Digital Marketing ⯀  

Popular social media networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have invested millions of dollars in the regular update of their platforms. As a result, it has become essential for marketers to maintain the latest technological developments in the space of social media. In 2018, the marketing industry is set to spend billions of dollars on ads and efforts to make companies and brands reach their target market. Small enterprises and big corporations are banking on the idea that consumers will purchase their products by just seeing them on social media platforms. In the past two decades, technology has evolved in ways that could never have been thought possible.

Digital Marketing ⯀  

Our smartphones can do so much for us, we might as well expect that they will be able to track where we are and market to us. In fact, this is exactly what happens with the concept of geo-fencing.

Social Media ⯀  

Social media is a venerable marketing tool that simply cannot be ignored if you want your startup to succeed. The difficult task for startups, though, lies in the time commitment needed in order to develop a robust and successful social media marketing campaign.

Entrepreneurship ⯀  

Over the past few years social media stars have made a fortune online, using YouTube to create their own brand. Take a look at how they’ve made their careers and the money that they’re making. From top YouTubers to the celebs you’d forgotten started their careers online, here we take a look at the secrets to online fame and fortune.

Marketing ⯀  

For some people who are looking for business publicity and marketing services, the online opportunities are great ones. However, with the changing times, it is becoming difficult to come up with new and innovative ways of marketing your business through offline methods and hence a number of people are resorting to the various online options there is. The digital media is a comparatively new place, and a number of new and innovative methods of promotion are coming up here. 

CRM ⯀  

Sometimes it seems as if there is not enough time in the work day, or even the regular day, to get done the tasks that need completed. Emails pile up, phone calls need to be made and meetings need to occur. Sometimes it can seem that the more unimportant tasks take up all the time, while more important issues get sidetracked or are rushed. 

Social Media ⯀  

The biggest challenge that faces most businesses today is leveraging social media to drive traffic. Social media has great potential to be your biggest source of traffic. However, it requires lots of effort and time to maintain.

Digital Marketing ⯀  

Small business website design is not difficult, but there are multiple elements involved in the process. The first is choosing the type of digital marketing that you want to utilize to promote your website and business.

Getting to learn more about the primary methods makes it easier to see which would most benefit your business.

Email Marketing

This is a type of direct marketing that has been successful since the internet’s inception. You will craft an email for the purpose of encouraging people to buy services or products. It is important that the content of the email not feel like a sales pitch. It should be personalized to the reader and it should offer something of value. For example, a fact associated with your business or industry, or a link to an article that solves a problem.

You also need to send these emails at the right volume. Too few or too many hurts your digital marketing efforts. To ensure subscribers are not overwhelmed with emails and to make sure that you are keeping them interested, a frequency of one email every two weeks is considered to be ideal.

Affiliate Marketing

Give people the chance to earn some money while also helping you to increase sales. This is the gist of affiliate marketing and it works. Those who sign up will promote your products and services. When someone uses one of their links to make a purchase, they earn a small commission. You determine the commission percentage and how many affiliate marketing spots you want to make available.

Search Engine Optimization

Your small business website design has to incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) to be easily found by the masses. This is not exclusively a marketing technique, but it essentially plays into all of your website’s advertising efforts. The first step is researching relevant keywords that people are searching for. Sprinkle these into your content at a density of one to three percent, but make sure to incorporate them naturally.

Your primary keyword needs to be in your first paragraph and title at the very least. It is ideal that you also use it in your concluding paragraph, meta data and once elsewhere in the body of your content. If a primary keyword is awkward, such as “construction company Cleveland,” you can use a stop word to improve its flow. For example, use “in” as a stop word so that it reads “construction company in Cleveland.”

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Social Media Marketing

Every business needs to be on social media and this is even more critical for a small business. You are able to use these platforms to engage with customers and clients, as well as advertise what your business has to offer. At the most basic tier, there is no cost involved with this marketing method either, making it the perfect choice when you have a small marketing budget, but you need a method that produces results.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

This is a method people often equate to the old days of the internet, but it is just as effective today. In fact, due to new technologies and methods, it can be even more effective. When you have a small business with a small budget, this method can be even more helpful. Utilize this strategy to target consumers at all elements of the buying funnel. This allows you to determine when they are most ready to buy so that you can hook them at the perfect moment.

