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As Teen Stress Increases, Teachers Look for Answers

I’ve taught frazzled high-performers who eschew sleep for flashcards and always seem on the verge of a breakdown. I’ve had students who won’t come to school because they don’t want to compound their stress. I’ve heard members of a student panel brazenly explain that they felt burdened by their workloads and simply wanted “the points.” It’s actually become common for student breakdowns to happen and for parents to request their child’s upcoming assignments in advance, knowing they’ll be out of school.

Though it may seem otherwise, my school isn’t a high-stress pipeline for Ivy League colleges, but a diverse public school that is home to both affluent and low-income students. We’re like many other public schools where student stress seems to be on the rise and is putting teachers like me in a tough position, causing us to second-guess ourselves and ask whether students are really too stressed—or just lacking time-management skills and angling for reduced homework.

Yet my personal observations that students seem more stressed than in years prior are backed by research, which shows that anxiety, depression, and self-harm are on the rise among teens. According to a 2019 Pew Research Poll, 70 percent of surveyed teens agree that stress is a major problem. Emergency room visits for self-inflicted, nonfatal injuries among children and young adults increased by 5.7 percent from 2008 to 2015, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 2007 and 2017, more teens were seriously considering suicide or hurting themselves in suicide attempts than in past decades.

“I’ve seen an uptick in diagnosable anxiety disorders that almost incapacitate teens,” said Dr. Melissa Holland, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at California State University, Sacramento. “It’s estimated about one in five teens have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and most of them go untreated.”

Rising Pressures

Two years ago, I participated in a question-and-answer session at a preschool that my spouse and I were considering for our daughter. The head of the school asked parents what they wanted for their children in the coming years.

As the kids were playing just feet away, still in diapers, two parents immediately volunteered that they were eager to see their toddlers get exposure to a STEM curriculum. A third parent raised her hand and said that she wanted her child to be happy. Tellingly, her neighbors, squeezed into miniature wooden chairs like overgrown versions of their kids, looked at her with amusement.

The academic pressures and stress faced by teens today start long before high school and seem to escalate every year. The pressure comes from parents and educators who worry—and make teenagers worry—that they won’t get accepted into highly ranked universities with increasingly prohibitive tuitions or be prepared for a competitive job market once they graduate.

Short on sleep, students reared in the testing-heavy wake of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) enlist SAT tutors, fill schedules with activities and service projects, and take as many honors and AP classes as possible to boost their GPAs. Even with these overloaded schedules, students have no guarantee of getting into colleges—even state institutions—where admission rates keep dropping.

“There are academic and career aspirations, diminishing opportunities and reduced social mobility, and tremendous competition to get ahead,” said Daniel Keating, professor of psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics at the University of Michigan and author of the 2017 book Born Anxious. “For teens [today], it’s not clear that there’s going to be a prize at the end.”

He explained that students react more intensely when their world feels less stable than they expect—and less likely to reward their efforts and hopes with desired outcomes. For teens in particular, these pressures can be especially challenging to navigate, given their stage of brain development: They simply can’t manage the stress like adults.

They are simultaneously more sensitive and less capable of controlling impulses, said Keating. “The stressors feel even worse [for teens], which leads to behavioral issues, hair-trigger responses, acting out, and an inability to keep things in perspective—or, alternatively, becoming more isolated.”

Friends

While most students would say that friends are one of their favorite aspects of school, they can also be a source of stress. Concerns about not having enough friends, not being in the same class as friends, not being able to keep up with friends in one particular area or another, interpersonal conflicts, and peer pressure are a few of the very common ways kids can be stressed by their social lives at school. Dealing with these issues alone can cause anxiety in even the most secure kids.

Things have changed in the world of bullies. The good news is that the days of teachers looking the other way and parents leaving kids to deal with bullying on their own are mostly over. Many schools now have anti-bullying programs and policies. Though bullying does still happen at many schools, even those with these policies, help is generally more easily accessible than it was years ago.

The bad news is that bullying has gone high-tech. Many students use the Internet, cell phones, and other media devices to bully other students, and this type of bullying often gets very aggressive. One reason is that bullies can be anonymous and enlist other bullies to make their target miserable; another reason is that they don’t have to face their targets, so it’s easier to shed any empathy that they may otherwise feel. There are ways to combat “cyber-bullying,” but many parents aren’t aware of them—and many bullied kids feel too overwhelmed to deal with the situation.

Overscheduling

Much has been said in the media lately about the over-scheduling of our kids, but the problem still continues. In an effort to give their kids an edge, or to provide the best possible developmental experiences, many parents are enrolling their kids in too many extra-curricular activities. As kids become teens, school extracurricular activities become much more demanding. College admissions standards are also becoming increasingly competitive, making it difficult for college-bound high school students to avoid overscheduling themselves.

Due in part to the busyness of kids’ lives and the hectic schedules of most parents, the sit-down family dinner has become the exception rather than the rule in many households. While there are other ways to connect as a family, many families find that they’re too busy to spend time together and have both the important discussions and the casual day recaps that can be so helpful for kids in dealing with the issues they face. Due to a lack of available family time, many parents aren’t as connected to their kids, or knowledgeable about the issues they face, as they would like.  

Source:

https://www.edutopia.org/article/teen-stress-increases-teachers-look-answers
https://www.verywellfamily.com/social-causes-of-school-anxiety-3145171
https://www.princetonreview.com/high-school/learning-without-stress

How to write a cover letter in 6 steps

1. Start with your header

, you should include a few pieces of personal and role specific information at the top of your cover letter. This section should include your contact information, date of application and recipient’s contact information. If you’d like, you can also center your name and address at the top of the page, mirroring the way it looks on your resume.

2. Include a greeting

In your research, try to find the name of the person who will be reviewing applications for the job. Address your letter to this person with a common business greeting, such as “Dear” or “Hello.” If you’re unable to confirm the gender pronouns (he/him, she/her, them/they) of the person reviewing your application, it is best to use a gender-neutral greeting such as “Dear [first and last name]” or “Dear [position title].”

3. Write an opening paragraph

In the first paragraph of your letter, mention the job title for which you’re applying and where you saw the position posting. Explain your specific interest in the role and company so the reader knows you’ve done your research and are genuinely interested. Briefly state the main experience or qualification you have that makes you a good fit. The first section of your cover letter is also the first impression the reader will have of you, so it is important to appeal to that person quickly and succinctly.

Example: “I’m excited to apply for the Graphic Designer position at Cloud Clearwater I found on Indeed. I understand you’re currently adding several new product lines, and I believe my skills in video and animation provide a significant advantage for creating a successful launch. As a longtime fan of your products, I’m thrilled at the opportunity to bring my unique style and passion for beachwear to the company.”

4. Follow with a second paragraph

Your second paragraph should be a brief overview of your background as is relevant to the position. Here, you should include key achievements, skills and specialties that make you particularly suited to perform well in the position. Focus on one or two and provide specific details about your success including measurable impacts you made.

Example: “As the Director of Human Resources at Wes Morgan Philips, I was a key senior leader in the organization and was responsible for improving the efficiency and performance of the company’s 540 employees. Before that, I worked in human resources, equal employment opportunity and diversity for Jenkins Technology Solutions, Inc. At Jenkins Technology Solutions Inc., I developed an employee retention plan that involved the creation of a wellness program, an internal training program and a promotions selection process, which led to a 50% reduction in the overall employee turnover rate.”

5. Finish with a closing paragraph

The next paragraph should focus on another key achievement or skill that is relevant to the position. Instead of repeating details from your resume, expand on specific stories or anecdotes that display your fitness for the role. Again, focus on stories that demonstrate the skills and qualifications outlined in the job description.

