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How to Use Video to Attract New Customers

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The popularity of learning online is skyrocketing. In fact, the World Economic Forum reported that the global market for online education would reach $255 billion last year alone. Online learning even led to the creation of a new industry comprised of companies, like Skillshare and Udemy, offering courses to help professionals learn new skills at their own pace, whenever and wherever they please.

This widespread adoption of learning online has also created an opportunity for small businesses to connect with their customers in an authentic way. By utilizing video to package up your expertise, product tips, best practices and more into an online miniseries, you can offer a valuable resource to your current customers and attract new ones.

One example is Patch, a plant and garden delivery business. As an added benefit to its current customers and to get discovered by new ones, the team at Patch developed a free online course on plant care tips. By signing up for the course, Patch’s customers receive daily emails on a new lesson in the form of a helpful video. Each video is less than two minutes in length and housed on the company’s website. Many small businesses, like Patch, are experts in their industries, products or services.  And they’re using this expertise to help grow their customer base and bolster their brand reputation.

As a small business owner juggling a variety of responsibilities, the idea of creating sleek videos may feel out of reach. In reality, modern video creation tools are turnkey with a low cost of entry. These solutions, like Camtasia, allow even the most novice of users to easily create engaging and eye-catching videos with things you already have, including webinar recordings, video clips, images, and PowerPoint presentations.

Creating professional quality videos is easier and more affordable than ever. Here are five ways you can use video to help boost your sales and enhance your marketing activities.

  • Get in front of the right audience.

    By registering for your online mini-course or video series, your customers are opting into receiving more content from you. This allows you to continue targeting them with relevant marketing materials, offers, and more as they move through the sales funnel.

  • Learn more about your customers.

    By analyzing the top performing videos, you’ll gain powerful insights into what resonates with your customers and what they may want to see more of in the future. For example, if a video received significantly more views, comments or shares, consider creating additional pieces of content, such as social posts, blogs, or paid ads, with the same theme.

  • Increase repeat visits to your website.

    Housing your videos on a specific landing page or centralized location gives registrants a reason to continue returning to your website. Use a website traffic tool, like Google Analytics, to track where they go and spot trends.

  • Reuse and recycle.

    Consider the videos you create for your online course as evergreen content. Use them elsewhere in your sales materials or marketing campaigns. Videos are also favored on newsfeeds and therefore can be helpful in breaking through the clutter on social media as well.

  • Give them a reason to come back.

    Most importantly, you’re offering a valuable resource to benefit your customers. By helping them learn more about your product, sharing your expertise, or providing best practices, you’re giving them a reason to return.

Sleek and engaging videos are no longer reserved for large enterprises with equally large budgets. Thanks to modern solutions, businesses of all sizes can easily create engaging video content. If you’re looking to grow your customer base and increase purchases, consider creating an online video series.

Want more information about how visuals are changing the way we learn and work? Check out our recent study.

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Sourced from Smallbiz Technology

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Facebook’s 2-Factor Authentication With A Phone Number Isn’t Only For Security, It’s Used For Ads

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A new paper published by Princeton University researchers has put forth some very disturbing ideas, detailed Gizmodo. One of the main theories is that Facebook tricked their users into thinking that two-factor authorization with a number was for security purposes only.

The paper, titled “Investigating sources of PII used in Facebook’s targeted advertising,” aimed at discovering why the ads on the platform are so accurately targeted. It turns out that Facebook compiled what people are calling a “shadow profile” for each person, which includes personal information that is gathered through some less-than-straightforward ways.

One of the ways is described as follows.

“[Researchers] found that when a user gives Facebook a phone number for two-factor authentication or in order to receive alerts about new log-ins to a user’s account, that phone number became targetable by an advertiser within a couple of weeks.”

Also, Facebook gathered information for shadow profiles whenever someone uploaded their contact information with the platform. People sometimes do this in order to find more friends on Facebook.

Even the researchers were surprised to find out that Facebook ads used information “that was not directly provided by the user, or even revealed to the user.” And most of all, the report indicates that users were convinced to share private information about their contacts without fully understanding the implications.

Facebook responded to the study’s findings, not disputing it but releasing this statement instead.

“We outline the information we receive and use for ads in our data policy, and give people control over their ads experience including custom audiences, via their ad preferences. For more information about how to manage your preferences and the type of data we use to show people ads see this post.”

 

The reason why your personal information, like your phone number, is so very valuable to advertisers is because it lets them conduct high-level targeted advertising. That means that they’re able to get their ad in front of the people who are most likely to buy their product, thus boosting their sales.

At the same time, Facebook benefits by providing this level of advertising, which can prove more successful than other channels. But if Facebook is utilizing information from people’s shadow profiles, and the information was obtained in sneaky ways, it puts the platform on blast.

Facebook’s vice president of ads Rob Goldman even said the following.

“I think that many users don’t fully understand how ad targeting works today: that advertisers can literally specify exactly which users should see their ads by uploading the users’ email addresses, phone numbers, names+dates of birth, etc.”

If you’re bothered by this, you can check out your “ad preferences” page. There’s a list of “advertisers you’ve interacted with,” which will show you who has your contact information.

