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[rankmunk]

Boost Engagement with Rankmunk LinkedIn Advertising

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Elevate Your Brand: Top Social Media Marketing Services Available in Oman

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape of today, social media has emerged as a crucial resource for businesses to engage with their target audience, enhance brand visibility, and boost sales. As social media platforms continue to grow in popularity, businesses in Oman are increasingly turning to social media marketing services to enhance their online presence and reach a broader audience. Whether you're a small local business or a large corporation, leveraging social media marketing services in Oman can significantly impact your brand's growth and success.

The Importance of Social Media Marketing in Oman

Oman, like many other countries, has seen a substantial increase in internet usage and social media adoption. With platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat becoming integral parts of daily life, businesses have a golden opportunity to engage with their target audience directly. Social media marketing services in Oman offer businesses the ability to tailor their messages, interact with customers in real-time, and track the effectiveness of their campaigns with precision.

In Oman, where cultural values and traditions play a significant role in consumer behaviour, social media marketing allows businesses to craft culturally sensitive content that resonates with the local audience. This level of customization is vital for building trust and credibility, which are essential for long-term success in the Omani market.

Key Social Media Marketing Services in Oman

When it comes to social media marketing, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. Different businesses have unique needs and goals, and the right social media strategy should be tailored to meet those specific requirements. Below are some of the key social media marketing services in Oman that can help elevate your brand:

1. Social Media Strategy Development

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2. Content Creation and Curation

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4. Social Media Management

Managing multiple social media accounts can be time-consuming and overwhelming. Social media management services in Oman provide businesses with comprehensive account management, including posting regular updates, responding to comments and messages, and monitoring social media activity. This service ensures that your brand maintains an active and consistent presence on social media, which is crucial for building a loyal following.

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Measuring the success of your social media campaigns is essential for understanding what's working and what needs improvement. Social media marketing services in Oman include detailed analytics and reporting, where experts track key metrics such as engagement rates, follower growth, and conversion rates. These insights help businesses make informed decisions and refine their strategies for better results.

6. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has emerged as a prominent trend within the realm of social media marketing. By partnering with influencers who have a strong following in Oman, businesses can reach a wider audience and build credibility. Social media marketing services in Oman often include influencer marketing strategies, where experts identify the right influencers for your brand, manage the collaboration, and track the campaign's success.

Why Choose Social Media Marketing Services in Oman?

Choosing the right social media marketing services in Oman can make a significant difference in your brand's success. Below are several compelling reasons to contemplate investing in these services.

1. Local Expertise

Understanding the local market is crucial for any marketing campaign. Social media marketing services in Oman are provided by professionals who have in-depth knowledge of the local culture, trends, and consumer behaviour. This expertise allows them to create content and strategies that resonate with the Omani audience, leading to better engagement and results.

2. Customised Solutions

Every business is unique, and so are its social media marketing needs. Social media marketing services in Oman offer customized solutions that cater to your specific goals and challenges. Whether you need help with content creation, advertising, or social media management, these services can be tailored to meet your requirements.

3. Cost-Effective Marketing

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4. Enhanced Brand Visibility

In a competitive market like Oman, standing out from the crowd is essential. Social media marketing services help increase your brand's visibility by leveraging the power of social media platforms. With a well-executed strategy, your brand can reach new customers, build brand loyalty, and ultimately drive sales.

5. Real-Time Engagement

One of the key advantages of social media marketing is the ability to engage with your audience in real time. Social media marketing services in Oman enable businesses to interact with customers, respond to inquiries, and address concerns promptly. This level of engagement helps build trust and strengthens customer relationships.

Conclusion

In today's digital landscape, social media has transitioned from being an optional tool to an essential component for businesses aiming to succeed in a competitive environment. Social media marketing services in Oman offer a wide range of solutions designed to help businesses enhance their online presence, engage with their audience, and achieve their marketing goals. By investing in these services, your brand can stay ahead of the competition, build lasting customer relationships, and drive growth in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Whether you're just starting your social media journey or looking to refine your existing strategy, social media marketing services in Oman can provide the expertise and support you need to succeed. Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your brand—explore the top social media marketing services available in Oman today.

