Erik Qualman's Blog, page 495

How to Hire a Freelance Web Designer and Not Ruin Your Project

 Need a talented web designer for your new website, but are afraid that the wrong designer will ruin the project altogether? If you pick a web designer ill-suited to your needs, sure, failure is possible, but luckily it is also just as possible to hire the right freelance designer for your business to take off and reach new levels of success.

The difference between hiring the right freelance web designer and the wrong one is just a matter of preparation.

While this article can’t give you all the preparation you need, it can give you some tips on areas of research and ways you should be preparing as you begin your search for a freelance web designer.

Understand Your Project

In many ways, the first step is the most important. Before you even begin the search for a web designer, you should know what kind of website you need. This means having a concept of its aesthetic design, its usability, its targeted demographic, and the technology used to build it.

If you go into the search and interview process without a clear idea of the website you need, you’re wasting time and resources by attempting to hire a designer for a project you don’t fully understand.

At this early stage, knowing your technical requirements is most important, so let’s talk languages. Web design is done with several different programming languages, the most popular of which are HTML5, CSS, and Javascript. Your web designer should have a working knowledge HTML/CSS/JavaScript and extensive experience with at least one of them.

Designers are human too, and they aren’t capable of everything

 Many projects also require additional knowledge in specific areas, such as Flash, Silverlight, or WordPress. If your design project will require any of those, be sure that you are looking for that in your search and asking about it in interviews.

Designers are human too, and they aren’t capable of everything. Knowing the technological requirements of your project will make sure that your interview process is screening applicants for the skills you do need, not for things you might.

Just as important as knowing what skills and technical knowledge you need is having a clear idea of the size of your budget and the timeline you are working with. These two elements will determine who you can afford, and a talented designer will want answers to both of these questions before signing a contract.

Not only will unclear budgets and timelines make talented designers wary of signing your contract, if you end up hiring a web designer and then have to change your budget or timeline, you could end up spending far more money than you’re able to or releasing an imperfect product.

Hire for Fit, Not Skill

This sounds counterintuitive, but hear me out. Yes, your web designer needs a certain amount of talent for a successful website, but there comes a point where more talent isn’t necessary or even beneficial to your project.

For one thing, more talent usually comes with a larger paycheck. If your project doesn’t require the skills of a master web designer, don’t hire one. Hire a good web designer instead, and save money in the process.

 Secondly, more skill doesn’t equal greater success. Maybe a web designer has a great track record with past clients, but maybe your envisioned web site is different from what he is good at. Many web designers specialize in targeting certain demographics or building a certain kind of website, and those specialties may not align with what you are trying to accomplish.

If possible, give designers a test project during the hiring process to see how they work on the fly and can adapt to new problems

The best way to find out if a web designer is a good fit to build your website is through his or her work. When looking for web designers, it’s important to see their portfolios in order to get a feel for their design. When interviewing designers, ask if they have a website or portfolio of their work they can show you. If they have their own website or personal projects, it’s a good sign because it reveals a passion for design outside of their paycheck.

If a designer isn’t sending you a portfolio directly, the best place to find portfolios are online. Good places to look are portfolio websites like Dribbble or Behance. These sites allow you to view a designer’s work, and you can see if their designs are in line with your own vision.

If possible, give designers a test project during the hiring process to see how they work on the fly and can adapt to new problems. A test project is also a good indicator of how a designer handles stress, an important trait for any designer.

When hiring a web designer, be sure to think about not just how talented they are, but how that talent fits into the rest of your business, and whether that specific designer is the right match for your team.

Don’t Forget About Communication

 One of the most important roles of a web designer is that of communicator. A web designer takes a business idea and translates it into a form that users can understand. As such, communication is a talent your web designer needs to be successful.

During the interview, be sure to not only consult web design hiring guides for interview question ideas to test their knowledge, but also pay attention to their communication skills as well. Do they have a sense of humor? Are they easy to get along with? Do they express themselves well?

 These are important questions for a designer because they need to be able to communicate with the business, with users, and with the developers also working on the site. But these are also important questions for a freelancer.

As someone who is working with your team as an outsider, and possibly remotely, they need to be able to communicate, be responsive, and have the ability to integrate into your team with ease. The best freelancers are the ones who have been freelancing for years and made it a career. Being a team player is as much a learned skill as design is.

