, but if you want delivery, you’re gonna have to order it on your own because I’m not allowed to go anywhere near a food delivery app again.

Other can avoid making the same influencer mistakes by staying away from food delivery apps like Postmates as well.

The biggest influencer mistake: Thankfully, I haven’t really made any big influencer mistakes; but thinking back at the beginning, when I was just starting to gain influence, I remember how flattering it was to receive so many requests from brands to work with them…and how difficult it was to say no!

However, as influencers, we need to try to work with brands that we believe in and that would be relevant to our audience: if it isn’t something that your audience would need or want, what’s the point?

My biggest influencer mistake is having typo errors in my blog posts.

I’ve had this happen again just yesterday with a new post. I use spell checkers and grammar checks but there are still times that errors happen. They may be spelled right and be grammatically correct but the word means something else.

I’ve always been one to do things fast. My first grade teacher used to tell me to slow down and get it right instead of rushing through it.

I don’t let these errors fluster me anymore though. I used to want to hide under the desk until the error was corrected. I’ve had over 500 posts and and I’d say it happened about 5 times. I’m striving for 0 in the next 500 posts.

Luckily I have great friends on Twitter like Adrian Jock who let me know right away when he saw the error. I was able to fix it immediately.

Now I have a person that can now proof for me before publishing. I didn’t want to overwhelm them with proofing my own posts for Inspire to Thrive. They do proof my clients posts and ghost writing materials.

Thus, I must learn to delegate more going forward too.

#40. Maria Sipka – Linqia

The biggest influencer mistake an influencer can make is prioritizing vanity metrics like follower count above cultivating an organic following through authentically relevant content.

The prevalence of fake followers, bots, and other fraud-based influencer marketing practices have diluted the prestige of once-revered metrics like reach.

As audiences and marketers grow savvier, Influencers must invest more time creating engaging content that truly resonates, and less time bolstering follower counts in the name of perceived influence.

The best way to cultivate a strong following is to:

1. Be bold and anchor your storytelling on an emotional journey or experience that connects you with the reader.

2. Listen closely to the drumbeat of your audience on each specific platform (i.e comments, engagements, views, saves, CTR) to verify that the content you share resonates in an authentic way.

3. Once you’ve learned what works best with your core audience, use relevant hashtags to reach a wider, relevant audience with your performance-tested methodology.

With a focus on creating true value for your readers, in time you’ll see your followership rise in tandem with the effort you put in.

#41. Mari Smith – Mari Smith

The biggest influencer mistake: I would say not tooting my own horn enough about the Brand Ambassador work I do!

I’ve relied on brands/businesses reaching out to me in a variety of ways, so it’s all inbound. I do feel fortunate to be in this place; however, I know I could’ve done much more ambassador work over the years.

For other influencers, I recommend proactively including in your social channel bios, website, Messenger chatbot etc., that you offer influencer marketing services.

Apply for Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager at and fill out your portfolio once accepted.

Approach sponsors and joint venture partners for your Facebook Live broadcasts to help monetize your efforts better.

Also, proactively seek out and join a number of influencer marketing service platforms and/or agencies that can bring you consistent qualified ambassador clients.

You’ve worked hard to build your platform so make sure you’re optimizing and monetizing by bringing your audience highly relevant, quality offers.

#42. Mark Traphagen – Stone Temple

The biggest influencer mistake is not finding a particular focus when the focus topic that gained me my initial influence went away.

I gained industry prominence and reputation by becoming an expert in a particular platform, but then that platform lost its shine.

I’m still trying to find my next focus. Right now I’m known for a lot of things, which is good for getting more diverse opportunities, but the magic happens when you become the “go-to person” for a particular topic.

What you want to be hearing is, “Oh, you want to know about X? Go talk to Mark Traphagen.”

#43. Meghan DuCille – Mention

The biggest influencer mistake an Influencer can make is failing to remain authentic.

If you have an audience that flocks to your channel for key topics or themes, and you abruptly share content outside of this wheelhouse, you risk decreasing your credibility as an influencer.

The Influencer Marketing industry is evolving, very quickly. Now more than ever, it’s crucial that you take ownership of your own brand: be strategic about the partnerships you choose, and ensure they are the best fit for your audience.

If the brand values of a product or service don’t align with your brand story – you audience will notice.

Unsure if your content is authentic? Leverage your audience metrics like sentiment and engagements to develop insights on what content is working, and resonating with your audience.

The biggest influencer mistake I’ve made as an influencer is working with a brand on a very tactical campaign. Doing a few sponsored posts, or tweets doesn’t help anybody.

My advice for other influencers is to find a strategic partner where your expertise and passion aligns with their goals and work with them only on a strategic basis (12 months or more.)

The biggest influencer mistake: Always Know Who You Get into Bed With. This lesson I’m about to share is painful, because it just happened and the wound is still healing.

If you’re going to use your influence to recommend a product or service, know the product or service as much as you can prior and who you’re about to have a relationship with.

When you get into a relationship with a company and decide to use your influence to recommend that product or service to others, you ultimately are the one who will be held responsible should that product or service not deliver.

This just happened to me.

I invested in a startup for the last 3 years and thought I knew fully who I was working with. I was only a minority shareholder, and thus had little control over the direction of the business because the Founder and the board of investors were majority shareholders.

I did though use my Social influence to promote the company and drive its growth.

Upon realizing my recommendations to the company weren’t being listened to, I resigned, but it was too late and they closed the company shortly after my resigning, which reflected back on me.

Though I had no control, I do take ownership in my decision and it’s a lesson I think we all can learn from as influencers.

Fortunately, I’ve always maintained good relationships with others who know what I stand for and they’ve all been extremely supportive, even though individually, I feel terrible.

The one thing that I can share with you after being an entrepreneur 20+ years now is you learn daily.

As I move forward on my next new venture, for me personally I’ve made the decision that anything I do with using my influence will only be something I have control over its direction.

I know this isn’t possible for every influencer, but should you not have control, be willing to cut ties fast and have the “ABILITY & POWER” to use your influence to share why you’ve cut ties to those you’ve influenced.

The biggest influencer mistake I’ve ever made as an influencer was taking my social platforms and influencer status for granted.

When you diversify your focus too much, stop grinding daily, or don’t follow the nuanced changes in social media platforms then you start to fall behind.

There are countless people out there hustling to be the next YouTube Creator or Instagram influencer that will devote all of their energy to being the next big thing and taking your place.

