#<- to clarify the multiple choice practice is the only form of study guide we get which is why it’s like. why are you only giving us this

[pallases]

fucking HEEELLLL

[biopsychs]

Do you have any tips for learning on your own? I have a professor who is TERRIBLE, so I basically have to figure everything out myself, and I’m stressed lol

First of all, sorry for the late reply I was away for a few days and I wanted time to write a proper, helpful response :)

I definitely feel your pain. I had a horrible prof for introductory microbiology (and I love microbiology so much), so bad that his highest rated review on rate my prof simply says “run” . Buuut I made it through the class with a lot of self-learning and ended up with a decent mark!

Use any resources available to you at your university.

My TA for my microbiology lab was able to clarify some concepts for me (even concepts we only covered in lecture) and recommended some youtube channels that she used for understanding microbiology when she was an undergrad. 

Also, my uni has a math and science centre where students can go for tutoring and some course unions (e.g. chemistry course union) have upper year students hold office hours. Check and see if there are similar resources available to you!

Go to office hours and talk to your prof!

If they’re skipping from topic to topic in class or brushing over complicated concepts, ask them for clarification/help and try to give them constructive feedback (some profs are ridiculously oblivious and may not know they’re not allotting enough time for certain concepts). Try this even if your prof seems unapproachable – my microbiology prof was unnecessarily rude to students in class but apparently in office hours he was like a different person and was great at explaining concepts to students one-on-one.

Talk to students who have taken the class with that prof before.

If they’re really nice they may have old study materials they can lend to you. At the very least they’ll be able to tell you how they approached the class (and if their approach actually worked), outside resources they used for studying, how the prof tests, etc.

Use your time efficiently

I rarely ever skip class (maybe only a few times a semester, including any days I’m sick) but I ended up only going to maybe one microbiology lecture a week. This worked because my prof posted all of his powerpoint slides online. His lectures were a waste of my time because he would only read directly off the slides and he would go through ~100 slides all filled with writing during our 90 minute lecture. Even though I wasn’t going to lectures I would get up in the morning and study microbiology for at least the entire time I was supposed to be in lecture (basically just don’t treat a skipped class like free time, treat it like study time).

On the other hand, I attended every lecture and did quite well in my evolution and ecology class, whereas most people I knew skipped class because they found the subject boring and blamed the profs for their poor mark. Trust me I did not find the class too interesting either but going to class, putting in the extra effort to pay attention, and typing detailed notes with examples was worth it. Not going to class and taking textbook notes would have taken way more time and even then I couldn’t be sure that I had notes on everything we covered. If you find a class boring, sit in the front so you have to pay attention to the prof and sit with people who aren’t going to distract you.

^^So that’s two examples of when going to class is helpful or not helpful. I don’t know your specific situation so just do what you think will work best. When in doubt go to class (you can study on your own later). If you don’t go to class there’s no way to remedy that.

Make sure you prioritize! For some classes, the midterms and final are weighed so heavily compared to assignments that it’s better to put minimal effort into assignments and put more time towards studying (this also depends on the nature of your assignments – if the assignments help you understand lecture material then put the time in; if they don’t just get them done well but quickly). But if you have a class where a lab or term paper is worth a significant amount of your mark, put the time into that because it will help you boost your mark.

In terms of learning on your own,

Use your textbook and other resources

Before class, skim the chapter to get a sense of what you’ll be learning, get familiar with any vocab words, and review any concepts mentioned that you have learned in past classes. After class, take detailed textbook notes to supplement what you learned in lecture and draw out any important diagrams.

Alternatively, take detailed textbook notes before class and annotate them in lectures (highlight emphasized concepts, add anything new your prof mentions, star anything you still don’t understand). Whatever you end up doing, try to have a full set of notes within a day or two of class (you don’t want to just be adding info from the textbook to your notes a week later when the content is not fresh in your mind).

Also if your prof is all over the place and you’re not sure how to organize everything, use the textbook headings as a guide. The nice thing about textbooks is that they’re already organized in a logical way.

If your textbook is not written well or just makes things more confusing, you can always try to find another textbook for the subject. You can buy it or see if you can access it through your university! My uni’s library website allows me to access research journals and studies but I can also access some online textbooks that are normally hidden behind a paywall.

Use Quizlet! Quizlet is a website/app where you can make and study flashcards. Make your own or see if students in your class/past students have made flashcards. Also try searching for your textbook because a lot of universities will use the same textbook so students from other schools may have made flashcards sets as well.

In terms of resources available online, it really depends what you’re studying for (feel free to send me another message about what you’re studying for and there’s a chance I may know of some specific resources). Khan Academy and Crash Course cover a lot of subjects in their videos.

Record lectures

In my experience, a lot of bad profs simply go through content too quickly or test on things they’ve only mentioned once in lectures. If you can, record lectures so you can listen to them after class and add any info you might have missed.

Take good notes

This is kind of a given but I still find myself surprised sometimes when I see how disorganized other people’s notes are. This doesn’t mean your notes have to be pretty (although they can be), they just have to be functional. For me this means a typed study guide for each chapter that includes material from lectures and the textbook. I bold important/unfamiliar words and use one or two colours to emphasize certain things (if you type your notes you can do this on your computer or highlight a printed copy of your notes after). I bold and highlight anything my profs mention in class about tests (things like “this would be a good question for the final” or write down their answer if someone asks them how a concept will be tested [i.e. multiple choice, written answer]). Also make sure you include examples for concepts – if an example didn’t make sense in class, figure it out and write it down in detail. Organize your notes for each chapter in the same way (e.g. don’t change around colours or heading styles). Studying for finals is so much easier when you don’t have to worry about reading miscellaneous textbook sections to understand a concept

Form a study group

Chances are if you’re having trouble with the class/prof other people are too. Form a study group with people from your class and try to meet once or twice a week (I also want to add that it usually works best to only have a few people in a study group; too many people and you’ll all get distracted). Study a bit on your own before so that you have the basics/easy parts down and then work through understanding more difficult concepts with your study group. Go through your notes and any practice questions together, draw diagrams out on a whiteboard, and just be there for each other.

Also make sure your study group consists of people who won’t bring you down. Some people just want to constantly complain about something and this may only increase your negative feelings towards the class and therefore towards studying.. Yeah the class might suck and you can vent about it sometimes, just make sure this isn’t hindering your learning and studying.

Even if you can’t form a daily study group, try to study with friends before a midterm or have a group chat where you can all ask each other questions.

Don’t study last minute – make sure you have a solid understanding of new material learned each week

If you know your class is going to be difficult, don’t let yourself get behind! By the end of every week (or weekend) you should have thoroughly studied all the new material covered in lectures that week. Sometimes a class seem more difficult than it truly is if you’re trying to learn new material without understanding the old material (also review old content throughout the semester b/c it’ll help you remember content much better when it comes to studying for finals).

Anyways I hope that was helpful! If you have any more questions please let me know :)

[marketingcomcaio]

The 5 Best Facebook Ad Companies of 2020

2.6 billion.

That’s the total number of people on Facebook today.

This also means you get direct access to 2.6 billion people on a single platform.

So why not make the most of this opportunity and use Facebook to market your products and services for generating leads and driving sales?

Advertising on Facebook can be customized to suit your brand image and business goals. You can focus your efforts on a very specific target audience and create a lot of buzz for your offerings – all this without breaking the bank!

It’s actually quite cheap to reach out to people on Facebook, with a plethora of options available at your disposal, such as pay per click or per email conversion.

Plus, according to research:

Facebook ads reach 1.95 billion of the total active users, which is a staggering 32% of the world’s population over the age of 13.

Globally, the average Facebook user has clicked 12 ads in the last 30 days.

Over 80% of social reference to e-commerce sites came from Facebook.

While all this sounds fun and dandy, all your efforts can still backfire if you don’t have an efficient Facebook ad campaign in place.

And not only that, you need to support your ad strategy with agility and in-depth knowledge to keep up with Facebook‘s best practices and fast-evolving changes.

This is precisely where the world‘s best Facebook ad companies step in.

Our team at Neil Patel Digital has reviewed the five best Facebook ad agencies to help you master advertising on the platform. We‘re confident that you‘ll have a positive experience with all our top picks. 

The 5 Top Facebook Ad Companies in the World

1. Neil Patel Digital – The Best Overall Facebook Ad Company

Branding our company, Neil Patel Digital, as the best isn’t us being vain – we have a solid backing to this statement.

Founded by hardcore marketers who know the art of marketing like the back of their hands, you get top-level expertise coupled with solid experience that can take your businesses to the heights you’re aiming for – and maybe even further!

If you Google “Facebook advertising” or “Facebook advertisements,” you‘ll find multiple articles by our co-founder, Neil Patel, take the top spots. Also, let us clarify that all this has been achieved organically.

Neil is one of the most successful, ubiquitous digital marketers you can find. We don’t claim this, Inc. does.

