#depending on the context and the message you want to convey. Using relevant and trending hashtags can help increase the visibility of your

[etpplantbangladesh]

Best Effluent Treatment Plant Supplier in Bangladesh

Best effluent treatment plant (ETP) supplier in Bangladesh, you want an accomplice who not just grasps the intricacies of industrial water treatment yet additionally offers dependable pollution control equipment and thorough water treatment solutions. In the domain of environmental administrations and wastewater treatment in Bangladesh, one name stands apart over the rest - our organization.

Industrial Water Treatment in Bangladesh Bangladesh is a quickly growing industrial center, with incalculable manufacturing units and production lines spread the nation over. With industrial development comes the pressing requirement for proficient industrial water treatment solutions. Our organization represents considerable authority in providing first rate industrial ETP plant in Bangladesh.

The Importance of Industrial Water Treatment Effective industrial water treatment is urgent in light of multiple factors:

Environmental Compliance: With increasingly stringent environmental guidelines, industries in Bangladesh should follow severe norms for wastewater release. Inability to do so can bring about heavy fines and harm to an organization's standing.

Resource Conservation: Water is a finite resource, and mindful water management is fundamental to guarantee sustainability. Our water treatment solutions point not exclusively to treat wastewater yet additionally to work with its reuse, reducing the weight on freshwater sources.

Operational Efficiency: Clean water is fundamental for the majority industrial cycles. Investing in excellent water treatment guarantees the smooth activity of manufacturing units and expands the life expectancy of equipment.

Our Industrial Water Treatment Solutions We invest heavily in offering an extensive variety of industrial water treatment solutions customized to the particular requirements of our clients. Our administrations include:

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Wastewater Treatment in Bangladesh Wastewater treatment is a basic part of our administrations. Our high level wastewater treatment advances guarantee that industries in Bangladesh can mindfully deal with their wastewater while meeting administrative necessities.

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Waste Management Solutions in Bangladesh Powerful waste management is fundamental for maintaining a spotless and sustainable climate. We give waste management solutions that envelop waste assortment, recycling, and removal, ensuring that industries in Bangladesh can deal with their waste capably.

All in all, with regards to finding the best effluent treatment plant supplier in Bangladesh, look no further. Our organization succeeds in providing exhaustive industrial water treatment solutions, pollution control equipment, environmental administrations, wastewater treatment, and a scope of fundamental industrial supplies. We are focused on helping industries in Bangladesh flourish while ensuring environmental obligation.

[designlabpune]

Logo Design Agency Trends to Boost Your Brand Identity

In a society where initial perceptions are important, a distinctive and unforgettable logo is crucial for the prosperity of any brand. A well-crafted logo not only visually symbolizes your company but also mirrors your brand's principles and character. As logo design services trends keep changing, companies must keep up to ensure their brand remains relevant and effective. In this blog post, we’ll explore how modern logo design trends can help boost your brand identity and why it's essential to partner with the right logo design agency.

What is Logo Design?

Logo design is the process of creating a symbol, wordmark, or combination of visual elements that represent your business or brand. It serves as the foundation of your brand's image, utilized across different platforms such as your website, packaging, business cards, and social media. A professional branding strategy aims for your audience to quickly identify and link your brand with your brand.

At DesignLab, a creative logo design agency, we specialize in crafting logos that look visually appealing and embody your brand’s unique values and message.

Key Logo Design Trends to Elevate Your Brand Identity

Here are some of the most significant trends shaping the logo design landscape today:

1. Minimalism with a Bold Touch In company logo design, simplicity is often the key to longevity. Minimalist logos strip away unnecessary elements and focus on clean lines, basic shapes, and bold fonts. This design style creates timeless and versatile logos, suitable for various applications, from stationery design to digital platforms.

2. Responsive logo design for multi-platform use Responsive branding is gaining momentum with the ever-increasing need to maintain brand engagement across platforms. A professional logo design that adapts to different screen sizes and layouts ensures that your brand looks its best, whether on smartphones, desktops, or printed materials.

At DesignLab, we understand the importance of creating logos that work seamlessly on digital and print media. Our design, optimized for responsive use, offers greater flexibility and visibility into your business.

3. Hand-drawn with vintage elements

Another growing trend in logo design is the inclusion of hand-drawn elements. This quality brings a personal, authentic touch to brands, setting them apart from generic designs. Vintage logos are also making a comeback, giving brands an appealing feel along with an authentic audience. If your brand wants to convey creativity, tradition, or uniqueness, a custom logo with handmade products can be a game changer.

4. Dynamic logos for flexible identity

Dynamic signage is on the rise as brands strive to adapt and modernize. Unlike static icons, dynamic icons change or change depending on the context in which they are used. This could be changed in colors, textures, or other design elements. If you are looking for a fresh brand in Pune, a dynamic brand offers flexibility without sacrificing the brand, and ensures that your brand remains fresh and attractive.

5. Geometric shapes and abstract designs

Geometric shapes are a powerful tooling tool in modern logo design services. By incorporating abstract design and precise geometry, brands can convey a sense of order, professionalism and trust. For businesses in the technical or financial sectors, geometric symbols often signify innovation and confidence.

The abstract design offers a modern twist on traditional logos, making it an excellent choice for brands looking to stand out. This approach is popular with many quality brand companies because of its versatility and timeless appeal.

Benefits of Choosing the Right Logo Design Agency

Partnering with a creative logo company allows your brand to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Here’s why it’s important to choose the right company.

1. Professional Expertise

Creating a professional brand requires more than just creativity—it requires strategic thinking. An experienced agency understands how to translate your brand’s mission into a visual identity that aligns with your target audience.

2. Consistency across brand touchpoints

Your logo should always be visible across platforms, from your website to business card layouts and even social media. A logo design service that ensures consistency across all brand touchpoints can increase brand recognition and trust.

3. staying ahead with Design Trends

The world of logo branding is constantly evolving. Working with a forward-thinking company ensures that your logo reflects the latest design trends while staying true to your core identity.

Applications of Modern Logo Design

Whether you're working on labels or packaging, a thoughtfully crafted logo can enhance every aspect of your business. Here are a few examples of how current logo trends can have an impact:

Business Cards: A properly created logo improves your business card layout, leaving a lasting impact.

Website: A well-crafted logo design guarantees that your brand appears fantastic on every digital platform.

Standardized logo design across brochures, flyers, and advertisements strengthens brand recognition.

At DesignLab, we focus on delivering cutting-edge logo design services tailored to meet your business needs.

Conclusion

A well-crafted logo is the foundation of a strong brand identity. By keeping up with the latest trends in logo design, you can ensure that your business stays relevant and impactful in today's fast-paced market. Whether you're looking for custom logo design, business logo design, or full branding solutions, DesignLab—an innovative logo design agency in Pune—is here to help.

Let us help you transform your brand identity with our expert logo design services. Visit DesignLab today and discover how we can take your brand to the next level!

[lovejirahmae16]

5 Essential Ways to Evaluate Language Use in Media

 Each medium has its own ‘language’ or ‘grammar’ that works to convey meaning in a unique way. ‘Language’ in this sense means the technical and symbolic ingredients or codes and conventions that media and information professionals may select and use in an effort to communicate ideas, information and knowledge. While the medium may affect how messages are received, the users’/audiences’ own background/experience may also affect the interpretation of messages. An important first step in becoming media and information literate is to understand how information, ideas and meaning are communicated through and by various media and other information providers, such as libraries, archives, museums and the Internet. (UNAOC, 2020)

DEFINITION OF TERMS

GRAMMAR

           The systematic study and description of language is called Grammar. A set of rules dealing with Syntax and word structure of language. In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics.

REGISTER

           According to Nordquist (2018), a register is defined as the way a speaker uses language differently in different circumstances - determined by factors as social occasion, context, purpose, and audience - determine the vocabulary, structure, and some grammar in one’s writing and even in one’s oral discourse 

1.      Frozen - it refers to historic language or communication that is intended to remain unchanged, like a constitution or a prayer. Examples: The Holy Bible, The United States Constitution, The Bhagavad Gita, and Romeo and Juliet

2.      Formal - is used in professional, academic, or legal settings where communication is expected to be respectful, uninterrupted, and restrained. Slang is never used and contractions are rare. Examples: a TED talk, a business presentation, the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and Gray’s Anatomy by Henry Gray

3.      Consultative - is used in conversation when they are speaking with someone who has specialized knowledge or who is offering advice. Tone is often respectful (use of courtesy titles), but may be more casual if the relationship is longstanding or friendly. Examples: the local TV news broadcast, an annual physical examination, a service provider like a plumber

4.      Casual - is used when they are with friends, close acquaintances and co-workers, and family. Examples: a birthday party, a backyard BBQ

5.       Intimate - is reserved for special occasions, usually between only two people and often in private Examples: an inside joke between two college friends or a word whispered in a lover’s ear 

Language registers are classified as:

1. Formal Language Register - is more appropriate for professional writing and letters to a boss or a stranger - is impersonal, meaning, it is not written for a specific person and without emotion

2. Informal Language Register - is conversational and appropriate when writing to friends and people you know very well.

STYLISTICS

Stylistics is a branch of applied linguistics concerned with the study of style in texts, especially, but not exclusively, in literary works. Also called literary linguistics, stylistics focuses on the figures, tropes, and other rhetorical devices used to provide variety and a distinctness to someone's writing. It is linguistic analysis plus literary criticism.

PRAGMATICS

 Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in social contexts and the ways people produce and comprehend meanings through language. The term pragmatics was coined in the 1930s by psychologist and philosopher Charles Morris. Pragmatics was developed as a subfield of linguistics in the 1970s.

SEMIOTICS

Defines as a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics

DISCUSSION

TYPES OF MEDIA

Print Media

According to the International Encyclopedia of Political Communication “Print media are traditional mass media published on paper. The concept not only includes the published products but also regards the organizational context shaping the journalistic routines and norms behind the printed products. It mainly comprises of newspapers and magazines. News magazines also serve an information function, whereas most other magazines are more committed to entertainment and leisure.

Here are ways to evaluate this type of media:

Registers

Newspaper, educational books and other magazines uses formal register, while leisure books and some magazines use casual to formal register.

Stylistics

Newspaper and educational books follow a certain standard upon publishing and they use formal writing.

Grammar

Kress abd van Leeuween stated that there is a trend in which, increasingly, the written text is no longer structured by linguistic means, through verbal connectors, and verbal cohesive devices, just a special arrangement of block of text. Writer writes their message to expressed not only linguistically, but also through a visual arrangement of marks on a page.

Semiotics

Print Media also contain images as well as text, and those images contains hidden meaning from its color to the lines. As signs, both sensory icons and textual symbols are mere meaningless marks unless and until they acquire meaning through the addition of semantic content, i.e., the relations between signs and the things they stand for. Semiotics helps us to understand deeply and somewhat fully the world of signs and symbols.

Pragmatics

Journalist and editors have been discovering and then using new ways of expression and addressing the public. It makes up a large proportion that people read and hear every day. How tabloid newspapers use language in a projection of their assumed readers' speech is how they construct their own images and their relationships to an unseen, unknown audience.