Also, enjoy the organic traffic while you can because it is fleeting on all platforms just like on Facebook!

#47. Nadya Khoja – Venngage

The biggest influencer mistake: First of all, I actually really dislike the term “influencer” and find that people who refer to themselves as influencers have a bit too much of an ego.

Now I say this, because when I was first trying to build me “influence” I approached it with an inflamed ego, and the people I looked up to as influencers acted in a way that I tried to mimic.

These “influencers” were very cocky, self-involved and had no interest in talking to anyone at events or even via email if it didn’t benefit them exponentially.

Eventually I stopped trying to mimic this behavior and instead actually focused on trying to create content that helped people, staying around after a talk or session at a conference to answer questions 1-1, and being generally open to learning from all other people’s experiences (no matter what their level of “influence” is).

And of course, surrounding myself with more people like this, rather than those who considered themselves “too good” to talk to newer and less experiences marketers and entrepreneurs.

#48. Nellie Akalp – CorpNet

The biggest influencer mistake: As an influencer it’s important to find a balance between what the brand you’re working with wants, and what your community is used to seeing from you.

I’ve made the influencer mistake of partnering with some brands and the content we produce has not been aligned with what I normally share, so it feels a bit unnatural.

When you’re an influencer, your community uses you as a resource so it’s important to remain authentic.

But when getting paid from a brand you of course want to make them happy as well. It’s OK to push back a bit on the brand so you can ensure the content you produce together is a natural fit with what you normally share.

By following this tips to avoid influencer mistakes in the long run, it will create a more successful campaign because you will see positive engagement from your audience.

The biggest influencer mistake any influencer can make is believing everything has to be perfect before putting it out into the world.

As an entrepreneur and creative, it’s easy to fall into this trap. But what ends up happening is a spiral of continuously creating and rarely implementing.

I let this become my norm for the first year of my entrepreneurial career. I had many big ideas, but let perfectionism get in the way of taking action.

Don’t get caught in that cycle.

Ideate, create, launch.

Realize that good is good enough. You’ll only improve over time when you remember that a solid plan of action today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.

#50. Ruben Gamez – Docsketch

The biggest influencer mistake: I’m the type of person that doesn’t like to be the center of attention. Instead, I prefer or my products to be the things that become famous and attract all of the attention.

Because of this, when I first started being asked to speak at conferences or do podcast interviews, I would be too conservative in what I shared and it took me a while to open up (if I didn’t turn down the opportunity).

After a while I realized the the more I shared the better things went. If I felt a bit uncomfortable about how open I was being, it was probably a good thing.

So I’d tell others that have a similar personality, to open up more than what feels naturally comfortable. It pays off in many ways (and I really haven’t found much of a downside).

The biggest influencer mistake: I’m a video marketing strategist so I create videos all the time – both public (social media) and private (client training) but the one thing I’ve struggled with is consistency.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to that.

The biggest influencer mistake that I made was waiting too long to commit to a weekly show.

Committing to a show means not giving yourself an out. It means dedicating yourself and sticking to your show schedule no matter what life throws at you that week.

My recommendation is to dedicate yourself to producing a show on a schedule that works for you.

The biggest influencer mistake I made as an influencer was putting my needs above the needs of my followers.

For example, early on in my career as an influencer I had an opportunity to promote something to my audience that would’ve made me a good amount of money.

I didn’t do enough research to ensure that what I was going to promote was truly going to benefit my followers.  Unfortunately, what I promoted ended up backfiring, because it wasn’t quality and didn’t serve the needs of my audience.

As a result, I ended up losing some trust and goodwill that I had established with my audience.  It was a foolish mistake, being influenced by the money instead of truly wanting to serve my audience.

Since that one experience, I always remind myself to put my audience and followers first.  If I share anything, it must benefit them first and foremost.  If it can benefit me secondary, great, but that’s not my sole focus.

I believe that if I serve my audience first, with passion and honesty, that the financial rewards will follow that.

#53. Ted Rubin – Ted Rubin

The biggest influencer mistake I have made as an influencer is thinking brands are starting to understand and value those relationships beyond the post itself and the media value… awareness, impressions, clicks, etc.

The vast majority do not have a clue and do nothing to build and enhance the relationship. They don’t engage with your content, share or syndicate it, or use their effort to enhance the value in any way.

So do not make the mistake of thinking the brands that reach out will make any effort to make more of your content and influence beyond you simply posting.

The biggest influencer mistake: For too long I neglected marketing my own expertise and knowledge by allowing my client work to dominate my focus, time and energy. When I re-emerged and took a look around, I found it was much harder to gain mind share within the niche which I had helped pioneer. Don’t let this happen to you.

Always work on promoting your own expertise and experience no matter what. Doesn’t matter if you are working in a huge corporation or a small business. You’ll be better for it.

The biggest influencer mistake I’ve made is that I have misjudged my value to corporations many times. Often allowing myself to think that working for free or a small sum will show them I am a team player and good fit.

Marketing staff and agencies don’t really care much about this. They have budgets and goals and need to fill orders.

Just as dumb is the opposite. Acting like a celebrity or unprofessional.

Your value for audience and your ability to perform are vital but like every human encounter, business is about relationships.

Finding the balance of when to say yes and when to hold out will multiple your earnings. Try this tips to avoid influencer mistakes.

The biggest influencer mistake is once I handed over my blog to some SEO expert for optimization purposes and he came up with some weird statements, fumbled in my blog, tweaked things in search console and wrecked the thing up completely.

I then decided to take everything he did away and doubled my visits in a week.

One should always be weary of people using vocabulary you don’t understand even though you know quite a lot about the subject.

The SEO discipline is crammed with pseudo experts who, at the end of the day, have no clue about the way that Google indexes your content.

As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure one person knows at Google, they keep tweaking the algorithm and I’d very much doubt that this is in the hands of a single person/team.

Anyway they don’t make announcements about that for obvious reasons.

As to SEO, influencers should keep to simple, down to earth, things and produce good content for their audiences. They will be the real amplifiers of your content.

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.

Source: https://shanebarker.com/blog/influencer-mistakes-expert-roundup/

[maryhare96]

How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

Timing is everything.

This is more true than ever today, as the atomic half life of brand communication continues to shrink, victimized by algorithmic masters that dole out attention like Pez.

The massive flood of content created every second of every day about every topic and happening results in overwhelming competition for attention, as has been well-documented by Mark Schaefer, and others.