If you are finding a freelancer online, it can be tough to verify their experience and ability to communicate without a personal reference. However, there are ways around that. Services like Toptal Designers screen their web designers for technical and communication skills before matching them with clients, ensuring that businesses get the talent they need.

To make sure your project is successful, your web designer needs to be a communicator, a team player, and an experienced freelancer.

Other less known platforms who also claim to offer hand-picked web designers to complete your project are Folyo – a private community of hand-picked designers. Post your project, and you’ll receive a shortlist of the best designers for the job as well as  hand picked freelance web designers and developers by Crew

It’s important to look outside of design itself when hiring a web designer. To make sure your project is successful, your web designer needs to be a communicator, a team player, and an experienced freelancer.

Conclusion

 There are many ways hiring a freelance web designer can go wrong. Miscommunication, misaligned objects, and a bad product are all possible outcomes, but these are all avoidable if the hiring process is handled carefully and given its due time.

Hiring new employees shouldn’t be rushed, and hiring freelance talent is no different. Preparation and understanding what your project needs are the key elements to successfully hiring a freelance web designer. So sit down, plan out your project forwards and backwards, and then begin the hiring process and search until you find the designer with the technical and team-oriented skills to complement your team.

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Bugs And Fixes Of The iPhone 6S

The iPhone 6 took over the market, only to evolve into the iPhone 6S, a more powerful  and sleek device at your fingertips. Apple worked through most of the issues bugs and glitches of the iPhone 6 but a couple are still reported by users of the 6S. You’ll find enclosed below the most commonly met ones and their quick fixes:

Overheating

Issue: Compared to its predecessor’s bug of having no touch ID if you had no service, this time the touch ID heats up, also blocking the screen and lacking any responsiveness to touch. This issue pops up after the phone is charged. In fact, the problem of overheating stood with the former version as well and persists with the 6S as sometimes the phone getting overheated.

Fix: Hold both the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button pressed for 10 seconds. If it doesn’t work, Try to let it cool down. Unplug the charger and place it on a surface that doesn’t preserve heat (table, nightstand, chair) and then try again. Check for any apps that might be running in the background and pushing your phone into overdrive and turn them off.

Sound distortion

Issue: Many users have noticed a distortion in sound when the volume is up, leaving the ringtone with an anything but qualitative pleasant vibe to it.

Fix: Try checking the Music EQ Settings and adjust the speaker mode if that is the case. Also check if you notice this issue during the use of a certain app, then make sure you have its latest update installed and that it’s not only an app version bug.

Software Update Glitches

Issue: one of the more delicate and painful issues is that of installing new software versions.. Most users report that during the new iOS installation, that the software update either fails or the device becomes unresponsive once the “Swipe to upgrade” dialog box appears.

Fix: in case of the upgrade fail simply try again at a different hour. The Apple servers could be overcrowded at that time leading to malfunctions. In case the phone stops responding try restarting your device first. It’s the most elementary way. If the issue persists, you can try doing the update through iTunes after disconnecting all unnecessary devices. If you have an older device, you might have to reset it. That is why you need to make sure that before beginning any software upgrade, you have made a backup of all your data. Here you can find a more detailed guide to help you properly approach this issue.

Even so…

We all dream of the ultimate phone that has a longer lasting battery life, that won’t heat up when we open multiple apps but until one is made, every tech savvy approaches with interest each new version. These are fast, soft fixes but if any of the above issues persist in the long run, then you should contact Apple and have them take a look at your phone since it might be a manufacturing issue.

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The Simplest Communication with Online Technology

There are many things in the world that people see as important. When it comes to businesses learning, and education, private discussion, or even the general transfer of information, the most important thing is communication. Regardless of why you would potentially be looking for ways to improve a relationship (no matter what sort of relationship), at the root of all improvements comes the fundamental understanding and betterment of communication.

Image via pixabay.com

Communication Is an Art

Even though you may be comfortable with the way that you happen to communicate, the truth is you can’t just casually talk with some people like you normally do. Another thing to recall is that formal structure and training of communication typically ends in your teenage years for most individuals. So, as long as you are still speaking with the same process that you did when you were in grade school, you could be doing things in your day to day speech that you never even realized were problematic. The importance of your words and ideas could be masked by the way you choose to communicate and deliver your message.

