20 Slack Integrations to Amp up Your Team Communication

Modern businesses must choose from a myriad of software options. Although the software themselves have the potential to improve productivity, studying, choosing, and applying programs wastes time and lowers efficiency. Thus for many companies, the quest for higher productivity through technology is self-defeating.

Slack was designed to solve this problem. Operating as a single platform for employee communication, it integrates hundreds of different applications into the same screen. Rather than flip between multiple different tabs, employees can receive all the notifications they need in the same place. Although Slack is not yet compatible with all software, the number of apps that it can access increases every day. The most popular programs to use with Slack include:

Twitter

Social media savvy is the key to modern marketing, and few media are more important to gaining new customers than Twitter. Well-written tweets provide a quick, concise way to generate interest in your company. They only work, however, if you monitor them closely and quickly follow up with interested customers.

Slack allows you to quickly post tweets or access any particular Twitter channel, as well as to respond to customer inquiries. Slack integrations also allow you to quickly eliminate tweets that you decide reflect poorly on your company. You can thus stop bad publicity before it gets out of hand.

Whatever Twitter can offer to your business, Slack ensures that you will be able to take full advantage of it.

Your Guide To Twitter/Slack Integrations

WordPress

Whereas Twitter can spur new interest in your company, WordPress allows you to hold the attention of customers who are already interested.

WordPress is the ideal site to post in-depth articles on topics related to your company. The more articles you post, the more you will look like an expert in your industry. Customers will thus choose you over your competitors.

In the long run, you can use WordPress to cultivate a large number of consistent customers. This will ensure your company a reliable revenue stream.

As with Twitter, WordPress marketing is only effective if you monitor your posts and respond to comments and issues. If you integrate WordPress with Slack, all new WordPress posts will instantly be available to everyone from the same page. Your co-workers will always have a chance to read the articles and identify mistakes.

Slack also provides updates about comments on old blogs as well as reminding you when new blog posts are due. The sooner you install Slack, the easier it will be to design and implement a viable content marketing strategy.

Your Guide to WordPress/Slack Integrations

Stripe

Small businesses often lack the resources to set up payment processing departments. Thanks to Stripe, however, it is easier than ever for a business to adopt a reliable and efficient payment system.

Stripe handles all online payments in a professional manner, making sure that all services are paid for and that all revenues go to the right accounts. When you integrate Stripe with Slack, you will receive instant updates about:

• New charges
• Money transfers
• Subscriptions
• Invoice payments

You can also contact customers to resolve any questions they have about their payments, all from the convenience of a single screen.

Your Guide to Stripe/Slack Integrations

Help Scout

Created specifically to benefit startups and small businesses, Help Scout promotes quick communication between your customers and your support staff.

Integrating Help Scout with Slack will cause all customer support questions to appear in the same hub. This reduces the time it takes to respond. Slack will inform your support staff whenever:

• A customer creates a new Help Scout conversation
• Someone updates or replies to an existing conversation
• A conversation is resolved and closed

Slack can also assign specific employees to specific types of Help Scout conversations. This ensures that no one is asked to help a customer who lacks the expertise to do so correctly.

If a support agent cannot answer a customer’s question, he or she can easily send it to other employees through Slack.

Your Guide to Help Scout/Slack Integrations

Desk.com

The desk is designed to maximize the speed of your customer support staff without compromising the quality of the support services your customers receive.

It integrates mobile support and a wide range of other productivity tools. This allows you to assist customers in whatever ways they need and from any location.

Slack makes customer service even more convenient by providing a single screen to monitor:

• Desk customer support requests
• Replies
• Updates

The software is easy to customize. You can tailor your support strategy to the specific needs of your customers and the abilities of your staff.

Desk allows you to assign different levels of priority to different customer support requests. This ensures that the most urgent questions will be dealt with first.

Your Guide to Desk.com/Slack Integrations

Trello

Created to help team members keep track of all their tasks during a collaboration, Trello is highly effective, but only when used for relatively small projects.

Large group projects involving several smaller teams usually contain too much information for any one team member to process. Using Trello runs the risk of flooding everyone on the team with updates.

By combining Trello with Slack, however, you can divide different types of information among different teams and individuals. This ensures that everyone involved in the project has exactly the information they need to contribute. The result is less confusion and higher productivity.

The benefits of Trello/Slack integrations will likely increase as Trello is developed further. At present, it is not possible to post new task cards to Trello through Slack. Current trends in Trello’s development, however, suggest that this will likely be possible in the near future. Integrating these two programs will thus open the door to further increases in productivity.

Your Guide to Trello/Slack Integrations

Blossom

Blossom helps software developers to monitor and manage team projects. It keeps track of all updates and developments. At any point in the development process, you can review the steps you’ve taken and recover the needed information.

By integrating this software with Slack, you ensure that all Blossom notifications will go to the same channel window. This lets you keep track of the project without wasting time switching between windows.

Whenever a new comment, project instruction card, or screenshot is posted, you will know immediately.

As with Trello, Slack allows you to control which updates go to whom, preventing anyone from having to sort through excessive amounts of information.

Your Guide to Blossom/Slack Integrations

Dropbox

Dropbox allows you and your colleagues to send links, documents, images, and other files to each other over the cloud. Anyone in your group can instantly download anything added to your Dropbox without delay or a paper trail.

As convenient as this system is, it becomes more difficult to use the more people are using it. Titles and links are often hard to interpret on their own. Since you don’t have time to open every document and check every link, you may end up missing an upload that’s relevant to you.

Slack solves this problem by analyzing new Dropbox items and producing a preview, which you may review before opening. You can thus quickly determine the relevance of each new Dropbox upload and respond accordingly.

Your Guide to Dropbox/Slack Integrations

HuBot

One of the most advanced chatterbots on the market, HuBot can be programmed to perform a wide range of features that help your business. The most popular uses for HuBot include:

• Research– You can instruct HuBot to pull up all recent articles on a subject, allowing you to access valuable information without wasting time searching for it.
• Planning– Through HuBot, you can send polls to your colleagues or customers, asking them where they want to meet, what they want to eat, and other questions to facilitate gathering.
• Alerts– You can program HuBot to inform your customers or your colleagues about any important new developments, as well as to give them any tools or information they need to respond.
• Games– If you and your colleagues need a break, HuBot provides quick games to entertain you without distracting you too much from work.
• Image Edits– HuBot can perform simple edits to pictures, allowing you to transform mundane images related to your company. This can be useful both for marketing purposes and as a way to keep your co-workers and employees entertained.

Slack integrations allow you to connect all of your team members to HuBot and benefit from these features instantly.

Your Guide to HuBot/Slack Integrations

Google+ Hangouts

Designed to allow three or more parties to converse from different locations, Google+ Hangouts reduces the cost of business conferences. This improves team communication for businesses whose employees must regularly be separated by great distances.

Integrating Google+ Hangouts with Slack allows you to effortlessly transition in and out of a Hangout. Simply type “/hangout” and a Hangouts window will open. This will also open a control panel that you can use to invite anyone else in your team to participate.

With Google+ Hangouts, holding a conference is as easy as striking up a conversation. This significantly increases business efficiency and convenience.

Besides holding conferences within your business, you can also use Google+ Hangouts/Slack integrations to communicate with other leaders in your industry. This facilitates partnerships and business-to-business collaborations, leading to more innovation in your field.

Your Guide to Google+ Hangouts/Slack Integrations

GitHub

As a database containing a wide range of source codes, GitHub lets you benefit from others’ knowledge for your software development projects as well as to contribute your own. Slack provides instant updates from GitHub, allowing you to quickly learn about:

• Wiki updates
• Deploy keys
• Changes in settings
• New codes
• Webhooks and other available services
• Other users’ reports of issues
• Distributed revision control features, such as pull requests

Slack integrations ensure that no new developments on GitHub will go unnoticed. Your business can thus quickly adopt productive coding changes and increase its profitability.