Visual Media

Visual Media is defined as the sources of data or information in the form of visual representation. It is commonly used in learning that uses pictures, videos, and infographics that is proven to be a creative and one of the best ways for a child learning.

Here are ways to evaluate this type of media:

Register

For movies and television, visual media uses almost all of the registers depending on the role of the actor they wanted to portray. News uses formal register while advertisement uses casual.

Stylistics

Media uses different effects that enables observer to analyse the structure of media messages without ignoring the interpretative processes of the audience.

Grammar

The actor/speaker of the video shows relevant function of speech acts. All of these functions are present hierarchically in every act if verbal communication, therefore determining the verbal structure of the messages is elaborated.

Semiotics

Producers embed meanings and signs that is for the audience to interpret and received, and most of the time, the meanings are hidden and is only visible for an observant eye. The kind of signs that are likely to cross our mind immediately are those which we routinely refer to as ‘signs’ in everyday life, like religious signs, road signs, and public utility signs.

Pragmatics

Visual media focuses on the viewers that they are able to see the subject’s body language, gestures, and hear their intonations is a big factor to understand the information easily.

Electronic Broadcasting Media

Electronic Broadcasting Media is the media that one can share on any electronic device for the audiences viewing, unlike static media (Printing) electronic media is broadcasted to the wider community. They may include television, radio, Internet, fax, CD-ROMs, DVD, and any other medium that requires electricity or digital encoding of information. There is a wide range of Electronic media that broadcast a variety of different things like advertisements and promotions.

Here are ways to evaluate this type of media:

Register

An example of the electronic broadcasting media is Commentaries on Live Events. Often constructed partly as a conversation between the commentator and summarizer, separated by the (often longer) passages of commentary. Register will be stylized, specialized, professional, colloquial. Thus, the register used in this type of Electronic Broadcasting Media is formal or consultative depending on the content.

Stylistics

A study of Bell (1991) looked at the style of language used in radio news broadcasts in New Zealand. “Single news-readers heard on two different stations showed a remarkable and consistent ability to make considerable style shifts to suit the audience … only the audience correlated with these shifts … In mass communication, a broadcaster’s individual style is routinely subordinated to a shared station style whose character can only be explained in term of its target audience” (Bell, 1991).

Grammar

Electronic Broadcasting Media requires the six C’s. Clear-- simple, understandable, express NOT impress. Concise-- get to the main point Conversational ―for the ear. Current-- timely copy in content and sound.  Correct --free of factual errors, spelling & grammar. A commentary will use the special lexis and jargon of the sport/event in question. Simple and undemanding vocabulary, typical of speech.

However, in news programs, the goal is to give the listeners a lot of information in a very short time. Therefore, the news has to be worded in a way that it is easy to understand and to follow. News language has to be absolutely concise and neutral. And since the aim is to convey a maximum of information in a minimum amount of time, there is no room for literary style in the news.

Semiotics

In TV and radio news, the neutral tone of anchormen is a sign that implies the myth of performer and news `organization that he represents. In the top headlines at first, the political news then economic news is read, thus the hierarchy of announcement of news implies connotation. TV function as a sign system is the result of the interaction between different sign systems. Television uses two mediums, visual (text, fixed and moving images) and audio media (speech, silence, music and environmental sounds). Thus, TV news codes are concluded of language codes (written and spoken), image codes (fixed and moving), code of silence, music codes and codes of environmental sounds (sound segment), paralanguage spoken and written codes, codes of aspect, gesture codes and codes of hand and facial gestures. Radio is an audio media, so in order to identify the end of a news and the beginning of the next; the news is read by two speakers, men and women, respectively, which implies the end of a news story and start the next. After the latest headlines, there is short music again. Also, the music of starting detailed news is a sign that calls the audience's attention and implies the importance of the program, and also implies the end of headlines and starting of detailed news.

Pragmatics

Commentaries also make extensive use of the names of the participants, especially in team games, usually by last name only (Dyer, Shearer, Van Meir, Philips) - the commentator may have given the full name at the start, but the audience is expected to know them well enough anyway.

Sometimes, historical facts are given, perhaps as a mark of respect and the use of the names also has relevance to pragmatics since the audience knows not only that, say, Philips is Kevin Philips but that in this match he is playing at his club ground (he was a Sunderland player in 1999) and also that he is a forward, so that mention of his name suggests where the action is happening on the pitch.

Outdoor Media

Any advertising that is done outdoors that publicizes a business’ products or services is considered to be outdoor advertising. Businesses utilize outdoor advertising for many reasons, the biggest being location. Not only does this method of advertising allow you to select exactly where your ads will be, it provides guaranteed access to the audience, sometimes as often as every day. 

Here are ways to evaluate this type of media:

Register

Marketing on social media sites tends to lean more towards an informal register, focusing on a younger demographic that prefers a more casual tone. There is even evidence to suggest that it is precisely this shift towards digital communication that has led to the increased use of informal language.

Stylistics

Copywriters deploy different sentence types to achieve different effects. For instance, periodic sentences are used to create suspense. Periodic sentences raise curiosity in the readers as they want to know exactly what the advertisement is taking about. Advertising copywriters also inject life into their messages by deploying figurative language. Figurative expressions tend to beautify language by making it appealing and evocative.

Grammar

One of the characteristics of human language is that it is rule-governed. Every language has a limited set of rules which its users apply recursively to produce an unlimited number of novel sentences. Whenever the rules are violated ungrammatical sentences are produced. Advertising copywriters pay greater attention to reaching their audience than to constructing grammatical sentences. To achieve their aim of communicating messages that can be read at a glance, they deliberately violate the grammatical rules of the language of the advertisement.

Semiotics

Given that advertising could function as an expression or reinforcement of ideology, semiotics’ analysis occupies a significant place within the framework of encoding and decoding adverts’ messages. Regarding encoding, it allows advertisers to deliver meaningful messages, associating the product with consumers’ lives and values. Considering the decoding process, semiotics provides the tools of study the hidden meanings of advertisements through analyzing verbal and non-verbal signs.

Pragmatics

certain word formations are peculiar to the language of advertising because the goal of the profession is to send advertising messages across in the shortest time and space available. Since time and space are of much importance in billboard advertising, it uses a lot of short and jerky sentences, positive, comparative and superlative degrees, figurative expressions; modifiers, appeals and deviant structures to create beauty and effectiveness around the advertised products or services. As a specialist area, advertising has its own specialized language. It tends to have unique word choice and syntactic structures which enable the copywriters to capture the attention of the audience within seconds.

Transit Media

Transit media refers to advertising placed in, on, or around modes of public transportation: buses, subways, and taxis. It is a great way to reach a really diverse audience: families traveling, professionals, etc.

Here are ways to evaluate this type of media:

Register

Transit media uses formal to casual register of language depending on the kind of advertisment is shown.

Stylistics

There has been a trend in recent years to which transit media switches from formal to informal, friendly mode of communication between businesses and consumers.

Grammar    

Subtle cultural nuances and social contexts need to be considered when localizing any text, particularly those destined for marketing use.

Semiotics

Transit media prefer to engage with shorter, easy to digest advertising. They don’t really use symbolism since people don’t have enough time to think through because it is on transportation.

Pragmatics

Transit media follows a level of formality is appropriate for their new target audience, and how will the marketing strategy be adapted to each new environment.

Digital Media

Digital media is any form of media that uses electronic devices for distribution. This form of media can be created, viewed, modified and distributed via electronic devices. Digital media is commonly used software, video games, videos, websites, social media, and online advertising. 

Here are ways to evaluate this type of media:

Register

Twitter is neither homogenously “conversation-like” nor “written like” in style. That is, twitter content can differ in formality depending on the community and underlying communication type. Thus, the language register used in the Digital Media is informal, more on consultative or casual registers.

Stylistics

 Users of the digital media make much greater use of twitter hashtags to label their posts.  This points to a more careful use of the posts and a curatorial intent, where hashtags serve to direct a tweet to the right audience when author and readers do not know each other. More instances of exclamations and questions, and more non-standard strings of exclamation and question marks. The abundance of exclamations suggests the messages are more likely to be strongly emotive. Emotions of one kind are also suggested by the number of messages or status posted on social media.

Grammar

Just as the digital media alters the usage of our language, so, too, does it introduce new usage of grammar and vocabulary. With the need for quick and succinct language and communications online, full verb phrases have become common acronyms that are now used in everyday settings and not just online. 

Semiotics

Digital Media contents create different meanings through signs, symbols, text, images, graphics, and color. For example, Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996)   states, visual communication can be expressed through different uses of color or different   compositional structures.  Hèléne states that, “Visuals are used not only to illustrate   news and feature genres but also in advertising and campaigns that attempt to persuade   their target audiences to change attitudes and behaviours”. Advertisements are   supposed to evoke emotions.  Hèléne also states that, “Visuals are thought to  send people   along  emotive pathways  where  textual/verbal  material leaves  them  in a  more  rational,   logical  and  linear pathway  of  thought” (2008).  Viewers  will interpret  the  advertisement   according to  their  own life  experiences.  Kress and  Van  Leeuwen (1996)  state,  “Visual   structures  realize  meanings as  linguistic  structures do  also,  and thereby  point  to different   interpretations  of experience  and  different forms  of  social interactions”

Pragmatics

 In the digital media, sending text messages or chats mirrors a great change in language, specially pragmatics. The advent of social network communication has changed the way people speak and write English drastically. These electronic networks have allowed the users to conduct electronic communication in different styles that is formal and informal and use many types of electronic communication such chats, posts, tweets, comments and discussions. Electronic networks acronyms are one of the most remarkable features, which save time, space and energy. So, successful communication requires awareness of the pragmatic functions of the acronyms used in social network conversations.

CONCLUSION

The importance of media is incomparable that it undoubtedly made our lives convenient and different. Many of us have already encountered and have used the different media mentioned above, but this paper is for the further exploration and explanation for the future generation who wanted to learn more about the media linguistically.  

 REFERENCES:

Reham M. Khalifa (2015). International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research Vol.3, No.4, pp.37-49. http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Pragmatic-Functions-of-Social-Networks-Acronyms.pdf

Paris, C. et. al., (2005). Differences in Language and Style Between Two Social Media Communities. file:///C:/Users/Acer/Downloads/4626-21996-1-PB.pdf

Maryam M. (2007). A Comparative Study of Semiotics in Radio & TV News. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL) Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2017, PP 61-65. https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijsell/v5-i1/8.pdf

Eruchalu, G. (2015). AN ANALYSIS OF THE LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF BILLBOARD ADVERTISING IN NIGERIA. http://www.jmel.com.ng/index.php/jmel/article/viewFile/50/49

Mohd, F. (2019). The Role of Semiotics in Advertising: Communicative Approach. http://languageinindia.com/feb2019/faizansemioticsmarketing.pdf

Albion Languages. (2020). Registers, which is Suitable for Marketing Materials. Albion.

Baron, N. (2000). Alphabet to email: How written English evolved and where it's heading. New York: Routledge.

           Mkhize, V. (1993). The spoken and the written word: stylistic creation in Black broadcasting. http://ukzn-dspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/

           AB  Print. (2017). why is print media important. AB print group ltd.

           Eilders,  C. (2016). Print media. wiley online library.