The good news is that this goes both ways. By understanding some of the simplest ways of effective communication you are not only showing yourself off as a valuable and intelligent individual, but you are also selling yourself and your product just by speaking with others. If nothing else, at least you can identify some potential problematic areas that you may have and keep those to a minimum. Make no mistake, however, every word you say as well as the way you say it are important. And it doesn’t stop there; the subjects you choose to discuss or avoid can have as much of an impact on a conversation as the words you use. It might not seem like a big deal to some, but refining your communication by rethinking your talking points and delivery will truly allow for better results and the others won’t even know how you’re doing it!

 

Know Your Knowledge Sources

It doesn’t matter how you learn, what does matter is where you choose to get your education. And, while no one doubts an academic setting or an additional continuing education class about your field, one of the top ways of increasing your education is by listening to your employees and other contacts in the field. These individuals may not fully understand all of the specifics from a technical standpoint, but if you are able to hit on their concerns while also speaking eloquently, you will seem like a bright and polished expert of any field. Understanding your market is no more difficult than listening to those employees who have their heads down in the market each and every day. When it comes to being a top individual within an organization, whether you are part of one that is big or small, you have all of the ability in the world to grow within the field when people seek you out for answers.

 

Communication is Constant and Open

One of the things that drives so many people nuts is the inability to get a hold of someone else in the first place. It might not be a big deal on the surface, but when it all boils down to it you aren’t valuable at all if you can’t convey information and knowledge. In fact, there is even a theory that generally says someone who may not have the answers but is always available does more than someone with the answers but who can’t be found.

Communication needs to not only be something your company does well, but from a service point of view your company needs to believe communication is central to the organization. In fact, building a company that puts communication at the forefront isn’t just something nice to do for your customers. It also creates loyalty and a focus on service. If you can do, that then they will never leave you. Plus, when it comes to the brand new technologies that are currently available, such as online screen sharing with Blue Jeans, your ability to communicate literally never stops. You are always on call just by the click of a button.

Communication truly is one of those things that most people never think about. They figure that if they can simply form words together and spit them out, they must be doing ok. The problem is that while we continue to grow and gain other skills, communication stays more or less at the same level it has always been. For as much as we use our communication abilities, and especially for certain meetings or discussions with certain people, you would think that there would be a higher focus on it in general. Continue to make improving your communication skills a priority and you will have no problem moving forward in any workplace as well as any relationship.

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7 of the best WordPress themes for event management companies

Event planning and implementation has gone a notch higher over the years. Once upon a time planning a big event meant tons of advertising and that would cost a fortune. Today, conferences and other events are being planned in a much bigger and more efficient way. Think of church fellowships that are holding as many as thirteen thousand people, weddings with two thousand attendees and business conferences with thousands of professionals. Professional event management companies have to be brought on board in order of the events to be successful.

When you start your own events planning company a website will definitely be in order. It is here that prospective clients will come to check your portfolio and determine whether your agency is up to the task. This only means that you should get the best of events themes for your website. To start off, you will probably choose WordPress as your site’s content management system (CMS). Conveniently, this is a great choice for an event management company because there thousands of WordPress themes that are meant specifically for this area of business.

Choose from the best

Before listing down some of the best themes that are available in the market it important to remember that responsive and customizable themes are the best. You do not want to pick out a theme that is not going to work for mobile access of your site. At the same time you do not want a theme that cannot be tweaked to meet your business’ specific needs and requirements. The best of these themes include:

Event

This one tops the list because it is designed specifically for those event planning professionals who have carved out their mark in the events and conference industry. To start of it is excellently designed with a very catchy design. The theme looks excellent on all sorts of devices. Secondly it is Woo-Commerce ready allowing you to sell tickets on-line. It comes with social media options integrated as well.

Event from Themify

Another theme with a similar name, Event from Themify is fully responsive and that is what makes it so great. Aside from that you can add everything for pictures and audio’s to videos making the theme spicier. It also comes with statistics options that allow you to share various details concerning articles and posts. It comes with WPML compatibility and a wide array of customization options.

Keynote

The thing about Keynote is its level of professionalism. It is a perfect them for conference organizers. If you want to make that conference one to be remembered for a long time then this theme will work excellently. It provides you with four pre-made styles that can be customized some more. Retina-ready and extremely responsive- these are the other features that you will get from this theme.

