Social Media Advertising Opens the Doors to New Customers

It’s fairly safe to say that social media has changed our lives. Networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have opened up new ways to communicate and share our passions and daily lives. As a result, they have attracted hundreds of millions of active users. The online advertising research company eMarketer estimated that 593.7 million people worldwide used Instagram at least once a month in 2017.

All of these networks have benefited from the fact that consumers eagerly share their interests across these networks, generating a substantial amount of data about these consumers that advertisers can use to deliver targeted ad messages. This has led to the massive popularity of social advertising as a way to reach very targeted audiences – the same eMarketer report estimates Instagram sold $4.10 billion in advertising in 2017.

Many businesses are aware that social media gives them an opportunity to interact with their customers by sharing content, news and special discounts to those who “follow” the company’s pages. But many do not know that they can amplify their voice across these networks through the use of paid advertising, which can put them in front of both their existing customers and new prospects.

Facebook allows advertisers to set their goals, determine the audience targets that they want to reach, set budgets and then run campaigns across the network (here is an overview of the basics). Advertisers can get very creative with their targeting. They can pursue consumers who recently visited their site or looked at items at online retailers. They can target completely new audiences who have the same characteristics of customers (in other words, those who are “likely” to be customers). Many of the same parameters and strategies can be applied to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

 The best part is that these opportunities are available to advertisers of all sizes and advertisers don’t have to approach social advertising as a do-it-yourself endeavor. Ad agencies, local media companies and other ad services providers, including Sound Publishing, can help advertisers take advantage of social advertising to grow their business. In fact, here at Sound all we need is your desired audience and what you’d like your campaign to do (such as promote the launch of a new store or bring new visitors to your website), and we will handle the rest, including creative, campaign set up, and reporting.

• SOUND PUBLISHING
• Mon Jan 22nd, 2018 12:48pm

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Are Entrepreneurs Born -- or Made? Research Says 'Born.' But There's a Catch.

Entrepreneurs, social psychologists and economic theorists have all speculated whether entrepreneurs are born or made -- in other words, whether you're predisposed to become an entrepreneur due to your genetic makeup, or whether that disposition comes from your environment, conditioning or other external influences.

For most entrepreneurial hopefuls, it’s comforting to think that entrepreneurs are made, that even if you lack the "right" DNA, enough practice, experience and conditioning can help you be a success.

But step away from that comfort zone, because research seems to indicate the opposite: Entrepreneurship rates, it turns out, especially rates of entrepreneurship success, are influenced more by a person’s genes than his or her upbringing and degree of nurturing. Fortunately for the majority of entrepreneurial hopefuls, however, there’s a catch.

What the research says

There have been many studies attempting to answer this question, and they've landed on each side of the argument. In the nature vs. nurture debate (looking at factors beyond entrepreneurship), the most effective studies have been those done on twins, because they naturally share DNA, but may have experienced different environments and upbringings. An important distinction here is that identical twins share 100 percent of the same genetic information, while fraternal twins share 50 percent.

One study that looked at entrepreneurial tendencies, specifically, was done by Scott Shane, a professor at Case Western Reserve University. Shane looked at hundreds of pairs of twins, eventually finding that the identical twins among them had much higher rates of “shared entrepreneurial tendencies” than their fraternal counterparts or subjects in the control group.

Further exploration of data, including the research of molecular genetics, has traced  this genetic heritability to four core entrepreneurial traits, each of which increases the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur, while also being heritable:

1. The likelihood of starting a business. Genes can influence your probability of starting a business.

2. The ability to identify new opportunities. Your ability to identify business opportunities is similarly heritable.

3. The tendency to become self-employed. Related to but distinct from starting a business, self-employment is also a heritable probability.

4. Extroversion. Though extroversion by itself isn’t enough to motivate entrepreneurship, extroverts have an easier time making new connections, leading followers and engaging in a wider community.