Additionally, our team of experts – top-level and in-house marketing managers – are well-versed in what clicks and what doesn’t on a social media platform like Facebook. We know the nuances of creating unique, impactful ads that drive the viewer to take immediate action.

We take care of everything: carrying out paid social media campaigns, customer targeting, sending them messages, and recommending creative and copy best practices. Everything.

If there’s one thing that Neil Patel Digital can deliver, it’s results.

Our ad campaigns are customized to suit your budget and marketing objectives. From writing attention-grabbing headlines, choosing the right CTAs, and doing A/B testing – you need to worry about nothing. 

We do the magic to make the whole process as effective as possible.

Our clientele includes market heavyweights like Google, Viacom, eBay, NBC, TechCrunch, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and even Facebook itself.

Client expectations are undoubtedly high because of this, but if you take a look at our case studies, you know that we can do some pretty spectacular things for your business:

We helped an online fashion brand surpass the global pandemic slump by recording 3x to 6x ROAS in three months via NPDI’s performance marketing efforts. A 40% reduction in cost per sale and a 141% increase in conversion rates were other wins. 

We shifted a luxury retail client to online marketing with NPDI’s full-funnel per advertising strategy that recorded 0x to 4x return within two months.

We increased the lead flow of our healthcare client by 60% and cut down the cost per lead expense by 12% – both of these in just two months with NPDI’s lead generation strategy.

In short, our clients have been happy with the results. Plus, we have a 4.3-star rating on Glassdoor.

And since you’re still here, book your free consultation with Neil Patel Digital here. 

2. Hibu – The Best Facebook Ad Company for an All-in-One Solution

A full-service digital marketing agency, Hibu offers a comprehensive Facebook advertising campaign set-up, management, optimization, and reporting services. It doesn’t hurt that the company is Facebook’s marketing partner too:

The agency has very flexible pricing and can customize its services to meet your needs. Its Facebook advertising services start at $250 per month, which comes with a dedicated digital specialist who can create an effective social media plan for your brand.

Besides an end-to-end Facebook ad service, you can avail of the following services:

Social media marketing

Listings management

Website design and development

Online review management

SEO

Display marketing

Hibu will set up your Facebook business page and use its team of dedicated marketers to craft highly targeted ads that convert visitors.

It starts with identifying your goals for creating Facebook ads and then generating appropriate variations to determine the right fit. Once the ads are live, the agency analyzes ad performance and continuously optimizes them for better results.

Client testimonials also speak volumes about its amazing results.

Owners of The Mudpie Company, Berry Floor Leveling LLC, and Rutzick Law are all praises for Hibu’s efficient service and professionalism. The company developed a custom digital marketing solution for one of its clients that helped drive traffic, causing a phenomenal 12x increase in page views.

Hibu enjoys more than a four-star rating on major review sites, such as ConsumerAffairs and Better Business Bureau. You‘ll also find multiple five-star reviews on the company‘s ‘Client Review’ section. 

3. Voy Media – The Best Facebook Ad Company for À La Carte Services

Voy Media is your best bet if returns are your top priority.

It‘s the brainchild of Kevin Urrutia and Wilson Lin and was founded in 2015. You get plenty of variety, including single or ongoing Facebook advertising services.

Precisely why this agency can be an excellent option for businesses that want to test the market by opting for one-off services before considering something permanent.

Voy Media strives to guide their clients on a journey to discover their product and make them their own fans. In addition to developing a collection of eye-catching ads and copy, they adopt a performance-based approach by using carefully thought-out strategies and tactics like target audience development and A/B testing.

It uses proprietary AI software as well for optimizing and scaling Facebook campaigns.

In terms of pricing, you can avail the à la carte Facebook ad copywriting services for $49.99, while outsourced Facebook advertising costs 10% and 15% of your total budget depending on the range.

You must have a minimum $5000/month budget for advertising, though.

Several big companies, such as Big Life Journal, UMG Gaming, Paw.com, Lacoste, and XG Cargo, form a part of its clientele.

The company is also fully transparent about results and has multiple case studies showcasing their expertise.

Voy Media helped one of its clients to scale and amplify their paid media strategy to boost their ROAS with a corresponding decrease in CPA and CPM. They delivered the following results:

1,500% increase in revenue

140,000+ purchases

1,000,000+ landing page views

26,000,000+ post engagements

Thanks to its strong communication and a fantastic team of marketers, Voy Media has scored a 4.5 rating on Yelp. Many have mentioned how the company has given them better ROI, increased click-through rates, and reduced conversion costs.

4. MuteSix – The Best Facebook Ad Company for Innovation Graphic Design

MuteSix is a full-funnel ad agency that can create value for DTC brands, starting at 15% of your total ad budget. And considering that reputable brands like LA Times, National Hockey League (NHL), Headspace, and Chicago Tribune trust MuteSix, you should too.

Their weapon of choice? Breakthrough creativity, which is backed by targeted media buying and data-driven analysis.

Not only does the company produce quality ads for your target audience, but it also optimizes ads, recommends good website designs, and provides regular performance reports. 

They also place a Facebook Pixel on your website for tracking user actions and sales to carry out A/B tests. You can use the Facebook Pixel for retargeting purposes too.

MuteSix has an in-house video studio and graphic design team that can help businesses expand their reach through unique visuals. Furthermore, it tests multiple versions of visually appealing ads on different target audience segments for enhanced effectiveness. 

For instance, the company selected a unique carousel ad format for one of its clients that allowed visitors to scroll through its catalog without leaving their News Feed. This helped the client in the following ways:

4x increase in revenue

33% decrease in cost per action

Bonus: MuteSix can help you make great landing pages and video stories.

In addition to the previously-mentioned brands, several other companies have enlisted the services of MuteSix. Besides the clients, the agency also treats its employees equally well.

It has received several accolades, with Inc. featuring the company on its 500 list for Best Companies to Work For. The fact that they take such excellent care of their employees gives the latter more initiative to work harder for the company’s clients, a.k.a you.

As one would expect, this Facebook ad agency has excellent customer reviews – from Glassdoor to FeaturedCustomers to Google. MuteSix’s biggest advantage is its knowledgeable and skilled team, innovative video production, and fast results according to customers.

The only catch here is that the company prioritizes clients with monthly budgets over $20,000 in ad spend. So it may not be the best bet for small companies.

5. Lyfe Marketing – The Best Facebook Ad Company for Small Companies

Small companies often don’t have the flexibility to splurge when it comes to advertising.

They have to operate within their budget limitations and maximize results – something that Lyfe Marketing can help achieve.

Located in Atlanta, GA, Lyfe Marketing is a boutique social media management company that offers social media advertising and management, PPC, SEO, and website design services.

It has less than 50 members, making it suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. In fact, the company has been explicitly clear about its primary goal of helping small businesses grow.

The company is well aware of how Facebook can be a driving force for enhancing marketing efforts. You can use its services to grow brand awareness, develop relationships, and promote website traffic.

Lyfe provides bespoke solutions to leverage cost-effective advertising methods and has an expert team to assure tangible results. Their work involves optimizing existing campaigns to decrease cost and increase conversion rates.

Additionally, every account is managed by an experienced social media manager to gain greater insight into your target audience.

If you prefer an intimate working relationship with your Facebook ad company, this could be an excellent fit. 

Plus, you can rest easy when it comes to ad quality too. Lyfe knows the art of providing creative, impactful ads that can help your clientele grow.

With a 4.7- and 4.8-star rating on Clutch and Upcity, respectively, you can imagine Lyfe’s customer satisfaction proficiency. The company claims to have driven over 2,137,349 leads and has listed several case studies that breakdown every client’s journey to success.

We would highly recommend enlisting this agency’s services, joining the likes of Domino’s Pizza, Georgia State University, Hilton, and the Atlanta Hawks.

4 Characteristics That Make a Great Facebook Ad Company

While we’ve chosen our top five picks, you should still be aware of the factors that make a good Facebook ad company.

After all, it’s a sure-shot way to find your perfect match out of the thousands of Facebook ad agencies operating today.

Expertise to Create Objective-Specific Ads

Of course, you want results, and the only way you can ascertain this is through a company that has the skills.

Mentioning “objective-specific ad“ isn’t us trying to sound fancy too.

You see, every company has different business goals. Some want leads; some want to enhance their reach. Others may want to increase store visits or boost engagement.

Whatever be your objective, your chosen Facebook ad company should know how to help you achieve it.

The best way to ensure this? Looking for a diverse portfolio.

Working with different clients and industries helps companies bring greater value, creativity, and innovation to their future clients. Finding a company that has Facebook on its client list would make the deal even sweeter.

Talented Team of Experts

A Facebook ad agency should have an incredible team to back up its success claims.

If it doesn’t, you might want to start looking for other options. After all, how can a company deliver on its bazillion promises without the brain and muscle?

Ask yourself the following questions:

How much experience does the team have when it comes to social media marketing?

How well are they able to communicate with you and understand your needs?

These considerations can help determine whether the company has a team that knows how to drive results for your brand.

Real Life Testimonials

Vanity isn’t always bad.