Even tum

Note before: there is Even tum the event directory theme and there is the events theme itself. The directory theme is for businesses that want to provide clients with multiple events to choose from. However, the events and conference theme is for business. What you will love most about Even tum is its lively aura and relaxed ambience. It does not matter whether someone is viewing it from a smartphone or a tablet it full of colour and is highly customizable.

Oscillator

Funny name but extremely awesome design it has to offer. It is the must-have event theme for all those in the entertainment industry. Aside from its breathtaking design and multitude of customization options, this theme is optimized for search engines. It is also responsive, translation and retina ready.

Sessions

This is the perfect music theme for WordPress. Well, it is one of the many perfect ones. To start off, it is very simple yet extremely sophisticated in style. It is woo-commerce integrated making it possible for you to deal out your merchandise on-line easily. On top of that it is quite unique making it right for a start-up event management company that is looking for something different to work with.

Fudge

Also among the eye-catching WordPress themes for conferences and events is Fudge. This theme is designed with your site’s visitors in mind. People visiting a website want some specific information. This theme is structured to provide all the information related to the event without building any clutter. You have ten colour palettes to select from. It is well-integrated with social media as well as a countdown option. You want to capture the curiosity of your prospective audience? The countdown option is a great way to go about it.

Conclusion

There are multiple WordPress themes for your event management company. The above mentioned are just some of the very many options that are available for you to pick out from. The theme that you pick out is going to have an impact on the success of your site on the internet. Generally what you should be looking for in an event theme is: customizability (especially with the colours), retina readiness, Woo-commerce and social media integration as well as responsiveness.

WPDEAN is the go-to site for anyone who is looking for WordPress theme guidance. Whether you are looking for the best event WordPress themes or themes for your start-up business, a visit to wpdean.com is all you need.

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4 ways social media is going to help your blog grow

Social media is here to stay. It is like one of those sweet things that people never understand how they were able to live without them in the first place. The things that you can do with in social media are just so many nowadays. Initially when MySpace was the in thing, it was just about connecting with friends and family at cheap prices. When Facebook, Twitter and the other social media platforms burst onto the scene, things changed dramatically. People are using social media on overdrive now. There are some whose lives are entirely on the social media platforms.

Getting noticed online

The internet is used by billions of people from all over the world at any given moment. Therefore, getting the attention of the public is not all that simple. There are so many things that you can do in order to capture the attention of internet users but then the best and most popular of them is search engine optimization (SEO). Optimizing your website or blog for the search engines is undeniably the easiest way to get noticed by other people using the internet like you.

Google is the biggest search engine on the planet today. It is being used all over the world in countries that you have probably never heard of. Being able to be found on the first page or second of a Google search result lineup is going to pay a lot. Just consider your searching habits. When you are searching for something online, you rarely go to the second, third and subsequent pages of the result lineup. Most people would rather refine the keywords that they are searching than to go to page two. This is just how critical SEO is.

Search Engine Optimization can either get you noticed or it can hide you even farther in the mass of results that usually pop up. A few years ago Google started telling its users how many results it has turned up during a search. How will your site be found on page one of 13 billion results? It does not sound possible but it does happen. All that you need to do is carry out SEO campaigns properly and make use of tools like social media. The things that social media can do for your SEO campaigns are just so many.

How does social media come in?

For starters, social media commands the huge numbers of people you are looking for. At any given moment in time, there are at least ten million people using social media platforms. There are those who will be on Facebook and others who are working on Instagram. Facebook alone has more than a hundred million users. These are humongous numbers and were they to be transferred to your website or blog then definitely you are going to be at the top of those search engines. Hiring the finest SEO services NJ is going to be extremely beneficial for this. Practically all SEO companies try to harness the power of social media.

Increase brand exposure

Picture this scenario: you have posted some really good article on your blog about terrorist attacks or the latest gossip on what Taylor Swift is planning to do. The next step is usually to sit back and wait for people to subscribe to your website, right? This is a wrong approach. Once you have posted content on your site, you can share out that content on social media and this increases your exposure tremendously. This is all thanks to the numbers that are held by social media as aforementioned. A quick post on your Twitter handle and you will notice a great difference between when you decide to share and when you sit back.