A less formal survey of entrepreneurial beliefs found that just 1 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed believed that higher education played any role in shaping their entrepreneurial mindset. Conversely, 61 percent said their entrepreneurial characteristics had arisen from their innate drive.

The catch

What’s the catch here? All of these studies and surveys looked at entrepreneurs as a group; it paid no attention to how successful those entrepreneurs actually were. So, the takeaway here is that your genes play a role in your likelihood of actually starting a business, rather than whether that business will actually be successful.

In other words, just because you have a lower genetic likelihood of starting a business doesn’t mean you can’t start a business, or that the business won’t be successful. In fact, with significant drive and practice, you might be even more likely to succeed than someone genetically predisposed to starting a business -- especially if that person hasn't had as much real-world experience as you.

The role experience plays

Another study, from Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Kathryn Shaw looked at data from 2.8 million small businesses to determine rates of success based on previous experience. As you might expect, success rates were dramatically higher for entrepreneurs who had previous experience running a business.

This may seem like an obvious observation, but it’s important to consider in the discussion on whether entrepreneurs are born or made; it turns out that, regardless of your tendency to start a business, the real determining factor for success is in how much experience you get in an entrepreneurial role.

The two distinct questions we can ask

The first is: Are entrepreneurs born or made? This question looks only at a person’s probability of starting a business; and. according to research, entrepreneurs are more oftenborn.

The second is: Are successful entrepreneurs born or made? This question ignores the probability of starting a business, instead favoring the probability of success within a leadership position of a business. According to research, successful entrepreneurs are more often made.

What does all of this mean for you, the aspiring entrepreneur? If you want to dig deeper, you can look to your family members to get a loose, subjective gauge of your relative chances of starting a business; if entrepreneurship runs in your family, you’re probably more likely to start a business. If you have a burning desire to be self-employed, entrepreneurship may be innate.

More importantly, though, regardless of your heritage, your chances of making a business successful aren’t set in stone. Even the least genetically likely entrepreneurs can become successful if they spend enough time improving their skills, gaining experience as entrepreneurs and committing themselves to better ideas and self-improvement.

Jayson DeMers • VIP Contributor

Founder and CEO, AudienceBloom

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own..

4 Principles of Marketing Strategy | Brian Tracy

Marketing 101 a must watch ! Invaluable information from a master!

The new meaning of customer service

These days we’re surrounded by new technology. It has a huge influence on communications, transport and the way we go about everyday activities – for instance, the way we work, or shop. It also affects the relationship between companies and their customers. Customer service takes on a whole new meaning because consumers are no longer passive recipients but play an active role in communications and, increasingly, in the process of creating products.

Customers create the products

The days when products were developed behind closed doors and only revealed to customers in their final form are now long gone. Today’s consumers play an ongoing role in the development of new products. And not just when it comes to testing prototypes but also early on in the development of a product – for example at the planning stage. It’s the customers themselves who define the functions they expect from a system being newly developed, or which in their view constitute an “ideal service”.

A good example is crowdfunding where consumers support projects that they themselves want to use, participating in the creation of a product right from the design stage up to the moment when the end product of their collaborative input is made available to them. This is also the way that modern, open and dynamically growing companies operate; customer service takes the form of an ongoing exchange of information – a two-way communication during which the needs and expectations of consumers are explored.

Customers are sellers and brand ambassadors

Traditional advertisements that are scarcely credible and purely out to sell are a thing of the past. The claims of a good-looking TV personality or catchy billboard slogans are no longer convincing for switched-on consumers. Customers of today are unwilling to blindly accept everything offered by producers. Instead, they actively search for the products they want, compare available options and also check out reviews. They use information available on the Internet and act on the advice of friends and acquaintances. So what is the role of customer service in these cases? An absolutely crucial one.

Regular and appropriately tailored communication helps build a long lasting, positive relationship with customers. Everything starts with simple emotions – if people like a company they are inclined to trust it. They will be keen to buy its products and when pleased with the results will share their positive impressions with others. In this way a company acquires a following of loyal customers who at the same time act as ambassadors for the brand. They talk about it, review it and recommend it.