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Sourced from INQUISITR

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5 Tips to Build a LinkedIn Profile That’ll Get You Noticed

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Sourced from Success

Building and maintaining a standout LinkedIn profile isn’t optional. It’s not even highly recommended. It’s mandatory—if you want to stand out. Because 95 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to actively search for and contact potential employees.

“If you don’t have a presence on LinkedIn, you stand a strong chance of being overlooked,” says Rick Sass, a career coach and LinkedIn expert at Lee Hecht Harrison in Bellevue, Washington.

Whether you just graduated or are on the hunt for a new job, you can make your life as an applicant a whole lot easier by customizing your LinkedIn profile. Use these five strategies and employers will be more likely to find and hire you:

1. Write an eye-catching, descriptive headline.

LinkedIn automatically defaults the headline beneath your name to your current job title. Set yourself apart with a more creative description.

“Define yourself using nouns that describe what it is you do and what it is you want to do,” Sass says.

Try not to default to your job title even if you’ve landed a fabulous first job. “Marketing analyst” might be the name of your position, but “Quick-thinking marketing pro with an eye for catchy, viral content” will tell a recruiter that he or she should learn more about you.

2. Choose a professional, approachable headshot and background image.

“The first thing people are going to look at is the visual,” Sass says. Your background image is an opportunity to share your interests. Choose a landscape photo of your favorite place to ski or hike if you’re outdoorsy, or a baseball diamond if you like sports. Avoid potential copyright issues by taking the photo yourself or choosing from Flickr’s Creative Commons database—ideally only a photo with a “commercial use allowed” license, to be cautious.

Your profile photo is even more important. Recruiters are 70 percent more likely to scroll down and read through your professional experience if you have a headshot on LinkedIn, Sass says. It should feature your head and shoulders against a white background. Make sure to smile; recruiters subliminally think to themselves, “‘I want happy, smiley, approachable people on my team,’” Sass says.

3. Use keywords in your “Summary” section.

The summary is what makes LinkedIn better than a résumé. It’s a place where you can turn your unique educational and professional experience into a compelling narrative for employers.

“Unlike your résumé, your summary needs to basically tell me a little bit about your personality,” Sass says.

Tell recruiters what you love to do, what you do now and where you want to go next. If you’re looking for a graphic design job, say, “I am a collaborative, outside-the-box thinker who loves using design to make digital products come alive for users.” Format your summary into a few short paragraphs to make it more readable, Sass says.

Most importantly, add a section at the bottom of your summary called “Specialties,” he recommends. Employers search for potential job candidates on LinkedIn using keywords specific to the industry they’re recruiting for. Find keywords your employers might search for in job descriptions, on recruiters’ own profiles and on the profiles of candidates similar to you. If you work in marketing, for instance, the bottom of your summary could read: “Specialties: digital marketing, social media marketing and data analysis.”

4. Demonstrate transferable skills.

Your “Experience” section is the one closest to a traditional résumé. It’s where you’ll list all the jobs (both full- and part-time) and volunteer experiences you’ve had until now. After your summary and headline, Sass says, the titles in your experience section are the most important factors in LinkedIn’s results when employers search for candidates.

You can go into more detail about each job you’ve had than on your résumé, and it’s OK to use “I” and to maintain a slightly more conversational tone. Don’t be afraid to include jobs outside your field, Sass says. Speak confidently about the skills you developed in those positions and how they’ll apply to the job you want.

5. Show measurable accomplishments.

It’s great to tell employers what you’re good at, but specific, numerical accomplishments often say more than words can. Demonstrate to employers how your work had an impact. Maybe you exceeded a sales goal or you increased the number of social media followers.

LinkedIn also allows you to embed links to samples of your work in your experience section. Include in the position description what part you played in developing each project. Work samples are yet another way to make yourself stand out in the sea of job seekers on LinkedIn.

Take advantage of the space and flexibility LinkedIn provides to show what value you’ll bring to a potential job, Sass says.

“Traditionally you have to do push marketing with hiring managers,” he explains, meaning it’s up to you to get your résumé in front of them. “This is pull marketing. They’re going to find you, and you give them samples of your work and why you’re good at it.

Sourced from Success

This article originally appeared on NerdWallet. Brianna McGurran is a staff writer covering education and life after college for NerdWallet.

 

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Five Strategies Top Marketers Use To Make Their Content Work Harder

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Sourced from B&T Magazine

In this guest post, Collaboro CEO Warwick Boulter (pictured below), asks is your content marketing actually working? And offers his five top tops to ensure it’s doing what it should do…

The challenge for marketing teams continues to be how to get smarter, more targeted content into market faster, and make it work harder.

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We see content being created at exponential rates, but with a recent Brightedge study showing that 71 per cent of marketers believe that less than half the content they put out is being consumed, it’s time for marketers to take a step back and re-consider their tactics.

So we spoke to our clients, studied the industry and unpacked the latest research, to uncover the strategies top marketers are using to make their content work harder, set themselves apart and ensure their messages cut through the noise. 

  1. Posted, but not forgotten

Content marketing isn’t a set and forget process. Quite the opposite; once released into the public domain, a piece of content should be considered a discussion starter, an invitation for two-way interaction and a constantly evolving conversation.