Your Guide to GitHub/Slack Integrations

MailChimp

As with Twitter posts, email marketing is most effective if you monitor it closely and quickly follow up with interested customers.

MailChimp is designed to keep track of any changes in your email marketing materials. By integrating MailChimp with Slack, you will receive:

• Instant updates when customers subscribe to your mailing lists
• Updates about customers who unsubscribe
• Analyses of the overall effectiveness of your email campaigns

Some businesses worry that monitoring all their email marketing campaigns will flood them with too much information to process. If this is the case, you can program Slack to only keep an eye on particular campaigns or particular types of changes.

Your Guide to MailChimp/Slack Integrations

Asana

Asana combines task management software with general conversation tools. This allows you to discuss, create, and update tasks in real time.

When combined with Slack, you can use Asana to send specific task updates only to relevant individuals. This ensures that everyone has enough information without flooding anyone with too much. You can also use Slack to:

• Post new tasks to Asana
• Revise and complete old tasks
• Post comments on past and current tasks
• Open up conversations to clarify confusion among team members

Besides allowing you to assign new tasks and projects, Asana and Slack keep detailed records of completed and abandoned tasks. You can quickly search through old projects and identify any information you need. This makes it easier to identify and correct the source of past mistakes.

Your Guide to Asana/Slack Integrations

Google Drive

Google Drive is a great way for your business to save space while creating, updating, and accessing multiple group documents.

With Google Drive, multiple employees can work on the same document at the same time. This promotes quicker and more effective collaboration.

Because most companies create multiple documents on Google Drive, it can be difficult and time-consuming to keep up with all changes to relevant files. Slack provides a central hub for all Google Drive changes.

Whenever a new document is uploaded, a new link is posted or a new sentence is added, everyone who works on the drive will know immediately. Employees can thus quickly make use of new information. This leads to higher long-term productivity.

You can also use Google Drive to provide quick summaries of new information. This ensures that each team member will know whether an update is relevant to them and how they can use it if so.

Your Guide to Google Drive/Slack Integrations

Groove

Much of modern customer support is now carried out over email. This creates a digital paper trail that customers can keep track of, but it also limits customer support agents. Email accounts often lack the tools and applications for optimal customer support.

Groove undercuts this problem by offering all of the latest applications to the customer support agent. Customers still receive support updates as emails, but support agents send them with a wider array of resources than an email account provides.

Slack further improves this efficiency by giving customer support agents real-time updates on:

• New support tickets
• Ticket notes
• Customer and agent replies.

Slack can also designate different types of Groove support tickets to different employees. This ensures that customers are instantly connected to the representatives they need.

Your Guide to Groove/Slack Integrations

Zendesk

Zendesk distinguishes itself as a customer support program through its reliance on data.

Zendesk isn’t limited to resolving customer questions and problems. By keeping track of the most common types of user problems, it gives you the information to improve your business and increase long-term customer satisfaction.

Customer data is useful but can be hard to keep track of. Slack provides you with a convenient platform to display all customer support metrics.

Slack integrations also allow you to monitor Zendesk customer support tickets. It informs you whenever:

• Someone opens a ticket
• A ticket is pending a response
• A ticket is resolved
• A ticket closes down

You can also pull up past data while resolving a ticket and use it to improve your customer support in real time.

Your Guide to Zendesk/Slack Integrations

Intercom

If you’re serious about helping customers to use your software correctly, you have to go beyond customer support.

Intercom keeps track of what current or prospective customers do with your software. It sends you updates whenever someone does not appear to be using it correctly.

You can use Intercom to send general emails or specific messages to customers, asking them for feedback and suggesting ways they can use your programs more effectively.

Intercom helps your customers to feel valued. It also prevents confusion, reducing the change that they will go to another company.

Slack allows you to monitor new Intercom users, receive notifications, send messages, and read replies all from the same screen. This ensures that you will never miss an opportunity to optimize your customers’ experiences.

Your Guide to Intercom/Slack Integrations

Zapier

Most Slack integrations open up one new option for your business. Integrating Slack with Zapier opens up hundreds.

Zapier is designed to automate your apps. It instructs them to perform particular functions with minimal input from you or your employees.

Using Zapier saves you from the inconvenience of having to program repetitive functions for your apps. It is particularly ideal if none of your employees or co-workers have much experience writing code.

Combining Zapier with Slack allows you to manage all app functions from a single screen. Both programs are compatible with a wide range of apps, including:

• Google Sheets
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Wufoo
• YouTube
• Tumblr

By installing the two programs, you will never have to worry about your apps failing to perform as intended.

Your Guide to Zapier/Slack Integrations

Honeybadger

Zapier will streamline your business if you don’t have programmers on staff. Honeybadger will streamline it if you do.

If your business has programmers to create new apps, the last thing they want to be doing is spending their time debugging each new program. The more quickly you can identify and eliminate bugs, the more time you can spend doing productive work.

Honeybadger keeps track of all apps that you or your co-worker’s design It alerts you to any outages, exceptions, or other problems that indicate a bug.

Honeybadger provides the most specific information possible. This allows programmers to solve problems as soon as they come up.

By integrating Honeybadger with Slack, you can ensure that all app alerts come to the same screen and are assigned to the appropriate specialist.

Your Guide to Honeybadger/Slack Integrations

Bonus

Bonus promotes and expands the benefits of giving employees bonuses for good work. Not only does it make it easier for executives and owners to assign bonuses, but it also gives employees the option of offering each other “microbuses.”

If one employee helps another out during a project or presentation, the other employee can send her a small monetary reward. This gives employees an incentive to help each other. It also promotes greater team communication and collaboration and helps everyone to feel valued and accepted by their peers.

Slack integrations add to Bonus the benefits of public recognition. When an employee assigns a bonus to someone else, it becomes available on a public screen. This informs all the employees that one of their peers has done well.

The bonus also allows employees to publicize their reasons for giving each other bonuses. This helps others to understand what they have to do to get bonuses themselves.

Your Guide to Bonus/Slack Integrations

Future Forays

As convenient as Slack is already, it is only in its infancy. The more businesses that adopt Slack for employee communication, the more incentive software developers will have to make their products compatible with it. Slack in turn constantly seeks new ways to improve its integrations, allowing you to access more features for each program from the same convenient screen. By adopting Slack, you ensure a steady source of productivity increases for your company.

Whenever a product becomes compatible with Slack, we post an update on our Twitter page. For more information or to begin using Slack for free, visit our website today.

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The post 20 Slack Integrations to Amp up Your Team Communication appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/customer/technology-team

Long-Tail SEO: How to Reach Page One of Google Through Content

 

A small business can’t possibly compete online with the Kogan’s of this world, right?

Wrong – so long as you pick your battles.

Armed with keyword search tools and your own, shrewd judgment, you can stake out your own small, lucrative territory in the Googleverse by optimizing for ‘long-tail’ terms.

And an effective way to do this is by producing high-quality content that answers the questions Google users are asking – whether that’s articles, videos, infographics and so on.

So what are ‘long-tail’ terms?

Usually, one or two words long with huge monthly search volumes, ‘head’ keywords tend to be dominated by the biggest companies. Long-tail keywords, which often involve more words with lower search volumes, represent a more realistic route onto page one of Google search results for small businesses.

So while yes, retail powerhouse The Iconic is number one for ‘buy clothes’, the rather less famous Rusty Zipper tops search results for ‘buy 1970s retro fashion’.

There should be three parts to your SEO strategy, with the final part informing the first step in the next cycle.