With this information, you can evaluate the digital marketing needs of your business and decide which methods will be most beneficial. This ensures that you are getting the promotion and exposure necessary and that you are able to meet your marketing goals.

By  33rd Square	Embed

Environment ⯀  

Digital marketing has changed the face of marketing in general. In the past, it was difficult to gather reliable marketing data to help entrepreneurs make a sound decision. Statistics and other market stud were only exclusive for big companies. Thanks to the internet access to a lot of useful data has been democratized.

Digital marketing has changed the face of marketing in general. In the past, it was difficult to gather reliable marketing data to help entrepreneurs make a sound decision. Statisticsand other market stud were only exclusive for big companies. Thanks to the internet access to a lot of useful data has been democratized.

Nowadays, even small entrepreneurs can use marketing statistics to make better business plans. In fact, there are tons of information out there that marketers can gather and consider. The use of digital marketing analytics can instantly provide real-time data that can be used not only for planning but also for monitoring.

Anyone can use digital media analytics. This is why there are some statistics that can become popular across the internet. In this information age, statistics matter so much especially in digital marketing. If you are running a marketing campaign, statistics is something that you can't do without.

Success in digital marketing depends on the right information that can shape the way you react to the market. You can't just create a marketing plan without knowing what's going on in the market. Nonetheless, here are the top 3 statistics that matter in digital marketing:

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94% of People Surveyed Expressed They Mistrusted Websites Because of Web Design

According to IRONPAPER , 94% of people cited web design as the reason they mistrusted or rejected a website. This is very alarming as it is difficult to identify which type of design drives customers away. Nevertheless, this is information is very useful as it shows that web design is something that digital marketers should also give importance.

For many years, SEO has been the focus of many digital marketers. However, online marketing is more than just SEO. Web design is now also a factor that can affect sales. Although there is no specific design that can be used to determine its effect, you yourself may have your own reason to dislike a certain web design.

One good example is a web page that has a lot of flashing widgets. For sure, you wouldn't stay longer on that page because of fear of malware attack. Another example is a black-colored theme. When you visit a page such as that, you will probably think that this page is owned by kids who are just kidding aside.

You can use your subjective opinion as a potential customer to determine the kind of web design seems to drive you away, but it is still best to be guided by expert web designers to help you further. The important thing is that you are aware that many people mistrust a website because of its web design.

81% of Top-Performing Sales Professionals Depend Largely on Social Media

According to Econsultancy, 81% of top-performing sales professionals rely on social selling. This is not surprising as social media has been very popular for quite some time already. If you look around, you will realize that statistics is not necessary to show how social media is dominating the lives of many people. However, the above data confirms how significant social media is today.

This is why many businesses respond to this phenomenon. Consequently, sales professionals also resort to reach their prospective clients through social media. You can see a lot of sales professionals joining some social networking groups and do their transactions there.

Although it seems that selling through social media is much more difficult than selling through telemarketing, the above statistics simply show what social media can do especially in the area of social media marketing. Besides, you can explore many ways to improve your social marketing.

Social media marketing is a breakthrough in digital marketing. In the past, online marketers used to make do with organic search engine marketing. Nowadays, social media is becoming at par with search engines when it comes to generating traffic. Today, many people are also using search engines from social networking sites to look for products to buy online.

39% of 1,500 Consumers Surveyed Told That They Use Their Smartphones to Find and Purchase Products

This is another useful statistic that digital marketers should when designing an online marketing campaign. The message is clear. It means that website site owners should optimize their sites for mobile users. They also need to develop mobile apps that can help mobile users transact on their sites.

The most crucial part of this is the way users use their smart phones to search for products. Digital marketers should also optimize their sites for mobile searches and make sure their products are available on popular mobile app stores to easily get found.

There are a lot of statistics you find on the internet, but the above statistics are some of the most significant facts you can take note to make your digital marketing campaign successful. Keep in mind statistics may change overnight so you have to quickly react on it to deliver a timely result.