To stay ahead of the curve, top marketers understand the need to effectively respond and adapt quickly, as customers react to their content.

Social media is a key player and an important ROI tool, which, by its nature forces brands to be adaptive and anticipate the needs and wants of their customers. If you spot a conversation or trending topic, you need to be agile to react immediately, by having content at-hand and tweaking campaigns in real time.  

We’re seeing smart markers consider adequate management of their brand assets as a cornerstone of their marketing tech – think Marketing Automation (MAP) to manage outreach and attract interest, Content Management (CMS) to oversee web experiences and conversion, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to support customer interaction and Brand Asset Management (BAM) as the beating heart of the organisation, that links it all together.

  1. SEO and Content marketing living happily ever after

In the bad old days, an SEO expert would cross over only with the content marketer to discuss keywords and communication channels. But the tides have turned, and as the search engine algorithms become more sophisticated, the content writer and the SEO manager can make content can work harder, if they work together. And that’s an approach we’re starting to see smart brands take.

So how do you marry pleasing a computer algorithm (SEO) with producing insightful and relevant content?  The good news is that machine learning has made the algorithms much more sophisticated so they can consider a range of insights to determine whether a website’s content is worthwhile to the reader.

And to make SEO happy, content marketing can think multi-channel; posting a blog on your website, sending as an e-newsletter, repurposing as a Facebook post and animating into a video on Youtube means more links, views, clicks and shares  – and this is Google gold.

  1. Recycle, even on audio channels

Marketers don’t need to reinvent the wheel for each communication channel they utilise, making content work harder means knowing what works on each platform and repurposing and reworking their content to suit the audience. 

Content marketing started as the written word and as the world turned digital imagery, infographics and video quickly rose to favour. But we often forget about the channel that came in between – radio. 

As long as it’s adding value and not simply creating more noise, audible content can become a powerful cornerstone of your strategy and make existing and new content work a whole lot harder. Here’s why. 

Storytelling has been a buzzword across marketing circles for a while now. If you can effectively portray your brand’s story, it’s more likely to resonate and be remembered. But there is another element to storytelling and the clue is in the word  – ‘telling’. 

As an innate part of our psychology, humans like to talk to each other – and that’s why audible content can work harder than through other mediums. 

Copyblogger discusses ways to maximise the value of your audible content, and of course don’t forget to reuse, recycle and repurpose into their areas of the content marketing mix. 

  1. Content v’s ‘Intelligent’ content

For the past few years marketers have been contracting their efforts on delivering content, this we know. It’s also no surprise that technology has aided the production of this content, making sure it’s targeted, relevant and shared.

Intelligent content takes this a step further; ensuring that what marketers deliver is structured, adaptable and scalable. In this way, intelligent content is a component of content marketing.

Let’s delve deeper.

Content is being produced exponentially and needs to be adaptable for the myriad of platforms consumers interact with each day, so the old way of producing content is no longer efficient.

Instead, marketers should be considering an intelligent approach to every piece of content they produce so it can be adapted for other digital experiences and, importantly discoverable to unlock its value.

In order to do this, according to CMSwire, content should be designed to be modular and format-free for omnichannel delivery and richly tagged for retrieval and reusability. There are various elements, but for the purposes of simplicity, we’ll explore one – intelligent content loves metadata tags. A lot.

So planning your metadata strategy is just as important as planning the content itself.

CMI’s chief strategy officer, Robert Rose suggests starting off intelligent content implementation by employing intuitive data asset, or creative content management. This technology that helps build the intelligence behind the intelligence through facial recognition, scene recognition and sophisticated AI, so every piece of content produced, from imagery to video to documents can be located and reused.

So creating and managing content in conjunction with AI is the key to working your content harder and infinitely more intelligent.

Sourced from B&T Magazine

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Simple Ways to Evaluate and Improve SEO strategy

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By Joel House

The search engine optimization is one of the most important things that help to generate leads to the website. By understanding the target market and developing the seo strategy you can improve the website rank in the top of the search engines.

The search engine optimization is one of the most important things that help to generate leads to the website. By understanding the target market and developing the SEO strategy you can improve the website rank in the top of the search engines. With the help of the advanced SEO techniques, you can boost the traffic to the website. In the search engine optimization, evaluation and strategic planning are significant to succeed in today’s competitive world.

Google, Bing, MSN, and other popular search engines are making some changes to their search engine ranking algorithms. It helps to boost the resulting quality of the search engine that they serve to the users.  The website traffic is important to growth for the online business. The website ranking helps to success the online business.

Are you looking for the simple way to measure the SEO strategy? Well, you have landed at the right destination. Here you can get the simple way to evaluate the SEO strategy easily and increase it. The experts track the referrals, ranking, links, and others that help to evaluate their search engine optimization strategy and develop the road maps for great success.

How to evaluate the SEO strategy

In the past five years ago, the stuff the page full of the targeted keyword was a simple way to get the website ranked at the top of search engine result. But today, the online business owners will be penalized by the search engines. The Google has made some changes in 2012 to its search algorithm. If you are looking to evaluate where the online presence of the site stands then it is the right place. Here you can get an effective way to evaluate the search engine optimization strategy.