1. Planning

First, you need to decide which long-tail terms to target.

You can’t do everything so you need to target, say, 10-20 keywords with a reasonable balance between monthly search volume (the higher the better) and competition (lower the better). The lower your domain authority, the harder it is to compete, and the more this balance should tip towards less competitive terms with lower search volumes. Google AdWords still has the definitive keyword tool – no surprise given Google is privy to all data driving its search results. Enter the most obvious term for your product or service to generate a list of alternatives.  AnswerthePublic is another free tool that generates related questions to your keyword – the hows, whys, whats, and when (e.g. for books: ‘Why books are better than movies’ or ‘which books should I read’).

Enter any promising questions into Google Keywords to see how they score. Question-based keyword phrases are becoming more important with the rise of Siri: people speak in sentences but typed searches tend to be 1-3 words long.

Other useful keyword tools include:

* Google Suggest

* SEMrush

* Moz Pro

* Keyword Tool

* SpyFu

* UberSuggest

* Google Trends

Once you have a shortlist of promising terms, it’s time to find flaws in the competition.

Open an incognito browser (it’s called InPrivate if you’re using Internet Explorer and not Google Chrome) – because its searches are unprejudiced by previous search activity – and click on the top five pieces of content in the search results, one by one.

When were they published? Google likes fresh content.

Though some publishers periodically update content, some content will obviously be out of date.

What is their domain authority? (Check this with the free moz.com toolbar) Is it badly written with long sentences? Does the page take a long time to load? (You can get specific load results with Google’s free PageSpeed tools)

User experience becomes more important with each Google algorithmic update. If you can produce something that beats the top five on all these points you can be confident of eventually reaching the top five search results – which account for more than two-thirds of all clicks.

2. Execute

As well as creating new articles you can refresh promising archive pages. Use Google or Adobe Analytics to find out which historic articles get the most traffic.

Updating them with the latest information or optimizing their keywords and other SEO components is a much quicker way to boost traffic than writing fresh content.

Build a hub page – a definitive guide to the topic – for your long-tail term. Then link to and from subsequent articles on this topic. HubSpot does this brilliantly with, ironically, the term ‘SEO’. Think of the hub page as the hub on a bike wheel and the spokes as related articles.

Subheaders should answer the reader’s main questions on this subject but still include the focus keyword. So subheaders for a hub page on 1970s prog rock could be: ‘a history of prog rock’, ‘prog rock bands’, ‘decline of prog rock’ and so on. AnswerthePublic is a useful tool here.

And periodically update your hub page – as we said before, Google likes up-to-date content. ‘Evergreen’ content, which means it remains relevant and up to date for longer, is easier to maintain (e.g., ‘1970s fashions’ is highly evergreen; ‘popular smartphones’ would need frequent updates).

Some tips for on-page SEO:

* Is your headline interesting? Does it offer an unexpected solution (‘How to look good on a budget’)? Is it provocative? (‘Why it’s time to ditch give up on diets’)

* Focus keyword: ideally at beginning of headline and URL slug – although this is becoming less important as Google becomes more sensitive to linguistic nuance

* Meta description appears under the headline in Google search results. Its purpose is to entice people to click rather than determining Google rank

* Image file name and image alt text: prosaic, descriptive (so a picture of Nike Gazelle trainers? Simply: ‘Nike Gazelle trainers’)

* Include periodic contextual links – to relevant articles on your site but also externally. Ask yourself: is this link helping the user find the information they need?

* Link to the most authoritative related page on your site (see hub posts above)

* Use bullets and subheads (like we are here!)

* Short sentences and paragraphs. Don’t be too hung up on this. Google probably ascertains the average sentence length. If it’s good, clean copy for a print magazine it’s probably good, clean copy for Google too

* Word count: 400 minimum is a good rule of thumb

* Use images, tweets, gifs, videos and so on for variety. Google increasingly analyses dwell time and bounce rates. Infogrames, Apester, and Thinglink are great tools for charts, infographics, and other visuals

* Include CTAs for social sharing – so people can tweet, share on Facebook and LinkedIn (social shares influence SEO) Moz On-Page Grader will offer clues on how well optimized your page is – through its advice is imperfect, so take as a guide, not as the gospel.

Get relevant, high value links to your piece of content by asking people or brands quoted or mentioned in your article to link to it from their press section or elsewhere on their site.

If you source guest posts from external writers, offer them suggestions that cover keywords that benefit you as well as matching their own expertise.

3. Monitor

Put aside some time, say, once a month to gauge the success of your strategy using analytics software – and Adobe Analytics is arguably the best out there, though it can be pricey. Google offers rather comprehensive software for zero cost.

Among other invaluable metrics over any period you specify Adobe Analytics tells you:

* Percentage of visits from search

* Number of unique users

* Dwell time of articles

You can also compare your key metrics – share of traffic from search, from social and different countries, among others – to those of your competitors on SimilarWeb.

Moz Pro is also invaluable – for page maintenance, determining whether you are climbing or descending Google rankings for your target terms and how well optimized your backlinks are.

Finally, the higher you climb on Google the harder it gets to climb further still. It can take 6-12 months to really reap the dividends of your strategy – so be patient, and stay positive.

 Web– stock image

The post Long-Tail SEO: How to Reach Page One of Google Through Content appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/marketing-google

Get Equipped With the Best Programming Languages

Believe it or not, the easy way to get rich is to equip you with programming languages. Not only you understand what most people do not, but you get an edge with the market today. Everyone will need your expertise and you get paid more than enough for your creativity. From the mobile development to software, to computer applications, and the making of websites, you are part of a bigger build on the internet.

Below is the information that you need about the best programming codes in a variety of languages. One of the most important questions that will be answered as well is this: Just how much does a programmer earn?

 

What are the best programming languages this 2016?

#1 Java

Java is originally the server-side of an interpreted language. Because of Java, you have android which in return, gives you the benefits of seeing images, playing games, and creating virtual tours. You get to enjoy these interactive contents because of the program. For the record, Oracle’s Java is one of the most popular programming languages which make it important if you want to learn the program. Actually, if you want to learn the basic, you need to learn how Java works. It’s used in devices, operating systems, and on all platforms.

Average Salary of Java Programmer: $102 000
IT Companies Hiring: Google, IBM, eBay, Amazon, J.P. Morgan
Number of Job Openings: 14 326

#2 C

C is simply one of the oldest programming languages there is. It’s because of C we have C++ and Phyton which are more comprehensive and higher level languages. C was developed way back in the 1970s. But surely, it’s the reason why we have many breakthroughs in this technology age. Will you believe these huge systems below are still powered by C?
• Microsoft Windows
• Linux
• Mac

Some of the reasons why C is still unbeatable and popular to use are these:

• Portability and Efficiency
• Memory Manipulation
• Code Size

You might think the reasons are too ‘geeky’ and can’t be understood. But C is not a hard language to learn. You will need it because it’s considered as the lingua franca of the developers.

Average Salary of C Programmer: $102 000
IT Companies Hiring: Microsoft, Amazon
Number of Job Openings: 33 545 (together with C++)

#3 C++

C++ is the reason for the creation of software, drivers, and trading algorithms that have been richly used today. This programming language is the extension of c language and also object-oriented. Because of C++, you have been reaping the benefits of it ever since it was created and manipulated by programmers. It is already considered the most famous programming language in the world. If you learn this language, there is just no way it will not benefit you. Every programmer knew and spoke the same language.

Average Salary of C++ Programmer: $100 000
IT Companies Hiring: Microsoft, Amazon, Bank of America, Activision, Pixar, Studios, CyberCoders
Number of Job Openings: 33 545 (together with C)

#4 C#

The C# Programming Language is used in all platform that uses Windows. Why not? Microsoft Company developed C#. The origin of it was developed during the .NET initiative and is an object-oriented programming language.