Example: “Achieving ambitious marketing goals is always a top priority, and I am always looking out for the best interests of the company. I enjoy delivering marketing presentations to potential clients and focusing on the strengths of an organization. My marketing skills at River Tech enabled the company to experience new levels of success and a 45% increase in customer engagement. I am never satisfied with the status quo, and I believe that a company should continually look for ways to improve and reach new clients through innovative campaigns.”

6. End with a professional signoff

Example: ”Thank you for your time and consideration. I’m looking forward to learning more details about the Sales position and about TradeLot. Growth is essential to my continued success, and I’m excited for the chance to be a part of TradeLot’s industry-leading team. My proven track record and TradeLot’s quality products are a winning combination for increasing the company’s market share.

Cover letter examples

Here are two examples of cover letters, a traditional version and a less traditional version. First, read the job description, then read the cover letter. In the first example, you’ll see how the writer uses specific phrases from the job description and includes them in the letter.

The second example takes a more creative approach. The author tells a personal story and appeals more abstractly to the attributes called for in the job posting. Both are less than 300 words long.

Example 1: Administrative Assistant

In this role, you will be supporting managers and other senior-level personnel by managing their calendars, arranging travel, filing expense reports, and performing other administrative tasks.

I am drawn to this opportunity for several reasons. First, I have a proven track record of success in administrative roles, most recently in my current job as an administrative coordinator. A highlight from my time here was when I proactively stepped in to coordinate a summit for our senior leaders last year. I arranged travel and accommodation for a group of 15 executives from across the company, organized meals and activities, collaborated with our internal events team, and ensured that everything ran according to schedule over the two-day summit. Due to the positive feedback I received afterward, I have been given the responsibility of doubling the number of attendees for the event this year and leading an internal team to get the job done.

I am also attracted to this role because of the growth opportunities that [name of company] provides. The research that I’ve done on your company culture has shown me that there are ample opportunities for self-motivated individuals like me. A high level of organization and attention to detail are second nature to me, and I’m eager to apply these skills in new and challenging environments.

Example 2: Brand Copywriter

We are looking for an experienced copywriter to join our team. If you have a great eye for balance, a quick wit, and can adapt a brand voice for any medium, then this role is right for you.

There are at least two less-than-obvious ways to improve your vocabulary (and by extension, your copywriting skills): studying for the GRE and becoming a crossword puzzle enthusiast. I’ve done both, but for this job application, I’d like to focus on the latter.

My grandmother was the best writer I’ve ever known. She wasn’t a professional writer, but her gift and love of writing was something we shared. It wasn’t until last year that I also took up her love of crossword puzzles and immediately saw how the two went hand in hand. Before long, I was solving Monday through Wednesday puzzles in the New York Times, needing to look up words less and less frequently as time passed. Soon, I was able to complete Thursday to Saturday, too. Throughout this process, I could feel my stock of quips, rejoinders and turns of phrase steadily growing. Eventually, I worked up the courage to attempt the Sunday puzzles.

It was this courage that was the real turning point for me. In my current agency, I was already known as a hard worker and creative spirit; my peer and manager evaluations had made this clear. But while I felt confident in my abilities, I had never seen myself as particularly daring. Considering new challenges and mastering each one along the way had given me a renewed sense of myself and clarity about my chosen profession.

I began a career as a copywriter because I was skilled at finding combinations of words to fit a thought or feeling. I’m continuing down that path because I’ve realized how I can shape and hone that skill to reach new heights. I’d like copywriting at [name of company] to be the next step in my journey.

How to make a cover letter online

1. The quickest way: use a cover letter builder

A good cover letter builder is the fastest way to create a high-quality cover letter. Builders let you choose a cover letter design, ask you a few questions about yourself and your previous work experience, and then generate a letter you can download in different file formats (like Microsoft Work or PDF).

2. Quick but takes some effort: filling out a cover letter outline

Cover letter outline

Body paragraphs: Give an overview of your previous job experience, skills, qualifications, and accomplishments. Don’t repeat your resume. Explain what makes you a unique candidate and how you can help the company meet its goals. Use numbers to back up your claims.

Closing paragraph: State that you’d like to schedule an interview and provide your contact information. Say you’ll be in touch within a week if you don’t hear back. Finish by thanking the employer for their time and consideration.

3. Save time formatting: Use a cover letter template

A template saves you a lot of time setting up the margins, font size, and spacing of your cover letter. Plus you can pick a template with a style that matches the type of job you’re applying for, which a hiring manager might subconsciously notice.

How to Write the Perfect Cover Letter (And Get Hired!)

Step #1 – Pick the Right Cover Letter Template

Step #2 – Start the Cover Letter with a Header

Step #3 – Greet the Hiring Manager

That’s right, the hiring manager! Not the overly popular “Dear Sir or Madam.” You want to show your future boss that you did your research and are really passionate about working with their team.

The simplest option is to look up the head of the relevant department on LinkedIn. Let’s say you’re applying for the position of a Communication Specialist at Novoresume. The hiring manager is probably Head of Communications or Chief Communications Office.

Step #4 – Write an Attention-Grabbing Introduction

Instead, you want to start off with 2-3 of your top achievements to really grab the reader’s attention. Preferably, the achievements should be as relevant as possible to the position.

My name’s Michael and I’d like to help XYZ Inc. hit and exceed their sales goals as a Sales Manager. I’ve worked with Company X, a fin-tech company, for 3+ years. As a Sales Representative, I generated an average of $30,000+ in sales per month (beating the KPIs by around 40%). I believe that my previous industry experience, as well as excellence in sales, makes me the right candidate for the job.

Now that we’ve covered the introduction, let’s talk about the body of your cover letter. This part is split into two paragraphs: the first is for explaining why you’re the perfect person for the job, and the latter is for proving that you’re a good fit for the company.

Step #5 – Explain why you’re the perfect person for the job

But first things first – before you even write anything, you need to learn what the most important requirements for the role are. So, open up the job ad and identify which of the responsibilities are the most critical.

In my previous role as a Facebook Marketing Expert at XYZ Inc. I handled customer acquisition through ads, managing a monthly Facebook ad budget of $20,000+. As the sole digital marketer at the company, I managed the ad creation & management process end-to-end. Meaning, I created the ad copy , images, picked the targeting, ran optimization trials, and so on.

Step #6 – Explain why you’re a good fit for the company

Once you’ve written the last paragraph, you might be thinking – I’m a shoo-in for the job! What else do I need to write? I’ll just wrap up the cover letter and hit that sweet SEND button.

I’ve personally used the XYZ Smartphone, and I believe that it’s the most innovative tech I’ve used in years. The features such as Made-Up-Feature #1 and Made-Up-Feature #2 were real game changers for the device.

I really admire how Company XYZ thrives for excellence for all its product lines, creating market-leading tech. As someone that thrives in a self-driven environment, I truly believe that I and Company XYZ will be a great match.

What you don’t want to do here is be super generic for the sake of having something to write. Most job seekers tend to mess this one up. Let’s take a look at a very common example we tend to see (way too often):

I’d love to work for Company XYZ because of its culture of innovation. I believe that since I’m super creative, I’d be a good fit for the company. The company values of integrity and transparency really vibe with me.

Step #7 – Wrap up with a call to action

So to wrap it all up, thanks for looking into my application. I hope I can help Company X make the most out of their Facebook marketing initiatives. I’d love to further discuss how my previous success at XYZ Inc. can help you achieve your facebook marketing goals.