Two-way communication

On the subject of the evolving nature of customer service, it’s also worth noting that the distance between companies and customers is changing. Mutual relations are now significantly closer than before, and communications are two-way. Consumers these days actually expect to have an opportunity to voice their opinions. They’re conscious of how important these are – not only for producers but also for new consumers. They know the huge importance of every voiced opinion, whether good or bad. That’s why it’s important to make getting in contact with a company easy. When they buy its products they want fast and open communication.

They look for ways of getting in contact and, at the same time, convincing reasons to stay with a particular brand. A contact form on a website which gives a response at best several hours later fails to meet such expectations. In fact, it does quite the reverse – having to wait leads to frustration and damages relationships. The answer is fast, active forms of communication such as live chats or helplines, with consultants always available to respond to customers. It’s also worth noting that in customer service, it’s increasingly common to find “Customer satisfaction specialists” – because, today, it’s no longer enough to have customers; they have to be satisfied ones.

What is generally recognized as “high quality customer service” has dramatically changed over recent years. Relationships have evolved and become closer and more direct. The concept of a mass approach has almost ceased to exist – nowadays every customer expects to be treated individually. It’s vital to keep pace with these changes and meet the expectations of today’s customers, and this can only be done using modern tools.

Author Monika Kasperczyk

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How to Create Your Customer Avatar [FREE TEMPLATE]

• Buyer Persona
• Marketing Persona
• Customer Avatar
• Target Market

These are the phrases that are used interchangeably to describe the fictional, generalized representations of the persona that is most likely to buy from you.

It is critically important to the success of your marketing, sales, product development, and delivery of services that you have a deep understanding of who your customer avatar is. You've likely heard the phrase, "You can't hit a target you haven't set." This applies beautifully to the importance of having a clearly defined customer avatar.

Having a deep understanding of a clearly defined customer avatar will help you:

• Determine what social platforms they are spending their time on so you know where your business should be present and active.
• Be more effective in your advertising. Your marketing dollars will be well spent when you know where to advertise and who to target to maximize your exposure.
• Better connect with your avatar with your copy because you will have an understanding of their pains, pleasures, desires, and wants.
• Deliver and develop better products/services because you are able to anticipate your markets’ needs, behaviors, and concerns.

Creating your avatar

So, having a clearly defined customer avatar is important; the question is, "How do I create one?" The good news is, that creating a customer avatar is not difficult to create if you ask the right questions.

"What are the right questions?" you ask. You are in for some tremendous value because I have created a complete template to help you create your own customer avatar. This template makes it easy to compile all of your information, knowledge, experience, and research into one beautiful and presentable format. 

Download your customer avatar template now and begin the journey of successful marketing, sales, product development, and delivery of services that will knock the socks off your perfect customers. 

Now, you could download the template I have created and begin filling it out right away, but the most effective customer avatars are created with information based on market research as well as information that you gather from your current customer base. I would suggest that you take the time you need to gather the most accurate information you can to develop your avatar. Use surveys to capture feedback from your existing customers. Ask Your Target Market is also a great solution to survey a larger audience base. Adding a Custom Audience Pixel to your website is also a great way to track and learn more about people who have visited your website. Interviews are also a great way to capture valuable information. Interviews can allow you to dive deeper into the answers that are given by asking "why?" Asking "why" allows you to uncover the behaviors that drive them.

Multiple avatars

By now you might be thinking, "What if I have more than one avatar?" Having multiple avatars is perfectly fine. In fact, most businesses will have more than one ideal customer, especially if they offer more than one product/service. The best way to define your avatars is to tackle them one at a time. I would suggest that you start with the market that brings the most profit to your business (good idea, right?). Through this process, you may even find yourself realizing that your business is too broad and that you tighten up your product/service offering so that you can really develop your niche and position yourself to deliver your best to that market.