By  Robert Cordray

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About the Author: Robert Cordray is a former business consultant and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience and a wide variety of knowledge in multiple areas of the industry. He currently resides in the Southern California area and spends his time helping consumers and business owners alike try to be successful. When he’s not reading or writing, he’s most likely with his beautiful wife and three children.

Business Tools ⯀  

For businesses today, there is really no way to consider running your operation without the Internet. Cloud-based business tools for customer relationship management, data analytics and social media management can all help your business grow and thrive.

Here are a few examples of how the Internet can help you convert user numbers to sales.

1. Answer Your Customer's’ Questions

When customers are undecided about purchasing your product or service, quite often it is because they have unanswered questions. Including a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) and answers on your website can help convince them.

Consider common questions you receive in your inbox and start saving some of the most frequent ones in a document. You can even anticipate questions that will come with a new service, or product. For example casino.com has an elaborate help page that answers all questions. New casino gamers will find such pages helpful. Similarly upwork.com has FAQ page to guide new users.

Along with making it easier for customers to commit to purchasing from you, FAQ pages also can be a business tool to help cut down on customer support costs, as users can pursue a self-service workflow.

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2. Creating Effective Customer Databases

Part of every internet-engaged business today is gathering, maintaining and growing a database of customers. Even if your product is not immediately perceived to be something that would engage repeat business, a database of satisfied customers could be available for your next venture, or product availability.

An effective customer database is all about knowing your customers. This tool enables you to; identify customer trends, create customer loyalty and increase customer communication.

For the long term, your customer database is one of the key value metrics of your business. Your products may evolve and become obsolete, but if your customer database is up-to-date and logging effective data points, you will always have the foundation for a new or evolving venture.

3. Exploring Customer Behavior with Analytics

With the wealth of data that can be collected via web tools today, even the smallest business can gather and analyse comprehensive customer use data.

With an effective customer database you can also use analytics tools to derive value for the raw customer data. Insights and actionable data can include:

Transforming and augmenting data into a more comprehensive version of your client with intentions, context, , and interactions. This can help you to target your customers and segment them accordingly.

Turning business data into insights, with scores, segments, recommendations and forecast. By using predictive modelling the tool in customer relationship management (CRM), that is used to target messaging to those customers who are most likely to make a purchase, data can be used to generate more accurate forecasts for your business, based on customer data.

Connecting with your customer in real time leads to increased conversion rates. Real time data analysis tools allow your business to be very flexible and responsive to the needs of your customers. This type of data can help you to focus priorities, to deliver and exceed your customer’s expectations. There is no better way to build loyalty to your brand.

4. Engaging with Users via Social Media

Social media is one of the best tools for persuading consumers through the conversion funnel. Followers on twitter, Pinterest and Facebook can gradually be converted from an awareness of your good or service, to action, and even to evangelism. According to Forbes, studies suggest that implementing features like social login on your website can increase signups considerably. While 86 percent of users will not sin options. Social media helps makes your business grow by first growing your user database on a different platform. It is much easier to turn someone who follows you on twitter into a buyer. Social media presence is not a nice-to-have part of business nowadays. It is an expectation of all customers.

5. Reach Even Greater Numbers with Mobile Presence

In the next five years, according to Silicon Valley investor Steve Jurvetson, the internet will see explosive growth in the developing world. The majority of these users will be viewing content exclusively on a mobile device.

Even in mature markets, consumers use mobile devices to browse, research, and even shop on the go.

For businesses today it is virtually a necessity to create a responsive website, or sometimes a complete mobile version of your web properties. This may increase your conversion rate dramatically. Like social media, a mobile-friendly presence is already an expectation in the business world.

Like every aspect of technology, the tools and processes are constantly changing. The pace of change means that conversion tools are no exception. So as a final bonus tip, do not neglect to be an active and engaged member of the greater business community online and in your area. Such networks can help you stay abreast of the latest tools and developments that may have a huge impact on your own business.

By  Emma Sturgis	Embed
Emma is a freelance writer currently living in Boston. When not writing, she enjoys baking and indoor rock climbing. Find her on Google +.