Step #8 – Use the right formal closing

5+ Cover Letter Examples

College Student Cover Letter Example

Middle Management Cover Letter Example

Career Change Cover Letter Example

Management Cover Letter Example

Senior Executive Cover Letter Example

Source:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cover-letter
https://resumegenius.com/blog/cover-letter-help/how-to-write-a-cover-letter
https://novoresume.com/career-blog/how-to-write-a-cover-letter-guide

10 Creative Careers That Won’t Require You to Be a Starving Artist

We all want to follow our dreams, but who really wants to be a starving artist? You don’t have to choose between making a living and finding a professional role where your creativity will be valued. There are plenty of careers where creativity is a central requirement, but workers can still expect to earn well above – and in some cases, two to three times – the median salary for all occupations.

You’ve got an eye for design. You can communicate ideas through visual art, from photographs to paintings, and you have a knack for presenting that art through stylish and effective layouts. A role as an art director in an industry like movie production, publishing or advertising and public relations would be an excellent way to put those talents to use.

Art directors are the design professionals who choose the art, photographs and other visual elements that go into an advertisement, publication, motion picture or life performance. They come up with a vision for how the design will look and the manage artists, graphic designers, photographers and set builders who work to create the vision. Though a talent for design is crucial to success as an art director, the work isn’t all about the creative side. Art directors also need to handle business responsibilities like interfacing with clients, working with other departments involved in the project and creating and following budgets and timelines

Most art directors get their start as creative professionals in fine art, photography, editing or graphic design. In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree in their chosen subject, aspiring art directors typically spend five years or longer gaining experience in their arts and design roles and building their portfolios before they advance to this high-level, and highly compensated, role.

Technical Writer

If you build up your technical knowledge, you can turn a passion for writing into a career that earns more than double the median annual salary in the United States. Technical writers are the communication professionals who create the text used to convey technical information in instruction manuals, frequently asked questions (FAQ) resources and journal articles. Most technical writers work in scientific and technical services or the manufacturing and information industries.

Being a good technical writer requires many of the skills necessary for success in other forms of writing. You have to think about your audience and figure out what they need to know to use the product safely and effectively. The role also involves doing research into the product’s design, development and use.

Writing out complex technical information in ways that are simple, accessible and easy to understand is the crux of a technical writer’s job. However, these professionals are also responsible for creating or attaining the visual elements – like diagrams, charts and photographs – that help users understand the product. Today’s technical writers may also be responsible for creating interactive presentations of technical information, including video and audio elements.

Technical writers need to draw from both communication skills and technical knowledge. That means these professionals need an education that emphasizes writing and communications but also a background in the technical subject they want to write about. In fact, many technical writers start their careers in these technical industries, often as research specialists or assistants. Aspiring technical writers are in luck – the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts opportunities for this profession to increase by 10 percent over a decade. That’s faster than the seven percent job growth expected for all occupations and much faster than the growth expected for communications professionals and authors (four percent and two percent, respectively).

Cake decorator

Primary duties: A cake decorator is responsible for taking orders from customers who need a cake made for a special celebration, such as a birthday, wedding, anniversary, graduation or baby shower. A lot of times, the cake decorator also bakes and assembles the cake before decorating. A cake decorator typically has great attention to detail, manages time well and is creative, customer-focused and organized. They may work for a bakery, run their own full-time cake decorating business or decorate cakes on the side for supplemental income.

Primary duties: A gallery assistant is responsible for providing customer service to guests and performing administrative duties for an art gallery owner or art curator. In this role, you may have to greet guests, schedule exhibitions, answer phone calls, help arrange the gallery for an event and manage the art collection. A gallery assistant is usually a creative who appreciates art and may even have some artistic aspirations of their own. This role allows them to get to know artists and work in an industry they enjoy.

Photographer

Primary duties: A photographer works with clients who want to commemorate a time of their life or a specific event. An individual or family may hire a photographer for a wedding celebration, retirement party, birthday or baby shower. Photographers typically specialize in one or two types of photography, such as family, newborns, graduation or headshots for businesses. A photographer must have knowledge of various camera equipment, including different lenses, and have experience with photo editing software.

A photographer may build their portfolio by offering discounts on their services or by taking photos of their loved ones. Many would consider photography to be an artistic venture because photographers build their own style and may light and edit their photos with some flair.

Intern Your Way In

You may already have a few years’ of experience in your current industry, but if you’re starting over, interning in your new industry is a surefire way to get your foot in the door. If you are a fresh graduate, it is even more important that you find an internship in the creative industry regardless of what you major was in school. Creative employers care more about portfolio and experience rather than your education.

When you look for an internship outside of your field of study, you will need to be able to explain why you want to work in this field instead of what you studied . There is no right or wrong answer – only you can craft a narrative that makes sense. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge honestly that you realized your passion is in the creative field after you finished your studies or whatever reason you have that is genuine and logical.

Remember that even for internships, you will need to present your portfolio. Companies won’t hire you just because you express interests and passion in the creative field. You can follow my advice earlier in this article to put together a killer portfolio even without too much experience.

When you do get an internship, make sure to learn as much about the craft as possible while documenting your business results to present your case when it comes time to hire for full time. Even if you don’t get hired at the company you intern with, you will leave with a much better portfolio and better understanding of the industry, which will in turn put you in a better position to get hired somewhere else.

Target Smaller Companies

When you are just starting out in a new field, it is easier to target companies with lower hiring threshold. Smaller agencies, startups or small business are all good place to look at. Even though your dream job may be at one of the top agencies or companies in the world, you are up against candidates who are graduates from top art schools with portfolio quality that you cannot match up to yet. It is not to say that you should stay away from the top players, but make sure you gain a balanced understanding of where you skillset is at currently. Just because you start working at a smaller company does not mean that you will stay in small companies. Take myself as an example. I started my creative career at a boutique agency with fewer than 10 people. A couple of years later, through hard work and smart career strategies, I landed a position at a global company with more 250,000 people!

To make sure you get the most out of this learning process, check out our highly-rated online course in salary strategies “How to Triple Your Salary Fast and Furious” and creative ways to make money as an artist “How NOT to be A Starving Artist”.

Source:

https://www.degreequery.com/10-creative-careers-wont-require-starving-artist/
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/jobs-for-artists-without-degrees
https://www.pathunbound.com/how-to-get-a-creative-job-without-a-related-degree/

Fostering Creativity: 12 Strategies to Boost Creative Skills

This is partly because creativity helps individuals adapt to uncertainty and solve problems as they arise. Research has also suggested that creativity – as a component of the personality factor “openness to experience” – is a better predictor of an extended lifespan than intelligence or overall openness to experience (Turiano, Spiro, & Mroczek, 2012).

In the following article, we explore what creativity is and how personal creativity can be fostered. We discuss creativity in the classroom and workplace. We touch on creativity in art and music. We also note the intriguing connection between nighttime and creativity.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Strengths Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients realize your unique potential and create a life that feels energized and authentic.

Coloring completely counts as a creative activity. I mean, it’s not a sport (or is it?) Print out a coloring sheet, or toss a small coloring book in your purse for on the go, and you’re halfway there. For a grown-up spa experience, diffuse some restful essential oils, put your feet up, and color away.

I admittedly like to read cookbooks. (Jamie Oliver and Canal House are favorites.) Cooking isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but I admire those who do love it. (Yes, I’m talking to you, mom.) That said, I do like trying new recipes. Many of my current culinary loves are because I decided to buy the ingredients for a strange-to-me recipe and try it. And now I’m in love. (Still can’t believe how many years I wasted not eating curries! So sad . . .)

Eat a new food.

Similar to trying a new recipe, but this one is more simplistic. Give your taste buds a creative treat by choosing a brand new food (to you) at the grocery store. This is how I discovered the amazing wonder of Medjool dates. And 90% dark chocolate. (Okay, your food discoveries don’t have to be treats. ;)) What have you always passed by at the supermarket? Toss one in your cart this week. It might end up being your new favorite food!