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Pinterest Marketing

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In today’s world of hyper-connected businesses, social media is a must-have for connecting with your audience. It’s easy to understand why Pinterest is at the top of the list. Pinterest is the visual search engine that millions of users rely on to find what they’re looking for, and that’s what drives them to make buying decisions. As Pinterest continues to grow in popularity, there’s a growing need for Pinterest Marketing Agencies. In thisPinterest Marketing Agency Guide, we’ll go deep into the benefits of working with Pinterest marketing agencies and how they’ll help you grow your business on this constantly evolving platform.

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[dhrubo-organization]

Social Media Advertising for Sports Brands

How Dhrubo Organization Helps Sports Brands Succeed with Social Media Advertising Social media advertising has become an integral part of any successful marketing strategy, and sports brands are no exception. In fact, sports brands can benefit greatly from social media advertising, as it allows them to engage with their target audience, showcase their products and services, and increase brand…

[aoioozora]

Simon.

Part 4

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13

Character: Simon Riley / Ghost

Content: Biker! Ghost x Fem! Reader, strangers to lovers, fluff, civilian au

Note: Longer chapter! Hope you'll enjoy it. anyway, if anyone knows who the artist of this art below is, please let me know. I find it all on Pinterest and I can't seem to trace the artist 🥲.

The steady, bubbling stream of cold tap water hitting Simon's warm, weary, grimy hands as he washed them was a respite from the busyness of the day. 

He was, by profession, a car mechanic in the servicing department for a glitzy car brand. The day was booked to the brim with cars that needed maintenance and repair from accidents, and it was enough work for him to feel a dull ache in his shoulders, and a tremble in his hands as he lathered them generously with soap. 

A weary sigh tried to escape his lips, only to be hindered by the mask he wore day in and day out. He felt his own warm breath against his mouth and cringed; an unwelcome feeling after working in the sweltering garage. 

When he found that he was all alone in the loo, he took the opportunity to take off his mask, actually and properly sigh, and wash his face. He quickly wiped it down with a handkerchief, and not allowing a moment for his skin to breathe, he put the mask back on. 

A phone call came in as he was stepping out. It was her. He found it a little odd to get a call from her, as the two mostly texted. 

“Maybe it's something urgent,” thought Simon, now stopping by the door of the restroom. 

“Hey, you alright, love?” he asked as soon as he picked up. 

“I'm fine, Simon, but I kinda have an emergency.” Her voice came from the other end, sounding a little frantic, making him worry a little. 

“What's up?” 

“My car broke down, and I don't know what it is. I have the bonnet open and everything looks so confusing.”

“Where are you now?” 

She told him. 

“Okay, you wait there. I'll be there in,” he looked at his watch, “twenty minutes… Or as fast as I can.”

“Thanks, Simon,” she exhaled her relief. 

“Are you with someone?” 

“No, I'm alone.” 

Simon's jaw tightened. “Make sure you sit inside the car and lock the doors. It's getting dark and it could get dangerous.”

“Got it.” 

The call soon ended and Simon quickly changed out of his uniform to his normal clothes which consisted of a v-neck t-shirt, jeans, and his staple: the leather jacket. Having taken all his stuff, he clocked out and immediately mounted his motorcycle to fly over to your rescue. 

Seeing that the sun had set already, he went faster. He reached her in fifteen minutes. Upon spotting her car parked by the side of the road away from the traffic, he slowed down and parked his motorcycle in front of her car. 

He saw the bonnet of the car slightly open, and was upset by it. “She's practically advertising to the world that her car's broken down. That could get more attention drawn to her,” he thought as he kicked out the stand and swung his leg over the motorcycle, now laying a heavy step on the asphalt. 

The stench of rotten eggs filled the air, and he already knew what the problem was. While he took off his helmet, he watched as she quickly opened your door and came out of the car to greet him. 

“Oh good, you're finally here,” she smiled, looking relieved. 

“Tell me what's going on,” Simon got down to business immediately, now taking off his black leather gloves that had printed on them the bones of the hand and stuffing them in his pocket. 

She led him to the open bonnet of the car, and the stench overwhelmed his nose even through the mask. She told him about a sputtering engine. 

“Did you see any dashboard signs telling you to check the engine?” he asked. 

“Nope.” 

“Can you sit inside and turn on the radio for me? And turn on the headlights too,” Simon instructed. 

She did as told. The radio didn't turn on, and the headlights were dim. He turned to the open bonnet and stared particularly at the battery. One of the connectors and pipes was caked with a teal powder; he called her out of the car, pointing out the discovery. 