           Gagnon,  E. M. (2019). THE IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL MEDIA. GrandPR.

           Mellinger-Bean,  B. (2018). introduction of print media. bizfluent.

           Naushahi,  A. (n.d.). importance of print media. daily times.

           Naveed,  F. (2012). mass communication talk. masscomm.

           Taylor,  B. M. (2015). Media Grammar. pressbooks.

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           Weebly.  (2018). MIL Intensive Teacher Training. Visual Media and Information.

 AUTHORS:

DIASANTA, JIRAHMAE

MARAYA, MARIBETH

MARGATE, CAMILLE ROSE

[confrontingbabble-on]

“Mixed messages, repetition, bad fact checking, awkward constructions, inconsistent voice, weak character development, boring tangents, contradictions, passages where nobody can tell what the heck the writer meant to convey.  This doesn’t sound like a book that was dictated by a deity.

A well-written book should be clear and concise, with all factual statements accurate and characters neither two-dimensional nor plagued with multiple personality disorder—unless they actually are. A book written by a god should be some of the best writing ever produced. It should beat Shakespeare on enduring relevance, Stephen Hawking on scientific accuracy, Pablo Neruda on poetry, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on ethical coherence, and Maya Angelou on sheer lucid beauty—just to name a few.

Why does the Bible so fail to meet this mark? One obvious answer, of course, is that neither the Bible—nor any derivative work like the Quran or Book of Mormon—was actually dictated by the Christian god or other celestial messengers. We humans may yearn for advice that is “god-breathed” but in reality, our sacred texts were written by fallible human beings who, try as they might, fell short of perfection in the ways that we all do.

But why is the Bible so badly written? Falling short of perfection is one thing, but the Bible has been the subject of literally thousands of follow-on books by people who were genuinely trying to figure out what it means. Despite best efforts, their conclusions don’t converge, which is one reason Christianity has fragmented into over 40,000 denominations and non-denominations.

Here are just a few of the reasons for this tangled web of disagreements and the generally terrible quality of much biblical writing (with some notable exceptions) by literary standards.

Too Many Cooks... Far from being a single unified whole, the Bible is actually a collection of texts or text fragments from many authors. We don’t know the number of writers precisely, and—despite the ancient traditions that assigned authorship to famous people such as Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—we don’t know who most of them were. We do know that the men who inscribed the biblical texts had widely different language skills, cultural and technological surroundings, worldviews and supernatural beliefs—along with varying objectives.

Scholars estimate that the earliest of the Bible’s writers lived and wrote about 800 years before the Christian era, and the most recent lived and wrote around 100 CE. They ranged from tribal nomads to subjects of the Roman Empire. To make matters more complicated, some of them borrowed fragments of even earlier stories and songs that had been handed down via oral tradition from Sumerian cultures and religions. For example, flood myths that predate the Noah story can be found across Mesopotamia, with a boat-building hero named Gilgamesh or Ziusudra or Atrahasis.

Bible writers adapted earlier stories and laws to their own cultural and religious context, but they couldn’t always reconcile differences among handed-down texts, and often may not have known that alternative versions existed. Later, variants got bundled together. This is why the Bible contains two different creation myths, three sets of Ten Commandments, and four contradictory versions of the Easter story.

Forgery and Counter-forgery...  Best-selling Bible scholar Bart Ehrman has written a whole book about forgery in the New Testament, texts written under the names of famous men to make the writings more credible. This practice was so common among early Christians that nearly half of the books of the New Testament make false authorship claims, while others were assigned famous names after the fact. When books claiming to be written by one person were actually written by several, each seeking to elevate his own point of view, we shouldn’t be surprised if the writing styles clash or they espouse contradictory attitudes.

Histories, Poetries, None-of-These...  Christians may treat the Bible as a unified book of divine guidance, but in reality it is a mix of different genres: ancient myths, songs of worship, rule books, poetry, propaganda, gospels (yes, this was a common literary genre), coded political commentary, and mysticism, to name just a few. Translators and church leaders down through the centuries haven’t always known which of these they were reading. Modern comedians sometimes make a living by deliberately garbling genres—for example, by taking statements literally when they are meant figuratively—or distorting things someone else has written or said. Whether they realize it or not, biblical literalists in the pulpit sometimes make a living doing the same thing.

Lost in Translation... The books of the Bible were originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, though not in the modern versions of these languages. (Think of trying to read Chaucer’s Old English.) When Roman Catholic Christianity ascended, church leaders embraced the Hebrew Bible and translated it into then-modern Latin, calling it the Old Testament. They also translated texts from early Jesus-worshipers and voted on which to include in their canon of scripture. These became the New Testament. Ironically, some New Testament writers themselves had already quoted bad translations of Old Testament scriptures. These multi-layered imperfect translations inspired key doctrines of the Christian faith, the most famous being the Virgin Birth.

Most English versions of the Bible have been translated directly from the earliest available manuscripts, but translators have their own biases, some of which were shaped by those early Latin translations and some of which are shaped by more recent theological considerations or cultural trends. After American Protestants pivoted away from supporting abortion in the 1980s, some actually re-translated a troublesome Bible verse that treated the death of a fetus differently from the death of a person. The meaning of the Bible passage changed.

But even when scholars scrupulously try to avoid biases, an enormous amount of information is simply lost in translation. One challenge is that the meanings of a story, or even a single word, depend on what preceded it in the culture at large or a specific conversation, or both. Imagine that a teenager has asked his mom for a specific amount of money for a special night out, and Mom says, “You can have $50.” She is communicating something very different if the kid asked for $20 (Mom is saying splurge a bit) versus if the kid had asked for $100 (Mom is saying rein yourself in).

As the mother opens her wallet, the son scrolls through restaurant options on Yelp and exclaims, “Sick!” Mom blinks, then mentally translates into the slang of her own generation which, her son’s perceptions aside, doesn’t come close to translating across 2000 years of history.

Inside baseball...  A lot changes in 2000 years. As we read the Bible through modern eyes, it helps to remember that we’re getting a glimpse, however imperfectly translated, of the urgent concerns of our Iron Age ancestors. Back then, writing anything was tremendously labor intensive, so we know that information that may seem irrelevant now (because it is) was of acute importance to the men who first carved those words into clay, or inked them on animal skins or papyrus.

Long lists of begats in the Gospels; greetings to this person and that in the Pauline epistles; instructions on how to sacrifice a dove in Leviticus or purify a virgin war captive in Numbers; ‘chosen people’ genealogies; prohibitions against eating creatures that don’t exist; pages of threats against enemies of Israel; coded rants against the Roman Empire. . . As a modern person reading the Bible, one can’t help but think about how the pages might have been better filled. Could none of this have been pared away? Couldn’t the writers have made room instead for a few short sentences that might have changed history Wash your hands after you poop. Don’t have sex with someone who doesn’t want to. Witchcraft isn’t real. Slavery is forbidden. We are all God’s chosen people. Answer: No, they couldn’t have fit these in, even without the begats. Of course there was physical space on papyrus and parchment. But the minds of the writers were fully occupied with other concerns. In their world, who begat who mattered(!) while challenging prevailing Iron Age views of illness or women and children or slaves was simply inconceivable.

It’s Not About You...  The Gospel According to Matthew (not actually authored by Matthew) was written for an audience of Jews. He was a recruiter for the ancient equivalent of Jews for Jesus. That is why, in the Matthew account, the Last Supper is timed as a Passover meal. By contrast, the Gospel According to John was written to persuade pagan Roman prospects, so the author timed the events differently. This is just one of many explicit contradictions between the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’s death and resurrection.The contradictions in the Gospel stories—and many other parts of the Bible, are not there because the writers were confused. Quite the opposite. Each writer knew his own goals and audience, and adapted hand-me-down stories or texts to fit, sometimes changing the meaning in the process. The folks who are confused are those who treat the book as if they were the audience, as if each verse was a timeless and perfect message sent to them by God.  Their yearning for a set of clean answers to life’s messy questions has created a mess.

A good culling might do a lot to improve things. Imagine a version of the Bible containing only that which has enduring beauty or usefulness. Unfortunately, the collection in the Bible has been bound together for so long that Christian authorities (with a few exceptions) don’t trust themselves to unbind it. Maybe the thought of deciding what goes and stays feels overwhelming or even dangerous. Or maybe, deep down, Bible-believing Evangelicals and other fundamentalists suspect that if they started culling, there wouldn’t be a whole lot left. So, they keep it all, in the process binding themselves to the worldview and very human imperfections of our Iron Age ancestors.And that’s what makes the Good Book so bad.”

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington.

https://valerietarico.com/2018/01/28/why-is-the-bible-so-badly-written/

[letsanjaliposts]

12 Digital Marketing Trends That Will Own 2020

Digital Marketing Trends That Will Shape 2020

Some technological marvels that seemed just out of the realm of possibility are a reality today. Technology has taken over every field and made it more efficient. Marketing is not one to be left behind and with everyone glued to the devices today, you can get advertisements for coffee to soaps right on your phone. Data-driven marketing, artificial intelligence, and voice search engine optimization seemed like a far-off dream but right now these extraordinary digital marketing trends are ruling the priority list for most business owners. Rightfully so, because if you want to stay relevant and in the competition with a fighting chance of winning, you need to adopt and adapt to the evolving trends of digital marketing. These trends are evolving rapidly and changing as you read this. Consumer interests and behaviors have become fickle and an educated guess no longer works. You need research and you need data if you wanna conquer the market. We have done most of the grunt work for you. Read on to find out the 12 digital marketing trends that you need to keep on your radar if you wanna rule the market.

1. The Futuristic SEO Is Here:

Paradoxically constant changes and updates have become synonymous with the search engine industry which has immensely affected the user’s search results. The most notable change has been Google’s BERT update. Bidirectional Encoder Representational from Transformers (BERT) is a deep learning algorithm associated with natural language processing. This means that Google is improving its search engine by making it smarter and enhance its ability to comprehend the complex distinctions of language as well as the intent of the searcher. This means that BERT can get results even on search queries that depend on context. With the advent of BERT, you will have to start focusing on the reason or the intent that leads people to your website. If you are able to answer these questions as clearly as possible and organize the information logically you will see more traffic driven to your site. Remember you write for people which means your content marketing strategy is for people, your website is for people and not for algorithms. With this ever-evolving SEO make sure you have the best SEO Company in Mumbai on-board.

2. Chatbots:

Chatbots have survived the test of time and will continue to thrive in 2020. Chatbots are AI-based and effective software programs that use instant messaging to chat in real-time with customers and site visitors. They use chat windows or verbal communications to direct users to what they are looking for. Statistics even show that by 2020 chatbots will power 85% of customer service. This is because a majority of customers prefer interacting with chatbots as they are available 24/7, do not lose patience, answer promptly and can accurately recall your entire buying history. In short, they offer impeccable customer service because they meet the customers’ expectations.  