How many of us have a decent camera that we know little to nothing about? Ahem. There are so many free and reasonably priced photography courses online these days that you could “go back to school” and learn how to use your amazing camera in a very short time. Or if you have a photographer husband, you could just ask him. 😉 Either way, you’ll be able to document your world and have a record that better represents what you want to say through pictures.

9) Keep a doodle journal at your desk.

Are you a visual thinker? If so, you might find it hard to find a direction with your ideas when you’re limited to the four corners of your screen. Change your routine and grab a pencil and paper to let your ideas free form in a more physical outlet. A blank sheet of paper or whiteboard may just be the best outlet to allow you to organize your thought process into one space.

According to Sunni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution, “Even if you’re just scribbling in the margins, you’re lighting up different networks in your brain and when you do that, you’re engaging different information.”

Creating visual maps of all your different thoughts allows you to see the relationship between your ideas. Physically writing it down takes your ideas a step further and forces you to put them into words and physical shapes. If you can see your thought process, it will be easier to understand the direction you’ll want to go in.

10) Unwind by watching funny content.

Have you hit the point in your creativity block where you’re spending hours watching cat videos? Turns out those cat videos may actually be helpful . Research shows there’s a strong c orrelation between humor and creativity. A laugh can actually bring you closer to those moments of inspiration. Humor also puts you in a better mood , allowing you to think more freely and better solve creative problems.

Need a way to hone in on your work without zoning out? A lthough there’s been a lot of debate over whether listening to music will actually increase your intelligence over time (a theory often called the Mozart Effect) , there are still productivity benefits to tuning in. Listening to music can help you focus on whatever task you’re currently doing. It can also put you in a better mood, and even calm your nerves if you’re feeling anxious.

Certain forms of music can help channel your creativity better than others and tune out the noises of the office. While music with extreme changes of pace or lyrics can be distracting, ambient music can help increase processing levels and and promote creative thinking.

One new practice can work for you differently over time if you start to get bored of it. If you ever start to feel a practice has become too routine for you, revisit this post to try out another idea.

Resource:

https://positivepsychology.com/creativity/
https://littlegirldesigns.com/10-easy-ways-creative-every-day/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/creativity-tips

We’re not going to go that far, but we’ll summarize by simply differentiating between content and raw data, which is likely the highest-value return we can get out of the question. How is content management any different from managing any other type of data?

What is a content management system (CMS)?

A content management system (CMS) helps companies manage digital content. Whole teams can use these systems to create, edit, organize, and publish content. It acts as a single place to store content and provides automated processes for collaborative digital content management and creation using built-in (or designed) workflows. Different privileges and responsibilities are provided to individuals based on roles. For example, authors can post and save their work, but editors can modify and publish it. Administrators can do all these things as well as grant other people in the organization permission to update or revise content.

A CMS helps create and manage websites and website content using minimal technical overhead, so you can make better content instead of acting as a project or traffic manager. By providing an easy and cost-effective solution for content management, a CMS allows companies to manage and distribute their content without investing in a full-time content development team.

Types of content management systems (CMS)

Nearly every CMS is comprised of two parts—the front end and the back end. The front end is the part the user interacts with. It’s how websites are visibly structured and styled. The front end brings HTML, CSS, and JavaScript together to deliver rich, interactive content that’s styled to match your company’s branding.

The back end of a CMS is the application that is used to post new content to a website. The process begins by accessing a web interface to easily add, create, and publish content to your CMS’s front end. Rather than knowing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you create content in an interface similar to Microsoft Word. The back end then stores this content in the database and publishes it to the front end of the website.

Coupled CMS

While a coupled CMS is an all-in-one solution, the main distinction between it and a software-as-a-service (SaaS) CMS is that a coupled CMS requires dedicated web hosting to run. Although web hosting is relatively inexpensive, it’s important to remember that a CMS requires installing and maintaining specific technologies to make the software functional.

Additionally, a coupled CMS will likely require that an administrator set it up and configure the system installation for ongoing use. WordPress is an example of a coupled CMS, as it offers a complete package for users to install, launch a website, and publish content moving forward.

SaaS CMS

A SaaS-based CMS is an excellent solution for companies who need a straightforward web presence, as it offers all the capabilities without any of the server or web-hosting overhead. It enables all kinds of users to quickly create websites, manage the content, and distribute it through digital channels.

Decoupled CMS

In a decoupled CMS, the presentation part of the website is “decoupled” from the back end. The delivery system sits between the presentation of the website and accesses the back end through an application programming interface (API).

A decoupled CMS is an advanced solution that offers greater flexibility to interact with the content created in the back end. For example, suppose an organization wants to use its library of content for a new purpose, such as mobile applications. In that case, a decoupled CMS is an appealing solution because it supports multiple, adaptable applications on the front end while keeping your content and information consistent in the back end.

Headless CMS

A headless CMS has only a back-end system that accesses a database and stores content with a custom-built, front-end web application. It offers greater flexibility than a decoupled CMS, but it also requires considerably more work than any other option. A headless CMS also usually requires a developer to design, create, and connect a front-end application.

A headless CMS is a good solution for organizations that need complete control and flexibility over how their content is accessed. It provides content storage and organizational capabilities while allowing for a custom application on the front end—whether a website, a mobile app, or some other front end.

Created by Humans via Editorial Process

Content is created through “editorial process.” This process is what humans do to prepare information for publication to an audience. It involves modeling, authoring, editing, reviewing, approving, versioning, comparing, and controlling.

The creation of a news article, for example, is highly subjective. Two editorial teams, given the same information, might develop two completely different news articles due to the human factors involved in the editorial process. Whereas a computational function seeks to deliver the same output from the same input every time, an editorial process never quite does.

Despite significant advances in computing, these are not decisions a computer will make. These are messy, subjective, imperfect decisions that pour forth from the mind of a human editor sitting behind a keyboard. A small deviation in any of them (the proverbial flapping of a butterfly’s wings) can spin a piece of content in an entirely different direction. Content is subjective and open for evaluation and interpretation. It has nuance. It is artisanal.

The editorial process is iterative—content is rarely created once, perfectly, and then never touched again. Rather, content is roughed in and refined over and over like clay on a potter’s wheel, often even after being published. Content can change with the passage of time and the evolution of circumstance. What was relevant at one point might need to change or be withdrawn later.

Compare this process to the creation of the record of a retail sale. There is no editorial process involved with swiping your credit card across a terminal. Furthermore, the data created is not subjected to any other process, will not be reviewed and approved. It is not subjective, it is deterministic. The transaction happened in an instant, a historical record was created, and that’s that.

The sales transaction is designed to be as repeatable and devoid of subjective opinion as possible. It will never be edited (indeed, to do so would likely violate a policy or law). It is cold, sterile, and inert by design.

Intended for Human Consumption via Publication to an Audience

Content is data we create for a specific purpose: to distribute it with the intention of it ultimately being consumed by other humans. Sure, it might be scooped up by another computer via an API and rearranged and published somewhere else, but eventually the information is going to make its way to a human somewhere.

If you strip away all of the technology and terminology that we use to describe information systems, what do you have left? A simple and utterly commonplace idea: Information systems help you talk to people who are not in front of you. 3

Our sales transaction from the prior section has no such destiny. It was created as a backward-looking record of a historical event. It will likely not be consumed by someone in the future, except in aggregate through reporting of some kind. It may be retrieved and reviewed individually, but only by necessity and likely on an exception basis.