Artificial Intelligence –  

Both artificial intelligence and social media have been able to get a huge buzz in the market. More and more corporations are increasing their investment in both artificial intelligence and the social media marketing.

Forrester has predicted that the investment in AI will grow by 300% this year. Artificial intelligence has already been playing a crucial role in many different industries, and now we can see more and more use of the technology in various social media platforms as well.

The question is what is the future of artificial intelligence in social media? The huge social media platforms are already investing a lot of time on researching on the potential of AI. Let’s look at how some of the biggest social media platforms are making use of AI.

How are the huge social media platforms, making use of artificial intelligence?

Just because artificial intelligence is making a major impact on the world does not mean that human intelligence should be ignored. The balance between artificial intelligence and human intelligence is needed to get the maximum return out of the investment.

For an instance, the use of AI can assist micro-influencers a lot to launch their micro-influencer marketing campaign, but there is also a need for human intelligence to develop a strategy that produces the great results. Here are some of examples of how the biggest social media platforms have inserted AI on their business processes.

LinkedIn acquired Bright.com

The startup, Bright.com, was acquired by LinkedIn in 2014. Bright.com used machine learning algorithms to suggest the best candidates for employers, which helped both employers and employees, as employers got the best candidates for the specific jobs and the employees got the best jobs that matched their skills.

Currently, LinkedIn use this technique to provide a score to the candidates for the companies on the basis of account location, past work experience, and historical hiring patterns.

Pinterest acquired Kosei

The data software company named Kosei, which specialized in personalized recommendation modeling, was recently acquired by Pinterest. This helped Pinterest to identify object recognition for boosting the pins, and this will also help in providing better product recommendations.

This, along with Pinterest’s Visual Graph makes it possible for image and search recognition tailored for Pinterest users. This feature will also help social media marketers a lot to launch their social media marketing campaign in a more effective manner.

Chatbots

Most of you must have encountered with chatbots, whether it is a dumb or a smart chatbot. A chatbot is a great way to give an instant reply to the customers. It’s true that they lack human intelligence, but with the help of machine learning, the chatbots are getting better every day. This is the reason why chatbot is the future of customer service.

Moreover, the study shows that the majority of customers nowadays is comfortable, engraining with chatbots. Many big corporations are already making use of chatbots. Now, the Facebook has introduced a chatbot-like feature, which helps to start a conversation between a business and a customer who is having a problem.

Facebook facial recognition

The Facebook team is putting a lot of emphasis on the AI. Facebook has introduced a facial recognition tool that further simplifies the process of tagging someone in the picture. Moreover, Facebook is also looking to boost their business based on the users checking into various places. This will allow Facebook to provide real-time discounts and offers to users.

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How can you make use of AI inside social media platforms?

We have already seen how the big social media platforms are making use of AI to enhance their business. Now, let’s see how you can take an advantage of AI.

Match your content with your target market buying personas

You can increase your sales by whopping 171% if you can understand your target market buying personas. You can understand your target market buying persona by analyzing their habits, working environment, and the things that motivate them. Match your contents, blogs, videos, images, and so on, with your target market buying personas to get a handsome return from your marketing campaign.

Utilize CRM tools to understand your prospects

There are various CRM tools that you can use to understand your prospects. For an instance, the Active Campaign tools can help you target specific information to your prospects based on their actions. It can also help you to analyze the prospect based on what and how many tags have been used by them.

Real-time Engagement

As a business, you need to consistently engage with your customers. Real-time engagement with your customers is one of the best ways to draw your prospects to your story. You should make sure that you are present in all the social media platforms that you use, and you should also make sure that you are consistently offering them with valuable content and insights. The study shows that the companies that consistently engage their customers on multiple channels retain 89% of the customers.

Make use of the various AI tools to engage your customers in a real-time.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence is changing the whole world, and it’s already making a big impact on how we use social media platforms, as we have seen in the above sections of this article. The progress in AI will not stop, but in fact, its use will grow tremendously, as we are just at the beginning of the artificial intelligence revolution. AI will completely transform the way to do business in the future.