Negative avatars 

Creating a negative avatar can be as beneficial as creating your customer avatar. A negative avatar is a generalized representation of the persona that you don't want as a customer. Having an understanding of who you don't want to serve as a customer can sometimes make it easier to know who you dowant to serve as a customer. If you decide that you'd like to start here I would suggest that you think of that one customer that was a total nightmare for you to work with and document all of the things that made the relationship unsuccessful. The key here is to focus not on personal characteristics of why the individual was not easy to work with, but rather on the reasons why they didn't make a good fit for your product or service (such as pricing was too much, the probability of increased churn, or that they were not properly equipped to be successful long-term). 

Start defining your avatar

1. List out your avatars demographic traits: Examples of demographic traits are age, sex, education level, income level, marital status, occupation, religion, and average family size. This area of defining your customer avatar is typically easy to define.
2. Psychographic traits: Psychographic traits are a little more complicated and require a deeper understanding of your Avatar. Psychographic traits are based on values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyle. Examples of Psychographic traits are: wants a healthy lifestyle, values time with family, doesn't have much time, uses Pinterest to do home DIY projects.
3. Name your avatar: Naming your avatar humanizes the profile. If you are targeting both men and women you will want to create both a male and female name.
4. Put a face to their name: Find a picture online in stock photos that best represents what your avatar looks like visually.
5. Design a dossier: A dossier is a one-page collection of information about your avatar that includes the name, picture, information, and story about your avatar.
6. Write a story about your customer avatar: Image you are your avatar and you are journaling about the discovery of your product/service. What were they thinking before they bought your product? How were they feeling? Why were they feeling that way? What were they looking for? What were they hoping to solve or accomplish? How did they find you/hear about you? How did they feel once they purchased your product/service? 

Takeaways

At the most basic level, developing a customer avatar will help you become more effective in your messaging which will help you to cut through the noise in marketing today. Using your customer avatar in combination with a solid Lifecycle Marketing Strategy is a surefire way to explode your business growth. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you begin creating your customer avatar:

• Create a negative avatar first to gain clarity about whom you know you don't want to serve as a customer and who doesn't make a good fit.
• Give your customer avatar a name, face, and a personal story to bring him/her to life. Be as specific as possible, the more details you have the more you and your perfect customer will connect.
• Tackle one customer avatar at a time.
• Create your avatar based on market research and customer feedback rather than your own opinion and perception.

by Misty Kortes

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Stop Missing Out on Sales By Using These Closing Techniques

Are you missing out on sale?

‘Compelling scientific evidence’ that being stressed makes you FAT says inventor of the revolutionary 5:2 diet

Worrying about your weight? Then stop now - because it's that very stress which could be making you fat, according to the inventor of the revolutionary 5:2 diet.

Dr Michael Mosley says there is now 'compelling scientific evidence' that stress wreaks havoc with our bodies and predisposes us to putting on weight.

Speaking in The Mail on Sunday's new 'Life' section, he advises dieters to relax.

He explains: 'Research has shown that chronic stress leads to increased hunger, comfort eating, self-loathing and disrupted sleep.'

'To lose weight and keep it off, it is important to reduce stress – and all the comfort eating that goes with it.'

In a two-part health plan starting in 'Life' tomorrow, Dr Mosley outlines practical tips on how to minimise stress and so make losing weight easier.

One essential is getting enough sleep – which has twin beneficial effects.

Firstly, sleeping well minimises levels of so-called 'hunger hormones' the next day. Secondly, it cuts levels of the stress hormone cortisol too. Both lead to less comfort eating.

To demonstrate the vital role of sleep when it comes to dieting, he and diabetes expert Dr Eleanor Scott of Leeds University subjected 20 volunteers to a sleep-deprivation experiment.

They had to endure two nights when they went to bed three hours later than usual, to see what impact a lack of sleep had on their eating habits. After that they had another two nights when they went to bed at their normal time and could sleep as long as they liked, with their eating monitored the following days.