The antidote—at least in some circles—is newsjacking. Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book of the same name, where he defines the concept thusly:

“Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed.”

The important part of this definition is “breaking news story.” The intent of newsjacking as originally conceived is that your brand’s angle is the second paragraph in traditional media coverage of whatever is happening. The actual story is paragraph one.

Newsjacking was published in late 2011, and became deservedly popular, especially among public relations practitioners who saw it as a reliable recipe for merging long-lead story pitching with real-time earned media.

Oreo Killed Newsjacking

Just fifteen months later, however, the now-legendary Oreo Dunk in the Dark tweet was sent. With one tweet, Oreo and their agencies ushered in the era of “real-time marketing,” and “RTM” disciples rushed to set up Twitter war rooms to capitalized on every trending hashtag.

This shifted the notion of newsjacking from a way to get earned media coverage to a way to get more likes and shares on owned social media outlets. In short, Oreo’s Dunk stunt moved newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic.

Oreo's Dunk in the Dark tweet shifted newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic… Click To Tweet

This post from the Get Spokal blog illustrates the outcome. Nearly every one of their 15 newsjacking examples is a tweet, and essentially none show evidence of earned media coverage whatsoever (other than perhaps trade press talking about the clever tweet, thereby earning ego points among marketing peers, but not creating any real business value).

I am not a fan, and have never been a fan, of this kind of marketing. (In fact, my post “17 Mostly Failed Brand Tweets from The Oscars” is still one of the most-read posts in the history of this site.) For more, here’s a short video rant on why most brands are trying to hard to be clever, in real-time.

My three biggest problems with real-time marketing are:

Expensive to execute as you need always-on personnel + software

Ripe for missteps, especially when brands try to jump on hashtags and trends spawned from misfortune (as I covered comprehensively in “The 3 Social Media Rules for Death and Tragedy“)

Minimal impact. Even done well, do these real-time tweets create customers or keep customers? It feels so often like social media marketers doing marketing for the enjoyment of other social media marketers, and we don’t play that game at Convince & Convert.

Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

But all is not lost for the newsjacking premise. Today, it is easier than ever to create on-trend content in nearly real-time. With everyone carrying around a mobile production studio in their pants at all times, there’s not much excuse for not being able to produce content on the fly, beyond inertia and corporate process obstacles.

Further, with the one-click availability of live video, creating reaction content that inserts your angle into a breaking news story is as easy as making a sandwich (maybe easier if you insist on using a panini press).

4 ways using #contentmarketing for #newsjacking is better than #socialmedia http://bit.ly/2EPLhRW Click To Tweet

This approach—using content marketing for newsjacking rather than social media—has multiple advantages:

Can more fully express your ideas, especially with video

Can host the content marketing somewhere and give it a longer shelf life. Also, strong SEO benefits if the trend/story persists long enough for search traffic to accrue

You can still use social, but instead of social BEING the newsjack, social AMPLIFIES a more substantial piece of content that inserts your angle into the story

If desired, more ways to promote the newsjack with paid. Given that most social media newsjacks are on Twitter, your options for paid are… Twitter. With a content marketing newsjack, you can use paid Twitter, Facebook, IG, Linkedin, SEM, display, etc.

Anyone Can Use Content Marketing for Newsjacking

You do not need to be a big brand with an in-house video studio to engage in this form of content marketing as newsjacking. In fact, from a nimbleness perspective, I might argue that you’re better off being a small and scrappy business that can turn on a camera and record without sign-offs and hand wringing.

Dr. Tim Wood of Mission Family Chiropractic in Kelowna, British Columbia is a terrific small business example of content marketing newsjacking.

This year, the Kelowna area—the major city in Canada’s Okanagan region—has received a tremendous blanket of snow, far more than is typical for this area. Local media scrambled to cover the storms, with advice and counsel for local residents and visitors.

The last time this happened was in 2015, which was when Dr. Wood created his content marketing newsjacking: a video showing local residents how to shovel snow without injuring their backs:

It’s a useful, safe, three-shovel approach that I’m going to try next time we get a lot of snow here in Indiana!

KelownaNow.com is a large digital media platform for the region, and when this year’s snows rolled in, they discovered Dr. Wood’s video and promoted it on their site, and in their social media.

Newsjack accomplished!

Lessons from This Newsjack

Your content marketing newsjack attempt does not need to be highly polished. In fact, it’s authenticity is probably higher if it’s not perfect

Unlike social media newsjacks, if your content marketing is actually useful and has a home (Youtube, in this case) its newsjacking potential persists. Remember, Dr. Wood’s video was shot two years before it was picked up by local media

If and when your newsjack succeeds, re-amplify it yourself. This is the one flaw I see in Dr. Wood’s execution, as he did not re-post the video to his own social channels, even after it was picked up in the press.

Newsjacking was originally about earned media through real-time public relations. It was co-opted by social media to become more about “riding the hashtag” but that has limited upside and potentially large downside, in my estimation.

Instead, since we now have the ability to make credible content marketing (especially video) instantly, use that opportunity to pursue a newsjacking strategy that is rooted in content marketing, with social media as the amplification layer.

Big hat tip to my friend Jan Enns for bringing this case study to my attention, via a Linkedin post. 

http://ift.tt/2AhuFPo

#How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

[fairchildlingpo1]

How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

Timing is everything.

This is more true than ever today, as the atomic half life of brand communication continues to shrink, victimized by algorithmic masters that dole out attention like Pez.

The massive flood of content created every second of every day about every topic and happening results in overwhelming competition for attention, as has been well-documented by Mark Schaefer, and others.

The antidote—at least in some circles—is newsjacking. Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book of the same name, where he defines the concept thusly:

“Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed.”

The important part of this definition is “breaking news story.” The intent of newsjacking as originally conceived is that your brand’s angle is the second paragraph in traditional media coverage of whatever is happening. The actual story is paragraph one.

Newsjacking was published in late 2011, and became deservedly popular, especially among public relations practitioners who saw it as a reliable recipe for merging long-lead story pitching with real-time earned media.

Oreo Killed Newsjacking

Just fifteen months later, however, the now-legendary Oreo Dunk in the Dark tweet was sent. With one tweet, Oreo and their agencies ushered in the era of “real-time marketing,” and “RTM” disciples rushed to set up Twitter war rooms to capitalized on every trending hashtag.

This shifted the notion of newsjacking from a way to get earned media coverage to a way to get more likes and shares on owned social media outlets. In short, Oreo’s Dunk stunt moved newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic.

