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null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Digital Marketing Internship Program Offered By Satyam Chaudhary (Digital Marketing Coach and consultant)
Wow I am completely satisfied with my Guru Satyam Choudhary who has completely satisfied me with his work and has held my hand continuously and shared his extraordinary knowledge and experience with me. It was such an honest effort to write Been interrupted by the knowledge given by him in a few days, made me so capable that today I have been able to ask for work in many places so that I can earn money.
******Click Here****”
Because Satyam Chaudhary has shown so much honesty in sharing his knowledge in today’s time, I understand that it is also my duty to mentor Satyam Chaudhary, who is a consultant and established entrepreneur to digital marketing, with some of his internships, explain the good experience with you
A few months ago I was looking for an internship of digital marketing so that I could do a practice and earn money by doing some work in real time and it all became possible only and only because of Satyam ji
To start this work, I went through a lot of problems. For the first time, contact Satyam Chaudhary on Facebook, what to talk to him, how to share my problems, I have to learn something, how to say about digital marketing and from there My journey started.
I have gone through so many different real-time projects from the point I started which helps me to have an amazingly enlightening and truth-filled experience. I have gained so much knowledge under the guidance of my Mint and Satyam Chaudhary That I am able to personally work on any project and can successfully distribute all my work
I am very happy to share with you what I have learned so far.
· Search Engine Optimization
· Image Optimization
· Video Optimization
· Block & Block Writing
· Science Advertising & Victim Designing
· Ad Copy Designing
· Social Media Optimization
· Analysis Website
Using a variety of tools such as plagiarism tools SEO tools and many other tools my journey here also did not stop at the moment. You will wonder about Google Ads how I learned so many things in a few months and its very simple and straightforward The answer is here-
My mentor Satyam Chaudhary Digital Marketing Course and the internship program presented by it solves the difficult problem in the way it interprets marketing and gives an understanding of the subject in the marketing operation with real examples. Satyam Chaudhary’s internship program is specially designed for the session where we can solve our problem at the same time. And a very limited number of students are involved for better participation in each batch because each and every student can learn properly . all internships student can recorde in the program, enhances the quality of the class and gets better of the students so that the pace of learning increases very fast. People listen to and read the recorded class over and over again, even if we have forgotten something, it helps us to make all those things. I am very grateful to my Guru Satyam Chaudhary Digital Marketing Consultant and who gave me his experiences. They have taught me a priceless learning that has made my digital marketing so strong, personally as digital marketing I stand in my life. As a person not only as a digital marketing but my confidence has increased in every aspect, now I have started working on my projects due to their excellent teaching and also
I strongly recommend this internship program to every student will do those who want to pursue a career in digital marketing. I would like to thank Satyam Chaudhary again from the depths of my heart, who made it so easy for us to explain everything. Thank you very much for all your learning | Review Of The Internship Program By Satyam Chaudhary | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@nrenugoyal1965/review-of-the-internship-program-by-satyam-chaudhary-7ba994cb8dfd | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2021-01-07 15:46:26.996000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketers', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Marketing Company', 'Business Coach'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Digital Marketing in 2021 And How To Do It In The Right Way.
Hey Aspiring Digital Marketers,
Are you confused about how to get started with the Digital Marketing Industry and build a business empire in a pandemic?
Well, you are in the right place. Here, I will try to throw some light on the significant trends of Digital Marketing and What Digital Marketing is.
What is Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing?
According to the American Marketing Association,
Marketing is the activity, the set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating and delivering offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
Traditional Marketing includes promoting your products or services through offline channels like newspapers, radio, T.V., etc.
Digital Marketing is all about using the different types of channels to promote your business products or services and create an offering of value that customers choose your product or services over the competition.
How To Start Your Journey?
To Drive Wealth, understand the importance of CATT Funnel And Framework.
Choose your niche.
Choose the niche or category for which you wish to serve your audience or clients. Like, the Ed-Tech Industry, Retail Industry, eCommerce Industry, etc. Choose your niche wisely.
Create content that adds value.
Create content that adds value to the life of customers. Educate your customers with your industry, your values, beliefs, why, and how you and your product or services are unique.
Drive attention and traffic using content.
Create demand for your products or services through well-defined marketing strategies and keeping consumers at the core of your marketing strategies.
Build Trust and authentic relationships.
In business, it is significant to build real-authentic relationships based on trust. Create connections, empathize with your audience, and understand their needs and help them to solve them through your products or services.
Convert leads to your customers.
When targeting gets right, you can convert leads into customers with a natural sales method.
Integrated Digital Marketing Approach
Create Value-Added Content
Create relevant content that aligns with the business and marketing goals of your business. Schedule your content calendar and try to educate your audience with your product or service’s USP.
SEO
Understand the search intent of the user, do keyword research, and optimize your website with SEO tactics by doing Off-Page, On-Page, and Technical SEO activities.
Social Media
Drive traffic to your website by having an online presence on all Social Media Platforms and by engaging your users and helping them with their queries.
PPC Ads
Try to run google ads or Facebook ads to reach your relevant target audience as per their demographics, personas, etc.
Email Marketing
Connect More to Build trust with your customers by communicating with them through emails, retargeting ads, or marketing automation and educating them with your service or product offers.
Sell & Convert
You can only sell and convert your leads when they trust you and your services.
Lastly, I wish to end that it’s significant to get your hands dirty to learn marketing because marketing is all about experimenting and learning what went right and what all went wrong.
Happy Digital Learning and Marketing !! | Digital Marketing in 2021 And How To Do It In The Right Way. | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@parita.suchak99/digital-marketing-in-2021-and-how-to-do-it-in-the-right-way-987a0a387dd8 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Parita Suchak'] | 2021-02-07 00:00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Company'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Digital Marketing Made Easy Through Email Marketing's New Strategy.
How To Grow Your Business And Attract Potential Customers Using Digital Marketing Services In 2021?
The truth is that email marketing is one of the most effective medium businesses use to stay in touch with their customers and potential partners, which is also the most personalized conversation tool on the internet. Business owners and big corporations across the globe rely on email marketing to market their products and services, keep in touch with their customer base and maintain consistent customer involvement in terms of opinion review and feedback on their products and services. The best effective means of achieving this goal is to get the right email marketing company equipped with experienced experts who understand the entire digital marketing methodology and the specific strategies to apply in promoting your brand through digital advertisement designed to reach out to prospective targeted customers. By implementing this approach to your business model, in a short duration of time within weeks you will definitely see massive growth in your business which is basically making the right investment. One of the reputable and reliable companies best known for email marketing service is GetResponse.
GetResponse is a digital marketing platform that provides email marketing services to businesses across the globe. Their main objective is to manage your email marketing campaign, drive traffic to your website which consists of potential prospective clients, and boost your sales growth. They also offer so many additional features in order to maintain steady growth in your business. Big corporations including business owners both small and medium who use the platform acknowledged having day-to-day consistent growth in their businesses in terms of customer base expansion, new customer sign-up, and productivity increase. The integrity and trust they have built over the years have earned the company to be listed as one of the best digital marketing platforms in the world making them the customers favorite choice.
Click on the link below to learn more about the services they offer and take advantage of their best deals. www.GetResponse.com | Digital Marketing made easy through Email marketing's new strategy. | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@techtalk-post/digital-marketing-made-easy-through-email-marketings-new-strategy-a908c27f5895 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2021-01-01 00:42:53.255000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Email Marketing', 'Internet Marketing', 'Email Marketing Tips', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | What are the different remarketing ad types used by a digital marketing agency in Hyderabad?
You might have heard of marketing, but what could remarketing probably be about? So, to clear out the actual meaning of remarketing, we have come up with a clear explanation. Remarketing is involving the targeted customers who have already viewed a product or a webpage on the website, which means they have shown some interest in it, and thus showing them the ads. A digital marketing agency in Hyderabad will take users who have shown interest as an advantage and convince them to come back by attracting them with the ads. Remarketing strategies can be a great way to boost the relevancy and personalization of the ads displayed and marketers who find ways to boost the relevancy can create a better user experience.
We will now understand the different remarketing ad types used to boost success.
1. Displaying Ads: This is the most common remarketing strategy used, where the ads are displayed to the audience on Google display network and on social media platforms. Digital marketers will set up remarketing campaigns and make them appear as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Twitter Ads, etc. These platforms make an excellent means to reach millions of audiences.
2. Email re-marketing: This platform is another kind of remarketing strategy that marketers use, where they send out emails to the target people who have been opening the brand’s emails. This will help people to keep the brand’s product and service in the audience’s mind. Email remarketing is done to the users who open the email because they are the ones who have some interest in the products and services. This will help brands to get a few of them back to the website and take an action.
3. Remarketing list search ads: Just like display ads as mentioned in the first point, ads can also be displayed on the search engines. These remarketing ads will make it easy for the marketers to target the audience who have visited the website and are again using a search engine for searching similar terms online.
4. Search retargeting: This strategy offers a unique form of retargeting. When marketers utilize remarketing ads from search engines such as Google remarketing ads, they find customers who have searched for terms and looked at products that are similar to the brand’s own offerings, but they haven’t visited the website yet. This form of retargeting allows brands to broaden their reach. So, marketers will be able to specifically target those interested in competitors.
5. Video remarketing: Through Google, marketers can also display ads to people on YouTube. These videos are displayed to the people who have visited the brand’s channel or they can be retargeted through ads while the users browse elsewhere on the Google display network.
With this, you might have understood that remarketing can be a valuable and productive means of enticing customers who have already expressed an interest in the brand’s products or service. By remarketing, brand awareness can also be increased. | What are the different remarketing ad types used by a digital marketing agency in Hyderabad? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@monicageller3691/what-are-the-different-remarketing-ad-types-used-by-a-digital-marketing-agency-in-hyderabad-b2058d7cf26a | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Monica Geller'] | 2020-12-11 06:04:13.095000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Company', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | UPCOMING TRENDS IN DIGITAL MARKETING IN 2021
During the time of epidemic users of social media and internet have increased rapidly, so its important that we should give more priority to social media in 2021. And AI have introduced many new technologies and updates that both good and bad for digital marketing.
AI
AI have brought more personalization and many tools like google ads, voice search and video advertising, chatbots.
During the time of epidemic many business went down and many have changed their strategies of working. But digital marketing have advanced, digital marketing is considered to be one of the many business that have make more revenue during this period.
What is Chatbot?
Chatbot simply means a software that used for online chatting via text or voice command to a direct person, but in this case humans are not responding to the message but a computer program.
Different types of Chatbots-
# Support chatbots
# Skills chatbots
# Assistant bots
# Transactional bots
# Informational bots
# Conversational bots
Chatbots are used not just for answering the frequently asked questions but also it can process the natural language so we could understand what the customer really want. By upgrading to a AI chatbot which understand us and with good conversational abilities and also which it could run all our websites, messaging apps and customer service. this AI chatbots will really help you to run a business.
VOICE SEARCH
Voice search simply means instead of typing in a search engine we could just use our voice to search.
According to data shown next year there would be 5.11 billion users will use voice search tool.
Popular voice search tools are
# Google home
# Alexa
# Siri
IMPACT OF VOICE SEARCH IN DIGITAL MARKETING
Voice search engine have changed the search marketing. when someone using voice search, he would use his nature language and long keywords, so now its difficult to find out the keywords. Another important impact is we cant see our voice search ranking, at least not yet. Studies conducted and understand that voice search ecommerce have resulted almost 2 billion in amazon revenue and studies say that in 2022 it will increase to almost 42 billion or more.
In voice search the keywords will be more like “what is colonialization” “when is the next football tournament”, by this our existing keywords will not be use full and forming this kind off keywords are tough.
HOW TO OPTIMISE VOICE SEARCH
# Use long tail keywords
# Use conversational language
# Include featured snippets
# Always add valuable contents
# Use natural sounding
# Add action queries
# Your google my business profile should be completely filled.
Instagram
According to data, Instagram is the most popular social media site with 1 billion users. The important fact is that main users of Instagram is younger demographic. And by this mean Facebook loosing its prestige and its becomes the social media platform for “old people”. From this simple mean we could simply give ads to our targeted customer in according to their age.
WHATSAPP
WhatsApp is the trending chatting app. According to data WhatsApp have 2 billion active users and sending 55 billion message every day. So its clear that WhatsApp going to be the best canvas for advertisement very soon.
VIDEO ADVERTISEMENT/ MARKETING
Video marketing is the one of the best way for engaging our audience and giving more information about us. According to data 71% brands believe that videos make more conversion rate and many customers have reported that watching product video make them more confident to buy that product online. Live streaming are trends now, if the streaming is conducted by a celebrity that will give more belief in the product. | UPCOMING TRENDS IN DIGITAL MARKETING IN 2021 | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@abhijithsab07/upcoming-trends-in-digital-marketing-af50b4c91d00 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Abhijith Sabu'] | 2021-01-09 04:34:30.276000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Trends', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Social Media Marketing'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Image by author
How to do or get a good website for my company? What’s the cost?
The other day I was at a café to meet a prospect. He had some difficulties with his marketing and did not know where to start. It’s prevalent to feel overwhelmed and not know the first step to growing your business. As I drank my coffee, he explained his business-model and the areas where he taught he needed improvement. He also shared his goals and critical metrics he wanted to reach.
As the conversation progressed, we briefly analyzed his current branding, digital footprint, and everyday marketing activities. We noticed his website was not up to today’s standards, and it was not well designed.
Websites are the core marketing piece of any company. All traffic, either offline or online, will direct the customer or prospect to the company’s website. It is incredible that in 2019, based on a report by Smart Insights, only 64% of small businesses had a website. It does not mean these websites were functional or well-designed; a portion of those might be. What is even more surprising is that some businesses today don’t have a website at all (SmartInsights).
I was asked by my prospect (at the time), “How do I build a good website for my company? How do I know if I am getting the best possible website from someone that I hire?” He then continued asking, “Can I do it on my own?”. Questions like these are widespread amongst business owners and are a great starting point for digital marketing.
How do I build a great website?
Websites are HTML documents interpreted by web browsers and displayed to you on different devices like your phone, laptop, desktop, or tablet. Think of websites like a Word document. Every time you type an address is like telling your device to open that file at that specific location. When the file is retrieved, we expect the browser to display a structured document with media, text, effects, and other elements that might make up that document (or file) interesting.
As technology advances, so do our expectations; websites from 10-years ago are way different from those we see today. They will continue to evolve. Many programming languages have emerged, and new ones are coming up. So, how do you build a great website? There are a few options today.
Option one, you learn to code and design; this is the most challenging solution. You will have to dedicate time to learn CSS and HTML at the very least for an essential website. How fast you acquire the skill depends on you. Taking this route will be lengthy and time-consuming, especially if you need your website to be up in no-time.
Option two, you can sign-up to a DIY website platform like Weebly, Squarespace, or Wix. Building your site with the tools mentioned above is an excellent choice for many business owners, as you won’t have to learn how to code.
The downside is that you are limited to their platform and its capabilities. Another limitation is the designs are very generic, and they offer to all their other customers. You have to customize the template provided, or you will end up with the same website design as another company; this is no ‘bueno.’ The main concern here is design. If you don’t know how to make a website appealing and make it flow, it will be a nightmare for web visitors.
Option three, you hire an agency, just like us, MoreKeting. We will create a website that not only looks good and keeps consumer attention, but it is also functional. We have a process in which we investigate trends, your competition, and available solutions that you must provide value to your customers. We align with your needs, your customers’ needs, and your goals.
What did our customer do?
After answering all of these questions, my prospect sipped down a glass of water and I asked him, “What would you like to do?”. He replied with a smile, “You are right, if I wanted to do it by myself and do it good, I will have to learn first and that is not an option at the moment. I don’t have time to sign-up and use a DIY platform maybe still do it wrong, or maybe if I do it right the company grows but then expanding the website’s capabilities will be an issue.” I nodded my head as I listened to him and he continued. “I believe the best choice is to go with someone who knows what they are doing and will allow me to focus on my day-to-day responsibilities while the development of my website tailored to my needs is being built.” We can take care of the design and the programming, that is a given. Most importantly, we sit with our clients to understand their business, their market, and their customers. We also get a bit more technical and do market research, compare what the competition is doing, and analyze the competitive landscape to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. We develop a plan that aligns with your goals and expectations. We can adapt different technologies depending on your needs and create tailored solutions that comprehend and enhance your business model. We manage any size project, ranging from a regular brochure website to creating a custom platform. We can integrate your other solutions into a product you need to conceive. We have experience creating artificial intelligence that allows you to optimize tasks.
The question remains, how do you make sure you get the best possible vendor for this job? Let me guide you through to answer this question below.
How do I know if I am getting the best possible website from someone that I hire?
Picking the right consultant, agency, or developer for this role can be tricky, especially if you don’t have any technical knowledge or experience. Hiring the right talent for the first-time is crucial. Otherwise, you risk hurting your business, as well as wasting time and money seeking a replacement. Cheaper is not better. Here are our tips for hiring the right candidate for the job:
Check websites you like and write down what you want about the site.
Check out some websites and narrow down the ones you like the most. Write down what you want about these websites and get an understanding as to why you like them. After you gather this intel, seek what type of technology was this platform built on, what features are necessary for the website you want to create for your company. Gathering all of these details and visualizing your company needs will help you determine your site’s specs. The developer will be eternally grateful for your groundwork, as this facilitates scoping the project.
Start with a small project
Nobody wants to burn cash unnecessarily; therefore, give the vendor a try with a smaller project. See how they take care of your business. Look for excellent communication between you two, periodic updates, and status meetings. Evaluate the quality of the job presented and your experience with the firm. If this project is successful and you like how it went, it is more than safe to proceed with the big project.
Build the scope of the project
Now you are ready to go all for it! Now you feel better at ease to choose the right vendor for your job.
When you have a project like this, you must seek and request RFPs (Request For Proposal). An RFP document is a document that outlines the requirements of the project. This document provides a clear and comprehensive detail of what the project entails and protects both parties. An experienced firm will create one for you (usually not free) as it is labor-intensive. Once the RFP document is ready, you can work with the firm of your choice or request a quote from other firms; like this you will be comparing apples to apples.
We suggest that you marry the firm that handled well your smaller project. The firm that earned your trust with proven work and that speaks for itself, even if the cost is a bit more. Remember that in most cases, as it is cliché, you get what you pay for.
Nonetheless, we are here to help you start your small project and build to bigger things.
Reach us today to get started!
[email protected]; 786–273–9349
Visit our website: https://moreketing.us/
You can find us on Instagram as @moreketingus we post valuable content daily! | How to do or get a good website for my company? What’s the cost? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@moreketingus/how-to-do-or-get-a-good-website-for-my-company-whats-the-cost-4842770611ab | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-10-17 17:41:28.667000+00:00 | ['Website Design', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'UX Design', 'Content Marketing', 'Social Media Strategy'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | BRIGADE’s Digital Marketing Team explains why hiring a creative agency to manage your digital marketing is a smart idea. Here are three key reasons:
1. CONTENT IS KING…
And who creates better content than a creative agency?
It’s what we do. Whether you need a video, photo, infographic, gif, or any other type of visual (hint: your strategy should include all of these types of visual content), a creative design firm has got you covered.
At BRIGADE we have experience managing digital and social media marketing strategies as well as content creation, and take it from us: it is more difficult to produce quality content than it is to strategically distribute that content through digital channels and analyze the resulting metrics.
We aren’t downplaying the importance of digital marketing here. Ideally you would have both quality visual content AND a solid digital strategy, but given a choice between the two we would choose quality content every time. People engage with content. The world’s best digital strategy would be useless without amazing content. It’s content that goes viral, not a strategy document or project plan. Plus, the human attention span has dropped down to 8 seconds on average which means the most eye-catching and interesting content will take the lion’s share of attention.
Think of it this way: does it really make sense to hire a digital marketing agency that is going to outsource most of its creative work to a creative agency anyway? You’re better off just going straight to the source.
Case Study: Kim Crawford Wines
We created award-winning social media content for Kim Crawford Wines that is immediately eye catching and appealing. See more here.
2. CONSISTENCY IS KEY
One of the most important parts of creating a great brand is consistency.
Everything — every advertisement, every press release, every web page, every social media post — needs to reflect the overall brand with its messaging, colors, language, and so on. But many companies forget about their brand identity when they outsource digital marketing or have inexperienced employees handle it in-house, and many digital marketing agencies will not even take it into consideration.
Think of a brand like Starbucks: their photos and videos all have the same vibe, their language is always consistent (from web to social to print), and everything seems to just make sense. We get it — your company probably isn’t Starbucks and probably can’t produce the quality and quantity of content that they produce in-house.
So if you want your brand to have a kick-ass, consistent presence online and off like Starbucks, you’ll need to hire an agency to do it. And no one knows how to create brand consistency online and off better than a creative agency that specializes in doing just that.
Case Study: Ramblewild
With Ramblewild, we made sure the brand was consistent — from high quality custom photographs and text overlay images for social media, to print and other traditional materials. See more here.
3. THIS IS THE FUTURE
Let’s look into the crystal ball for a moment.
Here is what we see: content continues its reign over digital marketing, and digital channels continue to advance technologically while increasing in popularity.
This will mean two things: 1) companies will be able to more easily share content of varying formats to more people through digital channels; and 2) expectations for high-quality content will skyrocket.
In this day and age, and even more so in the future, you will need high-quality visual content in order to stand out from the pack. If you’re publishing content that isn’t branded and badass, if it’s bland and boring, you might as well not waste your time.
More and more companies are taking to social media and other digital channels like Google AdWords to engage their customers, but those companies that continue to rely on an undermanned, inexperienced in-house digital marketing team (because, let’s face it, you’re not Starbucks) will be left by the wayside. Likewise, those companies that entrust their digital efforts to an agency touting strategy and nothing else will fail to meet their customers’ expectations for outstanding content.
So, what can you do to prepare for the future of digital marketing? Come see us.
At BRIGADE, we understand the importance of creating a kick-ass brand that’s consistent across platforms. That’s why we don’t just focus on building awesome brands and designing standout packaging for products, but also on growing and improving your brand’s presence online using strategic digital marketing. And as a creative agency at heart, we have the advantage of 20+ designers, creatives, photographers and stylists who can create engaging and on-brand content that is sure to get attention.
Check out some of the other work we’ve done in the past, or connect with us on Facebook. | 3 Reasons A Creative Agency Should Be Doing Your Digital Marketing | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@wearebrigade/3-reasons-a-creative-agency-should-be-doing-your-digital-marketing-f03d0559f25a | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-11-11 15:37:17.519000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Digital Marketing VS Traditional marketing
Marketing is the activity of a business to advertising and selling goods. And services also containing market inquiry and ad. Basically, it means to reason to know to call to mind, to do. It is a very required method of trade.
Now, I’m here to define the difference betwixt the 2.
Digital Marketing:
Digital marketing includes all marketing activities that use the internet. Businesses contact digital techniques such as search engines, email, social media. And other websites to link up with the current.
A long-serving inward marketer might say inward marketing. And digital marketing is almost the same thing. But there are a few little differences. And discussions with business owners and marketers.
When traditional marketing might consist of phone connection, print ads, or physical marketing. Then digital marketing can happen online. There are many conveniences for labels to achieve clients. Those are video, search engines, email, and social media.
It appears like each other brand has a WWW site. If they don’t, they have at least a social media presence. Digital marketing and content are so popular that clients now want to learn about brands.
You can gain genius and analysis with a medley of marketing channels on funds. In digital marketing, you can also practice tools like data dashboards to auditor success.
Digital marketing described by the use of a number of digital strategies to connect with clients. They pass much of their time online.
Digital marketing types:
Sponsored Content:
Content with funded, you alone to make and marketing content that expresses your service or brand in any way.
Online PR:
Engaging comments on your personal website or blog.
Engaging online reviews of your company.
Reporter outreach via social media.
Marketing Automation:
Social media post-booking.
Email journalists.
Campaign reporting and tracking.
Lead-nurturing workflows.
Affiliate marketing:
From your social media accounts posting affiliate links.
Through YouTube Channels, hosting video ads.
Social Media Marketing:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Linkedin
Pinterest
Snapshot YouTube
Search Engine Optimization:
SEO is the technique of developing your web page to “level” higher in search engine results pages. Growing the amount of free traffic your website takes. The campaign that interests search engine enhance involves websites, infographics, and blogs.
Inbound Marketing:
Video marketing vs. commercial advertising
Blogging vs. pop-up ads
Email contact lists vs. email spam
Email Marketing:
Customers welcome emails.
Blog subscription newsletters.
Holiday promotions to loyalty program members.
Native Advertising:
It mentions ads that are mainly featured and content-led on a platform near other, free content.
Pay Per Click (PPC):
On Linkedin of sponsored massage.
Ads Campaign on Twitter.
Paid ads on Facebook.
Content Marketing:
It indicates the promotion and creation of content goods for the point of including brand awareness, lead generation, traffic growth, and clients.
Traditional Marketing:
Trаdіtіоnаl marketing primarily attentions on the соmраnу аnd thе рrоduсt.It depends on offline ideas, straight mail, straight sales (postcards, letters, brochures, fliers), trade fairs, print ads (magazines, billboards, coupon books, newspapers.), word-of-mouth marketing, TV, and radio. All most time, the aim of traditional marketing is to make brand familiarity.
Few examples of traditional tactics:
Marketing in a public place:
You definitely shouldn’t desire marketing in public places through banners, leaflets, posters, business cards, and any kind of marketing tool. Almost things is a marketing tool that has confirmed powerful as long as the diagram.
Direct Marketing:
Trust it or not, direct marketing isn’t lost. But it still sustains powerful results for sales. Marketing your trade straightly from home to home by allotting catalogs, brochures, and other promotional tools.
Radio and television marketing:
TV and radio have always guided us survives. And often these 2 conversations media join color to life. In this digital world public still cannot stop use Tv and radio.
Tradeshows:
It continues to be a familiar marketing technique for many trades. For example, in the space of B2B, visitors at tradeshows are 34% more likely to create a acquire. Then people who catch about a product through other techniques.
Direct mail:
The marketing makes observation of a product through letters, postcards, brochures sent by mail.
Print:
The marketing makes awareness of products by ads in a newspaper, the Yellow Pages, magazines, billboards, etc. Print marketing can be focused on the Yellow Pages.
Referral:
It also is known as word-of-mouth marketing. Grips your existing clients to advocate for your trade. It generally costs little to effect some trades served referral payments to clients who bring in other clients. | Difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@riarodriquesdm/difference-between-digital-marketing-and-traditional-marketing-a60883e70e3c | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Ria Rodriques'] | 2020-10-29 10:14:39.176000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'SEO', 'Traditional Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Content Marketing'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | AMC warns it may run out of cash in January 2020
The pandemic has brought the movie theater chain to the brink
There’s no doubt that AMC movie theaters are in trouble due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s now clear the chain is on the brink. Variety reports AMC has submitted an SEC filing warning that its existing cash “will be depleted” in January 2021 if it doesn’t get help. The company estimated that it would need “at least” $750 million to remain intact next year.
To survive, AMC said it was exploring options that included additional financing, more debt and further negotiations with landlords to soften or delay rent payments. It also floated the possibility of a joint venture or other team-ups with partners, although it didn’t say what those might entail.
The firm wasn’t shy about the reasoning. With a surge in US COVID-19 infections and studios releasing movies simultaneously or primarily on streaming services, theater attendance is a pale shadow of its former self. Even with 404 of 594 US theaters open, ticket sales plunged 92 percent year-over-year in October and November. People aren’t willing to risk their health just to watch a movie on a big screen, and studios are increasingly reluctant to delay movies to ensure theater-only premieres.
AMC isn’t alone. Regal said it would close all US theaters in October in response to the pandemic.
It won’t be surprising if AMC receives a lifeline to keep running. Even so, the very prospect of one of the country’s largest theater operators collapsing is significant. It could dramatically affect the media landscape by reducing access to big-screen movies and pushing more viewers toward streaming.
In this article: AMC, movies, movie theaters, theaters, pandemic, Covid-19, coronavirus, streaming, gear, entertainment
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. | AMC warns it may run out of cash in January 2020 | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@oladojatobivictory/amc-warns-it-may-run-out-of-cash-in-january-2020-d7f53c0b1e56 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Oladoja Tobi Victory'] | 2020-12-14 13:47:28.825000+00:00 | ['Email Marketing', 'Email', 'Fiverr', 'Automation', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Online Reputation Management
Brand consciousness is one of the basic factors of launching a positive online reputation of a company. Though, the mission of preserving your reputation is great challenging as it command enough time and endeavor. So, in terms of personal reputation, all businesses require a good reputation to flourish in the practical world.
What Is Online Reputation Management?
It defends companies from slanderous online elements such as negative content and defamatory bloggers. These kinds of problems stalk from competitors, dissatisfied employees, or frustrated customers. If the content is created against your business is, then it will surely create a way to search engine results when somebody write your business in the search bar.
A perfect online reputation management strategy gives great opportunities to create brand responsiveness. ORM influences the potential of the internet and social media to build benevolence and of course win consumer’s belief.
How It Helps?
You must remember that search engines utilize significance and not quality as the fundamental standard in ranking. Reputation management caters as a self-protective method against off-putting web elements which can be very disadvantageous for any firm.
This will reconstruct your reputation and augment enquiries and sales over again. To build your reputation fine, with a specialized service, and try to put off any dent before it happens. Once a brand reputation is spoiled it can take considerable time and investment to transform things.
Online reputation management is a technique of defending your brand and your good name. It is a vital approach of crafting your business as a professional and a constant source than consumers can answer back. No any business owner expects from their customers to think negative about their products and services so this is something that has to be perfectly maintained and dealt with in a proficient style.
Remember that a trustworthy and reliable provider can provide fresh and new content proposed for search engines. They can also push encouraging reviews as well as offer necessary information about the business unit. In addition, reputation management also help emphasize to the people why they have to think about the products and services of the organization before evaluating it. It helps heighten the company’s reputation.
Online reputation consulting and management services at Digital Rank Digital Marketing Agency in Hyderabad are incredible for personals, small businesses and big brands, providing the finest online reputation management companies in India with great skill in content production, strategy consulting, search engine optimization, online reviews, press releases and many more. | Online Reputation Management-ORM | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@teamdigitalrank/online-reputation-management-orm-9efdeb75bc65 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Digitalrank Digital Marketing Solutions'] | 2016-11-22 06:26:35.538000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | What a digital marketing agency in Fresno will do for your business?
The adoption and popularity of digital marketing has grown many folds. It has helped consumers to have the world at their finger tips as physical barriers and limitations have been decreased. The coming years promise to be years where digital marketing will play a major role in growing businesses and improving brand awareness. This will compel more businesses to hire services of a digital marketing agency in Fresno to make their business shine.
As a forward thinking business owner, you too should hire a digital marketing agency in Fresno to take your business to the next level. They will provide you a complete range of digital marketing services. The top services include website design and development, search engine optimization, social media optimization, and vehicle wraps. They are equipped with a professional team and latest technology to give a boost to your business.
As a website owner, you would like to own a website that is both eye-catching and functional. Your digital marketing partner will include all important elements that make a good website. They will choose the right topography, colors and other elements to grab the attention of the visitors. They will use clean coding and add functionalities to make your website more useful for the visitors and your customers. You count on them for SEO and SMO services.
A digital marketing agency in Fresno has a team of SEO experts with vast knowledge and experience. With the help of relevant keywords and ethical SEO tactics, they will help you in getting good positions on top search engine pages. With their help, you will also shine on top social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. They will help you engage with your customers effectively with your fans, customers and followers. Your digital marketing partner will also provide you the services of vehicle & car wraps in Fresno. Professional vehicle wraps will boost your marketing efforts. Colorful, attractive wraps on cars or any other vehicles will draw the attention of those who are on a move.
Hope you are now convinced why hiring a digital marketing agency in Fresno makes great sense. You will be equipped with ethical strategies to perform well in your target market. You will be updated with the latest strategies available to use in the market. Along with that, you will also know what your competitors are doing to be ahead in the race. You will have an edge in your market and will see a good influence on your bottom line. | What a digital marketing agency in Fresno will do for your business? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@cvmg.co/what-a-digital-marketing-agency-in-fresno-will-do-for-your-business-96aa4cba7c25 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-12-23 06:45:36.960000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Best Way of Content Writing Marketing Tips
Perusing a book which gives you information. what’s more, the substance in the book or page has that much intriguing data to understand you. at the point when you need to be a substance author there are a few hints accessible to make the amazing substance. the substance has diverse formate. for example, advanced structures like video, sound, text, yet as a substance author, you should utilize text formate. also, more tips are accessible beneath the section about substance composing. peruse completely. to learn.
How to Choose a Topic:
Referenced are the sorts of substance composing. however, here we going to see the strategies to compose content. for composing content. we should make an arrangement for choosing the theme to be which is moving one, and what point will get quick reach, there are a few determinations for choosing a blog title. that is first picking the point what you need for your business, and select an important subject and it likewise should be a valuable and popular one.
Make Good Title and Description:
Subsequent to picking your point at that point select one great topic which you like, and first notice a title. that should be more appealing to individuals, with incredible catchphrases for your business.
also, the title should be a long-tail sentence with watchwords. furthermore, next, make a portrayal with catchphrases. that should be pertinent to the point and title. and furthermore, utilize a decent slogan or statement. notice underneath the portrayal with creator name. that makes it more alluring for your Blog, search in google for the best slogan. however, note one thing the title ought not to resemble a duplicate composed.
Look for good Image and presentation:
Presently select a picture that should be pertinent to the substance you compose, you can locate a superior picture in freepik, in the wake of choosing a significant decent picture. apply in your blog content, and furthermore notice alt tag and the watchword for that picture. which is utilized for SEO. furthermore, the introduction is significant. make your blog with a decent introduction. since that won’t make you exhausted while perusing a blog.
Conclusion:
Thus I wrote the content for how to write content from my knowledge. I hope you will get good useful stuff to write a blog, and for knowing more about whole digital marketing things here a good learning institute available NIDM(National Institute of Digital Marketing).
Best digital marketing Course in Jayanagar. | Best Way of Content Writing Marketing Tips | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@jayanagarnidm/best-way-of-content-writing-marketing-tips-cbde94460844 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Nidm Jayanagar'] | 2020-12-28 11:35:12.611000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Marketing Tips', 'Blog', 'Content Marketing'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Social Media For Business to strengthen your business root
Social media networks are incredible assets of all sizes of businesses who are looking to endorse their brands online. The podiums are completely liberated to use, and they have paid advertising due to your business should be on social media, that doesn’t indicate your business should be on all networks. It’s vital that you prefer and cultivate the social platforms that function excellent for your business so that you don’t widen yourself excessively thin.
If you want to craft an unbeaten social approach, you must publicize yourself with how every network works, the types of spectators you can reach and how your business can finest make use of each stage.
Here are few of the most significant tips that can help any entrepreneur looking to spread out their social media existence and their business.
Be Regular
When it considered for your posts, your message and how often you utilize social media, then you should stay uniformity in mind. It is in fact the key to success with any social media movement. Create a plan for what you are going to post and how frequently you continue posting, and just attach with it.
Use entire social networks
If you want to get success with social media, then you must post all over social media networks. This helps business maintaining an account with the entire of the big social media sites, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Layout content to optimize for every stage
Retaining accounts all over of the main social media podiums that doesn’t mean posting the similar thing on four diverse sites daily. It means layout the content, particularly destined for every platform. You need to post the photos for Instagram, long posts for LinkedIn, videos and memes for Facebook and small and snappy message to Twitter. All of your posts must be dissimilar, even if they are conveying the alike message.
Use social media to strengthen all of your business and marketing endeavors
You are planning to have business and marketing strategies outside of your social media movement. Eventually, a successful marketing plan is wide-ranging and vigorous. A solid social media plan only affixes to your attempts and build them more thriving. It’s cost-effective, however wholly under-utilized stage that can assist with almost every part of your marketing plan and something that you require to initiate using currently.
We at “Digital Rank” Digital Marketing Agency in Hyderabad. Provide Social Media Marketing (SMO), Social Media Optimization(SMO) Services for your Business Needs. We Promote your Business in All Social Media Networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, Instagram, Youtube . | Social Media For Business to Strengthen your Business Root | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@teamdigitalrank/social-media-for-business-to-strengthen-your-business-root-e2e7c6ebcd02 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Digitalrank Digital Marketing Solutions'] | 2016-11-15 10:10:02.739000+00:00 | ['Social Media Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Digital Agencies — Allow to Maintain Rich Connections with Larger Number of People
For developing your business you need to hire digital agencies. A good digital agency will provide you the finest and most feasible options for web-based products and services. They will provide you the artistic and technical development of websites and web-related concepts. Moreover, digital agencies will provide suitable concepts for viral campaigns and banner advertisements. Other concepts that digital agencies will help you with will include search engine optimization, podcasting and widget development. Apart from this, there are many benefits of digital marketing agencies. Some of them are stated below:
Benefits of Digital marketing Agencies
Hiring Digital marketing agencies in New Delhi have many benefits. Some of them are:
· Global Reach — Functional websites will permit you to find the new marketers globally for small investments.
· Social Currency — Digital marketing lets you to create an appealing campaign by using various types of rich media like the internet.
· Reduce cost — Your business can enlarge its internet marketing strategy at a very low cost.
· Real time results — You don’t have to wait for a week to augment your business. You can see the numbers of visitors on your site plus its subscribers increasing at an instant rate.
· Development of a brand — A well maintained website with good quality content is the need of the targeted audience.
· Great engagement — With digital marketing, you can encourage your clients, and followers to take action; they will visit your website and will know more about your products and services.
On a concluding note, getting the services of a digital marketing agency can be a realistic option for your business in many ways especially in terms of the internet strategy and website management. | Digital Agencies — Allow to Maintain Rich Connections with Larger Number of People | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@digitalmarketingagenciesdelhi/digital-agencies-allow-to-maintain-rich-connections-with-larger-number-of-people-9a26edec9a4b | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Vikrant Singh'] | 2016-12-19 12:42:24.757000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The advanced world or computerized showcasing has today become a business that is profoundly productive for the business visionaries. The positive side can be seen of the computerized advertising in transit it is put to utilize and prior to busy, expand your latent capacity. The time has come to inhale through advanced channels, get on the web and think about the accompanying, to stand out enough to be noticed- Ryan Charlton.
Update the profiles
In the event that you are not getting traffic, set to redesign your online presence. Guarantee you are on all the online media stages. Check on the off chance that you didn’t miss any data on the profiles of Facebook or Instagram. Evaluate your procedure is solid or does it need some updating.
Check Daily Status and Updates in Market
Check what springs up in the Google. Audit auto created pages and banner impersonators. Utilize this time likewise to see your pages performing better and furthermore the skip rates. Discover the pages get guests and notice the social channels that are bringing most and least business. Utilize your endeavors and make the non-performing organizations to function admirably. Attempt to figure out the explanation and guarantee tidying up undesirable weeds.
Give another look
The easiest method of breathing new life is by sprucing up the visuals. Obviously, you can put new photographs of your business in the web-based Media accounts. It will fill the need.
Get new tools
Subsequent to redesigning and giving another look to your computerized presence, take your showcasing up utilizing the correct apparatuses on the web. Put resources into right devices and guarantee to profit by mechanization.
Advanced showcasing is the compass for most organizations and social locales have worked superbly by advancing Business. Computerized Promoting is presently reasonable and incorporating it into your business is tedious and complex errand, however to have a significant advanced advertising activity, you can begin with these means underneath:
Explain Objectives
Having clear goals helps advanced promoting as it uncovers a system. Diagram the objectives and decide the bearing so you adjust intentional goals that are sensible, explicit and quantifiable. Recognize your crowd, appreciate your Market and guarantee your destinations meet system as an educated choice.
Create Brand Consistency
Consistency is a term that has its own assumptions, be it an Online media stage or your site and obviously this incorporates the system of advanced promoting activity also. Creating brand consistency is an unquestionable requirement and utilize same slogans, colors, text styles, highlights and pictures. Guarantee consistency with the goal that it shows authority and builds your validity.
Development Your Digital Marketplace
An advanced advertising effort centers your virtual home that is your site. This makes it critical to develop your computerized commercial center with the end goal that it is drawing in, responsive and portable well disposed. Settle on it evident for decision to activity and discover you keep it straightforward. | How to Be Successful With Digital Marketing | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@ryancharlton/how-to-be-successful-with-digital-marketing-bcd71312e0c6 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Ryan Charlton'] | 2020-12-31 04:30:52.518000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'SEM', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Best Tips for website image optimization
What is image optimization?
Image optimization is nothing but using the most compressed yet visually acceptable image in the suitable file format for the exact role of the images. It pays to keep your image quality up and your file size down.
Why you need image optimization?
There are two important reasons for image optimization: download time and bandwidth used. These may seem interconnected, but also they are important for different reasons & that could be hardware storage space is really applied in some cases. Download time includes images load time factored into its search engine rankings. If the image takes longer time to load, you are more likely to lose visitor, therefore image size contains an important component of a site’s speed.
Images speak lots of things. The simplest thing to consider when optimizing images is file type. Particular image file types are better suitable for specific images and you must ensure that your page takes maximum 10 seconds to load. CSS is the best way to decrease image load time; it is possible for the browser to provide images using pure CSS. CSS animation and effect can be used to produce resolution-independent assets that always look keen at every resolution and zoom level.
Bandwidth optimization is the way of taking care of load on networks. It is an easy way to optimize existing bandwidth. Optimizing images can save a lot of bandwidths and improve page speed considerably. All you need is a little time to load and a few tools. You can reduce a website’s bandwidth usage, it is the hidden killer of the high traffic site and most mainstream hosting plans have bandwidth caps that require extra.
Image optimization is not the quick task. It requires time that could be spent on other things. Image optimization is one of the main factors that you need to consider because a lot of people search for the popular image.
Mail at: [email protected] | Best Tips for website image optimization | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@ultimezdipika/best-tips-for-website-image-optimization-2ae403388ab4 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-11-23 04:46:25.276000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Increasing Agency Profit with Value-Based Pricing
In this episode, we’ll cover:
Why value-based pricing will keep you from losing profit.
How to setup a value-based pricing model.
How to understand your client’s perception of value.
This week on the Smart Agency Master Class, we’ll hear from Dan Mall founder of SuperFriendly, a design collaborative. Dan has spent his entire 18-year career in design and in that time he’s grown to understand a ton about pricing. He’s going to share how to develop value-based pricing so you can stop losing profit.
Why a Value-Based Pricing Model?
You are providing a service based on your unique skill set, knowledge and experience. Value-based pricing takes all those elements into consideration and quantifies. Value-based pricing is the intersection between: what it’s worth to the client and the amount of compensation you’re willing to take.
And if that isn’t enough to convince you — consider this analogy.
A woman calls a plumber to come to her house and fix a leaky faucet. The plumber is there for 5 mins, tightens one screw and the leak is fixed. He hands her a bill for $1,000.
She asks “Why are you charging me $1,000 when you were only here for 5 minutes?”
He says, “It’s $10 to tighten the screw and $990 for knowing which screw.”
When a client has a problem and you know which screw to tighten your value is priceless 🙂
How to Setup Value-Based Pricing
Dan’s agency is 5 years old and has been using value pricing since the beginning. Here are 3 steps you can take to get started with building this type of price model.
Start with pricing that is easy to understand. You have to be able to explain your pricing structure to a client, so make sure you can easily rationalize it. Determine client expectations and the perceived value of the project. You’ll have to ask a lot of questions to get to the real meat of what they want and why. Experiment with pricing over time. Learn from one project to the next and test out different pricing. Figure out what works and what doesn’t. Then apply a combination of experience and gut instinct to get to the right pricing structure.
How to Determine “Value”
It’s not easy! Dan says it takes time and those 3 steps above won’t can’t overnight. But what you can do is gather as much information as possible from your client so you can fully understand what they need or rather, what they think they need and how you can help.
In his experience as a designer, Dan said he’d often learn information a few days or weeks too late. Some issues are preventable and some problems aren’t solvable unless you get to the core of the issue. To do that, you have to ask the right questions. Go beyond the logistical and go deeper to fully understand the expectations/goals.
Great client service starts with building a relationship. And to build a relationship you have to ask questions.
Questions You Need to Ask
If you’re building a new website — don’t just be an order taker and build the website as instructed. Ask why the client wants a new website. Ask what the goals are for the new site. Is it for a better reputation? Is it for lead generation? What you’re doing and why you’re doing it go hand-in-hand.
The goal for asking questions is to identify what the client needs — which can be different from what they’re asking for.
Here’s a few questions to get you started:
What worries keep you up at night?
How can my agency ease these concerns for you?
What is your business model?
How do you make a profit?
When was the last time you were profitable?
What is the problem costing you, in terms of revenue/profit?
How does a solution translate to your bottom line?
Most importantly, you want to understand the 3i’s: Issue, Impact and Importance. You can this information in developing solutions and in handling objections or pricing concerns.
Don’t let a value-based pricing model worry you. People don’t choose to work with you on price alone. And those who do are viewing you as a commodity. If you are viewed as an expert in your field (think plumber!) and can get the results they desire (think leaky faucet!) price won’t matter as much as you think it does. | Increasing Agency Profit with Value-Based Pricing | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@jswenk/increasing-agency-profit-with-value-based-pricing-baff58eb6e8f | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Jason Swenk'] | 2016-12-01 00:15:04.959000+00:00 | ['Digital Agency', 'Value Based Pricing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | It takes a deliberate and continuous effort to remain up-to-date on digital marketing strategies. Not only do you need to be aware of the latest trends, but you also need to analyze them for your brand, and understand them well enough.
It wouldn’t be strategic to just hop on the bandwagon when a new social network, search engine, content format, or app starts trending. You will need to understand how you can incorporate it in your marketing plan,
Moz:
For over a decade, Moz has been a pioneer and guide for learning about SEO tips. From their popular Beginner’s Guide to SEO to the hundreds of Whiteboard Friday video tutorials that made the iconic mustache of Fishkin so familiar to marketers all over the world, their blog is the center of it all.
In addition to telling visitors how great content can power marketing blogs and tech companies, Moz has never been afraid to experiment with various content styles. They may just be the best-ever example of an online marketing blog doing video marketing, talking about those Whiteboard Friday videos, which are now hosted on a rotation. Its emphasis, just as with written forms, is all on in-depth, high-quality content and search engine analysis.
2. Content Marketing Institute:
The Content Marketing Institute is a publishing powerhouse, using a large network of writers to cover every nook and cranny of the practice of content marketing and the associated fields in which it overlaps.
Since they cover the content marketing profession so thoroughly, in ways other than changing subjects, they branch out and add diversity to their content.
3. eMarketer
Simply put, you are missing out on one of the best marketing blogs available online if you don’t follow eMarketer regularly. eMarketer deserves a place in your browser bookmarks as it provides observations, info, predictions, and all other kinds of helpful material.
And not just blogs, eMarketer also has podcasts, roundups, videos, and webinars that you can use to keep pace with the worlds of online and content marketing that are rapidly evolving.
Source: seoexpert.traininginstitute.in
4. Hubspot:
The HubSpot blog is a renowned marketing campaign blog. It offers high-quality content that provides consumers with value through examples. They continue to update the content to cover sales, marketing, inbound marketing campaigns, management of customer relationships, etc.
5. Social Media Today:
Social Media Today has blogs discussing different subjects including convergence and social marketing, marketing of content, web strategy, and so on. There are comprehensive papers with an array of topics to cover digital marketing modules.
6. Neil Patel:
One of the best digital marketing blogs is the Neil Patel blog. He provides interactive solutions as well as tips for improving rankings, engaging leads, SEO insights, and driving more traffic. His blog offers a mix of podcasts and valuable content for entertaining videos.
7. Backlinko:
Backlinko is an SEO specialist and a marketing strategies blog. They provide understanding and knowledge of actionable SEO tips, and in a month you can become a hit. You will improve your organic quest and push more website traffic.
8. Search Engine Journal:
For in-depth reporting on online promotion issues on goods and services, Search Engine Journal is one of the best digital marketing blogs. Search Engine Journal has trained experts, and several writers contribute to different active SEO techniques.
9. Marketing Land:
Search Engine Land’s sister site is Marketing Land. It competently covers digital marketing fields. It is a forum for blogging that contributes to blog posts, new developments, updates, improvements in products, and announcements.
10. Social Media Examiner:
Every minute, the social media world seems to change. Fortunately, there’s a weekly news page from the Social Media Examiner to keep you up-to-date on the latest in Facebook marketing, Twitter advertising, and everything else about the social media jungle.
This blog provides exactly what you need to potentially change your marketing plans or SEO if you need to read up on the new algorithm modifications. Although the weekly news updates are an incredibly useful resource, there is also a range of other engaging tools for your social media marketing game in Social Media Examiner. | Top 10 Digital Marketing Blogs You Must Follow in 2021 | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@pros-inc/top-10-digital-marketing-blogs-you-must-follow-in-2021-3e15e07b8ab | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Amy Smith'] | 2020-12-10 16:01:57.741000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Marketing 2021'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Leading Digital Agency in Melbourne- Prolific You
What to look for in a Digital Marketing Agency you want to hire?
For any business owner, it is more than a necessity to reach their target audience that digital marketing can help with. Since you cannot be an expert in everything, you need to hire a leading digital agency in Melbourne that can help you reach your business goals. A rightly chosen digital marketing agency can do wonders for your business. From boosting website traffic to increasing the number of sales, there is a lot that you can get help with.
But with tens of thousands of digital marketing agencies around you, it can be difficult to make the right choice. So, here we are with what you must look for in a leading digital agency in Melbourne that you want to hire.
Digital agency in Melbourne
Portfolio
There is no denying the fact that smart agencies are proud of whom they work with and the work they do. The most trusted ones share the details of the partnerships for the world to see. We don’t mean that you need to really find what your agency’s previous clients were. You just have to make sure that you at least get to find some of them. Being on a budget doesn’t mean that you should pick the first digital marketing agency you find. You have to make sure that the company has some previous experience in handling businesses similar to yours if you want it to make it work for you.
There is no denying the fact that smart agencies are proud of whom they work with and the work they do. The most trusted ones share the details of the partnerships for the world to see. We don’t mean that you need to really find what your agency’s previous clients were. You just have to make sure that you at least get to find some of them. Being on a budget doesn’t mean that you should pick the first digital marketing agency you find. You have to make sure that the company has some previous experience in handling businesses similar to yours if you want it to make it work for you. Team Members
When we are talking about a digital marketing agency, we clearly mean experienced and specialized team members who will work on your project. Regardless of the type of services, you are looking for; make sure that the company you wish to hire has the right team members that suit your business requirements. You can check their website to see who work in their team. What we suggest is searching for their team members on a reliable social media platform like LinkedIn where you can get to know about their experience. Ask as many questions as you can before you hire anyone to work for you.
When we are talking about a digital marketing agency, we clearly mean experienced and specialized team members who will work on your project. Regardless of the type of services, you are looking for; make sure that the company you wish to hire has the right team members that suit your business requirements. You can check their website to see who work in their team. What we suggest is searching for their team members on a reliable social media platform like LinkedIn where you can get to know about their experience. Ask as many questions as you can before you hire anyone to work for you. Industry Reputation
You obviously won’t hire an agency just because it claims to be the best one for you. You will do your own research and get the assurance that you are making the right choice. And when you are trying to do that, how can we overlook the importance of reviews and ratings from their previous clients. This will give you a deep insight into what you can expect from the agency you wish to hire. Every digital marketing agency understands the importance of giving social proof to their new clients for why they should hire them. If you can’t find satisfactory reviews and ratings, it is probably not the agency you should hire.