In this case, for instance, you want a company that doesn’t mind tooting his horn.

Try partnering with a company that provides a positive experience and has a long list of client testimonials to prove it. You want this experience to be posted directly on the website. 

Good testimonials often translate to a similar experience for future customers. Plus, clients are more than happy to give testimonials for a company that they loved working with. If you find a company that has a lot of testimonials, consider it a good sign.

Familiarity With the Latest Tech and Practices

Facebook ad companies must be familiar with the necessary equipment to get the job done.

They should have no learning curve for software/tech – be it Facebook ads manager, Facebook Pixel, power editor, or any other cutting-edge advertising technologies.

Without up-to-date knowledge on tools, your Facebook advertising campaign will lack a punch and hence, will take longer to get results.

While you’re at it, look for ad agencies that are intimately familiar with third-party data sources and creative testing tools in addition to ad software expertise.

What To Expect From a Great Facebook Ad Company

Let’s discuss expectations next. More particularly, what can you expect for your brand?

Introductory Session

As mentioned before, you can have various objectives for enlisting the services of a Facebook ad company.

However, there is no cookie-cutter approach, as every business case has different needs and limitations.

The team should begin with hearing your vision, and then devise methods to achieve it. Just because an ad worked for one company gives no guarantee that it’ll work for you.

Always be vocal about what you want; it’s exactly what the agency wants to know. 

In-depth Research and Best Practice Recommendations

Once they know what you want, they should use their experience and expertise to carry out in-depth research to formulate a draft campaign framework.

Everything has to be in sync here: you, your target audience, and your niche.

You can expect the Facebook ad company to hold meetings where they recommend the best practices for maximizing results.

Campaign Kickoff

If you and the ad agency seem to be a good fit for each other, you‘ll receive a contract.

This will contain a detailed list of terms and conditions, expectations, business plan, and an estimated time frame of when you can expect results.

Next, you’ll have to introduce the team to your in-house staff and give them access to your website, blog, analytics login codes, and so on.

Once the onboarding is done, the Facebook ad company should start scoping your project, creating timelines and task lists, and chalk out an understanding of how they will manage the project.

Wrapping Up

Advertising isn’t easy.

Without knowledge and experience, you and your staff can get overwhelmed and maybe even incur losses.

It’s wiser to rope in an experienced and reputable Facebook ad company that can drive new business and save you money at the same time.

The five companies we’ve listed above tick all the right boxes. They have a stellar reputation for delivering results, creating thriving ad campaigns, and provide excellent customer service. Choose any one from them, and you’ll be able to boost traffic and convert visitors into leads and customers.

It’ll only get better with time once things pick up – you only need to find the right company for you.

The post The 5 Best Facebook Ad Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.

The 5 Best Facebook Ad Companies of 2020 Publicado primeiro em https://neilpatel.com

[jjpocketbook]

The 5 Best Facebook Ad Companies of 2020

2.6 billion.

That’s the total number of people on Facebook today.

This also means you get direct access to 2.6 billion people on a single platform.

So why not make the most of this opportunity and use Facebook to market your products and services for generating leads and driving sales?

Advertising on Facebook can be customized to suit your brand image and business goals. You can focus your efforts on a very specific target audience and create a lot of buzz for your offerings – all this without breaking the bank!

It’s actually quite cheap to reach out to people on Facebook, with a plethora of options available at your disposal, such as pay per click or per email conversion.

Plus, according to research:

Facebook ads reach 1.95 billion of the total active users, which is a staggering 32% of the world’s population over the age of 13.

Globally, the average Facebook user has clicked 12 ads in the last 30 days.

Over 80% of social reference to e-commerce sites came from Facebook.

While all this sounds fun and dandy, all your efforts can still backfire if you don’t have an efficient Facebook ad campaign in place.

And not only that, you need to support your ad strategy with agility and in-depth knowledge to keep up with Facebook‘s best practices and fast-evolving changes.

This is precisely where the world‘s best Facebook ad companies step in.

Our team at Neil Patel Digital has reviewed the five best Facebook ad agencies to help you master advertising on the platform. We‘re confident that you‘ll have a positive experience with all our top picks. 

The 5 Top Facebook Ad Companies in the World

1. Neil Patel Digital – The Best Overall Facebook Ad Company

Branding our company, Neil Patel Digital, as the best isn’t us being vain – we have a solid backing to this statement.

Founded by hardcore marketers who know the art of marketing like the back of their hands, you get top-level expertise coupled with solid experience that can take your businesses to the heights you’re aiming for – and maybe even further!

If you Google “Facebook advertising” or “Facebook advertisements,” you‘ll find multiple articles by our co-founder, Neil Patel, take the top spots. Also, let us clarify that all this has been achieved organically.

Neil is one of the most successful, ubiquitous digital marketers you can find. We don’t claim this, Inc. does.

Additionally, our team of experts – top-level and in-house marketing managers – are well-versed in what clicks and what doesn’t on a social media platform like Facebook. We know the nuances of creating unique, impactful ads that drive the viewer to take immediate action.

We take care of everything: carrying out paid social media campaigns, customer targeting, sending them messages, and recommending creative and copy best practices. Everything.

If there’s one thing that Neil Patel Digital can deliver, it’s results.

Our ad campaigns are customized to suit your budget and marketing objectives. From writing attention-grabbing headlines, choosing the right CTAs, and doing A/B testing – you need to worry about nothing. 

We do the magic to make the whole process as effective as possible.

Our clientele includes market heavyweights like Google, Viacom, eBay, NBC, TechCrunch, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and even Facebook itself.

Client expectations are undoubtedly high because of this, but if you take a look at our case studies, you know that we can do some pretty spectacular things for your business:

We helped an online fashion brand surpass the global pandemic slump by recording 3x to 6x ROAS in three months via NPDI’s performance marketing efforts. A 40% reduction in cost per sale and a 141% increase in conversion rates were other wins. 

We shifted a luxury retail client to online marketing with NPDI’s full-funnel per advertising strategy that recorded 0x to 4x return within two months.

We increased the lead flow of our healthcare client by 60% and cut down the cost per lead expense by 12% – both of these in just two months with NPDI’s lead generation strategy.

In short, our clients have been happy with the results. Plus, we have a 4.3-star rating on Glassdoor.

And since you’re still here, book your free consultation with Neil Patel Digital here. 

2. Hibu – The Best Facebook Ad Company for an All-in-One Solution

A full-service digital marketing agency, Hibu offers a comprehensive Facebook advertising campaign set-up, management, optimization, and reporting services. It doesn’t hurt that the company is Facebook’s marketing partner too:

The agency has very flexible pricing and can customize its services to meet your needs. Its Facebook advertising services start at $250 per month, which comes with a dedicated digital specialist who can create an effective social media plan for your brand.

Besides an end-to-end Facebook ad service, you can avail of the following services:

Social media marketing

Listings management

Website design and development

Online review management

SEO

Display marketing

Hibu will set up your Facebook business page and use its team of dedicated marketers to craft highly targeted ads that convert visitors.

It starts with identifying your goals for creating Facebook ads and then generating appropriate variations to determine the right fit. Once the ads are live, the agency analyzes ad performance and continuously optimizes them for better results.

Client testimonials also speak volumes about its amazing results.

Owners of The Mudpie Company, Berry Floor Leveling LLC, and Rutzick Law are all praises for Hibu’s efficient service and professionalism. The company developed a custom digital marketing solution for one of its clients that helped drive traffic, causing a phenomenal 12x increase in page views.

Hibu enjoys more than a four-star rating on major review sites, such as ConsumerAffairs and Better Business Bureau. You‘ll also find multiple five-star reviews on the company‘s ‘Client Review’ section. 

3. Voy Media – The Best Facebook Ad Company for À La Carte Services

Voy Media is your best bet if returns are your top priority.

It‘s the brainchild of Kevin Urrutia and Wilson Lin and was founded in 2015. You get plenty of variety, including single or ongoing Facebook advertising services.

Precisely why this agency can be an excellent option for businesses that want to test the market by opting for one-off services before considering something permanent.

Voy Media strives to guide their clients on a journey to discover their product and make them their own fans. In addition to developing a collection of eye-catching ads and copy, they adopt a performance-based approach by using carefully thought-out strategies and tactics like target audience development and A/B testing.

It uses proprietary AI software as well for optimizing and scaling Facebook campaigns.

In terms of pricing, you can avail the à la carte Facebook ad copywriting services for $49.99, while outsourced Facebook advertising costs 10% and 15% of your total budget depending on the range.

You must have a minimum $5000/month budget for advertising, though.

Several big companies, such as Big Life Journal, UMG Gaming, Paw.com, Lacoste, and XG Cargo, form a part of its clientele.

The company is also fully transparent about results and has multiple case studies showcasing their expertise.

