13 Reasons why we are into visual learning

Today, all we seem to hear about are infographics. For every collection of new statistics that gets published, someone creates an infographic just so that we can decipher them. So why are we so much into visual learning these days?

Some would place the blame squarely on Facebook and Twitter because they encourage us to be connected 24/7. Others would blame the rise of smartphones.

Sure, you could argue all of these points; however. It seems the real reason why we are so much into visual learning is because we’re on information overload.

Think about it. We are connected 24/7, everyone carries a smartphone, and we are being fed new information from people we are connected to on our social media channels.

Because we are constantly being fed new information, we have to keep up. That’s why visual learning is becoming so important.

Here are a few statistics on visual learning and our brain.

Keep reading and check out the following interactive infographic on more reasons why we are into visual learning.

Note: This infographic isn’t what you are accustomed to (it is interactive), so be sure to click the infographic to see it in action.

13 Reasons why we are into visual learning

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Social Media management in 60 minutes a day

How much time do you think it takes to manage an effective social media strategy? If you said days or even weeks, you’re partially correct – if you run a social media agency. If  you’re just managing your own social media accounts, you can do social media management in just 60 minutes a day!

60 minutes a day on social media? Really? It can be done.

Social Media time management

Learning how to manage your social media accounts in just 60 minutes a day takes discipline. It also means you need to focus on what your goals are when you logon to a site.

We’re all guilty (myself included) of going on Facebook for one thing and then spending hours just browsing.

This plan assumes that you already have a social media strategy in place.

What you are learning about is how to split up your time spent on social media activities in 60 minutes per day. This way you can use that time towards being productive in other areas.

Social Media management in just 60 minutes a day

To effectively do social media management in 60 minutes a day, here’s the recipe you need for creating the perfect social media cocktail:

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10 steps to better social customer service

Did you know, nearly 50% of social media users used social customer service at some point to resolve an issue.

With the growth of social media, more and more customers are deciding to skip the phones (and even email), choosing to rely more on social customer service to get help.

Why social media for customer service?

One of the benefits to using social media for customer service is the speed at which you can solve problems. Today, if a user has a question about a product and is looking for answers, they could engage with a business via Twitter most likely before they would get someone on the phone.

Besides helping resolve customer service issues and saving lots of time in the process, businesses can leverage social media not just for resolving issues, but also to help them learn more about who their most ardent customer are.

By identifying customers who are passionate about your brand via social media, businesses also now have the ability to leverage their customers to help promote and share their latest products.

The challenges of social customer service

While a lot of social media users are using social customer service to get help, what are the challenges?

For starters, 36% of consumers report having their customer service issues resolved via social media (tweet this). 

This presents a big obstacle in helping improve social customer service. Fortunately, the reason why this percentage seems so low is because businesses have the wrong departments running social media.

Most businesses silo their social media – splitting it between marketing and PR. While this is great to help get the message out, chances are, those individuals won’t have the time or the resources to respond to customer service questions from social media. As a result, customer questions go unnoticed and this can become a turn-off for customers.

So what can  you do to make social customer service better within your organization?

10 steps to better social customer service Continue reading 10 steps to better social customer service

29 ways to help you stay creative [Infographic]

One of the challenges for anyone who has their own blog is creating quality content day in, day out. In most cases, we simply run out of ideas because we’re tired. What can you do to stay creative (besides taking a vacation to recharge your batteries)?

While the obvious answer is to take a vacation and recharge our batteries, not everyone can have this luxury. We either rely on our blog content as a source of revenue or we just don’t have that much vacation time available.

Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to help you stay creative when the energy just isn’t flowing.

These include:

  • Making lists
  • Drinking coffee (or your favorite caffeinated beverage)
  • Going somewhere new – so your brain can find new things to focus on to stimulate it
  • Listening to new music – studies show new music is good for your brain
  • Meeting new people

In addition to the ways to stay creative that we listed above, there are plenty more. In fact, there’s an entire infographic filled with additional ways you can stay creative to help you continue to churn out new content.

Remember, new content can include blog posts, images, videos, designs, even marketing ideas for your products.

29 ways to stay creative

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Modern marketing with the modern marketer [Infographic]

Modern marketing infographic

In just a few short years, marketing has changed. In fact, we’re now looking at modern marketing as being the new standard.

This means that marketers aren’t just coming up with ideas and passing them off to a designer to make those ideas come to life.

Modern marketing now blends the role of the marketer with the role of the creative team.

This means you essentially have a jack-of-all-trades on your team – someone who is creative, understands social media, but also has the skills to be able to comprehend, track, and measure the results of their efforts as well.

While marketing used to be an area that most business owners didn’t understand or didn’t see value in spending money on. Today, with the rise of digital media, marketing has moved to the forefront. In fact, it’s now one of the first things a business thinks about when creating a product.

This is because while marketing used to mean spending lots of money to get the word out about a product, modern marketing has provided a new means of getting the word out – all while tightening the pursestrings.

So what skills does a modern marketer need to succeed?

  • Ability to write
  • Capable of creating visual content
  • Social media skills
  • Capable of crafting compelling email marketing campaigns
  • Expert at budgeting
  • Master performance tracker
  • Trendspotting

In addition to having the skills mentioned above, the modern marketer also needs to know the 10 commandment of modern marketing so that they can learn what makes a good marketer and what makes a bad marketer.

Learn more about the skills needed in modern marketing with this infographic from Pardot, a marketing and analytics company.