Average Salary of C# Programmer: $94 000
IT Companies Hiring: Microsoft
Number of Job Openings: 10 445

#5 Python

Python language is the easiest language for beginners. If you’re starting to learn the language of programming, this is the best fit for you. It was designed in the late 1990s and was used to develop:

• Web application
• Games
• Software

Average Salary of Python Programmer: $107 000
IT Companies Hiring: Dell, Intel, Amazon, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube, Google, Yahoo, NASA
Number of Job Openings: 367 717

#6 PHP

 

The programming language PHP was created using the C language. It is a server-side interpreted language and is used to develop web applications. Because of PHP, there are now ways to tweak and write custom extensions in C and C++. As a matter of fact, the biggest brands on the internet is powered and run through PHP language. You have got:
• Yahoo!
• Facebook
• Flickr
• ProProfs
• Digg

Average Salary of PHP Programmer: $89 000
IT Companies Hiring: Microsoft, Amazon
Number of Job Openings: 19 872

#7 Visual Basic .NET

Visual Basic .NET or shortly called VB .NET was developed by Microsoft. The sole purpose is to target .NET framework to be able to develop applications and GUI for sites that run on the Windows servers, Windows desktop software, and Windows Phone apps.

Average Salary of C Programmer: $83 000
IT Companies Hiring: Microsoft
Number of Job Openings: 2 689

#8 JavaScript

Most of the websites online is powered by JavaScript. It has a library called JQuery which is used to design the games, software, and mobile applications for human needs. But to get things straight, JavaScript is nowhere related to Java.
Average Salary of JavaScript Programmer: $99 000
IT Companies Hiring: Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Samsung
Number of Job Openings: 8 752

#9 Assembly Language

This is a good opportunity for you in learning the language because IT Companies in the world need an Assembly Language. The primary usage is in IBM PC DOS operating systems. The purpose of this is to be able to optimize the speed and size.
Average Salary of Assembly Language Programmer: $90 000
IT Companies Hiring: Microsoft, Apple, Google
Number of Job Openings: 4 755

#10 Ruby

Last but definitely not least is the Ruby programming language. It is very similar to Python and was developed way back 1990s. Ruby is a server-side scripting language. It was developed by Yukihiro Matsumoto. The reason behind the name “Ruby” was because it was the birthstone of one of the main developer’s colleague. The programming language is relatively easy to decipher and learn. People say you just need a 20-minute guide to starting using Ruby.

Average Salary of Ruby Programmer: $107 000
IT Companies Hiring: ERC, Amazon, CyberCoders
Number of Job Openings: 7 774

All in all, there is no real such thing as the “greatest” language in programming. Everyone contributes to the certain greatness of the development in software and hardware. Some programming languages have its own advantages, some have cons. The only thing you need is to be able to find your own identity and forte.

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The post Get Equipped With the Best Programming Languages appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/technology/technology-trends/technology-languages

6 Bad Social Media Habits to Break

Your business is probably doing social media wrong. It’s a sad but true fact you have come to accept. Your follower base is smaller than expected, and half of them don’t pay attention to your posts. Let’s take a look at what bad habits you are practicing now, and tips to improve your company’s social media standing.

#1. Lack of Blog

There are very few industries where not having a blog makes sense. Chances are, there is something you can blog about. For example, you can show your expertise by writing blog posts about news in the industry, or your company’s opinion on how the news affects your company or your niche at large. As an added bonus, with regular updates, your website won’t look abandoned. The more you blog, the more content your readers will see, also adding brand recognition.

#2. Where’s the content?

Your company has a blog, but the dates show you post maybe once a month at best. The University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business cites business owners being too busy as one of the top reasons they don’t use social media. They are also too worried about managing social media will consume all their time. But not engaging means losing out on a large slice of delicious audience pie. Some 65 percent of adults had a social media account as of last year; about 90 percent of young adults ages 18-29 had at least an account on one platform. Meanwhile, 91 percent of retail brands have a social media presence on two or more platforms.

How, then, do you access such a large percentage of adults, increasing brand recognition but also generating goodwill for your company?

#3. Too many promotional posts

On the other end of the posting spectrum, you might be posting about your products too much – eroding the aforementioned goodwill. Pareto’s Principle of 80/20 comes into play here. For this context, it translates to 80 percent on your content is not promotional. Instead, it simply engages your audience, gets them talking and commenting, to get your brand name out. The other 20 percent can be promotional content – coupons, contests, and promoting a specific product go in this category of posts. Even so – don’t go for the hard sell. Instead, explain the newest technology behind your latest product, rather than just touting the product as the best thing since sliced bread.

You want to offer information of value to the internet at large, or at least post something interesting to your target audience, rather than promoting your latest product in every post. Moz calls this the “BuzzFeed Approach.” For example, Red Bull doesn’t just splash their energy drink across Facebook and Instagram in every post; their audience wants to see extreme sports, and in turn, Red Bull provides images and articles of snowboarders pulling off tricks and daredevils gliding inches away from a cliff in wingsuits.

Moz also studied what makes a post go viral: Something clickable, playable and sharable. Chances are, posting about your latest shoe design is none of those.

#4. Juggling all the social media platforms

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, SnapChat, Tumblr, Reddit – you are on all of them, and even some obscure social media platforms, or platforms that have fallen by the wayside. But, you are a smaller business, not Wal-Mart, and it’s starting to take up too much time – the exact fear from earlier. It’s time to focus on a few specific platforms and accept you don’t need to be on all the platforms at once. Focus and build your audience, rather than trying to cast far too wide of a net and only picking up a few followers here and there. Quality matters here, not quantity, which in turn increases the likelihood of posts being shared. With quantity, you have a higher follower count, but they may not care to share your post – especially as they might be an uncaring robot account. Having 100 followers who are actively interested in your social media content, liking, retweeting, sharing and commenting, is better than 800 accounts seeing the content and doing nothing with it.

#5. Posting at the wrong time

According to social media guru Neil Patel, there are specific times for specific platforms when you should post your content, giving that focus a bigger audience. He found that Fortune 500 companies that posted videos on Instagram during working hours saw an average of 22.5 per 1000 followers interacting with the videos. But during off-hours, that jumped to 33.4.

Unsurprisingly, more people are on social media when they are home than when at work. Conversely, on Pinterest, the best time to post a fashion pin is 3 p.m. on Fridays – just before people start heading off for the weekend, and possibly right before they are able to spend their paycheck.

Patel himself saw a 39 percent increase in traffic to his website when he targeted those peak times to post on his social media. The other tips mostly dealt with quality, but once you a worthy post, sending it out at the right times can get you quantity while maintaining quality. Programs like Buffer or Hootsuite allow you to set a specific time for the post to go live without having to worry about forgetting to post, or being away from your computer.

It should also be noted that Instagram changed their algorithm in March for how posts appear in the timeline. Instead of showing the newest post first, they are mimicking Facebook by serving posts based on interest. This could have an effect on posting time.

#6. Ignoring complaints

One of the great abilities to use Twitter is responding to customer complaints in real time. Rather than hiding and waiting for an email from an increasingly irate customer, you can directly interact with them to address the problem. This is an excellent goodwill generator; the faster their problem is solved, the happier the customer is with your company.

Follow these tips and your social media game will be strong. You’ll have quality posts, plenty of followers, and fans who eagerly await your next post (and don’t mind occasionally seeing your products promoted). They’ll be happy with fast customer service, recommending your company to their friends, starting the cycle anew.