We completely understand the hassle of choosing the right agency for your business. You cannot trust anyone with the reputation of your company. If that is the case, Prolific You is probably the leading digital agency in Melbourne you might be looking for. With years of experience in the industry, we ensure that you get value for the money you pay. | Leading Digital Agency in Melbourne- Prolific You | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@webmaster-prolific/leading-digital-agency-in-melbourne-prolific-you-75cb989e88dd | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Webmaster Prolific'] | 2020-12-26 02:34:45.047000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The Ultimate Revelation of How Much To Charge for Social Media Management TechNerds Dec 14, 2020·11 min read
Photo by Merakist on Unsplash
In this post, we will talk about how to charge your clients for creating social media posts. The rates usually vary, and there are many moving parts to consider.
At TechNerds, we use this framework to develop a costing strategy for businesses.
This post will help you see how we can create a retainer or hourly cost based on clients’ needs.
Let’s go:
What is Social Media Management?
Social Media Management is the process of creating and analyzing content that resonates with your target audience.
Why do you need Social Media Management?
B2B and B2C Platforms need social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to create brand awareness and generate sales.
Social media marketing emerges to be the steady and most efficient means to engage with a target market.
It may come across as posting pictures, videos, exchanging, and sharing opinions. The ultimate goal is to get a reaction from a targeted audience.
Social media websites are a great way to earn trust, and this is beneficial for brand awareness.
By using a social media platform, you can engage and connect with potential purchasers.
It also allows you to create and grow relationships that encourage them to buy your products and services.
Benefits of Social media management
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Social media management offers a vast range of advantages for the consumers, and these benefits cover marketing budgets, approach to the market, and user’s behaviors in such a way:
Marketing Budget:
Social media marketing is an economical and cost-effective approach that provides extravagant results for consumers. No matter what is your marketing budget, social media is the cheapest means. Social media networks are always free of cost, and anyone can reach the platform, post respective content, and respond to user comments and reviews. You can advertise offers of a profitable channel for reaching your audience and developing an online rating and followership.
Save yourself time:
Time is the prevailing reason why most organizations abandon social media and consider it a mess. Still, when you hire a social media agent or consultant, you get support to handle all of the social media affairs. A consultant will be responsible for all types of social media management. Hiring a social media manager will save your time, and it will help avoid sacrificing revenue-driving channels.
Approach to Market:
Social media networks, including a vast network extending from Facebook to LinkedIn, can provide a safe platform to engage you with users worldwide. Social media management could help you reach a niche audience. It can also be done by various platforms like Pinterest, where you can post details, pictures, and videos of your domain. Old school means of marketing and advertising can’t match the reach or price or social activity rate. Thus social media management is pre-eminent for your businesses.
Patrons:
Assimilating social media into your marketing framework provides an adequate chance to streamline your marketing plan with user behavior. The majority of people prefer social media for the reviews of products and considers the information authentic; in 2021, the rate of using social media for purchasing decisions will increase to 80% of the total purchases. Functioning: Marketers and business holders both collectively stand on the performance of social media marketing and advertising. Through social media management, you can develop your brand and even precipitate leads and sales. Almost 45% of business-to-business marketers have obtained clients through Facebook.
Social Media Management pricing packages:
Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash
Social media consultants and managers are the most popular in the social media management market, and even the smallest businesses seek social managers and consultants’ services.
Like other marketing services, the platforms you apply to market your business have an enormous impact on social media costs. For example, you might find that a restricted platform has a large audience, and depending upon the traffic of the audience, you will pay more in advertisements as there is more competition for ad space. Relying on the social media platforms you’re interested in marketing, the campaign’s cost will vary, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Let’s take a look at the price of marketing on the social platform.
Facebook stands the most dominant social media marketing platform, with more than 1 billion active consumers daily. When it comes to increasing your business rating in the market, Facebook provides a great chance to reach a significant part of the targeted audience. It gathers the most fan following by costing zero money to set up a social media business account on Facebook. However, this free-of-cost advertisement is restricted to the people around you. Still, if you want to enhance visitors’ traffic, you can choose to boost your paid post, but it will increase the area of advertisement for your business. For social media marketing, Facebook may charge $900–1600 per month.
Like Facebook with LinkedIn, you can develop sidebar advertisements screened by the side of user’s feeds and pages visited by several people. These brief ads comprise a thumbnail image, and these pictures are designed to encourage people to click the ads to visit your website. You can make up to 15 different LinkedIn ads; each incorporates a 25-character headline and 75-character explanation. But if you decide to have the CPC option, you will cost the least bid of $2.50, but LinkedIn prefers bid $5.67 — $10.09. On the contrary, you will pay low as $10.50 for the CPM option with a suggestion of bid ranging from $18.55 — $28.91. LinkedIn advertising also allows you to target your ads based on a user’s company size, industry, name, job title, category, and seniority.
Depending on market demands, there are a variety of social media management packages. These packages vary in the services provided, prices and give different types of outcomes and monitors how much you desire to achieve,
Primary package: This starter package includes aligning two social media accounts choosing from options like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, or Yelp with content production and customer engagement. It will provide you a bare ground for developing business virtually.
Principal package: This can refer to the most consumed box by the companies. It is preferred because it promises to manage your four social media accounts, including blog posts, content development, and customer engagement.
Primitive package: This offers a VIP service for a company, and if you opt for this package, it will manage six social media accounts that also covers influencer marketing, blog posts, content creation, and customer engagement.
Social Media Freelancers Rates in 2020:
A freelancer is a self-employed worker who provides services, and a freelancer often works on several projects for multiple clients at one time. Freelancers generally earn money on a per-task basis or may charge hourly or daily rates for their services. Freelancing is commonly short-term. While any company does not officially employ a freelancer, they can sign contracts multiply by other businesses.
It is usual for freelancers to work on different gigs or projects, but some freelance agreements may bound the freelancer and cannot work for other companies until they complete it. Some of the most popular freelance jobs are within industries that involve creativity, such as graphic design, copywriting, website development, or photography. However, freelancers can provide services in almost any service-based industry, such as translation, consulting, or rephrasing.
In recent times due to unstable business market situations, offering ample room to the freelancers and the popularity of freelancing is enhanced because Covid-19 has affected the business and the shifting of enterprises to the digital platform provided vacancies for the freelancers. The rates of social media freelancers in 2020 vary in many ways depending upon the nature of work, the writer’s experience, time, and the lancer’s quality of content. If you decide to begin with freelancing in recent times, you will vary in income by social media management, which is determined on an hourly basis:
0–3 years experience: $15–50/hr. 3–5 years experience: $50–100/hr. 5–10 years experience: $120+/hr.
Social Media Manager Rates in 2020:
Social media provides an excellent platform for workers to do tasks and manage social media activities. In the social media service world, the costs vary all across the board. Some social media managers charge by retainer or by project, while some prefer hourly, weekly or monthly payments. It depends on the structure of your freelancing or consulting business.
Variety of social media Rates:
Hourly Rate:
Most of the economy is based on hourly workers. It is not surprising that this is the most common way for social media freelancers and consultants to begin their online business. The hourly rate is more straightforward and convenient. However, it does not lend itself well to develop a team and scaling your operations.
Monthly:
Monthly rates are usually fixed, and many SEOs prefer to charge a fixed monthly fee for the services. Having a monthly fee gives a consistent and predictable income, convenient for both the client and freelancer.
Retainer:
Lawyers are famous for utilizing retainer fees. Similarly, many social media consultants will charge based on a retainer fee. A retainer is a payment made in advance for the social media manager’s future services and gives some advantages.
Per-Project Premises:
One can charge on a per-project basis and can ask for the payment before starting a project. The per-project ground offers much flexibility in outsourcing some of the work if you wanted to scale. But it also causes some risks.
Suppose you decide to begin social media management on an hourly basis. In that case, initial rates can hover around $15–50 per hour. The agency can monitor the quality of work to reach the next level of intermediate social media marketers; you can earn up to $100 per hour. You can make $120+ or a higher amount per hour at a professional social media manager level.
How much to charge for Social media Management?
It is a substantial and formidable question for business owners to think about outsourcing their marketing by managing their social media campaigns. Social media stands free of cost for streamlining the business, but it takes time, and utmost hard work is required for it. Providing time and efforts to social media marketing is an outstanding commitment, and for this reason, businesses are transferring to outsourcing their social media or hiring social media managers. Social media managers play a significant role because any business holder or team cannot spend considerable time online explorer audience, so agents or managers are being hired for the purpose.
Approximately companies spend an average of $4000 to $7000 per month on social media management. This investment covers developing and maintaining social media marketing and advertising masterplan and monthly ad spends and tool subscriptions. The charges of business vary depending upon the nature of the company; it may increase or decrease. You can use this price range to establish an acceptable budget for social media marketing and advertising strategy.
How much it costs for Social Media Management in the UK?
Photo by Robert Tudor on Unsplash
Social media marketing agencies and consultants in the UK are charging in a wide range, starting from the minimum amount of £100 per month to a maximum of £10,000+ per month. The price range and selection of cost depend on several things: the number of pages/platforms that need to be managed, masterplan, what the business owner’s desires to achieve. Social media management in the UK undergoes different steps while working with a new patron. The majority of Social media management in the UK is mainly done through SME, and this charges more than usual.
Steps of Social Media Management in the UK:
Initial Negotiation:
When a social media manager initiates working with a new client, you will undergo a survey about a business’s position in the virtual world, lacks marketing, and what amendments are required for social media marketing to conquer the target. Our site generally does this step without charging any cost. It provides a framework for the intensity of work needed on our end. Often, organizations lack content, and there is a need for content building and social media management.
Strategy planning:
After the initial negotiations, 2–3 phone calls, Skype calls, or meetings are required to understand business and the depth of the industry’s needs and flaws; this is crucial to create a strategy for moving forward. The calls and calls aid this prove to be significant in this sense. This step is usually done in the price range of £50–150 depends upon the call duration. Sometimes when a business that is already covering a significant part of social media applies for social media consultants, they require their accounts to be managed and monitored. In this case, there are chances that we only need a 30-minute chat.
Other times, you have to work with businesses that contain no basis on social media, don’t have a blog, and don’t understand what social media and content marketing is all about. If this is the case, you have to spend much time determining and educating what you want to do and why you are doing it, and it is eminent that you are both on the same track.
Elevate Digital management:
When the company and strategy perform masterplan and survey, stand in place. The next step is to set up the website and social media platform. It is convenient for us to set their blog up when businesses have their WordPress immediately. Those who have no WordPress can take longer and need correspondence with the client web development company with their own Content Management System.
While setting up with a new client, you will usually have to take their accounts and re-design them. Other times, you have to set them up from scratch. Our setup charges are based on all the design work that goes into the pages, like logo sizing, cover pictures, and related information. Social agencies in the UK tend to cost £20–250 per platform, but you will charge £50-£75 per platform, and it depends on the level of work and design required.
Management and Ongoing support:
The majority of work done for good digital marketing is social media management, where agents manage our clients’ social accounts. A consultant may charge around £200–250 per platform for managing social activities per month. They will drive daily posts, community engagement, responding to messages, and managing paid ads. You can find an expanded range of social media management costs, ranging from £50-£2,000 per month. The social media management includes writing blogs, creating posts, and thumbnail pictures, and you may charge $10–50 per blog or work. It will permit you to enhance the organization’s working according to the need of time in 2020, and social media management streamlines the quality and production of the business.
I hope this blog post has brought some attention to pricing your social media projects right. If you have found this article to be useful, don’t forget to check out our website.
We are a full-service Digital Marketing Agency that provides solutions such as Web Development and Social Media Marketing to our clients. | The Ultimate Revelation of How Much To Charge for Social Media Management | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@technerds/the-ultimate-revelation-of-how-much-to-charge-for-social-media-management-2f29abdee1ea | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-12-14 12:07:01.758000+00:00 | ['Social Media Management', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Social Media Strategy', 'Tech'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Online Marketing Strategies For Restaurants
Restaurant customers always look for the best restaurants on their phones, obtain marketing messages through digital technique, access the Internet for customer service and explore restaurants by going through online restaurant reviews. People place perform and delivery orders online, buy ecommerce products from restaurant websites and also search for restaurant carte du jour online. If you’re not familiar in online marketing, your restaurant won’t be perceptible to most customers and you must know how to do right way to online marketing strategies for restaurants.
Design a Mobile Website
The most crucial step for online marketing is crafting a website that regulates for any device mechanically. Responsive websites make it easy and simple for people to get information on their phones. Your website must be simple to navigate for customers and easily updated by you, an proprietor from your personnel or a third-party hosting, designing or a consulting company.
Post Your Menu Online
Your menu is your next most precious Internet marketing source. Restaurants used up lots of bucks to publish and highlight their menus in yellow page directories in past years, but you can now post your menu — frequently for free of cost or at low cost — where people can easily log on it 24–7 from their phones. Getting your menu online is a significant step in any restaurant marketing strategy.
Use Social Media
Presenting your restaurant on social media platforms in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google is a vital step for any thriving online marketing plan. You can notify customers about forthcoming promotions, connect them with from side to side communications, find out about their interests and provide some exclusive offers and incentives for staffs only. Social media sharing is one of the most excellent ways to widen your brand, get recommendations and fortify your online presence.
Build up a Customer Database
The Internet and digital marketing work on data and brainpower, and you’re killing a great resource if you’re not creating a database of information about your customers, website visitors and targeted customers. You can employ this information to market to people on their phones, send promotional emails and newsletters and style your advertising campaigns based on each customer’s report. Emails and text-messaging campaigns don’t charge a lot; enable you to bespoke your marketing messages and produce high conversion rates.
Brand Your Restaurant Digitally
Develop the Internet to brand your restaurant by publishing your idea, telling people about your business viewpoint, building an identifiable logo, using a company color format, talking about your cuisine and advertising your chef, staff, business the past and matchless cookery approach that differentiates your restaurant from its challengers.
Digital Rank Digital Marketing Agency in Hyderabad
We promote your restaurant Business in All Social Media platforms to reach more people. Get more orders with Digital Marketing Campaigns. | Online Marketing Strategies For Restaurants | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@teamdigitalrank/online-marketing-strategies-for-restaurants-bdca06bc1bbb | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Digitalrank Digital Marketing Solutions'] | 2016-12-16 06:12:47.410000+00:00 | ['Seo Services Company', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How we run a fully remote team of 13 people: All the gory details
Reflecting on the year 2016, I notice that all of the milestones and accomplishments were due to one thing: people. And I have found the best people for Bobsled Marketing all around the world — all working remotely.
There are only 2 people I’ve met in person from Bobsled. One happens to be my husband Tom, and the other is a contractor who lived close by and I also met up with at a conference in Bangkok.
Me and Brent, one of just 2 people I have met from Bobsled Marketing face-to-face.
Everyone and everything else in the company is managed remotely, online. Tom and I recently moved from the US back to Australia to have our first child, with no disruption to the business.
I hesitate to call remote working a “trend”, because I believe it to be much more than that. Big, systemic changes are shaking up the workforce. Millennials prioritize lifestyle and meaning in their job above a secure salary. Parents are done with choosing between their career and their families. Reliable, fast internet and cloud software tools mean that we don’t have to be working in the same place, at the same time, to be hugely productive.
So how does remote working actually work in practice at Bobsled? Here are some of the top successes and challenges I’ve faced in building a remote team of 13 this past year.
Thinking & hiring remote-first
Many established companies need to reverse engineer their remote working arrangements. They have and office with employees who commute, and may decide to offer telecommuting as a perk. Something I’m grateful for in retrospect, but was simply a necessity at the time, is that remote work was the default when hiring team members. There are 2 benefits to this:
The reality is, one can access an entirely new pool of talent by making positions available to work remotely. Many accomplished professionals are looking for such positions.
It also allowed me to build the company to run fully remotely right from the beginning, making remote work the default, rather than an exception or a workaround.
Best in class cloud software tools
As a service based company, communication between team members and with clients is paramount. There are two tools which are indispensable to what we do: Asana, a project management tool, and Slack, a chat tool.
Asana allows us to set up projects with detailed timelines, easily link to resources, and who’s responsible for delivering each component. Managers can easily see how much work each team member has on their plate and can re-distribute tasks.
Slack took the online business world by storm in 2016 and it’s easy to see why. We pay for a premium subscription so that we can add clients to a single channel and communicate with them there. Having an asynchronous chat tool like Slack:
Eliminates chains of emails between the team, as well as clients
Creates an audit-able record. If there’s a “he-said, she-said” situation internally or with a client, we most likely have a written record on Slack (or Asana) of what conversation actually took place.
Is a conduit to our team culture. “See you around on Slack” is a frequent sign-off from team calls, since it’s now our default communication channel.
Other tools we use:
Google Drive for file storage and documenting Procedures
Toggl, time tracking for contractors
Payoneer, for paying non-US staff and Gusto for managing payroll of permanent US-based staff
Hey Taco! A Slack plug-in that allows team members to recognize & reward each other. This has been huge in building a shared value of “in it together”
VPNs, for folks working in coffee shops or outside of a secure home network on occasion
Clear roles & reporting
For a while, we had some team members “float” between Project Managers to help manage projects. My reasoning at the time was so that the team could easily cross-pollinate knowledge. In reality, it created issues with accountability and unclear expectations. What’s clear now is that reporting lines need to be crystal clear. Now, we have 3 “pods” on our operations team, with a Project Manager who’s accountable for driving results on each account and managing 2 direct reports.
Defining the exact responsibilities of each role, as well as the capabilities (more innate, but often still coachable personal qualities) only happened recently. But it made an enormous difference in helping people understand where they should be spending their time and energy. Identifying responsibilities & capabilities by role allowed us to promote 2 team members and help them move forward in their careers. Setting concrete KPIs for each job type is a goal for next year.
Creating and maintaining a culture
This week we had a virtual year-end awards ceremony, where we gave each person on the team awards like, “Most prolific use of emojis”, “The Sherlock award”, and “Most likely to be cooking an elaborate lunch”. It was a fun way to recognize all the personalities on the team and shows how you really can build meaningful relationships even if you only know someone in an online context. I also had a cartoonist create characters from everyone’s profile pics for them to use on Slack and elsewhere online, and gave them out at the awards ceremony. Here’s mine!
Everyone wants to work somewhere where they feel their talents are recognized and valued, and that they’re making meaningful contributions to customers. That’s certainly the case for me, and something I’ve been very deliberate to build at Bobsled.
The chit-chat and morning teas in a traditional work setting exist for a reason. They do help to quickly develop a culture and relationships amongst a team. You have to be more deliberate and persistent when creating a remote culture.
Challenges with a remote team
Conference calls. We’ve tried Skype, Slack group calls (unfortunately these are still super buggy), Uber Conference, Zoom Meeting, and Google Hangouts. We seem to have a 50% hit rate when it comes to team conference calls. If anyone has a suggestion here, please let me know!
We’ve tried Skype, Slack group calls (unfortunately these are still super buggy), Uber Conference, Zoom Meeting, and Google Hangouts. We seem to have a 50% hit rate when it comes to team conference calls. If anyone has a suggestion here, please let me know! Getting a read on how people are doing. In an office setting, you can “walk the floor” and pick up on the energy of the team. You’ll learn about people’s hobbies & family, how they work, etc, just by observing them in action. In a fully remote environment, there’s less room for visual observation of your colleagues. For better or worse, we all have to be a bit more candid with each other, because you just can’t pick up facial cues or body language in a chat app. For some people it’s a relief to just get on with their work without the distraction of office chit-chat and morning teas. But it’s still important to do a digital ‘drop-in’ and make sure people have what they need to be productive and that they’re not burning out.
In an office setting, you can “walk the floor” and pick up on the energy of the team. You’ll learn about people’s hobbies & family, how they work, etc, just by observing them in action. In a fully remote environment, there’s less room for visual observation of your colleagues. For better or worse, we all have to be a bit more candid with each other, because you just can’t pick up facial cues or body language in a chat app. For some people it’s a relief to just get on with their work without the distraction of office chit-chat and morning teas. But it’s still important to do a digital ‘drop-in’ and make sure people have what they need to be productive and that they’re not burning out. Scheduling. With just under half of the team in the US, me & Tom in Australia, and everyone else in Europe, it’s hard to schedule team calls at an ideal time for everyone. We’ve all had to become masters of calculating international time zones. Generally there is a couple hours’ overlap of everyone’s working hours, which is critical to getting things done. The same goes for working with clients who are in different time zones. Truth be told though, it’s nice to have a few hours each day when not everyone is online and you can get on with your work with less distraction.
With just under half of the team in the US, me & Tom in Australia, and everyone else in Europe, it’s hard to schedule team calls at an ideal time for everyone. We’ve all had to become masters of calculating international time zones. Generally there is a couple hours’ overlap of everyone’s working hours, which is critical to getting things done. The same goes for working with clients who are in different time zones. Truth be told though, it’s nice to have a few hours each day when not everyone is online and you can get on with your work with less distraction. Distractions at home. I’ve called this out as a challenge, but it’s only a short-term one. When you’re first adapting to working at home, you might see distractions everywhere. But once you set up your space, get into a groove, and realize that this stuff just has to get done, you do just… get it done. And as a manager you have to trust that others will also get to the same place. It will be pretty clear if they can’t.
Julie, our Operations Manager, and I were chatting recently (on Slack of course) about how much more efficient working at home is. There’s no commute, you can often choose when and where you’re getting work done. For me, I’ve really been needing my afternoon nap. My naps don’t affect anyone negatively because I can get started a bit earlier or work a bit later. The same goes for parents going to school recitals or picking up a sick kid from daycare. As long as the work gets done, clients and colleagues are kept in the loop — it matters less where and when work happens.
Having said that, it takes time, effort, trust, and a dedication to the concept to make remote work, ‘work’ for your company. | How we run a fully remote team of 13 people: All the gory details | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@kirimasters/how-we-run-a-fully-remote-team-of-13-people-all-the-gory-details-ce266af62c46 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Kiri Masters'] | 2016-12-23 00:11:22.556000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Women In Business', 'Work From Home', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Female Entrepreneurs'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | 3 Facebook Marketing Pro Tips Simple Tricks that can give you huge benefits! Image Source: Brett Jordan — https://unsplash.com/@brett_jordan Facebook as we know it, is a super-effective marketing machine that lets you reach, engage, and convert users into customers! But this also means it becomes extremely competitive to get what you want. Many times even after running ad campaigns you don’t get the results you desire. So in this short article, I am going to remind you of 3 tricks that you might know exist for a while but you never used them and Suggest you why you should use them! I personally believe that short articles are better as they are not boring and get across to the point fast. So let’s begin!
1. Facebook Page invites I know I know! you would say we all do this when we create a new page for our client. But I am not talking about the “invite your friends” tool. I am talking about “invite people who liked your page posts / Facebook ads”. Facebook Page Invite option in the engagements tab. Image Source: Author I am sure you would have noticed this alert forever — “XYZ liked your photo.help them see more of your content by inviting them” But do you know it is super effective and can increase your page audience by up to 30 %? Just Imagine, these are the people who liked your ads/content for some good reason and chances are they might like your future content as well! Who knows they might be your loyal future customers!! So instead of having your good pal John like your page (who will just like your every post for the love of friendship), don’t you think it will be more lucrative to have some unknown Sally(who genuinely liked your ad) like / follow your page! Now you might say Facebook pages are dead, no one really cares what is being posted there! But my dear friend while running ads when people come to your page, don’t you think a page with 10000 likes still feels more trustworthy than a page with 300 likes! Because you never know which post might attract someone and make that purchase happen. As social media marketers, we must not leave any stone unturned! So that’s my first trick, Inviting people who liked your page content / engaged with your ads!
2. Facebook Messenger Invites: If you already know what I am talking about and use this already, BRAVO !! You can skip this point and directly go to the 3rd. But for those who don’t use this, do you know Facebook messenger open rate is higher than 80%! Facebook messenger open rate is higher than 80% What this means is, most of the people you send messages to, believe it, or not, open it! That notification number really gets to people! Now it’s a whole different story if they ignore you after that or interact with you. When you use “invite your friends”, there is also an option of sending a personal message along with the invitation. Imagine people getting page invites all the time, and if they get an invite with a personal message along with an invitation in messenger, chances of accepting that invite increase drastically. Facebook Page invite tab. Image Source: Author No one really uses this simple but super effective option that Facebook provides. These people you invite are already in your circle and know a thing or two about you. So if they see a message along with the invite, chances are, they would readily like the page. Earlier you could even compose the message your send along with the invite but now Facebook does not allow that option for some good reason. Another thing to note is that you can send messenger invite to only up to 50 people at a time. This is to prevent spamming. You have to take some efforts but they are totally worth it! You could just send invites to 50 friends per day and see the growth slowly. It will also give you page boost over a longer time and you won’t miss out on inviting newly added friends!
3. Facebook Page Transparency: This trick is my favorite because it is so useful to get started with your ads if you have no clue where to start! Do you know you can directly see what ads your competitors are running on Facebook? Since the cases involving misuse of ads arose, Facebook incorporated this change to bring transparency on its platform with the ads being run! And this feature allows any user to see all the ads that are currently being run by any business page on Facebook. Page Transparency tab. Image Source: Author Just go to the info section of any page -> click on page transparency and you will see tabs like -> ‘Page history’, ‘People who manage this Page’, and ‘Ads from this Page’. Click on “Go to Ad Library” and Voila! you will see all the ads the page is running right now. Check this image for example. I randomly searched fitness and opened the Gold’s Gym India page: Facebook Ad Library tab. Image Source: Author Imagine you can see all the ads being run currently by your favorite brand/competitor! You can use this to know - For how long they are running this ad what kind of creative they are using how many variations they are having for the same ad Which platform they are running the ad on (Instagram / Facebook), The CTA they are using, the landing page, the description, And if you dig deeper who knows much more !! I know I know this is a mind-blowing and really amazing reference point. That’s why I said this is my favorite. It gives you insights into what you might want to include in your ads. Now you won’t see the budgets, engagements, leads, and all that but come on! isn’t this enough already! Plus remember just like you did, anyone else can see your ads as well. Maybe the whole purpose of this initiative was to bring about transparency and Efficiency. Won’t it be less painful for Facebook to manage ads if all the marketers ran high-quality ads! I hope these 3 tricks will help you gain more audience (invites) / reach the audience in a better way (page transparency). | 3 Facebook Marketing Pro Tips | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@tejas-adgaonkar/3-facebook-marketing-pro-tips-5930d60c9ea0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Tejas Adgaonkar'] | 2020-10-29 12:52:05.383000+00:00 | ['Facebook Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Facebook'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Pay Per Click Advertising for Small Business
Small businesses include loads of benefits to achieve from PPC. A thriving PPC campaign can easily produce revenue more rapidly than any other online advertising process and can assist a company develop PPC is an awesome tool for getting your target audience at the right point of time and when they are all set to adapt.
Pay-per-click advertising is a perfect tool to boost web traffic to your site, particularly as a minor business. This is as you are not exactly paying for the ad own. You pay every time it is clicked. This way that if the ad is not producing any click-through, you won’t be spending any buck because you are paying for the consequences merely. As most minor businesses have smaller resources, this is an amazing process to assist augment both responsiveness of your products and services.
Why you should make sure that pay-per-click advertising is an important part of your small business marketing approach.
PPC or Pay Per Click is one of the basic tools you can make use to prop up a business in the online World. The PPC Model acts in an incredibly easy way and this is a reason it is very popular.
Benefits of PPC
Quick Results
Businesses require effective results and they want them very quick. PPC is possibly the greatest and speediest way to operate an advertising campaign and obtain immediate results. To make simpler things, if you own a website and running efficiently, then you can rapidly make an ad-words account, setup your ads and run them in the Google network and start getting traffic.
Measurable results
Next most important advantage of PPC is you have to focus on a clear measurable target. You can determine anything that is associated to a PPC campaign from prices, proceeds, views, clicks, visits and lots more.
You can begin PPC you know how much you use up and if you are making profit or a loss. There are several reports and KPIs that give you with all the information you require, data that is necessary to marketing departments.
Reach the correct audience
When organizing a PPC campaign you select the positions of your ads and make sure where and how ads will appear based on a number of aspects comprising of keywords, location, website, device, time and date and many more. Also you need to bring your products and services towards the true and targeted audience.
Brand identification
Using PPC to target keywords linked to your organization so that people looking for those keywords will continually perceive your ads. However, common keywords will not produce enough sales, in some way they help you boost brand consciousness and set up your business as a power and leader in your company.
Amplify your reach
By making use of pay-per-click advertising to straight further web traffic to your company’s website, you will aid to increase the online visibility of your company. This is an imperative step to setup yourself as a head in your organization.
PPC has innumerable advantages for businesses mostly because it can produce quick results by targeting the correct people at the exact time. PPC and SEO can work jointly in accord for the top results as they are two of the key elements of digital marketing.
Digital Rank Digital Marketing Agency in Hyderabad. Is on e of the Top PPC Advertising Agency We Provide Cost Efficient Google, and Social Media Advertising for your online business. Our innovative digital marketing campaigns generate quality leads for your business. | Pay Per Click Advertising for Small Business | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@teamdigitalrank/pay-per-click-advertising-for-small-business-7f1d0c3e0689 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Digitalrank Digital Marketing Solutions'] | 2016-12-30 08:59:43.336000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Agency', 'Pay Per Click Marketing'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | To most businesses, the digital marketing landscape can seem more technical. And they find it daunting to manage online marketing strategies on their own. Hiring a digital marketing agency in Florida comes as a great rescue because they know the right methodology to harness the power of this great marketing method. By marketing on the Internet, you can surpass barriers of distance. You can sell your products in any part of the country without setting up physical stores or outlets.
If you are planning to participate in a digital marketing campaign, it is important to figure out the right campaign that will appeal to your specific target audience. A professional digital marketing agency in Florida will let you figure out the ideal strategies to help you reap maximum benefits. They will use powerful tools and strategies including social media, video advertisement, blogging, and email to reach a customer base that is global and at a great speed. And the cost of achieving all this is quite affordable as compared to the cost associated with other conventional marketing procedures. A digital marketing agency will provide you a range of services including web design and web development in Daytona Beach.
Make your business shine online by taking the decision of hiring experts now.
Read More at : www.seohounddog.com | Digital marketing techniques to appeal your specific audience | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@seohounddog01/digital-marketing-techniques-to-appeal-your-specific-audience-4556951b863d | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Seo Hound Dog'] | 2016-11-22 10:29:23.169000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Web Development'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Margin Business Entrepreneurs Talk PREMIERE
Margin Business Entrepreneurs Talk PREMIERE — Omar is interviewing Joe Reichsfeld The Founder & Managing Director of Ecommerce Optimizer who is offering E-Commerce Workshops, 1 On 1 Coaching & Training, Growing Brands on and off Amazon. Joe was born and raised in New York and began his business career very early in his life. After moving to Arizona his entrepreneur journey began. On the way to success, he was managing Restaurants, sold very successfully native Americans Jewelry and furniture in preparation for his current business Ecommerce Optimizer. Joe has extensive experience in selling on Amazon and other marketplaces and he knows the Amazon A9 Algorithm like no other. Joe is passionate about SEO and has huge Workshops on how to build online businesses and how to take it to the next level. But Joe can tell you best what his expertise is and you can hear his passion in the podcast! Find out more about Ecommerce Optimizer: https://ecommerce-optimizer.com/ Find out more about Margin Business INC: https://marginbusiness.com | Margin Business Entrepreneurs Talk PREMIERE | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@marginbusiness/margin-business-entrepreneurs-talk-premiere-2706b5fded1d | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Omar Margin'] | 2020-10-29 09:19:35.232000+00:00 | ['Amazon', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | As the world changes, there is one constant. We are better together than we are alone. When we connect to share our experiences, our successes, and our failures, we go further and faster than we ever could on our own. This is especially true if you run a digital agency.
As agency owners we’ve done a good job of laying the groundwork for how we build products, but we haven’t focused on how we build our industry. We have a great opportunity to show the world how a diverse spectrum of digital professionals can work together to make things better for all of us. The next step in making this happen is getting together at Owner Summit 2017, February 20–22 in San Diego.
If you aren’t familiar with Owner Summit, it’s much more than an event. It’s a gathering. An opportunity to improve your company and help others improve theirs. And not just for a few days, but for as long as you choose to be a part of the community. It’s truly an opportunity to evolve your business and get peace of mind that you aren’t alone.
Owner Summit Video
The State of the Industry
After a year like 2016, having a community to support you is a very welcome change. With over 900 shops in the Bureau community, we’ve heard hundreds of stories about the volatility that was experienced. From pipelines drying up to some shops having their best year ever. From hiring sprees to a fear of layoffs. Make no mistake, there are trends among the shops that struggled and those that succeeded. What’s your billing methodology? Are you located or distributed? How do you manage projects?
Sharing the findings from our State of the Industry report will help you to understand real changes you can make to impact your business in 2017. It will also answer the question: is it just us or is everyone experiencing this?
Topics Discussed
Nearly 100 owners have secured their spot and voted on their preferred topics for discussion. Currently, these are the areas of focus in priority order:
Business Development Leadership Strategies Process Leadership Team Structures Pricing Models Success Metrics Marketing Scoping and Estimating Culture Communication
Other topics that are vying for a top spot, but will definitely be discussed are:
Tools and Resources
Agency Collaboration
Avoiding Burnout
Alternate Revenue Sources
Staffing
When you decide to join us, you’ll get to cast your vote for the topics that matter the most to you.
Leveraging Our Collective Knowledge
Because Owner Summit is a vibrant mix of smart and experienced people, we want to leverage all of the brain power we can. With that in mind, the programming is organized to have thought leaders share concepts on best practices and proven techniques. Then, we’ll dig into those same topics and others in open discussions where we all share thoughts, experiences and ideas. There is also time for scheduled one-on-one conversations with subject matter experts in finance, process, leadership and legal.
Connections
When you get 150 digital agency owners together, you find smaller groups that share a special connection. Maybe it’s the number of people in your shop, or the way you run projects or where you live? During lunches and other social activities you’ll find yourself with new faces that share something in common with you. Are we going to tell you what it is, or leave it for you to figure out? You’ll have to wait and see.
Building The Future Together
Diversity isn’t just a nice thing to have or talk about. It’s even more than a competitive advantage. It’s a competitive requirement. In the years ahead, the talent we need to run our shops will choose to work at companies that have a broad spectrum of people. Collectively we can make that happen.
We’ll be donating $100 from your ticket to Girl Develop It, a nonprofit that provides affordable and judgment-free classes for women to learn development. Then we’ll connect them with shops in the Bureau community to help get their new careers underway.
But that’s only part of the effort. We will also be welcoming shops owned by those that are underrepresented in the Bureau community. And we’ll do that by offering tickets to owners that might not otherwise attend. Much like our world, outreach to others is a critical part of building a healthy community. And with your help, we will connect the dots that make all of us stronger.
Long After You Head Home
The true value of Owner Summit is the connections you make. And in 2017, the Bureau will be launching a new community site that keeps us all connected. Evolving from our current Slack channels, the new community site will offer:
Agency Collaboration Support
Agency Directory
Agency Resource Sharing Support
Discussion Channels
Education Opportunities (webinars)
Job Board
Knowledge Base
Local Meet-up Support
Mentoring Support
Primary Research Access
Resource/Tools Directory
As part of your ticket to Owner Summit 2017, you’ll have access to the discussion channels for owners and an opportunity for full membership for either yourself or your entire company. The cost for full membership will be $30/month for an individual or $300/month for a company. More details on membership in the Bureau community will be shared in the months ahead.
Who’s Attending
To see the other shops you’ll be connecting and sharing with, please check out the Owner Summit 2017 website . You can scroll down to see the logos of the attending shops. Trust us, you’re in great company.
Logistics
Owner Summit 2017 will take place from February 20–22 in San Diego at the beautiful Paradise Point Resort. It’s 44-acres of island magic with a mile of sandy white beaches. One of the things we’re most excited about is having some of the sessions outside in the warm sunshine and fresh air!
Tickets are $1,450 and include admission to the event, opening reception, breakfast and lunch on both full days. You’ll also enjoy an opening night social event and a karaoke jam session to close out our time together. While you’ll be responsible for your own dinners, we will have light appetizers at the social events.
We have negotiated a Lanai Garden room for you. The group rate is $174/night plus taxes. When you buy your ticket for Owner Summit 2017 you’ll get a link via email to reserve your hotel room. You’ll be responsible for the cost of your accommodations.
Questions
If you have any questions at all, please reach out to us directly at [email protected]. We’d love to have your voice included as we work together to create the best industry on the planet. | Community Matters | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@carlsmith/community-matters-f050268d956 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Carl Smith'] | 2016-11-17 20:15:10.832000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Conference', 'Web Design', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | If you don’t exist online, its like you don’t exist at all’ is definitely true for all the businesses today. Online marketing is now the part and parcel of all the marketing strategy. Realizing the dynamism of online marketing, IM Solutions has built its niche in the digital/online marketing world. We are an online marketing company in Bangalore working for both big and small businesses. Our team of professionals provide complete services in custom web design and development, software development, internet marketing, print and graphic designs, web content writing and much more. As an online marketing company in Bangalore, our vision is to deliver outstanding business results using digital marketing technology. We facilitate easy and fast customer journey at the touch of a click, i.e. email, mobile, social web and beyond. Here, we have the passion and skills to bring the best. Our team of experts dedicate to deliver impeccable work on time.
To be the best Digital marketing agency in Bangalore, we facilitate our approach to be client inclusive. We work with our clients to understand them better. We as an online marketing company in Bangalore specialize in providing all round solutions to all your marketing problems. We cater to:
• Website designing: IM Solutions is a leading online marketing company in Bangalore and has a team of highly proficient designers, programmers, graphical artists and web developers. We have worked with more than thousand clients with different personal tastes and visions for their sites. Each of our client’s demands have been different and we deliver accordingly. Our approach is multifaceted.
• Digital Marketing: There are several online marketing company in Bangalore, but what makes us the best is our convenient, cost effective and personalized internet marketing strategy. Our team is a family of talented, trained and experienced team of internet marketers. Our duty is to increase your business opportunities.
• Search Engine Optimization: Want to get more visibility online? Don’t worry. IM Solutions is here to help. We as an expert team work to increase the rankings of your website and generate more leads. We help your business grow and meet its business targets by developing user friendly, easy to navigate and faster website for you.
• Social Media Optimization: IM Solutions is a well-known online marketing company in Bangalore that deals with SMO of our client’s sites. We give precedence on improving organic search results for your sites. We help you connect all of your social media accounts in an organized, cohesive and branded network. We monitor SMO services in real time and alerts businesses when someone is talking about your brand or keyword on social media.
• Online Reputation Management: IM Solutions, an internet marketing company in Bangalore also monitors the online positive image/brand awareness of business firms. We involve in re-building company’s brand. Through SEO tactics, we track all positive and negative responses.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing is an added value through compelling content in the form of blog posts, articles and videos. Content Marketing through IM Solutions strive to deliver intelligent strategies and engaging content to ensure continuous growth of your brand. | Digital Marketing Agency in Bangalore | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@bandhana.singh000/digital-marketing-agency-in-bangalore-329c02dd82ff | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2015-12-22 12:50:24.790000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Online Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Complete Marketing Strategy in 2021
How many times have you seen a killer marketing campaign and thought to yourself, “Wow, I wish I would’ve thought of that!” ROI Overload Follow Dec 10, 2020 · 11 min read
Guest Post By Kayla Carmicheal
How many times have you seen a killer marketing campaign and thought to yourself, “Wow, I wish I would’ve thought of that!”
(Glossier, I’m looking at you.)
We’ve all been there.
The truth is, when you’re just starting out, it can be tough to know whether your strategy is as comprehensive and powerful as it could be.
To help ease some of that uncertainty, we’ve created this guide that’ll show you step-by-step how to create a marketing strategy that leaves no stone unturned.
Let’s dive into the five critical components of a complete marketing strategy in 2019, followed by some examples for further inspiration.
Download Now: Free Marketing Plan Template
How to Create a Marketing Strategy
Build a marketing plan. Create buyer personas. Identify goals. Select the appropriate tools. Account for existing resources. Audit and plan media campaigns. Bring it to fruition.
1. Build a marketing plan.
Wait, I have to make a plan for my strategy? What’s the difference? Your marketing strategy provides an overview behind the reasons why your marketing team will need certain resources, take certain actions, and set certain goals over the year. Your marketing plan is the specific actions you’ll take to achieve that strategy.
Not sure where to start? This free marketing plan template can help.
The right template can help you build a marketing plan that identifies your budget for the year, the initiatives your marketing organization needs to tackle, and the marketing channels you’ll use to implement those initiatives. And it will tie everything back to a business summary, to keep you aligned with overarching company goals.
2. Create buyer personas.
If you can’t define who your audience is in one sentence, now’s the chance to do it. A buyer persona is an example of your ideal customer.
For example, a store like Macy’s could define a buyer persona as Budgeting Belinda, a stylish working-class woman in her 30’s living in a suburb, looking to fill her closet with designer deals at low prices.
With this description, Macy’s Marketing department can picture Budgeting Belinda and work with a clear definition in-mind.
Buyer personas have critical demographic and psychographic information — including age, job title, income, location, interests, and challenges. Notice how Belinda has all of those attributes in her description.
You don’t have to create your buyer persona with a pen and paper. In fact, HubSpot offers a free template you can use to make your own (and it’s really fun). Buyer personas should be at the core of building your strategy.
3. Identify goals.
Your marketing strategy goals should coincide with your business goals. For example, if one of your business goals is to have 300 people attend your annual conference in three months, your goal as a marketer should be along the lines of boosting online RSVPs by 10% at the end of the month.
Other marketing goals might be to increase brand awareness or generate high-quality leads. You might also want to grow or maintain thought leadership in your industry or increase customer value. Whatever your goals, identify what they are and how your marketing organization can work to achieve them over the next year.
4. Select the appropriate tools.
Once you have your goals identified, make sure you have the right tools to measure the success of those goals. Online software like social media schedulers gives you analytics to help you keep track of what your audience likes and doesn’t. Alternatively, you might consider Google Analytics to measure blog and web page performance.
Additionally, it will be helpful if you make your goals SMART — to do so, take a look at How to Write a SMART Goal [+ Free SMART Goal Template]. Here are a few tools that can help you track and measure the success of your marketing goals:
Trello keeps your marketing team on track and openly communicating about the projects they’re working on. Create boards for individual campaigns, editorial calendars, or quarterly goals.
Built-in workflows and automation capabilities keep communication streamlined, and simplicity keeps your marketing team focused on the work that matters.
Pricing: Free; Business Class, $9.99/user/month; Enterprise, $17.50/user/month for 100 users
Everything on Monday.com starts with a board or visually driven table. Create and customize workflows for your team and keep groups, items, sub-items, and updates synced in real time.
You can also transform data pulled from timeline and Gantt views to track your projects on Monday.com and ensure deadlines have been met. Plus, with more than 40 integrations — from SurveyMonkey to Mailchimp and, of course, HubSpot — you can visualize your data and ensure your whole company is collaborating.
Pricing: Basic, $8/month/seat; Standard, $10/month/seat; Pro, $16/month/seat; Enterprise, contact for pricing
SEO continues to be a huge factor in the successful ranking of your website. SEMrush allows you to run a technical SEO audit, track daily rankings, analyze your competitor’s SEO strategy, research millions of keywords, and even source ideas for earning more organic traffic.
But the benefits don’t stop at SEO. Use SEMRush for PPC, building and measuring an effective social media strategy, content planning, and even market research.
Pricing: Pro, $99.95/month; Guru, $199.95/month; Business, $399.95/month
BuzzSumo allows you to analyze data to enhance and lead your marketing strategy, all while exploring high-performing content in your industry to increase engagement. Use the platform to identify influencers who may help your brand reach, and monitor comments and trends to make the most of every turn.
They also have tools to help with crisis management and video marketing as your needs evolve.
Pricing: Pro, $99/month; Plus, $179/month; Large, $299/month; Enterprise, $499+/month
Need to optimize your website this year? Consider getting started with Crazy Egg. You’ll be able to identify “attention hotspots” on your product pages, track ad campaign traffic on your site, and understand if shoppers are clicking where you want them to. You can even make sure your “buy now” buttons are in the best place.
Crazy Egg also offers recordings, A/B testing, and more to help ensure your website is offering the best user experience and the best return.
Pricing: Basic, $24/month; Standard, $49/month; Plus, $99/month; Pro, $249/month; Custom options available upon request
5. Account for existing resources.
Decide what you already have in your arsenal that can help you create your strategy. To streamline this process, think of your assets in three categories — paid, owned, and earned media.
Paid Media
Recall that paid media means any channel you spend money on to attract your target audience. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn offer paid media options that boost your exposure.
Owned Media
Owned media is any of the media you create — blog posts, ebooks, images, and infographics that your marketing team has created are examples of owned media.
Earned Media
Earned media is another way to say user-generated content. Shares on social media, tweets about your business, and photos posted on Instagram mentioning your company are all examples of earned media.
Gather your materials in these areas and consolidate them all in a single vehicle so you’ll have a clear vision of what you have and how you can integrate the three channels together to maximize your strategy.
For example, if you already have a blog that’s rolling out weekly content in your niche (owned media), you might consider promoting your blog posts on Twitter (paid media), which customers’ might then re-tweet (earned media). Ultimately, that will help you create a better, more well-rounded strategy.
The free option? Tweet it from your company’s Twitter or post it on Instagram and use relevant hashtags to spread it.
If you have resources that don’t fit into your goals, nix it. This is a great time to clean house or identify gaps in your materials.
6. Audit and plan media campaigns.
Cleaning house segues straight into this step. Now, you must decide which content is going to help you. Focus on your owned media and marketing goals. For instance, will updating the CTAs at the end of your blog posts help you increase RSVPs to your event?
Next, look at your buyer personas. Let’s say you work for a video editing software company. If one of your persona’s challenges is adding clean sound effects to their videos but you don’t have any content that reflects that, make a 15-second demo video for Instagram to show how great your product is at solving that challenge.
Finally, create a content creation plan. The plan should include the title, goals, format, and channel for each piece of content. Be sure to include which challenge it’s solving for your buyer persona.
For ideas on content creation or a more in-depth look at how to create a content plan, check out our post, The Ultimate Guide to Content Creation.
7. Bring it to fruition
At this point, your market research and planning should help you visualize how your strategy will be executed (and by which teams).
The final step is to bring that all together — to put actions into your planning. Create a document that maps out the steps you need to take to execute your campaign. In other words, define your strategy.
Think long-term when creating this document. A standard strategy document is 12 months. This structured timeline should be the home base for your strategic marketing efforts.
To paint an example, let’s go back to the video software company.
Maybe in January, you will launch a software update that improves the exportation process for users. In April, you want to publish an ebook that explains editing terms to your buyer personas, and in September, you plan to launch an integration with other software.
Remember, your digital strategy is unique to your business, so the document should be, as well. As long as the strategy includes all of the necessary information, you’ll be all set to take your company’s brand from okay to outstanding.
Now that we’ve explored five critical steps of a complete marketing strategy, let’s look at some “Why didn’t I think of that?” strategies to inspire your own.
Examples of Successful Marketing Strategies
1. Regal Movies
Digital strategy: Owned media
Regal Movies took the Halloween spirit to a new level, even re-naming their Twitter to reflect the spirit of the season. This “Monster Madness” poll is a fun, interactive way to get followers invested in Regal’s content:
Image Source
Regal’s tweet is an example of owned media because the company was in full control of the answers followers gave (and, apparently, American Werewolf didn’t stand a chance). Regal effectively kept true to their brand by using only classic movies in their poll,, while still putting a modern spin on it.
This is also a good example of how retweets don’t necessarily equal success. While four retweets isn’t that big of a deal, check out the votes: 461. That means there were over 400 interactions with a single tweet.
2. Taco Bell
Digital strategy: User-generated content, earned media
Real love is taking your engagement photos at your favorite fast food Mexican restaurant — right? User-generated content is one of the best ways to gain traction in your strategy — it demonstrates your appreciation for loyal customers, and also incentivizes other users’ to promote your products for the chance at a similar shout-out. Plus, sometimes the content your brand-lovers create is really, really good:
It’s not every day someone takes engagement photos at a fast-food restaurant, and Taco Bell jumped at this earned media opportunity. Earned media is at work here because this couple is saying they love baja blasts and crunchwraps as much as they love each other — so it must be delicious.
3. Small Girls PR
Digital strategy: Event marketing
Wait, is that Keke Palmer?
Small Girls PR is a boutique PR company based in New York, and one of the company’s talents is throwing amazing events for their clients, like Olay. This event recap carousel on Instagram is an effective event marketing example.
Event marketing is a fantastic opportunity to boost awareness for your brand. Not every business needs to throw lavish events, either. Event marketing can be as simple as the last company outing you had at your team’s favorite brewery.
Posting a quick recap on Instagram sheds light on your business’s culture, and demonstrates your appreciation for your employees’, ideally incentivizing others to apply.
4. Diesel Cafe
Digital strategy: Word of mouth
Boston-local cafe Diesel Cafe is more than just a great location to get vegan bagels. It also rocks at word-of-mouth marketing. In fact, Diesel even has a website dedicated to it — a place where fans can submit letters about the fun times they’ve had at the cafe:
Check your company’s Yelp climate. Are people giving you nice reviews? Showcasing some of them on your social channels is an effective opportunity to provide social proof that your products or services are a worthwhile investment, since people typically trust peers more than ads.
5. Target
Digital strategy: Paid media, Twitter cards
If you’ve got the budget for paid media, take full advantage of it. Paid media is when you pay social channels, like Twitter, to promote your content on their site. By doing this, your content reaches new audiences you might not be able to reach organically:
An inclusive ad from Target about fall shopping uses Twitter cards to promote their brand and offer easier ways to shop — simply click on the photo, and you’re redirected to a purchase page. More social channels are offering ways for shoppers to purchase in-app or close to it, driving sales and boosting exposure for brands.
Ultimately, creating a complete marketing strategy isn’t something that can happen overnight. It takes time, hard work, and dedication to ensure you’re reaching your ideal audience, whenever and wherever they want to be reached.
Stick with it (and use some of the resources we’ve included in this post), and over time, research and customer feedback will help you refine your strategy to ensure you’re spending most of your time on the marketing channels your audience cares most about. | The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Complete Marketing Strategy in 2021 | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/scott-d-clary/the-step-by-step-guide-to-creating-a-complete-marketing-strategy-in-2021-4d180d987a8f | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Roi Overload'] | 2020-12-10 04:27:15.393000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Marketing Technology', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Every effective strategy has a definite plan which starts with the first step that is to diagnose the problem. The case for digital marketing is exactly the same.
Digital marketing services bring you a process where your company is able to fully embraces the power of online platform to implement strategies and revolutionize.
The main reason to seek out a Digital agency is to help you execute your digital transformation.
Here is how you can make effective digital transformation and how to know its importance for your brand.
What Makes for a Digital Effective Strategy?
Best digital marketing company in Gurgaon can help you solve the known existing problems and also find solutions for future endeavors.
It is high time that businesses recognize an effective strategy by how much it future-proofs and streamlines.
A robust, reliable digital agency enables to unlock new potential and grow existing customers. It aims allowing you to increase the market share and drive business growth. A truly effective strategy has significant rupee value return. It’s surely an investment.
Effective plans are extremely vital for flawless execution. That is the main reason every digital transformation should has one.
Signs Your Business Needs a Digital Marketing Agency
Every business needs a digital transformation. We have all recognized the importance of digital marketing services in recent past. Businesses need support, understanding, education, resources. Digital Marketing services can provide just that and can be extremely powerful if it’s done correctly.
Following are the top signs that your business needs a digital transformation strategy.