Oreo's Dunk in the Dark tweet shifted newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic… Click To Tweet

This post from the Get Spokal blog illustrates the outcome. Nearly every one of their 15 newsjacking examples is a tweet, and essentially none show evidence of earned media coverage whatsoever (other than perhaps trade press talking about the clever tweet, thereby earning ego points among marketing peers, but not creating any real business value).

I am not a fan, and have never been a fan, of this kind of marketing. (In fact, my post “17 Mostly Failed Brand Tweets from The Oscars” is still one of the most-read posts in the history of this site.) For more, here’s a short video rant on why most brands are trying to hard to be clever, in real-time.

My three biggest problems with real-time marketing are:

Expensive to execute as you need always-on personnel + software

Ripe for missteps, especially when brands try to jump on hashtags and trends spawned from misfortune (as I covered comprehensively in “The 3 Social Media Rules for Death and Tragedy“)

Minimal impact. Even done well, do these real-time tweets create customers or keep customers? It feels so often like social media marketers doing marketing for the enjoyment of other social media marketers, and we don’t play that game at Convince & Convert.

Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

But all is not lost for the newsjacking premise. Today, it is easier than ever to create on-trend content in nearly real-time. With everyone carrying around a mobile production studio in their pants at all times, there’s not much excuse for not being able to produce content on the fly, beyond inertia and corporate process obstacles.

Further, with the one-click availability of live video, creating reaction content that inserts your angle into a breaking news story is as easy as making a sandwich (maybe easier if you insist on using a panini press).

4 ways using #contentmarketing for #newsjacking is better than #socialmedia http://bit.ly/2EPLhRW Click To Tweet

This approach—using content marketing for newsjacking rather than social media—has multiple advantages:

Can more fully express your ideas, especially with video

Can host the content marketing somewhere and give it a longer shelf life. Also, strong SEO benefits if the trend/story persists long enough for search traffic to accrue

You can still use social, but instead of social BEING the newsjack, social AMPLIFIES a more substantial piece of content that inserts your angle into the story

If desired, more ways to promote the newsjack with paid. Given that most social media newsjacks are on Twitter, your options for paid are… Twitter. With a content marketing newsjack, you can use paid Twitter, Facebook, IG, Linkedin, SEM, display, etc.

Anyone Can Use Content Marketing for Newsjacking

You do not need to be a big brand with an in-house video studio to engage in this form of content marketing as newsjacking. In fact, from a nimbleness perspective, I might argue that you’re better off being a small and scrappy business that can turn on a camera and record without sign-offs and hand wringing.

Dr. Tim Wood of Mission Family Chiropractic in Kelowna, British Columbia is a terrific small business example of content marketing newsjacking.

This year, the Kelowna area—the major city in Canada’s Okanagan region—has received a tremendous blanket of snow, far more than is typical for this area. Local media scrambled to cover the storms, with advice and counsel for local residents and visitors.

The last time this happened was in 2015, which was when Dr. Wood created his content marketing newsjacking: a video showing local residents how to shovel snow without injuring their backs:

It’s a useful, safe, three-shovel approach that I’m going to try next time we get a lot of snow here in Indiana!

KelownaNow.com is a large digital media platform for the region, and when this year’s snows rolled in, they discovered Dr. Wood’s video and promoted it on their site, and in their social media.

Newsjack accomplished!

Lessons from This Newsjack

Your content marketing newsjack attempt does not need to be highly polished. In fact, it’s authenticity is probably higher if it’s not perfect

Unlike social media newsjacks, if your content marketing is actually useful and has a home (Youtube, in this case) its newsjacking potential persists. Remember, Dr. Wood’s video was shot two years before it was picked up by local media

If and when your newsjack succeeds, re-amplify it yourself. This is the one flaw I see in Dr. Wood’s execution, as he did not re-post the video to his own social channels, even after it was picked up in the press.

Newsjacking was originally about earned media through real-time public relations. It was co-opted by social media to become more about “riding the hashtag” but that has limited upside and potentially large downside, in my estimation.

Instead, since we now have the ability to make credible content marketing (especially video) instantly, use that opportunity to pursue a newsjacking strategy that is rooted in content marketing, with social media as the amplification layer.

Big hat tip to my friend Jan Enns for bringing this case study to my attention, via a Linkedin post. 

http://ift.tt/2AhuFPo

#How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

[kraussoutene]

How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

Timing is everything.

This is more true than ever today, as the atomic half life of brand communication continues to shrink, victimized by algorithmic masters that dole out attention like Pez.

The massive flood of content created every second of every day about every topic and happening results in overwhelming competition for attention, as has been well-documented by Mark Schaefer, and others.

The antidote—at least in some circles—is newsjacking. Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book of the same name, where he defines the concept thusly:

“Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed.”

The important part of this definition is “breaking news story.” The intent of newsjacking as originally conceived is that your brand’s angle is the second paragraph in traditional media coverage of whatever is happening. The actual story is paragraph one.

Newsjacking was published in late 2011, and became deservedly popular, especially among public relations practitioners who saw it as a reliable recipe for merging long-lead story pitching with real-time earned media.

Oreo Killed Newsjacking

Just fifteen months later, however, the now-legendary Oreo Dunk in the Dark tweet was sent. With one tweet, Oreo and their agencies ushered in the era of “real-time marketing,” and “RTM” disciples rushed to set up Twitter war rooms to capitalized on every trending hashtag.

This shifted the notion of newsjacking from a way to get earned media coverage to a way to get more likes and shares on owned social media outlets. In short, Oreo’s Dunk stunt moved newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic.

Oreo's Dunk in the Dark tweet shifted newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic… Click To Tweet

This post from the Get Spokal blog illustrates the outcome. Nearly every one of their 15 newsjacking examples is a tweet, and essentially none show evidence of earned media coverage whatsoever (other than perhaps trade press talking about the clever tweet, thereby earning ego points among marketing peers, but not creating any real business value).

I am not a fan, and have never been a fan, of this kind of marketing. (In fact, my post “17 Mostly Failed Brand Tweets from The Oscars” is still one of the most-read posts in the history of this site.) For more, here’s a short video rant on why most brands are trying to hard to be clever, in real-time.

My three biggest problems with real-time marketing are:

Expensive to execute as you need always-on personnel + software

Ripe for missteps, especially when brands try to jump on hashtags and trends spawned from misfortune (as I covered comprehensively in “The 3 Social Media Rules for Death and Tragedy“)

Minimal impact. Even done well, do these real-time tweets create customers or keep customers? It feels so often like social media marketers doing marketing for the enjoyment of other social media marketers, and we don’t play that game at Convince & Convert.

Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

But all is not lost for the newsjacking premise. Today, it is easier than ever to create on-trend content in nearly real-time. With everyone carrying around a mobile production studio in their pants at all times, there’s not much excuse for not being able to produce content on the fly, beyond inertia and corporate process obstacles.

Further, with the one-click availability of live video, creating reaction content that inserts your angle into a breaking news story is as easy as making a sandwich (maybe easier if you insist on using a panini press).

4 ways using #contentmarketing for #newsjacking is better than #socialmedia http://bit.ly/2EPLhRW Click To Tweet

This approach—using content marketing for newsjacking rather than social media—has multiple advantages:

Can more fully express your ideas, especially with video

Can host the content marketing somewhere and give it a longer shelf life. Also, strong SEO benefits if the trend/story persists long enough for search traffic to accrue

You can still use social, but instead of social BEING the newsjack, social AMPLIFIES a more substantial piece of content that inserts your angle into the story

If desired, more ways to promote the newsjack with paid. Given that most social media newsjacks are on Twitter, your options for paid are… Twitter. With a content marketing newsjack, you can use paid Twitter, Facebook, IG, Linkedin, SEM, display, etc.

Anyone Can Use Content Marketing for Newsjacking

You do not need to be a big brand with an in-house video studio to engage in this form of content marketing as newsjacking. In fact, from a nimbleness perspective, I might argue that you’re better off being a small and scrappy business that can turn on a camera and record without sign-offs and hand wringing.

Dr. Tim Wood of Mission Family Chiropractic in Kelowna, British Columbia is a terrific small business example of content marketing newsjacking.

This year, the Kelowna area—the major city in Canada’s Okanagan region—has received a tremendous blanket of snow, far more than is typical for this area. Local media scrambled to cover the storms, with advice and counsel for local residents and visitors.

The last time this happened was in 2015, which was when Dr. Wood created his content marketing newsjacking: a video showing local residents how to shovel snow without injuring their backs:

It’s a useful, safe, three-shovel approach that I’m going to try next time we get a lot of snow here in Indiana!

KelownaNow.com is a large digital media platform for the region, and when this year’s snows rolled in, they discovered Dr. Wood’s video and promoted it on their site, and in their social media.

Newsjack accomplished!

Lessons from This Newsjack

Your content marketing newsjack attempt does not need to be highly polished. In fact, it’s authenticity is probably higher if it’s not perfect

Unlike social media newsjacks, if your content marketing is actually useful and has a home (Youtube, in this case) its newsjacking potential persists. Remember, Dr. Wood’s video was shot two years before it was picked up by local media

If and when your newsjack succeeds, re-amplify it yourself. This is the one flaw I see in Dr. Wood’s execution, as he did not re-post the video to his own social channels, even after it was picked up in the press.

Newsjacking was originally about earned media through real-time public relations. It was co-opted by social media to become more about “riding the hashtag” but that has limited upside and potentially large downside, in my estimation.

Instead, since we now have the ability to make credible content marketing (especially video) instantly, use that opportunity to pursue a newsjacking strategy that is rooted in content marketing, with social media as the amplification layer.

Big hat tip to my friend Jan Enns for bringing this case study to my attention, via a Linkedin post. 

http://ift.tt/2AhuFPo

#How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

[dainiaolivahm]

How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

Timing is everything.

This is more true than ever today, as the atomic half life of brand communication continues to shrink, victimized by algorithmic masters that dole out attention like Pez.

The massive flood of content created every second of every day about every topic and happening results in overwhelming competition for attention, as has been well-documented by Mark Schaefer, and others.

The antidote—at least in some circles—is newsjacking. Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book of the same name, where he defines the concept thusly:

“Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed.”

The important part of this definition is “breaking news story.” The intent of newsjacking as originally conceived is that your brand’s angle is the second paragraph in traditional media coverage of whatever is happening. The actual story is paragraph one.

Newsjacking was published in late 2011, and became deservedly popular, especially among public relations practitioners who saw it as a reliable recipe for merging long-lead story pitching with real-time earned media.

Oreo Killed Newsjacking

Just fifteen months later, however, the now-legendary Oreo Dunk in the Dark tweet was sent. With one tweet, Oreo and their agencies ushered in the era of “real-time marketing,” and “RTM” disciples rushed to set up Twitter war rooms to capitalized on every trending hashtag.

This shifted the notion of newsjacking from a way to get earned media coverage to a way to get more likes and shares on owned social media outlets. In short, Oreo’s Dunk stunt moved newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic.

Oreo's Dunk in the Dark tweet shifted newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic… Click To Tweet

This post from the Get Spokal blog illustrates the outcome. Nearly every one of their 15 newsjacking examples is a tweet, and essentially none show evidence of earned media coverage whatsoever (other than perhaps trade press talking about the clever tweet, thereby earning ego points among marketing peers, but not creating any real business value).

I am not a fan, and have never been a fan, of this kind of marketing. (In fact, my post “17 Mostly Failed Brand Tweets from The Oscars” is still one of the most-read posts in the history of this site.) For more, here’s a short video rant on why most brands are trying to hard to be clever, in real-time.

My three biggest problems with real-time marketing are:

Expensive to execute as you need always-on personnel + software

Ripe for missteps, especially when brands try to jump on hashtags and trends spawned from misfortune (as I covered comprehensively in “The 3 Social Media Rules for Death and Tragedy“)

Minimal impact. Even done well, do these real-time tweets create customers or keep customers? It feels so often like social media marketers doing marketing for the enjoyment of other social media marketers, and we don’t play that game at Convince & Convert.

Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

But all is not lost for the newsjacking premise. Today, it is easier than ever to create on-trend content in nearly real-time. With everyone carrying around a mobile production studio in their pants at all times, there’s not much excuse for not being able to produce content on the fly, beyond inertia and corporate process obstacles.

Further, with the one-click availability of live video, creating reaction content that inserts your angle into a breaking news story is as easy as making a sandwich (maybe easier if you insist on using a panini press).