By the way, if you’re a business owner and you’re still not using AI on your business processes, then it’s a right time for you to start using it. With the technology playing a more important part in the future of the business world, and sooner you start using AI, it’s better for you.

By  Vivian Michaels	Embed
Author Bio - Vivian Michaels is a huge tech enthusiast who likes to write articles on evolving technology. He is also a Fitness coach with a sincere desire to help people achieve their individual fitness goals.

Artificial Intelligence  

The social media marketing and artificial intelligence are the two hot topics discussed nowadays. It’s because both have huge profit potential and both are growing at a rapid pace. The companies are investing in both artificial intelligence and social media marketing.

According to the prediction made by the Forrester, the investment in artificial intelligence will increase three times. On the other hand, the statistic shows that the social media users have already crossed 2 billion, and around 68.3% of the internet users use social media platforms.

Another interesting fact is that the tech giants like the Facebook, Instagram, and others have already started working on the development of AI. The social media marketers should know about how the artificial intelligence is changing the whole process of social media marketing to be successful in the today’s world.

The Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the social media marketing

Gone are the days when the social media marketing was only about making a page, promoting the posts, and publishing interesting posts. There are so many things to know about and learn to be a successful social media marketer in today’s world. Let’s take a look at how artificial intelligence is completely changing the social media marketing.

Match your content with buyer’s personas

A well-constructed buyer’s personas can provide you important insights about the specific groups of people who purchase your product. According to one case study, the well-constructed buyer’s personas increased the yield by 171%, which is a huge increase in the yield. Some of the key persona insights like the habits of your prospects, the work environment your customers work in, and the factors that motivate them to spend money, and so on.

If you keep these key persona insights in your mind while developing and posting the contents on various social media platforms, you will be able to post more relevant contents that will appeal to your potential customers. In case you are carrying out the influencer marketing campaigns, which most of the brands are, you can provide these key insights to your influencers to help them reach the potential customers with the contents that can arouse their interests.

AI helps you to extract rich customer insights from the CRM

There is so much more things you can do with the help of artificial intelligence. The CRM contains a lot of information about your potential customers that will provide you with the hints to develop responsive content. There are plenty of emails, phone calls, and social media messages you get from the customers, and these messages can provide with the important insights to help you develop a content that will persuade your customers to take the next step.

You along with your team can dig deep into the information in your CRM to get some valuable insights. You can also provide your social media influencers with the critical information that can help them to develop responsive contents. However, the large database of customer interactions can be very hard to analyze. In this case, you can conduct a semantic analysis for understanding the purchase intention of the people that have interacted with you.

Real-time interactions with your customers via social media platforms

Nowadays, the majority of the customers want to communicate with the brands via messages, and the study has proven it. Furthermore, they also want the businesses to respond them within a span of 24 hours. This is possible now with the help of the artificial intelligence. The businesses are employing chatbots that can respond to the general queries of the customers. After publishing a great story about your brand, you are very much likely to get tons of messages from your potential customers.

With the help of various AI tools, you can monitor all the social media activities that take place in your post to provide prompt response to your potential leads. When you active in discussions on your posts, you are more likely to gain more engagement in the post along with the upcoming posts that you are planning to post on your page or channel.

Facial recognition

This feature was introduced by the Facebook, and it has got quite a lot of popularity. It is a lot more than a simple tagging function. The facial recognition function can be used in various ways in your social media marketing campaign. The customers can be encouraged to take action on the post with the help of this face recognition function.

The restaurants, clothing stores, and others can provide customers with the vouchers on the basis of the facial recognition. The social media marketers can make use of this feature in many ways to maximize their return from their social media marketing campaigns.

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Manage and learn

The key to the social media marketing success is not only to post regularly, but also to manage and learn from the historical performance of the campaigns. The task of scheduling and maintaining the content is not an easy task for the marketers.

The artificial intelligence tools can do this job for the marketers, as it can help in properly managing the right information. With the help of the machine learning, the marketers can learn from their previous campaigns along with the competitor data to improve their campaign success in the future. It is now a necessity for the marketers to make use of AI to be a successful social media marketer.