Our news article, by contrast, was created as a forward-looking item to be published in the future and consumed by humans, through whatever channel (perhaps more than one). It might be repurposed, abbreviated, rearranged, and reformatted, but the ultimate goal for it is to be consumed and evaluated by another human being.

Our content has value in the future. It might be consumed for years (even centuries or millennia), and can continue providing value to the organization far into the future. Every time our article is read, or every time a new employee reads the payroll policy, there is a benefit attributed to the content creator.

Questions to Help You Choose the Right Content Management System

Unfortunately, we can’t just give you a definitive answer on which of the leading types of CMS solutions is best for your organization — it depends on your business capabilities and objectives.
But what we can do is give you these questions that will help you start narrowing down your priorities and thus, which content management system is best for you:

• How important is ease of use for your marketing team? How about for your IT team? Different CMSs are more and less easy for different types of users to operate. For example, a monolithic CMS is perhaps the easiest for marketing users to work with, while a headless CMS is probably the most usable for IT folks.

• How much customization do you need — now and in the future? Some CMS solutions will be harder to customize, so be sure to consider how much work you want to do and even can do to customize your solution.

• How important are flexibility and ability to scale? Do you need to be able to change up marketing extensions often? Do you need flexible content modules that enable omnichannel distribution? If so, remember that you’re better off going with an API-first CMS.

• Which resources do you have access to (a development team, etc.)? It’s not advisable to choose a solution that you don’t have the ongoing resources to support.

Sources:

https://www.oracle.com/content-management/what-is-cms/
https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/web-content-management/9781491908112/ch01.html
https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/what-is-a-content-management-system/
Content management

There are different types of content strategies that you might use depending on the type of content you’re creating and the approach you are taking to creating that content. Since content management needs to align with content strategy, it’s important to understand the different types of strategy and when to use each.

Content management definitions and distinctions

Content strategy

In short, content strategy is about planning and focuses on tying content back to audience needs and business goals. Broadly speaking, it’s about the ”‘Why’” or the purpose of the content. As in, why create this content at all? What do you want to achieve?

Content governance

Content governance is about the governing, controlling, and maintenance of content. It’s about following overarching guidelines and frameworks (which help with consistency of content at best and make sure you don’t get embarrassed or sued at worst).

Content governance deals with inventories, ownership, style guides, policies, regulations, risk management, updating content, and accessibility. Content governance is the “What” of content. As in, what do you need to pay attention to? What does good content include? Governance is “doing the right thing” based on a documented definition of what the "right thing" is.

Content management

In contrast to governance, content management is the “How?” and “Who?” of content. It’s about the way things are done and the people who are involved. It focuses on the day-to-day content production process and handling of content, from creation to archiving and updating.

Content management is about allocating the resources (people, processes, and technology) for content strategy and governance to take effect. This includes roles and responsibilities, workflow and accountability, storage, editing and approvals, and publishing.

Content Operations

Your content operations are all of the above, and more. It’s concerned with everything that happens between content strategy and content delivery. Content operations encompass the people, processes, and technology needed to systematise, automate and scale content.

All organisations that produce content will have some form of content operations. But having effective operations is about improving and investing in your content. It’s about assessing “where” your organisation is in terms of content operations maturity.

What Are The Different Types of Content Management Systems?

As digital became a major facet of brands, new customer channels popped up, content needed to be accessible and consistent on new channels, cross-departmental collaboration became more important, and providing individually relevant content to each customer became a focus.

The traditional CMS (sometimes referred to as a “coupled CMS”) is perhaps the simplest in terms of layout and general functionality. With a traditional CMS, users create and edit their content using a WYSIWYG or HTML editor, and then the CMS displays the content acccording to the CSS used for layout.

The advantages of a decoupled CMS is down to the architecture that separates the front-end and back-end operations. That means content creators are free to simply plug information into the content manager on the back end and not worry about layout which is manipulated by the front-end system.

Information is delivered via an API down various channels rather than linked to a singular front end. Essentially, the API for a headless CMS is much more flexible for delivering information as it exists as a tool for any of the front-end portions to pull data from the back end.

5 Steps to Choosing a CMS Platform

[Step 1] Decide on Your CMS Vision: The most important question to ask yourself at the start of a CMS project is: “What am I trying to achieve?" With a critical look at where you currently are, and where you want to be, you can start mapping out which content, data, tools, and integrations you already have — and which you need — to build your vision.

[Step 2] Understand CMS Features: After determining what you want to achieve from your CMS implementation, it’s time to start selecting a content management system that will align with this vision. Certain characteristics of a CMS can help to move your CMS project along faster and speed up everyday tasks.

[Step 3] Think About the Cost: A crucial part of any CMS project is the cost involved. This is certainly true for an enterprise content management system, which can amount to quite a hefty sum. Understanding the total fees associated with such a project means fewer unsavory financial surprises will come your way.

[Step 4] Calculcate Your ROI: A CMS is an investment and therefore should guarantee you returns. So it makes sense that your first consideration should be to work out how much budget could be justified for this project by calculating the return on investment.

What Are Examples of Content Management Systems?

As you begin to dive into content management systems, you’ll soon learn that there are quite a few options on the market. While we’re not going to cover all of them in this article, we are going to look at the four most popular solutions.

1. WordPress

When the average person thinks about WordPress, they often make the mistake of thinking that it’s a simple personal blogging platform, rather than a full content management system that can handle even enterprise-level e-commerce sites. While the WordPress platform definitely did earn its initial fame as a straight-forward blogging tool, it has long since become a powerful content management system. WordPress is the CMS that runs literally millions of websites.

Creating in WordPress requires basically zero prior web development experience. Almost anyone with a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and internet connection can install it, start building a site and begin adding features and content within a few minutes. The huge number of design themes and plugins available also makes WordPress stand out from competing for CMS solutions.

There are, however, some negatives to using the popular platform. For example, even though the core is highly secure, because of its popularity it’s a target for frequent hackers and bot attacks. Themes and plugins that are poorly coded will also bring additional security vulnerabilities to your site.

All things considered, WordPress is a wise choice for both newcomers and experts alike. WordPress remains a simple (but powerful!) content management system solution that will offer you a ton of power and control over your website, especially once you start looking under the hood.

And remember, WordPress is completely free to download and doesn’t even try to sell you any premium options. Beyond that, a lot of website hosts provide a pre-installed or one-click install WordPress option, such as with Liquid Web Managed WordPress Hosting.

2. Joomla!

The platform has cultivated a large community of users that create themes and extensions that work to bolster the functionality of Joomla! Joomla! may be an option for website developers that can’t find the level of control they want in the WordPress environment.

Most Joomla! users are running highly professional business sites with large development teams working behind the scenes. It’s probably not the best option if you’re just starting out or if you’re working alone.

3. Drupal

Drupal was first released in 2001 and is far and away the most advanced content management system on our list in terms of technical demands. It’s an ideal solution for skilled developers that want complete control over the sites they build while receiving little technical guidance.

As you’ve probably guessed, Drupal is most suited for ambitious, highly advanced sites. It’s extremely versatile and allows developers to create nearly any kind of website they want, with almost zero limitations.

4. Magento

If you’re not building an e-commerce site, Magento isn’t for you. But if you are, it’s worth comparing side-by-side with WooCommerce for WordPress. If nothing else, it may convince you that WordPress is going to give you more overall customization abilities than Magento.

What Is the Best Content Management System?

Need even more reasons to check out WordPress? Check out this in-depth article on the 15 reasons why WordPress is such a great solution for websites of all shapes and sizes, from small personal blogs to enterprise e-commerce solutions.

Now that you have a better understanding of content management systems, which one is the best one for your project? Why not start working on your project today by installing the WordPress content management system on your chosen host? Your completed new website may be just a few days away!