Evaluate inbound links

First, you should measure that how many inbound links have on the website. If the website has a large number of the inbound links then it will get the high rank in the search result. Today, previous practice remnants can reduce website ranking. The inbound links help to prevent the website ranking down in the search engine, improve the visibility and boost sales and others. You can identify the bad inbound link which points to the site and removes the links from the site.

Integrate the social media strategy

If the business owner initiated the strategy of content marketing then it is vital to control the social network to improve the reach, increase the brand visibility and build the audience, and others in the market. With the help of the social media marketing strategy to build the brand awareness, inbound links, trust, social signals, website traffic, and others. If anyone not having the social media marketing then it is the perfect time to get the social media marketing.

Measure the content strategy

The content is one of the important things on the website that improve the audience. The good search engine optimization and content is best for the website. In the website, you should post the quality content, new blog, queue, and others.  While looking over the website content then you should ask some question. The content is written with the targeted customers and makes the content readable. You can use the subheading in the content that attracts the customers to visit your site.

Simple ways to increase SEO strategy

The search engine optimization can take more time and effort. There are huge ranges of the metrics the online business owners can track on the monthly, weekly or daily basis to keep the search engine optimization plan to the measure the success. The SEO strategy is one of the organizations’ processes the website content helps improve the rank in the search engine.

Are you looking to increase the search engine optimization strategy? Well, you have landed at the right destination. Here you can get the effective way to improve the strategy of search engine optimization.

Develop the SEO-friendly website

The search engine optimization strategy is made up of the different parts such as content, website. When you are creating the content you should optimize the website traffic from the search engine. You should start by assuring the site has the clear hierarchy. The website page is designed by some clicks from the homepage such as homepage, one click for the service page, product page, two clicks for blog page and others. These pages are optimized with the both the non-branded and branded keywords. You can design the SEO-friendly website for your business that improves the website rank.

Page loading faster

The popular search engine like Google, Bing, and others take the page loading faster into the account in the algorithm of website ranking. Most of the users may leave the website if they wait for the long time to load the website. The website needs to load within the few seconds that increase the audience to the site. There are a lot of the ways to improve the page load faster includes plug-ins, optimize the image size, reduce redirects and others.

Several multimedia

To improve the SEO strategy, you can use the different multimedia such as image, slideshows, audio, video, and others. It helps to improve the user’s experience that allows the business owners to deliver the information in a unique way. The multimedia is acted as the quality content signal to the search engines. The video marketing helps to improve the audience on the site. The site which using the videos can achieve more than four conversion rate than a website which does not use the videos.

Building link

Building a link to the website is important to improve the audience to the site. When other sites links to your site then the website provides the little search engine optimization boost. You can also build the SEO strategy by guest posting, creating the unique site which attracts the links. If you need to make the content useful then you can also link out to another site for the depth information.

It is the simple way to evaluate and increase the SEO strategy. The search engine optimization tactics are focused on driving for the B2B business. It not only improves the traffic but also qualified the leads.

Conclusion

The search engine optimization tactics are focused on driving for the B2B business. It not only improves the traffic but also qualified the leads.

By Joel House

Sourced from DIGITAL DOUGHNUT

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Why Instagram is the New Social Media “Home Base” For Brands

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By Arik Hanson 

For as long as “social media marketing” has been around, Facebook has held the title of most brands’ social media home base.

That is, Facebook is the place where they spend the most time, resources and mone

But, that tide is definitely turning.

First, just look at Instagram’s recent numbers.

  • Instagram just surpassed 1 billion users. The only other platform not named Facebook to do it.
  • 71% of U.S. business now use Instagram
  • Instagram is THE platform for influencers–80% prefer the platform for brand collaborations
  • 59% of 18-29 year-olds use Instagram

Meanwhile, over on Facebook…

  • Facebook saw a 5.6 percent decline in users between 12 and 17 years old.
  • They also saw a 5.8 percent decline in users between 18 and 24 years old. This is the first time Facebook has seen a decrease in users since its inception.
  • Facebook usage dropped–for the first time ever–from 67% to 62% among Americans 12+ years of age.

Obviously, Facebook still has a ton of people using their site and app. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But, it is showing chinks in the proverbial armor for the first time. And, at the same time, Insta is gaining traction rapidly.

That’s the story the numbers tell.

But, as we all know, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

What the numbers DON’T tell us is this:

  • Facebook is an increasingly toxic place for many users. #DeleteFacebook is real. Anecdotally, I’m hearing more and more of it each day. People just don’t want to spend as much time there as they once did, for a variety of reasons.
  • Facebook has taken a beating in the media over the last year. Mostly, for privacy issues. And each time Facebook is mentioned in a negative news story, that’s impacting how people feel about the social network.
  • Facebook has lost it’s “cool” factor. Remember that movie “The Social Network?” The whole reason Zuck got the facebook off the ground was because it had that “it” factor–specifically with young people. It no longer has that. A certain other network does–and it’s starting to show.

So, the numbers aren’t painting a rosy picture.

The anecdotal evidence isn’t much better.

What are marketers and communicators saying?

That Instagram is a more fun and happy place for customers.

That they’re seeing higher engagement rates on Instagram.

That they’re actually driving traffic and selling on Instagram.

Yep, Instagram is slowly, but surely, eating Facebook’s lunch.