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Conclusion

There is no doubt that the artificial intelligence can significantly enhance the potential of the social media marketing. It’s the reason why many big companies are now pouring the money in the development of the artificial intelligence.

Despite the fact that the artificial intelligence has advanced a lot from the time of development, it may not replace the human relationship between customers and brands. Artificial intelligence tools should be used by the marketers to increase the reach, conversion, and to build a stronger relationship between customers and brands to develop a successful marketing system.

By  Vivian Michaels	Embed
Author Bio - Vivian Michaels is a huge tech enthusiast who likes to write articles on evolving technology. He is also a Fitness coach with a sincere desire to help people achieve their individual fitness goals.

Home Improvement  

The well-made but boring homes of generations past aren't selling as well. The problem is that major renovations cost money and don't necessarily provide the boost in sales price to justify them. You need to not only get your house maximum attention with minimal investment, you want to close the deal fast. 

Here are some technologies that can help you get the best price when selling your home.

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Smart Technology 

Adding features like smart lighting, smart thermostats, or even a Wi-Fi network buyers could add their own devices to can immediately boost home appeal for younger buyers. Just be careful not to overspend. You can install this tech for a few hundred dollars, but if the home is already very low-priced or highly valued, it may not make much impact on value.

Internet

Even if you're using a real estate agent, don't assume that they're also expert digital marketers. You can provide your own content that can be communicated to potential buyers by providing them a single link.

Real Estate Sites

You don't have to build your own web page to sell your home. Instead, there are many "For Sale By Owner" and other classified sites featuring a real estate section. They're relatively cheap, and give you the chance to add your own sales-driving information, photos, and often video.

Social Media

The great thing about social media is that it's free. You may have your own profile on a major site already. Start some conversation on your home by adding photos, facts, and video in your posts. If you can generate some buzz about your home and the fact that it's available, it could look like competition and spur interested parties to close.

Some other digital media you could use include mapping portals. Some will allow you to mask your address while still showing the neighborhood. If your property is tidy, you could also buy or borrow a drone for some fly-over shots. You could hire someone with 3-D software to create more detailed virtual models or 360-degree tours of your home and property.

Property Settlement Agents

One of your best options for getting closings done sooner is the advent of online settlement agents, such as those at KDD Conveyancing Services. They can share documents, provide links to Land Registry records, and enable digital signatures. Closings can be done over the internet in real time, without the trouble of traveling to a formal meeting. They also might have access to popular real estate sites that you as an owner wouldn’t otherwise have access too.So long as you're honest and forthcoming, selling your home is faster and easier than ever before. Just make sure that you’re using all of the technical resources available to you.

By  Hannah Whittenly	Embed
Author Bio - Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, California.

Careers  

Are you pursuing a professional career in the tech industry? Developing these skills will help you prepare for your chosen career field, plus you'll be able to succeed in an ever-advancing world of new technologies.

Many careers today are more reliant on technology than at any point in the past. The digital age has transformed entire industries, leaving those who have good tech skills in the best position to secure jobs. Here are four tech skills that you may need to know to land your dream career.

Computer Programming

Once a skill known by only a small handful of specialized professionals, programming has become much more democratized over the past few years. Because of this, a basic knowledge of programming is a useful tool in almost any profession. For most people, a working set of skills in Java will meet the needs of their chosen careers. If your dream career deals extensively with programming, however, it may be worth it to learn more than one language.

Data Analytics

Thanks to the integration of computer systems, businesses have more data available to them than anyone could have dreamed of 20 years ago. If you want to pursue a career in business, technology, marketing or even if you want to start your own business, data analytics will be a critical tool for you.

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Sonography Interpretation

One of the most popular career fields at the moment is the medical industry, which offers a huge number of different jobs. In many of these positions, however, a basic understanding of how to interpret medical imaging is needed. X-rays are a simple enough place to get started, but for modern medical professionals, it is more important to learn to interpret sonograms. Sonograms offer a better view of the soft tissues of the human body, making them a more versatile imaging technology for diagnostic purposes than X-rays. To become a sonogram specialist, a person has to get their bachelors in diagnostic medical sonography and be extensively trained. However, their main skills should be the ability to observe a situation and be attentive to the smallest of differences so that they can tell between what is normal and what isn’t.