4 ways using #contentmarketing for #newsjacking is better than #socialmedia http://bit.ly/2EPLhRW Click To Tweet

This approach—using content marketing for newsjacking rather than social media—has multiple advantages:

Can more fully express your ideas, especially with video

Can host the content marketing somewhere and give it a longer shelf life. Also, strong SEO benefits if the trend/story persists long enough for search traffic to accrue

You can still use social, but instead of social BEING the newsjack, social AMPLIFIES a more substantial piece of content that inserts your angle into the story

If desired, more ways to promote the newsjack with paid. Given that most social media newsjacks are on Twitter, your options for paid are… Twitter. With a content marketing newsjack, you can use paid Twitter, Facebook, IG, Linkedin, SEM, display, etc.

Anyone Can Use Content Marketing for Newsjacking

You do not need to be a big brand with an in-house video studio to engage in this form of content marketing as newsjacking. In fact, from a nimbleness perspective, I might argue that you’re better off being a small and scrappy business that can turn on a camera and record without sign-offs and hand wringing.

Dr. Tim Wood of Mission Family Chiropractic in Kelowna, British Columbia is a terrific small business example of content marketing newsjacking.

This year, the Kelowna area—the major city in Canada’s Okanagan region—has received a tremendous blanket of snow, far more than is typical for this area. Local media scrambled to cover the storms, with advice and counsel for local residents and visitors.

The last time this happened was in 2015, which was when Dr. Wood created his content marketing newsjacking: a video showing local residents how to shovel snow without injuring their backs:

It’s a useful, safe, three-shovel approach that I’m going to try next time we get a lot of snow here in Indiana!

KelownaNow.com is a large digital media platform for the region, and when this year’s snows rolled in, they discovered Dr. Wood’s video and promoted it on their site, and in their social media.

Newsjack accomplished!

Lessons from This Newsjack

Your content marketing newsjack attempt does not need to be highly polished. In fact, it’s authenticity is probably higher if it’s not perfect

Unlike social media newsjacks, if your content marketing is actually useful and has a home (Youtube, in this case) its newsjacking potential persists. Remember, Dr. Wood’s video was shot two years before it was picked up by local media

If and when your newsjack succeeds, re-amplify it yourself. This is the one flaw I see in Dr. Wood’s execution, as he did not re-post the video to his own social channels, even after it was picked up in the press.

Newsjacking was originally about earned media through real-time public relations. It was co-opted by social media to become more about “riding the hashtag” but that has limited upside and potentially large downside, in my estimation.

Instead, since we now have the ability to make credible content marketing (especially video) instantly, use that opportunity to pursue a newsjacking strategy that is rooted in content marketing, with social media as the amplification layer.

Big hat tip to my friend Jan Enns for bringing this case study to my attention, via a Linkedin post. 

http://ift.tt/2AhuFPo

#How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

[conniecogeie]

How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

Timing is everything.

This is more true than ever today, as the atomic half life of brand communication continues to shrink, victimized by algorithmic masters that dole out attention like Pez.

The massive flood of content created every second of every day about every topic and happening results in overwhelming competition for attention, as has been well-documented by Mark Schaefer, and others.

The antidote—at least in some circles—is newsjacking. Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book of the same name, where he defines the concept thusly:

“Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed.”

The important part of this definition is “breaking news story.” The intent of newsjacking as originally conceived is that your brand’s angle is the second paragraph in traditional media coverage of whatever is happening. The actual story is paragraph one.

Newsjacking was published in late 2011, and became deservedly popular, especially among public relations practitioners who saw it as a reliable recipe for merging long-lead story pitching with real-time earned media.

Oreo Killed Newsjacking

Just fifteen months later, however, the now-legendary Oreo Dunk in the Dark tweet was sent. With one tweet, Oreo and their agencies ushered in the era of “real-time marketing,” and “RTM” disciples rushed to set up Twitter war rooms to capitalized on every trending hashtag.

This shifted the notion of newsjacking from a way to get earned media coverage to a way to get more likes and shares on owned social media outlets. In short, Oreo’s Dunk stunt moved newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic.

Oreo's Dunk in the Dark tweet shifted newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic… Click To Tweet

This post from the Get Spokal blog illustrates the outcome. Nearly every one of their 15 newsjacking examples is a tweet, and essentially none show evidence of earned media coverage whatsoever (other than perhaps trade press talking about the clever tweet, thereby earning ego points among marketing peers, but not creating any real business value).

I am not a fan, and have never been a fan, of this kind of marketing. (In fact, my post “17 Mostly Failed Brand Tweets from The Oscars” is still one of the most-read posts in the history of this site.) For more, here’s a short video rant on why most brands are trying to hard to be clever, in real-time.

My three biggest problems with real-time marketing are:

Expensive to execute as you need always-on personnel + software

Ripe for missteps, especially when brands try to jump on hashtags and trends spawned from misfortune (as I covered comprehensively in “The 3 Social Media Rules for Death and Tragedy“)

Minimal impact. Even done well, do these real-time tweets create customers or keep customers? It feels so often like social media marketers doing marketing for the enjoyment of other social media marketers, and we don’t play that game at Convince & Convert.

Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

But all is not lost for the newsjacking premise. Today, it is easier than ever to create on-trend content in nearly real-time. With everyone carrying around a mobile production studio in their pants at all times, there’s not much excuse for not being able to produce content on the fly, beyond inertia and corporate process obstacles.

Further, with the one-click availability of live video, creating reaction content that inserts your angle into a breaking news story is as easy as making a sandwich (maybe easier if you insist on using a panini press).

4 ways using #contentmarketing for #newsjacking is better than #socialmedia http://bit.ly/2EPLhRW Click To Tweet

This approach—using content marketing for newsjacking rather than social media—has multiple advantages:

Can more fully express your ideas, especially with video

Can host the content marketing somewhere and give it a longer shelf life. Also, strong SEO benefits if the trend/story persists long enough for search traffic to accrue

You can still use social, but instead of social BEING the newsjack, social AMPLIFIES a more substantial piece of content that inserts your angle into the story

If desired, more ways to promote the newsjack with paid. Given that most social media newsjacks are on Twitter, your options for paid are… Twitter. With a content marketing newsjack, you can use paid Twitter, Facebook, IG, Linkedin, SEM, display, etc.

Anyone Can Use Content Marketing for Newsjacking

You do not need to be a big brand with an in-house video studio to engage in this form of content marketing as newsjacking. In fact, from a nimbleness perspective, I might argue that you’re better off being a small and scrappy business that can turn on a camera and record without sign-offs and hand wringing.

Dr. Tim Wood of Mission Family Chiropractic in Kelowna, British Columbia is a terrific small business example of content marketing newsjacking.