Modern marketing – part artist, part scientist

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Turning your social media obsession into your job [Infographic]

Social media obsession

Hi, my name is Christian Karasiewicz and I have a social media obsession. How many of you often find yourself saying the same thing? It’s ok to admit it.

With the growth in social media over the past few years, we are spending a lot more of our time online or at least thinking about what we’re going to post next.

Couple that with the fact that we’re always connected to our mobile devices – or at least constantly being reminded with each new notification that comes through and it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape social media.

Some people see this as a bad thing because it keeps us from interacting with people in-person. I see this social media obsession as a good thing though.

The social media obsession

Having an obsession with social media isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While it may take you away from your normal life, many businesses need help with their social media. That’s where having a social media obsession can pay off big-time.

In fact, here are a few helpful stats to help you turn your passion with social media into a long-term career.

  • 30% of brands are not using social media to its fullest because they lack employees with the proper skills.
  • 85% of businesses with a dedicated social media platform reported an increase in their market exposure
  • 56% of customer tweets to companies are being ignored

Tips on turning your social media obsession into a long-term career Continue reading Turning your social media obsession into your job [Infographic]

Messaging & how to make it stick [Infographic]

Make it stick - messaging

If you’re someone who gives a lot of presentations, it is important to get your message across and make it stick with your audience. Not only does this help your presentation leave a lasting impression with your audience, but it can have an even greater impact on future presentations as well.

Why make your message stick with your audience?

When you’re giving a presentation, you want to keep your audience interested. Good presentations often have a clear, strong message and are able to make it stick with their audience.

This means their audience will leave their having learned something valuable.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen though. For every good presentation, there are lots more bad presentations.

For me, there’s nothing like sitting through a boring presentation where the presenter just reads through the slides or worse off, they have too many points on each slide. Not only is this unattractive, but it’s confusing to the audience. 

While the presenter is able to deliver their message, they are not able to make it stick. This means they did not accomplish the goal of their presentations, which should be to inform and educate their audience with a clear message.

Did you make it stick?

You’ll know that your presentation was successful when your audience does the following:

  • Tell their friends and colleagues
  • Shares your name on their social media channels
  • References you in their own presentations
  • Blogs about you on their website

How to make it stick when giving a presentation?

The team over at Slideshop, a website that creates and sells powerpoint templates, put together this infographic about messaging and how to make it stick with your audience when you are giving a presentation. 

Personally, my favorite piece of advice is to limit the number of bulleted items you include on each slide. Often times, I comes across presentations that try to cram too much information onto one slide. There’s only so much information the mind can absorb at one time.

Look these over and let me know if you agree with these tips on how to make it stick with your audience.

10 techniques on how to make your message memorable and make it stick

Continue reading Messaging & how to make it stick [Infographic]

How Google works? [Infographic]

How Google works

If you’ve ever been curious about how Google works, then we have the answer (well, part of it).

In fact, it’s actually very fascinating if you really think about it. Most people assume that Google just consults a database when you enter a Google search. We wish it were that simple to determine what content to show to users after they perform a Google search.

Instead, they sort it, rank it, run it through more filters, compare it against different policies that are in place, run it through some more filters and finally end up bringing that content back when you perform a keyword search on Google. Sounds like a lot of steps doesn’t it? I’m sure there are a lot more in fact.

If you want an abbreviated version on how Google works, here’s the short version.

How Google works (short version)

  1. Create really good content
  2. Build your website so that Google can understand how it is structured / mapped out
  3. Tell people about your content

How Google works (long version) – the infographic Continue reading How Google works? [Infographic]

How to Determine Social Media ROI for your business

More and more businesses are making social media a central part of their marketing strategy. If you’re putting resources into social media marketing, you’ll want to keep track on your return on investment (ROI).

Determining your social media ROI will help you to determine which marketing techniques are successful and adjust your strategy accordingly.

While there isn’t a standard measurement, before you begin be sure to determine your key objectives.

Let’s take a look at some ways to determine social media roi for your business.

How to Determine Social Media ROI

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18 Tips on Using Social Media for Events [infographic]

If your business holds events, one thing you want to make sure you do if you want your event to succeed is to leverage social media for events. Not only is social media a great way to build the buzz around your next event, but it can also be used to keep attendees informed about your event.

Why is social media for events important?

Social media isn’t just used to share your latest blog post or to tell customers about your newest products. It can be used for a whole lot more.

Whether you run a conference, seminar, concert, sporting event, fundraiser, or club, social media should be a key component at any of your events.

Today, more and more customers are looking to social media when they attend events and not to programs or handouts. They do this for a number of reasons such as keeping up with your event, learning about breakout sessions, featured speakers, and more.

How can using social media for events help my business?

The great thing about social media for events is that it isn’t just to help your customers or event attendees. Your business can benefit as well.

For example, instead of overprinting handouts and programs, your business just needs to tell attendees to follow your social media channels when they are at an event to know what is going on.

In turn, your business needs to make sure that any changes or event information is published in a timely manner on your social channels.

In addition, if there is a last minute change, instead of trying to communicate this information to attendees, by using social media for events, you can communicate this change through your Facebook or Twitter channels. This way, you can make one announcement – to follow your business on social media to learn about updates and changes. Crisis averted!

If you’re still not convinced that your business needs social media for events, Eventility recently published an infographic featuring 4 ways to use social media for events to connect better with your attendees.

We’ve broken this down into 18  helpful tips on using social media for your next event.

18 tips on using social media for events

Continue reading 18 Tips on Using Social Media for Events [infographic]