And, it is driving toward becoming brands’ number one social media platform.

In fact, for many brands, it already is.

Let’s look at a few:

Adobe

Facebook: 105 engagements per post

Instagram: 10,713 engagements per post

Note: Averages reflect last 10 posts

Maersk Shipping

Facebook: 445 engagement per post

Instagram: 4,866 engagements per post

Note: Averages reflect last 10 posts

Target

Facebook: 707 engagements per post

Instagram: 23,255 engagements per post

Note: Averages reflect last 10 posts

That’s as much as a 300 PERCENT increase in engagements from Instagram to Facebook. And, those brands above are hardly alone. It’s a trend. And it’s hard to ignore.The numbers tell the story.

The anecdotal evidence tells the story.

Marketers are telling the story.

And, results sure as heck tell the story.

Instagram is becoming brands’ social media home base.

By Arik Hanson 

Sourced from Business 2 Community

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Logo Design: Use a DIY Website or Hire a Graphic Designer?

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By Aubreigh Ulicki 

A logo is one of the most important pieces of an organization’s brand. Usually a combination of text and imagery, it makes your brand easily recognizable. For instance, when you’re driving down the road and see golden arches, you know it’s McDonald’s. When you hear “Nike,” you imagine the swoosh. When a luxurious car is parked next to you, the three-pointed silver star helps you recognize it as a Mercedes-Benz.

Logos are everywhere. Oftentimes, they are one of the first thoughts that come to mind when hearing a brand name, which is why it’s so important for your logo to embody who you are as a company. Where do you start when a logo project is on the horizon? First, make sure you’re aware of what the project entails. Ask yourself questions such as:
  1. What is my budget?
  2. What should the logo convey to our buyer persona?
  3. How will the new logo align with the current brand?
  4. Is there a deadline that I need to have this new logo by?
  5. Will there be additional design projects that come after the logo is ready?

With these questions in mind, determine if this is a project you want to take on yourself—or if you’d rather leave it in the hands of a professional. Let’s start with do-it-yourself options.

DIY Websites

At one time, you had to contact a designer if you needed help with a project. Today, there are hundreds of do-it-yourself design tools available at your fingertips. You can simply type “create a logo” into Google and watch the results populate before your eyes. There are plenty of benefits that come with the DIY option, but there are also some drawbacks:

Benefits

  • More affordable. Creating a logo through a do-it-yourself website will likely be less expensive than hiring a graphic designer for the job. Some websites charge a small fee for plans, customization, or access to premium graphics. Others allow you to utilize their design assets and create a logo for free. You can’t get much cheaper than that.
  • 100% customizable. Whether you’re paying a small fee or utilizing a free DIY website, customization options are limitless compared to hiring a graphic designer, who will likely offer only one or two rounds of revisions. In most cases, the designer will customize it beyond that if you’re still not happy with the design, but you’ll end up paying more than what was quoted up front. When you’re designing the logo yourself, you can revise it as many times as needed. Not sure if that shade of blue pops enough? Try a new one, or five new ones—you can! Besides, color matters.
  • Faster turnaround. If you’re working with a tight deadline, you may not have time to hire a graphic designer for the job. When doing it yourself, you can design at your own pace and in your own time. Many DIY websites offer instantaneous results.

Drawbacks

  • Problem solving. A common theme people tend to forget during a do-it-yourself project is you’re doing it yourself. Sure, there might be a few people you can bounce ideas off of, but in the long run, you’re on your own. If the website you’re using doesn’t offer specific elements you want in your design, you need to find a solution elsewhere. This might mean utilizing different tools and adding elements together to get the end result.
  • Idea generation. Playing off of the drawback we just discussed, it can also be troublesome to come up with different ideas when working solo. You might find yourself coming up with similar logo designs after trying to create multiple variations.
  • Expertise. You’re well aware that you’re not a graphic designer; if you were, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Outsourcing the job means you’re hiring a professional. When hiring a professional, you get both skill and expertise. When you do it yourself, you lack some of that skill and expertise. It’s just a matter of determining how much of it you really need.

If you find that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, start researching DIY websites that might be a good fit for your logo needs. A few of my personal favorites include Canva, Wix’s logo maker, and Tailor Brands.

Canva is a DIY design site that lets you easily create custom graphics simply by dragging and dropping. Start by choosing the “logo” design, an available option under “Marketing Materials.” Browse through a variety of both free and premium designs, and start customizing by adding in text, imagery, backgrounds, or elements such as lines or icons. You can resize the logo based on your company’s needs and download it right to your computer, for free!

The Wix Logo Maker starts by asking you a few questions related to your organization. It then puts together a professional logo based on your answers and style preferences. If you don’t love the design they create, don’t worry! You can customize it from the top down. Once you have the perfect design, SVG vector files allow you to print a high resolution logo in an array of sizes. Wix offers both a free and a premium version.

With a similar process to the Wix Logo Maker, Tailor Brands uses an AI-powered platform to create a custom logo instantaneously. After entering the name and a short description of your company and selecting style preferences, you’re presented with different variances of a logo they create just for you. The catch? You can’t customize your logo until after you’ve purchased it. The good news is, the plans are affordable, and you have usage rights to your logo even after the plan ends.