Have you done something wrong on social media, but corrected the mistake and brought your company fame and fortune – or at least followers? Let us know in the comments below.

Happy group of finger smileys 2– stock image

The post 6 Bad Social Media Habits to Break appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/social-media/business-habits

When It Comes to Content, Style Is Everything

Being stylish means standing out. It’s about knowing who you are, what your brand stands for and how you get your message out to the world. When it comes to writing online, it’s called word styling for a reason!

You know style when you see it. It just looks effortlessly good. You only have to think fashion and the list of style icons are endless, Olivia Palermo, Kate Moss, Audrey Hepburn, Anna Wintour. But when you look at these women they just look so together.

When it comes to word styling, style is mostly about your tone, voice, and language.

After all, we’ve all had that email… you know, the one took out of context because of the way it read. Sure, you weren’t meaning to sound rude but, unfortunately, you came across that way. Hey, it’s not your fault you left the caps to lock on!

So what is style?

It’s not what you say but how you say it, including the language you use, the personality you convey and the emotion behind it.

That comes down to two things: Voice and tone.

It can get a little tricky as to what the distinction is so I’ve gone with this:

 

Voice = personality

Tone = emotion/quality of the voice

 

Finding your voice

 

So what’s your business’s personality? If your business was a famous person, who would it be? Suave and cool like Sean Connery? Entertaining and upbeat like Cameron Diaz? Young and light-hearted like Justin Bieber? (Ha, yes, I just wrote that!). Or refined and stylish like Charlotte from Sex and the City?

My business’s personality is me. I’m a conversationalist – I’m a Gemini and we don’t mind a chat. I like sharing information and am hungry for it. Learning something new rocks my world. So when I find something cool you’ll be the first to know. I also rank beauty very high on my list of values. I like to look good because it makes me feel good.

When you feel good you do your absolute best. I like to be surrounded by beauty in all facets of the word. I like to have fun, meet new people and hang out with old friends.

So what does that mean for my content? Well, my content needs to reflect this. So when I’m writing my own content, not that of my clients, I stick to my five Cs:

 

• Chatty
• Contribution
• Clean
• Cool
• Consistent

 

Your formula for your content writing may be different. This is what I know works for me, my style, my business, and my readers.

 

1. Chatty – Do I ask questions throughout my content? Is it like having a conversation with me? In fact, if you do have a conversation with me, it will be very similar to reading my content. It is about being authentic and this is how you build a connection and start to develop a relationship with your peers.

2. Contribution – Am I sharing quality information that’s valuable? Is it credible? Am I teaching them something they don’t already know?

3. Clean – Is it well structured? Does it make sense? Is it free of errors? Is it easy to read? 

4. Cool – Is it fun? Or is there an element of fun? It is entertaining (to a degree)? Does it have word style?

5. Consistent – Am I doing all of this each and every time in all areas of my content writing?

 

HOT WRITING TIP: Your business’s personality should come through in all of your writing. When I write my web pages and blogs, it’s always with my personality in mind.

 

As your voice is your business’s personality, it should rarely change, regardless of who you’re speaking with, whether you’re writing a web page or blog, social media update or profile, or just sending an email. This is how you create consistency in your writing – and authenticity in your brand.

 

WORD STYLE ACTION STEP: Find your favorite blog or website… what do you love about it when you read the content, listen to the podcast or watch the videos? Write down some notes about the personality you notice in every piece of content.

 

I’ve got a great example for you… you have probably heard of MailChimp, the email gurus? Here’s what they say about themselves when it comes to tone and voice:

MailChimp is:

• Fun but not childish
• Clever but not silly
• Confident but not cocky
• Smart but not stodgy
• Cool but not alienating
• Informal but not sloppy
• Helpful but not overbearing
• Expert but not bossy
• Weird but not inappropriate

Your personality is how you build momentum, entice the kind of readers you want and, ultimately, attract new customers.

This is one of the reasons why knowing your target market is so important – because that audience will have an impact on your voice. Do you know yours? Who is your target audience? How old are they? Where do they live? Where do they hang out? What do they read? Are they young and savvy professionals, mature and established boomers, parents, stay-at-home mums or mumpreneurs?

Determining this will help you voice your information, opinions, and ideas in a way they can relate to.

 

Don’t take that tone with me!

Do you remember your mum saying that to you when you were a child? I do. The best way to understand the difference between tone and voice is to come back to the real, offline world. Think

about how you speak when you’re excited. How about when you’re angry or upset? What if you were speaking to a young child or an elderly woman? A friend? Stranger? Your boss or your best friend?

Your personality hasn’t changed in any of these situations. You’re still you. But the language and expression and quality of what you’re saying have changed.

My tone is often relaxed and conversational. When I am writing for a client or a partner, I usually have to write in a different style. It was the same when I was a journalist covering everything from court to features. Court reporting is a matter of fact, very straightforward, whereas feature writing can be more colorful and a little more relaxed.

Meanwhile, consider how your tone would sound if you’d been stuffed around by someone – say, like a mechanic who overcharged you for a service that was incomplete. Do you get my drift?

Think about who you are writing for. What sort of tone would they best respond to – conversational and friendly, frank and irreverent, formal and informative, or something else?

Writing is just like having a conversation I whole-heartedly believe this. If you’re having trouble writing your content, I suggest writing as you talk. How much more authentic can you get?

Just pick a topic and go for it! Pretend you are having a chin wag with your bestie or best client about it. What would you say to them? What would you cover in your discussion? How would you say it?

 

Shoot me some comments below!

Success in business concept– stock image

The post When It Comes to Content, Style Is Everything appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/personal-growth/business-style

From 3 to 30 Back-Links: My Back-Link Strategy

The back-linking strategy is a crucial component of the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and it can help to increase the authority of your website, and consequently the ranking position in Google.

 

My approach in this piece is not theoretical, but practical. I am a self-learner entrepreneur that experimented many digital marketing techniques on my own skin and dirty my hands with my own company:  Hen Party Latino.
Here you can find 3 simple and cost-effective ways to increment the number of back-links to your website that worked for my activity.

 

1. SPY COMPETITORS BACKLINK

 

Generally speaking, it’s always good to have a look at your competitors: what they have done, what worked and what it didn’t. What it can be improved and what can be inspirational.

There are several online tools out there.  I personally use

https://monitorbacklinks.com/

but feel free to try other options, and comment here below your own experience.

I find that this website offers a good service; it includes a 30 days trial – that in some case can be long enough for short and specific projects, or least it gives you an idea – It sends you a weekly report with new competitors backlink list and new links that your website gained.

You don’t necessarily need to spy slavishly and copy the links from your competitors: you can just get inspiration. For e.g. In my case, I found a competitor of hen parties (bachelorette parties) that linked to an accessories store. I didn’t ask for a link to the same store, but I have chosen another one in my region.

Notice that this article itself is part of this strategy, in other words, I find  Tweak among the back-links of one of my competitors.

 

2. GUEST POST

 

Guest blogging it’s an amazing and beautiful way to increase the authority, not only of your website but to your business.

In fact, this strategy it’s useful not only to build backlinks but even to increase traffic to your website and position your company as an authority in your industry.

 

Some tips that worked for my website:

#1:
Look for websites with strong root domain authority. You can check it out with the free SEOmoz toolbar.

#2:
Search websites where the content belongs to your niche and websites where the readers would be interested in your business

#3:
How to find websites that accept guest post:
Just go on Google and type:

• keyword “submit a guest post”
• keyword “guest post”
• keyword “guest post by”
• keyword “accepting guest posts”
• keyword “guest post guidelines”

of course, replace the keyword with the relevant search term.

#4:
Go on Twitter and search “guest post” to know the latest tweets about guest posts in your industry. Follow the links to see which blogs are accepting the guest posts.