This year, the Kelowna area—the major city in Canada’s Okanagan region—has received a tremendous blanket of snow, far more than is typical for this area. Local media scrambled to cover the storms, with advice and counsel for local residents and visitors.

The last time this happened was in 2015, which was when Dr. Wood created his content marketing newsjacking: a video showing local residents how to shovel snow without injuring their backs:

It’s a useful, safe, three-shovel approach that I’m going to try next time we get a lot of snow here in Indiana!

KelownaNow.com is a large digital media platform for the region, and when this year’s snows rolled in, they discovered Dr. Wood’s video and promoted it on their site, and in their social media.

Newsjack accomplished!

Lessons from This Newsjack

Your content marketing newsjack attempt does not need to be highly polished. In fact, it’s authenticity is probably higher if it’s not perfect

Unlike social media newsjacks, if your content marketing is actually useful and has a home (Youtube, in this case) its newsjacking potential persists. Remember, Dr. Wood’s video was shot two years before it was picked up by local media

If and when your newsjack succeeds, re-amplify it yourself. This is the one flaw I see in Dr. Wood’s execution, as he did not re-post the video to his own social channels, even after it was picked up in the press.

Newsjacking was originally about earned media through real-time public relations. It was co-opted by social media to become more about “riding the hashtag” but that has limited upside and potentially large downside, in my estimation.

Instead, since we now have the ability to make credible content marketing (especially video) instantly, use that opportunity to pursue a newsjacking strategy that is rooted in content marketing, with social media as the amplification layer.

Big hat tip to my friend Jan Enns for bringing this case study to my attention, via a Linkedin post. 

http://ift.tt/2AhuFPo

#How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

[christinesumpmg]

How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

Timing is everything.

This is more true than ever today, as the atomic half life of brand communication continues to shrink, victimized by algorithmic masters that dole out attention like Pez.

The massive flood of content created every second of every day about every topic and happening results in overwhelming competition for attention, as has been well-documented by Mark Schaefer, and others.

The antidote—at least in some circles—is newsjacking. Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book of the same name, where he defines the concept thusly:

“Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed.”

The important part of this definition is “breaking news story.” The intent of newsjacking as originally conceived is that your brand’s angle is the second paragraph in traditional media coverage of whatever is happening. The actual story is paragraph one.

Newsjacking was published in late 2011, and became deservedly popular, especially among public relations practitioners who saw it as a reliable recipe for merging long-lead story pitching with real-time earned media.

Oreo Killed Newsjacking

Just fifteen months later, however, the now-legendary Oreo Dunk in the Dark tweet was sent. With one tweet, Oreo and their agencies ushered in the era of “real-time marketing,” and “RTM” disciples rushed to set up Twitter war rooms to capitalized on every trending hashtag.

This shifted the notion of newsjacking from a way to get earned media coverage to a way to get more likes and shares on owned social media outlets. In short, Oreo’s Dunk stunt moved newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic.

Oreo's Dunk in the Dark tweet shifted newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic… Click To Tweet

This post from the Get Spokal blog illustrates the outcome. Nearly every one of their 15 newsjacking examples is a tweet, and essentially none show evidence of earned media coverage whatsoever (other than perhaps trade press talking about the clever tweet, thereby earning ego points among marketing peers, but not creating any real business value).

I am not a fan, and have never been a fan, of this kind of marketing. (In fact, my post “17 Mostly Failed Brand Tweets from The Oscars” is still one of the most-read posts in the history of this site.) For more, here’s a short video rant on why most brands are trying to hard to be clever, in real-time.

My three biggest problems with real-time marketing are:

Expensive to execute as you need always-on personnel + software

Ripe for missteps, especially when brands try to jump on hashtags and trends spawned from misfortune (as I covered comprehensively in “The 3 Social Media Rules for Death and Tragedy“)

Minimal impact. Even done well, do these real-time tweets create customers or keep customers? It feels so often like social media marketers doing marketing for the enjoyment of other social media marketers, and we don’t play that game at Convince & Convert.

Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

But all is not lost for the newsjacking premise. Today, it is easier than ever to create on-trend content in nearly real-time. With everyone carrying around a mobile production studio in their pants at all times, there’s not much excuse for not being able to produce content on the fly, beyond inertia and corporate process obstacles.

Further, with the one-click availability of live video, creating reaction content that inserts your angle into a breaking news story is as easy as making a sandwich (maybe easier if you insist on using a panini press).

4 ways using #contentmarketing for #newsjacking is better than #socialmedia http://bit.ly/2EPLhRW Click To Tweet

This approach—using content marketing for newsjacking rather than social media—has multiple advantages:

Can more fully express your ideas, especially with video

Can host the content marketing somewhere and give it a longer shelf life. Also, strong SEO benefits if the trend/story persists long enough for search traffic to accrue

You can still use social, but instead of social BEING the newsjack, social AMPLIFIES a more substantial piece of content that inserts your angle into the story

If desired, more ways to promote the newsjack with paid. Given that most social media newsjacks are on Twitter, your options for paid are… Twitter. With a content marketing newsjack, you can use paid Twitter, Facebook, IG, Linkedin, SEM, display, etc.

Anyone Can Use Content Marketing for Newsjacking

You do not need to be a big brand with an in-house video studio to engage in this form of content marketing as newsjacking. In fact, from a nimbleness perspective, I might argue that you’re better off being a small and scrappy business that can turn on a camera and record without sign-offs and hand wringing.

Dr. Tim Wood of Mission Family Chiropractic in Kelowna, British Columbia is a terrific small business example of content marketing newsjacking.

This year, the Kelowna area—the major city in Canada’s Okanagan region—has received a tremendous blanket of snow, far more than is typical for this area. Local media scrambled to cover the storms, with advice and counsel for local residents and visitors.

The last time this happened was in 2015, which was when Dr. Wood created his content marketing newsjacking: a video showing local residents how to shovel snow without injuring their backs:

It’s a useful, safe, three-shovel approach that I’m going to try next time we get a lot of snow here in Indiana!

KelownaNow.com is a large digital media platform for the region, and when this year’s snows rolled in, they discovered Dr. Wood’s video and promoted it on their site, and in their social media.

Newsjack accomplished!