Kristen has been writing tutorials to help WordPress users since 2011. As marketing director here at iThemes, she’s dedicated to helping you find the best ways to build, manage, and maintain effective WordPress websites. Kristen also enjoys journaling (check out her side project, The Transformation Year!), hiking and camping, step aerobics, cooking, and daily adventures with her family, hoping to live a more present life.

Sources:

https://gathercontent.com/blog/what-is-content-management-advice-for-managing-content-strategically
https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2019/content-management-system
https://ithemes.com/blog/content-management-system/
Content management

Many popular CMS options like Drupal and WordPress have started offering plugins that make it easy to uncouple these traditional CMSs. With a decoupled CMS, developers can create API-first systems that can deliver content to just about any user endpoint.

Content Management

Content is at the heart of every business and industry today. In life sciences, it’s the clinical trial results that make a difference in people’s lives. In financial services, it’s a home loan application protected by regulatory requirements. In the public sector, it’s a permit for a new city park.

It’s all incredibly valuable, and it’s all content. When Allstate builds a mobile app so customers can autonomously submit claims at the scene of an accident, those customers are creating content. When International Rescue Committee staff land at a crisis location and contact the intranet in the cloud for critical information, they’re accessing content. There isn’t an industry today that doesn’t rely on some sort of content, which is why content management has become such an important strategy in all kinds of organizations — from businesses to nonprofits to government entities.

As you can imagine, all of this content can be tricky to manage — but It also has a lot of potential. Companies have many tools and strategies to en sure their content is organized, valuable, and compliant. Let’s look closer at content management as a whole, why it’s so important, and how you can simplify it.

What is content management?

Content management is the process of organizing, consolidating, and collecting information in its various forms, such as documents, multimedia files, and design files. Nearly anything you can save on your computer is considered content. The process of managing this content occurs through a variety of programs, including content management systems and content creation tools. There are many different roles involved in content management, such as:

Enterprise content management platforms are especially important in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare and finance. Often, these organizations need extensive transparency and traceability to abide by their respective regulatory agencies’ guidelines. Other businesses that benefit from strong content resource management are those in manufacturing and research, where clear guides and instructions are critical to worker safety and product control, and editorial businesses, which rely on the repository of data that makes up the business model.

Structured vs. unstructured content

IT professionals often use the term content management to describe the key capabilities needed to manage unstructured content. Let’s take these two concepts apart — “manage” and “unstructured content” — and explore why content management has become a nearly $11 billion market .

Unstructured content typically refers to content that doesn’t fit into neat columns and rows. This might include PDFs, presentations, and documents, along with video and audio, which have exploded in use thanks to things like call center recordings and web conferencing video. The volume of unstructured data has already reached unmanageable levels, and the IDC predicts that 80% of worldwide data will be unstructured by 2025.

Content management became a critical need identified in the late 1990s . Solving core automation challenges for the back office, such as accounts payable, contracts management, invoice processing, and HR administration, called for managing information-related processes , w hile also controlling legal and compliance risk. It was critical to ensure the right information stayed in the right hands so that it was easily auditable and compliant with regulations. This need correlated with the rise of enterprise content management (ECM) systems in the late 1990s, where on-premises systems were used to help manage content around key processes.

Th e growing volume of unstructured content presents challenges for businesses , especially when multiple disparate systems are being used to deliver the content. As pointed out in Solutions Review , unstructured content can’t be easily stored in a database and has attributes that add to the difficulty of search ing for, editi ng, and analyz ing it. These factors and others make the management of unstructured content an especially important concern . The author of that Solutions Review article points out that if your organization struggles to manage unstructured content now, the problem will worsen in the future.

What Are Some Examples of CMS Platforms?

Joomla and Drupal offer a more labor-intensive experience, which provides more customization potential but often requires a higher degree of technical knowledge. On the other hand, Squarespace and Wix have a very beginner-friendly approach to design and content management but are limited in flexibility and customization options.

If you’re looking to build an e-commerce website, both Magento and Shopify cater to online business’ needs. Magento is an Adobe product with sophisticated e-commerce options, while Shopify is a solid all-purpose alternative that can be upscaled easily. WordPress users can set up an online store in under an hour with the WooCommerce plugin.

Related: WooCommerce vs. Shopify: An In-Depth Guide

7 Must-Have CMS Features

A CMS can provide many valuable tools for your web development projects. Creating dynamic websites with a CMS can require some specific features, however. Here are seven essential elements to look for in any CMS.

1. Security

While a CMS has almost infinite utility, it can also easily cause you some security issues. This is mostly due to the interactions taking place between the system and web browsers, along with plugins and themes that add third-party code to your site.

To help combat this, WordPress has initiated automatic background updates for minor releases. This improves the update process for users and means that maintenance and security improvements don’t lapse and cause unnecessary vulnerabilities. Whatever CMS you’re using, you’ll want to check its security options to ensure that you have the protection you need.

2. Multilingual Functionality

You may have heard the term “localization” used in reference to making your website translation-ready. This is a process handled in your CMS and database, which makes it possible for you to offer your site in different languages.

3. Content Distribution Options

To find out what other options are available, you’ll want to look into the Application Programming Interface (API) capability of your chosen CMS. This is a component that enables your database and CMS to distribute content to endpoints such as mobile apps, social networks, smart devices, and more.

Related: Keep Your Content Marketing Fresh by Repurposing Old Blog Posts

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Related: Take Your Content Strategy Up a Level with a Content Audit

5. Support Options

Many of the CMS options we’ve listed are open source. This means their base code is available for free. There are ups and downs to this type of software. One key benefit of using an open-source platform is that there is usually a robust user community that supports the CMS’ development.

For example, WordPress has a very active global support community. Knowledge bases and web forums are plentiful if you have questions. Alternatively, if you want a more dedicated support option, you can hire web managers or look for a web host that can fully manage your website’s needs.

6. Responsive Design

It’s also smart to get a firm grip on the differences between mobile-friendly, mobile-optimized, and RWD. You’ll want to look at how adaptable any given CMS’ available themes are, and whether you can manipulate your Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) to set responsive breakpoints.

7. Seamless Integrations

We mentioned APIs earlier, but it’s worth revisiting them here. A CMS solution with a robust API means you’ll be able to connect your content to many different applications. This includes social media platforms, mobile devices, and more.

You’ll also want to look at how open your CMS’ API is. For example, WordPress continually adds new actions, hooks, and filters to its API. This opens up ways for developers to leverage the CMS for more than just placing content on a web page.

Related: How to Build an Awesome Ecommerce Store with the OceanWP Theme

Sources:

https://www.box.com/resources/what-is-content-management
https://www.dreamhost.com/academy/what-is-a-content-management-system/
https://themeisle.com/blog/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms/

In addition, make sure to look at the current market. This includes outside your niche. What are trends in the industry looking like for the coming year/quarter? How are your competitors performing (keep your competitor analysis up to date)? How does your company fit into the larger picture?

Business Goals: What They Are and How To Set Them

Business goals are an important part of the business planning process and ensure that a company stays on track to reach its short- and long-term objectives. These goals can be used in many ways, including encouraging teamwork among employees, helping a company achieve higher sales and supporting a business as it grows. In this article, we explore the definition of business goals, different types of business goals, how to set these goals and tips to guide you as you establish goals for your organization.

Business goals are defined as a goal set by an organization that supports its desired accomplishments over a specific period of time. Most business goals are used to outline a company’s objectives, purpose and overall goals and to support the organization’s business plan. This type of goal can be set for an entire organization or individual departments, supervisors, employees or consumers.