Dr Mosley also took part in the study, full results of which will be revealed on BBC Two's Trust Me, I'm a Doctor this Wednesday at 8.30pm.

He recalled: 'It was pretty grim.'

Besides feeling dog-tired after the two very late nights, he was also 'unpleasantly surprised' by how hungry he was.

'The same was true for all my fellow volunteers – everyone complained about having had the munchies.'

One volunteer piled through 10 custard cream biscuits - for breakfast.

He explained: 'Sleep and stress are closely linked: being stressed leads to problems sleeping, and problems sleeping make your stress levels soar.'

Dr Mosley helped popularise intermittent fasting, where dieters restrict their intake to just a few hundred calories for one day or two days a week, in his best-selling book The Fast Diet

Sleep-deprived people consume on average 385 calories extra per day, according to another study – about the same as a large muffin.

But he said the solution was simple, 'a couple of nights of good sleep'.

Dr Mosley helped popularise intermittent fasting, where dieters restrict their intake to just a few hundred calories for one day or two days a week, in his best-selling book The Fast Diet. Since its publication five years ago millions of people around the world have adopted the '5:2' diet.

To read more expert advice on diet from TV's Dr Michael Mosley see The Mail on Sunday's brilliant new Life supplement.

 By Stephen Adams for The Mail on Sunday

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Coaching and the GROW Model

Biggest misconceptions I find in business is coaching vs mentor. Most are unaware about how coaching really works. If you thought you know what coaching is and your not 100% sure here a nice little introduction to the GROW method.

What Everyone Is Getting Totally Wrong About Emotional Intelligence

EQ is not defined properly. If you go back to 1996, you can rediscover what it really means.

The more I read about EQ (or Emotional Intelligence) the more I wonder if people are defining it properly. For years, I've heard that EQ is about an ability to read people--to pick up on body language, to assess a situation and read feelings, to display a warmth and emotional connection that sets you apart from others, to smile more or shake hands more vigorously. It's almost always defined as an ability to pick up on non-verbal cues and "sense" when people are frustrated or happy or sad...and that's it.

The problem with this definition is that it's practically useless in a business context.

So you can read people and pick up on emotions. Fine. That gives you some advantage in conversation or maybe in the sales process, but really it is just another tool among many by that definition. It gives you some insight and a way to interpret body language and pick up on some mysterious non-verbal signals, but you can mostly just pat yourself on the back and say you can "read people" and that's it. It gives you some bragging rights.

The actual definition of EQ, which mostly originated from a book of the same name in 1996, is partly about managing emotions and picking up on emotions. Yet, the part that is often left out--the important part, if you are thinking about business advantages--is how to manage your own emotions and how to influence others accordingly. By the classic definition of EQ, President Trump has a terribly low EQ since he doesn't seem to care about what other people are feeling and doesn't seem to read the correct signals. He's practically immune to EQ. By the classic definition from 1996, however, he is off the charts. He has an incredible ability to influence others using EQ in a way that takes the popular, more common definition and crumples it into a wad of nothing.

You can see how this often plays out. You will often hear stories about someone who didn't read people and acted in anger, or maybe it's someone who didn't read people correctly and paid for it when a business decision ended up looking cold and impersonal. It's too bad, because that's only half of the definition. It's less common to hear stories about people who used EQ to influence others in a way that led to a more well-regarded product or service--a practical use for something that is often defined as all about feelings. Leaving the influence out of EQ makes it stagnant. It's really just a touchy-feely exercise that makes you feel good and nothing more.

Here's the question to ask yourself. Let's say you have always thought you can read people well. How has it helped? What does it really mean? I agree that picking up on non-verbal cues does help you understand others, but in business, if we're not talking about influence then there isn't that much to talk about. All marketing is influence. All sales is influence. In some ways, all business is influence.