3. Personalization:

If you want your brand to be unique and most importantly remembered by your customers then personalized content, products, emails, etc are the way to go. It makes you stand out. The essential advantage of personalized marketing is having the control to reach a particular demographic and potential clients. What’s more, by gathering client information from list segments, surveys, or studies, you’re better situated to make increasingly significant and compelling email campaigns towards the target audience based on their purchasing propensities, interests, and behaviors. For instance, if your intended interest group likes films and general entertainment, you can include pop culture references when sending your emails, producing blog posts, or even in your email opt-in forms to convey an increasingly customized experience in your content. Ideally, your audience will welcome the references and better identify with your brand which will lead to a boost in conversions.

4. Acceleration Of Voice-Powered Searches:

Get ready to say and hear Ok Google, hey Alexa and ‘Sup Siri a lot more because more and more people have started using phones with voice assistants. Google, Alexa, and Siri have thus become important features in digital marketing. Voice search is important when utilizing it for your business. It’s aiding in the development of a versatile mobile-friendly movement and increasing the value of local SEO. Voice search likewise helps the utilization of AI and organizes semantics of searches. Here are a few tips:

Get to know the language: When individuals use search engines, many utilize long sentences with particular keywords. Subsequently, to enhance the chance to be found in voice search lists, utilize longer keywords and complete sentences.

Give detailed answers to questions: The vast majority utilize the web to get data, regardless of whether they are inquiring about an item or service that they need or are attempting to Google response to a random trivia question. Consider this when making content for voice searches. Incorporate any inquiries that individuals may pose concerning your products and give detailed answers.

Most importantly don’t forget to use a conversational and engaging tone.

5. Video Marketing Is Always An On-Going Digital Marketing Trends:

This trend is unlikely to go out of style for the next five to ten years. This is because it is the most favorite way that customers want to hear about new products and the most used content bucket in social media marketing. This is not just limited to Youtube, there are many other ways to drive higher engagement with video marketing. Examples include making a video post or doing a live broadcast on social media. In fact, if your website contains videos it will drive traffic to your site much more than text. This is because as states above customers find videos more compelling than text and hence google will push pages that contain videos. The great thing about video marketing is that you just have to reformat your content which is easy. You should also transcribe the video and Publish the transcription on your blog under an embedded YouTube video for increased rankings. You can even upload the basic video to social media like Facebook and turn the transcription into a blog.

6. Single Marketing Software Will Rule:

Numerous organizations are changing to one software solution that contains every one of the tools that they need. Merging among software suppliers is accelerating because of the client’s wish to have the entirety of their marketing devices under one umbrella. On the off chance that you’re thinking about whether paying and executing a marketing software tool is gainful, here are the advantages:

It lessens dull work: It helps in disposing of tedious obligations and causes you set up a day by day schedule.

Streamlined advertising endeavors: You can monitor where you’re at in the purchaser’s journey with your clients and can communicate with them efficiently and effectively.  

It enhances accountability.

Managing clients become easier.

You can record progress a lot quicker and simpler.

7. Influencer Marketing:

Influencer advertising is a sort of informal promoting that spotlights on utilizing key leaders to intensify your brand message to a bigger market. Influencers can be popular celebrities, yet more regularly they are Instagram or YouTube personalities with a gigantic niche following who can help spread the news about your business or item through their social media. Influencer advertising is likewise going to be influenced by artificial intelligence. With every year, AI is making its way towards finding the correct influencers to team up with simpler and quicker. It’s distinguishing those with better engagement, fewer phony followers, and a higher possibility of producing a positive return of investment (ROI). Additionally, customers trust influencer marketing more than corporate advertising because it is typically more authentic.

8. AI Takes Over Digital Marketing:

Artificial intelligence has begun its infiltration of digital marketing and it is just getting started. Artificial intelligence can analyze shopper behavior and search patterns, and use information from social networking platforms and blog entries to assist organizations with seeing comprehending how clients discover their items and services. AI will before long be the main impetus behind numerous services and as of now, we observe it executed in such areas as:

Fundamental communication

Content production

Email personalization

Product recommendations

E-commerce transactions

The AI provides excellent customer service by using human inputs and sensors to collect facts about a situation and it can also store data to enhance future experiences.

9. Social Media Stories Are The Newest Digital Marketing Trend:

Snapchat first introduced the concept of “My Story” to the world but they could not keep their famous ghost invisible for long because soon Instagram and Facebook had added this feature too. Since these kinds of stories vanish after a set timeframe, this is an incredible opportunity for advertisers to utilize FOMO (fear of missing out). The advantages of utilizing social media stories include:

Consistent engagement with followers

Cost-effectiveness

Increased brand awareness

Your page generates more traffic

Chance to contact more youthful audiences.

You can include polls within Instagram stories, links to your website or other social media, location tags, live videos and clear call to actions.

10. Shoppable Posts And Social Commerce:

This trend of mixing business with pleasure started with Instagram introducing Instagram check out which allows users to complete purchases through Instagram. Internet business brands trust this will lessen the risk that clients will abandon their shopping cart because they needed to switch applications or sign in to an obscure store. Visual commerce is taking off as more customers are eager to purchase items through promotions they find in their feeds. Online business brands can make and post interactive advertisements that permit clients to click and shop effortlessly. Instagram thinks this will make it simpler for organizations to arrive at prospective new clients, as it will viably shorten the sales funnel, giving buyers instant access.

11. Be Transparent:

Research demonstrates that organizations delivering straightforward and simple to-process data are probably going to retain 94% of their clients. Be that as it may, how you handle a client’s private information is crucial. Organizations will be required to be totally straightforward on what sort of data is being shared to promote their products. Following are a few tips on how to be transparent:

Build up your organization’s core values.

Ensure that selling isn’t your solitary objective.

On the off chance that clients bring up certain worries or issues, respond right away.

Have the option to take helpful criticism from your clients and react in a friendly, non-critical tone.

Encourage a community around your brand.

12. Focus On Customer Retention:

The future is set on retaining existing customers than acquiring new ones. Organizations comprehend that it takes less money to retain existing clients happy and will direct more effort in the center and last phases of the purchaser’s journey, since gathering better information and concentrating on market segmentation helps spare expenses. Retaining clients helps increment income since when you keep your current clients then they will typically tell their friends and give you referrals. Faithful clients are additionally prone to be more straightforward and honest with you in regard to any issue allowing you to improve your brand.

This concludes the list of 12 digital marketing trends that you definitely need to look out for and follow in 2020. When running a business, it is crucial to keep up with current trends and be on the top of your game in terms of digital marketing. Make sure you have the best digital marketing agency in Mumbai to manage your online marketing with their digital marketing services. With these trends, you can not only stay on top of your game but also thrive at the top. Now that you have 20-20 vision go get your digital marketing game on!

[garp19-amyclarke]

Research Statement

1.       Ideation

After the initial ideation workshop, the subject I chose to focus on was how typography affects the user experience. I am interested in researching how different font choices can impact the viewer and if the typeface chosen has a real impact on how a message is perceived. I am interested in exploring how type is used within artwork as a form of communication and how artists use this with or in place of imagery. I am also interested in how the use of different typefaces can influence someone and how the tone of a piece of work can change dependent on the type choice. I think this would be of interest as learning how we can view certain typefaces would be useful knowledge for future projects. Possible focuses could also be on the use of type versus image, the use of typography within advertisements and the environment in which it is used. Another focus would be investigating if audiences are likely to enjoy artwork or become influenced based on the choice of typeface. This would be of interest as I could look at the trends of successful campaigns and those that were not as successful to investigate if typography had an effect. Another route of focus could be the use of typography in political art and the role it plays. I could investigate political campaigns from the past and present such as Nazi Germany or the 2016 US election campaign and look at how they used typography to persuade people nationwide. I think it would be interesting to look at how the political campaigns in the 2016 US election were used to engage different demographics and what role the typefaces played in helping or hindering this. Another focus could be North Korea and the typography-based design that has come out of a place of little western influence, this would be interesting to compare how North Korean artists and western artists use typography within their work.

2.       Research and Development

The area I will be focusing my research on is contemporary western artists and how they use or have used typography within their work. To begin my research, I explored David Carson’s work as he typically uses typography within his work, to connect on an emotional level with the viewer. Carson believes in the emotion of design and says, ‘a message is sent before somebody begins to read, before they get the rest of the information; what is the emotional response they get to the product, story or painting’ (Carson, 2003). I think this is interesting as he explores how the use of various typefaces can change the way someone views a message. For example, a sign can be the same colour, have the same message and words but the only difference is the expression that is carried across with the use of a different typeface. (Figure 1) He also looks at legibility of typography and how we can differentiate legibility and communication, Carson believes ‘just because something is legible doesn’t necessarily mean it communicates the correct message.’ (Carson, 2003) I think that this is important to consider as it shows Carson uses typography within his work to communicate to the viewer rather than using it as imagery.

Another artist I researched was Jenny Holzer as she uses typography in installation art utilising structures in urban environments and neon signs to communicate with her viewers. (Figure 2) ‘Holzer’s works often speak of violence, oppression, sexuality, feminism, power, war and death. Her main concern is to enlighten, bringing to light something thought in silence and was meant to remain hidden’ (Normoyle, 2011). Holzer uses typefaces such as Franklin Gothic which doesn’t carry cultural baggage, this enables her to communicate with clarity. Designer Robin Fior who was associated with radical and libertarian causes in the 1960s and 70s used Franklin Gothic also (Figure 3). ‘The graphic formula consisted of Artype Franklin Gothic on top of a news photograph printed in a non-natural colour’ (Fior, 2009, P.135). Whilst working on the newspaper National Socialism, Fior used the same formula to communicate to his audience, using Franklin Gothic as his main typeface. This is a simple, legible typeface in which many other artists have used including Lawrence Weiner (Figure 4). ‘Weiner’s pursuit of neutrality is something that also affected his choice of typeface. When developing his framework, he looked for typefaces that carry little cultural baggage thus allowing the clarity of message, he chose typefaces such as Franklin Gothic’ (Holmes, 1998). It’s interesting to note the message that both Holzer and Fior convey when using this typeface are politically persuaded, suggesting that this typeface has been selected for its neutrality.

Another artist I investigated was Barbara Kruger, as ‘her works examine stereotypes and the behaviours of consumerism with text layered over mass-media images. Rendered with black-and-white, red accented, Futura Bold Oblique font’ (Artnet, 2016). I find Kruger’s work interesting as like Holzer she focuses on subjects that are usually private or outspoken, although Kruger uses Futura Bold it has similarities to Franklin Gothic as they are both sans-serif and have a thick weight. (Figure 5) I think Kruger uses a modern font throughout her work to ensure her artwork doesn’t lose relevance throughout the years, as it is ‘the typeface of today and tomorrow’ (Rhatigan, 2014). Kruger says ‘when I need type that has to be set very tightly I always use Helvetica Extra Bold caps because it sets tighter than Futura. It cuts through the grease. That’s why I like it.’ (Kruger, 1991) I think this is of interest as Miedinger and Hoffmann who created Helvetica ‘set out to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.’ (Helvetica, 2007) Therefore I think Kruger selects typefaces that have no cultural baggage to ensure that the message she wants to communicate has clarity.