Social Media Savvy

Most people think of the time they spend on social media as a leisure activity. However, social media is rapidly integrating itself into almost every modern industry, making those who understand various social media platforms valuable assets as employees. Social media's most prominent use is in the business world as a marketing tool. However, other industries have begun using it for different purposes. Government and public sector agencies use it to alert citizens to goings-on in their communities or states, while the medical industry has recently begun using social media to convey vital health information to the public. If you are good at getting things seen on social media, you have a skill that can translate into many different career paths. If you want to pursue a professional career in the modern world, it's a simple fact that you're going to need at least basic tech skills. Develop these skills while studying to enter your chosen career field, and you'll be able to succeed in an ever-advancing world of new technologies.

By  Hannah Whittenly	Embed
Author Bio - Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, California.

Technology  

Technology has irrevocably changed the way we live, play, do business and socialize. Changes in how we socialize are interesting in particular, as there is a marked difference in how people interact with each other even in the last decade.

It's pretty undeniable that technology has irrevocably changed the way we live, play, do business and socialize. Changes in how we socialize are interesting in particular, as there is a marked difference in how people interact with each other even in the last ten years. Let's explore some of the transformational ways technology has revolutionized our social interactions.

1. Social Media

Perhaps the most obvious and significant way technology has impacted our social lives, social media is now intrinsically tied to how we communicate with others. Whether it's creating an event on Facebook to invite others to a party, sharing photos of what we are doing on Instagram or posting cool craft ideas on Pinterest, these are all new ways of interacting with our friends, family and customers. We now learn about how friends, near and far, are doing via their feeds and can message them via instant messaging whether they're on the computer or looking at their smartphone. We can get input from others instantaneously, no matter how far away they are, which is nothing short of revolutionary.

2. Real-Time Video Communication

At one point, technology like Skype was something from science fiction, not reality. Now, people can have video conversations with each other in real time from across the planet. This has been not only revolutionary on a personal level, but also on a business level, where coordination with different locations and teams has been made considerably easier and more convenient. It even allows people to work remotely or for themselves when it was unprecedented previously.

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3. Smartphones

Being the combination of a telephone and a computer, small enough to put in your pocket, and between texting, apps and social media, smartphones have changed the way we interact with people both in-person and remotely. They allow users to look something up that comes up in a conversation, share information or take photos and videos of gatherings far more easily, making us more interconnected than ever before. They also allow us to communicate with people who couldn't be at a gathering, as well as keep others informed when they are not present but something important is going on, via different methods such as texting, social media and instant messaging.

4. Video Games

Even video games, long considered a very solitary form of entertainment, have become a medium of social interaction in recent years. Thanks to present and stable Internet connections, players now can play with friends or complete strangers whenever they choose. Nearly all games offer a multiplayer option, if they are not online-based to begin with. People even broadcast themselves playing video games on sites like VideoGameBroadcasts.com. Many people make friends, form lasting relationships and even meet their spouses thanks to the online gaming community.

The subject of how technology has affected our social interactions is quite fascinating, and the trend will only continue. We'll all just have to try and keep up.

By  Emma Sturgis	Embed
Emma is a freelance writer currently living in Boston. When not writing, she enjoys baking and indoor rock climbing. Find her on Google +.

Social Media  

With 2016 coming to an end, internet analysts tend to dust off their prediction caps and start making predictions about how technology will shape the future of human interaction.

Judging by what transpired across social media channels in 2016, it is easy to predict that major changes will come about between now and 2020. Big social networks such as Facebook became so influential in daily life that they may have helped Donald Trump gain a substantial edge in his unlikely election to succeed President Barack Obama. To be sure, Trump showed the world how he could influence the financial markets and popular sentiment with a single Twitter update.

According to Data Never Sleeps, a report by Domo, there are now more mobile devices than humans in our world, which speaks volumes about how our communications are being transformed. The following are four incredible, game-changing trends we are likely to see in terms of the way we choose to exchange information with each other.