The business goals an organization establishes should be clearly outlined, measurable and specific. Goals that are not specific and measurable are much harder to achieve and are easy to lose sight of. Business goals can involve various areas of a company including its growth, profitability and customer service.

Setting Goals For Your Business Plan

This may sound a little straightforward, but please make sure that your goals are relevant to your business plan. You’ll need to do that for sure if you want to seek outside financing. Just double-check that your business plan and current company goals are aligned.

What Business Goals Should You Focus On?

Let’s do a little exercise first and foremost. Think about your organization. Just how many Objectives does that organization have at the moment? More often than not, the number is going to be higher than it should be. Doing too many things at once and spreading yourself too thin is a cultural thing that really needs to change. Again, it’s about keeping ambition in check and remembering that you, and your team, are not superhuman.

So, when you want to focus, avoid goals like “successfully launching all new products in the next two quarters” or “marketing should write a new article on every single content theme available.” No one benefits when you don’t focus.

That being said, knowing which goals are the most important is not easy. You might not know what you want to focus on and, honestly, the best advice I can think of is that it’s better to accidentally focus on the wrong things and learn from it for the next quarter than waste an entire year trying to do everything at once.

Another big thing is to structure your Objectives on multiple levels. For example, organization, department, team, and individual. That way, goals can be connected to each other and apply to various departments while still landing in that sweet spot of only have 1-3 goals per person.

The 80/20 Principle

In his own words, “You have to isolate where you are really making the profits and, just as important, where you are losing money.” Despite how obvious this may sound, Koch emphasizes that most people get this idea wrong.

Products, Customers, Competitors

Product: It makes quite a bit of sense to start with product. See what data you have about the product or product group. From there, go to your sale from the quarter prior and work out the profitability after allocating all costs. Your big question is if there’s a product, or part of the product, that is creating the most profit.

Customers: Whether you’re B2C or B2B, you should conduct the same analysis with your customers. The goal here is to look at the total purchases by each customer. You need to see if there are any customers that pay a higher price, but are also expensive to deal with. For example, you may have some large customers that really help bolster sales, but they may ask for a considerable bargain that ends up hurting you in the long run. The key is to find a pattern and to point out the strange components that don’t fit into it.

Competitors: Your profitability is determined by your competitors just as much as the product and customers. When conducting an analysis, your first step will be to figure out if you have different competitors in one part of the business compared to the rest. Your big question when looking at your competitors is if there’s an area where you get more profit with less effort than them. Focus on that.

Goal-Setting Best Practices

Use pre-mortems: Also called prospective hindsight, pre-mortems help you identify potential problems that your own judgment may not even recognize. The purpose is to imagine a future failure and then explain the causes leading up to it instead of the other way around.

Align goals: You need to make sure your goals are aligned throughout the organization. According to research conducted by WCW Partners, only ⅓ of managers create goals with employees. Involving your employees early on increases business communication and transparency throughout the organization.

Collaborate: Team collaboration on a goal gives us accountability for more than just ourselves. This is crucial when it comes to achieving a goal. Sharing responsibility also means that employees can worry less about their individual contribution, hopefully increasing their amount of focused work.

What Does Success Look Like as a Methodology?

We touched on SMART goals earlier, but there’s another, unrelated methodology that can help you achieve goals in a different way. The Objectives and Key Results methodology, pride and joy of Google, helps maintain the accountability and focusing aspects of goal setting. In addition, OKRs offer a structure for you to follow on how to set business goals yourself.

How to identify, prioritize and achieve business goals and objectives with the Theory of Constraints [Examples]

The Theory of Constraints is a business priority matrix that seeks to align all tasks towards goals, eventually compounding to successfully achieve a major goal. This can only be achieved with an understanding of current problems and how to resolve them.

The key to mastering this process is to identify and complete the tasks that align with your major goal. Below is a quick guide on how to identify the correct tasks to focus on, which will help you accomplish your end goal.

Pro tip: The traditional application of the Theory of Constraints is for factories and businesses that have complex dependencies. However, a simplified version can easily be applied to startups and small businesses. This business priority matrix can have large benefits for your business when executed correctly. The key to utilizing the Theory of Constraints is to identify “blockers” in your business and kill them.

Correctly identifying blockers is challenging.

Step 1 – Define your 12-month goal

1. This goal can apply to anything. Your goal can be to hire a team of 7 superstars, get more leads, bring in more revenue, get more customers, lower stress in the workplace, or anything else that will result in business success.
2. You need to live, breathe and believe your goals. Manifestation is a good practice. This refers to seeing something as true, so your subconscious drives you to do what you need to in order to make it true. For example, if you believe you’re an entrepreneur, you will act like one, and eventually become one. But don’t forget: you must be able to accurately visualize the goal.
3. Your organization needs to revisit the goal regularly, whether it’s monthly, daily or hourly. You need to be tied to it, and put everything behind it. Drop the tasks that aren’t directly tied to achieving a goal.
4. Goals must be:

1. Achievable = Ambition is a powerful driving force, but it works best when combined with being realistic.
2. Desirable = You need to be sincere about wanting your goals, and willing to dedicate your time and effort to them.
3. Believable = You must have the confidence that you can and will get there.

Step 2 – List your blockers

List out all the obstacles that are currently preventing you from reaching your goal. Think of it as a brainstorming session. Although it’s easy to get caught up and carried away in this step, focus on listing things out.

Let’s look closer at one of the blockers listed above: we are not converting enough trials into paying subscribers. At this point, we were converting approximately 20 percent, which is acceptable, but we can do a lot better.

Step 3 – Convert blockers into their opposites (90-day goals)

Step 4 – Uncover the 30-day projects

This is where the majority of the work will take place. It will also be where discoveries will be made and benefits will be identified. In this step, we start to hammer out all the possibilities to solve the problem.

Step 5 – Build the task list

Looking ahead using goals and constraints

Our goals for 2019 and beyond

• Hubstaff Tasks – We use this software to keep our tasks organized and track who is doing what. Tasks is a kanban board workflow that integrates with Hubstaff so you can streamline your work further. Its built for agile teams who want to prioritize work in sprints, and accomplish goals faster. Best of all, it’s completely free for teams of up to five people.
• Xmind – The maps in this post were designed using Xmind. This software is free and has most of the mind mapping tools we need.
• Mindjet – Mindjet is one of the most useful mind mapping software available, with a well-rounded set of features. However, it’s quite expensive.
• Google Draw – This is a free web-based flowcharting program. It has less support than Google Docs and Sheets, but should accomplish your flowcharting needs.
• SmartDraw – This is a desktop-based program, and a good tool for more complex flowcharts.

Sources:

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/business-goals-definition
https://blog.weekdone.com/how-to-set-business-goals/
https://blog.hubstaff.com/business-goals/

Just like all other social media platforms, engaging with your followers is crucial. There are various ways you can do this on Twitter, like liking and retweeting mentions from followers, replying to direct messages, posting brand-relevant UGC, or asking followers to respond to Twitter polls. If you’ve created accurate, relevant social media personas, the way you interact with your followers will likely entice them to continue following and engaging with your account.

How To Use Twitter for Beginners

Twitter, launched in 2006, is a microblogging social media site where users create short-form content, known as tweets, to share with others. Users who have an account can post their own tweets and interact with others.

Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter is often where breaking news is shared by individual users, rather than notable businesses. Users take to their personal accounts and tweet about their experiences, like when a 5.9 earthquake struck Virginia in 2011. It was first reported by individuals on Twitter who sent out 40,000 tweets related to the incident, all in less than a minute.