“Your battery is leaking out acid, bringing out all this bloody minging smell,” he said, brushing a bit of the teal powder with his finger. “Leaking battery and a stench means you have to get a new battery.” He now rubbed the powder off and put his hands on his hips, asking, “When was the last time you had the battery changed?” 

“Six years ago? When I bought the car.”

Simon was appalled by how nonchalantly she said it. He shook his head and exclaimed, “Six years? You cannot be serious.” he could feel his mechanic heart breaking at the sound of such neglect. “Your battery is ancient. The maximum life of this thing is six years.” 

She could feel the heat rush to her cheeks in embarrassment as he said this. “I didn't know that. I'm not good with cars, you know. I just rolled with whatever the mechanics in the service center did.”

“Fucking hell,” Simon sighed, exasperated as he looked at the battery again. “Looks like the service center mechanics weren't doing a very good job,” he shook his head again. “Batteries dying of old age are common, but this looks absolutely nasty. Almost looks like it's been neglected. You've been duped!” He said with passion. 

Her eyebrows furrowed at this and funnily enough, she couldn't help but feel like she was on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares with a blond Englishman scolding her; the only difference being that a failing car was involved and not a failing kitchen. 

He glanced at her, and saw that she had her arms crossed as she looked at the open bonnet of the car with a guilty and helpless look on her face. Simon's eyes softened with compassion and he gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder. 

“I'll call someone to tow the car to a better service center. I know a good one,” he said, hoping to assure her, “If we can get there now, they can fix in a new battery for you.”

Without waiting for an answer from her, he immediately called a towing company for the car, and then the service center to give them a heads up that he was bringing a car in. He even managed to bag a discount! 

She watched with amazement as he made all these phone calls, words flying out like a hurricane as he paced about the pavement, hand on his hip. The more passionate he seemed about wanting to help, the more the guilt and embarrassment pressed in her heart. 

When all the phone calls were done, he let out a heavy sigh as he slipped the device back in his jeans. “Right then,” he said, “I've got you all covered. Now we wait.”

She nodded and watched him curiously for a moment before asking, “You know all those people?” 

“Yeah, all friends of mine. I'm a regular at the service center for my motorcycle. As for the towing company, the boss is a friend of a friend.” 

“Must be great to have a lot of connections, huh?” 

Simon nodded. “I've always tried to have as many connections as possible because someone once told me that it's not about what you know, but who you know.” 

She saw a solemn, distant, and thoughtful look pass through his eyes for a split second, as if thinking of a past memory. It was quickly replaced with annoyance. “It's too fucking hot here,” he hissed as he peeled off his leather jacket. 

This action gave her the opportunity to see him in a short sleeved shirt, which displayed his pale yet muscular arms, which clearly were built strong out of continuous use and not for a mere decoration. The entirety of his left arm was inked with intricate black tattoos, all the designs of skulls, roses, and guns fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was understatement to say that she felt her ovaries explode at the sight. 

Simon was intentional when he took off his jacket, although it was true that he did feel hot. A glance at her told him that she didn't seem to take notice of his muscles or his tattoos, a disappointment to him. But he wasn't keen enough to catch her quick, stealthy glances at his arms as her thoughts ran wild again in trying to be superfluous in her descriptions of them.

She couldn't help but think to herself that, “He'd make the perfect mysterious male lead of a dark romance.”

The tow truck arrived and before she knew it, she was Simon's passenger on his motorcycle, entrusted with his leather jacket. The two led the truck to the service center, and all the while, she was pressed against his warm back, highly conscious of the fact that the barrier between his back and her face was just a thin t-shirt and not a thick leather jacket like the first.

Her authorly brain couldn't help but turn this into a sort of metaphor. Was it a thinning of the barriers between him and her, now that they've been friends for over a month? 

“Let's not overanalyze this, shall we?” she reminded herself, gently squeezing her arms around him as he sped down the roads, trying to ignore how she could feel the contours of his body under the thin fabric. 

Fixing the car took a couple tedious hours, but Simon made sure to be with his friend throughout, explaining to her in excruciating detail whatever he could about the functioning of a car so that she would not be duped again. She appreciated his lectures and listened attentively, even though he wasn't the best at explaining things. 

At the end of it all, the two sat down in her newly fixed car for some cold soda that she bought for him. The air conditioning was running well (Simon was relieved), and so was the radio, which was now tuned to a station softly playing some old timey American songs in the background. 