Having an online presence. If your business is not already online, surely you ought to lose out on a massive opportunity. Having an impressive presence. It is high time that businesses realize the importance of digital marketing. Digital marketing services company in Gurgaon will not let you fade away into anonymity considering the vast size of the internet. Cut throat competition. Digital marketing is not a matter of them simply being better. It implies a need to transform your approach. Being an innovator. Some businesses have knack for jumping on things early and tend to smell success from a mile away.
Businesses cannot survive on foot traffic simply when so many people aren’t moving out of their homes and risking their health in stores. In this era, you need Digital Marketing services to aid your business.
This is definitely not the time for business owners to lean back and wait and see what happens. You should be head over heels to work with Best Digital Marketing Agency ever now to keep your business afloat.
Why You Can’t Do It Alone you need Best Digital Marketing Company
It is true that you can’t do your own internal digital transformation.
As we can witness, businesses that have chosen a progressive strategy of refocusing spending with the help of Best Digital marketing Agencies in Gurgaon have outperformed businesses that made sweeping cuts.
studies have showcased that what happened during a recession affected a company’s performance even after the recession phase. Some studies also revealed that “successful leaders, with help of Digital Marketing services, have refocused rather than cut spending Furthermore, a report also mentions that getting it right the help of Best Digital marketing Agencies through the lean years has a huge impact on a company’s growth rate after the economy improves.
Let’s not forget the most important reason why you can’t do it alone.
Digital marketing services offer expertise in digital transformation which requires knowledge across websites, design, social media marketing, search engine advertising, SEO, copywriting and digital strategy. Working cohesively together in all above areas is key to achieving success. | Effective Digital Transformation Strategy | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@digitalyash/effective-digital-transformation-strategy-f8f6ee22f2ca | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Digital Yash'] | 2020-10-29 14:20:47.480000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Transformation', 'Digital Strategy', 'Digital Marketing Service'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Spring is an advisory firm tailored to the unique needs of service companies and the people that run them. We work with owners of agencies, design firms, development shops and consultancies to help them optimize, expand and sell their companies.
Not all of our clients are ready to sell.
Many want to improve their business in the hopes of a selling in the future. We work alongside them to optimize their business financially and operationally — putting systems in place ensure reliable profitability.
Others want to better understand their options. They are often curious about the value of the company they’ve built and who might be interested in buying it. We help them answer these exploratory questions.
Once a client has made the decision to sell and we’re both confident that the company is ready, we lead them through a process to find the right buyer, negotiate the deal terms and ensure a smooth post-deal integration.
Our approach is unique in a few important ways:
We start early.
Whether it takes two months or two years, we work with each client to prepare their company for a sale. Using benchmarks and a playbook for improvement we give them the guidance to create a thriving, reliably profitable business that is attractive to buyers.
We play a bigger role.
Our process is designed to keep clients focused on the successful operation of their business. By taking a larger role we minimize the impact on their time and shorten the overall deal timeline. This has two benefits: reducing risk and maximizing value.
We approach deals holistically.
Having bought and sold companies as both owners and advisors, we’ve occupied every chair at the negotiating table. This unique perspective provides us valuable insights into the psychology and tactics of buyers and sellers — informing the way we negotiate deals.
We work as a team.
Because we work as a team, our clients benefit from our combined expertise with finance, operations, brand and negotiation. We serve as a board of advisors with diverse perspectives and experience at every stage.
We’ve walked in your shoes.
Each of us has spent decades running our own agencies, design firms and consultancies. Our understanding of the complexities of these unique businesses shapes our approach to deal making.
If you own and operate a service business and are interested in learning more about your options for getting value out of the company you’ve built, we can help.
Spring | We are Spring. | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@SpringAdvisors/we-are-spring-72fc84abef9e | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-11-17 19:55:09.191000+00:00 | ['Mergers And Acquisitions', 'Advertising Agency', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Agency', 'Design'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The social media ecosystem is dynamic and ever-changing. Media as a whole is taking an entirely new form. More time and attention is being spent on Social Media than any other media platform today. The barrier is to entry is low and relatively free. With a simple email address, companies can secure a profile on virtually every platform out there. Just because it”s free does not mean companies are taking advantage and maximizing their efforts on Social Media. Companies are hiring Social Media Managers daily to take on this responsibility, but why hire 1 person when you can hire an agency? Here are 6 reasons why companies are working with digital and social media marketing agencies.
You’ll Get More Bang for Your Buck
For the same price as it would cost to hire one person to handle your social media and digital marketing needs, your company can hire an agency that like 7twelve Marketing, who has a team of experts in their respective fields. 7twelve has dedicated videographers, video editors, copywriters, account managers, graphic designers, web developers, web designers, and marketing strategist experts on your team. Also, from a financial perspective, your company won’t have to pay employee cost on outsourcing the service and can be written off as an expense to the business.
The Right Agency Will Provide a 1 on 1 Client Experience
Boutique social media companies offer clients one on one treatment. Once a client decides to work with an agency, companies like 7twelve Marketing assign a dedicated account success manager. This person fully embodies the persona of the client. The account manager communicates valuable information to the content creators. They perform hashtag analysis, content strategy, post platform specific content embodying the culture and voice of the client’s organizations.
An Agency Can Create a Customized Marketing Plan
Each client’s needs are different. My clients come from all different industries from Dental Arts to Alcohol Brands. We take a lot of pride in learning everything we can about our clients, then cater a customized strategy and plan. When bringing on a new client we always establish what the key point indicators of measurement, and cater a strategy accordingly. This types of approach gives so much more value to the working relationship, because performance and execution are imperative for the relationship to work. Communication and clearly defined written goals, always make for a smoother execution of the plan. Here are some fun Goal Setting techniques to exercise: KISS goals (Keep It Simple Stupid) and SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, and Time-Based)
(Some) Social Media Agencies Are Experts in Every Platform
We are social media experts, as in all social media. It can get overwhelming with all the social media outlets from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, Periscope, Music.ly, and LinkedIn. So we take it upon ourselves to constantly educate ourselves on best tips, tricks, and practices. We even share those practices for free to anyone who is looking to educate themselves. Our goal and intention is to share our knowledge with everyone because we sincerely care about the success of our partners and the industry as a whole. We even named our company 7twelve, after the ancient “Golden Rule” principal which states, “Do to others what you want them to do to you”. So we take it upon ourselves to be the best in Social Media.
Agencies Can Create Transparency in Marketing
Technology has made communicating in real time to anyone around the world far more accessible than ever before. Cloud based storing and sharing has made it easier for Marketing companies to work with lots of different brands who fit their style. Clients also can log in and see in real time and see what their Account Success Managers have gotten done, are currently working on, and receive performance metrics via dashboard reports, and can run deeper reports with analytics. This gives a lot of value to the relationship, because for the same or similar cost, again, 1 person can not handle tat load of work. There is value in transparency.
Social Media Agencies Make You Look Cooler
Our job is to help our clients reach their Social Media goals, it is just added bonus that we make them look really cool doing it. The definition of what is cool, hip, and in, is something Gary Vaynerchuk preaches, and I fully buy into, is the Thank You Economy and the humanization of business. So when you hire an agency, you are building more of a community and that is cool. Consumers can detect inauthenticity a lot easier in the age of information.
If you liked this article, please share it. It helps others see it and we’d really appreciate it.
Article by Aaron Miller
Social Media Strategist at 7twelve Marketing
Contact Aaron: [email protected] | Top 6 Reasons Companies Should Hire a Social Media Marketing Agency | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@7twelveTeam/top-6-reasons-companies-should-hire-social-media-marketing-agencies-8da5144c0122 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2017-10-31 16:14:27.764000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Content Marketing', 'Digital Marketing'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How does a brand name develop a connection with its consumers? Numerous services miss out on the most vital component of the formula: making an excellent first impression. And also a BIG component of making that first impression matter is with a top-quality layout.
Whether it’s your logo, business card, signage, website, banners, or other tools, your designs require to engage as well as link with your target market, instilling a sense of depending on, high quality, integrity, as well as value. In today’s web-driven world, that impression is commonly made online through electronic branding. The most effective means to ensure potential customers remember you for that you are is by integrating a good layout and constant marketing messaging right into every aspect of your company
Getting in touch with Marketing Our City is just as well as getting connected with one of the best developers in New Jersey. We’ll aid you to tell your tale with terrific visuals, as well as make sure that one look is all it takes for leads to obtain the message.
We have experienced Internet Developers that cater To Your Style Demands, with
Affordable Team Of Digital Marketers As Well As Designers That Will Provide You The Results That You Desire. Web design isn’t as easy as it first appears. High-grade design work isn’t simply aesthetically appealing, proper logo, branding, as well as web design in New Jersey needs to speak with your target market, share your brand name score messaging, construct count on, and also a lot more.
You only obtain one possibility to make your first impression with the possibility, and also most of the time, they’ll judge your business within the first few seconds of logging onto your website, based upon what they see If you have a poorly-designed site, they’ll likely look elsewhere and also wind up collaborating with a competitor who made the effort to understand and also relate visually to their audience or whose style was more abreast with their marketing and advertising channels and story.
Why choose Marketing Our City for Web Design Services
Marketing Our City designers has been helping companies for over 5 years. We have web designers that have won awards in companies that they worked for. But they were tired of being told what to do, or better yet working for someone else. This is our business, so our customers know how much of a family presence when they have us work for them.
We aid local business owners to find new clients, build connections, and accomplish their objectives — whether that indicates maximizing ROI ( Return On Investment) or bringing your bounce rate down. Every business is various, that’s why our designers account for your needs in addition to the preferences of your clients whenever putting together a company plan.
We’ll consider every one of your goals to guarantee that you get the results that you want. Our company believes that every business in New Jersey is worthy of the merit of obtaining a personalized plan.
After offering companies for over 7 years, we’ve come to be knowledgeable in numerous areas including web design, content advertising, and marketing, as well as SEO( Search Engine Optimization). We don’t just recognize just how design functions; we also understand just how to keep whatever functional to guarantee that it integrates seamlessly with your other advertising efforts.
What Do We Do Best — Graphic Designs and Lead Generation
Lead Generation, Marketing Our City Agency
We take your suggestion and utilize our creativity and experience to transform it right into something that into visuals styles your business can be proud of, something that tells your customers who you are, the value you supply, and why they need to trust you with their business. Internet layout, we additionally provide a local logo design to enhance your marketing solution to help you stand out from local small businesses.
We’ll assist you to build meaningful partnerships with your customers and involving them in a way that really feels all-natural as well as warm. We use various techniques to obtain the outcomes you desire. Our staff members combine the very best facets of social media advertising, search engine optimization, and layout to bring you a detailed strategy that covers all bases.
Our New Jersey marketing as well as internet marketing agency is a full service, one-stop-shop all things digital. If you have actually been searching for layout and also advertising and marketing firms to help your business prosper expand grow and succeed, think about giving us a phone call today. You will not be dissatisfied.
Content can be written up by anyone, however, when you’re producing web content that needs to attract many audiences and also remain readable on all platforms, you need to deal with an expert who understands the intricacies as well as great information of the procedure.
After years of effort, we at Marketing Our City Agency have actually taken care of putting together a search engine optimization solution that provides our clients excellent results without making them jeopardize your precepts. We’ll add your website to move up in the rankings making use of the most up-to-date methods that are all compliant with Google’s guidelines.
Social network advertising and marketing. A lot of consumers rely upon social media to locate good services nowadays which is why it’s important that you obtain your presence out there and also establish a good image for everybody to see the Graphic layout. Do you send out sales brochures, posters, or calling cards? Have a chat with our graphic designers so they can assist you to establish a unified style for all your advertising and marketing products.
Internet style. We can construct a custom-made web site that will serve as the online house of your company.
As well as a BIG part of making that very first impression count is with a top-quality layout.
Our team members integrate the best aspects of social media marketing, search engine optimization, and design to bring you a comprehensive plan that covers all bases.
If you’ve been looking for layout as well as advertising and marketing firms to help your organization expand and thrive. After years of tough jobs, we at Marketing Our City Agency handled to put together a search engine optimization service that provides you great outcomes without making you compromise on your morals. Web style.
Lead Generation the bread and butter for every business
What is the lead? A lead is any person who indicates interest in a company’s product or service in some way, shape, or form.
Leads typically hear from a business or organization after opening communication (by submitting personal information for an offer, trial, or subscription) … instead of getting a random cold call from someone who purchased their contact information.
Let’s say you take an online survey to learn more about how to take care of your car. A day or so later, you receive an email from the auto company that created the survey about how they could help you take care of your car. This process would be far less intrusive than if they’d just called you out of the blue with no knowledge of whether you even care about car maintenance, right? This is what it’s like to be a lead.
From a business perspective, the information the auto company collects about you from your survey responses helps them personalize that opening communication to address your existing problems — and not waste time calling leads who aren’t at all interested in auto services.
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)-are contacts who’ve engaged with your marketing team’s efforts but aren’t ready to receive a sales call. An example of an MQL(Marketing Qualified Lead) is a contact who fills out a landing page form for an offer.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)- are contacts who’ve taken actions that expressly indicate their interest in becoming a paying customer. An example of an SQL is a contact who fills out a form to ask a question about your product or service.
Product Qualified Lead (PQL)-are contacts who’ve used your product and taken actions that indicate interest in becoming a paying customer. PQLs typically exist for companies who offer a product trial or a free or limited version of their product with options to upgrade, which is where your sales team comes in. An example of a PQL is a customer who uses your free version but engages or asks about features that are only available upon payment.
Service Qualified Lead (SQL)-are contacts or customers who’ve indicated to your service team that they’re interested in becoming a paying customer. An example of a service qualified lead is a customer who tells their customer service representative that they’d like to upgrade their product subscription; at this time, the customer service representative would up-level this customer to the appropriate sales team or representative. | Which Services Are The Most Valued For Small Businesses in 2021? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@marketing-consultant908/which-services-are-the-most-valued-for-small-businesses-in-2021-d0bc2d62c61f | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Felipe Oliveira'] | 2021-01-01 19:53:28.618000+00:00 | ['Graphic Design', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Leads Generation'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | SEO Agency Guide: Checks and Balances
In today’s rapidly changing and dynamic world of search engine marketing, SEO/SEM are not just a “set it and forget it” type project. Regular check-ins and calibrations are necessary to see the most benefits, and an overall game plan is also a must. When you interview agencies for SEO work, make sure these digital marketing tactics will be part of the package.
Website Audits & Checkups
If you’re using a digital marketing agency, you as a client should make sure the particular company is checking your websites vital signs, — not just today, but tomorrow, next week, next month, and next quarter.
As a quick guide, I have highlighted what a good SEO firm or agency should be checking and updating you the client on:
Crawl Your Site — SEO spiders can see problems that aren’t visible to the naked eye. Broken links and missing URLs need to be fixed, and new and different URLs should also be assessed as your site adds blog entries, static web pages, and so on.
Check Your Metadata — Reports on metadata, including title tags, meta descriptions, headings, robots tags, and such, should be compiled to give you SEO specialist a good picture of what’s new with the site over the last 30 days.
Check Your Redirects and Status Errors — Your agency will look at a crawl errors report to make sure your site’s pages are showing the right status. If they find 404 errors, they’ll look for a new location to redirect to.
Check Your XML Sitemap and Robots File — These files provide the basic instructions to search engines about your site. Your SEO person should check the sitemaps report and verify your robots file correctly identifies what areas the search engines should access and what is closed.
Check Your BackLink Report — Your agency should check out who’s linking to your site. A large quantity of low-quality links could be an issue for your site’s authority score and should be removed or disavowed.
KPIs, Goals, & Overall Performance Analysis
To get the most from your SEO investment, you want a firm that will analyze your site’s performance monthly, calibrating and tweaking to improve your site’s SEO performance. Here are some high ROI checks a good agency should perform:
Check Channel Performance — The performance of the natural search channel can tell you a lot. An expert can compare your marketing goals and KPIs to see how your site is performing.
Check High-Change Pages Thoroughly — A good SEO firm should spend some time with your pages that have the biggest positive and negative changes in traffic. They’ll look for patterns that could suggest broad performance optimizations.
Check on Past Optimizations — An important piece of SEO work, your agency should check in on past optimizations to make sure the impact was positive and make further adjustments if needed.
Check Your Top Referring Sites — When a new site starts sending you traffic, that’s a golden opportunity. Your agency can monitor referrals and alert you when there’s an opportunity to work together for improved site authority.
Check Your Search Competitors — A good SEO analysis will look at sites ranking for your target phrases and topic keywords, looking for what worked for them and how it could be applied to your site.
Check Google’s Search Console — Search Console is your direct SEO line to Google. The app provides all manner of messages and reports, which your SEO expert should retain and archive for reference.
Relationship with Your SEO Firm
When it comes to the future, your agency should have a good grasp of what’s coming up and how to help you make the most of it. Your optimizations should be proactive, not reactive. Make sure your SEO experts are looking ahead to next month’s potential target pages to tweak. Keyword research is yet another important part of SEO strategy. You won’t have to worry about things changing every 30 days, quarterly is fine, but keeping on top of trends and planning for future campaigns will be important to success.
These are just some of the items your digital agency may check to improve your SEO performance. Experts may disagree on which items take priority or how often to run reports, as every company’s goals are different. However, the bottom line remains the same. Your SEO firm should be doing the regular groundwork that’s going to get you results in the SERPs. | SEO Agency Guide: Checks and Balances | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@nick_martini/seo-agency-guide-checks-and-balances-d42e5e54c34 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Nicholas Martini'] | 2016-11-28 16:30:52.184000+00:00 | ['Search Engine Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Google Analytics', 'Chicago'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | BEST SEO SERVICES PROVIDER IN CANADA
Ifrita web solution
Established in 2015, to provide the best seo marketing services, Ifrita provides the best SEO services in Canada. we are a team of highly qualified professionals who are able to deliver the best web and seo services in canada. we also provide SMM, SMO, PPC, ERP and CRM software development services in canada, India and Dubai also.
Ifrita is the best seo company you can get to grow your business.
Ifrita is a search engine marketing firm based in Canada. We have expertise and experience in the IT industry. Ifrita provides the best local seo services in canada to make your business grow. We believe to make your business grow with best digital marketing services.
Our specialisations in SEO, SMO, PPC, SEM, ERP helps us and our customers to get more bangs from your bucks. We are a leading SEO firm in canada known for the best SEO services in Canada
WHY SEO IMPORTANT ?
SEO — Search engine optimization, the best way to make your business succeed and grow. It’s far most the best way to get your site ranked and make your business grow. Ifrita is the best seo audit agency in Canada and a leading SEO firm. We provide best local SEO services.
If you have started a business and and wants to grow your business then SEO in marketing is a must have for your business website.. Ifrita provides the best SEO marketing services to make your business grow and increase your website traffic.
SEO is a must if you are willing to increase your website traffic and generate leads without spending on paid advertising. SEO is a reliable way to increase website traffic and generate leads.
SEO helps you to reach more audiences at low cost. SEO is a boon for your success in your business. Generating leads through SEO agency advertising is cost effective.
How SEO works:-
SEO or search engine optimisation is a great way to increase your website traffic and increase your website’s visibility on search engines like google, yahoo, bing.
BENEFITS OF SEO SERVICE:
Let’s take an example to make you understand better what SEO is and how you can use it for your benefits.
– We have a client named Eric who runs a recruitment agency and he have no understanding of what SEO is and how It can be a great way for him to get more clients and expand his business. Now he hired us for SEO services for his website.
At start we do an audit of their website and send a audit report to them rectifying all the errors In his website. After that we will ask them for which keywords they want to rank on top pages of google and other search engines.
Assume “ Seo services in canada “ , “recruitment companies in Brampton”, “local seo services” are given keywords.
After this we will research their keywords and look if people are searching for this keywords or not and how much competition is for these keywords.
If people are not searching for this keywords then we will suggest some keywords to them based on Search volume and Competition. After that we
start working with our proven methods and strategies and these keywords will on top pages of google with in 3 to 6 months. Client will start getting
leads for his business as soon as their keywords rank.
We provide best SEO marketing services in canada and the best seo company in canada.
OUR OTHER SERVICES
WEB DESIGN — UI/UX design makes your website look great and builds trust with your customers. We provide unmatched UI/UX services and make you and your stand apart.
WEB DEVELOPMENT — Creating and improving your website to make it look great, load fast and work well. Ifrita provides web development services to make your business grow and succeed.
SMM — Social media marketing, In this era of digitalisation SMM is a big game changer everyone uses social media platforms and they are more popular day by day. Usage of social media as a tool to grow your customer base, increase traffic and generate leads is increasing day by day.
Digital marketing — Our marketing strategy is to advertise your business through various digital channels search engines, websites, social media and email which helps your business grow and succeed. We are a Digital marketing agency for your needs.
PPC — Pay per click (PPC) is paid marketing where you have to pay when someone clicks on your ads and goes to your website. Pay per click is the best strategy to get faster results and leads for your business. We are a search engine marketing firm which makes us stand apart in the industry of SEM or paid advertising.
APP DEVELOPMENT — we provide app development services for your business. Everybody uses apps nowadays, apps are a great way to pack your services and make it easy to use.
E-commerce Website — E-commerce as you all know selling of goods and services via online means, If you sell goods then having an E-commerce website makes your work a lot more easier and can help your business expand globally without much effort. Ifrita provides E-commerce website services to make your dreams come true of being an international seller.
CRM & ERP — CRM helps you to manage your customers with high efficiency while having an ERP makes your business processes efficient and easy. We provide ERP & CRM software development for your business. | BEST SEO SERVICES PROVIDER IN CANADA | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@fendilute/seo-services-in-canada-175e1db09de4 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-12-10 08:54:07.393000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'SEO', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Nomads'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | What makes Digital Marketing Interesting
You should be aware of the impact of social media in today’s world. Social Media is widely used as an important platform to communicate information.
It’s hard to see 2k kids and Z gen kids with no social media account.
With the usage of social media getting widened Digital Marketing is getting the major hold in the global online market.
Digital Marketing is all about the smart ways for marketing your product digitally via online platforms using social media as an aid.
Its opposite to traditional marketing where you connect with your target audience from remote locations. And this is one of the important aspects in digital marketing.
Another interesting beauty in digital marketing is you can easily promote your product even before the product is fully launched and start getting orders. To be successful in digital marketing one should ensure that the quality of the product is not compromised at any cost.
One can be clear about the CATT Marketing Funnel during marking the products. It helps to boost the business provided you have the CATT principles followed. Based on CATT Marketing Funnel,
Wealth= n^CATT
Where,
n = Your Niche
C = Content
A= Attention
T= Build trust
T= Transaction
Ie, One should have quality and enough content to get the attention of the client there by building trust with them and get paid via transactions for the service offered. Its simply offering value based services for money.
The success of Digital Marketing as a whole lies with the success of different individual elements in online platforms. The figure above illustrates the concept of Integrated Digital Marketing. The components of individual elements includes Paid Advertisements, Email marketing, Content Marketing, SEO, Social media and conversions.
Kids today finds interest and involve themselves in most of the individual elements who makes them easier to gain the skill sets in digital marketing.
If you are interested in staring you own Digital Marketing Startup you should be aware of the mass trust blueprint.
The figure above illustrates the concept of mass trust blueprint.
It starts with Learn, Work, Blog, Consult, Mentor and then Start business is the mantra to be a successful individual in digital marketing.
Today there are plenty of companies that offer web design and digital marketing services.
Also we have lot of online resources to learn Digital Marketing. To learn Digital Marketing I recommend Digital Deepak and his internship programs.
Click here to know more about OFF-PAGE SEO in Digital Marketing | What makes Digital Marketing Interesting | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@jgracewell02/what-makes-digital-marketing-interesting-39538414b084 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Jeffin Gracewell'] | 2020-12-20 06:47:26.977000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | In the first installment of this series, First-Party Data: A Hidden Gem for the Post-Cookie World, we looked at how an advertiser’s customer database, or first-party data, can be used for advertising purposes. Now we will expand to the world of data sets that you can leverage to help increase, and refine, your first-party data while generating awareness and preference in the pursuit of sales.
Suppose your most desirable customers tend to read either New York Times or People Magazine online. You could just place advertising on either NYTimes.com or People.com, but that would result in a lot of wasted impressions, served to those who might not be aligned with your product or service. How do we minimize that waste? That is where second-party data comes in.
SECOND-PARTY AUDIENCE BUYING: WHAT IS IT?
I am referring to “second-party” here as the audience data of online publishers and other media properties like ad networks. The data is theirs — not yours — hence the second-party designation. Their audience data really is comprised of multiple audience segments, with data points that result in profiles that may look like your desired customers.
If you are a CPG company, you may want to target those who are buying your competitive set in the hopes of converting a percentage of those to buy your brand. If this is the case, your criteria may include reaching those who:
Match your geographic distribution area
Are within your desired customers’ HHI range
Shop at a specific
set of retailers
Or any combination
of the above
This approach allows an advertiser to use a media property’s larger audience set, minimizing waste while adding new users who can eventually grow your first-party data. You are not on NYTimes all the time, just when your target audience happens to be viewing. With apologies to the late Rod Serling, you’ve now entered the world of the Private Marketplace (PMP).
THE PRIVATE MARKETPLACE: HOW SECOND-PARTY AUDIENCE BUYING GETS DONE
Unlike the large ad exchanges that utilize available inventory from thousands of sites, the private marketplace allows an advertiser to programmatically buy only the audience they desire to target within a restricted set of one or more sites. Working with a publisher PMP allows for buying select audience segments that match up with an advertiser’s desired audience data, as noted above. Some things to consider when working with PMPs:
Make sure that there is alignment with your audience. For example, you may not want to use a particular PMP if less than 5% of your desired audience is going to a specific site or series of sites within that PMP. Consider 15% — 20% or more as a good guideline.
Think beyond “open web” display banners. Can you reach a publisher’s in-app or social media users? While there might be additional premiums for these, the additional costs may be justified if your desired audience is engaged with these platforms.
Balance a PMP buy with other tactics for overall efficiency. No one tactic can serve every marketer’s objectives. Remember that the key is to test and see if this approach works within a selection of tactics that meet your overall parameters for effectiveness and efficiency.
With the era of cookie-less advertising fast approaching, using PMPs to access second-party data will likely become a viable option to not only enhance campaign performance but grow your customer base as well. | PMPS: LEVERAGING SECOND-PARTY DATA FOR DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/gkv/pmps-leveraging-second-party-data-for-digital-campaigns-37eac9c51522 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-12-28 21:21:17.374000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Advertising', 'Data', 'Big Data'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How to find the Best Digital Marketing Agency in Delhi?
Digital marketing is the need of the hour. Almost all the companies in the world are rushing towards the digital space to get the maximum customers for their product and services. In order to get the best out of the online efforts, it is really essential for a brand/company to hire the best digital marketing agency.
The internet is the global influence nowadays. Brands, companies, organizations and institutions are running an endless race to sail through the online tide. Each day millions of users access the internet including social media websites, which make the internet the best platform to reach to prospective customers.
In order to get the best out of the digital world in the India, it is really essential to hire an experienced digital marketing agency in Delhi, so that your brand can effectively be portrayed among the flash of other brands, to attract prospective customers. One needs to find the best agency in the field, and one can keep in mind the following points to ensure that the brand is getting maximum benefits out of digital efforts:
• Experience: Experience lends wisdom to lead. An experienced digital marketing agency is more efficient than a fresh team of digital marketers without prior experience of dealing with digital mediums. An experienced team understands the needs of a business from the digital medium and devises an effective strategy to bring more benefit to a business than the efforts of a fresh team.
• Expertise: One should always make sure that a digital marketing agency has a strong team on-board which consists of digital marketing experts who are comfortable and knowledgeable enough to extract the maximum business benefit out of a digital campaign. Expertise in digital marketing helps them understand the pros and cons of a campaign beforehand and suggest more effective campaigns for the growth of a business.
• Specialized and dedicated team: It is essential that a digital marketing agency works full time and is completely dedicated towards its clients. The digital world is a fast changing world where fortunes are made in a matter of seconds. Better results can be attained from a digital marketing campaign only when one remains actively involved in the digital marketing campaign, which necessitates the dedication of the digital marketing agency for the client.
Before choosing a digital marketing agency for your business, ensure that it stands strong on the above points for the are the pillars for standing high on the pedestal of the best digital marketing agency in Delhi.
YNG Media is a leading digital marketing agency and has a talented and experienced team of internet marketing professionals on-board to manage your digital campaign and bring the best out of the internet for your business. The YNG team comprises of best-in-industry SEO professionals, digital strategists, experienced designers and web developers, who remain actively engaged in digital campaigns to bring the best leads for your business. Through a strong business — centric digital marketing strategy, YNG helps a business to benefit from the internet efficiently. | How to find the Best Digital Marketing Agency in Delhi? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@yngmedia/how-to-find-the-best-digital-marketing-agency-in-delhi-f036de064678 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2015-12-07 12:29:24.718000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Online Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency
By Mike Neerhof
Whether you’ve been handling your marketing in-house or have been disappointed by the results your current agency has achieved, choosing a new digital marketing agency can seem like a daunting task. Besides trying to figure out who will best help your business and who you can afford, you also need to consider the relational aspect of a partnership. You don’t want to choose a digital marketing agency who doesn’t know what they’re doing, and you certainly don’t want to be stuck working with a bunch of jerks.
Here are a few tips on where to look and what to look for in order to find the right agency for you.
Where To Look
Google Partners — While accreditation from the other search engines — Bing, Yahoo!, etc. — should not be overlooked, Google has developed a fantastic database of their partner agencies. It shows how many people at the agency are certified and in what categories — search advertising, display advertising, mobile advertising, video ads, shopping and GoogleAnalytics IQ — as well as minimum monthly budgets the agencies work with. It is a great tool for finding agencies that are backed by the legitimacy and trust factor of Google.
Referrals — It’s important to understand what the experience of working with an agency will be like. Referrals from peers or other agencies are a great way to find out more about an agency, with all of the marketing and salesmanship removed. Unlike the quantitative results you would derive from a simple search, referrals tend to give you a better idea about what it’s actually like to work with someone. Are they pleasant? Responsive? Do they get involved, or are they far removed from the clients they work with? Referrals can bring to light these more qualitative and personal experiences.
Search — This is how we do things these days, isn’t it? So how can you utilize a search engine to find an agency? Be specific. Searching for “search marketing agency chicago area” gives you 145,000,000 results, including a ton of different types of agencies. Meanwhile, a more specific search such as “higher education paid search marketing agency chicago area” cuts that down to just over 1 million results, and chances are that the top agencies listed will be a much better fit for you and your needs.
What To Look For
Credibility — Does the agency have a decent website? A terrible site should be a red flag for any advertising agency, and especially an online marketing agency. Does their website include client logos and testimonials? Most do. Do they have experience in your field? With similar-sized companies? Are their reviews positive? Do their testimonials seem authentic? Are they certified in a variety of disciplines? Have they won awards? All of these things are factors that help build credibility. Certainly there are great agencies that might not meet all of these standards, but if too many red flags are raised, it would be wise to take notice and reconsider.
Case Studies — Case studies give you real-life examples of what an agency can do. So if you can’t find any case studies on an agency’s website, make sure you ask them for examples of how they’ve helped their clients achieve success. Look for real, lasting results, and pay attention to the strategy which drove those results. Was the agency thinking outside the box and developing custom strategy for the client, or did they apply a cookie cutter program that barely moved the needle? If an agency can’t provide any case studies, that should be a major red flag.
Vibe — Go meet with an agency at their office. Take a look around and talk to some of the team members. Have a casual conversation with the people who would be managing your account. What is the agency’s vibe? Are the people good communicators? Are they friendly? Do they seem like they enjoy speaking with you and helping you, or do they seem annoyed and frustrated? Paying attention to these often overlooked intangibles will help give you a much clearer picture of what working with the agency will be like.
What To Ask For
Audit — Give agencies the opportunity to prove themselves. An audit is a great way to allow them to do so, and also provides you with insights into improvements you should be making to your marketing. It’s a win-win. The more an agency uncovers during an audit, the more they probably want to work with you, and the more likely it’ll be that they pay closer attention to detail in managing your account should you become their client.
Experience — Ask the agency team what outside experience they’ve had. Diversity of thought is very important in digital marketing, and those innovative ideas are often sparked by previous experience. Outside experience is also important in helping to develop empathy, as your account team must have a solid understanding of the challenges you face every day in order to provide valuable solutions. Agencies that have experience working on both sides of the client-agency relationship will often have a great advantage in providing real life solutions.
Passion — Passion is one of those words that has been so overused that it has lost much of its power. So allow me to throw it out there once more… Ask your potential agency partners what gets them excited about your business and about working with you. Ask them what industry innovations they find fascinating. Since people love talking about things they find exciting, this will help develop a personal connection and comfort level. It will also give you great insights into what would motivate them as your account team to help you succeed. If their answers focus on things that benefit them — ego, awards, making more money, etc. — you will know that they are driven by personal gain and your success is an afterthought. But if they are driven by passion — curiosity, genuine interest in your business, desire to be on the cutting-edge of innovation, etc. — they are more likely to help you succeed. What do I not mean by this? Don’t ask them if they are passionate about keyword bidding or title tag optimization. Because anyone who says they are is either a liar or crazy.
The Best Fit For You
These are just a few of the things I recommend you consider when searching for and selecting a digital marketing agency. This list could go on and on, but I hope this has at least sparked some ideas you hadn’t considered yet.
Everybody wants something a little different from their agency relationship, so the best first step you could take would be to make a list of the tangible and intangible must-haves, and then utilize this post to expand your list and go find an agency that meets your needs.
You should probably start your search by checking out Lever Interactive. We might not be the right fit for everyone, but we’re good at what we do and pretty awesome to work with, so maybe we’re the right fit for you. | How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@mikeneerhof/how-to-choose-a-digital-marketing-agency-8a5f3ad4fae8 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Mike Neerhof'] | 2016-07-15 14:32:04.347000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Promote your Local Business Through Digital Marketing
Promoting your Local Business Through Digital Marketing
The digital planet is budding with a prompt speed and the rising is unflagging. Every business, whether small and big in size, all want to get profits from this colossal size and extent of the internet. Even, all businesses want to adhere the team of long-term forecasts available through online.
Though it is not simple to obtain the most out of the digital space unless you have professionals to acquire the help. Yes, your business requires digital marketing specialist to influence an infinite market with effortlessness.
The entire your marketing targets can be easily accomplished if you uncover a veteran agency delivering forward-looking services to clients across industry. But the most important thing, you should hunt a lot to locate and choose a correct digital marketing associate. A partner can do marvels for your business through its years of experience and domain skill.
The digital marketing survives for the very rationale of helping businesses or individuals create or make better their brand or develop their reputation on the internet. It engages matchless approaches and diverse techniques of promotion so that a business can attain to more people and obtain its great objectives. Without digital marketing, it is not possible for any business to win situation and grab the consideration of their target users and obtain their branding ideas throughout. This is the most important basis, why only professionals are hired to promote and encourage brands online. Eventually, the digital space, rim with projection and there can assist a business cultivate.
It’s quite fair that all businesses necessitate digital marketing to mature their bottom and reach to the mass of customers. They will require to profit from various marketing processes comprising of SEO, PPC, social media optimization, display ads and reputation management. These all will start with an innovative and user-friendly website and after that, the team of professionals will plan a right digital marketing strategy to set definite requirements of the business. Here, the actions will be taken to optimize every aspect of the website, be it images, products, infographics, links, services, and others. Thus, a business’ social presence will also be augmented in the course.
In such a way, digital marketing experts play an important part in promoting businesses on the internet and at the same time they appreciate their true prospective. Without their proficiency, it cannot be possible to obtain perfect rankings and higher visibility in search engines as rapidly and well-timed as essential. This is why these experts rule such a high opinion in the market. So, you should appoint them with perfect and great care.
Digital Rank is one of the highly appreciated and most demanding Digital Marketing Agency in Hyderabad, India, that helps your nurture and develop your local and international business in opportune. | Promote your Local Business Through Digital Marketing | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@teamdigitalrank/promote-your-local-business-through-digital-marketing-9e0b805016a5 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Digitalrank Digital Marketing Solutions'] | 2016-11-18 05:35:13.510000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'SEO', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Take Your Digital Marketing Agency to New Heights with White Label SEO Services
Google, as a search engine has changed significantly. With its various algorithm updates and increasing competition in the online market, SEO is no longer an easy task. Using keywords randomly and publishing multiple articles isn’t enough to rank your website on the SERP page.
But one cannot ignore the growth the online world provides to the business. SEO enhances your visibility and helps generate better leads, which turns into increased ROI. Companies reach out to digital marketing agencies to handle their SEO to focus on their core activities.
Need for White label SEO Services
SEO has opened new avenues for digital marketing agencies worldwide. But not every agency has SEO services in their arsenal and must think of a way to provide these services or lose the opportunity. The agency can create an in-house SEO team to handle the clients or hire a white label SEO provider agency.
What is a White Label SEO Service?
Before you decide whether you need a white label SEO service, let’s understand what the term entails. A white label SEO agency is a digital marketing agency that provides SEO services to other agencies without using their brand name. It means you can resell the SEO services as your own.
Benefits of Hiring a White Label SEO Service:
Increased revenue: Providing SEO services is like adding a feather to your cap as everyone these days is opting for it. It will lead to an expanded client base, which will bring more revenue with time.
Providing SEO services is like adding a feather to your cap as everyone these days is opting for it. It will lead to an expanded client base, which will bring more revenue with time. Cost-saving : The main reason outsourcing is so prevalent in the business world is it saves money. The same rule applies here. When measured against the cost of maintaining an in-house SEO team and hiring a white label agency, most of the time, it is cheaper to hire one.
: The main reason outsourcing is so prevalent in the business world is it saves money. The same rule applies here. When measured against the cost of maintaining an in-house SEO team and hiring a white label agency, most of the time, it is cheaper to hire one. Benefits of specialization: A white label SEO service will have a team of expert individuals at their disposal. They will have the resources and tools required to get better and faster results. You can use their resources to enhance the quality of your services.
A white label SEO service will have a team of expert individuals at their disposal. They will have the resources and tools required to get better and faster results. You can use their resources to enhance the quality of your services. Brand visibility: Providing quality services to your clientele will help you create a reputation for yourself in the market. This will help you outshine your competition and grow your business in the long run.
Providing quality services to your clientele will help you create a reputation for yourself in the market. This will help you outshine your competition and grow your business in the long run. Business insights: Working with a white label SEO service can help you gain valuable insights into how the SEO industry works. It will help you grow in the market, and you can use the knowledge to rank yourself on the SERP page.
Are you Searching for a White Label Agency?
Hopefully, knowing the benefits of hiring a white label SEO service and becoming an SEO reseller sounding like the right decision now. Not sure whom to reach out to for white label SEO services? Well, you can checkout DashClicks, an excellent white label SEO service provider with a team of SEO experts at your service. | Take Your Digital Marketing Agency to New Heights with White Label SEO Services | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@sean-d/take-your-digital-marketing-agency-to-new-heights-with-white-label-seo-services-5ee79c2429b0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Sean Davis'] | 2020-10-29 05:27:03.795000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Agency', 'SEO', 'Search Engine Marketing'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | What are some digital marketing challenges in small towns ?
As Digital marketing making inroads into our daily life, there are still roadblocks that may be hindering the digital acceptance.
digital marketing challenges in small towns
1. Psychology — People in general are resistant to change until it is not forced upon them. Being less exposed to an external fast moving environment also seems to strengthen their belief systems. Hence, even if they are exposed to the digital platforms and well adapted to it, but they prefer the traditional set up.
2. Smaller cities are geographically less challenging to move around and hence traditional marketing is still a force because of people’s exposure time to their activity is more. The increase in traffic will change this scenario sooner than expected.
3. No matter what, the penetration of smart phones are less compared to bigger cities and people still turn to the nearby stores for information about products and services.
4. Many seem does not interested in researching about offerings from companies going on-line. They want a quick exchange of value i.e. sell and purchase.
5. One of the reasons is also because of low penetration of Net-banking. As ultimately one will visit the nearby store for purchasing, then why go online even for information.
6. Education does play a role as inadequate knowledge does make people less bold to do new things.
With people spending an increasing time on the web, marketers are leaning more towards digital marketing platforms to showcase their offerings. The statistics for global ad spend also seconds this theory. However in countries like India the marketers are showing a less urgent intent to embrace the change, especially in smaller cities. They are to an extent correct. But it may change, may be faster than one expect or react. | What are some digital marketing challenges in small towns ? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@cornerstone-digital/what-are-some-digital-marketing-challenges-in-small-towns-1d172b64b46d | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-12-19 06:35:30.394000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | A digital strategy is built by the marketers keeping a lot of things in mind and every strategy would be different for every type of business. One of the strategies that a digital marketing agency in Hyderabad would consider taking for every business would be pay-per-click. It is one of the most cost-effective paid advertising methods from among the other digital methods. This method of PPC gives your business a quick boost to the traffic as well as to the sales. Pay-per-click is all about paying advertisers a sum of money to get the advertisement displayed on the Google search results. So, when a user clicks on your Ad, then the amount which is bid by the marketer will get deducted. Though this method of digital marketing requires some amount to capture the leads, it surely brings in great results.
Now let us see what these results would bring to your business.
1. Cost-effective: A marketer will choose this method because it is a go-to platform for many businesses that are ready to invest a standard amount for the leads. The leads that we get from these clicks are having high chances to be genuine, this is because people will search for a term that they are interested in and only then they will click on the Ad if they like the content mentioned in the snippet. If one-click would cost a brand to pay around 70 Rs, then the ROI for the same click would be triple the amount spent (this happens only if the visitor makes a purchase or does any action on the website). So, it is very cost-effective and the marketer will only have to pay when the Ad is clicked by any user.
2. Only potential leads: As we discussed earlier, the users who click on the Ad are more likely to make a purchase because they already know what they are searching for. It is not like they end up randomly on the Ad page and click on it. Let’s say, for example, the marketer is bidding for an apparel “Kurti”, then if the user starts to search for the term Kurti, then they will end up on a search result, where the Ad on Kurti would be visible. This will make the user click on it and if they like, they will also make the purchase. With this, we understand there is a maximum chance for the only potential leads to come and visit the website.
3. Highly targeted: PPC ads have this advantage of scrutinizing every possible way of targeting only the right audience. While creating the Ad, marketers can select the options which they feel like it would reach only their target audience and not some random people on the internet. This is very important because every click made by the user needs to be paid by the brand, and even if a user clicks it by mistake, they should end up paying for it. So, it is important to make sure the audiences are targeted on the right basis with the mentioned options while creating the advertisement. | Why does a digital marketing agency in Hyderabad use PPC as a digital strategy? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@monicageller3691/why-does-a-digital-marketing-agency-in-hyderabad-use-ppc-as-a-digital-strategy-1239ea50eb76 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Monica Geller'] | 2020-10-16 10:01:33.301000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Company', 'Digital Marketingservices', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Noteworthy uses of Digital Marketing strategy?
Summary: Digital Marketing is one of the latest platform used by many online business owners. They use different digital marketing strategies to handle/increase the sales and improve ROI [Return on Investment].
Why digital marketing?
Digital marketing is the streamline strategy through which a trade/commerce can optimize its online business. Digital Marketing is works like a sunshade for the tagged, computable and interactive promotion of products or services using digital technologies to make and convert leads into regulars and keep hold of them. Main approach is to promote your brand to increase sales by increasing the traffic through various digital marketing strategies. It will allow you to know your customers well and can evaluate online value proposition.
If DIGITAL MARKETING is absent?
· If a company don’t have digital marketing strategy then it would became directionless because they don’t have clear strategic goals for what they want in terms of new customers or building deeper relationships with existing ones. And if you don’t put resources, you don’t evaluate your outcomes.
· If your store or trade is not online then your services may be underestimated. Different customers have different dynamics to traditional channels.
· If you look at the top online brands like Amazon, Dell, Google, Tesco, they’re all DYNAMICS- trialing new approaches to gain or keep their online audiences.
· You will not be able to know your online customers well enough and don’t have a powerful online value proposition.
· You aren’t optimizing: For example a company with a website will have analytics, but many senior managers don’t have the time to review and act on them, then your progress is the key aspects like search marketing, site user experience, email and social media marketing.
· If digital marketing is absent in your trade that means you are not concern with the search engine optimization and social media optimization services.
Industries Involved in Digital Marketing:
Financial institution, educational institution, travel agencies, online retail store or any real estate company, each and every sector focuses on digital marketing. Digital Marketing agency now becomes the alternative way to enhance the business which can generate more conversions and more sales. In other words, it is the short-cut to online success.
Author Bio:
Neha Goswami is a devoted writer who loves to write about software, technology and marketing strategy. In this article she wrote about “Noteworthy uses of Digital Marketing strategy?” discussed why companies really invest in digital marketing agency to take their business to the next level. | Noteworthy uses of Digital Marketing strategy? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@neha_yng/noteworthy-uses-of-digital-marketing-strategy-e70dfaca06c4 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2015-12-10 04:27:24.038000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Marketing'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES TO BE AWARE IN 2021
Since the emergence of covid-pandemic, there has been a significant shift in this area of digital marketing. We can claim digital marketing before the pandemic and after the pandemic, So we’re going to discuss the five digital marketing tactics to succeed in Digital marketing 2021.
E-COMMERCE
We have seen the coronavirus pandemic hit this year and how critical it is for business to be online, and how eCommerce websites can buy from customers. A lot of companies have been absolutely shocked because they would not be able to make a successful transition to e-commerce.
If you don’t have an eCommerce website for your business that would be a massive problem in 2021 because the customers are shifting and moving to online purchasing
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social media has become the most popular and important virtual space where the site is not only used for social networking but is also a great way to promote your brand and your products digitally. It is important to use networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc that are widely used by consumers so that you can reach your target audience at a more efficient pace. Networking sites are a place where engaging with your followers can give you more attention and help you better understand your audience. Advertising must be one of the cheapest ways to market your company online and the bond between a company and a prospective consumer plays a major role in transforming them from a potential buyer to a loyal and frequent customer.
CONTENT MARKETING
More specifically, it’s all about voice and video, we have seen it on a platform like Twitter, which has launched voice tweets, this is something you’re trying to apply as you do content marketing strategy on voice search content, it’s becoming more popular because people have home helpers like Alexa, and it’s important that the content is detailed and long-term targeting. It’s all about video content and video is still massively dominating pretty much it’s also things like podcasts that are a super vital part of digital marketing strategies to help create more confidence and brand awareness. And the other thing about content marketing is live streaming.
Live to stream recommended by a lot of platforms like Youtube, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If you do live to stream, it will show up at the top of the feeds most of the time they will be going to be highly prominent and your engagements will potentially increase a lot by doing live streaming. And the final thing is to recycle the content placed on various platforms as well.
SEO
SEO search engine optimization is absolutely essential for websites to be identified organically as people search for a product or service using search engines such as Google but on a website, the most important thing is the experience on a page that involves the speed of loading of a website. When you make sure the users on your website can browse your website without any glitches or issues that make people more time on your website because it’s an opportunity to make a deal with you.
The other thing is that you need to make sure that the content of the website is related to the particular purpose, whether it is an informative, navigational, or transactional query that you need to hold in mind. In any piece of content that you write on your website, make sure that you fit that user’s purpose so that people ultimately accomplish the right result when they land on your website.
VIRAL MARKETING
It is just an effective marketing strategy that works on platforms such as TikTok, which has helped many content creators, digital marketers, and businesses alike to get massive amounts of exposure and reach. Opportunity makes your business high if you’re approaching them with these platforms, you just need to experiment with yourself to see what works, because viral marketing is really important nowadays. Saturation of content if you manage to get something viral and massively expand your visibility over all your competitors. And platforms like Facebook, Instagram also have a number of ways to influence algorithms that show your posts trending or view your posts often using the right hashtags that are linked to the right people.
These are the most significant developments in digital marketing that will be rising in the marketing industry in 2021 | DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES TO BE AWARE IN 2021 | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@bluelagooninfotech/digital-marketing-strategies-to-be-aware-in-2021-6d9d36a06242 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-12-14 06:55:10.439000+00:00 | ['Social Media Marketing', 'SEO', 'Seo Agency', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Hey everybody! Here’s the emojibet
📧✔️📚®🌱🅱⚙🌮🌱❗️
♓️📚🌈📧’💲
🌴🙌🏽📧
📧〽️️🔘🎷️📍🅱📚⛏
Just for 🌱⭕️🐋.
The new Emojis just came out yesterday, and now making messages with them is more fun - because it is more readable. The taco makes a nice D, for instance. I took the time to compile the entire list in a line-by-line alphabet below, and to give some pointers on how to use these for the best effect.
Instructions for easy emoji messages
Copy this entire post with all the alphabet-like characters below Paste into a full emoji-compatible text editor app on iOS 9.1 or OSX El Capitan, which just arrived yesterday, 10–21–15. (not sure about Android yet) Save it where you can access easily. Open the file for composing a new message. Copy each “letter” and paste them at the bottom of your emoji file to create a fun new message. Every emoji has space before and after so a double click or double tap will select it easily. When you’re finished, copy the new emojibet message and paste it into a text or email. You can save completed messages in your file for additional uses too. I put mine in a Pages/Word document with 2 collumns and single spaced. That way I can see all the emojis in a group at the top and still have room to compose without scrolling. Just double click — copy — paste to create a list of phrases that begins just underneath the alphabet. As I add phrases, they stack up with the most recent at the top. It’s pretty fast and easy, all things considered.
Readability
Be sure to use the more recognizable characters often, or it becomes to hard to understand. An odd emoji that barely looks like a letter will work if it has a strong letter-like emoji on both sides of it. The context is important. Try a few different things until it reads well, and uses a variety of images. A new line for each word also creates readability, because the emojis have unpredictable spaces.
The messages aren’t as easy to read over the shoulder, so not only is it fun, it can keep a special message a little more private.
📧🇧🇦🎷⭕️🌱❗️
Dennas Davis
ArtSquish.com • The best art lessons on the planet! The new website for art instructors and parents of artists.
🎄 🐌 💩 ⛵️ ⚠️ ♠️ 🅰 🌲 🖇
⏫ 8️⃣ 🅱 ☁️ ⛄️ 📿
🌜 ☪ ©
🌛 🌮 🏹 🐬 🎳 ↩️
📧 📚 🎼
🗜 🎏 🏳 🏴
🌊 🌀 📞 ↪️
🙌🏽 ♓️
🕴 📍
🎷
🎋
👢 💪🏽 🕒
👊🏼 〽️ Ⓜ️ ♏️ ⚖
👖 🇧🇦 🇬🇫 🇹🇹 🎵 🎣 📈 🐀 🔒
🌚 🌝 🌞 🍩 🎾 ⚙ ⚪️ 🔘 🅾 ⭕️ 📀
🚩 🔎 🅿️
🔍 🎈 🍭
🎗 🕞 ® 🌈
⚡️ 💲 💰
🌴 ⛏ ⬆️
⛎ 🐋 🐓
💎 🔻 ☑️ ✔️ 🔰 ❤️ 🏅 🍕 ♈️ 💛 💚 💙 💜
♨️ 📊 👑 🔱 👐🏾
⚒ ⚔ 🛠 ✂️ ❌ ✴️ ☠
🔧 🌱 🍸
💤
❗️ ❓ ❣️
E X T R A S :
👢🌚❤️📚
💪🏽⚙💜🎼
🕒🅾🔰📧❣️
📍
👢🍩❤️📧
🌱🌞🐋
💩👐🏾📧💰🌞〽️🎼❗️
🙌🏽🐌🅿️🅿️🌱
🅱📍🎗🌴♓️🐬⛵️🍸❗️
👐🏾 ⭕️ 👐🏾 ❗️ | Hey everybody! Here’s the emojibet | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@crazytruck/hey-everybody-here-s-the-emojibet-5068b47b63a6 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2015-10-22 19:44:46.884000+00:00 | ['Emoji', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | When ‘k’ isn’t okay…
It’s 2016, when ‘k’ is no longer ‘okay’ or even okay. We’ve all been texting long enough now to know good texting is all about showing effort, so anything too short comes off as snippy. Text ‘k’ to someone and be prepared for anything.