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Social Media Babies

Do newborn human creatures really need social media accounts? For celebrity parents such as Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, creating various accounts across social networks for their baby daughter was as important as entering her into the civil registry and scheduling her pediatric medical checkups.

So now we can log into our Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter accounts to look for Dream Kardashian, who happens to be adorable. Naturally, her reality television parents are posting updates for her, but we are free to ponder just how long it will take for little Dream to start posting on her own. Will Twitter confirm her account and issue a blue check mark to verify that she is not an impostor? Will she later rebel against her parents and delete her social media presence? This is not a celebrity gimmick; according to research conducted by baby brand Gerber, as many as 40 percent of young mothers are setting up social media accounts for their babies.

Going Fully Visual

We can thank the internet for making us a nation of readers, but we may blame social media for replacing the reading trend with images and video, particularly live streaming.

According to studies conducted by market research firms such as Focus Vision, social networks such as Periscope that specialize in live streaming are attracting more attention than live television. Video conferencing on WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger is also a trend that is catching up with text messages.

E-Commerce Goes Social

In China, the versatile app WeChat is quickly becoming an employment and retail marketplace. This trend is expected to arrive in North America by 2018, and it is bound to switch the process of looking for jobs on LinkedIn to WhatsApp.

A similar transformation is expected to take place within social messaging apps such as Skype, which the enterprise world has truly embraced. Now that LinkedIn and Skype are owned by Microsoft, we can safely ponder that a merger of sorts may take place very soon.

Social Apps within Autonomous Cars

In 2016, the Obama administration was enthusiastic about the future of self-driving cars. Insurance companies certainly love the fact that autonomous vehicles are better at avoiding accidents than humans, and this could mean the end of texting and driving as a societal problem.

The infotainment systems of autonomous cars will become saturated with apps, and many of them will likely allow people to connect via social networks as they zip down the highway on full autopilot mode. Dating apps such as Tinder may update with new features that allow flirting while riding on self-driving cars.

If you think that a Brave New World of communications awaits us from now until the end of the decade, wait until the four trends above become the new social media standards.

By  Dixie Somers	Embed
Author Bio - Dixie is a freelance writer who loves to write about business, finance and self improvement. She lives in Arizona with her husband and three beautiful daughters.

Technology  

In today's ever-changing business world, technology has greatly altered the landscape. However, perhaps no area has been affected more than public relations.  If you're curious as to how technology has changed the PR landscape, here are four ways considered to be extraordinary.

Years ago businesses had to rely on writing press releases or holding live in-person events to reach customers, today's technology now allows for much more convenient ways to spread the news to potentially millions of people in an instant.

E-Mail

In years past, sending out a press release meant mailing it to a newspaper and waiting for it to be published. However, e-mail has changed that. With a simple click of a button, a PR pro can send out multiple press releases at once to newspapers around the world, ensuring they get their message out in a much more efficient manner.

World Wide Web

For many companies, the PR game changed immensely once the World Wide Web came along. With this option at their disposal, companies can now create eye-catching and informative web sites that not only convey the latest information, but also allow them to manage their image and agenda.

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Advertising

Whereas decades ago it was expected a company would advertise its business as much as possible, today's younger generation of customers tends to look unfavorably on this practice. In fact, many younger customers now tend to be distrustful of those companies that use public relations to advertise their products or services. Having grown up with a smartphone in their hand, they prefer instead to make up their own minds about issues, rather than simply believing whatever so-called "official" opinion is put before them.

Social Media

Without a doubt, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the world of public relations. Giving companies as well as customers instant access to one another, social media can make or break a public relations campaign. Allowing for instant communication and discussion, these sites not only let companies respond immediately to negative situations, but also empower customers to voice their opinions in hopes of seeing positive change. In fact, this area of technology has evolved so quickly that it's vital for PR professionals to obtain a Master's degree in Public Relations in order to keep up with the latest developments. Many are going back to school without leaving the professional world by choosing an online public relations degree in order to keep up with the ever changing demands of the modern social landscape.


By understanding and utilizing the latest technological advances, public relations professionals can have far more control over achieving the results they desire for their company or organization.

By  Kara Masterson

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