Social media is optimized

Have you ever searched for something and then among the results you find a Facebook page and something of the sort? Most of these social media platforms are optimized for the search engines. As such if there is a lot of traffic that is being directed to a particular page of the social website it is going to reflect on the search engines. Creating a profile for your brand or a fan page is highly advised. Even if people are not able to find your website using the search engines, then they are able to find the product through the social media as well.

It is cheap advertising

How does a musician like Beyonce manage to sell millions of albums around the world without doing any publicity for it? How are companies like Apple and Samsung able to get word out to the public about their upcoming products without spending a fortune in the process? It is all thanks to social media. Viral messages spread extremely fast. A message could surface somewhere right now and within a few minutes it has gone all over the world.

This has built many bloggers around the world. The blogger simply posts a link to their website on social media and get the traffic directed to their site. Of course the amount of traffic you get to a site is dependent on the number of people it reaches on the social media platforms.

It is long-lasting marketing

Creating a good social media base for your product is more like guaranteeing your brand successful promotion from that time onwards. Building your social media following organically is going to be great for your brand. This is because organic followers are more like permanent. They continue to grow and at some point you will not need to carry out much of the promotion work on social media anymore. You social following will be growing with time.

Conclusion

There is definitely no way you can remove social media from your SEO campaign. This is at all if you want to get success. When running an SEO campaign there are lots of things that need to be done and a good number of them will be done on social media. Seeking the services of an expert in SEO work is going to be of great benefit in your brand promotion endeavors.

 

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7 Ways For Custom Website Development In WordPress

The content management system (CMS) services is used by millions of entrepreneur in every corner of the world. Most of the top websites in the world are powered by WordPress as WordPress is a great platform for entrepreneurs to create amazing looking website for their start-ups or business.

WordPress website development services have a large number of theme options available, social media integration and many more. Following are the the Important points you have to remember when you’re using WordPress.

1: Quality of Themes-

Those of you who are planning to create a website using a theme for your business then there are 1000’s of free and premium themes that are available all you need to do is be careful in selecting a reliable and flexible theme which can be customized without much hassle to deal with.

2: Hosting-

When you are taking hosting for your website always remember to look for a managed WordPress hosting which provide regular updates and backups, as it is another essential factor for successfully creating your website.

3: Choose your Plugins wisely-

Only install those plugins on your WordPress website which are necessary for you to use because installing too many plugins on your WordPress website will slow its performance.

4: Configuring Your Website-

Now, you need to configure and install your WordPress accordingly. For example, you should think about how the comments are moderated, permalinks are setup etc. You can easily accomplish this in WordPress settings and should be done during your initial setup.

5: Mobile Interface-

Many users who visit your website by their mobile devices, so the website which is WordPress based it should be responsive to the mobile interface so that the user should be able to experience smooth transition reason being Users tend to switch to websites when they don’t get the desired information in minimal clicks.

Adam Farra, CEO of HostGator says, “It can be a bit of a chore to make certain that your site is mobile-friendly. But it’s worth the effort. Doing so will help to assure that your site ranks as highly as possible in search engine results.”

6: Security-

WordPress have decent security features but consider implementing more advanced security measures using WordPress plugins and many other best practices.

Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of High-Tech Bridge says, “I would say that a popular CMS, such as WordPress or Joomla may be considered secure in default installation if they are properly configured, don’t have third-party code and are up to date.”

7: Search Engine Optimization-

Consider Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your business website to enhance the visibility of your website on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other Search Engines. You can use WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast and all in SEO plugin for metadata so that you will lead to right direction and establish an active presence on all search engines and social media marketing channels where user spends most of their time and you can build a brand for your business to generate leads.

For website development for your business you should hire a web development company who are expert in web designing, WordPress website development, digital marketing and mobile application development so that you can grow your business in the right direction.

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Get Social in Hiring the Best Talent

If your business has been lacking reeling-in the best talent in recent times, use the New Year to refocus on your needs and how to go about reaching them.

Making sure you hire and retain top talent is so important on many fronts, especially in today’s competitive business world.

For starters, one way you gain a competitive edge over other companies in your respective industry is by landing the best employees possible. Whether they are young or older, you want workers who will make a commitment to you and your brand, meaning they are not just there for a coffee stop on their way to bigger and better opportunities.