Another contemporary artist who uses typography effectively within their work is David Shrigley, ‘best known for his distinctive drawing style and works that make satirical comments on everyday situations and human interactions.’ (Stephen Friedman Gallery, n.d.). He utilises hand-rendered typography to accompany his drawings, which give his work a more personal touch. I think the way Shrigley uses typography compared to Holzer and Kruger is interesting as his hand-rendered type reflects his voice rather than using a typeface that carries little cultural baggage. Shrigley often uses linguistic signs within his work using the signified and signifier to create humorous artwork, for example within his ‘sorry I fell asleep whilst you were talking’ card (Figure 6) he uses text to communicate to viewers what is happening in the illustration and to get this point across faster,  without this text the viewer might not understand the correct message Shrigley is communicating. Tracy Emin also uses handwritten fonts throughout her work, producing works in a variety of media from embroidery collage to neon signs. Her subject of work is similar to Holzer and Kruger, focussing on personal and confessional artwork, although I think Emin’s approach seems more personal due to the choice of typeface. (Figure 7) I think Emin selects the correct typeface for this piece as its personal to her and her experiences therefore hand-rendered type enhances what it communicates to the viewer.

3.       Critique and explanation

Whilst researching these artists I noticed that some artists used typography to signify what they were communicating within the image and others solely used typography to communicate. I was interested to find out what the reason for this could be, that’s when I started to research semiotics. Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated, through visual and linguistic signs and how they create meaning. (Figure 8) In the case of text works what was presented via typography was a context where the spectator could conceivably be engaged in the artwork through reading rather than through the reception of art through looking, as discussed by Robert Smithson (Smithson, 1979). Semiotics is a key tool to ensure that intended meanings are understood by the person on the receiving end. ‘The meaning of any sign is affected by who is reading that sign. Peirce recognised a creative process of exchange between the sign and the reader.’ (Crow, 2003, P.54) Therefore artists such as Holzer and Kruger use neutral typefaces to ensure there is minimal cultural effect on the viewer, whereas Shrigley uses hand-rendered font which can affect viewers in different ways. He also uses type to signify what he is communicating to eliminate confusion.

I then investigated Gestalt’s theory in typography and design principles:

Gestalt is a form of psychology that focuses on cognitive behaviours. Designers are influenced by the visual perceptual aspect of this, particularly the theory that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The mind copes with the visual confusion of our everyday world by consolidating objects into groups to simplify input. (HOW Design, 2015)

Using this theory helps designers influence the viewer by controlling how the design is viewed. There are five design principles that derive from the theory: proximity, similarity, continuity, closure and figure/ground (Figure 9). Each employ different methods to create unity within the whole. Therefore, the way typography is used can affect the viewers thoughts and feelings towards an art piece.  Another theory that informs the way typography is communicated is the communication theory, this has been interpreted in various ways.  Shannon and Weaver's model (Figure 10) is one which is, in John Fiske's words, 'widely accepted as one of the main seeds out of which Communication Studies has grown' (Fiske 1982: 6). Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver developed a model of communication which was intended to assist in developing a mathematical theory of communication. ‘An underlaying assumption of the theory is that the aim of communication is ‘efficiency’, any different message being received is seen as a failure in communication.’ (Barnard, 2008) Therefore, one receiver could interpret a typeface as ‘conservative’ another could see it as ��racy’. The idea that people from different social and cultural backgrounds interpret graphic design in the same way is flawed.  Possible questions that have arisen from this research so far are ‘Is it possible for a typeface to carry no meaning/ be neutral?’ Another question would be ‘Do artists have a specific method for choosing their typefaces?’. Another question is ‘Do artists use design theories when creating work that involves both image and text or is it just preference?’ ‘Do artists chose the right typefaces?’ ‘How much do artists engage graphic design and typography in the formation of their works?’

4.       Action Plan

I still need to research further into why artists chose the typefaces they do and how they do so, I think it would be interesting to find out how artists know which typefaces will work in communicating what they want and how we as an audience perceive these. I think I need to research further into semiotics to do this as I would like to find out how we recognise symbols and use this knowledge to communicate with image and type. I could also go onto looking at the use of typography within political graphic design and if they use typefaces with or without culture baggage. Particular methods of research would include further reading into semiotics, how artists use this knowledge to effectively communicate within their work and how they choose the best typeface. I could also interview current artists that use typography within their work to find out how they decide on which type to use. Over the summer I aim to further research into these subject to help me decide on a final question to answer, after this I will continue to build upon the research I have already carried out and if necessary I can then carry out interviews with artists.  

 5.��      References

Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer (2018) [Exhibition]. Tate Modern, London. 23 July 2018 – 31 July 2019.

Artnet. (2016). Barbara Kruger | Artnet.com [online] Available at: http://www.artnet.com/artists/barbara-kruger/ [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Barnard, M. (2008). Graphic design as communication. London: Routledge.

Carson, D. (2003). Two garage doors. [image] Available at: https://postmodernmovieposter.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/legibility-vs-communication-in-design-david-carsons-point-of-view/ [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Carson, D. (2003). Design and Discovery [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/david_carson_on_design [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019]

Crow, D. (2003). Visible signs. Crans-près-Céligny: AVA, p.54.

Eco, U. (1994). Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (Advances in semiotics). Indiana University Press.

Emin, T. (1997). Terribly wrong. [image] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/emin-terribly-wrong-p11565 [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Fior, R. (1960). Black Dwarf journal. [image] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/oct/05/robin-fior [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Fior, R. (2009). Modern typography in Britain. Reading, Eng.: University of Reading, Dept. of Typography & Graphic Communication, pp.135-140.

Fiske, J. (1989). Introduction to communication studies. London: Routledge.

Helvetica. (2007). [film] Directed by G. Hustwit. Plexifilm.

Holmes, R. (1998). Eye Magazine | Feature | The work must be read. [online] Eyemagazine.com. Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/the-work-must-be-read [Accessed 5 Mar. 2019].

Holzer, J. (2007). Blue purple tilt. [image] Available at: https://elephant.art/jenny-holzers-truisms/ [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

HOW Design. (2015). Gestalt Theory in Typography & Design Principles. [online] Available at: https://www.howdesign.com/resources-education/online-design-courses-education/gestalt-theory-typography-design-principles/ [Accessed 5 Mar. 2019].

Koffka, K. (1923). Gestalt's theory. [image] Available at: https://pgdip2016.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2015/10/19/gestalt-principles/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019].

Kruger, B. (1991). ‘Reputations: Barbara Kruger’. Interview with Karrie Jacobs for Eye Magazine issue no. 5 vol. 2, 1991. Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/barbara-kruger [Accessed: 9 Apr. 2019]

Kruger, B. (2010). Past/Present/Future. [image] Available at: https://www.designboom.com/art/barbara-kruger-in-taking-place-at-the-temporary-stedelijk/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].

Normoyle, C. (2011). A look at Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer’s use of Typography. [online] Cat Normoyle. Available at: https://catnormoyle.com/2011/02/02/a-look-at-barbara-kruger-and-jenny-holzers-use-of-typographic-art/ [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Rhatigan, D. (2014). Ultrasparky: Futura: The Typeface of Today and Tomorrow. [online] Ultrasparky.org. Available at: http://ultrasparky.org/archives/2014/01/futura_the_type.html [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].

Sagmeister, S. (2004). Happiness by Design. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_shares_happy_design#t-793986 [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019].

Saussure, F. (1965). Signifier and signified. [image] Available at: http://www.decodingculture.in/2010/05/noise-semiotics.html [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

SCHRAMM, M. (1954). Schramm model of communication. [image] Available at: https://www.communicationtheory.org/osgood-schramm-model-of-communication/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019].

Shrigley, D. (2011). Sorry I fell asleep whilst you were talking. [image] Available at: https://www.artimage.org.uk/19945/david-shrigley/untitled--sorry-i-fell-asleep---2011 [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].

Smithson, R. (1979). Robert Smithson, the collected writings. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Stephen Friedman Gallery (n.d.). David Shrigley. [online] Stephenfriedman.com. Available at: https://www.stephenfriedman.com/artists/david-shrigley/ [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Weiner, L. (2009). Placed on the tip of the wave. [image] Available at: https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/lawrence-weiner [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].

[katrinratto]

Brand Authenticity: Is It Important and How Can You Increase Your Brand’s Authenticity?

Consumers expect that the companies they deal with have integrity and authenticity. A survey by Cohn & Wolfe found that:

Nearly nine out of 10 consumers are willing to take action to reward a brand for its authenticity, including 52 percent who would recommend the brand to others and 49 percent who would pledge loyalty to the brand.

Consumers want more than quality and good value from the brands they use – they also want values.

There are many reasons for this shift to authenticity but one element is particularly crucial: millennials.

Millennials have a deep distrust of traditional advertising. A consumer study on millennials found that a mere 1% of those polled would trust a company because of advertising.

Younger generations, including Gen Z, have a similar mistrust of advertising.

In fact, 91% of consumers are more likely to buy from an authentic brand than from a dishonest brand.

Today, most consumers want brands to walk the talk.

If you’re struggling to grow your business or improve your brand, you may need to do more to convey authenticity to your customers and prospects.

Here are five key factors that help brands increase their authenticity.

Build relationships with customers and prospects

Be consistent with your branding and messaging

Engage customers and prospects in conversation

Have values and stay true to those values

Be honest and transparent

Let’s look at each of these factors in more details.

1. Build relationships with customers and prospects

Relationships are the key to authenticity, but you can’t build strong relationships overnight. Relationship building requires that you look at your long game.

Consider how consumers interact with your brand over an extended period.

Every touch point with your customers is an opportunity to build a relationship. Forging relationships requires work, but the result is worth the effort.

Good relationships are built on trust.

There are many ways to build up trust.

Start by listening to your customers.

Most businesses have a tough time doing this because they don’t know who their customers are! In fact, it’s the reason most marketing is misdirected.

Who are you marketing to? What do they want?  What problem(s) are they trying to solve?

NOT SATISFIED WITH THE GROWTH OF YOUR BUSINESS?

New and existing companies can grow faster and get a better return on their investment by building a strong brand.

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How to clearly articulate your brand identity.

How to define your brand personality.

How to set your brand voice.

How to identfy your brand's audience, and more!

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How to identfy your brand's audience, and more!

This is important across industries, but especially critical in some industries. For example, in our definitive guide on how to start a clothing brand or clothing line, we emphasize that Millennials pick clothing largely based on authentic connections with brands.

Authenticity is also the reason some Etsy sellers are successful while others fail. A strong authentic brand can help your Etsy store thrive.

You also should show that you appreciate your customers. You can do this through proactive customer service and personalized communications. This can be as simple as including the customer’s name in emails you send out.

Ensure your brand message and values are consistent across all platforms so there’s no confusion.

2. Be consistent with your branding and messaging

Once you’ve established your values and brand story, make sure they’re consistent and aligned across all platforms.

For example, be sure you’ve developed a strong brand identity (everything visual about your brand) and that you use it uniformly online and offline. This includes the logo you use for your business, as well as your company name.

When you get to know someone, you start to develop opinions and impressions of them based on your interactions.

Your customers and prospects approach your company in the same way.

Present a consistent image and brand to make your brand feel more dependable and unique. Dependability increases trust. Uniqueness increases loyalty.

The problem is that many companies make the mistake of forgetting to create a unique identity.

Often, this is easily evident, such as when companies use stock art for branding, marketing, and advertising. Stock art is killing your small business brand.