#5:

Have a look at this amazing guide where you find more than 500 places to search for guest post:

http://www.buzzblogger.com/500-places-to-syndicate-your-content/

#6:
Examine the Blog’s and the style’s content. Wonder What type of audience are they writing for

#7:
Check what posts are getting popular on social media.  You can use:

http://topsy.com/  it shows the number of times blog posts have been tweeted.

http://plus.topsy.com/  it shows the number of times blog posts have been shared on Google+.

http://delicious.com/ it shows the number of times blog posts have been saved on Delicious.

http://digg.com/ it shows the posts on a blog that have received the most amount of Digg votes.

#8:
Read the guest posting guidelines, address the bloggers with his/her name, introduce yourself and explain why they should publish your guest post, pitch a few different ideas.

Be specific, try to mirror the style that is used on the blog. Include a few internal links back to some of their posts. Think broad and not sell your products. Be informative, give value to the readers. If you sell shoes, write a piece about how to clean leather shoes.
In my case, as I deal with bachelorette parties, the perfect example is the Wedding industry.
If you are a chef, you can contact some nutritionists.

 

3. INFOGRAPHIC

 

Infographic is a fun and smart way to gain beautiful back-links to your website.
It works well because it delivers content visually. We are bombarded by information and our brain can filter and select only a small percentage of it. Half of our brain is dedicated to visual and 90% of information is visual.

The main advantages are:

• It allows you to get many links with a single product
• Links are all natural and from different sites
• You will get many Social Sharing
• It conveys a concept with a medium accessible to everybody

Consequently, they can:

• Improve the website Authority
• Improve the ranking in the SERP
• Drive dramatic traffic to your website, even not exclusively from your audience

 

Maybe the best and most professional option is to hire a graphic designer, but I personally

had decent results using some online free tools, like CANVA and PIKTOCHART

Here you can find a complete step-by-step guide on how to achieve the best results using the Infographics

 

Trying to resume, the most important steps are:

1. Research original and cool content
2. Create your Infographic
3. Submit the Infographic to websites and directories that accept them
4. Check if your Infographic has been shared

Diversify anchor text

 

I use an online Tool: majestic.com to analyze the split of the anchor text.

For my own experience, this website www.infographicsarchive.com accepts easily submission of new Infographic, but there is a long list of directories that accept your work, even for free:

 

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON BACK-LINKS:

Even if you earn a No follow the link that doesn’t pass juice (so it’s not relevant for SEO)
you can still have a website click and, why not, a conversion

Another link that I gained was just checking the value of my website on  easywebstat.com (despite is Nofollow).

You can achieve this result by commenting on some Forum in your industry. Don’t just spam your competitors, but try, even with just a comment, to add value, on some topics, broader related to your area

Bonus:

Create a listing of your business on  local directories, such as Yelp

 Planning for New Project– stock image

The post From 3 to 30 Back-Links: My Back-Link Strategy appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/marketing-back-links

6 No-Nonsense Tips on Buying and Selling a Home

There comes a time when purchasing and moving to a new home makes sense. It could be due to certain arrangements at work, accommodating a bigger family, or simply the desire for new scenery. But before digging deep and planning the move, a lot of people are intimidated with the amount of work involved with buying and selling a home.

Here’s the cold hard truth: stress will always be a part of the process – no matter how many tips and guides you read. However, there are still things you can do that will surely help you succeed in buying a new home while selling the old one. Without further ado, here are the top six tips you should remember:

Get Pre-approved

Naturally, you should make sure you’ll have a new home to go to before selling your current one. And if there’s one thing you should check, it’s your home loan qualifications.

By being pre-approved, a lender has studied your financial information thoroughly and can provide you with details on how much you can really afford. A good strategy is to receive recommendations from at least three mortgage lenders and choose the best offer. Being pre-approved means you won’t have to waste time researching homes that you can’t afford. To improve your creditworthiness, you should try to avoid making big purchases around 3-6 months prior to being approved.

Takeaway: You should know that you CAN afford a new home before making any further decisions.

Know Where You Want to Live

Do you already have a clear idea on where you’re going to move, or are you simply tired of your current residence? Remember that buying and selling homes can result in disappointments. This is why you should do your research so you can avoid regretting your decision later.

To decide, remember that you should prioritize the specific needs and of your family. Does a nearby school matter? Do you prefer having a tennis court or other recreational facilities? In addition to these, you should also investigate the location’s safety track record. Doing all these can help narrow down your hunt and make the process a lot easier.

When looking for a new place, some of the best resources you can use are Trulia.com, Realtor.com, and Zillow.com.

Takeaway: Planning where you want to live can prevent you from making bad decisions in homebuying.

Forget the Markets

A lot of homeowners pay too much attention to the state of the housing market. In turn, they become obsessed with timing and fail to develop a solid plan.

First of all, remember that there is absolutely no way to accurately predict the future movement of the real estate market. You shouldn’t choose to sell or buy a home specifically in hopes of making the maximum profit. Instead, remember the real reasons why you need to make the move.

Takeaway: When is the best time to buy? When you found the perfect house AND you can afford it.

Investigate the Property

You should never overlook the importance of having a walk-through inspection when buying a new home. Bear in mind that the home sellers probably staged their home to make it more appealing. Hiding issues such as leaks, cracked floorboards, and broken closets are common. This is why you need to take your time and be thorough with everything.

During the inspection, you should keep note of things that require repairs as well as areas that you’d like to renovate. If possible, you should insist on the necessary repairs before you close the purchase. These are some of the most important things you should do during new home inspections.

Additionally, you should survey the area and know your boundaries. When moving to a new neighborhood, having a border dispute is the last thing you want to do. Knowing the exact boundaries of the new place is also important for having an accurate property tax.

Takeaway: As a homebuyer, you should try to get your money’s worth by making sure all issues are known and dealt with before you’re stuck with them.

Stage Your Home

If other sellers can beautify their homes to attract more buyers, then you can too. Staging your home is the process of “repackaging” your house for a new buyer. For most people, hiring a staging company is the least stressful option, but definitely the least cheap.

Besides, it is entirely possible to perform the house staging process all by yourself. The first thing you should address is the appearance of your home from the curb. Remember that a lot of interested buyers choose to do a drive-by before scheduling an inspection. This is why you should see to it that the windows are washed, the porch floor has been cleaned (repainted if necessary), the lawn is mowed, and there are plenty of color from plants and flowers.

Next, you should de-clutter and maximize the space in each room. This will allow potential buyers to visualize their interior ideas with your home. Also, it is best to get rid of your personal design choices and be as clean and plain as possible. Finally, you should see to it that everything is clean and functional on the inside.

Takeaway: Staging your home can help sell it faster and make the most money out of it.

Find an Agent

Remember that a lot of legal paperwork is required when it comes to selling a property. And to avoid overlooking any legal matters, it’s best to have the paperwork done by a certified real estate agent.

During the selling period, remember that interested buyers may want to perform a house inspection during unexpected times. Without working with an agent, you’re putting yourself in a difficult position especially if you can’t always rush back home whenever you receive a call.

Lastly, finding an agent generally makes the selling process easier because he or she is not emotionally tied to your house. Without an expert’s valuation, it is easy for homeowners to overprice everything and discourage buyers from closing a deal.

There are several things you need to consider when looking for a real estate agent. First, make sure he is duly licensed in your state and is qualified to fulfill all the selling decisions and documents for you. You should also contact the agent’s previous clients and let them tell you about their experience.

Takeaway: A real estate agent will help with the most grueling tasks of selling a home – from accurately evaluating your property to having it seen by prospective buyers.