So, what are some keys to making them choose your business and want to stay there for years to come?

Among the factors to zero-in on in spreading the word about why your company is the place to be at:

Salary and benefits – It should not come as a big surprise that offering a competitive salary (with benefits) should be high on your priority list. You can use social media to tout what your company offers, especially through your Twitter and Facebook pages. If you’re placing a help wanted ad on Twitter, include a link to your company’s website, adding all the pertinent details about the opening. Include a description of the job, skills needed, salary and benefits, and what the applicant must send in to be considered. Tweet and share the post several times to make sure it gets noticed;
Workplace atmosphere – No one wants to work at a business that is both uncomfortable to be at and downright unpleasant. When you post your notice/s for new hires, be sure to highlight some of the great amenities about working for your company (this can be done by posting images of happy employees on your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages). Maybe your business offers free gym memberships or occasional free lunches. You might also be providing Happy Hour nights a few times a month at local restaurants. Does your office provide comfortable settings for employees, be it a lounge area to relax on breaks, conference room chairs, or even laptops to take outside the office? While many businesses still do the rigid 8 to 5 routine, oftentimes in dimly light cubicles and no music or talking (other than work-related) allowed during the work day, many others are realizing that happy employees oftentimes are more productive workers;
Visually appealing job – While pictures of your workplace and why it is so wonderful certainly works, a video does even more. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself, a professional videographer come in and record some highlights about your business, then post to both your website and even on sites such as YouTube. With the video in play, prospective employees can get a great feel for your office, the camaraderie among workers, and why this is a place they would want to call home for years to come.

If your business has been slow to the social media bandwagon when it comes to hiring new talent, make this the year you become more social.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

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How Monitoring Social Media Complaints on Competitors Could Boost Your Customer Service

Before the Internet, when a customer had a complaint about a business, they visited a customer service desk or made a call to a corporate office. In the early days of the Internet, those calls migrated to angry emails or submitted forms on a company’s website. But social media has changed the complaint experience in ways that are potentially dangerous for brands. Instead of complaining directly to a business, customers can now post their complaints for thousands of followers to read and possibly even share.

For businesses, this means keeping up with social media activity is yet another of the many tasks you’ll be expected to take care of on a daily basis. You already have a system for tracking and resolving complaints that come by phone and email. Adding social media to your inbox is easy. But what about mentions of your competitors? Here are a few ways monitoring complaints on competitors through social media can help your brand.

Competition Heats Up

It may sound juvenile, but one of the biggest reasons to provide social media customer service is that everyone else is doing it. More businesses than ever are monitoring mentions on social media, which means customers are beginning to expect it. Even worse, some businesses are now monitoring mentions of their competitors, then responding with an invitation to try out their service instead. If you don’t remain proactive, one of your competitors may snatch your customers away when you aren’t looking.

Keep Your Accounts Active

Any business can suffer an unexpected public relations crisis, whether it’s because of a data breach, actions of one of its leaders, or some other piece of bad news. When that happens to one of your competitors, you have a prime opportunity to demonstrate how great your own brand is. The first step toward that is to create a social media strategy that includes monitoring social media mentions for multiple terms related to your competitors. This will allow you to be the first to know when negative information is being disseminated about someone in your industry.

Avoid Missed Opportunities

A customer complaint isn’t always the end of a business’s relationship with a consumer. Experts advise businesses to turn those complaints into an opportunity. Since many customers walk away rather than complain, those that complain on social media often want the company to make things right. When you notice one of your competitors isn’t responding, it gives you the chance to swoop in and win that customer away by offering a free trial or a discount on your products. This may seem aggressive to your competitors, however, so be prepared for them to counterattack at some point when one of your customers complains.

Win Bystanders

In some cases, you’ll never win an unhappy customer away from a competitor. Even when you don’t, you still have a chance to win new business through the experience. When a customer posts negatively about a brand and you respond gracefully and professionally, that customer’s followers are witnesses to the transaction, especially if it takes place on a site like Facebook, where replies are readily visible to everyone reading a post. You may not win the unhappy customer but if you get the attention of one or two of that customer’s followers, it’s well worth the extra work.

If you provide customer service for your business, it’s important to monitor social media as part of your efforts. An increasing number of customers are posting their dissatisfaction there and when they do, a timely response is essential. When a business monitors its competitors’ social media activity, those businesses gain an advantage that could make a big difference in their sales.