Inconsistency and lack of authenticity are two reasons companies rebrand. As we wrote previously:

Renaming your business isn’t ever just renaming – it’s also re-branding.

And, part of a successful re-branding process is figuring out the authentic brand story you want your audience to associate with your business.

Since your business name is a central element of your brand, it’s essential that you figure out how your new name relates to that brand story.

Not every company needs to rebrand, however. Some just need to focus their messaging. Let people know that they can rely on the same experience no matter where they interact with you. This consistency helps them feel more comfortable and helps foster an authentic brand experience.

As Peter Minnium wrote for Marketing Land:

Consistency is key to authenticity. In today’s fragmented media environment, brand messaging often varies from source to source. While it is necessary to curate content concerning context and audience targets, it is vital that brand messages be synchronized, because today’s consumers expect their experience to be consistent across devices and platforms.

3. Engage customers and prospects in conversation

Open communication is a cornerstone of any relationship.

It’s crucial to not seem like an impenetrable ivory tower to your customers and prospects. Engage with them on social media and through other channels.

When they talk to you, respond.

Engage in two-way conversations to humanize your brand. The key here is to make sure it’s a dialogue. You want to talk to your customers, not at them, and that means listening is almost more important than what you say.

How can you get conversations going with your customers? Here are a few ideas:

Share the news. Try sharing industry news and trends in the form of an email newsletter, social media feed, or blog. The important part is to include feedback loops so customers can talk back to you. Social media is a natural place for this as it’s optimized for communication, but email newsletters can work, too.

Look for pain points. A great way to engage with your customers to ask them about their pain points. Post questions to your social media feed about lessons learned, or challenges customers face, and listen to what they have to say. If it’s appropriate, respond with actionable advice.

Answer questions. People often ask questions directed at your company on social media. Take the time to answer them! Not only do you help a customer, but you also create opportunities for further discussions and comments from others that follow your feed.

Ask questions. Customers often appreciate being consulted and asked for their opinion. It’s essential to make sure these questions are not too self-serving, however. It’s acceptable to ask for feedback or input on new features or services as long as you plan to take action on at least some of them. Either way, be gracious and make sure to keep an open mind and ear.

Standing for something and being an active participant in the community are excellent ways to live your values.

4. Have values, and stay true to those values

Authentic brands have moral, social, and corporate values they hold dear.

The best brands make their principles and values a core part of their business. They do not compromise on those principles and values. As William Arruda wrote,

Successful brands are based on authenticity, drawn from real achievements, real strengths, and real emotions that are alive and well at all levels in the organization.

Company values and principles start from the top down.

As a business owner, it’s up to you to choose what is essential and weave that throughout both your brand and your organization.

Often the most successful brands express the values of the organization the clearest.

For example, Apple is synonymous with beautiful design that is easy to use.

Nike values peak performance through great products.

Google values indexing the world’s information and making it available to all.

To be seen as genuine and authentic, your company and brand need to stand for something.

This is important and often is the difference between success and failure, as we showed in our look at statistics about branding every entrepreneur and marketers should know.

Talk to your customers. Bring them behind the curtain and let them be heard.

5. Be honest and transparent

A key component of authenticity is honesty and transparency.

Being honest shows your customers that their respect is important to you. Be conscious of your strengths and weaknesses, and admit when you’ve fallen short.

This transparency humanizes your brand and makes it easier for customers to connect with you on a deeper level.

Let customers see behind the curtain. It’s easier to trust when there’s more to see. The most trustworthy brands give customers a view of the company and what makes it work.

Consumer research backs this up.

A survey by Cohn & Wolfe found the number one behavior consumers expect companies to exhibit is that they “communicate honestly about its products and services.”

Another study by the Harvard Business Review showed that customers consistently preferred companies that valued “openness, relevance, empathy, experience, and emotion.”

Openness, transparency, empathy, and emotion are all qualities that stem from honesty.

In the crowded brand marketing space, honesty stands out.

Conduct your business with openness and transparency to cultivate both a robust corporate culture as well as a strong, authentic brand.

Conclusion

The business landscape is amid a sea change from the old world of advertising and assumed brand loyalty.

Millennials and Gen Z consumers demand that businesses stand for something more than just profits, and they have no qualms jumping ship if a brand proves to be superficial and inauthentic.

Social media has made it much easier for news of a company’s missteps or lack of principles to spread virally. Every week another instance of a company’s inauthenticity and bad behavior is in the news.

It’s crucial that your company and brand take these lessons to heart.

Authenticity is always a work in progress, and there’s no better time than now for your brand to get real.

  from http://bit.ly/2OjCm08

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5 Trends of Voice UI Design

At its core, the concept of interaction was always about communication. Human-Computer Interaction has never been about graphical user interfaces, which is why Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are the future of user interface design.

An interface is just a medium people use to interact with a system—whether it’s a GUI, VUI or something else. So Why is VUI So Important? Two reasons:

1. Conversational interfaces are so fascinating because conversation is a form of communication everyone understands.

It’s a natural means of interaction. People associate voice communication with other people rather than with technology.

Users don’t need to learn to interpret any symbology or new terminology (the language of GUI), they can use English (or any other native language) to operate with a system. It doesn’t mean that users don’t have to learn how to use a system but the learning curve be reduced significantly.

2. User expectations are changing. According to Statista, 39% of millennials use voice search. This audience is ready to be the early adopters of VUI systems.

Top 5 VUI Trends

When it comes to designing VUI, voice interaction represents the biggest UX challenge for designers since the birth of the original iPhone. But the great news is that the most fundamental principles of UI design that we use when creating products with GUI are still applicable to VUI design. Below you can find a few trends that will shape VUI design in next decades.

1. VUI That Builds Trust

Trust helps to build a bridge between a person and a machine. If trust is absent, users will be unlikely to interact with a particular voice user interface.

The importance of the valid outcome (VUI should give the person understanding that s/he will receive exactly what s/he requested). It’s possible to achieve this goal by focusing on the following things:

Improving the accuracy of speech recognition (more sophisticated NLP algorithms).

Focusing on understanding the user’s intent (a reason for interacting in the first place). When users interact with a system, they have a particular problem they want to solve, and the goal of the designer is to understand what this problem is.

Providing meaningful error messages.

Crafting contextually driven flows. While it’s impossible to predict all commands that users might ask the system, designers need to at least design a user flow that is contextually driven. The system should anticipate users’ intent at each point of a conversation and provide users with information on what they can do next. For example, finding a restaurant near the user. When users search for a restaurant, the system should match exactly what the user is looking for.

The importance of user control (one of the 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design by Jakob Nielsen is still applicable to VUI design).

The system should consider the natural limitations of a human brain (short-term memory limitations). The information provided by the system should be overwhelming. When people hear the system response, most users remember only the last phrase. Thus, it’s better to stay away from long phrases or providing a dozen different options while the user can remember just a couple of them at one time.

The system should react to a user request with appropriate feedback. This feedback should give users a full understanding of what the system is doing right now. For example, visual feedback lets the user know that the system is ready and listening; or in POD (Process of Doing). When a user sends a request to the system, the system shows a POD. POD isn’t a loading animation, it doesn’t just state the fact that users have to wait while a system is doing something, it provides valuable information of what the system does. For example, a POD for a command on pulling out a file from Dropbox might look like as someone search for a right file in storage.

2. Adaptive User Interface

An adaptive user interface (also known as AUI) is a user interface (UI) which adapts to the needs of the user or context. VUI of the future will adapt for users — the system will analyze all information it has about users (including the information about current mental state and health condition) and their current context to provide more relevant responses to user requests.

For example, if a user has a high blood pressure at the current moment and decides to set a meeting in 2 hours, a digital assistant might suggest avoiding that, or suggest lowering blood pressure with exercise before the meeting starts.

3. VUI That Conveys Personality

Visual designers have a lot of options to introduce the personality in graphical user interfaces – fonts, color, illustration, motion, just to name a few. But what about VUI? Designers can convey personality using language itself — by playing with words, voice, and tone. Speaking of voice, a voice is part of the persona and it shapes its identity. Once we’ve associated a voice with something, it becomes part of its identity. And we experience emotions when we interact with such an interface, just like we when we interact with real people. People want human-understandable voices — not a voice that sounds human, but a voice that speaks coherently human!

Bad example: Siri voice by Susan Bennett – the voice that sounds almost human but people still know that it’s a machine. You can’t really have a dialogue with Siri. While you can ask Siri something like, “What is the weather like today?” You can’t ask more sophisticated questions such as, “What should I wear today?” As a result, you don’t have deep feelings for Siri, you know it’s just a robot.

Good example: Samantha voice from the film Her — the voice that sounds coherently human and people can be in love with it.

4. From Narrow AI Towards General Intelligence

Human-computer interactions are shifting to conversation, but users expect more. Most of AI systems available today are still limited to Narrow AI — such systems use Machine Learning to solve a clearly defined (and, in most cases, way too narrow) problem. Narrow AIs have zero knowledge outside of their training data. It means that when a user wants to solve a slightly different problem, or the problem itself evolves, the system won’t be able to solve it and it’ll respond with something like, “I don’t understand.” So that you, as a user, face a wall.

In comparison to Narrow AI, General Intelligence is not limited to narrow domains. The concept of learning is at the foundation of GI systems — the fundamental difference between Narrow AI and General AI is that the General Intelligence systems learn without being expressly programmed (machines learn by themselves). GI system uses two types of learning — reinforcement learning (when a system uses all available information to solve a particular user problem) and supervised learning (when a system needs user assistance to solve a problem for the first time). Another difference is that a General AI system can learn to utilize other AI for general and specific purposes. As a result, different Machine Learning models can be trained dependently and work cooperatively. An advanced NLP GI system is able to learn from the first attempt by combining and processing information from multiple different data sources.

5. Impact on Society

Widespread acceptance of VUI systems. Improving the quality of VUI AI-based systems will lead to better user engagement. The relationships between human and computer will be interactive and collaborative — people and computers will work together. This will impact society — just imagine that in ten years, you’ll walk into the house and just talk and control all kinds of machines.

This future will be with omnipresent AI: As users, we’ll trust AI even with the most important decisions such as “What school should I choose for my children?” VUI will improve the quality of life of older people and people with disabilities.

Conclusion

“The best interface is no interface“ is a famous quote of Golden Krishna, the author of the book The Best Interface Is No Interface. He and many other designers believe that people don’t want more time with screens, in fact they want less. Thus, technology should stop celebrating screen-based solutions. And it’ll happen relatively soon — the interactions of the future won’t be made of buttons.

With the rise of computer processing power, we’ll have more systems that will be able to calculate up to 1000 steps in 1 second. A user and a machine will work together, enabling General Intelligence.

  Featured image via DepositPhotos.

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How to Fix Your Broken Social Media Branding Strategy

A CMO study indicates that marketers plan to double their spending on social media over the next few years. Yet studies also indicate that they are not equipped to manage all the challenges that social media presents. With new tools and platforms emerging constantly, businesses can easily fall into the trap of viewing social media through a tactical lens rather than a strategic one.

Search “social media marketing tips” on Google and you come away with over 56,000,000 articles to choose from. Yet despite all the tips and advice, there is no one-size-fits-all social media branding strategy. You need a process that leads to individual solutions.