Voy Media helped one of its clients to scale and amplify their paid media strategy to boost their ROAS with a corresponding decrease in CPA and CPM. They delivered the following results:

1,500% increase in revenue

140,000+ purchases

1,000,000+ landing page views

26,000,000+ post engagements

Thanks to its strong communication and a fantastic team of marketers, Voy Media has scored a 4.5 rating on Yelp. Many have mentioned how the company has given them better ROI, increased click-through rates, and reduced conversion costs.

4. MuteSix – The Best Facebook Ad Company for Innovation Graphic Design

MuteSix is a full-funnel ad agency that can create value for DTC brands, starting at 15% of your total ad budget. And considering that reputable brands like LA Times, National Hockey League (NHL), Headspace, and Chicago Tribune trust MuteSix, you should too.

Their weapon of choice? Breakthrough creativity, which is backed by targeted media buying and data-driven analysis.

Not only does the company produce quality ads for your target audience, but it also optimizes ads, recommends good website designs, and provides regular performance reports. 

They also place a Facebook Pixel on your website for tracking user actions and sales to carry out A/B tests. You can use the Facebook Pixel for retargeting purposes too.

MuteSix has an in-house video studio and graphic design team that can help businesses expand their reach through unique visuals. Furthermore, it tests multiple versions of visually appealing ads on different target audience segments for enhanced effectiveness. 

For instance, the company selected a unique carousel ad format for one of its clients that allowed visitors to scroll through its catalog without leaving their News Feed. This helped the client in the following ways:

4x increase in revenue

33% decrease in cost per action

Bonus: MuteSix can help you make great landing pages and video stories.

In addition to the previously-mentioned brands, several other companies have enlisted the services of MuteSix. Besides the clients, the agency also treats its employees equally well.

It has received several accolades, with Inc. featuring the company on its 500 list for Best Companies to Work For. The fact that they take such excellent care of their employees gives the latter more initiative to work harder for the company’s clients, a.k.a you.

As one would expect, this Facebook ad agency has excellent customer reviews – from Glassdoor to FeaturedCustomers to Google. MuteSix’s biggest advantage is its knowledgeable and skilled team, innovative video production, and fast results according to customers.

The only catch here is that the company prioritizes clients with monthly budgets over $20,000 in ad spend. So it may not be the best bet for small companies.

5. Lyfe Marketing – The Best Facebook Ad Company for Small Companies

Small companies often don’t have the flexibility to splurge when it comes to advertising.

They have to operate within their budget limitations and maximize results – something that Lyfe Marketing can help achieve.

Located in Atlanta, GA, Lyfe Marketing is a boutique social media management company that offers social media advertising and management, PPC, SEO, and website design services.

It has less than 50 members, making it suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. In fact, the company has been explicitly clear about its primary goal of helping small businesses grow.

The company is well aware of how Facebook can be a driving force for enhancing marketing efforts. You can use its services to grow brand awareness, develop relationships, and promote website traffic.

Lyfe provides bespoke solutions to leverage cost-effective advertising methods and has an expert team to assure tangible results. Their work involves optimizing existing campaigns to decrease cost and increase conversion rates.

Additionally, every account is managed by an experienced social media manager to gain greater insight into your target audience.

If you prefer an intimate working relationship with your Facebook ad company, this could be an excellent fit. 

Plus, you can rest easy when it comes to ad quality too. Lyfe knows the art of providing creative, impactful ads that can help your clientele grow.

With a 4.7- and 4.8-star rating on Clutch and Upcity, respectively, you can imagine Lyfe’s customer satisfaction proficiency. The company claims to have driven over 2,137,349 leads and has listed several case studies that breakdown every client’s journey to success.

We would highly recommend enlisting this agency’s services, joining the likes of Domino’s Pizza, Georgia State University, Hilton, and the Atlanta Hawks.

4 Characteristics That Make a Great Facebook Ad Company

While we’ve chosen our top five picks, you should still be aware of the factors that make a good Facebook ad company.

After all, it’s a sure-shot way to find your perfect match out of the thousands of Facebook ad agencies operating today.

Expertise to Create Objective-Specific Ads

Of course, you want results, and the only way you can ascertain this is through a company that has the skills.

Mentioning “objective-specific ad“ isn’t us trying to sound fancy too.

You see, every company has different business goals. Some want leads; some want to enhance their reach. Others may want to increase store visits or boost engagement.

Whatever be your objective, your chosen Facebook ad company should know how to help you achieve it.

The best way to ensure this? Looking for a diverse portfolio.

Working with different clients and industries helps companies bring greater value, creativity, and innovation to their future clients. Finding a company that has Facebook on its client list would make the deal even sweeter.

Talented Team of Experts

A Facebook ad agency should have an incredible team to back up its success claims.

If it doesn’t, you might want to start looking for other options. After all, how can a company deliver on its bazillion promises without the brain and muscle?

Ask yourself the following questions:

How much experience does the team have when it comes to social media marketing?

How well are they able to communicate with you and understand your needs?

These considerations can help determine whether the company has a team that knows how to drive results for your brand.

Real Life Testimonials

Vanity isn’t always bad.

In this case, for instance, you want a company that doesn’t mind tooting his horn.

Try partnering with a company that provides a positive experience and has a long list of client testimonials to prove it. You want this experience to be posted directly on the website. 

Good testimonials often translate to a similar experience for future customers. Plus, clients are more than happy to give testimonials for a company that they loved working with. If you find a company that has a lot of testimonials, consider it a good sign.

Familiarity With the Latest Tech and Practices

Facebook ad companies must be familiar with the necessary equipment to get the job done.

They should have no learning curve for software/tech – be it Facebook ads manager, Facebook Pixel, power editor, or any other cutting-edge advertising technologies.

Without up-to-date knowledge on tools, your Facebook advertising campaign will lack a punch and hence, will take longer to get results.

While you’re at it, look for ad agencies that are intimately familiar with third-party data sources and creative testing tools in addition to ad software expertise.

What To Expect From a Great Facebook Ad Company

Let’s discuss expectations next. More particularly, what can you expect for your brand?

Introductory Session

As mentioned before, you can have various objectives for enlisting the services of a Facebook ad company.

However, there is no cookie-cutter approach, as every business case has different needs and limitations.

The team should begin with hearing your vision, and then devise methods to achieve it. Just because an ad worked for one company gives no guarantee that it’ll work for you.

Always be vocal about what you want; it’s exactly what the agency wants to know. 

In-depth Research and Best Practice Recommendations

Once they know what you want, they should use their experience and expertise to carry out in-depth research to formulate a draft campaign framework.

Everything has to be in sync here: you, your target audience, and your niche.

You can expect the Facebook ad company to hold meetings where they recommend the best practices for maximizing results.

Campaign Kickoff

If you and the ad agency seem to be a good fit for each other, you‘ll receive a contract.

This will contain a detailed list of terms and conditions, expectations, business plan, and an estimated time frame of when you can expect results.

Next, you’ll have to introduce the team to your in-house staff and give them access to your website, blog, analytics login codes, and so on.

Once the onboarding is done, the Facebook ad company should start scoping your project, creating timelines and task lists, and chalk out an understanding of how they will manage the project.

Wrapping Up

Advertising isn’t easy.

Without knowledge and experience, you and your staff can get overwhelmed and maybe even incur losses.

It’s wiser to rope in an experienced and reputable Facebook ad company that can drive new business and save you money at the same time.

The five companies we’ve listed above tick all the right boxes. They have a stellar reputation for delivering results, creating thriving ad campaigns, and provide excellent customer service. Choose any one from them, and you’ll be able to boost traffic and convert visitors into leads and customers.

It’ll only get better with time once things pick up – you only need to find the right company for you.

The post The 5 Best Facebook Ad Companies of 2020 appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/facebook-ad-companies/ via https://neilpatel.com

The original post, The 5 Best Facebook Ad Companies of 2020, has been shared from https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/the-5-best-facebook-ad-companies-of-2020/ via https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com

[steamkeygenerator372thegame-blog]

Arma 3 Steam Cd Key Giveaway

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[rposervices]

The Complete Guide to Skill Testing

Skill testing can give recruiters a competitive advantage in today’s ultra-competitive job market. Not only that, but candidates who are hired on merit, rather than background, tend to stay longer and perform better over the long term. Here’s how to use skills assessments to fill your open positions and to keep your pipeline full of happy, engaged candidates.

What We’ll Cover

What is a skill test? How skill testing works How to run a skill test Using skill tests during hiring Skill test examples and templates Do new hires like doing skill tests? What are the benefits of a skill test? Do skill tests work? Skill tests vs. interviewing Additional resources

What is a Skill Test?