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8 Ways To Make Your Team More Productive

We live in a world of constant distraction. While we’d all like to zone in and crush our work on a daily basis, we’re constantly switching between screens and tempted by notifications. And, as much as we may want to label this freneticism “multitasking,” we all know that we lose far more time than we’d like doing who knows what.

When you’re managing a team, it’s vital that you take active steps to help your employees focus on the task at hand. Following these eight tips will help you foster productivity and create a positive work environment.

Use quality software.

Everyone finds it hard to zone in on the task at hand in our multitasking multi-device world. The good news here is that in recent years, the quality and number of useful tools built to help you block out distraction has grown considerably. Introduce tools like Slack and Basecamp, both of which simplify the process of collaboration, sync information across platforms, and make delegation a breeze.

The most recent innovation in the team productivity space is TopTracker, recently launched by Toptal. The clean, intuitive time tracking app syncs seamlessly across devices and features detailed productivity reports for your team. It’s a great way for you to actually measure how well you’re managing your team’s productivity and where there’s room for improvement. Designed with the needs of freelancers in mind, TopTracker is completely free and is totally independent of any freelance platform.

Keep priorities crystal clear.

This first tip is both very simple and very important. Everyone on your team should know exactly what is expected of them and how their responsibilities fit into the bigger picture. Set challenging goals for your team as a whole and for each individual member and make sure everyone knows not only what the priority is, but why it’s important.

No matter how clear you are in setting the priorities, you should also revisit them often. If, for instance, you have weekly check-ins on Fridays, go over how successful your team was in meeting their goals for the previous week before setting the next week’s priorities.

Reward a job well done.

Make sure to give credit where credit is due. It feels really good to be praised for your work, and people will aim to get the same positive feedback (or better) for their next project. In fact, studies show that praise from one’s immediate manager and attention from leaders are actually more effective motivators than financial incentives like performance-based raises, stock options, or an increase in base pay. These nonfinancial incentives go a long way toward boosting energy, morale and overall productivity.

Hire team members.

Think of your team like a puzzle. Every piece needs to fit together, and not just in terms of the work each member completes. When you’re looking to fill a position, think about how a candidate’s qualities will mesh both professionally and personally with the people you already have on the team. In order to foster a positive and collaborative work environment, it is essential that everyone is a good fit. A great way to do this is to make sure any potential new hire meets with as many members of your company as possible, especially their potential colleagues and boss.

Encourage autonomy.

Once you’ve built your team and clearly established priorities, you have to trust everyone to get their own work done. You make a lot more work for yourself if you’re micromanaging all the time and everyone’s productivity suffers as a result. Having to constantly report to you will undoubtedly be a major time suck for your employees and having no autonomy can be quite discouraging.

Letting go of the reins will give your employees a sense of pride and ownership over their work. They’ll know the finished product is very much the fruit of their own labor, which in turn will be a great motivator to do something on time and to do it well.

Minimize boredom.

Boredom is the enemy of productivity. It makes people sluggish and discontent with their work and work environment. When most people think back to their first internship, they’re probably remembering the hours spent staring at a clock, twiddling their thumbs, or wondering how many times is too many times to purvue the snack counter. Don’t make anyone relive that experience.

Instead, strive to minimize boredom. Make sure that in addition to setting a clear list of priorities, every person knows what projects they can and should pick up on a rolling basis. Encourage your team members to learn a new skill during slower periods or to or help out with other teams when in between tasks.

Offer flexible work schedules.

On that note, it’s inevitable that people are going to have different ebbs and flows when it comes to their productivity. Don’t resist this. In the last couple of years, the freelance marketplace has grown incredibly quickly. 30% of people freelance at least part of the time, which means they’re used to setting their own schedules and know what works best for them. If you demand that your employees all clock in and clock out at the same hour, you’re not only wasting people’s time, you may be making your team a really unattractive option.

Make the work meaningful.

According to Lazslo Brock, the Senior Vice President of Google’s People Operations, all of the crazy perks like Google’s fancy shuttles and in-house massages don’t compare to creating a sense of meaning for Google’s employees. “The dirty secret of all these perks is it doesn’t actually retain people or even attract people,” he said. Sure, they’re absolutely a benefit, but at the end of the day,  “people want to do something that means something.”