Wherever you are with your social media branding strategy, this process will fix and build an authentic and strong brand image on social media to amplify your media strategy efforts.

1. Define your one thing

The social media presences of many companies suffer from a lack of focus. Too often, companies allow the platform to define the content rather than choosing the platforms that best serve the brand. Companies do this because they think they must have a presence on every major social media platform to be relevant.

So, what is a brand?

As Jeff Bezos says, a brand is what people say about you after you leave the room.

Every decision related to your brand matters, especially in an age where information is so easily accessible and opinions form very quickly.

Volvo, for example, focused for years on safety and building the safest cars on the road. A decision that continues to affect how people think about the brand. Take their new ads, such as the one below:

You can better communicate your niche through the following steps:

Clarify the values you want to define your brand.

Research exactly what your target audience finds intriguing and unique about your brand. Do they come to you for price, quality, convenience, novelty, etc.?

Establish your core brand message around the core values that encourage your target market to buy from you.

Examine social media demographic information and use a listening strategy to discover the best platforms to engage with your ideal customers.

Make use of an automated social media update program such as Blog2Social. This will ensure that all updates on your chosen platforms are made simultaneously. This also helps convey a solid, singular brand message.

2. Listen to your target audience

To be successful, your social media branding strategy must be built around reaching the right audience at the right time with content that is insightful and valuable to them. To achieve this, you will need to improve your listening skills before your communication skills.

Listening to what your audience says on social media is often referred to as social listening. Hootsuite defines it as:

“The process of monitoring social media channels for mentions of your brand, competitors, products, and any other ideas or themes that are relevant to your business. The next step is analyzing that information for actionable insights. Those actions can range from engaging a happy customer to shifting your overall brand positioning strategy.”

In other words, you want to understand the context and larger trends around what people say on social media about your industry and brand. But going through each message and assessing it is impossible. A better way is to assess a collection of social media messages to become aware of trends and issues.

Lululemon, for example, was forced to withdraw women’s pants from its shelves because they were too transparent. People took to social media to discuss the issue. But the brand did not address the issue on social media or on its website.

This, in turn, affected the fitness retailer’s stock price because it ignored the issue.

Why should you use social media listening to fix your brand strategy?

By using it to:

Track brand health

Create content your audience craves

Generate ideas for marketing campaigns

Improve your customer experience

Drive strategic product decisions

How do you engage in social listening?

Step 1 – Use tools to set up a social listening system.

Step 2 – Listen when anyone talks about your brand.

Step 3 –  Listentoo conversations about your competitors.

Step 4 – Respond to comments (either negative or positive) and join in on relevant conversations as quickly as you can.

Step 5 – Take notes on patterns and other observations about what people say and how they react to your brand.

Step 6 – Act on the information and insights.

3. Analyze your audience

The best way to get to know your audience is by talking to them. This gives you the opportunity to dig into who they are, what challenges they face, and what they look to you for.

Once you know what they value, you can work on how your brand can emulate that value in their lives.

Quite often, it is easy to go with values that are popular. For example, values such as sustainability and equality. But this is where you need to ask deeper questions and proceed with caution.

Hitching your brand message to popular ideas can work against you. Consider for example, Pepsi’s attempt at aligning itself with popular ideas of justice and equality. Its protest-inspired ad alienated the brand from the very audience it was trying to connect with.

To understand the behaviors of your ideal customers, you need to analyze your audience. Then use segmentation in your social media strategy.

When most people think of social media segmentation they think of paid targeting options. But, there are organic targeting options as well.

Organic targeting on Facebook allows you to target your messages at an audience based on gender, relationship status, age, location, interests, and more.

LinkedIn offers similar options; you can target your audience based on industry, company size, function, and more.

Paid targeting enables companies to be seen by social media users who are already active users and more likely to engage with your offer and campaign. As a result, companies can increase their reach, expand their audience size, and achieve more quality conversions.

Other ways to take advantage of your audience interests and needs are:

Creating a group or joining existing groups.

Making a list like you would for an email campaign. Both Facebook and Twitter allow this.

Publishing at different times of the day.

Depending on the nature of your business, you could even maintain multiple accounts on social media networks. For example, JetBlue has the following accounts on Twitter

@HelloJetBlue

@JetBlue

@JetBlueCheeps

4. Create a plan that is owned by the organization

Generic social media strategies (spamming ads, haphazardly increasing post frequency, etc.) don’t work to bring in customers. At best, they’ll have diminishing returns that drop off a cliff. While there are many reasons why social media campaigns fail, one of the biggest reasons for failure is the lack of top-to-bottom buy-in from all employees in a company.

Whether it is a company of one or several thousand, when the entire company shares the same vision for success, it can achieve amazing social media results and engagement.

For example, Steve Jobs helped Apple and the world catch the vision that has transformed people’s lives the world over. The first iPhone launch speech is an example of that.

Are you are still sitting on the fence about this? Then consider some math to see the potential of involving the people behind the brand on social media.

Let’s say you are a midsize company with 100 employees and 5,000 followers on major social media platforms. Let’s also assume that each employee has 200 followers of their own. So, in total, you have 25,000 unique followers.

By asking your employees to share messages, you can boost your audience from 5,000 to 25,000 in theory. But is there more to this than theory?

Research shows word-of-mouth messages from family and friends are more relevant and trustworthy than social media messages from corporate accounts. In fact, content from employees:

Gets eight times more engagement than content shared by brand channels.

Is reshared 25 times more.

Leads developed through employee social marketing are seven times more likely to close than other forms of leads.

Therefore, we can say that when employees share messages via social media, brands not only expand their social media reach but get better results.

Here are a few steps to create a unique plan that is owned by the organization.

Ensure that someone is leading the project and willing to coordinate, motivate others, and filter all content and social media.

Educate via an event like a company social media summit that brings most if not all your staff together. Why? Because most employees do not understand the power and potential of social media.

Pull together a plan of how each employee can contribute and make a difference to the social media marketing and branding strategy.

Share the customer personas you need to engage with.

Provide resources and encouragement for staff as opposed to rules and regulations

Create a repository of content and ideas for company accounts and pages.

Inform employees on a regular basis of the outcomes of their social media efforts. This could take the form of a newsletter and cover areas such as:

Mentions of well-received articles and employees who wrote them

Increase in the number of visitors due to social media and or content efforts

Sales or leads gained because of social media efforts

Customer testimonials or comments on social media posts and content

Examples of how specific pieces of content helped prospects or led to a sale

Opportunities for employees to have their questions and feedback answered

Provide ongoing social media training via in-person workshops or video training.

5. Define your objectives

Choosing the right social media objectives can mean the difference between wasting time and resources or making a real impact on your business. A common mistake businesses make is assuming that social media marketing operates in a space all by itself. Some businesses operate as if investing significant amounts in social media marketing will solve their business problems once posts go viral. Trouble is, it usually won’t.

Your social media marketing and branding strategy should be aimed at achieving certain objectives. If they are not, then you are on social media for the sake of being on social media.

A huge benefit to social media is that sharing good, relevant content with your audience – and having them share it as well – can generate a following with current customers and prospects. So, you must define your objectives on social media, or you will waste valuable time and resources mismatching your company’s needs and the audience you attract.

If, say, your objective is to increase sales and conversions, then you need to consider how your social media efforts tie into your sales and conversion efforts.

Setting meaningful objectives that align with what customers want is a powerful part of any social media branding strategy and the technology used. Also, they help secure executive buy-in and budget for your strategy.

Social media objectives will also determine the voice, the content and channels you use, and the time, money, and effort you spend on those channels. Most importantly, they help determine if your efforts are paying off and determine your social media ROI.

For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, your objectives could be as follows:

Expose the brand to 10,000 new people over the next three months

Improve brand reputation by reducing negative brand mentions by 3 percent and increasing positive brand mentions by 5 percent over the next three months

See increased engagement with brand social media channels by 4 percent over the next three months

Increase the reach of thought leadership content by 5 percent over the next three months

6. Select the right success metrics

Some companies define objectives on social media without quantifying the metrics. However, well-defined metrics allow brands to defend their efforts, track progress, and optimize their efforts for ongoing success. With so many platforms offering their own analytics and metrics, it can seem very difficult to select the right ones that will paint a true picture of the effect of your brand’s social media efforts.

There are three types of success metrics that any brand needs to monitor. They are:

Business metrics – These are the metrics aligned with the brand’s business objectives. Examples of these are brand affinity, market share, customer lifetime value, net promoter score, brand awareness, etc.

Performance metrics – These are key performance indicators (KPIs) or the numbers that signal how your social media efforts are tracking against the goals established through the business metrics. Examples of these are sales, mentions, reach, audience growth, marketing qualified leads (MQLs), etc.

Optimization metrics – These numbers that often take the form of ratios or rates provide insights that answer the question “How can we better achieve the social media marketing goals?” Examples of these are growth rate, cost per click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR), cost per acquisition (CPA), engagement per post, conversion rate, engagement rate, etc.

7. Create value for your audience

Value in a product is not enough to keep an audience engaged on social media. Almost 80 percent of customers say a brand’s social media posts impact their buying decision.

Take BarkBox, for example. Their content is geared toward a passionate group of dog owners who feel the content speaks to them personally. BarkBox chose to focus on Instagram and YouTube, as these platforms are filled with photos and videos of dogs.

Check out the “Congratulations! You are a dog person” video below.

When companies neglect to listen and be involved in a community, people sense they are being sold to rather than “communicated with” and quickly lose interest. Sometimes brands don’t invest in a consistent flow of valuable content for their social media presence because they believe product quality will speak for itself. In the modern business landscape, this is suicide.

Here are some simple ways to create value for your audience on social media:

Authenticity goes a long way – if you show what is behind the curtain, your audience on social media will view you as transparent and trustworthy.

Save your best rewards, add-ons, and upsells for your best customers, and do not base your acquisition analysis on who responds to free giveaways.

Provide inspiration through funny memes or short, insightful blogs.

Do the unexpected. You wouldn’t expect a small BBQ chicken shop in the outer suburbs of Melbourne to get much attention, but with a couple of unusual videos on Facebook, owner Wally Khawli saved the business from going under.

Tell stories that matter to your audience.

React in real-time to news – jack pop culture and popular events when appropriate.

Play to your audience’s emotions. Find out what they care about and tailor your messages appropriately.

Start your social media comment threads with thoughtful questions that engender spirited conversation.

Involve and engage your audience with your brand by asking for their input on topics or asking questions.

Let your customers decide to promote your products and services as solutions – do not use social media to oversell your latest promotion.

8. Show you’re human

Want to make real connections with your audience while also increasing engagement with your posts? If so, authenticity and showing people that you are human cannot be overstated. According to one survey, 63 percent of respondents buy from an authentic brand over competitors that hide their true selves.

Why struggle to show your true selves and instead put off your target audience?

Lessons can be learned from the Twitter account @BrandsSayingBae, which quickly gained 25,000 followers and sparked a conversation around businesses attempting to sound relatable and the effectiveness of doing so.