These are only a few of the many options available when it comes to DIY logo design. Now, let’s walk through the alternative option: hiring a graphic designer. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this route? Where does the process begin?

Hiring a Graphic Designer

If you find that a logo design project is more than you’d like to take on at any given time, consider hiring a graphic designer to get the job done. This option might also be a better fit if additional design projects are forecasted in the foreseeable future. Hiring a professional will ensure design consistency across projects. Many graphic designers are freelancers available for hire. Here are the benefits and drawbacks to taking this route:

Benefits

  • Expertise. By outsourcing your logo design project, you’re putting it in the hands of a professional who is acutely aware of the current trends, as well as the effects of color choice and font styles. Graphic designers have the background, the knowledge, and the skill to know how to design a variety of graphics. Designers usually carry a specialty, and logo design might just be one of them.
  • Variety of options. In many cases, graphic designers give you a variety of options to choose from. This will be stated in your contract, but make sure it’s a question you ask prior to signing on the dotted line. Requesting 10 different samples is a bit unreasonable, but three variations isn’t too much to ask of your designer—your logo is going to be a symbol of your organization, so make sure it’s what you envisioned.
  • High quality results. When outsourcing a logo design project, you can rest assured you’ll get high quality results. No need to worry about blurry images, pixelated graphics, or text that’s too small to read. A professional designer will follow best practices, making sure your logo checks all the boxes before handing over the final artwork.

Drawbacks

  • More expensive. Just like any other service, you pay for design work. Whether you’re quoted a flat fee or billed hourly, you should expect to pay a decent amount for your logo. Rates can vary dramatically depending on the designer’s experience, estimated time to complete the project, rounds of revisions, and beyond. One designer might charge $75 per hour for a logo, while another charges $150 per hour. If you’re looking to outsource the logo project, make sure you have the budget to make it work.
  • Customization options. If you decide to hire a graphic designer for your logo project, make sure you research their portfolio. Take a look at pieces they’ve designed in the past, paying special attention to logo work. By doing so, you’ll be able to match styles and choose a designer that’s a perfect fit for your project. If you choose a designer without doing any research, understand that customization options may be more limited. The professional you hire can likely make the changes you request, but each round of revisions will not only extend your time frame, it will cost more, too. To avoid delays and extraneous rounds of changes, make sure you research first, and give the designer clear direction from the beginning.
  • Convenience. It’s obvious that outsourcing a design project isn’t as convenient as working on the project from your own computer—there is far more communication and coordination involved. If you hire a local designer, you may meet in person to discuss the project. If you find a designer located elsewhere, expect to hop on numerous calls and email chains to answer questions and provide feedback.

If the latter of your two options sounds more appealing, let the research begin! There are many websites that house freelance graphic design information. These websites allow you to search for a designer based on specialty, providing reviews and examples of their work.

You can head over to 99designs to browse designers with experience in a wide assortment of industries. Select “logo & identity” as the category, and a preferred designer level. Just be aware that top-level designers will charge a higher hourly rate. Another great resource to use is Upwork. The best part about this site: they do the heavy lifting for you. Simply post the job you’re looking to get done, and they’ll match you with best-fit designers. You can browse individual profiles, read reviews, and speak with designers before hiring your favorite. Not sold on search functionality finding you the perfect designer? Hire an agency to take on the project. Here at SmartBug, creative and branding is only one of the many services we offer.

Wrapping Up

No matter which option you choose, make sure you have a goal in mind. If you have a large budget and a flexible deadline, hiring a graphic designer might be the way to go. If you’re unsure as to what you’re looking to achieve with a new logo, brainstorming ideas through a DIY website can save you time and money. In the end, your logo is one of the most important pieces of your brand. Make sure it’s clear, make sure it’s recognizable, and most importantly, make sure it reflects your brand.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Aubreigh Ulicki 

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15 Business Applications For Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning

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Understanding how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can benefit your business may seem like a daunting task. But there is a myriad of applications for these technologies that you can implement to make your life easier.

Through AI and ML, your business will benefit as it becomes more efficient at its operations and eliminates those mundane tasks that seem to be slowing you down. Additionally, AI-powered tools and automated systems can help your company improve the use of its resources, with visible effects on your bottom line.

Fifteen members of Forbes Technology Council discuss some of the latest applications they’ve found for AI/ML at their companies. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Powering Infrastructure, Solutions and Services

We’re leveraging AI/ML in our collaboration solutions, security, services and network infrastructure. For example, we recently acquired an AI platform to build conversational interfaces to power the next generation of chat and voice assistants. We’re also adding AI/ML to new IT services and security, as well as hyper-converged infrastructure to balance the workloads of computing systems. – Maciej Kranz, Cisco Systems

2. Cybersecurity Defense

In addition to traditional security measures, we have adopted AI to assist with cybersecurity defense. The AI system constantly analyzes our network packets and maps out what is normal traffic. It is aware of over 102,000 patterns on our network. The AI wins over traditional firewall rules or AV data in that it works automatically without prior signature knowledge to find anomalies. – John Sanborn, RAA – Financial Advisors