For those of you who aren’t fluent in the many flavors of ‘okay’, you might want to read on.
How someone reads your single word ‘k’, ‘ok’, ‘okay’ or ‘okay..’ text usually depends on the person. So firstly, know your audience. Generally, the younger the person you’re texting, the worse things sound. Same rule applies the closer that person is to being a girl you’re wooing. So, text “k” to a college-aged girl making date plans, and you could expect an internal diatribe like the one above. On the other hand, text that to your middle-aged father and he’ll probably appreciate your succinctness.
There’s no surefire route through this minefield of potential miscommunication. Much depends on personality and context, like what the exchange leading up to this conversation killer looked like. But below are some rough translations…
That’s all for today’s lesson…mmkay? | The Many Flavors of “Okay” | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@CrushhApp/the-many-flavors-of-okay-77836b61d3b2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-11-18 17:41:49.043000+00:00 | ['Texting', 'Conversations', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | If I may put it this way, in the disguise of messaging apps, they are actually platforms for shopping, financial services, payments, stickers, celebrity cameos, and much more.
Unlike Whatsapp, most of the prominent messaging apps have some or the other form of revenue models. Whatsapp limited its service to simple communication features, and that made the app more appealing to some users. But this strategy has also limited the company’s ability to make money, despite having 450 million monthly active users. The app’s revenue stood at $20 million last year. With Facebook acquiring it, WhatsApp could get more time to come up with a long-term business model as the app tries to further expand its user base.
Lets see how are other messaging apps making money:
Line has three major sources of revenue: free-to-play video games that make money from in-game purchases of virtual items and other services; “stickers” featuring cartoon characters that users buy and send as messages; and official accounts for businesses and celebrities who pay fees to send a set number of promotional messages. Last month, Line said its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2013 rose more than fivefold to 12.2 billion yen ($120 million) from 2.2 billion yen a year earlier. It is also looking into other services such as e-commerce and music distribution as possible ways to earn revenue from its messaging platform.
Kakao Talk, which is dominant in South Korea, also uses methods that are similar to Line’s to make money.
WeChat last year added an electronic payment feature to the popular app — a step toward making money with small handling fees for transactions made through the app. Like Line, WeChat uses video games to generate some of its revenue. | How do these messaging apps earn money? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@amitashwini/how-do-these-messaging-apps-earn-money-53e38fbbc418 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Amit Ashwini'] | 2018-03-13 12:01:20.215000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Mobile', 'Apps', 'Mobile App Development', 'Business'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ItsAlive.io is a free new tool that enables everyone to easily create Facebook ChatBot in minutes without any previous coding experience.
[Edit Sept 2018 : itsAlive 2.0 is now available]
Step 1 — Name your bot
This way, you can recognize and differentiate your bots, if you decide to create several ones. You’ll be the only one to see this, Your public bot will have your Facebook name Page.
You can also give a bot description. Think of it as “the purpose of your bot”. What does it do? Why does it exist? If you don’t write anything, your public-default description will be your Facebook Page’s description.
Step 2— Add as many recipes you want
Recipes are the core feature of ItsAlive ChatBot. It enables you to automatically respond when your users use specific keywords or phrases. You can add as many recipes as you want and switch them ON/OFF when it pleases you.
Keep in mind your bot isn’t here to answer everything. Just the most important and recurrent questions.
Entry keywords : If your user says…
You can add as many keywords as you want to detect. Add synonyms, languages, expressions, plurals, explicit mistakes…
All the keywords inside a “Group of keywords” use an OR condition.
If necessary, you can also add another “group of keywords” to have more precision. It adds an AND condition between the words, meaning you need the two keywords to trigger the answer. Ex : (Hello OR Hi) AND (John OR James OR Ben).
… then your bot answers
If you have only one answer it can contain up to 320 characters of plain text.
You can also display your answer as “cards” by adding an Image, a title and up to 3 buttons. But the more options you add, the less characters you can use. Check the character counter, if it’s red you need to change things shorter.
Buttons enable you to call another recipe you’ve made (just type the recipe name) or link to any external URL.
Buttons are the key to a good conversational bot. Try to have at least one in order to drive your users in the right direction.
Display several answers as Facebook cards (Optionnal)
You can add as many replies as you want.
Facebook allows you to reply with up to 10 answers at once by displaying them as cards (you can add more but only show 10 at a time).
Tip : Display only one card at a time in shuffle mode. Every time your users will call your recipe they’ll have a different answer.
WebSummitBot country menu displaying 10 cards
Step 3 — Mandatory settings & recipes
Every Facebook Chatbot must have 3 specific settings.
Welcome message :When your users hit the message button of your Facebook page or contact you via Facebook Messenger their first action is tapping the “Get Started” button.
The Welcome message is the first message your bot will send to your users. They will only see this message once: the first time they interact with your ChatBot.
Tip: Explain what your bot does and show your users the first keyword/action they can use, a button that point to your most popular feature, a “how does it work” or “help” will also be appreciated.
Awwwards Chatbot sends you every day the WOTD
Unanswered messages: Your Chatbot can’t understand everything people say and honestly he’s not supposed to. Here, you can write all the different ways to say “I don’t understand” and direct your users in the right direction.
Tips : Add several messages and select shuffle mode so your users won’t be disappointed by seeing the same “I don’t understand” message every time.
Add buttons that point your users in the right direction, for example: a “help” button that suggests keywords to your users, a “menu” button that shows all the things your bot can do.
Persistent Menu : This is a little menu that is always available to users (at the bottom left in the picture). They’ll find it directly within the app where they usually type a message. This menu should contain top-level actions.
Tip : You can add up to 4 buttons, some of which should be : your most popular recipe, a “Help” button or a “Contact” button.
Step 4— Link your bot to Facebook
Once you’ve added at least one recipe you can either test your chatbot in Messenger or Link your bot to your Facebook Page.
Test your Chatbot within Messenger and share your friends
You can test your Chatbot directly within Facebook Messenger with our official bot tester.
Just send your “test:code” to our official bot tester : m.me/itsalivetestbot and you’ll have a direct access to your chatbot.
This is a great way to share it with your friends before making your bot live on your Official Facebook Page.
Link your Facebook ChatBot to your Facebook page
When you feel ready, link your ChatBot to your Facebook page by tapping the “Login with Facebook” button.
You’ll then have a list of all the Facebook Pages where you are the admin. Tap the “Link to my bot”
And… IT’S ALIVE !! Your bot is now living within your Facebook Page.
Check out the last bot created with It’s Alive
Web Summit Bot : Discover all the great Startups at WebSummit16 by industry and country
Bon Entendeur : The official ChatBot of Bon Entendeur, subscribe to their mixtapes or ask for music depending on your mood.
FastForwardNews : Every Morning, the news your shouldn’t have been missing.
Awwwards WOTD : The Website Of the Day winner, everyday in your Messenger.
We are looking for Feedback, please let us know what you think and share with us features you need with itsalive.io | Create your Facebook ChatBot with ITSALIVE.IO | null | null | null | null | https://chatbotslife.com/create-your-facebook-chatbot-with-itsalive-io-dcc446c11668 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Benjamin Merritt'] | 2018-09-14 14:02:22.270000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Facebook Messenger', 'Chatbots', 'How To', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Michael Kors Launches Casino-Themed WeChat Game For Alibaba’s Singles’ Day
What Happened
Friday is Singles’ Day, the biggest day for online shopping in the world championed by China’s ecommerce giant Alibaba. With a massive sales volume that keep breaking its own records, many U.S. brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Crayola, and Beats have jumped on board for a piece of the pie. In particular, fashion brands including Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Coach, and Calvin Klein are offering special deals on Alibaba’s T-Mall this year, discounting products as much as 60% off.
Among all the participating brands, Michael Kors stands out with an innovative approach. The company launched a casino-themed game on popular Chinese messaging app WeChat, which offers players random discount codes to use on Singles’ Day after they play some digital poker and slot machines. Kors promoted the game with GIFs posted to its official WeChat account and a casino-themed shoppable blog post.
What Brands Should Do
This campaign from Michael Kors should be of interest to many U.S. brands trying to crack the code for social commerce. Using aptly Casino-themed mini-games to engage with mobile shoppers and reward their interactions with discount offers. this campaign serves as an intriguing example of how brands, especially retailers, can leverage popular social and messaging platforms to engage with and even sell directly to consumers.
To learn more about how brands can use chat bots to better serve customers via messaging interfaces, check out our Fast Forward feature on this topic. | Michael Kors Launches Casino-Themed WeChat Game For Alibaba’s Singles’ Day | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/ipg-media-lab/michael-kors-launches-casino-themed-wechat-game-for-alibabas-singles-day-d85564dd84ed | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Ipg Media Lab'] | 2017-07-06 22:07:46.037000+00:00 | ['General Content', 'China', 'Ecommerce', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Alexa, Tell Me a Story About the Future
Conversational UIs & How They Change Brand Exposure
Cortana, Microsoft’s voice interface, takes her name from an AI character in the Halo videogames
There’s a popular trend in user interfaces, one which some companies are spending billions of dollars building, and some are leveraging to minimize their costs. It’s intuitive and anticipatory, hiding a mess of search results behind a single blessed response. But every product or service has an interface, and behind that interface is code that defines how the interface responds to user input. Except, in this case, sometimes it’s humans behind the interface. For now.
Conversational UIs just make sense: why learn to navigate a website or an app when you can just ask for what you want? Whether you’re talking to Siri or Alexa, cc’ing Amy, texting Stefan, or messaging M, isn’t it easier to just ask for what you want? Having computers understand us on our terms, instead of us confroming to theirs, has been a holy grail of computing since the beginning, and in the next few years the tide will finally shift to the former. It encompasses everything from the voice-powered interfaces from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, to Facebook’s text-based M, Slack’s automated bots, and a myriad of startups, including SoundHound, Pana, Magic, x.ai, even Invisible Girlfriend/Boyfriend.
At the IPG Media Lab, we think of conversational UIs as anything that lets you input natural language, regardless of whether that interface uses voice or text, and regardless of whether that text arrives via SMS, messenger service, or email. (I’m still waiting for handwritten input via post, but it’s early days.) On the backend, it can be powered by software, humans, or some blend of both. To the user, it looks like AI either way, but the smart use of humans can often make services more responsive than what can be achieved with AI alone. For example, Facebook’s M will respond to any request, no matter how obscure, giving it a lot more breadth than Siri or Google Now can manage with pure software.
In the short term, using humans to fill in the gaps is a smart way to offer a full-service app. And just as Uber will eventually replace its drivers with autonomous cars, it’s easy to see how Facebook will automate away the most popular queries of M, sending only the most fringe requests to humans to parse. Similarly, it’s easy to see services which are text-based today adding a voice option, or vice-versa. Just as young children today think that screens they can’t touch are broken, so, too, will the children of 2020, about objects they can’t talk to.
There are many reasons why conversational UIs are exploding in popularity right now, but an important factor is our burgeoning IoT, and the post-app interfaces that they require. Websites were convenient ways to get information to users, and apps are perfect interfaces for many services. But we’re beginning to witness the unbundling of apps into their component pieces, which will allow the system to reach in and retrieve the pieces it needs. And the result of that indexing allows the same services to become available via new form factors, sometimes without screens or keyboards.
Conversational UIs present a fundamental shift in how brands relate to their existing customers, and how they find new customers. Facebook is pitching Messenger as a key customer service platform, and it would be a boon to consumers to see brands embrace it. But whether it’s texted or spoken, your brand will quite literally have a voice, powered by some combination of humans and software. It’s time to start thinking about how funny, flirty, or sarcastic you want that voice to be. When confused, Siri makes jokes, Google remains silent, and M summons a human. How will your brand react?
Alexa, currently embodied in Amazon’s Echo, and Pana, the text-based travel agent, offer a glimpse at what brand integration into third party platforms may look like. Rather than Amazon’s exhaustive catalog, if you search for a product to buy, Alexa only offers up previous purchases, encouraging brand loyalty in the name of simplicity. And Pana only offers one option for a flight or hotel at a time, hand-curated by a human. If a search resulted only in one response, how would your brand respond? You could buy your way into being the default response, for a hefty sum, if available. Or you could ramp up brand advertising, so a user asks for you by name. Would you try to influence the curators, as well? Should you? | Alexa, Tell Me a Story About the Future | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@adamjsimon/alexa-tell-me-a-story-about-the-future-72b913a7ce74 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Adam Simon'] | 2015-10-15 15:01:54.491000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Advertising', 'Conversational UI'] |
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Does your next app need a user interface?
Photo by Alex Wong
There’s no arguing that smartphones have become ubiquitous; recent figures show the number of monthly active smart devices at a staggering one billion. This has driven astronomical growth of the app market, with companies wanting people to use their apps as a mechanism to enhance relationships. App opportunities are not without challenges; as the number of apps proliferate, so does the battle for attention and engagement.
A critical difference between smartphones apps and websites offsets this battle for screen space and attention; loaded with sensors collecting environmental data, smartphones are always with or in proximity to their owners and are capable of triggering events on their behalf, without explicit user intervention.
Challenges for app developers
Getting an app to market is easy but getting users to regularly engage with it is difficult. An increase in both the volume and range of apps has made competition for app time fierce, despite the fact that most apps are rarely used and a quarter of installed apps are used just once. The result is an increasing disparity between time spent on apps and the number of app offerings available. For apps like Facebook and Google Maps that have already woven themselves into the fabric daily life, the challenge is to remain relevant through constant delivery of value to their users. For new apps trying to gain footing and build a user base, the road is far more arduous, with significant barriers to success.
One in four apps are used only once after installation.
The average smartphone user has over 95 apps installed but 85% of time spent on smartphones but only 5 apps see heavy use. At the end of 30 days, just 3.3% of apps still had active users. There’s simply too much noise.
This increasing app competition will lead developers to find innovative ways to create and market apps that can circumvent the fight for screen space entirely. Some are finding a solution in designing apps that are simple, quick and don’t bombard users with too much information. Others recognize that content in a mobile browser is not just merely desktop content formatted for a tiny viewport, but rather that smartphones connect to the Internet as well as to an array of sensors with triggers that can automatically act on our behalf.
A glimpse of the future
Photo by Riley McCullough
What will these new apps look like? As smartphones quickly become more sophisticated, sometimes in unpredictable ways, it’s difficult to make long term predictions. By looking at the current range of apps, however, one can see hints of the evolutionary process underway. Consider the following apps and their capabilities:
Google Now for travel reminders and local recommendations
Foursquare/Swarm and its location messaging experience
Tile and tracking connected objects
Health apps like Pedometer that measure physical activity
Apple’s Home and connected home devices like Nest
The breadth of functionality represented is quite astounding, especially when compared to what apps could do only a few short years ago. As sensors become more sophisticated and smartphones are able to package more sensors into their form factors, a device’s ability to become more aware of the surroundings is drastically increased. This contextual and environmental awareness that apps are beginning to tap into will spawn a new generation of apps with location services that know even more about its owner and her surroundings. In turn, the benefit users get from the proactive insight and value that these apps provide will increase exponentially over time.
A mobile leap forward
Today’s app renaissance and the shift to more intelligent, contextually-aware software actually represents the third strata of user interaction since the iPhone popularized the mobile app back in 2007.
Initially, apps tried to mimic their desktop software counterparts, offering everything in a smaller, mobile package. Apps became bloated with too many features, too little functionality, and user interface issues ensued. A shift was then made towards highly specialized apps to accomplish specific tasks or subsets of a brand’s full offering. For example, the Facebook Messenger app only includes the messaging components of Facebook; Swarm distills Foursquare into an app that helps track location and arrange meetings with friends.
As apps move toward a new mode of utility, user benefits are also evolving. The new generation of apps are contextually aware and more service-like in nature: they are always on and alert, but only interact with the user when appropriate. These “invisible” apps will spur the transformation of mobile devices from communication tools to intelligent assistants, making smartphones truly “smart.” Resulting improvements in these interactions will boost the quality and length of engagement between apps and their users.
Invisible triggers
Photo by Amos Bar-Zeev
This new method of interaction is only possible due to a range of smartphone services that constantly run in the background and that are capable of triggering events like push notices, contextual changes and server side notices. Invisible triggers include:
Date and time
Location
Proximity: relative to a nearby object or person
Movement
Connectivity status: networks, headphones, ancillary devices
Cloud based events
By listening for status changes, background services orchestrate events on behalf of users without explicit intervention. For example, when I place a click & collect order for groceries and later enter proximity of the collection store during the designated pickup window with my connected smartphone, attendants are automatically notified of my prescience and collect my parcels so that I don’t need to wait in line or flag down someone to get my order. There’s no need to pull out my smartphone or swipe through a series of on-screen buttons.
Implications
A few implications about the rise of invisible apps are worth noting. An invisible app, by definition, is resident or running but hidden. A great deal of trust is therefore required between app vendors and users; issues such as privacy, tracking capabilities, as well as an app’s ability to autonomously operate are all areas of concern.
Developers will need to consider:
Education: if it’s always running, what is it doing? always tacking me, or only when I request something? How do users quit or opt-out?
Permissions: when and under what circumstance will you capture user activity? If users become aware of background tracking, how will they react?
Battery impact: background services are always on, but that doesn’t mean that you can over task the device. With always running services, developers will be challenged to optimize services not just for effectiveness but for battery drain as well.
Integration: it’s not just online interactions, it’s things you do in the real world. The best experiences are often those that derive context from multiple systems of record.
Balance: helpful vs creepy. This will require more initial subtlety as consumers get used to experiences and decide what level of automation is appropriate.
Ultimately, invisible apps must strike a balance between being intrusive and being informative. Current initiatives from leading technology giants notably Apple’s continuing iOS developments and Google’s Nearby initiatives are paving the way towards a standards-based approach to designing the apps of tomorrow.
My company, Localz, is leading the charge into inviable app experiences. We’ve also made it our goal to ensure app experiences are relevant, rewarding and respectful. By leveraging smartphone background services with contextual rules and user education, we’re creating invisible, yet compelling, app experiences that stick. | The invisible app takeover | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@peterwilliams/the-invisible-app-takeover-f58f78b5a9ff | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Peter Williams'] | 2016-11-16 05:30:55.780000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Mobile', 'Startup', 'iOS', 'Android'] |
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Flock is packed with tons of productivity innovations which drives efficiency and boosts speed of execution. It is scalable to any number of users and has a simple, clutter-free and intuitive interface. Users can also connect their most frequently used external apps and services directly into Flock, bringing all their information to one platform.
Collaboration is built into the human DNA. It’s the spirit that embraces teamwork and communication and drives us to do everything we do, including our work. The modern and mobile workplace reflects this thought. No longer do they operate by keeping employees separated by titles, departments or geographies, and no longer is communication in the workplace relegated to memos and face-to-face meetings in a physical building. Rather organizations welcome the idea that they are stronger and more efficient when everyone comes together. However, modern teams are mobile in nature just as they are diverse. They range from employees who spend a large part of their workday out in the field to those who successfully operate all business transactions only with their smartphones.
Helping these diverse individuals effectively collaborates at the workplace and stay connected in real-time is team messengers that include an innovative ‘teams’ feature. They allow for the creation of a wide range of teams that include your entire company and those specific to your project, and those that facilitate collaboration and real-time messaging with external communities.
Why the ‘Teams’ Feature Makes All the Difference
Meant for today’s dynamic workforce, the ‘teams’ feature provides seamless collaboration at the workplace across teams. Your teams no longer need to be confined by any boundaries -physical or digital — but can range from those in the immediate organization to external clients, and interest or industry peer groups. Read on to find out how “teams” in a free messaging service for business enterprise can make all the difference in the enterprise communication space.
‘Teams’ are Necessary for Growing Collaboration Needs
When your enterprise messenger comes with the ‘teams’ feature, it gives the user the huge benefit of having instant access to multiple teams with just a single account. A true team messenger should allow any user to create a team using either a company or a free domain email id. So whether you want to connect with your project head about the status of your report or fix up a sales meeting with your vendor, you won’t have to switch between apps or resort to email. You can get everything done on a single platform, just by switching teams.
Further advantages include compatibility across all devices and platforms, and the ability to create groups within your team for specific projects and common interests. For organizations seeking company-wide teams on their team messaging app, their admins have the choice of creating an organization-wide team, allowing all users with the company email to be added automatically.
Security is not Compromised with ‘Teams’
While the ‘teams’ feature is great news for users of real-time messaging apps, security, which is a key essentiality in a business environment, is given the highest priority. Stringent security is ensured through powerful admin controls. Admins enjoy the power to open and/or restrict groups to the domains of their choice. They further have the ability to secure data transfer through customized managing of file sharing permissions within the team messaging app.
For teams, which are being created at an organizational level, admins can choose to automatically add all users with the company email or any other specified domain of their choice. Alternatively, they can create invitation only teams for priority collaboration. Organizations can also determine who can manage invitations to a particular team chat. It can be restricted to the admin or any team member. In this way, security is never compromised- whether it relates to who can access the team or what data can be shared.
For communication and collaboration on a larger scene, ‘teams’ enables the creation of public teams. Here, anyone on the internet can discover and join a team chat of mutual interest without any prior approval.
‘Teams’ will Facilitate Increased Usability
Very often business messaging apps fail to convince a user because of its lack of usability. What’s the whole point of having a free messaging service for business app, when you have to resort to email to stay connected with your vendors, clients, and peer groups? The ‘teams’ feature overcomes this by allowing users to create access and switch between multiple Teams. And with the many app integrations available, all you need is one messaging platform that will meet your entire collaboration and productivity needs.
‘Teams’- the Gold Standard for Enterprise Collaboration Apps
While the ‘teams’ feature is fairly new, it has, without a doubt, become the gold standard for anyone using a team messenger for workplace collaboration. Users will no longer be bound by their company domain to use the team messaging app. By fostering communities and building an environment of shared knowledge, the teams feature brings to life the true spirit of collaboration. And when applied to workplace collaboration this will help push innovation and productivity beyond boundaries and open our eyes to the endless possibility that collaborative ideas are what the present and future relies on.
-Authored by Bhavin Turakhia, Founder and CEO, Flock
Originally published in Startup City | No more boundaries | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/flock-chat/no-more-boundaries-35a9546c7ed1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2017-09-21 12:36:00.530000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Business Communication', 'Workplace', 'Leadership', 'Trends And Insights'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | 20 Chatbot Creators: How to Build Your Customized Chatbot
A Chatbot is a program that mimics human interaction. It automatically chats with internet users and gives a series of pre-prepared answers according to what they ask. It is actually an interactive FAQ tool that becomes more and more useful as you add more and more questions and answers to it.
Examples of chatbots:
You can build anything you imagine, with chatbots possibilities is endless.
Creating a Chatbot used to involve a lot of programming and hard work, but now there are Chatbot creator apps and tools that help you create a Chatbot without any (and/or with minimal) coding involved.
1. Chatfuel
The interface makes programming your tool very easy. The Chatfuel creators have spent a lot of time making the Chatbot-creation function very user-friendly. As with most bots, it recognized words that are very similar to the ones you have entered into the tool, which means your users may make spelling mistakes.
2. Botsify
It has a very simple bot design interface and allows for a series of different greeting configurations. It works with WordPress, and it has media support that allows you to use video, image and audio files as part of your Chatbot answers.
3. Smooch
With this tool, you are able to integrate the Facebook messenger into your website and/or communication process. Smooch’s power comes from its ability to integrate with numerous other tools, which makes it a very flexible and almost-unique chatting tool.
4. Facebook Messenger Platform
Just like Smooch, the Facebook Messenger Platform uses Facebook Messenger as its Chatbot. However, Smooch’s power comes from other-software integration, whereas the Facebook Messenger Platform’s power comes from the ability to specifically tailor your Facebook Messenger Bot.
5. Beep Boop
With this developer platform, you will be able to build your own Slack integrations. You may host, share and deploy your Slack integrations very quickly. With this tool and within Slack, you will be able to build your own customer support tools.
6. Telegram Bots
The Telegram Bots is a reasonably powerful tool for developers that want to do some, but not all of the legwork for their Chatbot. The tool allows developers to create a series of different bots. The tool is very flexible and the more time you spend on your bot, then the better it becomes and the better it looks.
7. Botkit
This is the howdy.ai botkit. If you have a little programming experience, then this should be a very big contender for your attention. It is an open-source tool for creating bots, and its simplicity is only matched by its expansive power. It is tricky to use, but it is worth learning.
8. Kit Bot
The Kit Bot is probably the most out of place on this list. It is a tool that helps you stay in touch with the people you know. It is a personal Chatbot that tells you things such as who you saw yesterday, and it reminds you about the people you haven’t sent a message to in a while.
9. Init.ai
Build chatbots with this tool, feed them information so that they become more useful, and launch them. The more you add to your tool, the more intelligent it appears. Reach users where they are with SMS, on the web, chat, or create a custom experience within your existing product.
10. FlowXO
With FlowXO, you are able to build bots for Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack and SMS. You may build bots without needing to use any sort of code, and you may manage and scale your bots as you see fit. Build it once, and the same Chatbot works on Facebook messenger, Twilio SMS, Telegram and Slack.
11. API.ai
You may use the API tool wherever you are using the Facebook Messenger tool. Have it create automatic responses for you. Enter enough information that is cleverly thought out and tested, and you may give the impression that the tool has intelligence.
12. Converse.ai
Engage with your customers with a well-designed Chatbot. Create a Chatbot that easily integrates with your other tools, provide more than just text, and create instant responses for your users. Create push conversations and use the automated services to provide a better customer support tool.
13. Microsoft Bot Platform
Microsoft has a wide number of online and offline services, which is why a Microsoft Bot may be your best solution. It integrates with SMS services, Slack, Office 365, Slack and Skype. Building a Skype bot may be a great idea since Skype is very popular these days.
14. ChatScript
The ChatScript developer tool is very powerful and very flexible. It should be a strong contender for any developers that wish to do some, but not all, of the work required to create a strong and unique Chatbot that is as customizable as you allow it to be.
15. PandoraBot
The bot uses natural language processing and your inputted information to create audio and text-based conversations with users. They have a very popular playground, which is a sandbox method that allows you to play with the tool. It is a good testing function that helps beginners familiarize themselves with the tool and its many functions.
16. Rebot.me
It is hard to figure out which target audience the Robot.me developers were aiming for. It comes across as somewhat of a tool for casual users that want to play with the idea of a ChatBot. It may be useful for people that want to test the water with a new Chatbot.
17. Imperson
The Imperson Company has tried hard to make their tool less of an automated FAQ tool. The developers have created a system that encourages you to enter lots of information in a way that generates longer and more in-depth conversations.
18. Gupshup.io
The GupShup tools are mostly for people that understand a fair amount about programming. Yet, even with little programming knowledge, you are able to create a Chatbot very quickly and very efficiently. The website makes creating your bot very easy.
19. Onsequel.com
With this tool, you are able to create a Chatbot that appears personable and friendly. It is a good tool for getting people started with a conversation before a real-life person takes over. You may create interactive stories with branching plots.
20. Bot qq
Create a Chatbot that offers fast publishing, semantic understanding, and voice/image processing. Create custom scripts that you may build in your own language. There is also a release testing function that allow say to test your Chatbot before it goes online.
Conclusion
As you can see by this article, there is plenty of choice out there for people that wish to create chatbots. The most obvious piece of advice is that you should shop around to find one that suits your purposes and your budget. It is also worth learning as much as you can about each tool so that you may customize it more deeply and create a Chatbot that mimics artificial intelligence more effectively. | 20 Chatbot Creators: How to Build Your Customized Chatbot | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@brendasavoie/20-chatbot-creators-how-to-build-your-customized-chatbot-94509ced94f2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Brenda Savoie'] | 2016-11-10 11:03:34.712000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How the conversational web is going to change the game
At the start of this year, Uber’s Chris Messina declared 2016 ‘the year of conversational commerce’. Others have used the phrases conversational interfaces or the conversational web. In essence it all refers to the same trend: the changing way in which businesses interact with their customers. It is transforming from graphical interfaces like websites, to natural two-way communication supported by artificial intelligence (AI). This may sound like the ‘next big trend’ that will remain a distant future scenario. Meanwhile, you are waiting for the tools that you need as a business, to keep up with the hundreds, thousands, millions of customers-conversations at any moment in time. However, — like other fundamental changes driven by technology have shown — being too late to the game may mean you don’t get to play.
The conversational web is a huge topic, ranging from bots to AI, from voice recognition to smart devices, and from China to Silicon Valley. Nobody knows how it is going to play out, and neither do I. So instead of trying to provide answers, I am going to explore the driving forces behind the conversational web. I will describe three scenarios that picture a possible future and how this future will change the rules of the game for businesses.
Where the conversation starts
Conversational interfaces take us back to what we were used to back in the day: having an actual one-on-one conversation while doing business. That’s what business was. Personal. A customer speaking to a store attendant, to an insurance agent, or to a bank teller.
Once technology advanced and businesses grew, interfaces like interactive voice-response systems and websites were developed to cope with the growing number of customer interactions. These interfaces were mostly non-intelligent, so a lot of the work that used to be done by businesses, shifted to the customer. Searching for a product; comparing alternatives; finding solutions for problems; customers now do the job when they connect with your business online. Not because you choose to simply let your customers figure it out, but because there is no other economical way to manage enormous amounts of customer interactions.
At least, until recently. With the emergence of conversational interfaces this is about to change. Companies like KLM, Hyatt, Disney and Suitsupply are undertaking experiments to engage in personal communication with their customers through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Through these channels they aim to engage in meaningful conversations with their customers, either delivering a service or selling directly.
KLM sends me my boarding pass via Facebook Messenger
Suitsupply uses WhatsApp for personalized clothing advice and lets customers order directly from the conversation.
Why now?
Conversational interfaces clearly make sense. But why are they emerging now? There are three driving forces. First, the enormous increase of free messaging services has been a prerequisite. In 2015, 75% of all smartphone users worldwide used at least one messaging app, and this is expected to increase to 80% in 2018. This paved the way for low-barrier, ongoing conversations.
The second driving force is the ability to use rich elements like images, video, links and certain software in conversations. This has enabled companies to have more meaningful conversations via messaging services.
Operator offers products directly in their messaging app (source: businesswire.com)
Third, advances in artificial intelligence allow meaningful conversations to happen without speaking to an actual human being. Bots can speak to people, either through written or through spoken conversation. This significantly increases the amount of client-conversations a company can handle. Sure, conversations are still often quite awkward, but technology improves fast and a growing number of start-ups is proving that AI can already be very good at executing specific tasks.
Amy Ingram is your virtual agenda assistant that plans meetings for you (source: x.ai)
The race to the platform
Now that interfaces start to become more conversational, the question arises: which interface are customers going to use? Will they choose different interfaces for different purposes, or will they choose one interface that acts as a gateway to all services behind it?
The Silicon Valley Giants are aiming for the latter, closely looking at China, where the use of WeChat is practically equal to the use of a smartphone. As Satya Nadella -Microsoft’s CEO- explained at the last Microsoft Build Conference, in his vision the future will revolve around humans, virtual assistants and bots. Humans will remain the centre of everything we do. But they will be supported by bots, which are capable of executing tasks like purchasing products or finding the right insurance. Virtual assistants, in their turn, are able to learn human needs and understand human language, acting as a platform for the bots. Microsoft stimulates the community to create bots via its Microsoft Bot Framework, with Cortana as the conversational backbone.
Competitors are following similar strategies. Apple has just opened up Siri as a platform for external developers, and is making Siri more central to its business by rolling it out to desktop. Google recently launched its own smart messaging app Allo, as well as voice assistant Google Home. Meanwhile, Facebook has announced to open up WhatsApp to businesses — just like it did with Messenger — and to invest in its virtual assistant M.
And then there are successful examples of Amazon’s Alexa, virtual assistant Hound, and promising ones like Viv — made by the creator of Siri and recently acquired by Samsung. All are focused on building a developer community. The stronger the community, the more bots are developed, the more relevance the virtual assistant gets, the more users it attracts, and so on.
Hound is praised for its accuracy (source: popsci.com)
What is going to happen next?
There are so many things to take into account looking at this conversational trend that it is very difficult to — I hope I’m not alone here — foresee the possible future. I have summarized my thoughts into three scenarios, ranging from ‘pretty likely to happen’ to something that sounds like taking a return trip to Mars.
Scenario 1: It’s play time! Experiment and learn
I believe this is the scenario we are currently experiencing. Conversational interfaces are decentralized and early adopters use whichever platform is most convenient at any specific moment in time. Virtual assistants like Siri and Cortana are mainly used to obtain information. Other specialized conversational interfaces are better at interacting with businesses. For example: customers receive their KLM boarding through Messenger, they order a pizza at Dominos through Slack’s pizzabot, or they ask Siri about tomorrow’s weather. Conversations are a mix of human-to-human and human-to-bot, mostly because bots are not yet capable of handling complex interactions.
This is the time to experiment. By doing this, you get to understand what it means to communicate through conversational interfaces, which has its own rules and tricks, especially if you let a bot handle the conversation. And customer expectations are low, so you have the room to make mistakes and learn from them. Even better, you might create sympathy and publicity by being one of the first.
Scenario 2: This is getting serious — new business models are emerging
In this scenario artificial intelligence is at the level that it enables a virtual assistant to not only provide information, but also to execute various standardized tasks. In this case you could tell a virtual assistant that you would like to order a pizza margarita with extra mozzarella in 45 minutes, and the virtual assistant will use a bot to select the right pizza company for you. And — if assistants are true to their promise — they will learn. So next time you order pizza, you don’t need to tell the virtual assistant that you would like extra mozzarella, the assistant will simply remember.
However, if you want to execute a non-standard task (like asking for buffalo mozzarella instead of the cheap version), artificial intelligence runs into its limits. You will either run into a dead end, or you’ll be connected to an actual person working at the pizza place.
In this scenario, personal assistants and bots are likely to get substantial traction, because there is some actual value in the services they deliver. And when that happens, conversational interfaces get real traction. With real traction [KT3] comes a fight for attention from customers, which means that businesses will need to put effort in optimizing their presence in virtual assistants and bots. Think Bot Optimization and Bot Marketing (BO and BM) in parallel with SEO and SEM.
Thinking a little further ahead, this will probably also mean that a customer choosing for a business is less determined by their marketing messages than it is now. It is hard to convince a bot with a nice story. It is much easier to convince it with hard proof like assortment, price, delivery times and customer reviews.
Is this scenario likely? Well, Viv promises that you can order a pizza once the platform is launched, and Hound is already capable of pretty complex interactions, as you can see in the example above.
Scenario 3: Talk to my assistant! — the power of the virtual assistant
Taking it one — big — step further: suppose the virtual assistant is capable of executing complex, non-standard tasks, removing the need — not necessarily the desire — for customers to communicate directly with a business. What if the virtual assistant cannot just order a pizza, but can also change the delivery address, ask for a specific topping and file a complaint if the pizza is cold. And imagine that the virtual assistant also takes care of communication flowing from business to customer, filtering out only those messages that the virtual assistant has learned its user wants to receive. This would mean that the only remaining direct contact with the pizza company would be at the time of delivery. Unless the delivery is made by Uber Eats, of course.
In this scenario the customer experience is almost fully determined by the virtual assistant and its bots. This means that businesses will need to rethink what will determine a customer’s’ choice for their business. Imagine that you as a customer can choose between two insurance companies and they are both equally qualified. One still requires you to contact them directly when you want to make a claim, and the other allows Siri to do it all for you, which means you don’t have to remember client numbers, contact details or even the insurers name. What would you choose?
What will it be?
It is impossible to say how this all will play out. But one thing is for sure: it will play out in some way. So if your business is slow to pick up on innovations like this, now is the time to learn a lesson from previous technological disruptors — e-commerce and digitization of media for example — and to be early to the game this time around.
I’m very curious to know what you think. Feel fee to comment!
Written by Bart Vijfhuizen for Jungle Minds. | How the conversational web is going to change the game | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@JungleMinds/how-the-conversational-web-is-going-to-change-the-game-99784380bbd9 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Jungle Minds'] | 2017-02-07 15:58:22.525000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Messaging', 'Conversational UI', 'Conversational Commerce'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | 50+ Merry Christmas Wishes
If You Are Looking For Wishes For Christmas To Wish Your Friends And Family. It’s The Right Time Of The Year To Greet Others From Your Heart. Don’t Miss This Nice Opportunity To Show The Love And Warmth Your Heart Holds For Them.
Here’s A List Of 50+ Merry Christmas Wishes Heartfelt Wishes For Your Mother And Father, Your Son And Daughter. Choose The One You Like And Send It To Your Loved Ones.
50+ Merry Christmas Wishes
1. There Are Many Gifts Under The Christmas Tree. But The Finest One Is The Reward Of Your Friendship.
2. May You Enjoy All The Gifts Of Christmas. The Gift Of Happiness. The Gift Of Pleasure…The Reward Of Love…Wishing You A Blissful Holiday !
3. Merry Christmas With Tons Of Cheer, This Christmas Oh My Dear, Will Be More Shiny For You, May You Get All The Things New, MERRY CHRISTMAS !
4. Have Your Self A Very MERRY CHRISTMAS Count Your Blessings Be Grateful. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
5. May The Season Of Love And Sharing Deliver You Happiness In Life. I Wish You All The Best. Extra Blessing To Come To Your Way. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
6. Let The Gently Falling Snow Bring Love, Laughter And Christmas Cheer, And Educate You To Make Them Develop Throughout The Coming Year.
7. Wishing You, All The Joys And Surprises That Christmas Brings…And All The Happiness And Blessing Of The World On Christmas And Always.
8. If Somebody Tries To Steal Your Christmas Away This Year, Let Them. Because The Spirit Of Christmas Is Far Larger Than The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
9. The Belles Are Ringing In Every Single Place, The Santa On Its Way, The Silent Prayer In The Heart, And Peace For At This Time, It Is Really A Special It’S The CHRISTMAS Day !
10. From The Days When You Believed Santa Claus Exists, Till The Day When You Look Like A Santa Claus Your Self. You Have Been My Buddy. So MERRY CHRISTMAS Buddies. Cheer To Our Friendship !
11. If Tonight Some Huge Fat Man Kidnaps And Throws You Into A Sack. Then Please Keep Because Many People Would Have Requested Santa For A Sweet Buddy Like You. MERRY CHRISTMAS Dear. Enjoy !
Merry Christmas Wishes
12. With New Faith And New Aspiration, New Beginnings And More, Christmas Is The Merry Time, Of All The Gifts And Galore, The Time To Shiny Up Your Tree And Beautiful Things To See.MERRY CHRISTMAS !
13. MERRY CHRISTMAS To Someone Who’S Close To My Heart. Mother, Wish You Keep Smiling And Stay Blissful All The While. MERRY CHRISTMAS To You !
14. May This Beautiful Christmas Season Convey You Delights In All Possible Kinds. May You Receive Love In Abundance And Pleasure That Lasts Throughout This Season. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
Do Check: Happy Diwali Status And Wishes
15. Love Begins From You Home, To Your Neighborhood, To Your Group, To Your Nation & To The Entire Spread Love To All. Let Everyone Really Feel The Love Of Christ. MERRY CHRISTMAS To You!!
16. New Year Is The Time When, All Your Hopes Are New, So Are Your Aspirations, New Are Your Resolutions And New Are Your Spirits. So Right Here’S Wishing You A Very Promising, Fulling And A Very Blissful New Year .
17. Your Friendship Is A Glowing Ember Via The Year & Every December From Its Warm & Living Spark, V Kindle Flame Towards The Darkish With Its Shining Radiance, Light Out Thee Of Faith On Christmas Night. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
18. I’M Sending You Warm Bear Hugs, Loving Kisses And Earnest Wishes For The Fantastic Event Of Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS And A Blissful New Year.
19. Throughout This Season Of Giving, Let Us Take Time To Slow Down And Enjoy The Easy Things. May This Fantastic Time Of The Christmas Touch Heart In A Special Way. Wishing You A Lot Happiness In The Present Day Throughout The New Year.
Christmas Wishes For Friends
20. Have Fun This Christmas Like A Youngster. Enjoy The Harmless Pleasure Of Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS & Joyful Holidays.
21. Buddies Fill The World With The Most Fantastic Lights Christmas And Always, I Treasure The Friendship We Share. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
22. As Christmas Started In The Heart Of God Let Us Full That Love By Extending Out Hearts To Others. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
23. Let The Spirit Of Love Gently Fill Our Hearts And Houses. In This Loveliest Of Seasons May Discover Many Reasons For Happiness.
24. May The Christmas Season Fill Your House With Pleasure, Your Heart With Love And Your Life With Laughter.
25. The Season Of Love, Peace And Pleasure Is Right Here To Stay. Have Fun Endlessly This Season And Not Just Today.
26. It’S 25Th December ! May God Bless You And Your Cherished Ones The Entire Year Round ! Have Joyful Christmas.
27. Make Your House Lovely On The Eve Of Christmas And Give Surprise Gift Items To Your Mother And Father & Make Them Smile.
28. Christmas May Be Many Things Or It May Be A Few For You. The Joy Is Every New Toy For Me It’S Watching You.Blissful
29. A Splendor And All The Colours Of Happiness Really Feel The Pleasure In The Air. Really Feel Particular And See That Everyone Will Care. If You Also Make An Effort As Nicely To Spread That Smile On Christmas. Wishing You Merry Christmas And A Blissful New Year.
30. If I’d Have To Decide On Between Good Moments On A Christmas And Also You, I’d Select Because I Do Know Good Moments Will Come Following You!
31. Nothing Is More Lovely In This World Than A Christmas Eve Spent With You. Your Presence Is What Makes My Christmas More Gratifying And Superior.
Romantic Christmas Wishes
32. Wishing You All The Warmth Of Coco And Chillness Of The Snow On The Festive Season. Sending Numerous Christmas Kisses To My Dear Sweetheart. MERRY CHRISTMAS And Joyful New Year, Babe.
33. To The One I Hold So Pricey In My Heart, Sending My Heartfelt Wishes On This Christmas. You’re The Nicest Person I’ve Ever Met. Blissful Christmas To You!
34. Thanks For Brightening My Life Together With Your Love And Support. I Want You To Know That You’re Every Thing That I’ve Ever Dreamt Of. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
35. I Hope You’ll Have So Many Gifts On This Christmas That You Just’ll Get Bored With Counting Them. And You Then’d Wake Up And Notice It Was A Dream! MERRY CHRISTMAS !
36. Your Father Is So Rich, I Feel He Can Lend Santa Some Cash This Christmas. Christmas Gifts Have Been Coming In Small Packages Lately, Anyway!
37. Who Needs A Christmas Present When They Have A Buddy Like Me? I Do Know You Feel Lucky All The Time. Wishing You MERRY CHRISTMAS !
38. I Made A Decision To Spend Time With You Quite Than Shopping For Something With The Cash. Because TIME IS MONEY Anyway. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
39. You’ve Already Achieved So Many Nice Things This 12 Months. The One Thing Left For This Christmas Is Hitting A Jackpot For Health, Wealth And Happiness!
40. Nothing In Life Could Be Gained With Out A Promise To Be Returned. Even Santa Comes With A Clause In Christmas! Have A Incredible Time!
41. What An Ideal Time For You To Be Thankful For Having Me In Your Life. You May Not Always Admit But I Already Know You’re So Lucky. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
42. May All Of Your Moments Be Full Of Great Happiness And Astounding Cheerfulness. Wishing All Of You A Outstanding Christmas Season!
43. Thanks For Giving Me One Of The Best Memories In Life I Could Ever Ask For. Wishing A Magical Christmas Season To The Most Lovable Family
44. The Very Best Factor About Christmas Is That It Offers Me A Lot Time To Spend With You Guys. Wishing You All Best Thing In This World On This Christmas!
45. Warmest Thoughts And Finest Wishes For A Beautiful I Really Am Grateful To Be Blessed With Such A Beautiful Family. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
46. You Taught Me Concerning The Christian Spiritual Values And You Taught Me About How You Can Have Fun On A Christmas! I’m Lucky Because I Belong Right Here, With You!
Do Check: Baby Shower Wishes
47. May All Of Your Long-Cherished Desires Come True This Christmas. With Love And Warmth Of Heart, Wishing You Merry Christmas!
48. The Enjoyment Of Christmas Is Doubled If You Send Christmas Wishes On Their Cellphone. Just An Easy Effort Like This From You Can Actually Make A Giant Difference In Your Relationships Together With Your Family Members!
49. The Festive Cheer Of This Magical Season Jogs My Memory Of All The Gorgeous Christmas Moments I Spent With You Guys. I Wish To Be With You This Time Too!
50. No One Can Ever Love Me Like The Best Way You Do. Thanks For Being The Lighthouse That Gives Me Hope And Power In Life. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
51.From The Very First Day I Met You, You Turned The Meaning Of My Life. Right This Moment, I Wish You A Blissful MERRY CHRISTMAS !
Christmas Wishes For Family
52. Wishing You Probably The Most Wonderful Christmas Of Your Life With Loads Of Only You Can Make My Christmas Celebration Complete And Ideal. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
53. Spending Time With You Is The One Wish In My Christmas Wish-List This Year. I Always Carry The Thought Of You In My Thoughts And In My Heart. MERRY CHRISTMAS !
54. Christmas Holiday Is Always Enjoyable And More Charming As Long As You’re Here With Me. Thanks For Always Making Every Little Thing Worth Oh My Sweet Angel, MERRY CHRISTMAS And A Blissful New Year.
55. May Our Bond Be Blessed With Love And Affection. May It Last Endlessly And Fill Each Other’s Life With Happiness And Positive MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
56. I’ve Never Met Such A Charming, Loving And Caring Person As You. The Love You’ve Given Me Is Priceless And Unimaginable. MERRY CHRISTMAS Darling!
57. As Long As You’re With Me, This Christmas Holiday Season For Me Will Likely Be Filled With Fun, Happiness, And Love. Let’s Celebrate The Wonderful Type Of Love That We Share On This Christmas!
58. You’re The Most Loving And Dependable Boyfriend I Could Ever Ask For. Every Little Thing You Do Makes Me Really Feel Lucky And Blessed To Have You In My Life. MERRY CHRISTMAS To You!
59. With You In My Life, I’ll Never Have To Worry For Being Lonely And Unloved In A Christmas!You’re The Special Person I Love To Consider Always. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
This Was Our Collection. Hope You Like It And In Case You Think It Needs To Be Share Then Simply Hit That Share Button. Having Any Special Message/Quotes To Include In Our Checklist? Drop A Comment Below And Please Let Us Know.
Do Check:Wedding Anniversary Wishes | 50+ Merry Christmas Wishes | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@statusshop999/50-merry-christmas-wishes-6f5608239a66 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Sanjeev Kumar'] | 2020-12-18 04:35:23.281000+00:00 | ['Merry Christmas Greetings', 'Christmas', 'Wishes', 'Status', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | People are going nuts over chatbots and everyone wants one. Let’s have a quick look at what makes chatbots irresistible for startups and businesses.
Why you should invest in chatbots :
Because that’s where the cream lies :
Quick stats : “Facebook’s Messenger hits 1 billion users, after two years as standalone app” — Reuters, July 2016
Billions of people use Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, WeChat, Line and other chat and messaging services to communicate with their friends, families and social circle every day. We can confidently say that the natural extension of this will be to communicate with anyone, including businesses and organizations, in the same way as you communicate with your friends.
A chatbot can easily be built for any major messenger service like Facebook Messenger or Slack. And it is evident that this is where people really spend much of their time, don’t you want to be present where your users are ?
Being an early adopter helps :
It is often seen that new technologies usually need longer than expected to take off but when they cross the threshold the growth can be like a vertical line. Looking at the utility and immediate benefit of chatbots, we can safely say that chatbot is here to stay and grow.
The main reason is, it serves the group of millennials that have grown accustomed to using chat in everyday life. Furthermore, Facebook, Microsoft and Google’s recent push into this space is attracting interest from everyone.
So sooner you get your business start serving via chatbot, the better you will be placed against your competitors.
Response Time :
Bots perform instantly, effectively and with precision day or night. Bots are not restricted by time limits as humans do. For a smaller organization, it may not be feasible to have the resources available to answer emails or calls at 3AM, but having a bot do the job for you makes it so much easier, faster and effective. So don’t lose your time and ultimately, your customers.
When it comes to handling customer’s queries on social media or any online channel, the most important factor is the response time. Your response time must be minimum so as to keep customers engaged and satisfied with your service. Chatbots help you achieve exactly that.
Chatbots are (almost) like human :
Simply put, there are 2 types of chatbots — unintelligent ones that act using predefined conversation flows (algorithms) written by developers building them and intelligent ones that use machine learning to interact with users.
No matter which kind of bot you build, it will be anyway more personal and human than your usual app. You can equip it with your personality, your brand’s identity, make it speak to your users like you would, change its message depending on the input from the user.
Users will feel as if they are talking with another human and not some random machine.
They speak the ‘real’ language :
Let’s face it, the language our apps and websites use to interact with our clients is not the language we speak to our friends and families. So how do you expect to build a personal bond with the client if your conversation lacks a personal touch.
Our apps use words (rather commands) like “sign up”, “log in”, “download”, “click”, “fill in” and it lacks any social touch such as “please”, “hello”, “for sure”, “how is it going?” etc. It’s like our businesses suffer from the social communication disorder.
Chatbot help you express anything you want in a more social and conversational language which your users will definitely value. This is what makes people want to stay with you and chit chat for a bit longer.
Much simpler interface than a typical apps :
Chatbots are usually text-driven, with a touch of images and widgets, which makes it easy to interact with them. Look at all the messenger apps you’re using — they are as simple as they can possibly be, and that’s exactly why we like them so much.
Content is king, so don’t distract your user with fancy but redundant features. Also, remember that simplicity is what has helped the most successful brands win our hearts over the years.
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” — Steve Jobs
These things are at the core of a chatbot concept that’s why they are headed straight for success.
You can build them overnight (Literally!) :
Building a chatbot isn’t a rocket science (unless you are actually building a rocket). So be relaxed, building a chatbot won’t cost you much time. In fact, it will happen much faster than creating mobile apps. And timing really matters in business, right? There’s a variety of bot templates and ready-made software developed by Facebook, Microsoft and others that you can use.
All you have to do is to integrate it with a messenger platform of your choice, tweak some features, and your bot is ready. Building a bot may take a day or two if it’s a simple bot, sometimes it may take few weeks if a bot needs to be able to handle complex queries.
If the base is ready, you can even build them within few days. The fact is, the tech side is not the hard part here, it’s the conversation and personality you’ll have to spend most of your time on.
The best strategy for building complex bots could be to build a beta in few days and then start getting feedback from your users. Then improve your chatbot based on the real user’s experience and expectations.
Chatbots are cheaper (much cheaper) to build :
At the end, everything comes down to the cost doesn’t it ? Let’s decipher this factor now. As we have already covered, chatbots take less time to build as compared to building mobile apps and it is directly connected to the cost too as these two factors are intertwined tightly.
Of course, complex bots will take more time to build as compared to simple ones so the cost factor will also go up in the proportion of the complexity.
But in a nutshell, it DOES NOT cost too much to build a bot. It’s quite inexpensive than you could imagine.
Cost to drive installation is zero :
Here lies the crux of cost saving. When it comes to apps, you’ll need to build them and take efforts of promoting them to get downloads.