Conclusion

The real estate industry has been greatly recovering in the past few years. With the market on the move, developing a solid plan on buying and selling a home suddenly becomes a great skill. It may not be easy, but it shouldn’t be too complicated, especially with time-tested courses of action.

 computer keyboard background– stock image

The post 6 No-Nonsense Tips on Buying and Selling a Home appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/finance/financial-planning/sales-tips

The Growth of Online Learning

The growth of the Internet has led to many things – things that one would not have been able to even imagine a few years ago. One of those things is online learning, which is now considered a credible alternative to traditional education. Gone are the times when we would have to go all the way to our campuses to attend classes. Online learning is convenient and extremely flexible. You can easily attend classes in the comfort of your own home. Most online learning platforms let you choose your timings as well, and this kind of flexibility works out in the favor of those who have busy schedules but still want to learn new things.

The online learning market is growing steadily, and why shouldn’t it be? It is a much more affordable substitute for the traditional way of learning. Many people who are unable to afford college can make use of online learning for acquiring employable skill sets and degrees to compete in today’s demanding job market. Many people who were not able to attend college in their younger days can make use of online learning. This alternative can even come in handy for people suffering from different ailments, be they psychological or physiological.

Take the example of someone with Agoraphobia or Social Anxiety. A classroom setting might not be the most comfortable for them (not to mention that such a setting might hamper their ability to learn) – ergo, in such cases, online learning is indispensable. Online learning is beneficial even for students who are advised bed rest due to physical ailments. As such, they wouldn’t fall behind with regards to education, just because of a physical illness. Most schools and colleges have started recognizing the importance (as well as the benefits) of online education, and hence, have started incorporating distance learning programs in their course schemes.

Now, almost all schools with enrollments of 5,000 students or more offer distance education/online learning courses and 80% of those with enrollments of fewer than 5,000 students offer distance education. At the smaller schools, these may be entirely online courses or a part of a traditional course. This data comes from the recently completed 2014 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and co-sponsored by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Pearson and Tyton Partners.

Online learning doesn’t just benefit college students – more and more firms are incorporating the online learning modality to train their employees. Employees are either enrolled in specific courses (depending on their field of work, i.e. for coders, it could be a course on Python) to expand their skillsets or are enrolled in corporate training courses which will enhance professional growth.

Here are our top picks for websites (some even have apps) for online learning:

Coursera

Coursera is an educational technology company that offers open online courses in a verity of subjects. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to make some of their courses available online. They are offering courses in subjects like physics, engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, business, computer science, digital marketing, data science and more.

Udemy

Udemy.com is the marketplace for online learning. Unlike academic MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a platform for experts of any kind to create courses, which can be offered to the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee. Udemy provides tools that enable users to create a course to promote it and earn money from student tuition charges.

No Udemy courses are currently credentialed for college credit; students take courses largely as a means of improving job-related skills. Some courses generate credit toward technical certification. Udemy has made a special effort to attract corporate trainers seeking to create coursework for employees of their company.

ZeoLearn

What makes Zeolearn stand apart is that during the course, not only do students get theoretical knowledge, but they will also gain practical experience through hands-on projects. Zeolearn mentors who are industry- experienced professionals will guide your work and help you understand how to apply theory to practice. The sessions are more interactive and aim to cover the drawbacks of online learning, such as not being able to ask questions from the teacher. That isn’t a problem with ZeoLearn, as the instructors will strive for individual focus.

EdX

EdX is a massive open online course provider. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no cost. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform. EdX differs from other MOOC providers, such as Coursera and Udacity, in that it is a nonprofit organization and runs on open-source software.

Udacity

Udacity is an educational organization founded by Sebastian Thrun, David Stevens, and Mike Sokolsky offering MOOCs. According to Thrun, the origin of the name Udacity comes from the company’s desire to be “audacious for student”. While it originally focused on offering university-style courses, it now focuses more on vocational courses for professionals.

The future of the online learning industry is paved with exponential growth and immense potential for profit. Now, more than ever, learners and companies are turning to online learning courses and online training events achieve their personal and professional goals.

Here are some important online learning statistics and facts, some of which may even surprise you!

The Global Online Learning Industry Market

The global online learning market reached around $107 billion by 2015. The global self-paced online learning market reached $32.1 billion in revenue in 2010, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of approximately 9.2%.

If we go calculate the growth rate by country, India, China and Malaysia are winning the top spots.

Learning Management System

The LMS market was worth $2.55 billion in 2013 with an estimated compound annual growth rate of approximately 25.2%. In other words, the LMS market is expected to be worth over $7 billion in 2018. The highest proportion of revenue contribution is expected to be generated in North America.

MOOCs in Corporate Training

Currently, 8% of companies use MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), while another 7% consider experimenting with MOOCs. It is predicted that in the following two years this percentage will rise to 28%.

• More than 350 companies cooperate with Coursera and Udacity to identify the best students that would probably make the best possible candidates for relevant jobs.
• Google has already enrolled 80,000 of its employees in Udacity’s HTML5 course.

Online Corporate Training

The online corporate market is expected to grow by 13% per year up to 2017. Today, 77% of USA companies offer online corporate training to improve the professional development of their employees.

 

While online learning might seem like a silver lining in, of and by itself, one must remember that everything has pros and cons, and that is how the world maintains this semblance of equilibrium. So, please think about that before completely ditching traditional learning or quitting your university or college in favor of online learning. Online learning would never be able to emulate the complete classroom environment, and a big part of the university or college experience is socializing with new people and making new friends – something that wouldn’t be possible with online learning. Online learning is effective in cases where money and time are constraints, but if you’ve got both of those in abundance, don’t shy out from going to college.

Nature and technology interaction– stock image

The post The Growth of Online Learning appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/technology/technology-trends/technology-learning

How to Succeed in a Competitive Environment

Setting foot in entrepreneurship might be difficult as you need to be an expert in your field, offering competitive services. What is more, no matter how hard you try, there is no guarantee you’re prepared for a competitive marketplace. If you don’t know how to beat competitors in your industry, there is a little chance the number of your customers will grow constantly. In short, you need to do your best in order to stay a successful entrepreneur in a competitive environment.

 

By the way, do you know what is the main difference between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs? Successful businessmen know how to succeed in a competitive environment!

To begin with…

 

What is a Competitive Environment in Business?

The number of companies against which your business competes in the niche marks the level of competitive ability. The more competitors in business you have, the more competitive the work environment is. And it means you need to be more enthusiastic, creative, and savvy to achieve success in this field. It goes without saying that such conditions may scare entrepreneurs, especially when you’re new to running a business. However, the path to success is paved with pitfalls, so you need to roll up your sleeves and move forward to beating your competitors.

If you want to stand out from the crowd in order to achieve success in your niche, you need to learn several things that might help you survive in a competitive environment.

 

1. Do Competitor Analysis

To survive in the competitive environment, you should know what you are fighting against. Thus, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors with the help of competitor analysis as it can give you an insight into what techniques to include to your business strategy. Doing this analysis, remember to divide all your competitors into two main groups: primary and secondary ones. Obviously, you need to be focused on primary competitors, but never let secondary ones beat you.

Learning from your competitors is beneficial: examine what works well as if you’re their customer, and implement something to your strategy. All in all, competitive analysis gives you opportunities to grow your business faster without making mistakes. Never stop analyzing your competitors, and you would be able to stay ahead of them.

 

2. Communicate with Your Clients

Proper communication with clients is a core element of building strong relations with them. If you know how to communicate with them, it’s more likely you listen to them and, therefore, satisfy their needs with ease. Obviously, it means that you’re making clients happier which means growing your income.

