I grew up as an only child with involved parents, which was great. My parents gave me all of the tools I need to succeed and throughout my life, they always kept me accountable. Throughout my childhood and high school, I never had to think about what success really meant for me or how I could become successful because my parents laid that framework for me. I did not motivate myself or work for myself. My parents knew what they wanted for me and I did not question it. When I went off on my own, I realized my parents were not there to tell me how to succeed every step of the way.
Continue readingAuthor Archives: Helena Burns
Digital Transformation: The Fourth Industrial Revolution
We are in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with the rapid development of digital technology. While we have created amazing innovations, the costs are already substantial.
Digital Today
To best examine the current state and future state of the digital transformation, we need to look to the technology industry. The technology industry’s largest expense is labor. As companies continue to innovate and work towards a profit, we can expect more automation of jobs everywhere.
There is already a large displacement of jobs, such as truck drivers, by artificial intelligence (AI), and this is expected to bleed into other industries. Another trend in the technology industry is outsourcing. Job outsourcing has grown substantially, so as jobs become more automated, it could not only hurt our own country’s job market but also those around the globe.
The rapid adoption of cloud software marks our current stage in the industrial revolution while we likely work toward AI advancement.
Future Challenges in Digital
AI specifically presents many potential challenges that will impact not just those who work in technology, but the everyday person. AI presents a plethora of ethical implications and creates an opportunity for digital attacks. These ethical considerations center on privacy, lack of transparency, bias and discrimination, and lack of governance and accountability. Each of these impacts everyone’s lives, but especially those with a career in communications. Depending on how AI develops, communicators may have more insight into people’s lives than ever, which can lead to questionable practices. Digital attacks also present challenges for communicators as employees. If the organization faces a substantial digital attack, it may be unable to recover. Communicators must be prepared to be as transparent as ever to address these potential issues.
Future Opportunities in Digital
Though many of these challenges seem daunting, the digital transformation presents a variety of opportunities. Innovations tend to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Though initially displacing employees, it is likely technology itself and society will create new jobs that could be potentially more rewarding than previous jobs. Clearly, the industrial revolution shows an unprecedented field of communication. Communication jobs will substantially change in their methods, content, and scope in the near future.
Final Thoughts
The communication field should prepare for the future of the digital transformation. Staying in-tune with advancements will serve yourself and your organization well as it continues to advance to meet people’s needs and desires.
Instagram for Business: Harnessing its Potential
If your organization already has an Instagram for Business account, it is likely full of untapped potential. Instagram offers companies a unique opportunity, for example, to grow their consumer base and drive up sales.
Continue readingMorphe Cosmetics: Reinventing the Influencer’s Role
Morphe’s Founding
While Morphe Cosmetics has spent a long time in the limelight because of its influencer marketing, it is a relatively new company founded in 2008. The brother-sister duo, Chris and Linda Tawil founded Morphe to sell makeup brushes in Los Angeles before expanding to eyeshadow, face makeup, fake nails, and more. The company was founded to make high-quality makeup products at a lower cost to expand consumer access to superior makeup products.
Work From Home: 7 Tools to Stay on Track
Working from home doesn’t have to be difficult. While it might take some time to adjust to the new routine, these 7 tools will help you transition from office to home.
Continue readingLogo Design: It’s All in the Details
If you’re considering designing or redesigning your organization’s logo, there’s a lot you need to take into account. The most important decisions you can make when making the logo are based on the form, font, and color. These choices should be dictated by your organization’s industry, target audience, and brand.
Continue readingBrand Logo: 5 Reasons Why it’s Important
Your brand’s logo is essential to attracting and maintaining your customer base and to convey your brand’s purpose and identity. A consumer may see your logo and visit your website, your store, or your office, or may forget about it just seconds later based on its design. Time and care are essential when designing a logo that is representative of brand values, company purpose, and products/services.
Continue readingSocial Media Strategy Tips for Success
Whether you work for a small business or a multinational corporation, following and updating your social media strategy is key to a shot at digital success. There are important basics each strategy should have to get the most out of your organization’s social media.
Continue readingSocial Media Platforms for Every Audience
Tailoring your organization’s content on social media platforms to your consumer is essential to attracting and maintaining a devoted audience. While the specifics of your company’s social media activity depends on the company itself and the industry, there are certain generally applicable factors that can help guide your social media usage.
The most applicable platforms to discuss are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube. These outlets have consistently ranked among the most popular with people of all regions, ages, genders, and ethnicities.
Platform Purpose and Voice
Different voices and content must be applied to each different platform to capitalize on what users want from others on the platform.
Instagram should be used to display thoughtful or aesthetically pleasing content. Here, aligning yourself with other popular creators or brands can help boost your audience.