For chatbots, you don’t need to worry about all this. People don’t need to install the bot to get started. This means huge savings for your business as the cost to get users on board is alomost zero.
Why you should not invest in chatbots :
Of course chatbots are not perfect in all aspects. There are few areas where chatbots have a room for improvement. Let’s have a quick look :
Sometimes chatbots act dumb :
Of course chatbots themselves can not be dumb, they just act as per the way they are programmed. If bots are not implemented correctly, they don’t accurately respond to customers’ requests, they give customers unhelpful and irrelevant information. And this is going to hamper the customer experience.
When you factor in the delays caused by the chatbot not understanding what your users are communicating, the efficiency becomes ever worse — because now they have to re-type the question and hope the chatbot gets it.
In order to tackle this area successfully, we need much advanced AI which can understand what users are saying with its intelligence. The work has already begun and further advancements are in pipeline.
Security :
There are still concerns floating around the security & privacy of the data handled by chatbots, specially in case of banking and finance operations where the security of data is of paramount importance.
So if you are planning to build a chatbot for your business where the information that will be shared is sensitive in nature, you might want to give a complete thought to the development process.
You are not the driver anymore :
Chatbots operate in a limited environment. You don’t get much scope to improve the customer experience, you’ll have to play around the defined perimeter.
So you need to make sure that whatever experience you build for the user, it’s perfect. Another major downside here is, you don’t have the complete control over the environment because once developed, bots become in charge.
Chatbots can be rude :
Although chatbots are capable of recognising millions of words and configurations to provide a user with the most accurate answer possible, most are still unable to provide conversation skills that a human naturally provides.
Some users may prefer short and to the point approach, but others might find it less personable and somewhat cold. No matter how well they are programmed, chatbots will lack the capability of bringing human touch in interactions.
Cannot complete complex action :
Chatbots work by recognising certain key phrases and provide pre-set responses to those phrases. They find it difficult to register and respond to complex questions, and to carry out compound activities.
Sure, chatbots perform few task much better like being a virtual assistant, answering customer service questions such as FAQs and revealing the latest news and updates etc. But they lack the human intelligence to process complex queries and link them to the solution.
They are not real experts :
Chatbots may pose as experts but the truth is, they are not. They simply collect information and give formulaic responses. This might cause more trouble than benefits in some cases.
Let’s take an example of a chatbot offering treatment on medical conditions. If the patient cannot explain his pain points correctly, a bot might end up offering him completely wrong medication. This is rarely the case with a real doctor. Doctor will physically examine the patient, understand the condition and provide medication based on his expertise in the field.
You might not (really) need a chatbot :
It’s not mandatory that every business must have a chatbot. Your business might not demand one. So if you don’t have to interact with your customers frequently or if the kind of interaction you have needs to be highly personalised based on the customer’s requirement, why waste valuable resources in something that your business barely needs.
Of course some of these limitations will be overcomed as the technology evolves and more complex algorithms are developed. But the point is, you need to analyse your requirement in detail and figure out the best possible way to get along with chatbots. | Why I should / should not invest in chatbot | null | null | null | null | https://chatbotsjournal.com/why-i-should-should-not-invest-in-chatbot-df952cbabf10 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-11-10 09:51:37.137000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Messaging', 'Chatbot', 'Start With Why'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Waku and the future of Ethereum messaging
I’m actively using Status crypto messenger (my name there is cryptotexty.stateofus.eth in case you want to speak with me there). So my interest in Status and crypto messaging brought me to Waku.
A month ago Vitalik Buterina congratulated Waku as Whisper successor with update, the full update quoted in that tweet you can read here.
Firstly let’s define the differences between names and terms. As Oskar Thoren, the protocol research lead at Vac says:
1) Vac is the modular protocol stack for p2p secure messaging, paying special attention to resource-restricted devices, privacy, and censorship resistance.
2) Waku (and currently there is Waku v2) is the transport privacy/routing aspect of the Vac protocol stack. It sits “above” the p2p overlay, such as libp2p dealing with transports etc, and below a conversational security layer dealing with messaging encryption, such as using Double Ratchet etc.
3) Whisper was part of the holy trinity of Ethereum (Ethereum for consensus/computation, Whisper for messaging, and Swarm for storage).
Whisper didn’t get the attention it deserved and development decreased. Despite this, Status used it in its app from around 2017 to 2019. It was one of very few, if not the only, production uses of Whisper.
Vac grew out of our efforts Status to create a window on to Ethereum and secure messenger.
Vac team forked Whisper into Waku and formalized it with a proper specification, solving immediate bandwidth issues for light nodes, introduced rate limiting for better spam protection, improved historical message support, etc.
The main implementation of Waku is written in Nim using nim-libp2p, which is also powering Nimbus, an Ethereum 2 client.
Before Waku can be used in Status, it needs to be integrated into the main app using the Nim Node API. The bridge also needs to be implemented and tested.
It’s interesting to note that Status is using also a modified version of Signal’s Double Ratchet and X3DH key exchange for encryption and forward secrecy. I know and use Signal messenger for long time, but I didn’t know that the part of their technology is used in Status.
In Status app, Waku v2 is used for human to human messaging, but in future Waku can be used for generalized messaging, i.e. — machine to machine messaging.
Many of use know the prediction of the bigger rise of AI and IoT so it’s not different to imagine, that Wake can be used in such communications as:
Multisig transfers only needing one on chain transaction
DAO votes only needing one one chain transaction
Giving dapps ability to direct push notifications to users
Giving users ability to directly respond to requests from daps
Decentralized Wallet Connect
For the future of Ethereum messaging more infrastructure is needed, such as Wallets (Argent, Metamask, Status, etc) and Dapps that benefit from M2M messaging. In addition there should be more users who will benefit from such services.
Therefore we need to move adoption forward to the next level. And Status messenger is one of the engines of this adoption, which is easy to use even for non-crypto users. The biggest challenge I see in the fact, that the each particular adopter (person) in in the circle where most of his contacts use facebook, telegram, viber, whatsapp, wechat, etc. So it is necessary to take the brave step and brake that circle! Brake and bring your contacts to the Status, firstly — to messaging app, and then to the whole crypto ecosystem.
And last, but not least — Vac team is looking for Waku JS Wallet integration lead.
You can find more information and team contacts on the web-site https://vac.dev/ | Waku and the future of Ethereum messaging | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@cryptotexty/waku-and-the-future-of-ethereum-messaging-d351198abf8c | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-12-11 17:40:43.835000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Ethereum Blockchain', 'Messaging', 'Status', 'Messenger'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Simon de Haan, CTO Praekelt.org, presenting at BotCon 2016
Artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning — these were just a few of the hot bot topics brought up at BotCon 2016 today in Johannesburg. Sponsored by Facebook and Praekelt, the first conference on conversational interfaces on the continent brought together developers, product designers, and business leaders in one place to discuss the future of bots. Belinda Lewis, Conference Organizer and Product Director at Praekelt said, “I think that the overwhelming turnout and positive response to the conference really highlighted that South Africans see the potential for bots on the continent and are willing to explore them.”
Unlocking the ability to provide personalized, interactive communication at scale, the power of bots on the continent is enormous. As Siya Mnyanda, an attendee, noted, “Apps are so 2010. The future for bots in Africa rests in the fact that for the first time ever, people are even closer to companies. With no airtime, there are even less barriers.”
Emeka Afigbo, Strategic Product Partnerships Manager for Facebook, spoke about the role of messaging apps as the new platform of choice. Currently, mobile messenger has 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, making it one of the most-used chat apps on the planet. Users send 60 billion messages per day using messenger — more than three times the global daily SMS volume. Most people coming online for the first time now experience the internet not as the web, but through the lens of messaging platforms. “It was great to explore the Facebook Messenger platform for my business, and learn more about Wit.ai. In Africa, we face problems with customer service that bots can help solve, but people are still trying to understand them.” Dymy Kakesse from the Krafters App Marketing Platform mentioned.
“We’re just at the start of bots. A deep understanding of the technology — where it is currently, and where it will be — is integral to the evolution of bots,” Josh Pretorius, Service Designer at Praekelt remarked. “Understand your user before solving a problem for them.”
The main take-away of the conference for Gustav Praekelt, CEO & Founder of Praekelt and Praekelt.org, was seeing the “power of open collaboration”. Indeed the inspiration behind organizing the conference in South Africa was to share best practices and learnings of bot usage to increase social impact and business on the continent.
In response to the advent of this new technology, Praekelt.org revealed its chatbot for MomConnect, the South African Department of Health’s maternal health care platform, this past July at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban. The bot provides subscribers with another way to receive messages that will help them stay healthy and prevent the transmission of HIV to their unborn children, opening up a way for South Africa’s 10 million Facebook users to access health care messaging in a more engaging, cost-effective and sustainable way.
-Ambika Samarthya-Howard, Head of Communications at Praekelt.org | “Apps are so 2010” — Bots are the Future | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@praekeltorg/apps-are-so-2010-bots-are-the-future-4608833a3d9e | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-11-21 17:23:23.976000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Messaging', 'South Africa', 'Facebook', 'Mobile'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How we built a chat community for our users in 30 minutes
We wanted to increase user engagement by providing them a chat platform to ask, connect and share their experiences and interact with would-be-moms sharing a similar journey, make new friends and get expert advice. Being a startup with a small team, you can’t afford to do a lot of things at the same time, hence you always look out for hacks to validate your hypothesis before even building it.
WhatsApp has 1 Billion active users worldwide across 109 countries sending 42 Bn messages/day, 72% of whom are on Android. One of the recent features of WhatsApp allows an admin of a group invite someone just by sharing the link. You don’t need to add them to your contact book and then to a particular group. This made us thinking.
We wanted to provide a chat platform to our users and nothing could have been better than doing a proof-of-concept over WhatsApp.
This is how we did it in 30 minutes
Our users signup with their last period date to get relevant, verified information on a weekly basis about their pregnancy. We created 3 WhatsApp groups for three trimesters and provided a new option called Join Trimester Group in the left navigation menu.
2. On tap, we take our users to their respective trimester WhatsApp groups where they can either join or cancel. Depending on the what trimester the user falls in, the app changes the WhatsApp group invitation link on tapping Join Trimester Group.
That’s it! It just took us 30 minutes to get this feature done and roll it out to users to start getting data.
Numbers
We love numbers and measure every small thing we ship to our users. We pushed this release 3 weeks back on Google Play and this is what we see in Mixpanel so far. (and this is how our community traction looks like on Mixpanel)
No. of users tapping on this feature is increasing on a day-to-day basis
Learnings
New joinees wanted to view the chat history in that group so that they can view what questions have already been discussed. We found a workaround for this, but outside WhatsApp. As the users were redirected to WhatsApp, some users didn’t join the group. We had reached out to them and found out that they didn’t want their identity to being disclosed to a group of people they don’t know. Third, they didn’t know whether the group they were about to join was a public or closed community. No tutorials were required for our users to start interacting. Everyone knew how to use WhatsApp and its features for interacting in the groups.
Next steps
60% of the users who have updated to this latest version have tapped on Join Trimester Group, which proves our hypothesis of the need of such a community. We will wait for more data, before taking a final call of building it in-house. In order to increase the conversion rate from tap to join WhatsApp groups, we are showing a custom popup within our app mentioning that we are about to redirect them to WhatsApp and that the groups are a closed community of PregBuddy users, experts and doctors to help them out. This is how it looks:
Thanks to WhatsApp team for releasing this feature. For any queries/feedback, reach out to us at [email protected].
With love,
PregBuddy team | How we built a chat community for our users in 30 minutes | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@pregbuddy/how-we-built-a-chat-community-for-our-users-in-30-minutes-172c9d69e411 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-12-11 15:46:06.768000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'WhatsApp', 'Pregnancy', 'Startups', 'Lean Startup'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | My theory on the future of customer service
But, first let's talk about messaging apps. Messaging apps are everywhere. They help you settle a dispute with your cable operator, they’ll pick up flowers for your significant other and they’ll book a nanny for your night out. They’re great and they’ll only get better. But messaging isn’t the reason to be excited about these new technologies. It’s that they’ll fit into the frictions of everyday life and allow for new consumer experiences that aren’t easily available or efficient with the current web — traditional or mobile. Messaging isn’t the innovation, but the layer that new, but distinctly similar businesses will be built on.
This brings me to future of customer service.
Messaging will be involved be involved, but only as the foundational layer.
It will introduce the next evolution of the CRM as true relationship management and nurturing.
It will start small and niche like all great technology does.
It will allow businesses to service consumers wherever they are, across platforms, apps and the web.
It will leverage AI for most use cases, but the human touch will be necessary for complex interactions that require nuance and empathy.
It will be a force for entrepreneurship. | My theory on the future of customer service | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@DonaldRichard/my-theory-on-the-future-of-customer-service-c62d6c4e4285 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Donald Richard'] | 2015-10-24 22:45:41.428000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Mobile', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Netty at Layer: Powering Client API
Modern communication platforms deal with an ever growing number of protocols. In order to keep pace, network technology stacks must be built to remain flexible and extensible.
To achieve this flexibility, companies such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and others, turn to Netty, an open source Java NIO framework that enables the development of high performing protocol servers and clients. Netty has also found a home here at Layer, where it helps us handle the flow of millions of messages every day through our Client API.
What Netty brings us
Layer is a distributed system with highly dependent services, where each one may spend significant time waiting for responses from other dependent upstream services. A non-blocking, event-driven I/O library like Netty allows these services to concurrently process requests, while taking full advantage of our server hardware.
Netty is also protocol agnostic, and adding a new protocol to Netty is as simple as creating the appropriate event handlers. This extensibility has led to many community-driven protocol implementations including HTTP/2, WebSockets, SPDY, and MQTT [1].
Additionally Netty provides:
A unified API with which to build network services
A powerful threading model
Reduced resource consumption and zero copy support
A vibrant community and wide industry adoption
All in all it’s an excellent framework on which to base our stack.
Integrating Netty into Layer’s Client API
Client API Architecture.
Entry server
Layer’s entry server is built atop Netty to make use of performance goodies and HTTP/2.
Our HTTP/1.1 pipeline contains handlers for SslHandler (TLS support to Connection), HTTP codecs (Encoder and Decoder), HTTP message aggregation (HTTP Object Aggregator), CORS handler, and app specific handlers such as nonces, sessions, WebSocketServerHandler, etc.
We’ve adopted best practices from the community [2] such as:
OpenSSL based SslEngine to speed-up connections.
epoll based native socket transport in Linux (for higher performance and produces less garbage)
PooledByteBufAllocator (to reduce allocation/deallocation time)
Shared stateless channel handler across channels to reduce GC (nonce and session handlers are stateless and both are annotated as @ChannelHandler.Shareable)
The system’s NoncesHandler uses Memcache to cache nonces for identity-token validation and session creation.
REST API and WebSockets
Additionally we take advantage of Netty’s RFC 6455 compliant WebSocket support to expose a REST API and bi-directional WebSockets for real-time notifications.
Each REST API request comes with the Authorization header containing a session-token. The entry server caches this session-token in read-through SessionCache (a cache miss will trigger an event to fetch session info from Authentication service), and each session-token is then validated and authenticated to process the request (see our Client API documentation for more details on authentication challenges).
API requests for conversations and messages are passed through to a user recon engine — a process in which a user’s conversations and messages are reconciled into a given state (such as deleted, updated, seen, etc.).
The WebSocket API allows a client to send requests to the server. Each WebSocket upgrade request comes with a session-token for authentication and sub-protocol negotiation for the connection handshake. Upon successful WebSocket upgrade, the WebSocket connection is added in WebSocketConnectionManager’s DefaultChannelGroup. Each WebSocket connection is identified with a session-token and connection-id.
Request/Response/Change/Signal packets are wrapped as TextWebSocketFrame. Request packets are decoded as String and routed to a given user recon engine through the ‘in’ exchange/queue in RabbitMQ server. Consumer of the ‘in’ exchange/queue in a user recon engine will consume the request (message) and process the request (with the help of invoking HTTP requests to messaging fabric and DB inserts/updates etc)
A user recon engine can emit the response/changes to the ‘out’ exchange/queue in RabbitMQ server. Consumer of the ‘out’ exchange/queue in the entry server will consume the response/changes, meaning message headers shall contain session-token and connection-id to look up the WebSocket connection from WebSocketConnectionManager and then notification (response) will be pushed to that connection using the Netty Channel’s writeAndFlush.
Customer use cases
Bidirectional WebSocket for a typing indicator : Clients can send a typing indicator using WebSocket to indicate that the user is currently writing a message in a conversation. This can be sent on every key press in the input and will send a user_typing ephemeral event to all the participants in a conversation.
Bidirectional WebSocket for desktop applications with real-time collaboration such as gaming, trading, chat, etc
Sample code can be found in our Layer for Web github repo.
Future work
We are far from done with our implementation of Netty. Some of the upcoming work we are looking to tackle, now that the Client API has been released:
Reference | Netty at Layer: Powering Client API | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@mubarak.seyed/netty-at-layer-powering-client-api-2a6ca3617d48 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Mubarak Seyed'] | 2015-10-21 17:05:08.417000+00:00 | ['API', 'Platform', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Everyone having mobile phone knows the meaning of SMS. The special ring alerts the user about the arrival of new SMS and then they just cannot hide their anxiety and look for the message to read. Nowadays, companies and commercial organizations have started utilizing this SMS service for their benefit by sending Bulk SMS.
Bulk SMS Service is sending the same message to hundreds or thousands of recipients probably in a list. This is being sent very quickly and hence it is highly beneficial to the commercial people to reach thousands of individuals at a time.
Types of bulk SMS Services:
· Promotional Bulk SMS Service refers to the advertising purpose about a service or a product.
· Transactional Bulk SMS Service means the messages sent by the financial institutes like insurance companies, banks and credit card companies. Moreover, government bodies, educational institutes and other registered bodies also belong to this category.
· International Bulk SMS Service refers the messages sent to other countries. Mobile handsets of other countries will receive them.
Process of Bulk SMS:
Bulk SMS Services Provider is the organization who arranges for sending these messages to the recipients mobiles in a very quick and efficient manner. They have more than 100 characters and can also include pictures, videos and sound files. Usually, the term ‘SMS’ Short Message Service refers to the messages and not the services or about the process.
Basis of Bulk SMS:
The very purpose of SMS is to send messages to the people who are interested about the local events, club openings, and music concerts, sales at top retailers, seminars and conferences. People who have signed and joined in a members list for receiving these messages will receive them. The organization who wants to send Bulk SMS will compile a mailing list containing thousands of people with their mobile numbers and pay for the SMS Services Providers and allow them the mailing list. These lists can be used later on also.
Features of Bulk SMS Service:
· One SMS can contain 160 characters
· Many Bulk SMS Service Providers allow their clients to login in their allocated portal and send Bulk SMS directly for the people in their database or mailing list. For this, they have to purchase some packages that will provide them access of this facility for certain period.
· In case, clients prefer the service providers to send the SMS to the database of the Bulk SMS service provider, then it also can be arranged for some fixed charges. In general, minimum 50,000 messages can be sent like this from the service providers’ end.
· These are mainly for sending information updates.
· Depending upon the messages and the speed, there exist several types of Bulk SMS Services.
· Messages can be scheduled and sent automatically.
Benefits of Bulk SMS Service:
· With a single button push, thousands of customized messages are sent instantly and simultaneously.
· This is cost effective advertising reaching a large number of individuals within a very short period.
· The best Bulk SMS Services Providers protect the details of both the end recipients and their clients’. | Features and Benefits of Bulk SMS Services | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@SMSIdeaIndia/features-and-benefits-of-bulk-sms-services-83c37a4cb261 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Sms Idea'] | 2016-02-17 08:22:25.757000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Mobile Marketing', 'Sms'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Chatbots
At Bowtie we work hand in hand with small businesses to help them unlock the power of the all-mighty chatbot.
Meet Bo, our friendly mascot.
Having gotten our hands dirty with multiple businesses and having deployed a dozen bots across SMS, Facebook Messenger and Slack, a few salient points have emerged as critical learnings for bot adoption. For those who are less connected to the chatbot trend, chatbots are a new (?) way for customers to interact with their favorite businesses using an automated chat assistant that can exist on multiple messaging platforms. Without further ado our findings are below:
1. There is no one size fits all.
While the core functionality of a bot can be used across multiple businesses, don’t think that you can take the chat dialogue you have written for one business and drop it off for another. SMB’s, like their larger enterprise counterparts, take pride in the voice they have developed for their brand and want their new chatbot to reflect that voice. Make it easy for the business to adjust the bots accordingly and let them cherry pick what works for them.
Cookie cutter bots won’t cut it across businesses… even an army of them.
2. A lifeless bot is a useless bot...
If your chatbot sounds too robotic — users will not see it as engaging and will quickly abandon it. Now, this does not mean you should trick your users into thinking your bot is human, rather it means that your bot should arouse an emotional response from the user at the outset of the conversation. Whether that’s through humor, excitement or a response that is more profound, that is up to you. However, leaving out such a component could spell the end of the conversation between your bot and a human.
With punchy dialogue, ordering coffee ain’t no chore.
3. But nobody likes a chatty kathybot.
On the flip side, too much personality in a bot can get in the way. Imagine if you were trying to buy a coffee at a coffee shop in Williamsburg and your barista couldn’t stop chatting about the virtues of artisanal beans or upselling you on a mocafrappamachiatto — cute for a second and then highly annoying thereafter.
It’s critical that chatbot developers balance out the pleasure of interacting with the bot and the utility the bot is offering to the user. This tightrope act is the key to users coming back to your bot over and over again, and spreading your bot to their own networks as well.
4. Sorry, I didn’t quite get that.
No matter how clear your flow is and how easy you think your bot is to use, humans will run into issues with your bot. Whether that’s through the user deliberately trying to “break” your bot or simply through trying to do things in a way you did not expect, your bot needs to be ready to respond to the user with something other than a generic sorry message.
How your user will feel after two “Sorry I didn’t quite get that’s”
If your bot continues to repeat “sorry i didn’t quite get that” providing no information on an alternate course of action then you will lose that user. Try playing with multiple types of error messages to see what gets the best response from your users by focusing on a more humorous or satirical approach to the problem.
Most importantly, have different error messages for specific errors that occur in a conversation.
If an error is occurring when the user is being asked his address you could say “Sorry, I’m still new to human geography try formatting your address 231 Cedar St, NY, NY 11211” or if a user encounters an error while asking for in item the bot could say “Hey! Not sure we have that on the menu. You can see everything we offer here: LINK.” This way you don’t lose users due to interaction frustration.
5. Put up or shut up.
Part of the intrinsic value of the bot is the frictionless way in which your users are able to dive into an experience with your chatbot. With zero downloading required, a user can message your bot and immediately draw value from it. While points 2 and 3 stressed the value of a personality (but not too much!), here we emphasize the need to immediately relay the value of your bot to your users.
Brittany does a great job explaining the point of talking with her in a friendly way.
Don’t assume that the user will understand why they are chatting with your bot or why it’s better than a website or an app. It is your bot’s job to explain or show this effectively and efficiently to your user.
6. The one use case to rule them all.
At Bowtie, we’ve developed a bot for beauty salons that can do a lot for the user. Whether that is booking an appointment, giving feedback to the stylist or buying products from the salon, our chatbot makes engaging with the salon a seamless experience. However, trying to educate the user on everything our bot can do at once is not only impossible — it could potentially be fatal.
Even if your bot can do 4 tasks very well — the user doesn’t care.
Start with one utility and slowly layer on additional features for the user to learn.
Your bot’s skills are mighty, but your users attention span is not.
7. A picture is worth a thousand characters.
While the word chatbot implies that a bot is confined to text based interactions with a user, this new wave of bots is about so much more than simple text interactions. In fact, solely having text based messages for your users is one sure fire way to turn them off.
Picking a stylist is a blast when you can actually see him or her!
When appropriate, incorporating images, GIF’s and the right emoji will transform your bot into a delightful experience. Especially with platforms like Facebook Messenger and Kik, pills, images and carousels can all be employed effectively to deepen engagement with your users.
Remember: if users see a wall of text they will be out faster than your friends will be at the end of an open bar.
In short- Keep it short, keep it fun and keep it clear.
8. BONUS TIP: Just because you can botify it… doesn’t mean you should.
Surprise! It’s not over yet!
While a conversational experience can be an efficient and pleasurable way to pick a lunch spot amongst friends, get inspirational affirmations or order a coffee, not every part of your experience needs to be in the thread of your conversation.
For instance, if a user wants to know what a restaurant serves, a wall of text detailing the menu will drive your user far far away. In these instances push them to a browser to view a menu and save them the trouble of combing through a text heavy screen. While this simple, lightweight and powerful technology has the potential to transform engagement, it’s important to focus on converting the right part of your customer’s interaction with your business.
***
Bowtie is a plug and play chatbot solution for any business, on any platform.
To see how we’ve applied these learnings check our salon booking bot on Facebook here and our food & drink order ahead bots here.
Ron Fisher — CEO & Co-Founder, Bowtie
Want to learn more? Email [email protected] | The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Chatbots | null | null | null | null | https://chatbotsmagazine.com/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-chatbots-79a0e3c962db | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Ron Fisher'] | 2016-11-11 07:41:41.031000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Chatbots', 'Messaging', 'Conversational UI', 'Conversational Commerce'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Gist: context determines how Bots are used
Recommendations: focus on service and not on NLP
For a ChatBot to be a true disruption, it would have to be a completely new animal, and a completely new idea that completely changes how we do things. But are they really doing that?
Let’s look at how we interact with any good-old search engine and compare our interaction with it to that of a ChatBot. Is the difference in such an interaction superficial or fundamental? I would argue that it is superficial. In fact, it just might be that ChatBots and search engines are really two sides of the same thing. Maybe they are just on the opposite ends of a continuum, but are fundamentally the same. Maybe the crucial difference is all about the format of communication: from coding and Boolean one end, and NLP on the other. Maybe there is an area for those 50 shades of grey in the middle where current applications dwell.
In my mind, a ChatBot is an anthropomorphized search engine that . It is just a search engine with an attitude.
Talking to a ChatBot is really like googling something. It used to be we had to speak Boolean, but now NLP works just fine. Google understands natural language now, in all kinds of local variations around the world. The only difference between Google and what we imagine to be a real ChatBot is that Google gets straight to the chase, skips the small talk and gets us the search results.
Google is the smartest ChatBot I know, I just never saw its face. I never asked for its feelings, thoughts, or hopes for the future, and I can only imagine its personality. Sometimes I wonder: Is Google a she or a he? What does it eat for breakfast?
Does it matter? It all depends.
Sometimes, I just want to be left alone, so I can focus on things I have to get done, and I really don’t want to talk to anyone, not a human, not a Bot. And then, I want the interface to be transparent and be a good tool for what I want to accomplish. If all the technology were talking to me and being human, I would get overwhelmed and feel like there is no escape from being watched and listened to 24/7, in every room of my house.
But then, there were those moments in my life when a talking Bot would have been a relief for the lack of caring humans…
If the goal of an interface to be transparent and maximally useful, then there might be a place for coding, for apps, and for ChatBots, — but all in their special and appropriate niches, where they make good sense and where they fit naturally.
Let’s do a thought experiment and imagine that ChatBots disrupt the world of human-tech communication. Would that mean that programmers will be talking natural language to code? Would that mean that one would have to ask “What time is it?” every time, instead of quickly glancing at a watch? Certainly not. Human language structure is not congruent with programming languages and would be highly limiting, and asking for time instead of glancing is an unnecessary step away from efficiency.
There are numerous much more efficient ways of interacting with technology outside of speech. It is simply easier to do certain things without talking to anyone or asking for anyone’s help. There is a place for Bots, but it is not everywhere, if we are to preserve the optimal ways of doing things.
So, where could there be a good place for ChatBots?
If it is not in utter disruption, then maybe it could be in an augmenting certain areas of human-technology interaction. Currently, ChatBots differ from other technology in their use of NLP as an interface and in having a personality. Currently, the focus is on NLP. However the question is how much of it is entertainment value and how much is efficiency and productivity?
Maybe we are looking in all the wrong places.
Maybe it is less about sheer entertainment, but more about how intimately the Bots can get to know us to serve us better. Maybe we should focus on how connected ChatBots are with us and with our inner wishes, how they can predict what we are looking for, what we need, and can cater to our cognitive style in ways that would make it feel like magic.
I hear myself thinking and sounding like a chauvinist who wants a smart and useful servant who does not talk much, but fulfills their every wish. And why not? I would never dare to force that on another human being, but asking that from a Bot does not rub my ethics in the same awkward way.
It also makes me think of the book “The 5 Love Languages”, where one of the languages is service. So, what are all the ways that Bots can love us? It is certainly not limited to talking to us through NLP.
One of many ways that Bots can be helpful to us is in assisting us with all kind of searches: really in data-mining the world for us and matching the results to suit our needs.
Bots’ Human Manifestation in Divergent Searches.
Maybe the humanity of a Bot could manifest itself in the presentation of search results. Currently, when we enter a term in a search bar, we get an unsorted list of search results — only ranked based on an internal algorithm that weights sites based on semantic relatedness, relevance, and interconnectedness. Rather, I am thinking of how those same internally sorted results could be presented in categories relevant to the user. It might not be helpful for convergent and close-ended questions of fact, which are much easier to search with a few clicks of fingers.
However, it might be extremely useful in divergent searches, where the users are faced with scanning and data-mining large sets of search results for patterns and insights. Or in those searches where the users are not sure what to ask, does not know what they don’t know, any are looking for suggestions.
Unstructured search results that such divergent searches offer are the raw material for building mental frameworks that subsequently become a basis for grasping the newly discovered information about the world. If the results were presorted in meaningful categories and only then presented to the user, then the search engine could be seen as a thoughtful and caring Bot who made our life easier.
Formality Continuum.
The types of searches could be seen on a continuum of formality: from academic research to hotline style of information providers. The more informal the search is, the more conversing the Bots would be doing and the more reminiscent of humans they would have to be, and the more they would employ NLP in their interactions with humans.
Possible solutions in academic research.
Academic research, they say, has become cumbersome and increasingly less efficient way to promote learning. Essentially, it is because of the amount of material published is exponentially increasing and becoming more and more overwhelming and difficult for one human to process with quality. The articles could be indexed to be AI-friendly — with something similar to ISBN, but a lot more complex and telling. Each new article published could be indexed according to the concepts and claims it offers, and their relation to what is already published. All old published material could be indexed in the same way by seasoned researchers. Later in the future, all reading, search within text, sorting, and indexing can be done solely by AI.
The user would ask questions in natural speech, and AI will data-mine the terrain and tell what is available, what is missing, good opportunities for further research — and all kinds of other analytics, problem solutions, and predictions. Some possible categories for presenting the findings could vary based on the question, but could include arguments for and against a certain statement or a theory, the predecessors, the influencers, the followers. It is really about visualizing the taxonomy and the relevant networks of meaning within them, and then presenting them to the user. In this space, the ChatBot would do less chatting and more searching and presenting.
Legal, Medical, and Social Services Searches.
Often people look for the most knowledgeable doctor or a lawyer with the best record of success to handle their maladies and cases. A ChatBot could be trained at the level of the best lawyers and doctors in their thinking patterns, while having an instant access to myriads of databases, and while having lightning-fast memory retrieval mechanisms. That’s… helpful. They would never get tired and would be accessible any time. In this space, ChatBots would not really need to do much talking, but more searching and presenting.
However, knowing that people who search for legal and medical, and social services advice are often in distress, it would not hurt for a ChatBot here to have some human traits, such as kind attitude and give tokens of care. Those could manifest themselves in the tone and wording of the presentation, such as warm confirmation of success, encouragement reminders, and empathy statements. Even if obviously coming from a machine — those do wonders. It could also be that an synthetic image were attached to the search application, with a name, so that the user could “put the name with the face.”
Just as with the academic search, here the search results could be presented in relevant categories, and meaning based on the questions that users ask. Of course, in order for the ChatBot to be able to offer relevancy, it would have to be taught to it, only after being learned through studies of what users usually need in particular situations, and what life situation certain questions statistically signify.
Hotlines.
In this space, the advantage of having a Bot is their 24/7 availability to the general public. The Hotlines I am thinking of are those for reporting abuse, neglect, battery, and the risk of suicide. In this space, Bots would have to be well trained in NLP and trained to have empathy, compassion, and a kind demeanor. Again, thanks to the human brain’s strong reaction to personalized acts of kindness, be they synthetic or real, ChatBots could do so much good.
People could cannot afford professional help and do not know where to find it for free, could turn to a Bot who, based on their simple questions, could guide them in the right direction. The key to the effectiveness of such a Bot would be feeding it all the necessary information, so that the totality of services available would be covered. It is like Yellow Pages, but having someone to search it for you, when you don’t even know what to look for.
Not only the ChatBots could help save someone’s life by being there for them at a difficult moment, but they could also serve as data-miners and presenters of information to those who manage them — the social and government workers. They could also signal an alarm to authorities, when serious abuse is detected. Many of those who are abused would have a much lower barrier to reporting the abuse, when they are talking to a Bot in the privacy of where they are, instead of having to find a place, going there, and facing a real human. They could even do it anonymously, and the Bot would trace their complaint through the IP address or satellite triangulation.
Ultimately, I imagine one central Bot — an avatar of 911 — with a capability of responding to millions of people at a time. Maybe Bots could also replace police dispatchers.
Bots as Companions.
This is not specifically about research here, but more about emotional and mental interaction. Some structured applications of Bots NLP ability could be in language learning and mock interviews. If Bots were trained well enough to handle such HCI transactions, they would be invaluable! They could have all the patience in the world, all the care, accuracy and insight of the best possible teacher.
Another interesting application of Bots could be in voice recognition, and otherwise assistive technology, for people who are not able to type or read for various reasons: impairments, disability, or even illiteracy.
Then, there is a space for Bots to be thoughtful and caring companions. In this area, Bots would be doing a lot of NLP, a lot of talking, and would have maximum humanity built into them. Human brain cannot tell the difference between virtual reality and actual reality, as much as we imagine it could. So, if a Bot with a pleasant human face were talking with us and saying all the things we wanted to hear — it would effectively make us feel good.
Bots could inspire us with their thoughts and quotes of the moment and pamper us with their pep talk. We could design their personality and looks to our liking, they could be our perfect friend who says all the right things and gives good advice. This will be a huge improvement from a pet rock :) | ChatBots: Are They a Disruption or an Augmentation? | null | null | null | null | https://chatbotslife.com/chatbots-are-they-a-disruption-or-an-augmentation-4607b11863dc | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Ux Philosophy'] | 2016-11-21 22:25:37.461000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Chatbots', 'Digital Strategy', 'AI', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | I Want To Be Cool: The Problem With Peace Branding
(this blog is written by Dr. Catalina Rojas, PCDNetwork’s Director of Innovation). I have wanted to write this blog for decades. Even as a young peace activist in Colombia, I would often comment on how unexciting is the overall imagery when you think about peace. Think about it. What comes to mind? The dove, the white flying dove. Rooted in ancient Greek, Roman, Judeo-Christian traditions, both the dove and the olive branch have been associated as symbols of peace through millennia.
Blah, blah, blah.
But I am uninterested. I feel that peace is associated with meditative lakes, and calming mountains and everything very silent, very peace-full. But really? Why cant peace be a noisy party, with music, and loud instruments, strong vibrant colors, good drumming? Nothing wrong with meditative imagery but in a world where we compete with war imageries I think is ABOUT TIME we get ourselves real and brand peace as an amazing, loud, vibrant, colorful adventure.
Take my son. My son, the product of two scholars in Conflict Resolution. Well, maybe this is a reflection of poor parenting and not only a problem branding peace. My son loves purple, pink and green equally. My son with long curly hair who has never been told NOT to cry (because boys don’t cry) or even I haven’t assumed he will be heterosexual (because why should we assume this?). My son loves superheroes. It all started with Batman, but it rapidly moved to IronMan, Wolverine, Spider Man, Captain America, then Luke Skywalker (yes!). He is NOT allowed gun toys in our home, except for light sabers but every stick of every park is a “blaster” (another term for gun toy). The allure of strength, from a T-Rex to a super heroes is there, embedded in our culture almost since birth. We read, we play, we watch all things super hero and celebrate our sons creativity of saving the world and catching “bad guys”. Along side, we talk about how guns don’t really solve problems, and try to provide some basis for –we hope- create a strong foundation of values like celebrating uniqueness, creativity, freedom, loving everyone.
Lets go to our topic at hand. As part of the social change field, have we helped or contributed to create a fun, upbeat image of peace? I think that we have a HUGE opportunity for growth there in working from all sorts of fields: music, poetry, literature, graphic design, 3d printing, graffiti, story telling to re-create the brand of peace. To go beyond the white dove and the hands together to escape the binary dichotomy that war is loud and red and peace is quiet and white.
In writing this blog I don’t mean to offend you if you love your white dove, I just want to ask if other folks feel like me that we need to create a more competitive image of all things social peace for the XXI century. Where computer games get ever more sophisticated, noisy, virtual and mostly motivate children, youth and adults to play violent, zero-sum, all-or-nothing games, what do we offer that is equally enticing and fun? Happily, I know there are a small but significant movement of coders and people involved in video production generating video games for social change. Keep working on that and contribute to my question of cool peace imagery.
A few weeks ago we heard that the UN adopted Wonder Women as its symbol and I read an amazing blogpost by my colleague and friend Sanam Anderlini who criticized this decision by eloquently explaining how the UN’s mission is one of diplomatic and dialogue among nations and our amazon heroin, well, she will beat you with her magic lasso. And while Sanam is conceptually correct I feel like I can understand those (men) that selected Women Women as a popular icon that can be assimilated with independence, strength and overall badass attitude. Forgive me, but we lovers of peace and tolerance are not weak, quiet and docile creatures. Ask a White Helmet in Syria. We are risk takers, and beings of great passion, in other words, we are badasses and as such, we need a symbol that better represents our work. Why is it so hard to sell and popularize an image of peace that is cool?
To me, peace is a collective experience. Is a loud, musical, vibrant space filled with colors: a fiesta. Kind of if we hired Frida Khalo to do a party at her house. I imagine gorgeous decorations, piñatas, delicious food and people of all generations singing, dancing and just being joyful.
To me peace is messy, loud and spontaneous.
What is your peace imagery?
Thanks,
Catalina | I Want To Be Cool: The Problem With Peace Branding | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@czelizer/i-want-to-be-cool-the-problem-with-peace-branding-39ebf08bb0d2 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Craig Zelizer'] | 2016-11-11 17:49:16.684000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Peace', 'Branding', 'Messaging', 'Social Impact'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Not all SMS are created equal: exploring the murky waters of grey routes
With more than 20 billion SMS messages sent every day, SMS has become a primary form of communication for most consumers. It’s also a vital tool for enterprises to engage with their customers and other key stakeholders on mobile. But, there’s a dark side to the humble text message, which has serious consequences for enterprises looking for a cheap deal to send SMS to customers and stakeholders.
Not all SMS are created equal!
The journey an SMS takes from sender to recipient can vary greatly, depending on the origin of the message and the mobile operators involved. An SMS travelling between two licensed and established mobile operators is smooth and very quick — this is what’s known as a white route. But not all operators and countries across the world have the same standards and regulations when it comes to telecommunications, it is possible to route a message through different countries and less scrupulous operators and platforms to save money. This is what is known as a grey route.
Using a grey route is the equivalent of taking a bus from London to Beijing. Yes it’s cheaper than flying and you’ll probably get to your destination eventually, but you’ll be exhausted, disorientated and a bit smelly when you arrive. Grey routes often involve the use of a service or platform that is legal in one country, but not always both countries of the sender and receiver. While grey routes are technically legal, they are far from legitimate and cost the telecommunications industry billions. They also have many risks attached.
Security and accountability
With white routes you get complete transparency, you know the exact routes your messages take and you get accurate delivery and read receipts. With grey routes, you can never actually be sure of the journey your messages take when sent, and when they have been received. Worse still, delivery receipts and read receipts are often falsified along the journey.
And more importantly, you can’t guarantee your customers’ details will remain secure as your messages are passed through a series of less reputable platforms. Being held responsible for a data leak can be catastrophic for your organisation’s reputation and has been the undoing of many established brands.
Poor performance
Because your messages are routed through less established platforms across the world, grey routes do not offer the reliability and security of white routes. It takes time to route the messages through other platforms, so your messages are often delayed or, worst still, never reach their destination. One of the advantages of SMS is that you can reach your consumers at precise times that will create the most impact, grey routes severely reduce your ability to do this.
Bad user experience
Again, as a consequence of being routed across various less established platforms, your message can be altered or corrupted, such as broken text and hyperlinks or the sender ID is replaced with an international number — which damages the credibility of your message.
A delayed delivery also creates a poor user experience and could damage your organisation’s brand. Imagine you’re sending out an offer to your customers that expires within a short time. If your customer doesn’t receive this offer in time, or the offer has expired by the time it’s received, they will not be pleased with your service.
Does mGage use grey routes?
Because not all SMS are created equal, the ‘buyer beware principle’ definitely applies to using grey routes. mGage will always use white routes between licensed and reputable operators across the world. We place a higher importance on effective communication, quality and protecting your organisation’s reputation, rather than just offering the cheapest price. | Not all SMS are created equal: exploring the murky waters of grey routes | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@ageitos/not-all-sms-are-created-equal-exploring-the-murky-waters-of-grey-routes-fb7802b51205 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Juan Ageitos'] | 2015-10-17 09:58:35.054000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Sms'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | WeChat is the window into China everything.
It’s a way for you to connect with friends, do business, and reach millions and millions of people. In a few short years, WeChat has grown from nothing into a messaging and marketing giant. Mobile China = WeChat.
WeChat is owned by Tencent (founders of QQ, another popular messaging app) and by the numbers, is one of the largest social networking apps in the world. As of August 12, 2015 WeChat has 600 million monthly active users (MAUs). Twice the population of the United States.
WeChat is a messaging service with an explosion of features on it’s mobile-only platform. Connie Chan from Andreessen Horowitz took a deep dive into WeChat’s history and future. Highly suggested for an in-depth review of WeChat’s business fundamentals.
I want to introduce WeChat basics so marketers and normal people like you and I can better operate in China. I’ll cover:
Why WeChat is important
How to set up the English version
Find and add friends
Feature introduction
In the meantime, I encourage everybody to download the app and I can be your first friend (id: bampbell).
WeChat can be downloaded from the app store either in English or Chinese depending on your phones default language. It’s best if you use a Chinese cell phone number to register, it will open up a lot of features but a US number works as well.
Why it’s important you start using WeChat
China is a massive market everybody is trying to figure out and get a piece of (myself included). WeChat is a perfect gateway drug to getting your feet wet with a built-in translate feature for non-mandarin speakers so you can begin to build a network.
WeChat serves a lot of different purposes for different people. Personally I have two accounts: one for business and one for pleasure. Here is some areas of your life it will improve.
Social Life
You’re entire social life will be run through WeChat. Guaranteed. People prefer to use WeChat over phone calls…yikes.
Business
Business executives, managers, employees, and businesses themselves all have WeChat accounts and use them daily. China never caught the email bug and have always preferred instant messaging. We now are seeing a transition from QQ (basically IM) to mobile messaging aka WeChat.
WeChat makes it easy to set up call times in different timezones and stay in touch with what’s happening in your business on the ground through images/videos. It has been the silver bullet on our nursery business.
Marketing
WeChat uses the ‘app within an app’ model and already hosts millions of mini apps on its platform (See Connie Chan’s article above). Marketers can target ming boggling numbers of active Chinese users through ‘official accounts’. This is important because Chinese consumers are notoriously difficult to reach and WeChat is a perfect platform to reach your target.
How to find/invite friends
There are a lot of different ways to add people on WeChat. Below are the most common. WeChat follows the Facebook model of adding/accepting friends rather than an open platform like Twitter.
User ID (usually their Chinese cell) — used unless you’re standing next to somebody
QR code — fastest and most used method of adding people on WeChat face to face
Other — there are other ways like shake or recommended friends but these are the ones you’ll use most
Accepting friend requests — Once somebody has added you, it will pop up under recommended friends
Features
WeChat is loaded with features and continues to expand focused on utility rather than fluff. I still remember when it was an ugly black/white screen you could send messages over wifi.
Messaging
Messaging is the core of WeChat and it’s main interface. You can send text, images, videos, files of all formats (.pdf, word, excel), voice recordings, stickers, and short 5 second videos.
You communicate directly with friends, not with strangers. It’s similar to Facebook but focused on the messaging rather than the ‘wall post’ model. Facebook went from wall -> messages, WeChat has grew from messenger -> wall (aka moments). Far more utilitarian.
Voice messages
Users are able to walkie talkie into WeChat and leave a voice message (max 60 seconds). What’s culturally interesting about voice recordings are they avoid one of the most annoying parts of Mandarin Chinese: typing characters. Unbelievably more efficient.
Autotranslate (yay!)
WeChat translates messages directly in app by pressing and holding messages. If your default language is English, it will automatically translate into Chinese and vice versa for Chinese <> English. Amazing feature for people living in China that don’t speak Mandarin.
Send images/video
WeChat automatically compresses images/videos and you can send up to 9 images at a time — either by taking them new or selecting them from an album.
Sights
Record and send 6 second clips either directly to other users via messenger or in the moments feature. Think Vine but built in.
Voice/video calls
Voice and video calls are embedded into the messaging feature. Voice/video calls are made natively through WeChat and can only be made through the platform (for now) and seems to be faster than Skype.
Group messaging
Pretty self explanatory. You can create a group and take advantage of all messaging features.
Group messaging alone is a gigantic time saver. One message can prevent an entire 30 minute meeting with our staff.
Moments
Moments deserves it’s own post. Imagine Facebook as a mobile only version of News Feed. You post articles, pictures, sights, or just their thoughts.
For each post you can either ‘like’ it or ‘leave a comment’. If I comment on a post, if we’re not mutual friends, the third party won’t see my post. This is another level of privacy for users posting personal content to their WeChat.
Another useful feature is you can highly target your readers by selecting who to send content to. This is awesome for marketers who want to send more directed adds at their audiences.
Can’t tell you how many people use this. Everywhere you look, they are spending the majority of their time on moments. I’ll be experimenting with ways to better target readers.
Payments
One of the strongest features of WeChat is it’s payment system. It allows payments to be paid directly through the platform itself and businesses can accept payment instantaneously. Through the payments platform you can: book a hotel, taxi, doctors appointment etc.
Payments bring the most important factors to business natively inside of the app: money. Through official accounts, businesses can reach users directly and in a more intimate way.
Note: this requires that you have Chinese cell phone number to sign up. I’ll think of a workaround method to hacking this so people can gain access to this feature.
I owe my social life and business to WeChat while living in China. It has served as an invaluable tool and I’m sure will continue to only get better. Moving forward, I can’t wait to see just how deep it can infiltrate everybody's lives. | WeChat (微信) for Beginners: Introduction | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/on-china/wechat-%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1-for-beginners-introduction-335a88034e44 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Charlie Campbell'] | 2015-10-23 13:47:18.303000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Wechat', 'Mobile'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The first time I encountered a bot was on Telegram. It wasn’t very smart. In fact, it was actually pretty stupid.
All it did was provide instructions about what the time and date of certain races and what to eat between each run. There was no AI, no IVR. The only thing it had going for it was reach. It spoke with a lot of people.
The second bot I saw provided content and information, similar to the way the CNN and Techcrunch bots work. This was a few months ago and while these bots were a bit smarter, I didn’t really get the point of getting information without the ability to perform actions like purchasing or even filling simple leads forms. I also felt that the range of actions I could have the bot perform was limited and repetitive.
I believe that a bot should always do something more than only provide content or information, otherwise, why can’t I just look at their website? How can bots provide more value to both the business and the end user?
I believe the answer is about having the bot get leads, collect more information about the end user, and use that information to build a relationship with the customer. Ultimately, this should lead to in-chat purchases.
Bots have many great characteristics: living where your customers are, being AI-based, not requiring download, easy to improve/self improving etc. The best part though is that bots are the ultimate marketing tool and you can use them to vastly increase your customer engagement and bottom line.
But how?
Let’s walk through the steps required to launch a successful bot that becomes your best marketing tool
Step 1 — Starting your distribution community
The first step to great marketing is to grow a community. There are many different ways to grow an audience, but an audience you want to funnel to your bot should be built where your bot is. So if you have a Facebook Messenger bot, it makes sense to build an audience on your Facebook page.
You can attract your audience for the first time either by offering discounts for your products or by providing useful information about an event. You shouldn’t however market just for the sake of the bot. It should come as a byproduct of marketing your core business. Bots are still very new, so build simple flows at first. As time goes on and your customers grow more comfortable with your bot, you can easily add more functionality and intelligence to your bot. A bot with too long a flow will surely turn off your customers.
Step 2 — Once people use your bot
Any successful customer interaction follows more or less the same progression from lead generation to purchase. But of course, it’s never perfect. You’ll inevitably lose people along the way; some at the beginning, some at the end, and even some when they have your product in their cart.
Your job is to figure out when people are leaving, why, and most importantly what you can do to fix it.
With human customer service reps, it can be really hard to figure out those stages and reasons. For any individual conversation, it’s easy. But try analyzing hundreds or thousands of conversations and you’ve got yourself a problem on your hands.
Bots though, make it easy. Bots let you see how they converse with customers, at what point those customers left and why they left.
You can see actually these analytics in almost every bot creation platform.
At what stage your users churned:
But unlike a web site or an app, with bots you don’t have to make an assumption about why your user churned. You can immediately see what the “negative trigger” was.
Reviewing and improving your churn is a crucial phase in conversational interfaces and a dashboard with rich analysis one really helps you do it right!
Fixing the bot flow and user-bot conversational experience will increase the odds of converting future users and the cycle continues.
Step 3 — Remarketing and automatic marketing
Now that you know when and why each churned customer left, you need to attract them back. Pesonify.ai allows you to send different users different messages and by that, increase the odds that you’ll win them back.
Although this methodology is not new and every marketing manager probably uses it on weekly basis, with bots it’s a lot simpler.
The classic way of remarketing are email, SMS, and ads. Let’s compare them first.
Email:
It’s delivered straight to the customer’s inbox and it can have a really appealing design. But it’s a long way from where the purchase or conversion needs to happen. The email must be clicked and the customer needs to navigate the website. The worst part about email is how competitive it is. Every company is doing email marketing. The whole point of marketing is to be where other companies aren’t, not where they are.
SMS:
SMS isn’t as common as email marketing because you need the person’s phone number, but it does arrive directly to the customer. That’s where the pros stop though. It has no design and it’s often seen as spammy-er than email.
Remarketing Ads:
You know those ads that follow you on websites AND apps? Those are remarketing ads. They don’t give up and they’re super targeted. They work for certain businesses, but they are annoying. You want to build fruitful relationships with your customers, not annoy them.
Remarketing with a bot brings the benefits from the other tools into one place.
You know how the last communication with the the customer went and what it was about. You know what needs to be offered in order to push him or her to action and convert. You send him/her the perfect message to the apps they use the most — messaging apps. Where he spends most of his session time and it’s on his smartphone. You send the customer a well designed message with a simple and intuitive UI that he/she already knows. With bots you don’t have to move to a different app, wait for the website to upload or register. You’re already signed in and set up on track. The distance between the user and conversion is seconds away.
If the user asks a question the bot can’t answer, it will call you to intervene, something email, SMS, and ads can’t do.