However, not all entrepreneurs do their best to build good relations with customers. Instead, they rely on the quality of their services. Although it might be wise, there is no better way than make a symbiosis of these strategies. If you know how to be valuable for your clients, they will never forget you. And it’s just a new possibility to get positive feedback and more clients soon.

 

3. Improve Presentation Skills

Having good presentation skills is a must in the business environment. Once you know how to deliver a speech the right way, you can grab your audience’s attention without making much effort. All in all, it means you can promote your product and make the most out of its presentation.

It’s a world-known fact that many people face the fear of public speaking, and to stay out from the crowd, you’d better overcome it and become better than your competitors.

There is a list of quick tips on improving presentation skills:

• put down notes
• practice a lot
• ask for feedback

The sky is the limit, so never stop mastering your skills.

 

4. Stay Creative and Innovative

If you work in a competitive environment, your competitors have something valuable to offer to the clients. In order not to lose your existing clients and attract new ones, you need to understand how to grab their attention. Standing out from other competitors, you show your benefits and give customers hints why should they rely on you. And there is no better way than suggest useful services from a different angle. Thus, being creative and innovative is your biggest help in defeating competitors. Never stop making experiments to find new ways to be useful for your audience.

 

5. Run Business Experiments

Have you ever heard that a successful business should be original? If you can offer something unique and useful, your clients will be next to you. While it’s hard to make up something new, and most things have already been done, it’s you who is in charge of success. And the solution is here: run successful business experiments. Obviously, there is no guarantee every experiment would be good, but you need to fail many times before succeeding.

 

6. Learn from Mistakes

It’s one of the most common fears most people have – we are afraid of failures. However, you’d better stop it as the business environment is a place where failures often happen, and there is no better way than learn from them. Once even a small failure happens, don’t be to blame for it: we are people who make mistakes from time to time.

There is a good remedy: analyze what caused this mistake, work on its solution, and try to avoid making it again in the future. It’s proven that learning from mistakes not only gives you a chance to avoid making them again but helps to prevent new ones.

 

7. Stay Mobile

The digital era and its technological development dictate new trends in the business field. Nowadays you need to stay 24/7 available if you want to hold clients. No matter what the reason is, get ready to communicate with customers wherever you are.

If you act fast, you can earn respect from your clients. Thus, you’d better set up push-on notifications on your gadgets to track all messages you receive. Operative mobile communication is a key to success.

 

The Wrap-Up

Achieving success has never been an easy task to do, especially when it comes to the competitive environment in business. If you want to succeed in your niche, no matter what other competitors do, you’d better learn tricks and tips and stay inspirational to keep on growing in your field.

Draw inspiration from wisest entrepreneurship quotes, learn more techniques to act in a competitive environment, and become a better person starting from today!

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The post How to Succeed in a Competitive Environment appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/entrepreneurship/entrepreneurship-succeed

Why EntrepreneursShould Stay Closely Involved With SEO Campaigns

An entrepreneur is always facing the challenge of creating revenues from limited resources by accomplishing innumerable tasks. The paucity of time does not allow adding new things to the already over the burdened list of tasks that includes building an organization, building a brand and reaching out to the consumer. This is where a Chicago SEO company can be of great help to entrepreneurs. They will show the digital way to reach out to consumers and create brand awareness by unleashing the powers of SEO. But this does not mean that SEO will carry the business on its shoulders all alone and drive it towards the coveted goals. It requires a concerted effort and clear understanding about the powers of SEO so that it can be maximized by augmenting the digital marketing campaign of which SEO is only a part.

 

Clearing some misconceptions

There are some misconceptions about SEO among entrepreneurs that should be cleared first.  When you consult the professionals of SEO Chicago, they will reveal the true story about SEO that can clear the misconceptions.

• SEO is still important today, and it is only a part of digital marketing that comprises of content marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, pay per click advertising and email marketing.
• SEO is still as important as it used to be and there is no reason to think that it has reached the point of saturation. It is a mistake to think that SEO is dead. It will be a bigger mistake to ignore SEO as it can ruin businesses.
• All problems of business growth cannot be solved by SEO. It also cannot guarantee market domination and the top spot in search results instantly. It is a process that can give very good results when gradually built with a systematic approach.

 

In house vs. outsourced resource

Many entrepreneurs are often caught in the dilemma of whether to implement SEO with in-house resources or outsource it. Since SEO is a very specialized subject that is constantly evolving, it needs a dedicated workforce and professionals who are specialists to look after it. If you have suitable infrastructure and experts to handle it, you can do it in-house. If not, then seek the services of a Chicago SEO Company that can add value to your SEO efforts.

 

Educate yourself

Despite outsourcing the SEO services, entrepreneurs have to be well aware of the best ways of implementing it. Since it is your own business, you have to be concerned about what is happening and whether things are moving in the right direction. Your advice and suggestions can be useful in implementing the campaign more effectively. By looking around and benchmarking the SEO practices currently being followed, you can educate yourself and stay tuned with the activities of the SEO services Chicago. The better you are informed the better will be your control over the SEO campaign.  After all, there is nothing better than to adopt the best practices that have been discussed below.

 

Strategy for mobile optimization

Mobile searches have overtaken desktop searches in at least 10 countries including Japan and the USA. Moreover, Google is all game for mobile-friendly websites. Considering these as the highest impacting changes of recent times, it is a necessity for entrepreneurs to have a mobile optimization strategy for the SEO process.  Mobile devices have been included among the signals that are used for ranking websites by search engines. A seamless site experience being made available on mobile devices is what consumers now expect at the least. Leaving out mobile search from the scope of SEO can be the mistake of a lifetime for entrepreneurs.

 

You need to have a responsive design for your website that makes it mobile friendly. Users should derive the same viewing pleasure of the website on mobile devices as they experience on desktops and laptops.  Having a mobile optimization strategy will bring you much closer to consumers through better engagement. The SEO Company Chicago can show you the way.

 

High content quality

There is no short cut in implementing SEO strategies that are now based on producing high-quality content. The content quality has to be such that it is not only relevant to users, but is also informative and interesting. The focus has shifted to high-quality content as it is related to user experience. In fact, all efforts of SEO optimization have to be directed to give users the best experience that they expect.

 

High-quality content is what Google likes and search engine results depend on it. This has become more important in the context of acquiring quality links for your website, which is a major contributor in search rankings. With the introduction of Google updates like Penguin and Panda that are used to weed out poor quality content and spamming, content has once again become the king in SEO activities. The high quality of content attracts more traffic to websites, and it is likely to be shared widely, thereby extending your reach to consumers.

 

Have a repository for content

The challenge of high-quality content is much more because websites have to be refreshed frequently with new content. It is not an easy task to generate high-quality content in rapid succession, but the inability to do it can affect search rankings. In order to meet the challenge effectively, you should have a reserve of ideas for contents. Ideas can be generated by tracking closely the interactions in forums and social media platforms surrounding the products and the industry in which you operate. This would ensure that you are at par with consumers as far as their likes and expectations are concerned. The repository can include messages for your products and services that help to reach out to consumers.

 

Keep a close watch on the SEO campaign and track it meticulously to gauge the movement of competitors. Evaluate the numbers that the campaign generates by using the analytical tools, and make necessary adjustments to derive better results. It is an ongoing process that needs your active participation to drive it to success.

 

About the author – Selina Jenkins is an expert in digital marketing and has helped many businesses of various sizes to implement SEO campaigns successfully. She has created many successful companies that have made her a very popular name in the world of digital marketing.  She began as a blogger and had the fortune of using her technical education to further the cause of SEO. A master strategist for startups she has proven track record of success in digital marketing that has earned her a lot of reverence.

 world map– stock image

 

The post Why EntrepreneursShould Stay Closely Involved With SEO Campaigns appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

source https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/marketing-campaigns