A skills test is an assessment used to provide an unbiased, validated evaluation of a candidate’s ability to perform the duties listed in the job description. Typically, a skills test asks a variety of questions in different formats to see how candidates perform on-the-job tasks. A good skills test includes questions that are capable of being answered by someone already doing the job and can accurately measure key performance metrics. Questions should also be specifically tailored to relate to the responsibilities of an open position. Many skills tests include immersive experiences, like coding challenges or job simulations, to mimic how a candidate performs when faced with a real-life scenario. Other types of job-readiness evaluations deploy validated psychometric assessments to identify those in-demand soft skills: things like motivation, conscientiousness, resilience, and emotional intelligence. A personality assessment varies from a skills test in that it predicts how a person will behave in a specific scenario, rather than their ability to complete a task. While skills test cover task-related abilities, like coding, copywriting, or sales, some pre-employment assessments integrate the less tangible capabilities – things like teamwork and leadership. These qualities are sought after by executives at more than 900 companies, according to a Wall Street Journal survey of executives. Yet, 89% of those surveyed said they have a “very or somewhat difficult time finding people with the requisite attributes.” Where traditional hiring methods fall short, a skills test can easily clarify a candidate’s true talent. Overall, skills tests can play a critical role in predicting on-the-job success. More so than resumes or job interviews, a skills test can assess the true potential of a new hire to go the distance with the company. Here’s how skill testing works, and why more companies than ever are starting to integrate skill testing into the recruitment and hiring process.

How Skill Testing Works

Skill testing works best when the questions being asked are specifically crafted to the role and needs of the team hiring the new candidate. In designing a skills test, combine different types of questions to get a 360-degree view of how a candidate will perform in different scenarios. There are a variety of ways to set up a skills test – and we’ll get into the mechanics of how to actually run the assessment in the next section. But, designing a thoughtful aptitude test takes some initial foresight on behalf of the hiring manager and team. Research by Deloitte suggests this sample process for selecting and implementing skill testing questions: Define the “human elements” needed to perform the job Compile questions that will measure and predict these human elements Use the data gathered by the skills assessments to empower the next round of the screening process Post-hiring, evaluate the efficacy of the hiring assessment to ensure the questions delivered the best result. Ultimately, the best use for an aptitude test is to help recruiters move away from the resume and allow candidates to prove they are the real deal. Crafting the right series of questions should be a collaborative process between the recruiting team and the team hiring the new employee. Here’s how these teams can set up and run a skills test.

How to Set Up and Run a Skill Test

In designing a skills test or pre-employment assessment, there are a few specific steps to take in order to thoughtfully structure your questions. Vervoe recommends following these best practices in setting up and running your skills test. These tips can help with candidate engagement and lead to high rates of completion. Your skills test should include a minimum of six questions; somewhere in the eight to ten range is best. At least a few questions should require text answers; start with a text-based response in the first question, rather than a video or immersive question. At least one question should be multiple choice. Include an “immersive” style question, in which the candidate edits a document, spreadsheet, or presentation. To retain a candidate over the entire experience, start with easier questions and build up to more difficult ones later in the assessment. Try to minimize use of timers to account for technical difficulties and give the candidate the best chance of success. We also suggest that video responses not be timed; there are too many technical issues that can result from a candidate trying to film a one-way video interview. If you do wish to set a time limit, make sure it’s at a minimum of five minutes. Running a skills test through Vervoe, or any other platform, is relatively straightforward. Vervoe’s Talent Trials let you select questions from a library of assessment tools, or design your own questions based on the specific needs of your company. The Talent Trial library offers questions and trials created by experts in their fields, meaning they have at least 3+ years of experience in their specific area of expertise. You can preview questions from any of the Talent Trial areas and add them seamlessly through the Vervoe platform. Now that you know how to set up an aptitude test, when should you deploy this tool during the hiring process?

Using Skill Tests During Hiring

Timing is everything when it comes to adding a skill assessment to your hiring process. Research by Harvard Business Review revealed that skills tests should come early in the hiring process. According to their study, “Many service companies, including retailers, call centers, and security firms, can reduce costs and make better hires by using short, web-based psychometric tests as the first screening step. Such tests efficiently weed out the least-suitable applicants, leaving a smaller, better-qualified pool to undergo the more costly personalized aspects of the process.” Skill tests should be used to screen candidates in, not out. The issue many recruiters face is that the volume of candidates makes it impossible to carefully consider each person’s ability. Smart algorithms and AI tools can turbo-charge candidate assessments by scoring results quickly and removing human biasfrom the equation. Vervoe’s algorithm scores candidates using a multi-layered approach. Candidates are ranked based on how well they performed, rather than filtered out if they didn’t achieve a certain benchmark. The top candidates easily rise to the top; but no one misses out on being considered for the next round. When used early in the hiring process, Talent Trials can select a more diverse pool of applicants to continue onto the next phase.

Skill Test Examples and Templates

There are many ways to set up a skills test, depending on the position for which you are hiring. Pre-employment skills tests can cover a range of positions: administrative assistant, finance and accounting,and call center reps are just a few roles that companies hire for using Talent Trials.

Excel skill tests, coding skill tests, typing skill tests, and other computer skill tests are the most common forms of pre-employment assessments. Some companies focus on questions that are task-related, e.g. “Create a Powerpoint Slide that has a video embedded in the presentation.” Questions can get hyper specific to test a niche skill, like a coding language, or be posed more broadly to test the general requirements for success at a certain level.

Some companies choose to focus on verifying the skills that will help a candidate succeed beyond the immediate position. This approach skews closer to a pre-employment assessment, with questions designed to reveal if a candidate can climb the corporate ladder, adapt in a challenging work environment, or respond under pressure. For example, one call center rep test included questions such as, “You have an elderly customer on the phone who is having trouble understanding your instructions. A colleague is also trying to transfer a call from a customer you served before, and you have a scheduled follow-up call happening in 5 minutes. How would you handle and prioritize in this situation?”

Multiple choice, open-ended questions, and pre-recorded video responses are all great ways to see if a candidate has what it takes to do the job well. But, do candidates enjoy answering these types of questions?

Do new hires like doing skill tests?

By most accounts, candidates appreciate the opportunity to showcase what makes them great at their job. Orica, the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives, integrated skill testing into their interview process to the delight of their job candidates. In revamping the interview process for graduate students looking to join the Orica team, recruiters consolidated their online evaluation components into one platform, Vervoe. The Talent Trial test combined questions focusing on skills, logic, and values. An average of 86% of candidates completed the online process, and the reviews were mostly positive. Here’s what the candidates had to say about the skills test: “The tests required total engagement and thought, and were a clear demonstration of what makes Orica different from any other company.” “I think the questions were very diverse and it allowed me to showcase myself, my skills and abilities in different ways.” “It gave me an opportunity to showcase who I am as well as challenge my skills” This is just one example of how a skill test can change the entire interview process for a potential new hire. In a job market where people spend an average of 11 hours a week looking for a new job, it’s easy to get burned out, fast. Every job description starts to look the same; every interview begins to feel stale. When given the opportunity to showcase their talent through real-world tasks, job candidates will jump at the chance to be engaged with the job description, rise above their resume, and challenge themselves. Companies that use Vervoe’s Talent Trials experience a 97% candidate completion rate, which is among the highest engagement rates in the industry. Candidates love the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Even if they aren���t hired, skills testing offers a break from the repetition of the stale interview experience.

What are the benefits of a skill test?

The benefits of a skills test aren’t limited to the candidate experience. Recruiters looking to hire diverse, high-performing teams with better efficiency and consistency can use pre-employment tests to their advantage. Skills tests are a better predictor of performance than resume screenings or traditional interviews alone. Resume screenings are bad for three reasons. First, studies suggest that it’s common for candidates to lie on their CV. The person you think you’re hiring may not actually possess the qualifications you think they do. Second, resumes only provide a high-level view of a candidate’s credentials and work experience. These items don’t offer qualitative insight into actual on-the-job performance. Coupled with recruiting biases that are built into the process, the third threat is that recruiters are privileging candidates based on background and demographics, rather than talent. Perhaps this is why new hires crash out as often as they do. According to one study, 46% of new hires “fail” within the first 18 months of being hired.

Skill tests can help take some of the bias out of the interview process, give recruiters a new evaluation metric to consider, and lead to happier, long-term hires. There’s ample evidence to suggest they really do work better than many of the other traditional hiring methods recruiters have relied on in the past.

Do skill tests work?

In our experience, skill testing works better than traditional hiring methods – with some caveats. Without a doubt, aptitude tests can be used to replace resume screening. This style of sorting through candidates increases the chance that the best candidates will be unfairly eliminated. Good people get screened out, rather than screened in. So-called “pedigree proxies” – resumes and cover letters – are not indicative of job performance, yet they are often the quickest way a recruiter or algorithm can think of to cut down on their stack of candidate resumes. Skills tests improve time to hire while allowing the hiring manager to see how someone will do the job, before they get the offer. This reduces turnover costs, which add up quickly: the cost of making the wrong hire can be up to 2.5x salary, easily over $100,000. Working with Vervoe’s Talent Trials, on the other hand, can help a recruiter identify the best people at under $100 per hire. The best skills tests, however, need the right formula to help the candidates succeed. Some recruiters focus narrowly on the skills that will help a new hire succeed in the immediate position for which they are hiring. Yet, many CEOs emphasize the importance of soft skills – things like leadership and teamwork. New hires may end up being disappointed and leaving because they lacked the soft skills needed to adapt to their new team, not necessarily the skills to perform the job. Recruiters must integrate questions into their skill assessment that focus on critical soft skills that predict long-term success. These validated psychometric assessments are key to assessing “culture fit” without defaulting to recruiter bias.