When you start thinking about EQ as some magical sixth sense and that's it, the entire concept falls flat because it's value is diminished. EQ was always supposed to be about tracking and managing your own emotions and then influencing others so that you are not always just reacting--you read emotions then influence.

I've experienced this many times, both from the standpoint of not managing my reactions properly and paying the price (making people mad, breaking a healthy relationship) and by managing my emotions and then using more of a practical, seasoned, and predictable approach (and seeing that people agree with an idea or join a cause).

That second part of the definition is where the action takes place. It's where EQ can help you the most, not just by listening more intently or smiling more. It's the part where you can build up a business and start promoting a product in a way that gets attention.

If you've been forgetting the classic definition from 1996, the part about managing your emotions and influencing, try thinking about how you can make changes in your own job or your company that tap into that deeper meaning of the concept. If you think of a change to make that leads to more influence, share your thoughts with me directly by email.

By John Brandon

 

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HOW TO BUILD SELF ESTEEM - THE SIX PILLARS OF SELF-ESTEEM BY NATHANIEL B...

Understanding our own behavior is always the best way to identify root causes and make lasting change.

8 tips for getting social media ads right

Are your social media ads missing the mark? Contributor Peter Minnium outlines eight tips and tricks to help you connect with your audience and build a community of loyal followers.

A friend recently complained to me that the targeted ads that persistently stud her social media feeds are not only disruptive but also frequently irrelevant. She uses social media primarily to keep track of friends and to follow artists and crafters that could offer her inspiration or technical knowledge.

As she vented her frustration, I wondered why the ads she saw were still so consistently missing the mark despite the great leaps in ad targeting technology. Surely there must be a better way for brands to reach audiences through social media.

Surprisingly, though almost two-thirds of social media users are irritated by the number of promotions that clutter their feeds, and 26 percent actively ignore marketing content, a whopping 62 percent follow at least one brand on social media.

According to the GlobalWebIndex, 42 percent of social media users are there to “stay in touch” with their friends, while over a third are also interested in following current events, finding entertaining content or killing time. Though 27 percent of users find or research products on social media, most usage is skewed toward building relationships. As such, it’s clear why many social media users are annoyed by ads they find intrusive, irrelevant or boring.

While this data helps us understand why users may find ads abrasive, it also gives us a glimpse into why they are so open to following brands on social media. Today’s hypercompetitive ethos is not limited to brands or ads. Consumers want to know about the latest trends in fashion and technology, and they want to know first. By following brands, users can keep tabs on the latest and greatest.

Following also allows consumers to interact with brands more directly and to voice their dissatisfaction when brands misstep. A full 46 percent of users have “called out” brands on social media, and four out of five believe that this has had a positive impact on brand accountability. The good news for brands is that when they respond well, 45 percent of users will post about the interaction, and over a third will share the experience with their friends.

Brands should note that 60 percent of callouts are in response to perceived dishonesty, which should lend some context to the fact that 30 percent will unfollow a brand that uses slang or jargon inconsistent with the brand’s image. This can be a costly mistake, as 76 percent of users aged 13 to 25 stopped buying from brands after unfollowing.

The news may seem bleak, but the truth is that these facts draw a clear path for brands that want to tap into the unprecedented consumer access offered by the social media revolution. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

1. Be authentic

Above all, brands need to strive for authenticity. Consumers have shown that they are not only open to branded social media content, they welcome it, provided the content is useful and relevant rather than disruptive to their experience.

From social media usage statistics, we see that users are most interested in staying connected and entertained. Brands that share news of upcoming trends or offer content that stands on its own merit can add value to users’ social media experience while reaching out to a more receptive audience.

2. Be useful

Understanding how individuals utilize their social media presence can help brands leverage their marketing dollars. Users may not want to see a soft-drink ad while scrolling through pictures of a friend’s trip, but an airline ad might hit home.