3. Health Care Benefits

We are exploring AI/ML technology for health care. It can help doctors with diagnoses and tell when patients are deteriorating so medical intervention can occur sooner before the patient needs hospitalization. It’s a win-win for the healthcare industry, saving costs for both the hospitals and patients. The precision of machine learning can also detect diseases such as cancer sooner, thus saving lives. – Adam Bayaa, Heal

4. Recruiting Automation

With unemployment at historical lows, recruitment of qualified workers remains one of the most difficult challenges. By harnessing the power of recruiting automation, savvy employers are using AI-powered sourcing tools to find candidates who may not have been considered for roles in the past, not because they weren’t qualified, but because they weren’t surfaced in the first place. – Jon Bischke, Entelo

5. Intelligent Conversational Interfaces

We are using machine learning and AI to build intelligent conversational chatbots and voice skills. These AI-driven conversational interfaces are answering questions from frequently asked questions and answers, helping users with concierge services in hotels, and to provide information about products for shopping. Advancements in deep neural network or deep learning are making many of these AI and ML applications possible. – Mitul Tiwari, Passage AI

6. Reduced Energy Use And Costs

We have used AI to cut energy use and reduce energy costs for drilling, crude and natural gas transportation, storage and petroleum refining operations. Until recently the industry has been looking at historical data points. The AI application we run can now learn and predict future energy load at levels as granular as a single blending activity. This opens up an entire range of opportunities to reduce waste, reduce peak demand and cut costs. – Jane Ren, Atomiton, Inc.

7. Predicting Vulnerability Exploitation

We’ve recently started using machine learning to predict if a vulnerability in a piece of software will end up being used by attackers. This allows us to stay days or weeks ahead of new attacks. It’s a large scope problem, but by focusing on the simple classification of “will be attacked” or “won’t be attacked,” we’re able to train precise models with high recall. – Michael Roytman, Kenna Security

8. Becoming More Customer-Centric

We’re using AI to better analyze customer responses to surveys and activities over time. This enables us to understand not only the feedback they provide but whether or not there are specific qualities and attributes that correlate to their response rate and likelihood to engage. This information will allow our customers to alter their own client survey strategies.   – Alan Price, visioncritical.com

9. Market Prediction

We are using AI in a number of traditional places like personalization, intuitive workflows, enhanced searching and product recommendations. More recently, we started baking AI into our go-to-market operations to be first to market by predicting the future. Or should I say, by “trying” to predict the future? –Tim Rendulic, Thomson Reuters

10. Accelerated Reading

AI is accelerating our understanding of written text. Simply put, humans cannot read fast enough, and cannot mentally mine and structure the vast quantity of data that is available. We have developed advanced AI that reads and understands life science articles, helping researchers to accelerate the discovery of cures for diseases and the development of new treatments and medications. – Daniel Levitt, Bioz

11. Cross-Layer Resilience Validation

We continually hear from our customers that existing testing methodologies fall short when relating to predicting misconfigurations in-between different IT layers. We invest significantly in research and development of cross-layer dependency mapping and cross-layer validation techniques, utilizing both knowledge-driven analytics and ML. Our validation technology goes beyond detecting what is broken now into predictive resilience risk detection. – Gil Hecht, Continuity Software

12. Accounting And Fintech

AI is affecting many industries. Accounting and fintech are no exceptions. After years of working closely with professional accountants, I’m noticing a growing trend — they’re utilizing AI to streamline their professional routines through practices like automated data entry and reporting. And it’s not just accountants, the entire financial services industry is embracing automation. – Nick Chandi, PayPie

13. Advanced Billing Rules

Our organization has added machine learning-powered billing rules to maximize our credit card processing success rates for recurring billing. By identifying trends in declined credit cards (for example, cards being declined more often on a Sunday evening compared to a Wednesday morning), and fraud patterns that lead to chargebacks, we’ve been able to raise revenue with little human interaction. – Jason Gill, The HOTH

14. Understanding Intentions And Behaviors

Bad actors follow specific communication patterns — for example, colleagues spreading malicious rumors tend to be pretty chatty. Advanced AI has the distinct ability to not just identify these patterns, but leverage behavioral analytics to understand the intention behind communication. Using AI to spot bad behavior is something we use to empower customers across various industries. – Brandon Carl, Digital Reasoning

15. Proposal Review

We found an exciting use of AI for our application that saves incredible time and improves quality for customers. When a facility manager receives a proposal from a contractor, machine learning analyzes the scope, the pricing, and the contractor’s historical performance, to determine if the proposal is the right cost and will be done at the right quality level. It’s a huge win for our clients. – Tom Buiocchi, ServiceChannel

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization comprised of elite CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Find out if you qualify at forbestechcouncil.com. Questions about an article? Email [email protected].

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WhatsApp co-founder: ‘I sold my users’ privacy’ with Facebook acquisition

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Brian Acton had also tweeted in March that users should “#deletefacebook,” as the social network dealt with its Cambridge Analytica scandal.

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton became a multibillionaire when Facebook bought his messaging app in 2014 for an eye-popping $22 billion. But it’s a decision that seems to unsettle him, according to a profile of Acton published by Forbes on Wednesday.

Acton left WhatsApp in 2017, and CEO Jan Koum followed in August. Acton’s exit, which occurred before his Facebook stock fully vested, cost him $850 million, according to Forbes.