When you can explain to them how even their smallest tasks have real-world impact, that’s when you get their wheels turning the quickest and the most consistently. Adam Grant, a professor of Business Management at Wharton found that when people are able to connect their work to something meaningful, their productivity can increase five-fold.

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5 Rules for all Who Want to Be Successful on Social Media

The power that social media possesses is simply immense. The things that it can do for you and for your business are just so many. What makes things even spicier is the fact that you have so many options of platforms to select from. It does not matter whether you are into video and photography or you are all about literature- there is always a platform for you to take advantage of. The likes of Instagram and YouTube make for sites where you can post your videos and pictures. There is Twitter and Facebook. Opportunities abound- that’s all that can be said.

However, you need not be told that you should be careful on social media platforms. There are so many things that you need to train yourself on when it comes to the use of social media. There are rules and regulations that you need to abide by if you are going to be successful in using social media to market yourself. These rules might come off as a bit silly but with the internet, everything sounds casual until you discover how much weight it carries.

Abide by these rules

If you want to be successful in managing your social media marketing campaigns and such activities then you will make sure that you live by the following commandments:

1.       Quality

Please make sure that your content is of premium quality. If you are posting a video on YouTube, make sure that it is of the best quality. Perhaps it is photographs that you want to upload on Instagram for your fashion blog, ensure that they are premium quality. Quality is the mother and father of success on the worldwide web. You can never get away with having poor quality posts on social media.

It is not only about the social media posts, you have to ensure that the content on your website is good as well. Click baiting is one of the worst things that you could possibly do. This is where you get people to click on your posts only to discover that they have been lied to. For instance, you might find a link on Facebook reading something like “Beyonce procures an abortion.” Surely this will get your attention if you are huge fan of Beyonce. This is scandalously hot news and you click on the link only to find out that Beyonce is acting in a movie where she procures an abortion. You do not want to be murdered on social media now do you?

2.       Understand your online clientele

Understanding a bit of the psychology of social media users is of great importance. You do not want to go posting things online when people are not online. The best times to post items on social media are the hours between six and nine in the morning. At this time people are stuck in traffic heading to work and school. During lunch time they are looking for some amusement so you can post something else. When they are stuck in traffic on the way home you can post several items and share on social media.

With companies becoming more serious about the time people are limited to the amount of time they can spend on-line. There are awesome systems for employers to track employee time without manually recording worksheets and all. Clockspot is one of these systems. Since employees know that they are being tracked, they make sure that they spend more of their time actually working. Gone are the days when 99% of office time was spent on Facebook.

3.       Give your posts some focus

You do not need to be told that people on social media are looking for straightforward information. It is more beneficial if you pay attention to one thing. Perhaps you have business goals that you want to meet within a specific time, this rule is the one you should attend to most. Since there is a time limit to be met it helps a lot if you maintain all your social media accounts on one specific thing. You will be able to get a lot more work done than if you became a jack-of-all-trades who gets nothing completed. You are not targeting all the Twitter users. You are not selling everything and so focus is important for your posts to be successful.

4.       Acknowledge others and reciprocate

If there is something you cannot afford to be on social media, it’s a snob. When someone sends you a personal message, even if it is not really associated with your products, it is important to acknowledge their online presence. Try as much as possible to build relationships and networks. This will help to boost your success on social media especially where marketing is involved.

Secondly, you should reciprocate what others do for you. This rule operates on the proverbial- do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You want people to share your posts but you do not share theirs? That will never happen. As a matter of fact there is a habit on Twitter and Instagram- if someone follows you and you do not follow them back, they will unfollow you. Take a few minutes and share content that has been published by other people. A few moments of talking about what others have done online is going to help your social media marketing a lot.

5.       Be accessible and be patient

Finally, you should be very patient. Social media users will take time to warm up to you. Do not expect that you will get a thousand views on your YouTube video after two hours. Even Madonna does not do that nowadays. However, with time this can be possible. Give people time to know that you exist. Be accessible by posting frequently and availing yourself for conversations (forums and inbox chats).

Conclusion

There are so many things that you can do to boost the health of your social media marketing campaigns. However, if at all you want to be successful there are some rules that you will have to live by. The above are the five most important rules of social media marketing.

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