“You were a great help,” she said as she cracked open the tab of the can as Simon did. 

“My pleasure, love,” he raised his can and tapped it gently with her can. “Cheers.” 

“Cheers,” she grinned, and then paused to look at him, wondering if he would remove his mask, as he had never done so in front of her before. 

Simon found himself in a bit of a predicament as he stared at his can of soda. He was usually more mindful of his mask when he was with strangers and acquaintances, but with the fuss of the car and all his chatting with her, he completely forgot that drinking soda would have to make him take off the mask. 

Would he remove his mask when he didn't yet want to, even though he wanted to share this drink with her? He glanced back at her and found her silently drinking her soda and staring ahead, pretending not to notice his mental debate. 

Gaz's reprimand came to mind again, “You're telling me you'll let a scar– a scar, of all things, hinder your chances at finding a girlfriend.”

He wasn't wrong. Now that Simon thought of it, the sooner he showed his marred face to her, the lesser it would hurt if she rejected him. 

“Don't overthink it,” he told himself as he slipped his finger under the ear loop of his mask and pulled it over his ear, making the mask slip off to reveal the lower part of his face. He sat back, casually as he could, and took off the other ear loop so wouldn't awkwardly dangle from his other ear, all the while trying to ignore how naked he felt without the covering. 

“Soda's pretty good, isn't it?” she asked, turning to look at him. 

“Hm, yes,” he answered in a murmur, now taking the first sip of his soda and pulling away the can for her to finally look at his face. 

He saw her looking, and his heart rate spiked and cheeks flushed (thank heavens it was dark), waiting for a reaction from her.

She finally had the privilege of seeing his face, and in a split second, she tried to make the most of it. His face as a whole was beautiful, pleasing to the eye. He had a rectangular face, high and prominent cheekbones; a long, sharp nose, thin lips, and a light stubble across his jaw and cheeks. 

He squirmed slightly in his seat and looked away, taking another sip. Seeing that he was uncomfortable being looked at, she too looked away, now feeling shy that she was in the presence of such a gorgeous man. Why on earth did he cover his face was a mystery to her. 

She began, her voice unwittingly rising to a higher pitch, “Seriously though, I don't know how I went years without having anyone to consult me about cars.” 

Simon blinked in surprise that she didn't make any comments on his face after looking at him, and wasn't sure whether to consider it a good thing or a bad thing. He decided to worry about it later. 

“Not a single person?” he asked, instinctively and slightly leaning towards her as she spoke.

“Not one.”

“And did you never notice any problems with the car before we took it to be fixed today?”

“I did, and I wheeled the car off to the service center many times only to be shut down saying that it wasn't a big deal and it would resolve itself,” she shrugged. 

“They said that? Fucking twats they all are,” said he with a low grumble. 

“Unfortunately,” she shrugged again, watching how his lips curled upwards into a sneer of displeasure and how his nose crinkled along with it. 

“Tell you what, darling,” Simon shifted in his seat slightly and held out his can-holding hand at her, flicking out his pointer finger to make a point, “you don't need to worry about those bastards when you got me, yeah? If you got any car problems, I'll fix them for you.”

He saw her eyes soften at this proposal, but she glanced away for a moment, as if considering it with some hesitation. He knew her just enough to know that she had trouble accepting help when she needed it. Without waiting for an answer, he pressed gently to encourage her,

“You know I'm a car mechanic, and a fucking good one too.” He sat back in the seat, now drowning the last of his soda. “You won't have to call anyone else when you have me. Just hit me up, and I'll be there…” he paused to meet her eye, hoping to let her know he was completely serious, “... Just like tonight.” 

This didn't fail to cause a flutter in her chest. She smiled, genuinely warmed and touched by how eager he was to help. “Thanks, Simon.”

His cheeks raised up to his eyes as he smiled, and the lady was taken in by how sweet it was. Their eyes met again, and the two felt an undeniable tension in the air; sparks flying around them, ready to explode at the slightest provocation. 

The soft yellow headlights of a passing vehicle shone into the car, momentarily brightening up his pale face and his deep brown eyes into soft pools of honey. The light, for a brief moment, also revealed a prominent scar on his cheek, something that the earlier darkness hid from her sight. 