Lessons from This Newsjack

Your content marketing newsjack attempt does not need to be highly polished. In fact, it’s authenticity is probably higher if it’s not perfect

Unlike social media newsjacks, if your content marketing is actually useful and has a home (Youtube, in this case) its newsjacking potential persists. Remember, Dr. Wood’s video was shot two years before it was picked up by local media

If and when your newsjack succeeds, re-amplify it yourself. This is the one flaw I see in Dr. Wood’s execution, as he did not re-post the video to his own social channels, even after it was picked up in the press.

Newsjacking was originally about earned media through real-time public relations. It was co-opted by social media to become more about “riding the hashtag” but that has limited upside and potentially large downside, in my estimation.

Instead, since we now have the ability to make credible content marketing (especially video) instantly, use that opportunity to pursue a newsjacking strategy that is rooted in content marketing, with social media as the amplification layer.

Big hat tip to my friend Jan Enns for bringing this case study to my attention, via a Linkedin post. 

http://ift.tt/2AhuFPo

#How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

[christinesumpmg1]

How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

Timing is everything.

This is more true than ever today, as the atomic half life of brand communication continues to shrink, victimized by algorithmic masters that dole out attention like Pez.

The massive flood of content created every second of every day about every topic and happening results in overwhelming competition for attention, as has been well-documented by Mark Schaefer, and others.

The antidote—at least in some circles—is newsjacking. Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book of the same name, where he defines the concept thusly:

“Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story so you and your ideas get noticed.”

The important part of this definition is “breaking news story.” The intent of newsjacking as originally conceived is that your brand’s angle is the second paragraph in traditional media coverage of whatever is happening. The actual story is paragraph one.

Newsjacking was published in late 2011, and became deservedly popular, especially among public relations practitioners who saw it as a reliable recipe for merging long-lead story pitching with real-time earned media.

Oreo Killed Newsjacking

Just fifteen months later, however, the now-legendary Oreo Dunk in the Dark tweet was sent. With one tweet, Oreo and their agencies ushered in the era of “real-time marketing,” and “RTM” disciples rushed to set up Twitter war rooms to capitalized on every trending hashtag.

This shifted the notion of newsjacking from a way to get earned media coverage to a way to get more likes and shares on owned social media outlets. In short, Oreo’s Dunk stunt moved newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic.

Oreo's Dunk in the Dark tweet shifted newsjacking from a PR tactic to a social media tactic… Click To Tweet

This post from the Get Spokal blog illustrates the outcome. Nearly every one of their 15 newsjacking examples is a tweet, and essentially none show evidence of earned media coverage whatsoever (other than perhaps trade press talking about the clever tweet, thereby earning ego points among marketing peers, but not creating any real business value).

I am not a fan, and have never been a fan, of this kind of marketing. (In fact, my post “17 Mostly Failed Brand Tweets from The Oscars” is still one of the most-read posts in the history of this site.) For more, here’s a short video rant on why most brands are trying to hard to be clever, in real-time.

My three biggest problems with real-time marketing are:

Expensive to execute as you need always-on personnel + software

Ripe for missteps, especially when brands try to jump on hashtags and trends spawned from misfortune (as I covered comprehensively in “The 3 Social Media Rules for Death and Tragedy“)

Minimal impact. Even done well, do these real-time tweets create customers or keep customers? It feels so often like social media marketers doing marketing for the enjoyment of other social media marketers, and we don’t play that game at Convince & Convert.

Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking

But all is not lost for the newsjacking premise. Today, it is easier than ever to create on-trend content in nearly real-time. With everyone carrying around a mobile production studio in their pants at all times, there’s not much excuse for not being able to produce content on the fly, beyond inertia and corporate process obstacles.

Further, with the one-click availability of live video, creating reaction content that inserts your angle into a breaking news story is as easy as making a sandwich (maybe easier if you insist on using a panini press).

4 ways using #contentmarketing for #newsjacking is better than #socialmedia http://bit.ly/2EPLhRW Click To Tweet

This approach—using content marketing for newsjacking rather than social media—has multiple advantages:

Can more fully express your ideas, especially with video

Can host the content marketing somewhere and give it a longer shelf life. Also, strong SEO benefits if the trend/story persists long enough for search traffic to accrue

You can still use social, but instead of social BEING the newsjack, social AMPLIFIES a more substantial piece of content that inserts your angle into the story

If desired, more ways to promote the newsjack with paid. Given that most social media newsjacks are on Twitter, your options for paid are… Twitter. With a content marketing newsjack, you can use paid Twitter, Facebook, IG, Linkedin, SEM, display, etc.

Anyone Can Use Content Marketing for Newsjacking

You do not need to be a big brand with an in-house video studio to engage in this form of content marketing as newsjacking. In fact, from a nimbleness perspective, I might argue that you’re better off being a small and scrappy business that can turn on a camera and record without sign-offs and hand wringing.

Dr. Tim Wood of Mission Family Chiropractic in Kelowna, British Columbia is a terrific small business example of content marketing newsjacking.

This year, the Kelowna area—the major city in Canada’s Okanagan region—has received a tremendous blanket of snow, far more than is typical for this area. Local media scrambled to cover the storms, with advice and counsel for local residents and visitors.

The last time this happened was in 2015, which was when Dr. Wood created his content marketing newsjacking: a video showing local residents how to shovel snow without injuring their backs:

It’s a useful, safe, three-shovel approach that I’m going to try next time we get a lot of snow here in Indiana!

KelownaNow.com is a large digital media platform for the region, and when this year’s snows rolled in, they discovered Dr. Wood’s video and promoted it on their site, and in their social media.

Newsjack accomplished!

Lessons from This Newsjack

Your content marketing newsjack attempt does not need to be highly polished. In fact, it’s authenticity is probably higher if it’s not perfect

Unlike social media newsjacks, if your content marketing is actually useful and has a home (Youtube, in this case) its newsjacking potential persists. Remember, Dr. Wood’s video was shot two years before it was picked up by local media

If and when your newsjack succeeds, re-amplify it yourself. This is the one flaw I see in Dr. Wood’s execution, as he did not re-post the video to his own social channels, even after it was picked up in the press.

Newsjacking was originally about earned media through real-time public relations. It was co-opted by social media to become more about “riding the hashtag” but that has limited upside and potentially large downside, in my estimation.

Instead, since we now have the ability to make credible content marketing (especially video) instantly, use that opportunity to pursue a newsjacking strategy that is rooted in content marketing, with social media as the amplification layer.

Big hat tip to my friend Jan Enns for bringing this case study to my attention, via a Linkedin post. 

http://ift.tt/2AhuFPo

#How Content Marketing Can Save Newsjacking