Twitter is fast-paced and casual and should be used to connect with your audience through short conversations. Twitter can be used to humanize the business through the creation or reinforcement of the business’s voice and interaction with followers.
Facebook can be more professional or personal, depending on your organization. This is a great place to highlight group or employee accomplishments and share important information. Facebook can be used to humanize the group if the organization shares photos or videos of day-to-day or behind-the-scenes work.
Pinterest should be used to share more artistic content or helpful information. Captions of the content are less important than the other platforms, but the images should drive users to become followers.
YouTube is unique because there is not one style that defines the platform. YouTube has a wide array of content, so following industry norms is likely to do best here.
Read more about Instagram analytics for businesses here
Platforms for Target Audiences
While remaining active on each of these five platforms would be ideal, companies often don’t have the ability to do so. To get the greatest benefit social media activity has to offer, organizations should focus on platforms used most by their audience and where the organization’s content will do well.
Businesses may target social media content to men or women. The two generally have the same social media platform preferences, with the exception being Pinterest. If your organization wants to target content to women, Pinterest may be a beneficial platform to do so.
If age is important to your group’s target audience, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the top three most popular platforms for those ages 18 to 49. Snapchat and Twitter are more favorable for people ages 18 to 39, whereas Pinterest and Twitter are more favorable for people ages 39 to 49. The 50+ age group deviates slightly from the norm. If your group’s target is 50+, Pinterest ranks among the top three favorites of this crowd, beating out Instagram.
Other possible considerations include how often users use each platform, how long users spend on the platform, and whether the platform is growing in popularity or is in decline. The platforms with the most daily users are Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter capture users’ attention and win the top three for the longest amount of time users spend on the app. Finally, Twitter engagement has grown the most over the past two years with a 6 percent increase. Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube are tied with a modest increase in engagement. Interestingly, Facebook engagement has declined by 26 percent over the past two years.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube consistently rank among the most popular platforms, but they are also oversaturated with organizations and seem to be in decline. Instagram and Twitter seem to offer the most opportunities for your organization to build a strong, younger audience. For older audiences, Pinterest and Facebook are likely the two social media platforms with the most promise.
Sources
Share of U.S. adults using social media, including Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018
Most popular social media apps in the U.S. 2019, by session length
Most popular social media apps in the U.S. 2019, by audience
Twitter Strategy Tips for Every Business
Twitter is an extremely powerful tool that can drive consumers to your business if done right. It’s a unique social media platform because of its fast-paced, conversational nature. A well-thought-out Twitter strategy is essential to the success of your business’s tweets.
Why Twitter?
Twitter, like many other platforms, offers a forum for businesses to craft messages to share with a diverse audience. Twitter is more casual and conversational than other platforms, offering your business opportunities to create or reinforce your brand, your voice, and strengthen your brand recognition. By using an effective Twitter strategy, you can shape the narrative and popular opinion of your organization. If your business does not have a clear brand voice, Twitter is the best platform to create or reinforce that voice because of the high levels of interaction. Once your brand and brand voice are solidified, users will be able to associate your organization with the content posted on your account.
Read about common social media mistakes here
What Twitter Can Do for Your Business
An effective Twitter strategy affords your business a wide-reaching channel to highlight accomplishments, help consumers, and ultimately, increase revenue and expand your business.
What Twitter Can Do for Your Consumer Base
A successful Twitter strategy can be mutually beneficial to your organization as well as your audience. For your organization, Twitter can be a useful tool to strengthen support among your current public, reach audiences you wouldn’t otherwise, and create the sense that the company is personified. For your targeted group, your organization’s account can give them a community and a sense of belonging that they may not get elsewhere.
Twitter Strategy Basics
To have the best chance of succeeding on Twitter, the account should be used to create or reinforce the organization’s brand, create or reinforce brand voice, and to insert the organization into timely conversations happening on Twitter. The organization’s brand can be emphasized by the way tweets are phrased and by the content the organization tweets. A company’s brand voice is the way in which it portrays itself to the public. Broad examples of brand voice include funny, professional, or trendy. The brand voice should be tailored to the industry and the organization’s average consumer. Your organization should know the demographics of its average consumer and what that consumer expects of your organization outside your products or services.
Your Twitter strategy and content presents an opportunity to interact with the public and find out how you can better serve them. Importantly, content should not be centered primarily on sales. While posting about your products or services is important to draw in business, making it the sole focus of your account can come off as cold and uncaring. By focusing your account on helping consumers and weighing in on relevant news, your audience will perceive your organization as less profit-oriented when your organization does post about your products or services. When you do post about your products and services
A Twitter strategy should be crafted around consumer expectations, your organization’s core values, and the products or services your organization offers. Twitter users will be drawn to the organization’s account, and ultimately, will buy what you’re selling.