Instructional videos can be a particularly effective way of reaching an audience in a useful manner. Like many others, my friend would be far more welcoming of how-to videos from a yarn supplier than of the seemingly arbitrary clothing ads that pepper her crafting-heavy social media feeds.

3. Be contextual

As always, context is key. Not all social media interactions are alike. Users may look to one branch of their network for entertainment or news and to another for technical knowledge or inspiration.

While the current targeting approach estimates user proclivities based on the activity and interests of their network as a whole, determining how users relate to specific nodes in the network will enable brands to reach out to users when and where they will be most receptive to the marketing content in question.

4. Be credible

Differentiation is also critical in establishing credibility. An American Press Institute study showed that users place greater weight on who shares content than on where it came from originally. Social media users, especially those in the 13-to-24 age bracket, will actively share and discuss content they find engaging.

Brands can make use of this phenomenon to proliferate their content, but only if those who share it are perceived to be trustworthy by members of their network. How connections respond to a user’s posts or shares can be more important than how much the user shares.

5. Be accessible

Brands need to build an audience of active and reliable followers who will help spread branded content to loyal followers of their own. Beyond publishing content that is engaging and true to their image, brands can accomplish this by making themselves more accessible to consumers.

Instant messaging can be a powerful tool for answering consumer questions, responding to complaints and building more intimate relationships with followers. By responding in a more immediate and personal way to users, brands can empower users to take the initiative in building a stronger relationship with them.

6. Be persistent

The most important factor that determines a brand’s success in the world of social media is perseverance. In part, this means being responsive to user feedback and actively working to improve their social media presence.

At the same time, brands need to stick to their guns. A majority (some 60 percent) of users need to interact with content between two and four times before taking action, according to a Sprout Social survey. A steady production of quality content will keep users tuned in, translating user engagement with content into tangible results.

7. Be testy

Brands too often fail to invest in testing to understand the effectiveness of their social media advertising. It’s easy to make excuses for not doing so: “the per ad investment is too small,” “I get metrics from the platform,” or “we don’t have time” are the most frequently heard.

This is a mistake. Without independent validation that the ads achieve their objectives (both attitudinal and behavioral), a brand can’t be sure it’s made it through the gauntlet of challenges outlined above.

8. Use your listening skills

Brands that listen actively to social media users and respond earnestly to their needs and interests stand to gain a foothold in the new marketing frontier. Over 75 percent of users in the Sprout survey report purchasing a product after interacting with marketing content on a social media platform. Furthermore, just as many users discovered a new brand through social media as in-store or via a conventional ad.

While many brands are struggling to reach consumers on social media (and not for lack of trying), they can overcome the resistance they are experiencing by opening their ears — before their pocketbooks.

Article by:Peter Minnium 

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RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

WOW Some insightful stuff on motivation. Thoughts?

Low on Motivation? 7 Psychological Hacks to Get Going

Even the most passionate and motivated among us have off days. We wake up feeling detached from work, or groggy, frustrated or depressed, and we can’t get into the right mindset to be productive. We might be able to go through the motions of work, but we aren’t operating at peak efficiency, nor are we enjoying what we're doing.

Is this you? Thankfully, even on your worst days, there are some psychological tricks you can use to hack your mind to become more motivated:

1. Visualize your long-term goals.

Research from the University of Virginia suggests that visualizing your potential future is highly motivating, even if that future is distant. Though we tend to perform our best and achieve the best outcomes when we optimize our work and focus for long-term performance, our minds are wired for short-term focus and goals. So, instead of zooming in on one task or project, think about your long-term goals, and work backward to visualize how these small steps will lead to that eventuality. Visualizing should super-charge your focus.

Long-term thinking is what Jeff Bezos used to make Amazon the tech powerhouse it is today. Since 1997, his manifesto has been “It’s all about the long term,” a kind of proactive warning to shareholders that the company is willing to sacrifice short-term revenue if that means higher long-term gains.