The major divide with Facebook was reportedly over monetizing the messaging app, which has 1.5 billion users. Koum and Acton had been resistant to adopting Facebook’s widely lucrative targeted advertising model, which uses personal data to let marketers show ads to specific types of users on the social network. The disagreements led to tensions with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

“I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit,” Acton told Forbes. “I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”

Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The social network has been under intense scrutiny since its Cambridge Analytica scandal in March, which revealed that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by a UK-based digital consultancy. At the time, Acton tweeted, “It is time. #deletefacebook.”

Acton’s comments on Wednesday come as Facebook deals with the exits this week of Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Their departures were also reportedly due to clashes with Zuckerberg, who’s said to have tightened his grasp on Instagram in recent months.

Late Wednesday, David Marcus, head of Facebook’s blockchain division, shot back against Acton in a Facebook post. “I find attacking the people and company that made you a billionaire, and went to an unprecedented extent to shield and accommodate you for years, low-class,” he wrote. “It’s actually a whole new standard of low-class.”

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Predictive Analytics 101: Getting Started and Avoiding Mishaps

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By Kris Hutton

Predictive analytics, offering a data-enabled view into what is likely to happen, are key to driving organizational change.

Predictive analytics is not exactly novel. It’s been around for decades. However, it’s only within the last few years that brands and organizations have started to adopt the discipline as an effective way to bolster their online marketing and spike the top and bottom lines.

Data mining, text analytics, optimization and machine learning, among other areas, are core to predictive analytics.

Adoption rates vary; however, in light of an increasingly competitive and global economy, the sooner companies get started cultivating predictive analytics the better.

The best way to begin a predictive analytics strategy is to start small and prove success before expanding it to other areas.

Getting started

The first step is to start a proof-of-concept project, which requires targeting a highly visible business area. To identify your initial target business areas, look at your strategic agenda or enterprise risk register. There will be many areas where you can develop models from historical data to predict future targets that can help you to either create value or identify potential loss. These areas will likely be:

  • Marketing campaigns: Predict which customer segment is most likely to purchase in response to a campaign or which messaging will cause the highest conversion.
  • Sales: Predict customer lifetime value, understand what a buyer’s next best offer may be, identify suggestive products.
  • Customer lifetime: Learn to identify markers that indicate which customers are likely to drop your product or churn altogether.
  • Fraud: Predict which recipients of benefits (i.e. entitlement programs, insurance claims, healthcare, etc.) or employees processing payments are likely to commit fraud.
  • Operations: Forecast inventory needs or predict which employees are vulnerable to quit so you can proactively manage churn.
  • Supply chain or vendors: Identify weak links in your supply chain or model vendors/third parties prone to fraud.

Next, figure out the data you’ll need — making sure it’s clean and plentiful — and begin to build a model that will predict your future target. Building your first model will require a little trial and error, but you’ll be able to iterate quickly and build trust with business leadership through some early return on investment.

Ensuring data quality

Data quality is often the biggest obstacle preventing the business from making progress in getting value from predictive analytics. Cleaning and harmonizing disparate data is also the most difficult step in any analytics initiative for the data scientist or analytics team, often requiring 80 percent of their initial effort.

However, overcoming this barrier is necessary to achieve any meaningful insight. Otherwise, it’s “garbage in, garbage out,” making it nearly impossible to deliver meaningful insight or ROI and making your predictive analytics program likely to fail fast.

In the long run, your strategy will need the foundation of a good data management program to help manage access, cleansing, harmonizing and analysis.

Ensuring data compliance

In addition to quality data, there will be legal and regulatory obligations, which include common global standards like PCI for payment processing or cybersecurity, or industry specific rules in areas like healthcare, financial services, conduct, and privacy. Common data management programs may include a data warehouse or a data lake for this purpose.

For instance, in the wake of European GDPR regulation, are you authorized to move data that includes personal information of EU citizens to your data lake, or do you have to filter out specific regions or specific types of data? When your program reaches a higher level of maturity, having your general counsel and compliance officer to consult as stakeholders will ensure you comply using the right data only.

Don’t treat your data like garbage

The biggest problem facing many organizations is that they are not yet doing enough with their data despite the big data craze and the low cost of computing and data storage. Andrew Sherman, a recognized expert on business growth, said at his TEDx talk at the University of Nevada, that the S&P 500 wealth has transitioned from primarily physical assets in the 1970s [87% physical 13% intangible] driven from a manufacturing economy,  to primarily intangible assets in 2000s [84% intangible 16% physical]. Thus, Andrew posits that organizations generally treat their information as garbage and throw it away.

However, by using predictive analytics, information is treated as untapped value, rather than debris.

Change is accelerating in every part of the business landscape, and every industry exists in an information economy. Those who embrace data as the new oil, and analytics as the combustion engine, will not only persist but often out-compete. Embracing predictive analytics is the most effective way to facilitate the change and monetize your data

By Kris Hutton

Director of Product Management for ACL.

The InformationWeek community brings together IT practitioners and industry experts with IT advice, education, and opinions. We strive to highlight technology executives and subject matter experts and use their knowledge and experiences to help our audience of IT … View Full Bio

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