Skill tests vs. interviewing

In conclusion, we’ll leave you with few thoughts on skill tests compared to interviews. First, interviews, in general, need a total overhaul. Recruiters have been asking the same, outdated interview questions for decades. Many candidates get overwhelmed by the performance anxiety inherent in the interview and may make (forgivable) mistakes. Nevertheless, many recruiters like the security of meeting someone before making an offer. Many recruiters seek the same insight from a group interview or case study that they would get from an individual skill test. Unfortunately, using these methods can’t give you the same valuable information as a straightforward aptitude assessment. Case studies can be too conceptual; rather than seeing how a candidate will approach the work listed in the job description, case studies ask abstract questions. The goal of asking “how many tennis balls can fit on a Boeing 757” is not to see if the candidate can guess the right answer, but to see how they approach the question and reason through their response. But this knowledge doesn’t always serve a recruiter with the best predictor of on-the-job success. Group interviews provide more insight – into a candidate’s teamwork, leadership, and communication, for example. Yet, in a group scenario, extroverts tend to dominate. It can be difficult to see how each candidate performs as an individual while trying to consider the group at once. In summary, skill testing is all about understanding whether a candidate can do something or knows something. It’s about verifying their ability to go the distance with your company. Pre-employment assessments differ slightly in that they focus on predicting how a candidate will behave in certain scenarios, not what they can do. By combining questions from skills testing and pre-employment assessments, recruiters can get a more accurate picture of the candidate’s ability. Read the full article

[angrycollectordaze-me-blog]

Assignment代写：America's pillar industries

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文- America's pillar industries，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了美国的支柱产业。美国的支柱产业是不断发展变化的，这背后的决定因素是多方面的，其中最主要的是其工业化发展阶段。长期以来，美国经济不管如何发展，农林产品特别是农业产品始终是其支柱产业之一，这和美国拥有大量的土地、森林等丰富的自然资源是分不开的。美国作为先发的工业化国家，其技术驱动是工业化支柱产业发展的主要驱动力量。

The stage of industrialization determines the general scope of a country's pillar industries. Industries with resource endowment advantages will become the pillar industries of the country for a long time. At some point, a large country can achieve international dominance in many pillar industries at the same time

The process of industrialization is the process of constant optimization and upgrading of industrial structure and constant changes of pillar industries. As a representative of the first industrialized countries, the change process of pillar industries in the United States not only follows the general law of the evolution of industrial structure, but also has its particularity. The study of the changes of pillar industries in the process of industrialization in the United States is helpful to grasp the development and change of China's industry in the future.

Before World War II, the United States mainly relied on market regulation, and later strengthened the guiding role of the government. Before 1860, the light textile industry occupies the main position; from 1860 to 1900, steel and coal grew rapidly, and the electronic, chemical and automobile industries appeared. From 1900 to 1950, the output value of heavy chemicals exceeded that of light textiles, and the steel, machinery and chemical industries developed rapidly. After World War II, the United States focused on developing capital-intensive industries, with steel, automobile and electromechanical as the pillar industries for industrial development. After 1970, we vigorously developed technology-intensive industries, such as aerospace, IC, computer and new materials industries. After 1990, we vigorously developed the information industry and strengthened its integration with other industries.

Compared with other countries, the United States does not have specific industrial policies in most cases, but this does not mean that the U.S. government does nothing about industrial development. In fact, one of the roles of American government is to act as the creator of factors of production. U.S. government agencies at all levels continue to invest heavily in education, science and technology, and infrastructure, sparing no effort to create the factors of production. American government also played an important role in maintaining the order of market competition. It enacted and enforced strict anti-trust laws to maintain a free and open trading system. The U.S. government also plays a vital role in addressing forward-looking challenges, such as space exploration, health care and environmental protection, and creating new space for domestic industries. The Obama administration's plan for the future of the new energy and biotechnology industries falls into this category.

The development and vicissitude of American pillar industry give us many inspirations. To sum up, there are mainly:

The stage of industrialization determines the general scope of a country's pillar industries. The pillar industries of the United States are constantly developing and changing, which are determined by many factors, the most important of which is the stage of its industrial development. Different from the United States, which needs to seek new technological breakthroughs to form new pillar industries, China is currently in the latter half of the middle stage of industrialization, in which the pillar industries are mainly heavy chemical industries. Current our country put forward to take a new road to industrialization, this does not mean without developing heavy industry, it is the heavy industry development must accord with China's national conditions of a new road to industrialization, intensive, high benefit of heavy chemical industry development path, relying on information technology, energy saving and environmental protection technology in areas such as technology innovation, maximize ease the heavy chemical industry development and the contradiction between resources and environment, make the heavy chemical industry can be implemented with minimal resources environmental costs the rapid development of its own. Accelerating the development of the electromechanical industry, especially the equipment manufacturing industry, and increasing their proportion in the heavy chemical industry will be the key to upgrade the industrial structure in the coming period.

Industries with resource endowment advantages will become the pillar industries of the country for a long time. For a long time, no matter how the American economy develops, agricultural and forestry products, especially agricultural products, have always been one of its pillar industries. This is because the United States is rich in natural resources, such as land and forests. Unlike the United States, China's resource endowment advantage is not in natural resources, but in human resources. This has decided in the choice pillar industry aspect must display the human resources superiority. In the face of the current international financial crisis and the rise of trade protectionism, we should, on the one hand, expand domestic demand, on the other hand, stabilize external demand, continue to expand international trade, and turn our advantage in human resources into a real economic advantage. As long as we have a comparative advantage in labor force, we need to continue to develop labor-intensive industries and labor-intensive links in high-tech industries.

At some point, a large country can achieve international dominance in many pillar industries at the same time. For more than 20 years after World War II, the United States gained international competitive advantage in almost all industries. This shows that a big country is different from a small country in that small countries can only concentrate their limited resources on developing one or several industries, while a big country cannot and can develop many industries at the same time in certain special periods. China is a large country with a large population, vast territory, large regional differences and multiple levels of productive forces. Therefore, the development of heavy and chemical industry is the main task at the present stage. It does not exclude some local areas to develop other industries as pillar industries, and it is possible to gain international competitive advantages in many industries.

Vigorously strengthening national defense programs and scientific and technological research will help a country maintain its leading edge in emerging industries. As a first-mover industrialized country, the United States is driven by technology, which is the main driving force for the development of its pillar industries. Under the reality that the gap between China's industrialization degree and developed countries is getting smaller and smaller, this practice can be used for reference. China should vigorously develop the aerospace industry, major aircraft, aircraft carriers and other cutting-edge technology industries, enhance China's independent innovation capacity, and promote the upgrading of China's industrial structure.

The capture of international opportunities is conducive to the cultivation and continuation of a country's pillar industrial advantages. The United States has successfully seized international opportunities, including the two world wars, to expand its competitive industries around the world, and to develop declining industries at home abroad. Since the 1990s, some industries that had been declining at home have even become pillar industries again with the help of information technology. The outbreak of the current international economic crisis will be a rare opportunity for Chinese enterprises to implement the strategy of "going out". We can consider transferring some industries with competitive advantages to other countries.

Giving full play to the role of the government is conducive to the development of pillar industries and smooth transformation. At present, in China's ten major industries adjustment and revitalization plan, it is necessary to further clarify the responsibilities of the government, associations and enterprises. To play the leading role of the government is not to make the government intervene in the micro business activities of enterprises, but to give full play to the role of the government as the provider of production factors, the maintainer of the competitive order, and the decision-maker of forward-looking issues, so as to support the smooth development, transformation and upgrading of pillar industries.

Period of economic revival: while maintaining the development of agriculture and light textile industry, adopting the policy of "key mode of production", increasing steel production with oil and steel aided by the United States, increasing coal production with steel, and promoting the development of sectors such as power and fertilizer.

High-speed economic growth: steel, electric power, shipbuilding, petrochemical, automotive, household appliances as the pillar industries. Belongs to the heavy industry process, the entire industry has realized the high level.

Industrial restructuring period: the oil crisis of 1973 prompted Japan to carry out industrial restructuring. We will vigorously develop the processing and assembling industries and the tertiary industry.

Industrial structure transformation period: vigorously develop emerging high-tech industries such as microelectronics, biological engineering and new materials. The industrial structure has been transformed from external demand-oriented to domestic demand-oriented.

South Korea used foreign loans to complete industrial restructuring.

The first five-year plan: we will vigorously support textile and food processing, with a focus on import substitution. A $350 million loan was used to invest in leading industries such as power, building materials and chemicals.

Second five-year plan: focus on the development of labor-intensive export processing industry. The use of $3.38 billion in loans to promote the serialization and specialization of industrial enterprises.