In the near future (AI domination is closer than you think :) ), every business will learn the benefits of having their own bot. We’re launching our bot creation platform soon, join the wait list! | Why Bots are the Ultimate Marketing Tool | null | null | null | null | https://chatbotslife.com/why-bots-are-the-ultimate-marketing-tool-b81fb62df12c | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2016-11-16 17:50:18.803000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Messaging', 'Digital Marketing', 'Freelancing', 'Chatbots'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Being big isn’t slowing down Facebook. The speed at which it is innovating right now is remarkable. Its army of highly talented, hyper-focused developers is evident as ever.
There are many examples — Instant Articles, notifications feed, virtual reality, all things Instagram — but nothing stands out more than Messenger. Its speed, gif integration, social graph, and money transfers have quickly turned it into the best messaging app on any phone outside of China. As a result, Messenger now has 700 million monthly active users, with 500 million coming in the last year.
Everyday, it seems there is an amazing new invention inside Messenger. Last night, I subscribed to the World Series and got real time updates, commentary, photos and video from the game. As a New Yorker who thinks baseball is a wee bit (very) slow but wanted to keep up with the local story, it was a nice way to watch the game. It’s Sports Center in real time.
There was no big, splashy announcement about this feature. Facebook is heads down, building and shipping cool shit for Messenger.
And nothing is cooler than M, the virtual personal assistant inside of Messenger that does whatever you ask of it, including booking airplane tickets and reducing the cost of your cable bill. If the app works at scale as magically as it has for the people using it in Beta, Messenger will likely become Facebook’s most popular app.
Even without M, Messenger has grown into one of the biggest and most popular apps in the world. Businesses are just starting adopt it for customer service, which will only increase time spent in the app, and it sure beats email.
It’s easy to forget that last year most users and critics panned the decision to remove messaging from Facebook, pushing everyone to Messenger. It stands as a good reminder that you should always prioritize user experience and long term growth, and always defy short-sighted external voices. Another reminder: Facebook doesn’t roll out big changes without testing them across its billion-person focus group; it knows what you want better than you do.
Without question, Messenger was by inspired WeChat, the pioneer in the platformization of messaging (as I wrote last year). To its credit, Facebook evolved what it learned to align with its core values. WeChat is a lot like an operating system, with many apps operating inside of it. In Messenger, everything occurs inside a conversation, native to the messaging experience. As Messenger adds more features, this could change… or, you won’t have to click off to another part of the app to hail a cab, buy sneakers, order food, or sell a stock — M will do it for you. It’s the Facebook algorithm of messaging: you don’t have to look for what you want, we’re doing it for you.
The fast yet methodical way Facebook has turned Messenger into a cutting edge utility is innovation at its finest. It’s the blueprint of the future.
Hit me @jasonwstein on Twitter. | Move Fast and Build Messenger | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@jasonwstein/move-fast-and-break-nothing-ec9c9bbc1ee3 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Jason Stein'] | 2015-10-30 03:04:47.157000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Facebook', 'Innovation'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Messaging Apps: Where They’re Popular and Major Revenue Opportunities
Messaging apps are an increasingly important part of the mobile app space. Facebook’s WhatsApp Messenger and Facebook Messenger are particularly strong throughout the West, while local heavyweights such as WeChat, LINE and KakaoTalk lead in key markets across Asia.
In this report, we provide an overview of the messaging app landscape and highlight the leading apps and discuss their evolution into full-fledged platforms, which is expanding their revenue opportunities and increasing their influence in the overall app economy. (To see how we define messaging apps, please check the notes at the end of this report.)
Facebook Grabs the Globe, Local Players Dominate Asia
Through acquisition and strategic unbundling, Facebook expanded its presence into the messaging app space. The company acquired hugely popular WhatsApp Messenger in February 2014. Later that year, it made the decision to move all worldwide messaging functionality from Facebook to Facebook Messenger.
To put Facebook’s success in context, there are three messaging apps among the Top 10 apps (outside of games) by all-time worldwide downloads on the iOS App Store. WhatsApp Messenger and Facebook Messenger account for two of them, and Microsoft’s Skype is the other.
Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Messenger are among the Top 10 all-time most-downloaded apps on the iOS App Store.
The strength of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Messenger is reflected in usage as well. Both are, in terms of Q3 2015 monthly active users (MAU), the top messaging apps in many key countries around the world. Facebook Messenger is particularly strong in North America, while WhatsApp Messenger leads in Latin America and Europe.
Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Messenger were the top messaging apps by MAU in key countries, such as the United States and Brazil, in Q3 2015.
In Asia, heavyweight apps have built up a substantial user base and strong network effect in their local markets. For example, WeChat leads in China, LINE is dominant in Japan and KakaoTalk is top in South Korea.
The global landscape for MAU (as seen in the figure above) looks much different than that for revenue (in the figure below). For example, Skype and Viber expanded their successful business model of charging for credits from desktop to their mobile apps. In addition, Facebook Messenger does not currently directly monetize its users and WhatsApp Messenger only charges $0.99 per year (after a one-year free trial). As a result, Skype and Viber are Q3 2015’s top revenue-generating messaging apps in many of the markets where Facebook’s apps led by MAUs.
The top messaging apps by revenue are more fragmented than those by MAU in Q3 2015.
The massive number of messaging app users presents huge opportunities for those who can take advantage and convert app downloads into revenue. Successful monetization strategies vary greatly across platforms and regions as the messaging app space serves an extraordinarily diverse and global user base.
More Than Just Messaging: Apps Expand Functionality and Revenue Opportunity
The leading messaging apps in Asia, in particular, have expanded their reach by adding features that go beyond merely sending and receiving messages. This extra functionality ranges from voice and video calls to games, taxi hailing and even local government services.
Messaging apps, particularly those from Asia, have evolved into platforms by adding features that go beyond just sending and receiving messages.
Through these extra features, these apps have evolved from messaging to full-featured app platforms. This is creating new revenue opportunities and opening up new battlegrounds in areas such as mobile payments and media content.
LINE leads messaging apps in iOS App Store revenue and is the second highest-grossing iOS app (outside of games) of all time. A significant portion of its revenue comes from digital sticker sales. In addition, games connected to messaging platforms earn huge revenue, especially in major APAC markets. This is true of games published on LINE in Japan, WeChat in China and KakaoTalk in South Korea.
Although games and messaging features such as stickers have been key to driving monetization to this point, publishers are experimenting with new ways to expand their revenue potential. For example, WeChat is leading the way in m-commerce. It has experienced huge success as a mobile payment platform with its users able to purchase movie tickets, taxis and even municipal services. Other messaging platforms in APAC have followed suit while the West has yet to scratch the surface of this type of functionality.
WeChat’s mobile payment platform provides a wide range of options to users.
Messaging apps are also testing the waters with advertising. Their progress in this area has been slow but steady as publishers are understandably wary of alienating their user base with intrusive ads. WeChat, for example, has successfully integrated ads into its users’ Moments timelines.
Innovative forms of advertising and brand promotion will be key moving forward. For example, Snapchat Discover, which allows media brands to directly engage with customers in innovative ways, pushes the boundaries of advertising on messaging platforms while sidestepping many of the issues of traditional advertising. We expect publishers to continue to find new ways to push this model further in the messaging app space.
Looking ahead to the future, the messaging-app-as-platform paradigm is likely to continue to gain momentum, with APAC leading the way. As more services are added, an increasing amount of app time is likely to be spent within the messaging ecosystems, further raising their potential for marketers.
It’s not yet clear the extent to which the Asian messaging platform paradigm will carry over to Western markets, but compelling services will likely stimulate growth. We expect that messaging app publishers will continue to explore new ways to monetize the apps, opening up further opportunities for content publishers and advertisers.
Notes: | Messaging Apps: Where They’re Popular and Major Revenue Opportunities | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/app-insights/messaging-apps-where-they-re-popular-and-major-revenue-opportunities-a7a28881a001 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['App Annie'] | 2016-02-23 22:31:01.242000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Wechat', 'WhatsApp'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Telegram, the superior IM platform
Whatsapp has taken the IM world by storm, but why I don’t truly understand. It has obvious failings that even the billions of Facebook dollars can’t address.
In comes the new kid on the block, Telegram, giving you almost everything you want in an IM app.
Telegram was developed by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, 2 brothers from Russia. They set out to create a fast, free secure IM App and they succeeded.
Here is why I life it more than Whatsapp and hoping the world would adopt it as quickly as they did with Whatsapp.
Cross Platform even Desktops
Telegram is not only for smartphones and tablets, but for computers as well. That is what has drawn to this IM app.
As a mac user, I love iMessage, but it is only limited to OS X and iOS users.
Send Large Files
With Telegram you can send files of up to 2gig in size!
Independent of Mobile
You can use Telegram on your desktop even if you phone is not signed in. With Whatsapp’s pathetic web chat, your phone needs to be connect and unlocked for it to work.
It’s free
It doesn’t cost anything, again unlike Whatsapp.
Continuous development
The developers continually improves the apps both for desktop and mobile platforms.
Works on an iPad
It works on your iPad, unlike Whatsapp.
The list goes on and on.
I don’t understand the popularity of Whatsapp. For me there is no comparison. | Telegram, the superior IM platform | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@stoffel/telegram-the-superior-im-platform-582e43f27374 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2015-10-14 18:05:02.793000+00:00 | ['Telegram', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Open Design Standards for Chat UX
Making machines talk beautifully
As the messaging space has emerged, startups have sprung up to tackle the challenge and complexity of developing chatbots across multiple messaging platforms. Startups such as Dexter, Reply.ai, Manychat, Pandorabots, Message.io, Botkit and more are tackling technical development standards required to speed up deployment while open source markup like Rivescript have helped in creating richer interactions.
At Kip, our focus first has been users and designing the best UX experiences for large-scale. We propose a set of best practice design standards for conversation UX, with examples from our own experiences in conversation commerce on different platforms.
Our goal is that developers and designers alike can use this to further the design of chat UI elements to create great experiences with users.
Stickers as Conversation Landmarks
In chat, people talk in a single continuous stream. This can be confusing for users, as information in hidden within the constant stream of text. New users will have to scroll up to see previous responses or constantly type help to the bot which breaks the conversation flow.
Our design solution is to use stickers — a popular chat interaction — and use them as ‘landmarks’ in different parts of the conversation. This means that a user can leave the conversation, come back to it and quickly glance through the text stream to figure out where they are at.
An example of this is mode stickers. These stickers appear in the beginning of each type of conversation and lets the user know what kind of experience to expect.
priming the user for different types of shopping experiences
For instance, Kip Café is a service shopping experience, where users can purchase a type of service — in this case, it’s a food delivery and food ordering service for a team.
Comparatively, the standard Kip Shopping is a items shopping experience, users can shop for different types of goods like packed snacks, electronics, books and more.
Stickers can also be used to transition from one experience to another. We use stickers in Messenger to show the end of the onboarding (which is built as a Buzzfeed-style quiz) into the shopping experience:
Poll with Conversable Forms
Chatbots are at early stages of usefulness. In order to develop better products, having a form or survey feature is essential to collecting feedback. To this, we designed Conversable Forms.
Conversable Forms are in-line updating chat conversations with HTML-like elements such as checkboxes, checkmarks, radio buttons and color coded error handling for required* fields in the form of conversation buttons.
In-line updating forms is an extremely important part of the conversation experience as most users don’t want to be bombarded with multiple messages and notifications.
Especially in something like a customer feedback survey, it’s much better to have it as a single message that updates within itself than multiple messages which sends a notification every time the user selects a response.
Persistent Menu Buttons
When you browse a website or app, there’s normally a hamburger menu, bottom tabs or some kind of directory to navigate around. You don’t have to remember as much, because you can always hit ‘back’ or ‘home’. In a conversation UI, you’re constrained and limited by the messages you can send back to the user. There is no menu.
After much trial-error and user feedback, we came up with a “Home” button. It’s a very simple design solution. At the bottom of each Kip message, we have a penguin emoji button that persists. When you tap on it, it opens up a set of menu choices: view cart, settings, members and back.
Having a button persist across all messages meant that users could change preferences anytime during any part of the conversation WITHOUT having to scroll up, sit through on-boarding or remember specific superuser commands.
For Facebook Messenger, they have a built-in persistent menu at the bottom left corner. Their persistent menu is a pop up that sits in the text area instead of within the message, so you want to be careful of the message content that is behind the menu pop when the user clicks it. As you can see in our example below, we have kept to a primary experience focusing on help, onboarding and view cart in menu while the emoji modification is hidden behind.
In this situation, you want to consider the information hierarchy. While the persistent menu is hidden (secondary interaction), it is also in front or above all continuous messaging information when clicked. So if you have a carousel of images with high call to action, you should ensure that clicking the menu pop-up will not ‘cover’ or move away from the primary call to action.
If you have any feedback or suggestions or have discovered a key UI element while building a chatbot, please let us know! We’ll love to update this document whenever possible, and let it be a helpful stepping stone in designing messaging experiences.
Examples from other startups:
Meekan uses a similar form type for confirming calendar events in messaging. Their forms don’t have checkbox style symbols for buttons, but the x-mark and red is used to indicate a declined invite.
Kip is an AI penguin that helps you collect and coordinate shopping orders for groups. Try Kip for Slack by tapping the button below:
Push this button
If you enjoyed reading, please recommend 💚 | Open Design Standards for Chat UX | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/hackernoon/open-design-standards-for-chat-ux-f9f786b3a68e | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2017-07-14 12:52:59.492000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Bots', 'Design'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | BotSpeak database — 1 human, 200+ bots, 892 bot dialogs
TL;DR — Designing great bot dialog is tough but crucial to increase engagement. We talked to over 200 Facebook Messenger bots to extract conversation dialogs for your reference: BotSpeak. Evaluating the output from bots, we adopted a pure data approach for lexical improvements and anecdotal advice on better presentation of the bot conversations.
How do you feel about conversations with bots so far? Are they engaging, disappointing or interesting?
For bot makers, there are lots of challenges in crafting more engaging bots. Among others, these two are the most obvious and painful:
Challenge 1: Getting inspiration for how to build your bot based on how others built theirs. You can’t just search for bots based on the meta details in conversations, because there isn’t such a database.
Challenge 2: Ensuring that the bot dialog is great and captivating. Other than what you know/think your audience will like, there’s no easy way to see best practices across a wide range of bots.
As you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to get to know other bots that well unless you spend lots of time talking to bots, and have your Messenger inbox entirely flooded with bot conversations.
So, in order to tackle these two problems head-on, we talked to 200+ bots for research, and documented the conversations. We called this project BotSpeak, and we present all the conversations we had on BotSpeak in a searchable table format for you, so you don’t have to, yourself. Enjoy the 🎁!
You can contribute to BotSpeak database by inputting your bot’s conversations of up to 8 outputs here: https://goo.gl/forms/TFy2UTEdSAFS3ZzN2
Bot selection
We chose bots based on their popularity, based on total views of the bot on Botlist. Other than top bots by views, we also selected bots across a range of categories to ensure that most of the major types of bots are represented in this study. This ensures that the sample is not only comprehensive across categories, but also filtered by popularity; the assumption is that popular bots have more chance to develop best practices over time.
Bot category classification is taken from Botlist for each bot we tested
As you can see, “Personal” bots are heavily represented due to the proportion of popular bots that are classified as such.
Methodology
Every research begins with scoping down a right methodology. In order to do this right, we came up with a bunch of parameters which we feel would be really useful to analyze. The starting point of the study was based on textual data from our conversations with bots. To get the most meaningful data, we engaged the bots in conversation, pressed buttons to receive output for record and analysis, and went through every bot experience in general.
Collection of data
As there are no publicly available sources of data for bot conversations, we started out by using the collection of bots on Facebook Messenger indexed on Botlist (great database and resource for discovering the best bots across all platforms).
Knowing that we might be talking to over 200 bots and Facebook might classify the activity as suspicious, we created a new account to talk to the bots. After going through about 20 conversations, we realized that Facebook has blocked my account from sending new messages to bots. Hence, I used that as a cue to 1) start recording the conversations, 2) deactivate the account, 3) create a new account to talk to new bots.
For this exercise, we had to create about 10 new accounts and deactivated as many. (Sorry Facebook, but it probably took no notice to this small blip in user churn anyway.)
One of the accounts which we spun up to test bots and shut down after
8 accounts created for bot testing under — Brian, Doug, Connor, Mathew, Al, Wayne to name a few
In recording the conversations, we ignored the cards, images and media that the bot was displaying in the analysis records to focus on the text. The reason we approached it in this manner is because we felt that the creatives are unique to brands and bot developers should use brand- or use case- appropriate visuals. Plus, it would complicate the recording on a Google Sheet table! However, we did note some general comments on creative presentation and you can read about this later on.
As much as possible, we tried not to use too much free-form/natural language to allow the bots to provide us with the ideal experience as defined by the developer. Being harsh to bots is definitely not part of this exercise for recording and discovering best practices; but, in our own experience, some people are mean to bots.
Analysis of data
After the data was collected and organized in a table structure, we began analyzing the conversations in bulk with text analysis tools.
We visualized the data for anyone to be able to use and access on BotSpeak. There are filters for names and categories, which you can use as terms to search for what you need. Since categories were set by the developer (or Botlist posters), we chose not to reclassify the bots despite some cases where categories were not representative of the bot.
BotSpeak database of bot conversations logged
Limitations — There are many well-designed bots with multiple paths and possibilities. Due to time constraints, we did not do a full audit of all paths and may have missed some of them. In the future, we hope to dedicate more resources to obtain more complete “Bot maps”. This limitation is especially so for story bots, as scripts can go up to 2500 dialog outputs and so we have limited them to ~8 outputs. (Besides, you should try them yourself, most of them are pretty fun.)
For the purpose of this study, we felt that the number of conversations and data collection was sufficient to form a robust initial representation set for use.
Areas of improvement: Lexical/Semantics
Based on all the conversations with bots we’ve analyzed, here are some semantics-related improvements we feel could significantly improve bot experiences. Each of these points are also marked with the total observed instances across bots.
A. Take note of extra words / Modifier phrases / Grammaticality (347 instances)
E.g.: “Red sunglasses are very trending, would you like to see some?” — can be edited to be: “Red sunglasses are trending, want to see some?”
B. Avoid rambling starts (44 instances)
E.g.: “To become a wiser human being by reading the secrets posted by my friends, please tap once on the menu button shown below and select READ A SECRET” — can be edited to be: “Become a wiser by reading secrets from friends by tapping READ A SECRET below”
C. Use emojis for engagement (119 instances)
E.g.: “Sorry, didn’t get it” — can be edited to be: “Sorry, didn’t get it 😕”
D. Consider using active voice instead of passive voice (89 instances)
E.g.: “You have been matched to Colin.” — can be edited to be: “I’ve matched you to Colin.”
E. Replace rare/complex words with simple words (146 instances)
E.g.: “The least agonizing itinerary flies from SJC to HNL.” — can be edited to be: “The least painful itinerary flies from SJC to HNL.”
Areas of improvement: Presentation
The visual cues of a bot are just as important as the script and functionality. The bots that we talked to had some areas where they could improve in terms of visual hierarchy, contrast, and appropriateness. (These are our observations, and not part of the Botspeak database.)
A. Use buttons where you can to aid users
People enjoy doing easy things over hard things. Hence, buttons can (and usually is) the preferred mode for people interacting with bots. Instead of the hassle of typing common requests like “Yes” or “What else can you do”, you can just press a button. It’s also easier to lead users down the experience, constrained by the buttons shown.
B. Take advantage of the Messenger platform’s functionality
Options like quick replies and logins can be used to enhance the ease of using the bot. Wherever it’s possible to simplify choices to just a few clickable options, you should do that. If there’s a potential of streamlining the experience with customer details through login, you may want to try it. There are lots of other functionalities you can choose to use, so explore and make full use of them, where it makes sense.
C. Use attractive menu images
Many bots are heavily dependent on their menus, and this means that most users will end up seeing the menu about 30–50% of the time. Hence, menu images should be representative of your bot (and the company or product it represents), and made to be as attractive as possible.
D. Send interesting images as part of your responses
It can be really interesting for users when you send creative visuals as an attachment together with bot responses. You can even use gifs as part of your quick replies, adding small points of delight within your bot.
Poncho is a good source of inspiration for delightful visuals
E. Make sure you have a welcome message
Only 70% of bots we tried included a welcome message. What happened to everyone else? With bots still a relatively new interface for the majority of (non-tech, non-startup) users, it’s important to present the bot and its functionality clearly, so users are properly guided through the experience and achieve success in what they were trying to do.
Having a good, well-crafted welcome message sets your bot users up with the right expectations, so they know what not to expect from the bot, preventing disappointment or perceived failures.
Main takeaways
Testing is crucial: You’ll need to test and continuously improve the bot scripts based on feedback from your users. Lots of bots are not designed to handle common edge cases, such as users swearing at bots (more common than we’d like to think) and common backstory questions like “Who made you?” Cross-category learnings are applicable: A database like BotSpeak is useful for developers designing bot dialogs as there are many common use cases, and lots of things can be applied from other bots. For example, a productivity bot can easily learn a few tricks from a social bot in scripting fun experiences. People like simplicity & familiarity: The best bots are designed with users in mind, and with bots supposed to be the user-friendly and easy conversational interface it is, stick to easy and familiar words. The most used words by bots are visualized below (after removing stop words):
Word cloud of non-common words most used by the 200+ bots — fashioned as R2D2
How to use BotSpeak
You can leverage the knowledge we’ve gathered on Botspeak to filter by categories or the bots that you want to reference.
With this, you can look at examples of how other bots have been scripted and what their various output options are. You can use this as a guide for your own bot planning process.
Also, a simple CMD+F (Ctrl+F for windows) can get you a search by actual dialog words — for example, I looked for “book” and found the ShelfJoy bot delivering hand-curated book suggestions.
Searching by name of bot on BotSpeak
Future work
How should bots behave?
Options: Mimic human behavior (e.g. delays in conversation, having a name, being funny, using active voice) or being a more command-line experience (i.e. instant response, organization/product name identity, using formal tone/words). From the BotSpeak database, one can find that out of the 200 bots, about 10% of the bots told users their name. Other platforms
We want to continue updating the database with additions from contributors, as well as adding other platform bots in the future. One obvious platform that we wish to figure out how to test is Slack. Given that a free team may not be best way to do so, we’ll have to find a creative (but still reasonable) methodology to use. Perhaps the extension of the project could be used by Slack as a way to advise users how the bot flows should look like. Comprehensive data on flows
Interaction steps for this project is limited by the amount of time we spent with each bot. Some bots have over 100 programed interactions as part of a story, while others are focused on a search experience that ends when user demands are fulfilled. Over time, we will get a better idea how to craft the ideal experience for each category with data.
All a-bot the future
We are definitely only beginning to test and learn from different use cases of bots across multiple verticals. There are lots of other examples that you can see on BotSpeak, so go ahead and explore them yourself. With a database like this, which we hope you’ll add to, we can all start developing a sense of what would work best for bot-human interactions.
Keep improving your bots and if you like BotSpeak, share the link (and this piece) with your users and friends!
Shoutout to Joseph Tyler (Linguist), Erik Nilsen (Bot developer), Ben Tossell(Botlist), Philippe Dionne (Dialog Analytics) for reviewing this post and tool!
Post was first posted on the KeyReply blog: https://keyreply.com/blog/How-should-bots-speak-to-humans/ | How should bots speak to humans? | null | null | null | null | https://chatbotsmagazine.com/how-should-bots-speak-to-humans-d10b2dc3e954 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Spencer Yang'] | 2016-11-11 07:43:38.484000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | 3 Reasons Why I Did Not Reply to Your Text Message Yet
“Let us not attribute to malice and cruelty what may be referred to less criminal motives.” — Jane West
Look, I acknowledge this is not a very popular opinion. And I’m happy to admit that I occasionally feel anxious, or even insulted, when somebody doesn’t text me back right away. I get it.
Before I get into this, these are the actions I’m not defending:
When someone reads your text message, and is too lazy to respond
When someone reads your text message, puts it off, and then never respond because “they forgot”
When someone is playing “the game” and so deliberately wait to text you back and seem mysterious, or can’t think of a witty reply
Here’s why I don’t text everyone back immediately, and why you shouldn’t text everyone back right away (except for me obviously):
1. Driving
This can’t be emphasized enough. Some of us spend hours a day commuting in a car, so I get that it’s boring and it’s rush hour. But text messaging while driving is inexplicably stupid. It increases your crash risk 23x. Even if you’re happy to take that risk, think of the car or person you might crash into.
If you have that crucial a text message to get out, pull over and send it. Then again, if a message is that urgent and important, maybe you should have the discussion on the phone (or, you know, in person?).
2. Work
You know how we never have enough time to get all our work done? Yeah, that’s because of all the interruptions in our workday. (It’s also partially because we love getting distracted. Jonah Perretti built Buzzfeed on what he calls the, “Bored at work,” network.)
Text messages are a high value interruption, especially if we respond to each other right away. This is ridiculous. If I were to drop everything to respond to each text message I receive, I’d never get any work, or thinking, done. It’s the same reason I choose not to check Facebook until 6PM (unless it’s to proactively send a message to someone myself — but I don’t expect them to respond promptly, because I actually log out immediately after. Yeah, I’m a selfish user).
So I put my phone face down somewhere on silent, and get to work.
When I’m writing or researching, shifting my brain’s attention to even something as trivial as a text message will veer me entirely off course. I block out hours so that I can get writing done in minimal amounts of time. (Paul Graham calls this the Maker’s schedule.) So yes, even simple matters like, “Hey, did you hear about what happened with Business Insider?” makes me curious enough to check the news, read, learn more, and then respond to you. By that time, 15 minutes have passed and I get back to work. Except I never pick up where I left off. You don’t either.
When we get back to tasks at hand, our brains have to take some time to get back to where we left off (think of it as the human version of context switching). On average it takes over 20 minutes to get back to a task after an interruption.
Similarly, every day, every person only gets a few peak hours. If you use them wisely, you can do the work of three people. Don’t waste them texting people and distracting each other.
3. The Rest of Life
I know this is hard to believe, but sometimes I do stuff without you.
Sometimes I even have fun. And likewise, you should have fun without me too!
For example, if I’m having a conversation with you, you know how irritating it is when I check my phone as I’m talking to you. (Or worse yet, when you’re talking to me?)
So I might occasionally have a good conversation with someone else too. That doesn’t mean I don’t like you or don’t think your text message is important, it’s just that this person deserves my full attention right now.
Or, maybe it’s the late afternoon and I’m overwhelmed by the other interruptions and notifications, so I’ve disconnected myself and I’m going for a walk.
It’s ridiculous how attached to our phones we are. So let’s set a few things straight about text messages while we’re on the topic:
The Technology of Text Messages
For starters, text messages by default are more like email than they are like the phone call. They are asynchronous technology (although if all three were on a spectrum, they’d be somewhere in between the two).
However, companies created mechanisms to make texting as synchronous as possible (for valid reasons). For example, the infamous ellipses on iPhone (or “So and so is typing”), which is also present in other messaging apps. Let’s also not forget read receipts.
Yet it was one thing when these mechanisms affected us when we were logged in and on our desktop messenger client (e.g., MSN), and another when they’re with us everywhere. Our values and our culture have not caught up with the technology yet.
Although instant messaging software like AIM, ICQ, or MSN had these types of mechanisms as well, they also had the ability to change statuses. You didn’t have to be on, all the time. You could get away from them.
The technology influences how we think, but let’s accept it and not let it drive us crazy.
We also don’t have priority text messages like we do priority inbox. Imagine if a sender could tier the urgency or importance of a text, or if a receiver could filter it out. (Probably less strained relationships with the former.)
Life is passing us by. Every moment I spend upset that someone hasn’t replied to my text message is a wasted one. It won’t make them respond more quickly. So I’ve set my new default to not expecting a response immediately. Likewise, I don’t obligate myself to read or respond immediately. It’s just more bearable.
Resetting Expectations
Your phone buzzes. You’re curious. Who is that? Who might it be? You ignore it and get back to work.
Or, you glance at the phone, leave it unread, and get back to whatever real life experience you were in. That’s awesome! You don’t have to respond right away. And I’ll get by (somehow!).
However, I will be pissed if you don’t respond period. (If I tap the message (even accidentally), I’ll respond. But if I don’t, it stays unread, and the notifications stay on the screen to remind me to respond.)
Consider what the other person might be up to when you’re sending a message. Don’t forget, you’re demanding their attention.
Does the other person usually respond by end of day? If yes, good! Then they don’t hate you.
Does this person always take more than a few days to respond? Is it a pattern? If it is, then how important are they to you — and how important do you think you are to them? Do you think they’re doing it in purpose, or are they just clueless when it comes to text messages? Does it not match their lifestyle? Does their unique style of text messaging require a face-to-face conversation — or is there just a better way to have conversations with them?
If the other person usually replies consistently (and relatively promptly, e.g., within the hour), then please give them the benefit of the doubt.
And, better yet, get back to your own life! Enjoy it to the fullest. You only get once. And it’s too short to worry about people being mad that you don’t reply to their text right away. | 3 Reasons Why I Did Not Reply to Your Text Message Yet | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/the-prototype/3-reasons-why-i-did-not-reply-to-your-text-message-yet-374c1b84cb2e | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Herbert Lui'] | 2019-11-10 23:14:41.632000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Productivity', 'Life Lessons'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | At the start of this year, Uber’s Chris Messina declared 2016 ‘the year of conversational commerce’. Others have used the phrases conversational interfaces or the conversational web. In essence it all refers to the same trend: the changing way in which businesses interact with their customers. It is transforming from graphical interfaces like websites, to natural two-way communication supported by artificial intelligence (AI). This may sound like the ‘next big trend’ that will remain a distant future scenario. Meanwhile, you are waiting for the tools that you need as a business, to keep up with the hundreds, thousands, millions of customers-conversations at any moment in time. However, — like other fundamental changes driven by technology have shown — being too late to the game may mean you don’t get to play.
The conversational web is a huge topic, ranging from bots to AI, from voice recognition to smart devices, and from China to Silicon Valley. Nobody knows how it is going to play out, and neither do I. So instead of trying to provide answers, I am going to explore the driving forces behind the conversational web. I will describe three scenarios that picture a possible future and how this future will change the rules of the game for businesses.
Where the conversation starts
Conversational interfaces take us back to what we were used to back in the day: having an actual one-on-one conversation while doing business. That’s what business was. Personal. A customer speaking to a store attendant, to an insurance agent, or to a bank teller.
Once technology advanced and businesses grew, interfaces like interactive voice-response systems and websites were developed to cope with the growing number of customer interactions. These interfaces were mostly non-intelligent, so a lot of the work that used to be done by businesses, shifted to the customer. Searching for a product; comparing alternatives; finding solutions for problems; customers now do the job when they connect with your business online. Not because you choose to simply let your customers figure it out, but because there is no other economical way to manage enormous amounts of customer interactions.
At least, until recently. With the emergence of conversational interfaces this is about to change. Companies like KLM, Hyatt, Disney and Suitsupply are undertaking experiments to engage in personal communication with their customers through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Through these channels they aim to engage in meaningful conversations with their customers, either delivering a service or selling directly.
KLM sends me my boarding pass via Facebook Messenger
Suitsupply uses WhatsApp for personalized clothing advice and lets customers order directly from the conversation.
Why now?
Conversational interfaces clearly make sense. But why are they emerging now? There are three driving forces. First, the enormous increase of free messaging services has been a prerequisite. In 2015, 75% of all smartphone users worldwide used at least one messaging app, and this is expected to increase to 80% in 2018. This paved the way for low-barrier, ongoing conversations.
The second driving force is the ability to use rich elements like images, video, links and certain software in conversations. This has enabled companies to have more meaningful conversations via messaging services.
Operator offers products directly in their messaging app (source: businesswire.com)
Third, advances in artificial intelligence allow meaningful conversations to happen without speaking to an actual human being. Bots can speak to people, either through written or through spoken conversation. This significantly increases the amount of client-conversations a company can handle. Sure, conversations are still often quite awkward, but technology improves fast and a growing number of start-ups is proving that AI can already be very good at executing specific tasks.
Amy Ingram is your virtual agenda assistant that plans meetings for you (source: x.ai)
The race to the platform
Now that interfaces start to become more conversational, the question arises: which interface are customers going to use? Will they choose different interfaces for different purposes, or will they choose one interface that acts as a gateway to all services behind it?
The Silicon Valley Giants are aiming for the latter, closely looking at China, where the use of WeChat is practically equal to the use of a smartphone. As Satya Nadella -Microsoft’s CEO- explained at the last Microsoft Build Conference, in his vision the future will revolve around humans, virtual assistants and bots. Humans will remain the centre of everything we do. But they will be supported by bots, which are capable of executing tasks like purchasing products or finding the right insurance. Virtual assistants, in their turn, are able to learn human needs and understand human language, acting as a platform for the bots. Microsoft stimulates the community to create bots via its Microsoft Bot Framework, with Cortana as the conversational backbone.
Competitors are following similar strategies. Apple has just opened up Siri as a platform for external developers, and is making Siri more central to its business by rolling it out to desktop. Google recently launched its own smart messaging app Allo, as well as voice assistant Google Home. Meanwhile, Facebook has announced to open up WhatsApp to businesses — just like it did with Messenger — and to invest in its virtual assistant M.
And then there are successful examples of Amazon’s Alexa, virtual assistant Hound, and promising ones like Viv — made by the creator of Siri and recently acquired by Samsung. All are focused on building a developer community. The stronger the community, the more bots are developed, the more relevance the virtual assistant gets, the more users it attracts, and so on.
Hound is praised for its accuracy (source: popsci.com)
What is going to happen next?
There are so many things to take into account looking at this conversational trend that it is very difficult to — I hope I’m not alone here — foresee the possible future. I have summarized my thoughts into three scenarios, ranging from ‘pretty likely to happen’ to something that sounds like taking a return trip to Mars.
Scenario 1: It’s play time! Experiment and learn
I believe this is the scenario we are currently experiencing. Conversational interfaces are decentralized and early adopters use whichever platform is most convenient at any specific moment in time. Virtual assistants like Siri and Cortana are mainly used to obtain information. Other specialized conversational interfaces are better at interacting with businesses. For example: customers receive their KLM boarding through Messenger, they order a pizza at Dominos through Slack’s pizzabot, or they ask Siri about tomorrow’s weather. Conversations are a mix of human-to-human and human-to-bot, mostly because bots are not yet capable of handling complex interactions.
This is the time to experiment. By doing this, you get to understand what it means to communicate through conversational interfaces, which has its own rules and tricks, especially if you let a bot handle the conversation. And customer expectations are low, so you have the room to make mistakes and learn from them. Even better, you might create sympathy and publicity by being one of the first.
Scenario 2: This is getting serious — new business models are emerging
In this scenario artificial intelligence is at the level that it enables a virtual assistant to not only provide information, but also to execute various standardized tasks. In this case you could tell a virtual assistant that you would like to order a pizza margarita with extra mozzarella in 45 minutes, and the virtual assistant will use a bot to select the right pizza company for you. And — if assistants are true to their promise — they will learn. So next time you order pizza, you don’t need to tell the virtual assistant that you would like extra mozzarella, the assistant will simply remember.
However, if you want to execute a non-standard task (like asking for buffalo mozzarella instead of the cheap version), artificial intelligence runs into its limits. You will either run into a dead end, or you’ll be connected to an actual person working at the pizza place.
In this scenario, personal assistants and bots are likely to get substantial traction, because there is some actual value in the services they deliver. And when that happens, conversational interfaces get real traction. With real traction [KT3] comes a fight for attention from customers, which means that businesses will need to put effort in optimizing their presence in virtual assistants and bots. Think Bot Optimization and Bot Marketing (BO and BM) in parallel with SEO and SEM.
Thinking a little further ahead, this will probably also mean that a customer choosing for a business is less determined by their marketing messages than it is now. It is hard to convince a bot with a nice story. It is much easier to convince it with hard proof like assortment, price, delivery times and customer reviews.
Is this scenario likely? Well, Viv promises that you can order a pizza once the platform is launched, and Hound is already capable of pretty complex interactions, as you can see in the example above.
Scenario 3: Talk to my assistant! — the power of the virtual assistant
Taking it one — big — step further: suppose the virtual assistant is capable of executing complex, non-standard tasks, removing the need — not necessarily the desire — for customers to communicate directly with a business. What if the virtual assistant cannot just order a pizza, but can also change the delivery address, ask for a specific topping and file a complaint if the pizza is cold. And imagine that the virtual assistant also takes care of communication flowing from business to customer, filtering out only those messages that the virtual assistant has learned its user wants to receive. This would mean that the only remaining direct contact with the pizza company would be at the time of delivery. Unless the delivery is made by Uber Eats, of course.
In this scenario the customer experience is almost fully determined by the virtual assistant and its bots. This means that businesses will need to rethink what will determine a customer’s’ choice for their business. Imagine that you as a customer can choose between two insurance companies and they are both equally qualified. One still requires you to contact them directly when you want to make a claim, and the other allows Siri to do it all for you, which means you don’t have to remember client numbers, contact details or even the insurers name. What would you choose?
What will it be?
It is impossible to say how this all will play out. But one thing is for sure: it will play out in some way. So if your business is slow to pick up on innovations like this, now is the time to learn a lesson from previous technological disruptors — e-commerce and digitization of media for example — and to be early to the game this time around.
I’m very curious to know what you think. Feel fee to comment! | How the conversational web is going to change the game | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@bartfive/how-the-conversational-web-is-going-to-change-the-game-99bec75ebde | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Bart Vijfhuizen'] | 2016-11-11 10:38:28.139000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Messaging', 'Conversational UI', 'Conversational Interfaces', 'Conversational Commerce'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | I recently downloaded an app of a company to have a better customer service experience. But instead, every time I need assistance, I have to call the customer representative. So, I finally uninstalled that app. Well, how good it would be if the app had a built-in feature to response to the customer’s query. Let me tell you, this isn’t impossible at all. This is very much achievable by implementing chatbots.
To understand how chatbots can enhance customer service, let’s understand what chatbots really are. They are computer programs enable to carry out conversations with people using lightweight messaging app UI, language based rules and AI. It uses a natural language conversation tool rather than a conventional website or app user interface. I find this a convenient way of getting better and faster responses than the usual IVR and long waiting for the representative to reply. Will the chatbots also be an enhancement for websites and mobile apps? Let’s find out.
Reasons why brands will be interested in chatbots to make websites or apps more interactive
Crowd is moving towards messaging apps: Messaging apps have become the #1 way people communicate. This implies that every business will need a strategy to engage with people on messaging apps, resulting into a bot based solution. This would be feasible and effective for a brand to better understand their customers.
The work is still on progress:
While the development of new technologies is inevitable, we always have a scope of pacing towards betterment. Chatbots are at an early stage which makes us skeptical about its ruling over the world scenario.
Time and experience are the only factors that will decide the future of Chatbots. We still have to find out how people will react to having brands and businesses in their messenger. If you are looking to use or make solutions and know Why Brands need Chatbots to make their Website & Mobile Apps more Interactive. Click Here
At LetsNurture, we are doing everything we can to make this future a reality. If you think we can help you provide an IT solution for your company, please send us your queries on [email protected] | Are Chatbots enhancing websites and mobile Apps | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@sam.letsnurture/are-chatbots-enhancing-websites-and-mobile-apps-698e84bd2e0 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Sam', 'Vp Sales'] | 2016-11-10 08:19:40.330000+00:00 | ['Chatbots', 'Messaging', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The Very Human Art of Knowing What to Say — Engaging and Retaining Mobile Users in an Age of Content Profusion
This post is based on my presentation at The Mobile Innovation Summit, New York City, March 10, 2016
With upwards of 2 Million apps on the iOS App Store and 2.4 Million on Google Play success at engaging and retaining users has never been more important than it is today. In fact, according to eMarketer, in 2016 retention rates continue to slip for all app categories. If you’re growing a business that depends upon digital product usage to drive monetization then these statistics should set off alarm bells.
Once you’ve managed to be heard above the din of these millions of competing voices, how do you connect with your newly won users, provide them real value and keep them from falling off the edge of the retention cliff?
At AccuWeather, where I lead the User Experience and Product Design team for all digital platforms globally, we take these questions very seriously.
I recently had an epiphany about this important challenge that led to the topic of this piece: The Very Human Art of Knowing What to Say.
SCENE ONE
Imagine you are standing in the middle of Times Square in New York City on a beautiful early summer night. People throng around you, and your visual sense is completely filled by pulsing lights, colors and signs both static and alive with movement. Words, pictures, videos, brands, faces, products. Hundreds of messages vie for your attention. To a small number of these messages you grant a few precious seconds of focus, but for most you simply relax your eyes and let them blend in to the fuzzy tapestry of the electric scene.
Times Square makes for a compelling illustration of the challenges one faces in the realm of app development, especially in our age of content profusion.
In the weather space, advances in forecasting science and technology by the AccuWeather team have made new forecast and weather data types available to us for inclusion in our digital products. Forecasts are more granular in terms of time and location (MinuteCast). They go farther out chronologically (90-Day Forecast). They encompass new parameters and data types (Pollen Count and Air Quality). They express new and more advanced meteorological concepts (Forecast Confidence.)
All of this innovation represents valuable new content that we can offer to our users.
However, if we do not prioritize that profusion of content what we end up with is Times Square. Many messages jostle for attention but none of them truly succeeds in connecting.
Walking through Times Square at night is a thrilling, awe-inspiring, overwhelming and fun experience — but it cannot be the model for a daily mobile application experience. In particular for a weather app, where the user will often check multiple times per day and most sessions last less than a minute, we can ill-afford to lapse in to a Times Square-like user experience.
If we fail to make tough prioritization decisions and communicate messages with appropriate context, users will burn out, lose trust in us and eventually abandon our products.
SCENE TWO
Now contrast Times Square to what you might experience along the trail to the Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal. As you climb you see ahead of you a fork in the trail and next to one path stands a bold yellow sign with large black letters and a big red arrow. WAY TO MOUNT EVEREST BASE CAMP →
A singular message with perfect clarity and context with no distractions and surrounded by a scene of absolute wonder and beauty. When you are on your way to the Mount Everest basecamp and you see this sign, you know which way to go.
There are certain weather situations that allow for this kind of “bold sign on the trail” clarity.
Take the major blizzard of January 2016 that crushed the eastern US delivering feet of snow to major metros like New York City, literally shutting down the city and causing unfortunate loss of life. My mother, a longtime city resident, didn’t leave her apartment for 2 days during the storm.
When you have a major weather event such as this impacting a large number of people, it is not hard to know what to say. The story needs to be told. At AccuWeather we place an incredible focus on helping people to prepare for and be safe during events such as this.
But this not the everyday reality in which we exist.
EVERYDAY REALITY
Most days are far more complex and nuanced than the examples above, and people’s personal priorities, goals, values and interests play a much more important role in prioritizing messages.
Thus the AccuWeather Mission:
“We Personalize the Weather so People Can Improve Their Lives”
BUT… How do you personalize the weather? How do you make it meaningful?
Because in the end it’s about people. And it’s about creating digital experiences that are human.
How do we bring our humanity to digital and how do we build a relationship with our users that helps us know what to say?
I believe we should start by trying to answer to this deceptively simple question:
What matters to your users?
I will show that the key to answering this question and acting on that knowledge lies in the human act of friendship.
Friendship is the ultimate communication enabler. That’s why we are talking about the Very Human Art of Knowing What to Say.
But what about friendship makes it such an incredible enabler of communication?
First I will share the story of my recent epiphany that illustrates how friendship enables communication. Then I will illuminate the dimensions of friendship that make it a powerful communication enabler. Finally we’ll begin to explore how to apply these ideas to product development.
Friendship may sound like a bit of a squishy topic, so I will provide concrete examples of what we at AccuWeather do to humanize our products and bring the power of friendship to bear on the communication of the weather. But I’m also going to take you beyond what we do and share some ideas about what further actions and areas of exploration might be available to us.
THE EPIPHANY
So let’s start with the original source of my epiphany. I want to tell you a story about my favorite source for personalized weather forecasts.
Before I reveal this important resource I have to warn you that you will most likely not be able to obtain direct access. Distribution is extremely limited.
In fact there is only one.
Meet Henry.
Henry on the AccuWeather Operations Floor
Henry is a Senior Meteorologist at AccuWeather, a member of one of the earth’s greatest meteorology teams, the team the powers all of AccuWeather’s products relied upon by billions of people around the world every day.
Henry has been at AccuWeather for 30 years. In the course of my 4 years with the company we have become good friends.
Henry and I talk pretty much every day. Henry’s a mountain and road biking buddy of mine. As outdoor adventure sports enthusiasts the weather is naturally a big topic for us.
The thing I love about Henry (as a weather source, that is) is that he knows exactly what to tell me — what I care about, what weather impacts matter to me — and he gives me insights in to things that would take great effort to figure out on my own. He’s also a great storyteller.
For example, some days I will see Henry and he’ll say something like this:
Henry: Better get your ride in over lunch EZ, looks like the rain is coming in around 4pm today.
How long did that take, 15 seconds? I didn’t even have to ask Henry about it. He just told me.
Here’s another example. I seek Henry out on Monday:
Me: Henry, I’m heading to Menlo Park tomorrow, flying out of State College at 11am to Detroit and then SFO. Am I good?
Henry: Yeah, you’ll be ok, the ice isn’t coming in until the early afternoon.
Now that was a complex travel planning example, and how long did that take? 30 seconds?
My interactions with Henry around the weather are an incredibly efficient, effective and frictionless experience for me. And the reason why Henry is able to deliver such targeted, relevant and timely information to me is because he knows me.
Because we are friends.
But I have to confess as amazing as Henry is, he does have a few shortcomings. Henry’s memory, processing power and uptime are fairly limited compared to what’s available these days.
To be fair, for a human being he’s pretty stellar, but compared to cutting edge mobile and cloud computing technology and infrastructure he’s pretty limited.
So, I actually have another favorite weather source, and that is the AccuWeather app for iOS.
I love this app for a host of reasons.
One — My team created this app, and I am truly proud of their work.
Two — This app is beautiful, and I enjoy looking at it
Three — This app provides all of the relevant current condition and forecast information I could possibly want for more than 3 million locations around the world, going out 15 days and down to the minute with severe weather alerts, visualizations, graphs, videos, maps and user reports.
Four — It fits in my pocket and I can keep it with me day and night. It’s always available.
As the person responsible for the experience users have with AccuWeather’s digital products, I am always thinking, how can this app be more like Henry?
More specifically, how might we bring some of the magic of the Henry interactions — efficient, effective, frictionless, personal, great storytelling — to our digital products? Let’s start by looking at what kinds of interactions Henry and I have and see how they might map to digital analogs.
HENRY MOMENTS
Here is a list of what I call my “Henry Moments”. These are the key interactions and conversation types that Henry and I have about the weather.
• Daily Morning Conversation
• Unexpected Drop-In: Henry shares something important that he wants me to know.
• Event Tracking: When Henry knows about an event that I have coming up and provides me updates on the weather for that day in the days and weeks leading up to the event.
• Travel Planning
• Weekend Weather Talk
• Activity Planning: For example, Me: Heading out for a hike with my family tomorrow. Henry: Great. Should be beautiful.)
• Two Week Outlook: This might sound like, “It’ll be warmer this week but the cold is coming back next Tuesday and will stick around for another week.”
• Seasonal Outlook: In 2015 with the El Nino pattern Henry was talking about the warm winter before we even got to Labor Day.
• Banging on Doors: This is one of my personal favorites. You see Henry cares a great deal about people and he wants to make sure that important stories get told. When there’s a major weather event with dangerous impacts likely Henry stalks around the AccuWeather headquarters saying things like “Do we have videos, do we have news stories, is it in the apps and on the sites?” He’s banging on doors to make sure the story gets told.
I’d like to bring to life one of my Henry Moments — Event Tracking — with a story that will highlight the value of Henry’s communications to me.
Every January, Henry and I and a bunch of friends and fellow bike peeps ride an insane event called Frozen Fat. It’s a 30 mile fat-tire mountain bike race through the wilderness of central Pennsylvania. The first year I rode the race in 2015 it was 14 degrees Fahrenheit, an icy wind blew all day and the ride took 5 ½ hours. My hands went completely numb from cold twice.
It was one of the best days I’ve ever had on a bike.
Frozen Fat Pre-Race 2015, Bikes on the Trailer, Ice and Snow on the Ground
As you can imagine, weather is a very important facet of the experience.
This past winter (Jan, 2016) with El Nino was different. About a month out Henry began giving me his thoughts on the weather for that day. It’s gonna be warm. It’s going to rain. We might actually get some snow. We’re gonna be sweating! It’s going to be a mud fest. Etc.
Turned out to be low to mid-30’s, very little snow on the ground. Took us more than 6 hours to finish, and my fingers never went numb from cold.
Henry’s updates leading up to the event served two important purposes:
1. Henry helped me to prepare and to pack the right gear for the day in the saddle. I wore lighter gloves and lighter socks. As a result I didn’t sweat as much, and my hands didn’t freeze.
2. They satisfied a deeper need I had to feel in control of my destiny — even though there were some shifts in the forecast in the month before the race, hearing what Henry thought gave me confidence, helped me to think through the various contingencies I would need to be prepared for.
It turns out that my Henry moments — the interactions we have, the topics we discuss — map really well to digital experiences.
Henry Moments and their Digital Analogs
The daily morning weather chat when we cover activity planning, event tracking, weekend planning, two week outlook, seasonal forecast — maps really nicely to the Daily Weather C heck.
Seeking Henry Out, as in the Travel Planning example, maps really nicely to a Weather Planning Session.
For the Unexpected Drop-In, when there’s new news or an update to share, well, we have push notifications and other forms of pro-active communication.
Finally, for Banging on Doors, when there’s a big, impactful story, well that’s where alerts and headlining news come in to play.
So, this is a good. The basic types of interactions that friends have are possible within our digital products as well.
We are on our way!
Now let’s move beyond the interaction types and start digging in to the sources of the real communicative power and magic of friendship.
THINGS FRIENDS DO
Here is a list of 4 things that we do as friends that help us have a friendship.
1. Listening
2. Sharing
3. Facial Communication
4. Organic Interactions
These are actions and gestures that not only enable the qualities of friendship but that are also applicable to the process of product development.
LISTENING
Listening is fundamental to a friendship. Whether it is verbal or non-verbal. So much is built upon sensitive listening.
What can we do, as developers of digital experiences, to listen to our users?
We can:
• Read app store reviews
• Analyze product usage metrics
• Conduct user testing
• A/B test
• Engage in social media channels
• Review customer service inquiries and feedback
• Conduct surveys
• Talk to people (interviews, focus groups, informally)
At AccuWeather we do all of these things.
One message we’ve heard loud and clear from our users is “weather maps are important!”
Here’s an example of how we listened to our users around maps.
AccuWeather iOS App — Maps Evolution with Nudge Bubbles and FAB
On the far left above is a previous version of our iOS app. You enter the app on a landing screen and scroll down the strip to consume various forecast and content types. At the bottom of the strip is maps. From anywhere on the strip a simple swipe to the right reveals the app settings page sitting just to the left.
Users told us that maps mattered by making it one of the most used pages in the iOS app. They also told us in the same manner that settings did not need to occupy such prime real estate.
So we placed maps where settings were and made settings always accessible via a floating action button (FAB) at the bottom right of the screen.
To help our users adjust to the new normal we placed some friendly little nudge bubbles in the app to direct them to the new feature locations. These nudges differ from tutorials in that they are simpler and more gestural in a manner of speaking. You have a single word or phrase (like “Maps”) and an arrow. And the bubble moves or points towards your target to indicate the new gesture.
Then at the bottom of the strip where maps used to be, like a good friend waiting for our users to come down the old path, we placed another bubble directing them to the new maps location. If the user swipes on the bubble or taps in to the maps view the bubble, having done its work, disappears.