Yet again did her authorly brain try to turn this moment into a metaphor. Was this gentle flash of passing light meant to shine upon a part of him behind his dark veil, his mask of mystery, to reveal bright, affectionate eyes, and a curious yet faint scar? Could this have been a sign of their ever growing closeness?

As the light passed, his honey eyes darkened again; they narrowed slightly and he leaned forward just a little, his breathing laboured, as if he wanted to say something. The lady squirmed in her seat and felt her chest tighten as she silently watched him, unable to look away. 

“I was wondering…” he began, now pausing to inhale, “if we could hang out any time soon, just both of us,” he said, trying to sound as casual as he could, and he quickly added, “I'm about to finish your novel, Firefly Trails, and I was hoping we could talk more about it…” he paused, feeling his entire body grow warm with nervous anticipation, “And maybe you could suggest some more books I could read.” 

Her eyes lit up at this invitation. “Sure! I'd love to. When are you free?”

“I'm free this weekend.” 

“Alright, that sounds good.” she grinned.

Simon was relieved to hear the eagerness in her voice, and took it that she still wanted something to do with him. The two went on to decide the particulars of the hangout for a while, until a phone call interrupted. Simon pulled out his phone and sighed when he saw who was calling. 

“What do you want, Johnny?” 

“Where are ye? Ye were s'posed to be at the gym thirty minutes ago. I'm waiting!” complained Johnny. 

“Ah, blimey,” Simon shook his head, “Completely forgot. ____ had some car trouble so I went to help her out.”

Simon was met with teasing jeers from his friend, making him groan. “Wheesht!” Simon hissed, only for it to make Johnny cackle. “Look, I'll be right there. Give me…” he looked at his watch, “Fifteen minutes.” 

“Make it quick lad, or you'll get a bollocking from me.” 

“Fuck off now. You'll delay me.” 

The call ended and Simon looked at her, sighing. “Gotta go,” he said. 

A subtle pout pushed out her lower lip. “Too bad, and we were just starting to get into our planning too.”

He chuckled, feeling warmed by her sentiment. “Yeah, but don't worry darling, we have the entire week ahead of us to plan comfortably, yeah?” 

She nodded, smiling. 

“Right then,” he slapped his knees, “I'll see you around then, alright? You take care on your way back.”

“You too, Simon.”

He sighed, pausing for a moment to take in the way she said his name. He never wanted to admit it to her, but he loved every instance she uttered it. The way she'd drag out the first syllable a little, and look at him with those gorgeous, killer eyes of hers as she did; it was enough for a man of his size and strength to melt like a little cube of ice in the palm of her hand. A simple action, yet it riled him up enough to want to kiss the living hell out of her. 

He inhaled, trying to get every carnal urge under control. “Text me when you reach, alright?” he said in a mildly strained voice. 

“Sure, will do.” she nodded. 

That being said and good-night's exchanged, Simon quickly put his mask back on, got out of the car, and threw the empty can in a bin. She watched as he made his way to his waiting motorcycle, observing his gait, the way his hips, shoulders, and arms moved in clockwork, relaxed but determined. She found herself leaning against the steering wheel again to stare at the way he hoisted up his leg and swung it in a smooth sweep over his motorcycle, and then settled down on the vehicle, making the shock absorbers bounce back slightly against his weight. 

She gazed with interest as he put on his gloves and then grabbed the helmet, only to raise his chin up to let gravity comb his gorgeous blond hair down so that it stayed out of his way as he put the headgear. His biceps flexed and tightened against the short sleeve of his t-shirt, and even from a little distance away, she could see how his tattoos moved against the contours of his muscles like ocean waves. 

He looked back at her and caught her staring. At the sight of her relentless gaze, all he could hear in his head was Gaz telling him to shoot his shot. Her smiles, her acceptance to meet again were, and especially her stating were all massive green lights for him, yet he was still in partial disbelief. 

Meeting her eyes again gave him a jolt down his spine, and waved one last time before he left. She smiled sheepishly and waved back at him, blushing at the fact that she was caught.  

He rode off, leaving her the echo of the roar of the engine, and she sat back in her driver's seat, finishing the last sips of the lukewarm soda in her hand that she completely forgot about. His figure receded in the distance and she remembered the first time she met him. 