The third five-year plan lays emphasis on developing technology-intensive industries, vigorously supporting heavy and chemical industries such as machinery, metallurgy, chemistry and electronics, and defines the "ten strategic industries".

Fourth five-year plan: focusing on industrial technology development, 67 percent of foreign loans will go to manufacturing. The transition to industrialization was completed. Established pillar industry.

In the 1990s, South Korea identified 20 industries as key export industries.

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If This Is the End of Average, What Comes Next?

Personalized learning—the notion that children’s educational experiences should be tailored to their interests and abilities—has a long history, but the digital age has brought new promise to the idea. Computers are cheaper and more powerful than ever, and learning algorithms are more sophisticated, promising better tuning of lessons to students’ passion and performance. Both the Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have committed significant resources to developing personalized learning.

Todd Rose, the director of the Mind, Brain, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has emerged as a central intellectual figure behind the movement. In particular, his 2016 book, “The End of Average,” is seen as an important justification for and guide to the personalization of learning.

In Forbes, Tom Vander Ark said the book “poured gasoline on the personalized learning wildfire sweeping American education.” Education Week called it “a kind of bible for the personalized learning movement,” and EdSurge said the book “vaulted [Rose] in the public spotlight.”

The momentum of the personalized learning movement—and the centrality of “The End of Average” to it—prompted me to read the book, and I was left with serious concerns about how Rose puts together conclusions about psychological and neuroscientific studies to support his thesis.

If this is the end of average, what comes next?

Let’s start by clarifying what Rose argues against. He holds that our culture is obsessed with measuring and finding averages—averages of human ability and averages of the human body. Sometimes the average is held to be the ideal. Rose points to a World-War-II era statue of a woman based on the average measurements of thousands of women, and held up as an ideal of beauty.

At other times, the average is not the ideal, but the comparator. We don’t want to be of average intelligence, but are very concerned with how we compare to that bar. Are we above or below average? By how much?

Rose aims to upend our fascination with the average, and offers three principles as evidence that it is flawed.

The Jaggedness Principle

The jaggedness principle means that many of the attributes we care about are multi-faceted, not of a whole. For example, human ability is not one thing, so it doesn’t make sense to talk about someone as “smart” or “dumb.” That’s unidimensional. Someone might be very good with numbers, very bad with words, about average in using space, and gifted in using of visual imagery. Indeed, any teacher will have noticed that different students have different strengths and weaknesses of this sort.

Since the 1930s, psychologists have debated whether intelligence is best characterized as one thing or many. If “smart” were one thing, your ability to work with space and with numbers ought to be correlated because each is a component of smart. Much research has been done in the last 80 years testing that prediction. Most studies show that the measures of these abilities are correlated, but the correlation is not very big. Historically, some psychologists pointed to these results and said “see, ability is all of a piece—scores on all ability tests are related.” Others said “Look how small those correlations are. There are multiple abilities.” Rose falls in the latter camp, describing the correlations as “not particularly strong.” (p. 90)

But most psychologists stopped playing this game in the 1990s. The resolution came through the work of John Carroll, who developed a third model in which abilities form a hierarchy. We can think of abilities as separate, but nested in higher-order abilities. Hence, there is a general, all-purpose intelligence, and it influences other abilities, so they are correlated. But the abilities nested within general intelligence are independent, so the correlations are modest. Thus, Rose’s jaggedness principle is certainly not new to psychology, and it’s incomplete.

The Context Principle

The second of Rose’s principles holds that personality traits don’t exist, and there’s a similar problem with this claim: Rose describes a concept with limited predictive power as having none at all. The most commonly accepted theory holds that personality can be described by variation on five dimensions: Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness. If I know where you fall on each of these dimensions, how much can I predict about your behavior?

Some, but not that much. For one thing, context matters. If you’re at a party where everyone knows one another but you know no one, that situation will have a sizable impact on your propensity to act extroverted, whatever your personality. For another thing (and as Rose emphasizes) these dimensions can vary within an individual, according to context—I may act extroverted in business situations, but introverted in social situations. So sure, if you add more information (context) to personality traits, you will be better at predicting what I do. But that doesn’t mean that traits alone are meaningless.

The difficult problem is not persuading people that abilities are jagged, but figuring out how to reliably identify those abilities, and how to help students capitalize on them.

Chapter 1 offers another example of Rose dismissing a concept with limited predictive power as having none at all. He cites a brain imaging experiment in which the location of brain activity associated with a particular task showed a lot of variation across individuals—so much variation that the average was deceptive; it’s like the man who put his feet in a freezer and head in an oven and was, on average, quite comfortable. The average brain described a state that no brain was in during the task.

Rose is, of course, right that this can be a hazard of averaging. But he goes much, much too far when he claims that “The guiding assumption of decades of neuroscience is unfounded.” (p. 22) Many cognitive functions are localized in the same place—roughly—in different brains. Damage to the occipital cortex results in predictable consequences to vision, for example. The brain damage caused by Parkinson’s Disease leads to predictable motor and cognitive deficits. Yes, there’s variation, especially as you try to make the predictions (either in the brain or in behavior) more fine-grained, but that doesn’t mean that averaging is meaningless.

The Pathways Principle

Rose’s third principle suggests that there are multiple ways to reach a goal like walking or reading, and that there is not a fixed set of stages through which each of us passes. I think he’s absolutely right about this, and I have written about the lack of support for stage theories of development.

What does Rose see as the implications of these three principles? If this is the end of average, what comes next?

There’s a chapter on recommendations for business, but I’ll focus on the higher education chapter. The recommendations are surprising in that they don’t connect to the principals from Part II. That is, you might expect Rose to write “the current system uses personality information, but I’ve just shown you that personality traits don’t exist, so that means we should do things as follows.” Direct ties to the three principles are absent.

Also surprising is that Rose begins the chapter by declaring a single purpose for higher education (in his view). That purpose is preparation for a career, and the declaration will bring some readers to a full stop, because it’s not the purpose many students envision: some people go to college because they are intellectually curious, for example, or to fulfill their vision of being an educated person, or to learn about themselves. What’s surprising is that a book devoted to individuality limits higher education to a single goal.

Rose’s recommendations follow from his vision of education’s purpose. He thinks students should earn credentials, not diplomas. In other words, a school would not certify that you’re “educated in computer science” but that you have specific knowledge and skills—that you can program games on handheld devices, for example. He think grades should be replaced by testaments of competency; the school affirms that you’ve mastered the skills and knowledge, period. Finally, Rose argues that students should have more flexibility in choosing their educational pathways.

These are interesting, bold proposals. There’s plenty of room for questions—for example, whether it’s really plausible that schools could coordinate to define a single criterion for a credential as Rose wants. But after all, Rose’s purpose here is not a detailed blueprint, but a vision that will spark conversation.

My concern lies not with the details, but with the fact that the recommendations are only loosely related to personalization. Other than the call for greater choice, the other ideas seek to change what college is for, not how it works, with the goal of making it more personal.

What’s perhaps most striking to me about “The End of Average” is any perception that educators need to be convinced regarding the book’s main thesis. Tuning educational experiences to individual children has been a goal for education researchers since the 1950s, at the least—“one size fits all” remains a common pejorative applied to educational practices, not an accolade. Educators don’t fail to personalize because it never occurred to them to do so. The obstacles are (1) cost in personnel, materials et al., (2) reluctance to greatly increase learning from screens, and most formidably; (3) lack of knowledge. To personalize effectively, you need to know which differences among children are meaningful and how to cater to them.

“The End of Average” doesn’t offer new evidence as to what those differences might be, or how to honor them. The difficult problem is not persuading people that abilities are jagged, but figuring out how to reliably identify those abilities, and how to help students capitalize on them to meet educational goals. Likewise, the challenge is not persuading people that personality interacts with context, but identifying which contexts matter for which children. And if there is more than one way to reach an educational goal (proficiency in algebra, for example) we need to know how to identify those different pathways, and how select a pathway for a given child. Rose answers these questions by his personal story—he figured out what works for him. But most children don’t, and adults can’t expect them to.

If This Is the End of Average, What Comes Next? published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

[lucyariablog]

Dataviz: A Critical Skill for Modern Marketers

A decade ago a friend bought me a copy of Edward Tufte’s iconic book Beautiful Evidence.

The professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University has spent his career teaching others how to turn information and data into elegantly crafted drawings and graphics – and even more, doing so in a way that illuminates in interesting and unexpected ways.

Inspired by him, I set out to learn more about visualizing data, and how to use it in everyday life. The subject area is massive and at times overwhelming, but data visualization (sometimes called “dataviz”) is among the most critical skills for marketers to understand at least at the basic level, if not to study in more depth. Let’s walk through the what, how, and why of data visualization for marketing.

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What’s data visualization?