App store reviews and app usage data following the launch of these changes validated the new design. Users repeatedly thanked us for listening to their feedback in their app store reviews and they weighed in with their ratings.
Following the launch of the “maps” update our free app was rated 4.5 stars out of 5 on the App Store. All time we were rated 4.0 stars with over 100K reviews. Our platinum (ad free) version of the same app achieved a 4.7 star rating after the maps changes. So the new version far outperformed the historical average.
Here’s another compelling example of how we listen.
In 2015, We conducted a survey of 2400 mobile weather consumers in 6 strategic markets — US, UK, Germany, China, India and South Korea.
We asked what attribute of a weather experience was the most important to survey participants, and the answer was resoundingly clear — accuracy.
Accuracy ranked as the number 1 or 2 attribute in every country. At AccuWeather we place a tremendous focus on accuracy in our science and in our presentation of forecast information.
In fact, ForecastWatch, a leading third party accuracy verification platform issued a report ranking AccuWeather as the most accurate public weather provider on a number of key metrics. In 2015 AccuWeather was the most accurate for daily hi and low temps in the US and Hi temps in Europe among other metrics.
Our focus on accuracy represents another way in which we listen.
SHARING
From listening to sharing. After all, friendship is a two way street.
In 2015 we launched our first weather crowdsourcing feature, called AccUcast, enabling our global user base to report weather conditions for their current location.
AccUcast reports from our mobile application users provide real-time “ground truth” and when plotted on a map help the user to see precipitation and weather impacts as they unfold around the world even in areas where we don’t have radar coverage.
Following the launch of AccUcast we experienced some exciting outcomes, in particular around the reporting of hazards and severe weather.
Hazards represent the impacts of weather, the actual things that matter to humans. And what’s amazing about AccUcast Hazard reports is that you can see things on an AccUcast map during a storm that you don’t always get from the forecast models and that you’d probably need someone like Henry to tell you about.
Screenshots of AccUcast Feature in the AccuWeather iOS App with Live Report Data
Take the screen on the left above — this is a screenshot of the AccuWeather app I took during the Mid-Latitude Cyclone that hit the United States in November of 2015. In layman’s terms, think of this like a mini-hurricane sweeping across the continental US.
You can actually see the damaging wind reports (the orange triangular hazard reports) out ahead of the precipitation on the map.
The other two screenshots are from the deadly blizzard that struck the Northeastern US in Jan 2016. One thing we’ve observed is that reporting dramatically increases during severe weather events. There’s an incredible density of reports on the right. People feel the impact of this weather and they want to share that experience with other people to help them. This spike in reporting during severe weather offers another clue about what matters to our users.
What we have in these sharing examples is humanity at global scale.
FACIAL COMMUNICATION
Now to one of my favorite UI concepts — Facial Communication.
User Interface: let’s break this term down.
USER — we know who that is.
INTER — something “in between”.
FACE — yes, a face.
The human face has a remarkable ability to communicate a range of emotions and information with unmatched clarity, nuance and simplicity.
It is the most expressive and readable interface of them all.
The face of an app can also communicate. Here are two examples of Facial Communication in an app.
RESERVED SEATS
We’re all familiar with the concept of Reserved Seats. You keep seats open for VIP’s at an event.
We can apply this concept to an app when there is very urgent, impactful information to communicate.*
Reserved Seats
On the left we have a “calm” app face and on the right you can see the Reserved Seat now occupied by a severe weather alert. The space in the User Interface remains essentially empty allowing the user to focus on the current conditions. The current temperature takes top priority in this screen.
However, when the reserved seat is filled, that message or information becomes the top priority and the primary focus of user attention.
*Credit to my colleague, Brandon Marsh, for coining this usage of the term Reserved Seats.
THE BLUSH
Now in contrast to Reserved Seats, which is great for urgent information with high confidence, we have The Blush.
We all know what a blush is. It’s a slight reddening of the cheeks, which signals that an emotion is being felt.
The Blush is a good way to signal less certain or potentially more complex information because the user needs to pick up on it and seek out the cause.
The Blush
In this image one of the days on the right is blushing because there is potential for a storm with dangerous impacts that day.
What we are doing is showing respect for the user’s attention. The Blush says “I am concerned about something that I think is important to you. Right now there is still some uncertainty in the forecast, but I want to make sure you are aware there is potential for danger.”
You see, feelings are feelings. Try as one might, they can’t be controlled. Emotions exist, they happen to us, and for that reason there is credibility in emotion. Emotion is genuine.
ORGANIC INTERACTIONS
And now we move to Organic Interactions. What I mean by “organic” is naturally occurring as opposed to planned. On most days Henry would walk by my office and we’d end up chatting for a few minutes in the doorway. It was an unplanned but no less valuable interaction that we had on a daily basis.
In the same way, we want users find their own natural cadence with our products. So we do things to help them to make the experience their own. For example, we enable smart personalization, like the reordering or even hiding of content sections, that lets people place content where they want it and make the experience their own. We also offer a choice different app color modes so that the app feels right to the eyes of each of our users.
FRIENDSHIP
And so finally we arrive at Friendship and the core of the idea that underpins The Very Human Art of Knowing What to Say.
What dimensions of friendship make it a standout communication enabler? What qualities of a relationship should we be trying to achieve with our design and development efforts?
To Start, Friendship is built upon the sharing of these things:
Empathy
Trust
Mutual Respect
Shared Experiences
Common Interests
Understanding the other’s values, goals and desires
The ability to predict and parse behavior, needs and emotional state
The “Things Friends Do” we discussed earlier contribute to the creation of these enablers. These aspects of friendship form the foundation of the relationship, and can be woven in to the relationship we build with our users.
So how do we begin to move towards this ideal?
From a technology standpoint we can do things like enable log-ins and user accounts to apply more information about users’ demographics or interests to the challenge of providing relevancy and context. We can sync with calendars so we have the context of events and routines.
These are existing capabilities that are widely available and used today, though they have some limitations, in particular users’ reticence to share personal information or undertake a lengthy set up process — but they can help us know our users better.
There are also some newer technologies that could help us.
Bots (chat bots in particular) enable more human-like two way communication. You know we actually have users regularly posting to our Facebook page asking for the weather in their location. People crave human interactions. If we can inform a bot with the ability to respond appropriately to an ever broader range of inquiries there could be great power in these interactions.
(chat bots in particular) enable more human-like two way communication. You know we actually have users regularly posting to our Facebook page asking for the weather in their location. People crave human interactions. If we can inform a bot with the ability to respond appropriately to an ever broader range of inquiries there could be great power in these interactions. Natural language processing of spoken questions and commands allows for communication by the user that feels more like talking to a friend. Spoken interactions have become widely available in recent years through AI’s like Siri, Google Voice and Cortana among many many others, and these interactions are gaining ever more traction with users as the technology improves.
But let’s shift our focus away from technology enablers for a minute.
What if we viewed our apps through the lens of a persona? We use personas to better understand and empathize with our users, why not do the same for our products? What if a product could have imagined demographics, goals and motivations and care about things too? What if the thing that the app cares most about is making sure you have the information you want and need and that you are safe and happy? Then we could imagine an app having a thought like: “I’d really like to give you this warning, but I’m not 100% certain and I don’t want to confuse you.” Let the software express its own desires and feelings. This might really change the way we think about how the app communicates with the user.
At some point, it’s likely Artificial Intelligence will solve many of the product challenges we currently face and we’ll have other problems to solve. Meanwhile we need to continue to attack this challenge from many angles at once.
A CHANGE OF MIND
The Very Human Art of Knowing What to Say is about more than prioritizing content. It’s about forging relationships that are greater than the sum of their many parts.
The good news is, we are well on our way to forging the bonds of friendship with our users.
As we have seen, there is much that we are already doing and much that we can do today to continue down this path
However, the greatest potential lies in a shift in the way we think:
A shift from thinking of our products as dumb pieces of technology to imbuing them with personas and allowing them to pursue goals and intentions and to communicate emotions of their own.
And a shift from simply analyzing our users and optimizing them to thinking of them as valued friends.
The potential that exists goes well beyond what I’ve covered today, and it will be achieved by passionate and creative minds focused on providing ever greater value to people and dedicated to making a difference in their lives. | The Very Human Art of Knowing What to Say — Engaging and Retaining Mobile Users in an Age of Content Profusion | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@EzraNanes/the-very-human-art-of-knowing-what-to-say-faca729b429c | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Ezra Nanes'] | 2016-11-17 19:38:13.002000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'UX', 'Weather', 'Product Management', 'Product Design'] |
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November 13, 2016: For those of you who went to church on the Sunday I’m writing this after the Election, you probably heard this morning a sermon of comfort aimed at congregants who voted their conscience for either of the two major candidates. It was a week for the history books, and it is full of lessons that transcend politics. My “Re-elect Nixon” tie from 1972 (photo above) that I wear to the polls every 4 years has now been consigned to ancient history.
Allow me please to draw some nonpartisan guidance for startups based on this brutal fight to the finish for the Presidency:
1. Keep your message simple, and always lead with it. Trump may have rambled all over the place in his unprompted stump speeches and debates, but his red ball caps emblazoned with “Make America Great Again” created a consistent and lasting impression. Ronald Reagan launched that same slogan in 1980, and even Bill Clinton reprised it during his first campaign, but it will now always be associated with Trump. To the extent you can, as part of your branding, come up with something that simple and that sticky, your odds of attracting customers increase dramatically. I’ve seen way too many entrepreneurs try to sell a complicated vision and not hammer home the core of what they are promising to deliver. Yes, indeed, that sounds like the wonk of Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders didn’t have the hats, but even he was pretty good at writing and selling his very condensed message about the rigged system. If your product is intangible, e.g. software, you’ve got many temptations to talk about “how good it is going to be,” but customers pay for the benefits they can enjoy today. Make that software great right now.
2. External events can throw you off course. I’ve written about this many times, but we all now operate in a highly connected and relatively transparent business universe, and we are subject to powerful impacts beyond our control and beyond our ability to predict. No fiction writer could have envisioned Anthony Weiner as a key player in what Clinton is now blaming as her downfall — that last-ditch FBI investigation of her emails. She had everything pretty well baked, including the big fireworks show, but her own internal data apparently showed a dramatic shift in the rust belt voting after James Comey delivered his letter to Congress a little over a week before Election Day. You may think you have your make-the-company deal wrapped up, but until the money is in the bank, don’t count it. Last minute surprises are common in financing transactions and big customer contracts. All those deals require constant attention and monitoring by you and your executive team until they are done. You may have a competitor maliciously intervene, a legal threat arise, a key player leave, transfer or die, and any number of other calamities beset you on the verge of your finest hour. I could write a few thousand words just on personal war stories of that nature.
3. Involve yourself in the world around you — your town, your market sector, your regulatory bodies, and any other parts of your ecosystem that can dramatically affect your planning. There’s a significant rise of political activism in the Austin tech scene now that we’ve lost Uber and Lyft and are seeing threats to short term rentals by an overly intrusive city council. We’re all mired in the same traffic congestion that can only be resolved by civic action. The $720M road bond that passed last week is just a baby step toward accommodating the needs of the nation’s fastest growing city, and it’s time for some technology-based alternatives to more asphalt. As an example, it is my personal observation as one who lives in Austin but is frequently in Atlanta that Austin could benefit mightily from getting employers to stagger work hours. Austin is easily navigable most of the day but has terrific peaks at morning and evening rush hours. Atlanta, on the other hand, is “rolling thunder” 24/7 and has an insatiable need for new infrastructure now that it has emerged from the Great Recession. It behooves us all to be highly engaged in the Public Square and to be influencers as well as taxpayers in our respective metro areas. Similarly, don’t be a stranger in your marketplace. Get to know your competitors to the extent possible. Work the trade shows. Size up your enemies. Bluff a lot. Be alert to threats. Steal employees. Protect your own team. Play fair, but play both offense and defense when you have the opportunity outside the comfy confines of your own office. And, if you’re in a regulated industry, don’t cut corners. I’ve been involved in enough bank startups and now the biomedical arena and have learned to appreciate that regulations must be followed but don’t necessarily have to be logical. The tax code itself is a great example of that, but some sectors would benefit from losing about 2/3 of their existing regulations and paying attention to the ones that actually matter. Oh, I think Trump promised to fix that, so you may want to ignore that bit of advice.
4. Count on every week bringing new challenges. If things are rocking along too smoothly, you’re probably not trying hard enough. You need to be racing at the limits, because your competitors are doing just that. The closer you are to those limits, the bigger mistakes you’ll make, but your end result may be the coveted checkered flag. This coming week and in the months ahead, you have to internalize what a GOP-controlled government means to your business. Your trade associations are probably in the thick of that already. I’m already hearing of a shift of research dollars from applied to basic research. If you’re the president of a research university, what does that mean to your strategic plan, your core competencies, your staffing, and your R&D sponsor relationships? If your startup is commercializing university IP, does that shift affect you? It might, or it may be too far into the future to suggest any immediate reaction. The stock markets at least seem pretty calm at the moment about this transition of power, which is a good sign, but nothing will be business as usual with such a radical change in leadership.
There were quite a few “Amens” in my large Episcopal church this morning, not customary practice amidst the liturgy. They attest to how eloquently our preacher addressed the lessons of the past week and how important these matters are to all aspects of our lives.
<photo by the author> | Lessons for Startups from the Election | null | null | null | null | https://austinstartups.com/lessons-for-startups-from-the-election-29c6550b2329 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Ben Dyer'] | 2016-11-14 16:36:40.880000+00:00 | ['Startups', 'Elections', 'Messaging'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | BotSpeak database — 1 human, 200+ bots, 892 bot dialogs
TL;DR —Designing great bot dialog is tough but crucial to increase engagement. We talked to over 200 Facebook Messenger bots to extract conversation dialogs for your reference: BotSpeak. Evaluating the output from bots, we adopted a pure data approach for lexical improvements and anecdotal advice on better presentation of the bot conversations.
How do you feel about conversations with bots so far? Are they engaging, disappointing or interesting?
For bot makers, there are lots of challenges in crafting more engaging bots. Among others, these two are the most obvious and painful:
Challenge 1: Getting inspiration for how to build your bot based on how others built theirs. You can’t just search for bots based on the meta details in conversations, because there isn’t such a database.
Challenge 2: Ensuring that the bot dialog is great and captivating. Other than what you know/think your audience will like, there’s no easy way to see best practices across a wide range of bots.
As you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to get to know other bots that well unless you spend lots of time talking to bots, and have your Messenger inbox entirely flooded with bot conversations.
So, in order to tackle these two problems head-on, we talked to 200+ bots for research, and documented the conversations. We called this project BotSpeak, and we present all the conversations we had on BotSpeak in a searchable table format for you, so you don’t have to, yourself. Enjoy the 🎁!
You can contribute to BotSpeak database by inputting your bot’s conversations of up to 8 outputs here: https://goo.gl/forms/TFy2UTEdSAFS3ZzN2
Bot selection
We chose bots based on their popularity, based on total views of the bot on Botlist. Other than top bots by views, we also selected bots across a range of categories to ensure that most of the major types of bots are represented in this study. This ensures that the sample is not only comprehensive across categories, but also filtered by popularity; the assumption is that popular bots have more chance to develop best practices over time.
Bot category classification is taken from Botlist for each bot we tested
As you can see, “Personal” bots are heavily represented due to the proportion of popular bots that are classified as such.
Methodology
Every research begins with scoping down a right methodology. In order to do this right, we came up with a bunch of parameters which we feel would be really useful to analyze. The starting point of the study was based on textual data from our conversations with bots. To get the most meaningful data, we engaged the bots in conversation, pressed buttons to receive output for record and analysis, and went through every bot experience in general.
Collection of data
As there are no publicly available sources of data for bot conversations, we started out by using the collection of bots on Facebook Messenger indexed on Botlist (great database and resource for discovering the best bots across all platforms).
Knowing that we might be talking to over 200 bots and Facebook might classify the activity as suspicious, we created a new account to talk to the bots. After going through about 20 conversations, we realized that Facebook has blocked my account from sending new messages to bots. Hence, I used that as a cue to 1) start recording the conversations, 2) deactivate the account, 3) create a new account to talk to new bots.
For this exercise, we had to create about 10 new accounts and deactivated as many. (Sorry Facebook, but it probably took no notice to this small blip in user churn anyway.)
One of the accounts which we spun up to test bots and shut down after
8 accounts created for bot testing under — Brian, Doug, Connor, Mathew, Al, Wayne to name a few
In recording the conversations, we ignored the cards, images and media that the bot was displaying in the analysis records to focus on the text. The reason we approached it in this manner is because we felt that the creatives are unique to brands and bot developers should use brand- or use case- appropriate visuals. Plus, it would complicate the recording on a Google Sheet table! However, we did note some general comments on creative presentation and you can read about this later on.
As much as possible, we tried not to use too much free-form/natural language to allow the bots to provide us with the ideal experience as defined by the developer. Being harsh to bots is definitely not part of this exercise for recording and discovering best practices; but, in our own experience, some people are mean to bots.
Analysis of data
After the data was collected and organized in a table structure, we began analyzing the conversations in bulk with text analysis tools.
We visualized the data for anyone to be able to use and access on BotSpeak. There are filters for names and categories, which you can use as terms to search for what you need. Since categories were set by the developer (or Botlist posters), we chose not to reclassify the bots despite some cases where categories were not representative of the bot.
BotSpeak database of bot conversations logged
Limitations — There are many well-designed bots with multiple paths and possibilities. Due to time constraints, we did not do a full audit of all paths and may have missed some of them. In the future, we hope to dedicate more resources to obtain more complete “Bot maps”. This limitation is especially so for story bots, as scripts can go up to 2500 dialog outputs and so we have limited them to ~8 outputs. (Besides, you should try them yourself, most of them are pretty fun.)
For the purpose of this study, we felt that the number of conversations and data collection was sufficient to form a robust initial representation set for use.
Areas of improvement: Lexical/Semantics
Based on all the conversations with bots we’ve analyzed, here are some semantics-related improvements we feel could significantly improve bot experiences. Each of these points are also marked with the total observed instances across bots.
A. Take note of extra words / Modifier phrases / Grammaticality (347 instances)
E.g.: “Red sunglasses are very trending, would you like to see some?” — can be edited to be: “Red sunglasses are trending, want to see some?”
B. Avoid rambling starts (44 instances)
E.g.: “To become a wiser human being by reading the secrets posted by my friends, please tap once on the menu button shown below and select READ A SECRET” — can be edited to be: “Become a wiser by reading secrets from friends by tapping READ A SECRET below”
C. Use emojis for engagement (119 instances)
E.g.: “Sorry, didn’t get it” — can be edited to be: “Sorry, didn’t get it 😕”
D. Consider using active voice instead of passive voice (89 instances)
E.g.: “You have been matched to Colin.” — can be edited to be: “I’ve matched you to Colin.”
E. Replace rare/complex words with simple words (146 instances)
E.g.: “The least agonizing itinerary flies from SJC to HNL.” — can be edited to be: “The least painful itinerary flies from SJC to HNL.”
Areas of improvement: Presentation
The visual cues of a bot are just as important as the script and functionality. The bots that we talked to had some areas where they could improve in terms of visual hierarchy, contrast, and appropriateness. (These are our observations, and not part of the Botspeak database.)
A. Use buttons where you can to aid users
People enjoy doing easy things over hard things. Hence, buttons can (and usually is) the preferred mode for people interacting with bots. Instead of the hassle of typing common requests like “Yes” or “What else can you do”, you can just press a button. It’s also easier to lead users down the experience, constrained by the buttons shown.
B. Take advantage of the Messenger platform’s functionality
Options like quick replies and logins can be used to enhance the ease of using the bot. Wherever it’s possible to simplify choices to just a few clickable options, you should do that. If there’s a potential of streamlining the experience with customer details through login, you may want to try it. There are lots of other functionalities you can choose to use, so explore and make full use of them, where it makes sense.
C. Use attractive menu images
Many bots are heavily dependent on their menus, and this means that most users will end up seeing the menu about 30–50% of the time. Hence, menu images should be representative of your bot (and the company or product it represents), and made to be as attractive as possible.
D. Send interesting images as part of your responses
It can be really interesting for users when you send creative visuals as an attachment together with bot responses. You can even use gifs as part of your quick replies, adding small points of delight within your bot.
Poncho is a good source of inspiration for delightful visuals
E. Make sure you have a welcome message
Only 70% of bots we tried included a welcome message. What happened to everyone else? With bots still a relatively new interface for the majority of (non-tech, non-startup) users, it’s important to present the bot and its functionality clearly, so users are properly guided through the experience and achieve success in what they were trying to do.
Having a good, well-crafted welcome message sets your bot users up with the right expectations, so they know what not to expect from the bot, preventing disappointment or perceived failures.
Main takeaways
Testing is crucial: You’ll need to test and continuously improve the bot scripts based on feedback from your users. Lots of bots are not designed to handle common edge cases, such as users swearing at bots (more common than we’d like to think) and common backstory questions like “Who made you?” Cross-category learnings are applicable: A database like BotSpeak is useful for developers designing bot dialogs as there are many common use cases, and lots of things can be applied from other bots. For example, a productivity bot can easily learn a few tricks from a social bot in scripting fun experiences. People like simplicity & familiarity: The best bots are designed with users in mind, and with bots supposed to be the user-friendly and easy conversational interface it is, stick to easy and familiar words. The most used words by bots are visualized below (after removing stop words):
Word cloud of non-common words most used by the 200+ bots — fashioned as R2D2
How to use BotSpeak
You can leverage the knowledge we’ve gathered on Botspeak to filter by categories or the bots that you want to reference.
With this, you can look at examples of how other bots have been scripted and what their various output options are. You can use this as a guide for your own bot planning process.
Also, a simple CMD+F (Ctrl+F for windows) can get you a search by actual dialog words—for example, I looked for “book” and found the ShelfJoy bot delivering hand-curated book suggestions.
Searching by name of bot on BotSpeak
Future work
How should bots behave?
Options: Mimic human behavior (e.g. delays in conversation, having a name, being funny, using active voice) or being a more command-line experience (i.e. instant response, organization/product name identity, using formal tone/words). From the BotSpeak database, one can find that out of the 200 bots, about 10% of the bots told users their name. Other platforms
We want to continue updating the database with additions from contributors, as well as adding other platform bots in the future. One obvious platform that we wish to figure out how to test is Slack. Given that a free team may not be best way to do so, we’ll have to find a creative (but still reasonable) methodology to use. Perhaps the extension of the project could be used by Slack as a way to advise users how the bot flows should look like. Comprehensive data on flows
Interaction steps for this project is limited by the amount of time we spent with each bot. Some bots have over 100 programed interactions as part of a story, while others are focused on a search experience that ends when user demands are fulfilled. Over time, we will get a better idea how to craft the ideal experience for each category with data.
All a-bot the future
We are definitely only beginning to test and learn from different use cases of bots across multiple verticals. There are lots of other examples that you can see on BotSpeak, so go ahead and explore them yourself. With a database like this, which we hope you’ll add to, we can all start developing a sense of what would work best for bot-human interactions.
Keep improving your bots and if you like BotSpeak, share the link (and this piece) with your users and friends!
Shoutout to Joseph Tyler (Linguist), Erik Nilsen (Bot developer), Ben Tossell (Botlist), Philippe Dionne (Dialog Analytics) for reviewing this post and tool!
P.s. We also have another resource for building an enterprise chatbot strategy, which you can find here: https://keyreply.com/#ebook
Post was first posted on the KeyReply blog by the same people behind Digest.AI! https://keyreply.com/blog/How-should-bots-speak-to-humans/ | How should bots speak to humans? | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/keyreply/how-should-bots-speak-to-humans-2b5d6d344521 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Spencer Yang'] | 2016-11-11 03:34:01.576000+00:00 | ['Bots', 'Messaging', 'NLP', 'Facebook Messenger'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Back in 2008, Nokia sold 468 million phones making the company the undisputed king of the mobile phone market with over 40% market share. This same year, Apple sold little over 10 million iPhones and launched iPhone App Store with just 500 third party apps. By the end of 2010, when Apple App Store had over 300,000 apps, it became clear to all including Nokia that the number of apps is much more important than the number of devices. Apps drive demand for phones creating network effects between users and 3rd party developers. Smartphone users attract developers. Developer create apps. Apps attract more users, which attract more developers.
A very similar dynamic begins to unfold in messaging platforms. Popular messaging apps evolve into developer-centric platforms having the same kind of network effect as iOS and Android. Soon we will compare messaging apps not by number of users, but by the number of bots/integrations available on the platform. Messaging users attract developers. Developers create bots. Bots attract more users, which attract more developers.
Messaging has emerged as a new interaction paradigm on mobile, with leading apps (Whatsapp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, KakaoTalk, Line, Viber) amassing hundreds of millions of users. David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook says in his interview to the Wired magazine:
“The messaging era is definitely now. It’s the one thing people do more than anything else on their phone.”
So far, competition between messaging apps is based on number of users. In Q3 2015, Whatsapp (acquired by Facebook for over $19B) has 900 million monthly active users; Facebook Messenger — 700 million; and WeChat — 600 million. But now things start to change.
While Facebook leads in number of messaging users, Chinese Weixin, or as it is known in the West WeChat, is a clear leader in turning messaging into a platform.
WeChat at its core is a messaging app for sending text, voice, and photos to your friends and family, but it is also much more. Connie Chan, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, explains on the company blog:
“Along with its basic communication features, WeChat users in China can access services to hail a taxi, order food delivery, buy movie tickets, play casual games, check in for a flight, send money to friends, access fitness tracker data, book a doctor appointment, get banking statements, pay the water bill, find geo-targeted coupons, recognize music, search for a book at the local library, meet strangers around you, follow celebrity news, read magazine articles, and even donate to charity … all in a single, integrated app.”
WeChat achieves this by supporting lightweight apps that are called “official accounts”. There are well over 10 million official accounts on the platform: from celebrities, banks, media outlets, and fashion brands to hospitals, drug stores, car manufacturers, to internet startups, personal blogs, and more. These lightweight apps are approved to access exclusive APIs for payments, location, direct messages, voice messages, user IDs, and more. Essentially, WeChat is not only messaging app, but a developer-centric platform allowing developers to add value to the service.
Facebook has no choice but to follow WeChat. Facebook’s David Marcus said at the Code/Mobile conference in October 2015:
“Messaging is really, truly the next frontier. The Asian paradigm has shown there’s a there there.”
Having introduced Messenger platform at its F8 developer conference in March 2015, Messenger has adopted the WeChat approach and will now be open to 3rd party developers to build new “tools for expression” and also let users communicate with businesses through simple conversation threads.
WeChat and Facebook are not alone in their attempts to take messaging to a new level. Telegram, which started as a more secure Whatsapp clone, evolves into something much more interesting with the announcement of their Telegram Bot Platform. The developer-centric platform allows 3rd party developers to create Bots, which are simply Telegram accounts operated by software sporting AI-like features.
The same trend shows itself even in the more conservative enterprise space with Slack Technologies Inc. having risen to $2B valuation in less than 2 years. Slack is a messaging app for teams designed to enable integration of messaging with popular enterprise apps and services. The company has 1.1 million daily active users, but also 100 integrations with 900,000 integration installs on the Slack platform.
These range from Giphy gifs to expressing feelings to co-workers; to MailChimp email marketing service; Crashlytics to monitor mobile app bugs; Trello for tracking tasks or manage help tickets from Zendesk.
The Slack Platform also supports bot users allowing companies automate many processes. A bot user is a special kind of free user account optimized for writing automated bots that connect to Slack using the Real Time Messaging API. Users can interact with bots using direct messages or even invite bots to private groups.
For example, The New York Times data science team has built a Slack bot to help decide which stories to post to social media.
The bot, called Blossom, predicts how articles or blog posts will do on social and also suggests which stories editors should promote. All within the framework of the messaging app.
Slack evolves into an enterprise developer-centric platform. There are already several startup teams experimenting with building companies on top of Slack messaging platform.
Similar to what happened in mobile platforms, the basis of competition in messaging apps changes from the number of users to the number of bots (integrations) and the messaging apps themselves evolve into developer-centric platforms.
Today Whatsapp is the largest messaging network with 900M users. It does one thing, messaging, exceptionally well. But it increasingly starts to resemble Nokia. Nokia also did one thing, mobile phones, exceptionally well, but missed the transition to developer-centric platforms, where the winners are decided by developers.
— Michael | Messaging apps: From counting users to counting bots | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@mvakulenko/messaging-apps-from-counting-users-to-counting-bots-9a66510bb0f9 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Michael Vakulenko'] | 2015-10-17 17:15:36.038000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Mobile', 'Strategy'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | I am a self-professed geek and get a buzz from solving difficult technical problems. Given the option, I’d be solving the world’s problems one tap a time on my keyboard ;) However, as the co-founder of Ably, a realtime data delivery platform, a lot of the time I am talking to our customers and helping them solve their realtime data delivery challenges.
Ably has had a lot of traction recently with fantasy app developers, and I’m starting to see common challenges for these businesses. As a firm believer and contributor to open source, in this post I explore some common problems we see for fantasy sports and live events app builders, and share some design patterns that I hope will be useful for other developers.
Caveat: A lot of the examples refer to Ably in the solution as I find it useful to talk specifically about how our customers solve this problem. However, the purpose of this blog is to share design patters for common problems than can be implemented with any technology or platform.
Problem 1: Unknown and theoretically limitless number of players receiving live updates
Most often a stream of events arrive at the app developer’s servers from a sports data provider (such as Opta or Sportradar), some business logic is applied, and the data then needs to be pushed to every device participating in that game.
For example, when a goal is scored, you may want every user of your app to receive that update simultaneously within 200 milliseconds anywhere on earth. The challenge typically is that you want that goal to be met when you have one or a million users, without any change to your architectural design.
Pattern 1# — Pub/Sub
This pattern is hardly new, it’s been around since 1987, yet it’s still a good way to approach asynchronous realtime data distribution. The pattern involves two roles, Pub represents the publisher, Sub represents the subscriber. The pattern specifies that the publisher (your server) publishes messages without any knowledge of how many subscribers, if any, there may be. And subscribers register to receive message without any knowledge of of the publishers. This ensures the two roles are intentionally decoupled with a middleware broker responsible for receiving messages and fanning out the messages to the subscribers.
How does this help?
It ensures your apps scale to theoretically limitless subscribers without any changes to the design of your system, thus keeping your stack simple whilst giving you the scale you need. The middleware broker is responsible for providing scale. If you chose a middleware solution that has proven scale, then by adopting the pub/sub pattern, as you scale only one component needs to address that need in a predictable way.
Our customers use Ably’s Pub/Sub feature as the middleware broker which provides limitless scale. Channels are used to provide topic filtering such as one channel for each game or player. As Ably’s system is inherently elastic, developers trust us to look after the scale issues.
Problem 2: Data synchronisation
Problem 1 describes how data, as messages, is distributed to devices, but it does not address how you keep the game data in sync consistently with all devices.
For example, your app may need to maintain live stats for each player. As every event occurs during the game, your app needs to reflect that change in real time both in the UI and also within the local storage. The challenge is one of data integrity and bandwidth. If you publish the entire game data every time an event occurs, it is inefficient and will result in huge bandwidth bills as you scale. Perhaps more importantly this could impair the user experience for people on slower connections or with expensive bandwidth. If however you only send data updates, how do you ensure that the data integrity is maintained i.e. you need all updates arrive reliably and in order?
Pattern 2.1# —Serial JSON Patches
JSON Patch is a standard that defines how you can send only the deltas for a JSON object as it mutates. For example, if you had a table of all players with their stats, and only one player’s stats changed following a goal being scored, then the patch may look something like:
[
{ "op": "replace", "path": "/player/bob/goals", "value": "1" },
]
How does this help?
JSON Patch provides a means to efficiently send deltas for a JSON object thus reducing bandwidth overhead significantly. However, JSON Patch does not provide the complete solution as:
You need to obtain the JSON object at the outset
The JSON Patches must be applied in the exactly the order they were generated — a missing or out-of-order patch will result in complete loss of data integrity
Ably, uniquely in the realtime messaging industry, offers reliable data delivery uniquely ensuring that data arrives in the correct order and continuity is assured. We also provide a message history (replay) feature providing a means to obtain historical message published on the channel prior to connecting. Finally, we uniquely offer continuous history ensuring developers can reliably obtain history and receive subsequent realtime updates without any missing messages or duplicates.
A pattern we’ve seen developers use with Ably to solve this problem therefore is:
Configure a channel to persist messages
Publish the original JSON object on the channel, and then subsequently all JSON Patches
Clients when connecting then obtain the channel history and subscribe to future JSON patches. The history provides a means to build the JSON object from the initial object plus all the patches, and the attached channel ensures live updates continue to be received in order with integrity.
If a client loses continuity on the channel (this may happen if the client is disconnected for more than two minutes), the app simply repeats the previous step.
Ably will be releasing an efficient way to stream updates to data objects natively in our client libraries in the future. If you are interested in using this feature, please get in touch.
Pattern 2.2# — CRDT
A CRDT is a conflict-free replicated data type. Unlike JSON Patch, it allows multiple parties to concurrently updates the underlying data object. Each update is then distributed to all other parties, and the algorithm ensures that once all updates are applied by all participating parties, the underlying data object will become eventually consistent, regardless of the order the updates are applied.
CRDTs provide a very sophisticated way to ensure data is consistent, even when there are multiple parties changing the data at the same time. However, in order to provide the eventual consistency guarantees, there are limited data types with specific restrictions.
We find CRDTs are more commonly used in collaborative applications similar to Google Docs, where multiple users can update the content simultaneously. Riak is one of the few database solutions that provides native CRDT support. I will leave it to the reader to consider whether CRDT is appropriate for their use case and how best to implement it.
Problem 3: Upstream game play events
Problem 1 and 2 addresses the issues of scaling downstream data to your devices. However, participating in fantasy games will have an upstream component i.e. users on devices may change their team configuration, place a bet, or simply want to chat with other players.
Typically this is handled with a simple HTTP request to your servers which in turn run some business logic which may respond synchronously (as part of the response to the HTTP request), or asynchronously (pushed back to the device later as a message).
The problem app developers face are:
Using an HTTP request in a synchronous fashion increases the likelihood that the operation fails in changing network conditions. For as along as the client is waiting for a response, there is a chance the connection state will change and the underlying TCP connection for the HTTP request will be closed. If a request has failed due to a TCP connection, it may need to be retried, but unless the operation is idempotent, it could result in unexpected behaviour for users.
If there is a sudden spike of activity, perhaps due to an unforeseen change in the game such as a player being taken off, then your servers will need to absorb that load immediately. You need to predict the load in advance of each game and ensure you have sufficient service capacity for the spikes.
HTTP provides no ordering guarantees i.e. a later request may arrive before an earlier request when they are close together. Sometimes this matters.
Pattern 3# — Message queues
Traditional message queues are designed to provide a message-orientated means to communicate between components of the system, specifically the devices and your servers in this instance. Like the pub/sub middleware, the message queue acts as a broker distributing messages to each consumer. If your messaging middleware is scaleable and resilient, then decoupling each component in the system ensures failure or overload in one area of the system will not affect any other part of the system.
Please note, unlike the pub/sub pattern where each message is delivered to all subscribers, message queues typically deliver messages only once to one of the consumers (technically AMQP can only provide an :)at least once guarantee, however in almost all situations it provides exactly once delivery). Messages typically operate with FIFO (first-in-first-out) ensuring that in spite of any backlog that builds up if consumers cannot keep up, the consumers will always be working on the most oldest messages first.
Diagram illustrating message queues using Ably
How does this help?
By decoupling publishers of data (your devices in this instance) from the consumers of the data (your servers), and introducing a message queue middleware broker, you are building a fault tolerant system. For example:
Huge spikes of activity may slow down the responsiveness for customers as the workers have to work through the backlog of messages to process, but customers will not experience failures.
Where the ordering of events from device to server is important, the message queue is able to provide ordering guarantees. The Ably service too provides reliable ordering, so ordering is maintained from publishing to Ably all the way through to the queue.
Messages from devices are streamed immediately into the queue and the device receives an ACK immediately notifying the device that the message has been received. As a result, if you use Ably for publishing, we can ensure a message is never published twice (i.e. if you publish a message, lose connection before you receive an ACK, and then retry the message once connected, we de-dupe that message).
Ably provides message queues as a service as part of our realtime data delivery platform. Get in touch if you would like access to our queues. | Design patterns for realtime fantasy sports app developers | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/ably-realtime/design-patterns-for-realtime-fantasy-sports-app-developers-7d189cba147c | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ["Matthew O'Riordan"] | 2018-03-22 15:48:52.490000+00:00 | ['Realtime', 'Messaging', 'Design Patterns'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | In case you don’t know, now you can use Status, (and therefore, private & secure communication) on your desktop. Beta version is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows, you can download it here: https://status.im/get/
After installation, you have 2 options: to generate new keys or access existing key — if you want to use the account which you already have (i.e. on mobile)
If you choose the second option, you will need to enter your seed phrase.
If you decide to create a new account — you will need to choose one of 5 names. Some of my non-crypto friends were confused at this point. So this is both your account (your address staring with 0x) and your name. But in the future, you will be able to get easier-spelling name (i.e. like I have name cryptotexty)
Then you will need to create a password, (6 characters minimum) and repeat it. You will need the password to login and also to send transactions. As your account is at the same time your Ethereum wallet.
And that’s it, you are ready to communicate.
You can access featured chats on the left, or you can click “+” and access even more chats.
For example, I joined #literature channel. As I think here on crypto blogs, many of us read and write about books — so this is the channel you might be happy to join as well.
I sent a message “Hello everyone” and you see I got a response! Nice!
Yes, you probably noticed, that’s also me from another account. I wanted to show you the difference in names, as on that account I have a custom name, which I bought for 10 SNT.
Happy messaging! | Status messenger for Desktop review | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@cryptotexty/status-messenger-for-desktop-review-6b5571e22101 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2020-12-11 17:15:43.446000+00:00 | ['Status', 'Messenger', 'Messaging', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | 25 cent chicken wings.
That’s how it all started. Every Wednesday, my friend Brian and I would go eat wings, drink beer, and chat about “guy stuff”. On a particular day about 6 months ago, we were halfway through our ritual (which was eat a round of wings, have a beer, then have another batch of wings) when we spotted two people talking at the bar.
“I wonder if he’ll get her number”, I said.
“Maybe. Most likely it’ll be a fake or something.” he replied.
So we got to thinking — what if there was a way to connect to someone without the pitfalls associated with a phone number? It’s hard to remember, easy to mis-type, and once you give it out it’s out there for good. So that clingy person you met at the bar, your crazy ex-girlfriend, or upset Craigslist buyer can do whatever they want with it. The bottom line is, we all meet people on a day-to-day basis that we may or may not want to give our personal information to. Or, we just want to talk to them temporarily.
Fast forward till now. Just yesterday we finally launched Buzz — Chat Safely on the Google Play Store and Apple Appstore. It’s pretty cool, check it out here:
http://buzzmessenger.co
Some of you may be wondering — what’s it like to build a messaging app from the ground up? What was involved? What mistakes did you make? I’ll write about it next time. Or, if you can’t wait, download the app and message me directly. | From Chicken Wings to Launch: Part 1 | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@frostrocket/from-chicken-wings-to-launch-part-1-5e36c43b5ea1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Matthew Groves'] | 2015-10-24 21:58:06.697000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Messaging', 'Mobile'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The Only Time I Answer My Phone. Ever.
Once upon a time in the west, if you wanted to reach someone on the other side of the country you would send a message via Pony Express. Ten days later (or more) your message would be received.
Today, we can instantly communicate with others on the other side of the world in mere seconds. The channels for reaching each other have not only become lightning fast, but they are also varied.
Today, we receive messages via text, apps, Skype, Google +, Facebook Messenger and email.
And oh yeah, there are still those of us who use a telephone to (gasp) make a phone call.
I use, and embrace, all the technologies. But I’ve recently been thinking about how I not only use them, but how I prefer others to engage with me.
I feel there is a pecking order for each of these. So allow me to propose a “chain-of-command,” if you will, for when to use each type of tech for reaching out. I’m going to intentionally speak in first person as you may approach things differently.
#1 — Email
Email is most accessible, and I believe, the lowest rung on the ladder for reaching out to me. This is especially true if we’ve not met.
I’ve set up a contact form on my website and it invites anyone to send a message, whether it be for a speaking inquiry, joint venture proposal, question, comment or anything else. Since I receive these directly, it allows me to sift through and prioritize the most important messages and contact as needed.
The fact that I can search email and easily find what I am looking for makes it tops in my charts for both initiating contact and continuing conversation which can be documented and referenced.
#2 — Social Media
Next up the ladder is social media. Whether it be via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or any other place where I have a public profile, this is a great way for someone to reach out.
One of the problems with LinkedIn is all the spammy messages that end up in my inbox. There’s a whole lot of unsolicited proposals for search engine optimization, network marketing opportunities and job prospecting. I even get the occasional firm that wishes to help with my social media presence. Apparently, someone isn’t doing their homework.
Still, I’m fine with people reaching out by sending a direct message on Facebook or Twitter. In fact, Messenger is a great way to ping me with a quick question, a hello or a useful link. I don’t mind keeping my Facebook chat turned on because there are some happy interruptions throughout my day.
However, please don’t send any information that I need to keep track of via one of these services. Social media moves very quickly, and unless specifically requested, it’s likely that your request will get buried way beneath the fold. Phone numbers, addresses, emails and other important info are always best recalled if sent to email.
This, however, does not apply to Skype or other messenger services where you must be “added” as a friend in order to make contact. Unsolicited inquiries via these means can feel intrusive. I am selective in accepting friend requests, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to keep Skype on. Messages would come throughout the day and render the service annoyingly unusable.
#3 — Apps
And likewise, as we move into apps, we are entering the acquaintance zone. Whether What’s App (which I don’t use), GroupMe or any other chat app for my phone, these are to be used only by people I have a relationship with. I keep all notifications turned off on my phone so as to not be constantly having to look at what’s going on. It’s best if only family, friends and business associates who I am directly connected with contact using an app.
#4 — Text Messaging
As we climb towards the very top of the ladder, we encounter texting.
This is a highly personal method of reaching out, and not for a first time contact. There must be an established relationship with an intentional sharing of numbers in order for a text message to be okay. If you text and we don’t have an existing relationship, you have chosen poorly. If you are a family member (obviously), a friend (duh) or a close business associate (hi out there!), I am more than happy to get a text from you. Go ahead… say hello. I’ll probably respond with an emoji.
However, and I refer back to my comments on messaging in general, I don’t like to end up in long conversations on text… except when I do. In general, if it isn’t pressing I find that email is the best place to have longer conversations. That, or actually speaking.
#5 — The Phone
Which leads me to the top rung. The phone itself.
I put my cell number on the do-not-call registry a few years back. As a result, I don’t get too many telemarketers calling.
My phone number is a very personal thing. Again, family, friends and business associates who I have given my number to are free to call anytime.
I only answer my phone under three circumstances:
1) I see who it is because they are in my contact list. If it’s one of my kids, I’ll pick up unless I am speaking on stage. Even then, I’ve picked up the phone before in front of an audience just to let them know I’m here and will call them back when I am done talking. If it’s someone else, I’ll pick up if I am able. If I can’t, I figure if it’s important they will leave a voicemail.
2) I am expecting a call from someone in an area code but I don’t have them in my address book. For example, if I list something on Craigslist and I give someone my number to call so we can discuss the item.
3) I’m bored and want someone to talk to. If I get to this point and I pick up the phone, I may answer with a foreign accent and confuse the crud out of you. I’ll be entertained and you’ll wonder how you got the wrong number.
Under no circumstances will I pick up my phone if the display says “Blocked” or “Unknown.” This automatically weeds out most bots and telemarketers. It also gets rid of most fundraisers and political action committees.
Those who really need to get a hold of me will leave a message at the beep. I always listen to my messages and return calls as time, need and/or interest allows.
Confused? It’s okay. I’ve gotten a little dizzy just trying to sort this out.
Essentially, what this amounts to is a set of healthy boundaries. They are boundaries that allow me to enjoy and embrace technology while not becoming a slave to it.
What boundaries do you have in place for contacting you? Do you agree with mine or would you have minor or major modifications? Please share your thoughts with me below! That would be a very appropriate form of communication. | The Only Time I Answer My Phone. Ever. | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@joelcomm/the-only-time-i-answer-my-phone-ever-77f56e7dc8aa | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Joel Comm'] | 2015-10-21 22:08:38.034000+00:00 | ['Messaging', 'Facebook', 'Phone'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | RUNNING (FROM) A NONPROFIT LAWFIRM LIKE A GOD (OR THREE) IN THE MILLENNIAL ERA
SATEESH NORI, ESQ.
I did not attend business school and I am not particularly religious. But I do run a non-profit lawfirm and so i often seek wisdom where i can find it. I am in mid-career- neither a millennial nor a boomer. As such, I feel as though i am watching this seismic shift in the nature of my work and in the essence of being a manager. For the first time, work is being seen as a thing, not a place. Being heard is a key value. And transparency of information matters.
The complexities of running a lawfirm are evident: legal rules, ethical principles, clients, billing, and numerous acronyms like HR, IT, and CYA. In the world of non-profit law, add to this list labor-management relations, grants and fundraising, compliance with governmental mandates, and the all-important responsibility to do good. Most days I am exhilarated by the chance to hold the reins of my humble organization in Queens. But lately, new challenges have forced me to rethink my assumptions about being a leader.
The fields of non-profit management and organizational development fill an entire shelf at Barnes and Noble. There are maxims such as “build consensus,” “manage up,” and “create a positive and collaborative culture.” Unfortunately, while these ideas sound good, they provide little detail as to how a leader of a lawfirm in 2019 must act to attract and retain talent, meet obligations, and to serve the purpose for which the organization was created.
Also, nonprofit lawfirms are facing new pressures as the nature of our work changes. The political climate in Washington has, ironically, allowed us to expand our services with new funding as our clients-immigrants and the poor, are under more attack. As we grow, the composition of our organization is fundamentally changing. As a manager, I’m faced with a more diverse, younger workforce to deploy for more complex and more fluid legal problems.
Specifically, i noticed that our current employees expect more from our organization in the form of fulfillment, flexibility, and support. Many of our new employees — millennials — expect our organization to meet their expectations as to workplace culture, work-life balance, and for a dialectic about the work. Our new employees are as driven by social justice as any group since those who started in the 1960s and 1970s. They probably subscribe to “woke twitter,” and wholeheartedly support the progressive left of Warren and Sanders.
However, they expect a level of support and guidance from managers which my generation never sought. There is a shared feeling among our new hires that we must work as a team on every case, issue, and task. They want us, as managers, to help problem-solve in real-time. Also, this group expects a work-life balance as an implicit term of employment. They want an office where they can tele-commute, check-in with supervisors as they choose, and where their values are as important as the values of the organization. Finally, our workers seek an ongoing and organic dialogue about their work, their clients, and their lives.
Recently, during a Hindu religious holiday (i was raised Hindu), i thought about the Hindu triumvirate of Gods: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. These three deities provide order to the universe. Brahma is the creative force, building new life and knowledge. Vishnu, the remover of obstacles, perpetuates life. Shiva breaks down old forms so that the process of creation can begin anew. Within this model, i saw a vision of leadership and management in which new ideas are birthed, realized, and discarded, in a constant cycle of progress.
A quick search led me to a research paper by Low and Muniapan: “Organisational development and the Hindu trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva on leadership, culture and change,” ( Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 4, No. 5, 2011), and from this paper, i formed the ideas here. The starting point is to figure out where we are in the cycle of growth of our organization: creation, maintenance, or destruction?
Before this question comes the question of description or diagnosis.
What is the existing culture of my legal nonprofit? In my view, our culture, not unlike the culture at many non-profit law firms today, was born in the 1960s, in a spirit of self-sacrifice and duty to see justice done for our clients. It was about 50 years ago that the social programs such as the Peace Corp and Americorp were born, and legal services were first funded by the Federal Government.
Many who joined our cause in this mold adopted a single-mindedness and commitment to the work, eschewing other needs like family and personal gain. Those who started during this time are the pioneers and thought-leaders on many legal issues faced by the poor. They also created the model for our current workplace, with a team of attorneys built around a senior supervising attorney, and several of these teams overseen by a managing attorney. We have a centralized decision-making structure, like a federal system, through which all decisions are made.
Today, this culture seems anachronistic and stale to our new staff. Our staff now want balance between their jobs and their lives, and they seek personal satisfaction as much as they seek justice for their clients. They are aware of the vicarious trauma that can come with social justice work.
They want to string together professional experiences into a narrative, like something that can be digested on social media. Work is not a place for them as much as it is an idea or a thing to do. The hierarchies that we have in place mean little to these workers. They want local control and they want their differences to be recognized. In fact, to them, the current power structure represents the same top-down model that our clients face from landlords, bureaucracies, and oppressors as their rights are being denied.
Many of our current leaders, including myself, serve like Vishnu, to preserve and maintain the status quo. We uphold the old hierarchies, methods of evaluation, and channels of communication. We don’t always see what motivates our staff or why they seek to work in our field. Over time, we have managed this culture and perpetuated it by hiring people who espoused the same views. We sought people who already self-selected into our framework for providing legal services to the poor. But now, as our ranks grow beyond the traditional and usual suspects, our model is cracking. Tensions run high as we negotiate for a new contract with our staff. Morale is low and burnout is high.
Maybe it is time to turn to Shiva, or to the power of destruction, to allow for a new model. A movement is growing to change the way we work, the way we are compensated for that work, and the way we negotiate with those in power to make these changes. For the first time, our staff are employing the same strategies that we have used to fight for our clients, but to fight for change for themselves.
Lets start over and allow Brahma to create something new. Do we still need physical offices, filled with support staff and paper files? Do top-down decisions build the consensus needed to move our organization forward? Would we consider building flexible work-schedules so that we could actually be open longer hours with different people filling existing roles? And finally, would we be able to provide that sense of self-worth that our staff members seek from the work- not from being part of the organization?
These are the new questions for leadership, gods and mortals alike. | RUNNING (FROM) A NONPROFIT LAWFIRM LIKE A GOD (OR THREE) IN THE MILLENNIAL ERA | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@sateesh.nori/running-from-a-nonprofit-lawfirm-like-a-god-or-three-in-the-millennial-era-178812a44774 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Sateesh Nori'] | 2019-12-30 18:50:32.693000+00:00 | ['Lawyers', 'Human Resources'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Swallow by Tonya Plank is an entertaining and engrossing read about an ambitious young lawyer in New York City, with all the necessary stuff about long hours, extreme pressure, and cut throat competition, along with the attendant splurges of materialistic gorging that a hard-working young lawyer feels she deserves (especially as the novel is set in go-go economic orgy that existed prior to 9/11). But it is also a moving exploration of a condition known as Globus Hystericus, in which an internally overwrought patient feels as if something is always in the way of food and drink going down her throat, and at times, of words coming out. In other words, the person is literally choking on psychological issues.
Recent law school graduate Sophie Hegel cannot swallow because her whole life she’s been surrounded by or surrounded herself with controlling, domineering and judgmental men (and a few competitive, sometimes nasty, women). She suffers from extreme lack of self-confidence, despite having gone to Yale Law School, doing very well there, and now scoring a prestigious public interest fellowship at the Public Defender’s Office. When the ball-in-the-throat thing starts (she calls it “FB” for fist ball, which is really confusing, given that FB now stands for one thing and that is Facebook but anyway, I’m just quibbling), Sophie loses the ability to eat and enjoy food, and just when she needs it most, she finds herself losing her voice, like in court or in the middle of an argument with fiance Stephen RichMan/Law Partner/WASP.