2. At least start your task.

One of the hardest parts of any task, especially a challenging one, is actually getting started. Once you’re in the middle of something, it’s much easier to keep that momentum going. To overcome this initial hurdle, commit yourself to at least starting your task;you can always tell yourself that you can abandon it after five good minutes of actual work.

By the time those five minutes are up, you might already be so into the project that you’ll naturally want to carry that momentum forward. So, start! The sooner you do, the sooner you’ll achieve that flow. This charge may seem intimidating or difficult if the task is beyond your usual scope, but in the words of former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of 'Wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,' and you push through those moments, that's when you have a breakthrough.”

3. Set a timer.

You can also motivate yourself by setting a timer,forcing yourself to work for a fixed amount of time and putting a break on the schedule for the near future. This simultaneously puts a limit on how much effort you’ll need to expend and gives you something to look forward to -- a break.Studies show that the “average” optimal time for this work-break split entails working for 52 minutes and breaking for 17, but you’ll likely need some adjustments to make the pattern work for you. For example, Tony Schwartz (president of the Energy Project) takes a break every 90 minutes, since he says his alertness tends to drop off after those 90 minutes are up.

4. Tell someone what you plan to do.

Social pressure can influence your personal motivation fairly strongly. If you have a big project to do, or a major goal for the day, tell someone close to you (such as a friend, family member or even a colleague) what you intend to accomplish. Knowing you’ll need to eventually report back to that person, you’ll feel extra pressure to do what you said you were going to

If you want even more pressure, consider broadcasting your goal to a whole group of people, such as the entire office. Ray Wu, cofounder of Weilos, used that online weight-loss community's platform to measure this effect. The result: Participants who actively shared their goals and progress ended up losing 1.2 pounds per week, compared to just 0.27 pounds per week among dieters not using the platform.

5. Change your "self-talk."

A comprehensive review of 47 different studies reported in the Journal of Sports Exercise Psychology confirmed the effects of positive and negative "self-talk" -- that running internal dialogue most of us experience throughout the day. Essentially, positive self-talk leads to higher motivation, better self-esteem and an elevated mood, while negative self-talk leads to the opposite.

If you find yourself saying or thinking things like “This is too much,” or “I’m stressed out of my mind,” try rephrasing those comments to things like, “This is an exciting challenge,” or “I’m going to feel great when I’m done with this.” Sometimes, a simple mental change is all it takes to radically transform your perspective.

6. Keep a task list.

Start keeping a list of tasks to do, and write down everything -- even small, minutes-long tasks throughout your day. Whenever you get something done, cross it off the list or put a check mark next to it. This will help you stay organized but, more importantly, will give you a boost of motivation every time you cross something off.

In the words of April Underwood, vice president of product at Slack, “Have a clear system for to-dos: whether it’s ‘Getting Things Done’ or the ‘Checklist Manifesto,’ just have a system and stick to it." Continued Underwood: "I have a very specific method I use in Slack and in email that works for me, and knowing I have that system keeps me from feeling overwhelmed even when I’m behind or the to-dos pile up.”

By keeping a task list, you too will be able to tangibly mark your progress, and you’ll feel better about what you’ve already achieved. You’ll also get to visualize your progress over time, which can help you keep going when you hit a wall.

7. Establish consequences.

Though reward-based systems often work better for teaching people new things, our instinct to avert loss motivates us to accomplish a goal when there are consequences for not accomplishing it. For example, in one experiment, teachers were split into two groups: one group was offered a $4,000 bonus if their students’ grades improved, and another group was actually given the $4,000, along with the threat that they would have to return the money if grades didn’t improve. Those consequences led the latter group to perform better over the semester.

So, if you want to get more things done, establish your own consequences for not getting them done.

If you find yourself chronically low on motivation and this happens relatively frequently -- say, more than once or twice a week -- consider this a sign of a bigger problem in your daily work life. You might be dealing with too much stress (without an outlet to relieve it), or you might be heading toward burnout.

Jayson DeMers • VIP Contributor

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