He didn’t meet their 18 million retweet requirement, but they granted his request after achieving 3 million. Wilkerson has since used his Twitter experiment as an example of social sharing engagement for his marketing course. Others have since used this format, like this user, who asked The New York Mets to let her take prom photos on their baseball field if she reached 500,000 retweets.

Considering that Twitter has significant power in influencing trends and generating engagement, some brands have taken to the platform as a means of social media marketing. If you’re just starting on Twitter, this post will outline how to use its essential features and go over best-practices for marketers using the app.

Twitter Tips for Beginners

All social media platforms have site-specific etiquette and best practices that marketers should know. Let’s look at eight tips for Twitter beginners to use when adopting the platform into their marketing strategy.

Understand Twitter Language

Featured Resource: How to Use Twitter for Business

Hashtags

Hashtags, written as a pound symbol (#) followed by a specific word or phrase, are keywords on Twitter that are used to incite discussion. #food is an example of a hashtag that is commonly used on Twitter, and all tweets that use the #food hashtags are aggregated together. Hashtags can often go viral, and users around the world put them within their own tweets to add their opinions into discussions and engage with topics that they care about.

They are also a valuable marketing tool for generating exposure, as any Twitter user who views and searches through a hashtag may come across the tweets you’ve made. Tweets with hashtags also get 100% more engagement. Hashtags can be added to tweets with videos, photos, gifs, and links.

Handle

A Twitter handle is not to be confused with your Twitter profile name, which is the name of your Twitter account. For example, if you’re using Twitter for a personal account, your name is Sam Cruz, your profile name could be Sam Cruz while your handle might be @redtomato. Twitter handles can be unique, whereas everyone in the world named Sam Cruz can set that as their profile name.

Handles are essential for marketing, as they aid in brand recognition when they’re related to your business. For instance, say you run the Twitter profile for a pants business called Reds. If your Twitter handle is @pantsbusiness, nobody will be able to pick you out from the crowd of other pants businesses on the platform.

Retweets

Retweet, sometimes written as RT, is how people share content on Twitter. If someone tweets something you like, you’d click the retweet button (shown below) to share the Tweet onto your own Twitter feed. The content you RT is visible to your followers and also displayed in your Twitter profile.

When you generate a following on Twitter, using the RT button to share tweets where your followers mention you and how much they love your business is a valuable strategy for building brand authority, as social media users value user-generated content (UGC). In fact, consumers trust UGC 9.8x more than influencer content or paid advertisements.

Mentions

You’ll get a notification every time someone mentions you, and these tweets are displayed in the Notifications tab on the Twitter website and mobile app. You can navigate to your mentions by clicking the bell icon.

Mentions are beneficial to marketing as they make it easier to find and interact with followers who have specifically used your handle in their tweets. You can also mention other users within your own Tweets, which helps in generating engagement.

Create a Twitter Marketing Strategy

Like every social media platform, you need to create a site-specific marketing strategy. It doesn’t have to be too different from your overall business marketing strategy, as you’ll carry over elements like your buyer personas. These are the representations of your target audience that you’ll translate into social media target audiences, which will help you identify the customers most likely to interact with you on the platform.

Plan Out Your Twitter Strategy with HubSpot’s Free Social Media Content Calendar

Decide What You’ll Tweet

After you’ve created your marketing strategy, you’ll need to decide how you’ll execute that plan with your tweets. Other businesses on Twitter use their accounts to incite brand discussions, create advertisements, or as a means of customer support.

The image below depicts a Twitter customer support interaction between Comcast, an internet and cable service provider, and an interested customer. Around 59% of global social media users have a of brands that respond to customer service questions on social media, so it is a valuable Twitter strategy to consider.

The social media target audiences you’ve outlined within your marketing strategy will help you identify how you should use your Twitter account. When you understand your followers, you’ll know what type of content they prefer and what you should be tweeting.

For example, if you’re a clothing company, maybe you’re famous for launching exclusive products that your customers need to wait in line for. You know they’re likely excited by this exclusivity, so you can use your account to announce product release dates to get them excited. Here’s an example of Adidas, a design company, using their account to promote a highly anticipated brand collaboration on their Twitter account.

How to write a Twitter thread like a pro (Advice from marketers)

Threads have become popular in recent years as they allow people to tell complete stories, share tips, or offer advice outside the limitations of a single Tweet. These types of posts can get such great engagement, which is why Twitter acquired Threader, a once-popular bot account that combined threads into single articles for users to read. Threader now powers Twitter Blue’s native thread-reading feature, which users can pay for.

If you’re trying to grow your Twitter following or get more engagement on your profile, threads can be an attractive option—especially for people in digital careers such as marketing, content creation, social media, or SEO. That said, putting together a series of Tweets and deciding how you want to structure your thread can be challenging.

What do you even write about? Which Tweet comes next? How do you decide when to end your thread? To answer these questions, we sought advice from a few marketing pros that are known for writing awesome threads. Let’s dive in.

Twitter is a vast landscape with tons of small communities having conversations, debates, hosting Twitter Spaces, and other types of interactions. Breaking into these communities and being seen as credible can be difficult if you’re just starting out. Before even writing threads, you’ll need to decide which topics interest you the most and what you feel most comfortable publicly Tweeting about.

“Get very clear on your singular goal. Ask yourself honestly and specifically: What does success look like for you? Then build a content strategy to support that goal and a set of tactics to support that strategy. Chances are this will mean you’ll need to home in on a niche, stick with 1-2 topics, and write threads that reflect your expertise or growing knowledge.”

Jeremy Moser, Co-founder and CEO of uSERP, agrees with this advice and says that the more you home in on your topics, the more likely Twitter will propagate your content to users in target communities via its algorithm. Now this isn’t to say that you should only Tweet about things in your niche, but establishing your topic expertise and writing about it consistently on Twitter is one of the best ways to amplify your reach.

While a niche helps you build your expertise and find like-minded users on Twitter, you’ll need to actually follow, reply, comment, DM, and use other types of engagement to start building your community. Jeremy says:

“Work on building a smaller audience first. Spend time building a genuine community of like-minded people in your niche. In that community, engage with each other, find new creators, and work on building a following of at least 1,000 people. Why? Before this, the majority of your content will flop, and chances are you haven’t figured out your own voice or style yet.”

Follow creators you admire and engage with their communities. Add value to conversations instead of cookie-cutter responses. Send personalized DMs to creators if you found what they Tweeted about insightful. Be authentic when engaging with others and you’ll find your follower count start to grow.

You have your niche and have found success building a small but engaged community, so now it’s time to find inspiration for thread content. A good place to start is by sourcing ideas from your followers. Amanda says:

If you’re in a digital career, thread ideas that are sure to get some engagement are to post about tips and processes you’ve used that have helped you launch a product, write a book, hit your revenue goals, and other professional milestones your followers could resonate with. Jeremy says:

“I love writing threads about stuff that I’ve genuinely done that has been impactful for me. I don’t write threads that often, maybe 1-2 times a month, and my focus is entirely on what works. Draw from your own experience and ask yourself: what lessons, tactics, strategies, ideas did I learn from this experience that can help others improve on X, Y, Z.”

And your threads don’t always have to be a highlight reel. You can share lessons you learned in times of failure or struggle. This level of candidness shows your followers that you’re human, you make mistakes, and you learn from them.

“When writing threads, open a blank page and spend 20-30 minutes just writing about a topic. Find common themes you can pull together to focus on that topic. For example, rather than just ‘here’s how to do marketing,’ you might talk about copywriting for a website to improve conversions.”

Sources:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tweet-formulas-to-get-you-started-on-twitter
https://www.zoho.com/social/journal/how-to-write-twitter-threads.html
https://buffer.com/resources/writing-great-tweets-scientific-guide/