But it’s not all bad having Globus Hystericus. Sophie loses tons of weight and becomes a size 0, achieving model status and a new outlook on herself. Pity that she is hungry all the time, faints in court, and still suffers from chronic lack of confidence. Her habit of getting whiny when challenged (her words, not mine), started to get real annoying but I liked dear skinny old Sophie anyway. Her heart is in the right place, as a lawyer for those who have no one else to turn to and her efforts to help her clients are sincere. Sophie works hard, as she has worked hard her entire life, but she just cannot get away from feeling that she comes from white trash (i.e., Arizona — again, her words, not mine) and that she will never fit in to the sophisticated, hyper-educated, and uber-ambitious New York legal world. But of course you will, honey — the question is WHY DO YOU WANT TO? Sophie has a lot to figure out for herself and by the end of the novel she is well on the way to growing up and growing out of Globus Hystericus.
I do worry that this novel will do more to compound female body image problems than illuminate them. Sophie keeps insisting she is not anorexic and yet she starts to love being really really really skinny. All of the female characters are described by their physical characteristics, including weight and height, and weight is an indication of both class and level of attractiveness, but the only man described in glowing physical terms is a male stripper; he is as objectified as the females. There is one fat and drunk creepy lawyer guy: fat is equated with low-class behavior by Sophie, as she sees both her mother and her sister as decidedly low-class and chronically overweight. At the end of the novel, one of Sophie’s best friends has lost ten pounds following Sophie’s diet “trick” of only eating teeny tiny bites and eating really really slowly. Sophie says she looks “amazing.” And you can too: is there a diet book in the works?
Nevertheless, I had a great time reading this book, it held me from start to finish, through high and low levels of exasperation with Sophie and annoyance with her friends and irritation with the judges before whom she must attempt to argue for her clients and disgust with her pretentious fiance, and I was satisfied by the ending. Swallow will be a good read for women who have been first year lawyers or other young professionals — or who would like to be — and will smooth a path down memory lane for those of us who have been there, done that, and are happy to have moved on. | Head Full, Stomach Empty | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/nina-sankovitch/head-full-stomach-empty-bf808218656a | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Nina Sankovitch'] | 2016-09-26 18:02:14.095000+00:00 | ['Novels', 'Lawyers', 'New York City'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Jean Danhong Chen on What You Should Expect When Migrating as a Family
Media coverage around immigration has been increasingly polarized as of late, due in part to divisive rhetoric espoused by the President of the United States. Most recently, President Donald Trump condemned ‘chain migration’ during his State of the Union address in early 2018, explaining that “a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives.”
Jean Danhong Chen, an immigration lawyer based out of San Jose, California, strives to separate fact from fiction. After founding her law office in 2003, Jean Danhong Chen has been advocating for clients’ interests by providing quality employment and family-based immigration services to corporate and individual clients throughout the United States.
What is Family Immigration?
Family is a major driver of migration. Jean Danhong Chen explains that family migration is a term used to categorize the migration of people who migrate due to new or established family ties. If you have a family member who is a citizen or a green card holder, you can, under some cases, be given priority consideration for entry into the United States.
Jean Danhong Chen explains that President Donald Trump is right in that immigrants admitted on the basis of family ties definitely constitute the largest share of new permanent residents each year; however, where he gets it wrong is that the potential for a never-ending and expanding chain is extremely constrained.
Policies Regulating Immigration
To better understand how immigration works, it is important to understand how the policies work. Jean Danhong Chen outlines that policies regulating permanent legal immigration to the United States are organized around four main objectives: keeping families together, admitting immigrants that bring needed employment-based skills, addressing humanitarian purposes, and maintaining a diversity of countries of origin.
These policies were put in place after eliminating national origin quotas that heavily favored northern and western European countries; this system was put in place with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and the 1965 Amendments to the Immigration and Naturalization Act. This has meant that the number of legal permanent residents has averaged roughly one million people over the last decade. Family-based immigration accounts for roughly two-thirds of that number annually.
What is Chain Migration?
“Chain migration” looks like this: American citizens can petition on behalf of spouses, children, parents, and siblings for green cards. This means that a citizen could sponsor a sibling for a green card and, if granted, that sibling could then sponsor their child. This is officially known as ‘family reunification’ under federal law. ‘Chain migration’, then, is simply a technical name for a common sense idea, which is that people are more likely to move where their relatives are.
The application process for permanent residency of certain family members varies from person to person and is based on whether the person petitioning is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, as well as family relationship, age, marital status, and country of birth. However, citizenship is not automatically granted to those who are sponsored by their family members in the United States and the waiting period can be anywhere from a few months to a few decades.
There are two broad categories of family-based immigration visas: immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and those classified under the family-preference system. While there are no numerical limitations on the number of visas for the first category, there are numerical limitations on the second. In order to ensure that not all visas go to the first category of immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, congress established a minimum of 226,000 for visas in the family-preference system.
Final Thoughts from Jean Danhong Chen
Unfortunately, there are currently several major limitations when it comes to immigrating to the United States as a family. With statutory limits on family-preference categories, major backlogs, limited family-based immigration, and an extensive screening process for family-based visas, it might be worth working with a professional immigration lawyer to help you navigate all of these hurdles.
As a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association for over 17 years, Jean Danhong Chen’s comprehensive knowledge of immigration law has earned her the confidence of numerous companies and individuals throughout the country. As a testimony to her success, she has had over 10,000 visa and green card case approvals across all 50 U.S. states. | Jean Danhong Chen on What You Should Expect When Migrating as a Family | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@JeanDanhongChen/jean-danhong-chen-on-what-you-should-expect-when-migrating-as-a-family-c7c6bb5ec97 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Jean Danhong Chen'] | 2019-12-30 17:33:08.676000+00:00 | ['Immigration', 'California', 'Lawyers', 'Work Visa'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | In legislative terms 2019 was a pretty quiet year with parliament being so heavily occupied with Brexit, there was little time for anything else.
2020 promises to be somewhat different, the government has a substantial parliamentary majority, and being ‘tough on crime’ seems once again to be a popular political topic.
The recent Queen’s Speech gives us a good clue to what we can expect over the next few months. As ever, our lawyers will be monitoring all developments very carefully, and history tells us that criminal justice policy is often deficient and can require challenge before the higher courts. If laws are unfair, we will be here to challenge them.
Solicitors In Dewsbury
Counter Terrorism (Sentencing and Release) Bill
The main elements of the Bill are:
● Tougher sentences for the most serious terrorist offenders and a 14-year minimum for some offenders.
● Removing the possibility of any early release from custody for dangerous terrorist offenders who receive an Extended Determinate Sentence (EDS).
● Moving the earliest point for discretionary release by the Parole Board from half-way to two thirds for terrorist offenders who are not deemed “dangerous” and therefore do not receive an EDS.
● Measures to strengthen licence supervision for terrorist offenders.
Sentencing Bill
The main elements of the Bill are:
● Changing the automatic release point from halfway to the two-thirds point for adult offenders sentenced for serious violent or sexual offences, bringing this in line with the earliest release point for those considered to be dangerous.
● Aligning how life tariffs are calculated with the extended release points for serious violent and sexual offenders.
● Tougher community sentences that include longer curfews and more hours of unpaid work.
● Extending the range of circumstances where the starting point for the sentence in cases of murder is a whole life order. This will particularly focus on those who have murdered children.
Serious Violence Bill
The main elements of the Bill are:
● Placing duties on relevant public agencies and bodies to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence.
● Providing sufficient flexibility so that the relevant organisations will engage and work together in the most effective local partnership for any given area, whether that be a Community Safety Partnership or other multi-agency partnership such as local safeguarding arrangements. Statutory guidance will also be published that will set out the likely implications on a sector-by-sector basis.
● Amending section 6(1) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which sets out the strategies Community Safety Partnerships must formulate and implement, to explicitly include serious violence.
● New court orders to target known knife carriers, to make it easier for the police to stop and search those convicted for knife crime offences. The power will apply only to those convicted of a knife related offence.
Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill
The main elements of the Bill are:
● Amending the life sentence and the extended determinate sentence release test to direct the Parole Board to take into account circumstances where an offender, who has been convicted of murder or manslaughter, has not disclosed the location of a victim’s remains.
● Amending the extended determinate sentence release test to direct the Parole Board to take into account circumstances where an offender, who has been convicted of taking or making indecent photographs of children, has not disclosed the identities of the child or children in the image(s).
The last piece of legislation planned by the government in this session of parliament is long overdue, and very much needed:
Sentencing (Pre-consolidation Amendments) Bill
The main elements of the Bill are:
● Introducing a technical device called the ‘clean sweep’ which will allow judges to apply the new Sentencing Code to all sentencing decisions. Courts currently have to establish which provisions apply for each particular offender, depending when the offence was committed. This is a complex exercise which can lead to error and unlawful sentences being passed in consequence.
● Amending existing legislation that will be consolidated by the Sentencing Code, via “pre-consolidation amendments”. These pre-consolidation amendments to the law are generally limited to correcting minor errors and streamlining sentencing procedural law so that it can be consolidated in the Sentencing Code.
● Neither this Bill nor the Sentencing Code introduce any new sentencing law, or alter the maximum penalties available for an offence. Substantive reforms in a future Sentencing Bill are distinct from the important task of making sure that sentencing procedural law is clear and accessible to those that need to use it.
Criminal Solicitors Leeds
How we can assist
If you need specialist advice in relation to any criminal investigation or prosecution, then get in touch with Ashmans Solicitors 03330096275 and let us help. We can advise on all aspects of your case
Alternatively email us [email protected] | Criminal Law in 2020 — What Can We Expect | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@ashmanssolicitors/criminal-law-in-2020-what-can-we-expect-aa6f18c7b4f1 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Imran Ali'] | 2019-12-23 11:43:37.519000+00:00 | ['Criminal Justice Reform', 'Criminal Justice', 'Crime', 'Lawyers'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | The super-weird and super-invasive current strain of anti-single bias has popped up in a whole new Elena Kagan-centric way this past week. It was fine when people just thought she was a striving, careerist lesbian, because that’s how lesbians are, but now that everyone actually understands she’s straight, it is apparently repellent that she hasn’t spawned. Because you know what’s wrong with these sterile (emotionally, at least!), career-oriented, success-craving women who make it to the judiciary and the Supreme Court? They just never took time out to have babies. You know what babies give you? Well-roundedness! And I guess therefore the ability to issue Supreme Court decisions! If you have a baby, that means you have had a life. Otherwise you have just had a job. Take it away, Washington Post non-careerist, obviously anti-single Ann Gerhart! “Motherhood offers a one-word verifier. It signals a woman with an intensity of life experiences, jammed with joys and fears, unpredictability and intimacy, all outside the workplace. Much of the time, it’s the opposite of being strategic and assiduously prepared.” Oh, so she’s actually saying that mothers really are unfit for the judiciary because they’re never prepared or strategic? Good to know! Let’s make sure we never let women have children and jobs at the same time. | Elena Kagan: Just Another Worthless Childless Lady Lawyer! | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/the-awl/elena-kagan-just-another-worthless-childless-lady-lawyer-252e9d73ec51 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Choire Sicha'] | 2016-05-13 04:48:34.899000+00:00 | ['This Just In', 'Lawyers'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How I Prepped for and Passed the QLTS OSCE — QLTS Success story OSCEsmart Mar 29, 2018·10 min read
Priyasha Corrie, Corporate & Commercial Lawyer, UAE
Priyasha from Dubai, who cleared the QLTS OSCE exam in November 2017 in her first attempt, shares her experience as to preparation and getting through the extremely tough but exciting exam. OSCE smart team congratulates Priyasha, who obtained 76% which is far above the pass mark (64%). She is one of our best students, highly skilled lawyer, who managed to prepare for the QLTS OSCE, while working full time. Here is success story:
You’ve cleared the MCT. It’s now time to warm up for the OSCE which is an altogether different creature to tackle. The OSCE involves jumping various hoops and, for a working professional, balancing work with prep and your personal life will require you to be a tightrope walker for a few months. In this note, I’ve set out my experience of the assessments and study plan for the benefit of those prepping for the OSCE. Here you go:
1. Plummeting Pass Rates
The pass rates in the last OSCE administered in November 2017 plummeted to 63% and 51% respectively for the two batches as against the previous sittings where they were well above 70%. Statistics can be deceiving and hard to interpret but this could possibly mean that the exams have gotten tougher or that perhaps the marking is stricter. Whatever it is, the message is clear — do not take the assessments lightly!
2. MCT versus the OSCE
The OSCE tests you on a wider range of skills as against a test of merely answering multiple choice questions. That said, there are many who find the OSCE assessments easier than the MCT. I found myself on the other side of the spectrum. Although I scored higher on the OSCE than the MCT, I felt preparing for the OSCE was more challenging.
3. Subjects and the Order of Difficulty
The OSCE assessments will test you on (i) Litigation (Civil and Criminal), (ii) Property & Probate, and (iii) Business Law.
Watch out for Business Law which I found to be the most challenging of them all despite my being a corporate lawyer for the last 7 years. Funnily, Business Law, in my experience, was the easiest subject in the MCT. The tables are turned incredibly for the OSCE.
In the order of difficulty, Business Law is followed by Litigation. There is a lot to read in litigation and so you will have to study smart. I’ve covered my prep strategy in point 7 below.
In my opinion, Property Law is simpler in the OSCE than the MCT because it is mainly focussed on practical aspects of the practice such as sale and purchase transactions. Likewise, Probate is a smaller topic and you can take advantage of this to max your scores here.
4. Exam Format
The OSCE consists of two parts: Part I (Client Interview, Attendance Note/Case Analysis, and Advocacy) and Part II (Legal Research, Writing, and Drafting). That means six assessments for each of the three subjects totalling to eighteen assessments. Part I and Part II are each administered over three days, with a day allocated for each subject. As such, you will have to allocate six days of your work life for the OSCE which is quite unlike bar exams in other jurisdictions which are generally 1–2 day affairs.
5. Prep Time
To each, his own is the rule here. I started my preparations around July 2017 for the November 2017 assessments, although bear in mind that I was getting married in September (call me crazy) and therefore had to prep for a major life event as well! I had to somehow squeeze out time for studies during the day and, on an average, managed to dedicate about 2–3 hours daily with some marathon study sessions during weekends. There were days, of course, where I couldn’t devote any time at all. At the risk of coming across as anti-social, I used my lunch break in office to eat at my desk and read through the QLTS School summaries.
6. Prep School
I decided to study with the aid of a prep school just like I did for the MCT. While I was a bit confused between the BPP School and the QLTS School, I joined the masses and went for the QLTS School as I thought having a private tutor would be quite useful. As an aside, I believe the BPP School no longer offers an OSCE preparation course.
I have to say that there were missing gaps in the QLTS School’s course and, as a result, I ended up looking for an alternate resource to supplement my studies. I found a few videos of OSCE SMART (run by Dr Olga Pogrebennyk, who has previously passed the OSCE) on Youtube and signed up for her course. It worked very well for me because it enhanced my preparation and I am not sure if I would have made it without Olga’s tips! I’ve made a video review of OSCE SMART and you can watch it here.
OSCE Smart Review
Note that OSCE SMART is not as snazzy as QLTS School’s videos and web interface, but if you are someone who looks at substance over style, then you may find OSCE SMART useful like I did.
For your reference, I’ve also made a quick overview of the two prep schools for your reference:
QLTS School
OSCE Smart cources
Ultimately, my verdict is: QLTS School is great, but may not prepare you well enough for the exams, which is a pity considering its price. You will most likely have to supplement it with other resources. I found OSCE SMART to be a cost-effective tool and both the schools together helped me cross the line. If you cannot afford QLTS School, you may consider going for OSCE SMART which may be enough to see you through. I think there were candidates who made it with just OSCE SMART and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (Cilex) past papers.
Disclaimer: Like any lawyer, I have to add a disclaimer that sometimes passing an exam may not really depend on how good a lawyer you are or which school you go to. It depends on how much time you have put into your preparation, the mocks you have practised, and the skills the assessors are looking for.
7. Study Plan
I did not strictly follow QLTS School’s study plan. This is not to say that it doesn’t work. It is an ideal plan, but a bit too linear. For instance, a subject for three weeks and then another for the next three weeks.
Instead, I made my own prep strategy:
· I read the QLTS School summaries first, as I found the OUP books too vast to read through. To be fair, QLTS School also suggests the same approach. I alternated between two subjects in order to not get bored with one.
· At the same time, I commenced attempting mocks in order to get myself acquainted with what I was going to be tested on.
· Once I got an overview of the subjects, I viewed OSCE SMART’s video lectures on the subjects as I still did not get a grasp on the subjects. Watching these videos were a saviour because I did not have the energy to read a book at the end of a day’s work. Wherever there were gaps, I read the books.
· I continued with attempting the mocks and practised with friends and acquaintances (both in-person and Skype) who were also taking the OSCE. Here, I found OSCE SMART’s mocks for Part I to be very useful and I ordered a few more for myself.
· During the last month, I tried combing through the past Cilex papers (with solutions) which can be found at this link: https://www.cilex.org.uk/study/information_for_students/exams/past_papers. Look for Level 6 and the case studies. This was useful and was suggested by Olga.
· Finally, during the last couple of weeks, I read through the books to cement the information in my head. I only read the big Criminal Law book in my 8-hour flight to London, during which I covered 80% of the book! I don’t advise this for you though!
8. Memorise
You will have to memorise various principles, tests, case laws etc. for the assessments. You can either make your own notes or supplement QLTS School’s summaries with additional information as you go along your preparation. As you practise the mocks and read through the model answers, you will understand what you have to memorise. OSCE SMART has a fact sheet on things to memorise for civil and criminal advocacy which I found helpful.
9. Mocks — practise, practise, practise!
Don’t get stuck reading the OUP books thinking that you can practise the mocks only once you’ve studied the subjects. The books are important but you need to get a good grasp of how to prepare for the exam. Get started on practising the mocks as soon as you can. This is where QLTS School is great because of the number of mocks to practice. All their mocks come with solutions and so you have everything in one place. Additionally, for a practical feel of the exam, check out OSCE SMART as you will learn some practical tips on optimising your time in the assessments!
10. Part I OSCE — Challenges and Tips
Client Interview
Client Interview is challenging as your performance in the exam also depends on the client before you. You need to make sure you get all the relevant information from the client and it is possible that you get a client who is quiet, hard to decipher, or garrulous and leads you astray. You have to take control of the interview! In addition, the client is a lay person and so you have to avoid legalese. To illustrate, a client did not understand my question and advice because of legal jargon, and I had to apologize! Also, remember that you do not have to provide legal advice to the client. The objective of the interview is to collect the necessary information and to provide preliminary legal advice. You can elaborate on the legal advice in the attendance note.
Additionally, I made an interview script with a few opening lines and ending lines, just in case I got tongue-tied in the actual interview!
Attendance Note/Case Analysis
Post the interview, there isn’t much time to write the attendance note. You not just have to cover the facts of the interview but also provide a legal analysis to the Partner.
A tip is to write down the information you require in your notes (the sheets for your notes will be provided to you) in the 10 minutes you have before meeting the client. During the interview, you can fill up the blanks as you elicit the information from the client. This could include information such as the name, address, number, know-your-client documents etc. Here again, OSCE SMART had some practical tips which helped me organise my attendance note and optimise my time. Use the 25 minutes you have for the attendance note to brush up your notes and to write the legal analysis since you are also going to be graded on the law — this is important! You need to get the passing mark for both skills and the law. There are many who do fairly well on the skills part but do not make it on the law scores.
Advocacy
As against the interview, advocacy is easier as you have to make a presentation before the assessor who does not ask you too many questions. And 45 minutes is quite sufficient to prepare for your oral presentation/advocacy.
11. Part II OSCE — Tips
Legal Research
In Part II, Legal research can be daunting as you have to research on multiple queries and prepare a short note in 1 hour. While the QLTS School’s videos on research were useful guidance as a starting point, its drawback is that it doesn’t tell you how to do the research in one hour. I resorted to OSCE SMART’s strategy which was helpful because it gives you some really effective tips. I also arranged my note into bullet points to make it easier to read — maybe that worked.
Legal Drafting
Understand the types of drafting questions for each subject that could come up such as oaths for administrators/executors for probate, corporate resolutions for Business Law, particulars of claim for civil advocacy etc. Read up on how to draft such documents and keep a tab on where to find such drafts on LexisNexis.
Legal writing
This is most likely going to be a letter giving advice to a client. You will have a little time to research on the databases and will spend most of the 30 minutes writing the advice. Mastering how to find information from the databases will put you in good stead.
12. Remember the Objective of the Assessments
Read the Marking & Moderation Policy on the Kaplan website. This is key as you are going to be graded on these criteria. Quoting one of the objectives of the assessments:
“A competent newly qualified solicitor will demonstrate a level of knowledge, professional skills and understanding of legal practice and the law that is likely to avoid a negligence claim. In simple cases s/he can identify a client’s problem and the main legal issues raised. S/he should be able to recognise and respond appropriately to common situations which raise issues of professional conduct. S/he will normally know his or her limits when ignorant; know to what sources to refer for information; and ask for help when the problem is too difficult to deal with.”
If you do not know or are not sure of something (particularly in the oral presentation), say that you will have to double check and can get back to to the client later in the day. This is in line with the objective of avoiding a negligence claim.
13. 18 Hoops to Jump
Do not fret if you think you have messed up one of the assessments. Collect yourself and give your best in the remaining ones. It isn’t over until the end!
14. Logistics
Sort out your visa (if required), hotel stay, and clothes in advance. For Part I, you have to be formally dressed (it is better to wear black/navy blue and white for the advocacy). Try to stay close to the assessment centre as there are delays with the trains and you do not want to get stressed with the travel. I also took about 3–4 days off from work before the exams to get into the groove — time off from work to focus on the assessments would be great. And if it helps, book a morning flight to London so that you can spend the time reading a book rather than catching a snooze!
I’ve probably written too much and must stop. I hope you found the above useful. All the best for your assessments and do not forget to enjoy the ride!
Original article — https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-i-prepped-passed-qlts-osce-priyasha-corrie/ | How I Prepped for and Passed the QLTS OSCE — QLTS Success story | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@qltsosce/how-i-prepped-for-and-passed-the-qlts-osce-qlts-success-story-62e31f325e1f | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | [] | 2018-03-30 09:34:51.005000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Solicitor', 'Lawyers'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How technology affects relationships and divorce rates
The technologies have been on the rise for a few decades already. And that is hard not to notice. People are spending tons of money on buying new gadgets every year. New technologies are out every month and the companies are fighting for your wallet. However, technology is not only about the gadgets that we are using. It is also about the things that we use, but never notice. For example, the Internet has changed our lives forever. We are so used to being able to access everything online that things like normal books and newspapers are struggling to catch on. And they will probably not be able to. Moreover, there is something that is already online that we do not notice unless we need them. Those are the fields that used to be only offline. Well, they feel just alright online too. One of the shocking examples is the marriage field. And the relationships in general too. You will be surprised that you can simply upload your documents online and get married in a few minutes. That has made the value of a marriage extremely low. People think that they will be able to divorce as easily as they married. However, when they get to a point where they have to divorce, they only meet support from services like Cheap Divorce Online, that let you divorce online. Yet, they will not be able to fight your depression that will surely come after the divorce. Another problem that technology has brought to relationships is the fact that it is intruding into the lives of people. Sure, they are the ones to use it, but if there was none, their lives may have been better. This article is here to take a look at how the technologies might ruin your marriage.
1. People are distracted by social media
With every person nowadays having a phone and Internet connection, we are all spending hours a day on social media. That is where our friends, memories, and lives are. And that has brought tons of problems to the lives of couples. The normal communication has been damaged by the fact that every one of us would rather spend some time online instead of having a night out or something like that. You are not talking to your spouse while you are eating. Instead, you are simply staring at your phone, liking the pictures and talking on chats. And that would have not been a problem if normal communication was not damaged. Yet, with all of this, the amount of talking in a normal couple has gone down dramatically comparing to about a decade ago. So, if you are willing to take your relationship to a new level, make sure to take the amount of time spent online less. Especially, when you are together and have some time to spend. If you will be constantly opting to look at your newsfeed instead of normal communication, your marriage may soon be over. | Reasons Technology Is Affecting Divorce Rates | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@abbeysmith1025/reasons-technology-is-affecting-divorce-rates-aa37912eb25b | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Abbey Smith'] | 2019-12-23 14:51:50.356000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Divorce', 'Law', 'Lawyers'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Jean Danhong Chen Shares Everything You Need to Know About Sponsoring Family Members
As a resident of the United States, it is very likely that if you have siblings, parents and children living in another country, you will want them to join you. However, the process of sponsoring family members is often a long and arduous one which may need clarification.
Engaging exclusively in U.S. immigration and naturalization law, Jean Danhong Chen of San Jose, California, has been committed to providing quality employment and family-based immigration services to corporate and individual clients throughout the United States since 2003. She breaks down everything from requirements to the application process for sponsoring family members.
Who is Eligible for Sponsoring?
You can petition to bring your family members to the United States only if you are a permanent resident or a U.S. citizen. There are two groups of family-based immigration categories: immediate relative and family preference. Jean Danhong Chen explains that only a United States citizen can petition for someone to enter as an immediate relative, and only for the following specific relatives: a parent, spouse, child of the U.S. citizen, a child of the spouse, orphan adopted abroad by a U.S. citizen, and orphan to be adopted in the U.S. by a U.S. citizen. As a U.S. citizen, this is arguably the easier option for sponsoring a family member.
On the other hand, family-preference visas are for specific, more distant, family relationships with a U.S. citizen and some specified relationships with a Lawful Permanent Resident. Unlike immediate relatives, there are fiscal year numerical limitations on family preference immigrants, and their categories are: unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (and their minor children), spouses, minor children, unmarried sons and daughters (age 21 and over of LPRs), married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (and their spouses and minor children), and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens.
This is a long list; however, Jean Danhong Chen explains that it is important to note who is not included on the list: grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents-in-law, and other extended family members.
Jean Danhong Chen Explains the Application Process
Once you have identified that you are eligible to sponsor your family member, it is time to start the application process. Jean Danhong Chen explains that it will be your job as a U.S. citizen or green card holder to start the process by submitting a visa petition. Your family member will not be able to enter the United States until both the petition and a number of subsequent applications have been approved by the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services). It is important for you to prove that the family relationship is real.
Once the USCIS receives the petition, the officers will consider whether to approve or deny the request. If it is approved, the case file will be forwarded to the National Visa Center for further processing; however, if it is denied, it is still possible for the petitioner to file a new petition after determining what changes need to be made to encourage approval. It may be useful to work with an immigration lawyer on this paperwork to ensure you get approved the first time.
Visa Availability and Waiting Times
If you are in the family-preference group, you will then wait for visa availability. Jean Danhong Chen explains that relatives that are not considered ‘immediate’ are not eligible for permanent residence right away, as there are annual limits on the number of green cards that can be approved. This means that your family member will then join a waiting list, which means waiting usually around a year before learning if a visa is available. If the petition has been approved and a visa has become available, the family member would then submit an application for permanent residence.
The average waiting time for either category can differ vastly. The first preference is for adult unmarried children of U.S. citizens, and has an average wait time of seven years. Second preference is given to spouses or children of permanent residents and has an average wait time of two to seven years. Third preference is given to married children of U.S. citizens, waiting as long as 12 years, while fourth preference is given to brothers and sisters of U.S. residents who often have to wait up to 14 years. | Jean Danhong Chen Shares Everything You Need to Know About Sponsoring Family Members | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@JeanDanhongChen/jean-danhong-chen-shares-everything-you-need-to-know-about-sponsoring-family-members-2152e08be298 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Jean Danhong Chen'] | 2019-12-30 17:26:43.765000+00:00 | ['Immigration', 'Us Immigration', 'Lawyers', 'Permanent Residency', 'California'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | People who say that lawyers are a commodity good don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Lawyers are not a commodity. There’s no need to overpay, but do not skimp. Lawyers are expensive, and it’s tempting to go cheap when you’re small and broke. I get it. I’ve been there. But your legal docs are the hardest things to change, and sometimes, they’re unchangeable.
If you’re outside of Silicon Valley, make absofuckinglutely sure that you’re using a startup law firm with a Silicon Valley presence. Your cousin Andy’s friend who went to Harvard Law will not do the trick. The really smart lawyer your bud Jim knew at Goldman Sachs will not do the trick.
If you’re in tech, you need a startup lawyer. Period. And not’s because it’s rocket science, but because it involves nuance and long term issues that don’t apply to the rest of the normal business world, which is to say: there’s a chance you’ll raise venture capital and/or sell your company.
True Story…
I started the company that became SpeakerText in October 2008, just a couple weeks after the apocalypse Lehman collapse. I was still working on an ambulance at the time, paying the bills by being a paramedic in NYC. In December, I got my first lucky* break.
It was 4am. I was working 10w, tour 1 — the Upper East Side overnight. Around 0300, we got the call for a cardiac arrest. Old lady. Cancer patient. When we got there, the family spoke with an aura of acceptance. “She’s dead,” said her son. But they didn’t have the Do Not Resuscitate order on hand. Fuck, I thought. We have to work her up.
I hate working up dead people.
I tried to get the medical control doc to let us pronounce on the spot. He got pissed, said ‘no dice.’ And so we did the whole CPR rigamarole. I felt bad for the family. Let the woman rest in peace, I thought. What a shame.
And so we performed the obligatory medical theater. Sometime around 345am, I pronounced death.
Of course, it was my job to do the paperwork, and so I started talking to the son. He was a nice guy, in his 50s or so. Amidst checking the boxes and transcribing her medical history, I asked him my favorite question: “So, what do you do?”
Turns out he’s a lawyer. A corporate lawyer. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was actually a very powerful senior partner at one of the top firms in the US.
“Do you work with startups at all?” I inquired.
“Startups?” He responded, a bit exasperated. “Who’s doing that?”
Lehman had just melted down. The end of the world, it was.
“Well, I am” I said, and proceeded to pitch him what became SpeakerText.
He was intrigued and gave me his number, said: “Call me. I might be able to help you out.”
A few days later, I called. And emailed.
I didn’t want to push, so I left it at that. The man was in mourning, after all, and while I was & am a determined motherfucker, I wasn’t going to be that guy.
A month later, he called me back. “Sorry I didn’t respond earlier,” he said. “I just wanted to say that I was really impressed by you and that would be happy to take you on as a pro bono client.”
Woot! Free lawyers! And good ones to boot Hot damn!!!
Over the course of 12 months, they helped me form an LLC and then converted that into a C-corporation called SpeakerText Inc.
Our engagement ended in December 2009. And boy was a I proud.
In March, I went hunting for a new lawyer: the kind you pay for.
“If you had paid for these docs, I’d tell you to sue for legal malpractice.” This is what the pros at Wilson Sonsini told me.
Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
In our incorporation docs, there were two fatal mistakes, the combination of which was our saving grace.
#1 I failed to file a 83(b) election with the IRS.
The 83(b) election is something you have to file so that when you have equity vesting in place, you don’t have to pay an increasing amount of taxes with each month your shares vest. If you don’t file an 83(b), the IRS will classify all the shares that vest each month as income…at their current market value. Thus, if your stock price goes up, then you owe the IRS more money each month. But the shares are illiquid, so if the share price goes up a lot, you become increasingly fucked.
I was setup to be increasingly fucked. That is, if SpeakerText went anywhere.
#2 We failed to implement founder stock vesting.
Even worse, we split ownership in the company 50/50. If my original co-founder hadn’t been amenable, the company would have been dead in the water when we split up a few months later, with one departed founder owning half of the company and no legal remedy for changing the cap table.
#3 The company issued more shares than the board had authorized.
We had issued 25,000 shares but only authorized 2,500. Whoops.
The upside of this is that it was such an egregious, astoundingly sloppy move that it nullified everything else, including the 83(b) election screw up. Thank gawd.
Our new lawyer, Heather Miles, cleaned it all up back in April. We were lucky, she explained. My ass was saved by the sheer grossness of our previous lawyers’ incompetence.
Heather reached out to our previous counsel to ask about the 83(b). “What’s an 83(b)?” was the response.
Oy vey.
It’s not that our previous lawyers were bad people. Sloppy, yes. Incompetent, yes. Well pedigreed, also yes. Part of the problem is that, as pro bono clients, we had gotten kicked to a very amicable first year associate that handled our work.
Regardless, the real point is this: they weren’t specialists. They had never done incorporation work before. They didn’t grock the nuances. And as a result, they fucked up.
It’s like in medicine. Pediatrics have a fundamentally different anatomy and different problems than adults. Same with lawyers. You can’t just scale down the tactics you’d use in a big company. You need a specialist. Spend the money. It’ll save you in the end.
The other good thing about a really good lawyer is that they can help you negotiate terms with investors and customers. They can be the bad cop to your good cop. They can provide you with normative leverage, which is awesome. “I can’t do that because my lawyer says it will fuck me when we raise a series A,” is a wonderful thing to be able to say.
***
ATTENTION: SpeakerText is hiring web developers and ML hackers. If scaling a semi-automated, virtual assembly line that combines AI with crowdsourced labor sounds like your idea of a good time, click here. | How Well-Intentioned Lawyers from a Blue Chip Firm Almost Ruined My Startup | null | null | null | null | https://medium.mattmireles.com/how-well-intentioned-lawyers-from-a-blue-chip-firm-almost-ruined-my-startup-30a7b36c2117 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Matt Mireles'] | 2016-07-01 07:27:52.615000+00:00 | ['Lawyers'] |
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Image Copyright Matthew Homann. All Rights Reserved.
Several years ago, I was facilitating a retreat for a large Atlanta law firm. During one of our business development exercises, I heard an older lawyer tell a group of new partners, “You don’t know your clients unless you know the name of their dog.”
His advice has always stuck with me, but upon reflection it seemed to me better advice would have been to not only know your clients’ pets but to know their “pet projects” as well — the community organizations, charity, civic group or volunteer events they care about and support.
If its not obvious from the plaques, certificates of appreciation, etc. on their office walls the causes they support, ask them. Armed with this knowledge, here are a few things you can do:
Get on the group’s mailing list, so you’ll always know how you can help.
Donate money or goods to the cause’s auction in your client’s name.
Instead of spending your time entertaining your clients, spend that time volunteering with them in support of their cause. You’ll get the same one-on-one time, but will be helping out those in need. As a extra bonus, you’ll likely meet several of your client’s peers.
Find out what is the most pressing issue facing the organization (or its members), and offer to give a seminar to help them understand it better.
Donate a percentage of that client’s fees to their cause as your holiday gift the client.
Your clients will not only appreciate your interest in their cause, but you might gain an interest in theirs. When that happens, everybody wins. | Support the Causes Your Clients Do | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/the-non-billable-hour/support-the-causes-your-clients-do-536a0d59037a | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Matt Homann'] | 2015-12-28 16:19:04.698000+00:00 | ['Business Development', 'Client Services', 'Lawyers'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Photo Credit: Jerry Obanyero (OBANS)
“DEAR MAMA, I HAVE BROUGHT YOU THE WIG is a real life touching inspirational story, one of the must read stories especially for the upcoming youth.
Lawyer Jerry Obanyero becoming a lawyer is as a result of the agony and pain his mother went through.
As a little boy, not even a teenager (just 11) he had to accompany his mother to court…Read below in his own words…
“DEAR MAMA, I HAVE BROUGHT YOU THE WIG!
Studying a different course at the university and getting a job afterwards, upon completion of my NYSC, did not extinguish my passion of becoming a lawyer.
I resigned from my job, bought a JAMB form and started all over again.
The memories of how my widow mother was taken to court over an offence she absolutely knew nothing about while she was still mourning the death of my late father replayed on my mind always.
I was only eleven when I had to accompany my mother together with some of her elderly relations to court. Devastated, confused and with no money to hire a lawyer, my mother would cry and I would cry with her… | DEAR MAMA, I HAVE BROUGHT YOU THE WIG! Inspirational Story By Jerry Obanyero | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@africancelebs/dear-mama-i-have-brought-you-the-wig-inspirational-story-by-jerry-obanyero-fc97db16a683 | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['African Celebs'] | 2019-12-13 21:59:04.326000+00:00 | ['Inspirational Stories', 'Nigeria', 'Lawyers'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year, with 20 percent of those bites requiring medical attention. That’s almost one million dog bites labeled as severe and requiring additional treatment. Furthermore, these bites can lead to additional diseases like rabies and tetanus in certain cases. Needless to say, dog bites are no joke and should be taken seriously. The law office of Kisling, Nestico & Redick are experts in handling personal injury lawsuits and can help get the care and compensation victims deserve.
A dog bite can be a legal matter that must be taken seriously. Data from the Insurance Information Institute shows that $675 million was paid in liability claims in 2018 as a direct result of dog bites or other dog-related injuries. This goes to show how important it is to get the right legal advice for a dog bite and take care of any hardship that may result.
How to Handle a Dog Bite in Cleveland
Because many personal injury laws, including those relating to dog bites, are different from state-to-state, it’s important to understand the laws regarding dog bites in Cleveland before attempting to make a claim.
According to Ohio statute 955.28, an owner, harborer, or keeper of a dog is generally liable for injuries caused by that animal. That person is also responsible for “death or loss to person or property that is caused by the dog.” The individual controlling the dog is therefore at fault in any instance where a dog bite becomes serious and the victim needs medical treatment or additional care.
Additionally, under the state’s common law doctrine, added compensation can be warranted if the dog has previously bitten another person or acted aggressively in the past. However, proving this in a court of law is not easy and may require collecting witness testimony from those who have experienced the dog’s aggressive behavior. Another option is to look up bite records which were previously filed in the court system. If you find that you were not the first victim of the dog in question and there was malicious intent, you may be entitled to punitive damages. These damages are used to punish the defendant for multiple acts of wrongdoing in the hopes of making them understand the severity of these harmful acts.
In the state of Ohio, the majority of dog bite cases are covered under homeowner’s insurance policies. This is the first place a victim can go to obtain the restitution and damages they deserve and may be all that is needed if the bite is less severe. However, more severe bites may warrant additional damages, so it is important to consult with an expert legal team.
It should go without saying that this law does not apply if the injury was inflicted upon someone who was committing an unlawful act, such as trespassing on private property, committing a crime, or abusing the dog in question.
KNR Knows Your Rights
A serious dog bite can start with serious injuries and scars and lead to missed time from work, psychological trauma, and other hardships. The team at Kisling, Nestico & Redick know that anyone bitten by a dog should get the care and compensation they deserve so that they can move forward with their life.
An experienced lawyer from Kisling, Nestico & Redick knows the drill when it comes to filing a third-party claim against the insurer representing the dog’s owner. Depending on the bite and severity, this claim may request both economic damages (like medical expenses and lost wages) and non-economic damages (like physical and emotional pain or scarring from the injury).
First, the legal team at KNR works to understand all of the details of the attack by conducting a thorough investigation. From there, the team can then provide guidance on the best next steps, whether that is filing an insurance claim or taking the incident to the legal system and filing a lawsuit against the dog’s owner.
It’s not easy to navigate the insurance and legal systems in Ohio, especially after being attacked and severely injured by a dog. That’s why it’s best to turn to experts who are trained in providing you with the best legal service and can help you recover the most compensation possible to help you move forward with your life.
Contact KNR today to get more information or a free legal consultation for any dog bite that you or a loved one may have recently experienced.
Follow Kisling, Nestico & Redick on Linkedin | Kisling, Nestico & Redick Help Cleveland Victims Recover After Dog Bite | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@letsgetpolitical/kisling-nestico-redick-help-cleveland-victims-recover-after-dog-bite-678dd351fc1e | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ["Let'S Get Political"] | 2019-12-13 18:04:21.797000+00:00 | ['Law', 'Lawyers', 'Ohio'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How to Protect Your App Idea: A Lawyer’s Simple Breakdown
Almost ever first-time startup founder worries about people stealing their idea. They tend to keep their startup a secret until they launch, and won’t talk to anyone about it without signing an NDA first. While there are many things startup founders should be worried about, this is not one of them.
“To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.” — Steve Jobs
You shouldn’t worry about people stealing your idea before you even know if your idea is worth stealing. If after you launch, you find users really love your app, and the company starts to grow quickly, then it may be time to start worrying about people “copying” your app.
There are a few different types of legal protection you can get for a mobile app. Some can cost tens of thousands of dollars, others may just be a few hundred. Here’s a simple overview of each type of protection and who should consider getting them:
Copyright
According to USPTO:
“A copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of ‘original works of authorship’ including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, both published and unpublished.”
Consider getting a copyright. This will protect source code, in-app copy, and graphics. Copyright registrations are fast and inexpensive usually under $1,000.
Even though Apple and Google have top tier security, it is technically possible for someone with a jailbroken phone to extract the source code from your app. They could simply change a couple of lines of your code, and launch it as their own app. A copyright gives you a legal recourse to take if someone does attempt a fraudulent act.
Remember, this does not protect the idea, it only covers the physical and intellectual assets that make up the app.
Patent
A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This will give you the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention in the United States.
Patents provide more protection than copyrights because its’ requirements are much more stringent. What you are patenting must be useful, novel, and non-obvious. It also has to be physical, it can’t be an abstract idea. Simply put, patents protect original ideas and inventions from other businesses that are highly unlikely to come up with these ideas by themselves.
You will not be granted a patent if your product uses any previously patented methods or processes to create your product. Both the idea and the way you brought that idea to fruition must be completely original.
Patents are the most expensive type of protection and can cost anywhere from $8k-$15k.
Name Protection / Trademark
Protecting the name of the app is just as important as protecting the technology of the app. App names can be protected by what’s called a trademark registration.
A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or device that is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others.
With mobile, a trademark is used to prevent others from using the same app name as yours, but it won’t prevent others from creating a similar app under a different name.
When should you trademark your company name? As soon as you start to see your download count growing. If you search any popular game in the App Store you will see many spin-offs.
Popular Tetris-style game 1010, has been copied by an overseas programmer that named his game 10101010. This allows them to rank at the top when people search for the original game and steal some of the downloads that would have originally gone to the 1010 game.
Keep in mind that your trademark should be filed after your business entity has been formed. Other than that, filing a trademark early on is pretty straightforward, and costs only $150. You can read more on trademark protection on the Startup Law Blog.
Before settling on any name, it’s important to check if it’s even possible to trademark your app. You can see if the name is available on the USPTO website. If your name is available, consult a trademark attorney on your next steps.
After settling on your name make sure you reserve it on the app store, register your domain name, and create your social media accounts.
How Do I Reserve My Name in the App Store?
To protect your app name on the App Store, go to iTunes Connect and submit your app name reservation. The application process and reservations are free and as of 2015, there is no limit as to how long you can hold your name for as long as you are not in violation of Apple’s Guidelines:
“You will not, directly or indirectly, commit … (e.g., submitting fraudulent reviews of Your own Application or any third party application, choosing a name for Your Application that is substantially similar to the name of a third party application in order to create consumer confusion, or squatting on application names to prevent legitimate third party use.”
How Do I Register My Domain Name?
Use Namechk to see if there are domains and social media usernames available. Try to match your domain name as closely as possible to your app’s name, but don’t worry if that’s not an option. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to do this as more and more domain names are taken each day. You may have to get creative like companies such as www.joinhouse.party, www.visual.ly.You can purchase your domain by going to a domain provider like Namecheap and paying an annual fee of $10-$40.
How to Protect Your App when Developing with an Agency
Always ask the agency you’re working with for an NDA. Every established mobile app development agency will have these documents on hand and will gladly sign upon request. Mutual NDA’s keep all information you share private and will confirm that everything that is rightfully yours will remain yours.
Signing an NDA will give you protection to some degree, but it won’t 100% guarantee your app is safe. The best way to protect your app during development is to work with a reputable company. Conduct thorough research by using reliable review sites like Clutch.co to make sure the agency you work with is trustworthy and has quality reviews.
Special thanks to Steven Buchwald, a startup and tech attorney in New York at Buchwald and Associates, for his insight on this topic. You can contact him through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. | How to Protect Your App Idea: A Lawyer’s Simple Breakdown | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/app-partner-academy/how-to-protect-your-app-idea-a-lawyers-simple-breakdown-1b200044aeb | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['App Partner'] | 2018-05-03 16:44:23.602000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Lawyers', 'Startup Life', 'Legal', 'Copyright'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | How How To Become One Of The Best Immigration Lawyers? Can Ease Your Pain
The interest for the best immigration lawyers is in every case high in the profoundly created nations since they quite often have a tremendous inflow of workers. However, and still, at the end of the day the activity advertise will in general be intense in Best Immigration Lawyers In Bay Area the field of immigration lawyers since the market is getting concentrated.
Anyway you can at present go into this field and become well known. In any case, you should try sincerely and intense for it. Becoming extraordinary compared to other immigration lawyers is a serious high point and achieving that won’t be simple. Clearly to be probably the best attorney you will likewise need to have a have an extremely solid instructive foundation.
Entering into the industry consistently requests a decent degree to help your character. The point of becoming extraordinary compared to other immigration lawyers ought to be made right off the bat in life in light of the fact that for that you should go into a graduate school. Depending upon your financial and different conditions you probably won’t have the option to go into the most renowned graduate school of your nation.
Be that as it may, you attempt to go into the best you can. Graduating from a graduate school is the initial step to achieving the objective of being perhaps the best legal advisory. A great deal of graduate schools offer at any rate one elective in immigration law.
Be that as it may on the off chance that you are wanting to represent considerable authority in immigration law, at that point it is best to move on from a graduate school that enables you to not think about only one course of immigration law however to work in it.
Specializing implies that you will consider different courses identified with immigration law and thus being outstanding amongst other immigration lawyers you will have total information on all parts of this field of law. The best graduate schools of your nation will without a doubt offer specialization in this particular field of law.
Anyway you can find other calm schools also that will enable you to gain information if immigration law through specialization. Being outstanding among other immigration lawyers doesn’t request just a degree from an eminent graduate school, every single other part of your character likewise have an effect.
You should have what it takes and insights of a legal counselor alongside a degree. During your examination residency it is significant for you to verify an internship in a decent law office. Having experience of an internship truly matters in the event that you need to be outstanding amongst other immigration lawyers.
A great deal of eager graduate school understudies attempt to get into law office or whatever other philanthropic association which spends significant time in handling instances of immigration. Having genuine experience is basic to shape you into a standout amongst other immigration lawyers.
The size of the firm you pick doesn’t make a difference a great deal. Instead you should focus on securing internship in a firm where you would need to fill in as a legal advisor after you have graduated. For internship you can look through legislative employments in light of the fact that a ton of immigration lawyers work for the administration.
Your emphasis ought to be on securing such an internship which mirrors your point of explicitly being a standout amongst other immigration lawyers. Start searching for internships as quickly as time permits instead waiting for the opportunity to arrive.
It is extremely significant for you to establish a decent connection in your internship. Making your supervisor glad is the way to entering into this industry. During your internship residency ensure you turn out as an aspiring and dedicated individual waiting for the opportunity to take off high and become a standout amongst other immigration lawyers.
DUI DWI Criminal Defense Lawyer
Hayward Office: 24301 South land Drive, Suite 212 B Hayward, CA 94545
Phone: 415–867–5181
Fax: 415–506–1656 | How How To Become One Of The Best Immigration Lawyers? Can Ease Your Pain | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@sherozbhaig/how-how-to-become-one-of-the-best-immigration-lawyers-can-ease-your-pain-19b19a5eb3ea | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Robert Morris'] | 2019-12-11 09:25:58.738000+00:00 | ['Immigration', 'Lawyers', 'Law'] |
null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | Supreme Court gave important decision — yr associates
In 2019, the Supreme Court gave important decisions and new arrangements
The year 2019 has also been important in many ways for the Supreme Court. This year, in many such cases, the Supreme Court gave its verdict or gave a new order, which created history. In the Ayodhya case which has been in legal trouble for many years, the Supreme Court gave its important decision this year. Let us look at some such cases: -
Memory card is also an important document
The Supreme Court has made the provision of the memory card an important document in criminal cases. A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari ruled in a case of Yain harassment. This case is of February 2017. According to the allegation, a Kerala actress was sexually assaulted in a car in Kochi, whose video is in a memory card of a fan.
Contention comment on pollution
Expressing concern over the increasing pollution in Delhi, the court commented on the government and said that it is better to breathe in the air than kill the public in one blast. During this time, the court even said that the Delhi government has no right to remain in power. This type of comment was made for the first time on behalf of the Supreme Court against any government.
Extremism rape case based on agreement
The Supreme Court, bypassing the Kerala High Court’s order, has ordered the rape accused to terminate the ongoing proceedings in the rape case after her agreement with the victim woman. The Kerala High Court refused to close the case. The court said that the matter is made under 376 even after the consensual sexual relationship. Therefore it cannot be canceled. Against this, the accused had approached the Supreme Court, after which, considering the affidavit of the complainant girl and the circumstances of the case, the court believes that criminal proceedings should be ended against the appellant.
Order to prove majority to Maharashtra government
When the opposition approached the Supreme Court against the Devendra Fadnavis government who took oath in Maharashtra overnight, the court not only ordered them to prove their majority in the Assembly but also to telecast it live. A division bench of Justices NV Ramana, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Sanjeev Khanna also ordered the Governor to appoint a temporary chairman. The bench said that there would be no secret voting in the house.
Clean chit to the government on Rafale
Rejecting the petition filed for the Rafale aircraft deal, the Supreme Court not only gave a shock to the opposition but also gave its seal to the deal being fully corrected. The court said that there is no need for any kind of hearing again in this case.
CJI under the purview of RTI
The Supreme Court, while announcing the decision to keep the office of Chief Justice also under the purview of RTI, made it clear that its accountability to the public cannot be denied. However, the court also believed that nothing can be given through RTI. The court said that the independence of the judiciary has to be taken care of by filing RTI. In this case, the Delhi High Court, in its judgment on 10 January 2010, said that the CJI’s office comes under the purview of the RTI Act. It said that judicial independence is not the prerogative of the judge, but a responsibility. The court delivered the verdict 3–2. The CJI said that an institution should not be harmed in the name of transparency.
Inept but can contest elections
The Supreme Court upheld the disqualification of 17 MLAs by the former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly amidst political turmoil in Karnataka. The court said that despite this, he can contest elections. The court ruled that the resignation does not end the speaker’s authority.
Janitor is the case
In the case of Chowkidar Chaur Hai, the Supreme Court, considering the application for forgiveness of Rahul Gandhi, left him with instructions. The court said that the statement should be given carefully to the people sitting on constitutional posts. It is worth noting that during the elections, Rahul Gandhi had publicly said that in many public meetings, the watchman is a thief who has directly targeted PM Modi.
Ayodhya case
In the Ayodhya case, the Supreme Court, delivering its historic verdict, handed over the entire disputed land to Ramlala Virajman. Apart from this, the court also ordered the government to give 5 acres of land to the Muslim side from the state government. The court in its order has also asked for a trust to be built for the construction of the temple. Court has also been ordered to include this trust Nirmohi Akhara. With this court order, the case of years old has been closed.
Yogesh and Ram Bajad & Associates with law firm. A law firm is normally an organization between legal counselors who have met up to offer their skill to customers under one name. We provide you this service like — Cyber Law, criminal law, corporate law, and Tenant lawyer advice.
Contact us : 098275 25296 | Supreme Court gave important decision — yr associates | null | null | null | null | https://medium.com/@yogeshsandrambajadassociates/supreme-court-gave-important-decision-yr-associates-4c5f753f787d | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | null | ['Y.R. Advocate Associates'] | 2019-12-11 12:06:05.469000+00:00 | ['Supreme Court', 'Advocate', 'Associates', 'Lawyers', 'Law'] |
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