Put simply, dataviz is the art and science of displaying information (data) in visual form. While bar charts are a form of dataviz, the term is more often used to describe the translation of complex or nuanced data into summarizing, artful images. One of the most highly rated sessions at Content Marketing World was from Scott Berinato, senior editor at the Harvard Business Review and author of Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations. In an interview with CCO magazine, Scott explains that in today’s data-abundant world, finding ways to extract human insights from data is a key challenge (and critical skill):

Finding ways to extract human insights from data is a critical skill, says @scottberinato. #dataviz Click To Tweet

“The amount of information coming at us is insane. It’s overwhelming. So visualization serves two purposes. First, it serves a prosaic purpose. It gets people’s attention … When you’re fighting for attention, whether in a Twitter feed or even in a presentation, visuals work …

“Second, it solves the problem of relaying complex information. Consider something as simple as trying to understand the gun debate in America. There are so many people saying so many things about guns. Visualization is a way of making sense of all the data, ideas, and information.”

What’s the application for marketers?

Let’s explore two practical and easy-to-understand ways marketers use dataviz as well as real-world cases showing how it’s applied.

Dataviz as marketing insight

The scenario Scott explains – living at a time of data abundance – is particularly true for marketers. Whether we are reviewing our analytics platforms, mining user data for insights, or reviewing sales performance to understand what variables are driving (or dampening) growth, visualizing this information is critical to make sense of what can be overwhelming detail.

Among the most interesting examples I’ve read of late is a case study published by Tableau (the data visualization software company) about its work with outdoor retailer REI. (You can read the full case here.) Managers across REI visualize owned data – online and in-store transactions, operations information, buyer demographics, etc. – to extract insights and improve customer experience.

What used to be done inelegantly with Excel is now visualized instantly using Tableau dashboards. And because Tableau lets you interrogate the data and visualize findings – sorting, slicing, and filtering in real time – it is more likely to surface interesting and unexpected findings. (No more static decks with a single view chosen by the presenter.)

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Dataviz as content

Maybe you’re curious about using marketing data, but deep marketing analytics is a step beyond what you’re interested in? The use case nearest to my heart is publishing data as content marketing. Research can take many forms. Some companies host surveys to gather insights about their industries (salary guides and “state of” reports come to mind). Others analyze third-party data (such as public datasets or licensed data) to uncover new ideas or create interesting infographics. And still others find that their internal data can generate interesting lessons to share.

My favorite examples take their original research and make it sing using strong data visualizations to present findings. Among my recent favorites:

Take original research and make it sing using strong #data visualizations to present findings, says @clare_mcd. Click To Tweet

Salesforce does a nice job with its research efforts in large part because of the strict information design that underlies each publication. Charts and graphs are clean and easy to understand. Rather than simply restating research findings, Salesforce explains its point of view on key issues affecting the industry. Salesforce’s AI Revolution report is a great example of its design ethic.

Not every viz needs to be a serious exercise in thought leadership. The avocado toast index is a great example of using existing data in a new and hilarious way.

Not every viz of #data needs to be a serious exercise. @BBC avocado toast index is great example. @clare_mcd Click To Tweet

Most helpful tips for dataviz

Let’s be frank. Learning how to visualize data is a massive subject that you could spend years refining and finessing. Rather than trying to sum up a complex discipline, I’ll give the basics that will be most helpful:

Clarity not cleverness

This is the biggest lesson of all. Great data visualization isn’t fussy or ornate. With so many tools that make it easy for marketers to visualize data, there’s a tendency to let “cool” win out over the simple stuff. Don’t fall for it. Simplicity is much more credible and appreciated than overly ornate (and opaque) visualizations.

Great data visualization isn’t fussy or ornate, says @clare_mcd. #dataviz Read more>> Click To Tweet

Ask “so what?”

One newbie mistake is the desire to publish every finding from a survey though your reader doesn’t have the interest or attention for it. For each dataviz, you should be able to answer the question, “So what?” Why does this point matter? How does it add to my story? (Plus, loading your report with dozens of data graphics is expensive.)

Guide the eye

Sometimes your readers need a gentle nudge. Where should they be looking? What data point in your chart is most important? Consider adding guides to your dataviz to point out which finding is interesting or what gap is most surprising. These little hints – if used sparingly – are helpful to those encountering your viz for the first time.

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Use color wisely

Color should not be decorative; it should be clarifying. Unless you are using colors to distinguish categories, do not use more than one color (or a single-color palette). For example, if you’re presenting a bar chart where one data point (i.e., bar) is most interesting, make that bar your primary color and gray the other bars so they recede to the background. These visual cues help your viewer focus on what matters.

The chart from Udemy uses multiple colors, but it uses them to distinguish among generations – a good use case.

The chart from The Wall Street Journal highlights huge box office sales for Black Panther by showing that film in red, and using a light blue for all other data points. Doing this ensures that the reader knows where to look on a relatively “busy” visual.

‘Black Panther’ has become one of the most successful movies ever in a near-record amount of time, completely dominating the winter box office in the process https://t.co/l4MQtMOgSu pic.twitter.com/aCu1I2xyZx

— WSJ Graphics (@WSJGraphics) April 1, 2018

Choose chart types carefully

The pie chart is a popular choice to visualize percentages that add up to 100%, but it’s often not the optimal choice. Beyond a few slices, it’s hard to compare the relative size of each section. Bar charts are the workhorses of dataviz for good reason (for a longer list of variables, horizontal bar charts often work better).

Departing from pie charts and bar charts, there are amazing chart types to explore. My personal favorite is the Sankey Diagram.

After Ebola outbreak in West Africa, donors pledged $4.5 billion toward recovery. Less than a third of that money has been disbursed. Graphic by @JoelEastwood https://t.co/xbucKqbVdV pic.twitter.com/IWMg7K5MNb

— WSJ Graphics (@WSJGraphics) March 20, 2018

If you’re stumped about which chart/graph to use, you may find this guide helpful.

Pie charts are popular but often not the optimal choice. Bar charts are workhorses for #dataviz. @clare_mcd Click To Tweet

To prove that smart people prefer simple data visualizations, check out the annual blogger survey from Orbit Media’s Andy Crestodina. He uses simple, horizontal bar charts to convey his findings every year.

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Consider interactive

Some of the most interesting visualizations are interactive, meaning the viewer can filter the data in new ways or uncover layers of data below each chart. The option is particularly nice when you have a sample size large enough to support comparisons of multiple dimensions. (For example, if you examine a finding by viewing responses by industry, you can only do that if you have enough people within each industry category to ensure that each data point presented is statistically significant.) Check out the gallery on Tableau Public to see how it works.

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Choose viz technology carefully

The wealth of tech tools to help you visualize is nothing short of freaking amazing. I’ve found, however, that tools designed primarily for layout or design rather than dataviz are usually an exercise in frustration. I have wasted more time fiddling with some of them than I care to admit. What you really want are tools designed specifically for visualizing data, not just visualizing stuff.

Use tools designed for visualizing data, not just visualizing stuff, says @clare_mcd. #dataviz Click To Tweet

According to HBR’s Scott, your most critical tools before using any technology are pen and paper – and he’s correct. (His book spends a good deal of time talking about sketching out ideas and how to choose chart types, my favorite part of the book.)

With a sketch as your guide, for basic visualizations I recommend Plotly or Datawrapper. (Good ol’ Excel is another option though it frustrates me quickly.) Scott also recommends Quadrigram, though I have not used it. Another tool I’m eager to try: Google Data Studio.

For more advanced visualizations, Tableau is an amazingly powerful option suited to intermediate or advanced users.

Of course, tools need data to make the magic. You can access both free and paid datasets through a variety of communities and companies. Through some sites, you’ll find relatively clean data ready to visualize, while others require developer skills to query and clean. To understand what’s available, scan through communities like Kaggle, Google Public Data, and Github Data. And, if you have the budget, you can license an array of data. A great example is Attom Data Solutions, a repository for property data.  (If you’re on the hunt for niche data, the r/datasets community on Reddit is a good place to ask questions.)

Read up before you dive

While you may be inclined to dive in and start experimenting, I recommend pairing your experiments with some reading. For beginners who don’t expect to go far beyond updating presentation decks, I highly recommend The Wall Street Journal’s Guide to Information Graphics. It’s a great primer on the do’s and don’ts of clear, simple viz design. (The book’s lessons about color choices are worth the price.)

For those with more than a passing interest, Scott’s Good Charts is an excellent guide, as is Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic.

If you’re interested in visualizing public data sources, Niel Malhotra from Growista wrote an online guide to research and his chapter about accessing and analyzing existing data is informative. (Niel’s background is programming.)

Finally, one of the most inspiring things you can do is to see what others are doing. I often visit the communities on Tableau, Data is Beautiful (on Reddit), and Information is Beautiful. Another great source of information is following data journalism sites on Twitter, such as @GuardianData, @BBGVisualData, @ReutersGraphics, @GuardianVisuals, @NYTGraphics, and @WSJGraphics.

Last, but not least, have fun with dataviz.

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used). 

Learn more from Clare McDermott and her research-related insight as she presents at Content Marketing World Sept. 4-7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register today and use code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Dataviz: A Critical Skill for Modern Marketers appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/04/dataviz-skill-marketers/