Such activity creates an “uncanny valley” effect. According to robotics professor Masahiro Mori, the uncanny valley is an emotional effect. He says people tend to be repulsed by things that are closely humanlike but don’t quite achieve that state. In other words, brands attempting to be cool and friendly on social media became unsettling and repulsive to their audience.

In their attempt to be their audience’s “bae,” they instead became the equivalent of a leper or leering stalker, repelling their target audience.

However, these situations can be turned around. Social media gives your brand the opportunity to show your audience who you are, not just what’s available for sale.

So how do you develop a brand voice and strategy that adds a human element and personality to your social media pages?

By asking thoughtful questions and being timely in your responses to show your audience that you care about them and topics that are of interest to them.

By sharing content around topics or themes that are of interest to your audience. For example, Ben and Jerry’s, the ice cream manufacturer, blend creativity and humor into some of their Instagram posts. Take the one below for example which was published in time for a solar eclipse that could be viewed in most of the United States. 

Present your milestones and events in a social manner. For example, sock manufacturer Bombas, which was founded around a humanitarian cause, regularly celebrates new initiatives and milestones like they do with this

Celebrate holidays that matter to your audience; for example, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Celebrate trends that matter to your audience. For example, Coca-Cola joined the conversation on National Taco Day with this tweet:

Must Eat Taco Must. Have. Ice-Cold. Coca-Cola. #NationalTacoDay #ServeWithACoke pic.twitter.com/IOgyF9E1s3

— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) October 4, 2017

9. Create a channel plan

Many brands assume that social media marketing involves posting their content anywhere and everywhere. In other words, there is little that distinguishes their Twitter account from their LinkedIn account.

Every social media channel has a different audience and each audience tends to use the channel for different reasons. For example, Twitter users use Twitter for news and updates, whereas LinkedIn users use the channel to engage with their network and catch up on industry news and events.

As part of your social media marketing strategy, which should be informed by your content marketing strategy, it is best to evaluate each social media channel and its usefulness to your brand and the audience you want to attract.

Consider doing the following before selecting a specific channel:

Map your existing content to the most appropriate channels for distribution.

Understand the value proposition of each platform to your audience and why it would be a good fit for your brand. For example, your audience may prefer Snapchat for personal video conversations with friends but prefer LinkedIn for educational long-form text content.

To decide on the best channel to use and develop a plan for it, consider the following questions:

Who uses this channel, and what are they using it for?

Will it help us meet our objectives?

Does it fit in with our editorial mission?

What results do we want to achieve?

What kinds of content will work best on this platform?

What’s the right tone of voice for this platform?

What’s the ideal posting frequency?

10. Get your content to a large social audience

You already know that organic social media reach is plummeting. Whether it’s organic reach on Facebook or any of the other platforms, it is getting harder to reach your audience without paying for it.

Paying to increase your reach can help. However, in the case of major social media platforms, reach is also driven by how engaging your content is to your audience. So, taking the time to share quality content and optimizing the content you share to the platform while keeping user experience in mind will help extend your reach.

Take, for example, Expedia, which has region-specific blogs such as…

The Australian “Out There Starts Here.” The Facebook post below previews a 24-hour guide to New York City, which links back to an in-depth blog post.

The Instagram post below links to a guide on must-see Halloween destinations.

Both blogs operate in a very competitive space. It is worth noting that to grow an audience, to keep them engaged and coming back, they really leverage their social media channels.

The blogs also do a good job of providing tips, guides, and inspiration for their audience.

Notice how they marry great travel shots with curiosity-inducing copy. Copy that relates to the webpage or blog post content aid recall. Take, for example, the Instagram post below, which links to the landing page on Discover Shandong.

  While you may need to pay to reach a new and existing audience, there are some critical steps you can take to get your content to a large-enough social audience.

Focus your content promotion efforts on the right platforms

Optimize your social media profiles

Post evergreen content

Experiment to find the right publishing frequency and times

Use targeting to maximize your content reach

Consider posting during nonpeak hours

Promote the right types of content

Promote the right balance of useful/promotional content

Interact with and engage your followers

11. Use data to back your social media investments

Despite the number of metrics to gauge performance, too many don’t understand what we are getting out of social media.

A study by Simply Measured and the CMO Survey show that demonstrating ROI is the number one challenge among marketers. Only one in five CMOs can show the impact of social media in quantitative terms.

The problem is that there is no common denominator for measuring social media marketing ROI. Because of this, the effectiveness of social media has been measured haphazardly at best, and not at all in some cases.

So how do you resolve this? Here are five steps to measure the effectiveness of your social media efforts:

Identify your KPIs (key performance indicators)

Align your social media goals with business objectives

Set up your analytics to track conversions

Assign values to your KPIs, choosing from methods such as;

Lifetime value – Use a calculator like this one to figure out how much you earn on average from a customer

Lifetime value x conversion rate – This will help you figure out how much each potential visit is worth to you

Average sale – How much the average purchase order is

PPC costs – How much you need to spend on advertising to get the traffic and conversions you need

Benchmark against your competitors

Get started

What does fixing your social media branding strategy look like in reality?

Mercedes-Benz was billed as stodgy and tired in 2010. However, it made a concerted effort to figure out who their younger audience was and where they hung out.

With the help of Razorfish, they created the Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race.

With the help of four two-person teams, they reached out to online supporters. The social media engagement generated is what drove real Mercedes-Benz vehicles forward. Four tweets were required to drive the car one mile.

The results:

7 percent increase in scheduled test drives

6 percent increase in first-time owners and leases

27,000-plus active participants

The campaign reached 25 million people

Regardless of where you are with your social media branding strategy, follow the process outlined above to fix and build an authentic and strong brand image on social media. Use the framework to conduct audits to ensure you amplify your media strategy efforts to meet your business objectives.

Guest author:  The founder of Sproutworth, Vinay Koshy loves helping entrepreneurs and digital marketers rapidly build authority and traffic with educational data and science-backed content. He is a Copyblogger-certified content marketer. As Content Marketing Manager for WP Curve, Vinay grew their subscriber list to over 30,000 before they were sold to GoDaddy.

The post How to Fix Your Broken Social Media Branding Strategy appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

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Unit 11

1.2. A photographer needs: artistic and creative ability, technical ability with a wide range of photographic equipment and technology, a keen eye for detail, good communication and people skills and good time management skills with the ability to meet tight deadlines.

Sometimes you will need either a bachelor's degree in visual arts, specializing in photography, or specialized training in photography in high school, college or specialized training schools, or you need extensive on-the-job training under the supervision of a photographer. However,  This depends on what the employer asks of you, you may need experience in, or knowledge of, computerized photography/digital imaging. You may also need to demonstrate your creative/technical ability with a portfolio of your work.

2.1. Most CVs begin with your personal details and then progress to an opening personal statement. Following this you may like to list your work experiences based on how relevant they are to the position you are applying for. If this does not work for you, then writing your work history in reverse chronological order usually makes most sense.After your relevant work experience, it is a good idea to add a section about your educational background. This should include the most relevant professional courses and training you have been on and only then move on to university, college and school qualifications.A good way of bringing a CV to a conclusion is to list a few personal interests and hobbies. Don't be exhaustive here. A few bullet points are enough to give an indication of your personality.

Telephone manner is very important when applying for jobs as this is probably the first stage at which your employer will hear from you and this will be your first impression to them, it is important to speak clearly, not use slang or poor language, address the person formally using there proper title and be very focussed when on the call.

When making a digital portfolio giving design work some context is arguably the most important part. A paragraph or two describing the project you worked on, what the brief was and how you went about tackling it gives the viewer a much better hold on your work. By showcasing more than just the end product takes the viewer on a journey through your work. It show how the project progressed towards the final product; some photos of low-fidelity sketches and the planning stages you went through make for a really comprehensive portfolio to look at, and they also make it easier for the viewer to understand your design decisions and appreciate all the work that was put in.

2.2.

3.1.

1. Have a Clear Message - Work out what you want to say in two or three sentences before elaborating your ideas.  In order to make an impact you need to have clear recommendations, backed up by convincing arguments.

2. Structure your Presentation - Make sure the structure of your presentation is clear. You need: A short introduction explaining what the presentation is about and what you are going to cover and clear sections or themes within the presentation (there might be one slide per theme).

3.  Less Is More - It is better to keep your presentation succinct and allow the audience to ask follow-up questions at the end rather than rushing through a mound of information.  It is especially important that any slides you use are visually clear and not  text-heavy. Restrict slides to 3 or 4 for a 5 minute presentation, and 6 or 7 for a 10 minute presentation.Remember, you don’t have to put all your points onto your slides – it is fine to put some top-line points on a slide but then elaborate on them verbally. If your presentation requires more detail, this can be given as a supporting hard copy handout.

4.  Manage your Time - It is important that your presentation lasts the amount of time you have been given – too short and you can appear a lightweight candidate; too long and you seem poorly organised – and you may be cut off halfway through. It is always a good idea to have a timed run through of your finished presentation but this is not always fool proof (nerves often lead people to speed up). Give yourself some flexibility by having an extra slide or two up your sleeve to add in if you are running ahead of time and/ or decide in advance on a slide which you will be able to skip if you are running over.

5. Do Your Research - Make sure you have researched your topic thoroughly . Find out how the institution or department have handled this issue in the past. Research what their competitor institutions are doing in this field. And have some relevant facts and figures to illustrate key trends at your fingertips – this can enhance your credibility and show impressive levels of preparation.

6. Know your Audience - Before writing your presentation, consider your panel members.  What are their job responsibilities, priorities, professional backgrounds and interests? You can find out a lot through online research on sites such as LinkedIn, or ask others who work for and with those individuals.  Think about your presentation from their individual perspective and consider what aspects of the topic will most interest them. 

7.  Predict Follow Up Questions - Go through your presentation and work out what questions the panel might ask, especially given their job roles and personal perspectives.  Make sure you have an answer ready for these questions.  Typical follow up questions might include: Why do you want to come here?   

8. Test It Out - It is a good idea to run through your ideas for the presentation with colleagues who are well informed about the topic before you finalise the content. Gathering views can help you discover if there is something obvious you have neglected to mention and to ensure your ideas are well understood by others.  Ask your colleagues to test you with follow up questions and see how well prepared you are.

9. Take Back Up - Always make sure you have a Plan B if the technology is not working or a vital piece of equipment is not available. If you are delivering a powerpoint presentation, email it to yourself as well as taking it on a stick just in case. It can also be helpful to print off some hard copies in case there are problems with the projector. You may wish to take a small clock in case the room doesn’t have one, and you don’t wish to keep checking your watch.

10. Build Rapport - The more familiar you are with your material and the more thorough your research, the more confident you will feel.  The best way to engage your audience is to maintain strong eye contact ; avoid looking at the screen or reading notes.  Use keywords on a card as prompts rather than memorising sentences as a ‘speech’ as this will appear more natural. Remember to smile and to pause at key points. Address panel members by name when answering their questions.  Remember to take your time and enjoy it! It’s not often you get to be the centre of attention and are able to put your views directly to senior members of staff. 

3.2. Good communication. How clearly you convey your ideas, plus your ability to listen to others, are of keen interest to employers, effective leadership and management, planning and research skills, teamwork and interpersonal skills, self-management, relevant work experience.