“He's been saving me since back then.” she chuckled to herself, feeling a little ashamed at how helpless she found herself to be. But she was more than grateful for his help, and for the fact that he never complained and was so eager to assist her. It was the third time he helped her out, and it was almost as if he'd come running back all over again if she called. 

He certainly lived up to his name. 

And then there was his face. She allowed her mind to wander as she thought of his rugged, masculine features; she didn't know what to expect, but it was certainly unexpected to find such a handsome man hiding under that mask. She could make out only a little in the partial darkness, of his rectangular face and sturdy, stubble-speckled jaw, and of the slope of his shapely, sharp nose. She sighed, suddenly longing to study his face in proper light, and perhaps get lost in his honey eyes. 

Shaking off her thoughts, she reached to her backpack in the backseat for her phone, and found that Simon had left his leather jacket in the back when they had sat down in the front to drink their sodas. 

“Better send him a text.” she thought to herself as she informed him. 

That being done, she kept the phone aside and took the jacket to inspect it. It was obvious that it was made of faux leather, but it was smooth to touch. The lining inside was tartan patterned with dark green and blue, which seemed an odd choice for lining, but she wasn't one to judge. She held the garment against her torso, and as she expected, it was huge. 

“Let's not get creepy with it, shall we?” she reminded herself, now keeping the jacket on her lap as she got the engine running again. 

She drove back home with the jacket, repeatedly telling herself to not be creepy with it, only for her to immediately try it on as soon as she stepped in. 

“It's so comfortable!” she exclaimed as she felt the loose jacket sag around her body and her arms. She stuffed her hands in the pockets and found that they were massive. “Unbelievable... they make men's clothes so much better.”

She pulled away the front of the jacket to feel the tartan lining, and it felt like touching a thick blanket. The jacket was perfect for a cold winter and for the rains that had been pouring lately. 

She pulled it closer against herself, and the lingering scent of his perfume wafted to her nose. It was the same smell of a damp rainforest and dark chocolate, the scent of which immediately took her back to the day she met him.

"Is this what it would feel like to hug him?" she wondered, feeling her cheeks flush warm as she thought of the prospect of being held in those finely sculpted arms.

Her phone chimed, indicating a message. 

Simon Riley Biker: sorry about that, can u keep the jacket with u until we meet again? 

Simon Riley Biker: also have u reached? 

She smiled and started typing her reply.

Author Girl: Sure! 

Author Girl: And yes I did just now 

Simon Riley Biker: right then, I'll catch you soon, ok? At the gym rn

Author Girl: okay! Have a good workout :) 

Simon Riley Biker: thanks darling

On the other side of the phone, Simon was seated in the gym locker rooms by himself, phone in hand, thumbs dancing over the screen up and down as he wondered what he should type next. As he did, a new message came in.

Author Girl: thanks again for helping me out with the car. You saved me yet again 

He chuckled at and started typing, the smile not leaving his half covered face. 

Simon Riley Biker: my pleasure, don't worry about it. U can call me again if you have car problems 

Author Girl: you're too kind 😂 but thanks a lot again 

Simon Riley Biker: anytime darling 

Author Girl: alright then, I'm gonna get some sleep. Good night! 

Simon paused, feeling his heart rate increase for a moment as he thought of something he wanted to do. Swallowing down his nervousness, he did it anyway. 

Simon Riley Biker: [audio: 0:03 seconds] 

He never sent an audio message to her before, and wondering what he could have sent, held the phone speakers to her ear and played it. 

“Good night, love,” came the crisp, clear audio recording in her ear. His normally gruff voice sounded subdued and gentle, smooth, almost oozing with a soft, subtle hint of adoration, especially at the endearment. 

The lady was left stunned, mouth hanging open slightly and her feet affixed to the floor, unable to believe for a moment what she just heard. Butterflies and tingles swarmed every inch of her body, and her cheeks flushed yet again. She played it again. And again. And again. 

Simon, in the meantime, worried about her lack of response, wondering if he was too bold in sending her a voice message. He finally saw that she was typing, and she sure did take a while to collect her thoughts to write a coherent and absolutely calm reply in the form of:

Author Girl: good night, Simon :) 

The conversation ended there, and he breathed a sigh of relief. So far so good. Standing up, he slipped his phone in his pocket and left to get to his workout done with Johnny, unable to stop thinking of her and her smiles.

In the meantime, she stepped into the bathroom for her night routine. Her thoughts too were filled to the brim with Simon while she bathed and did her simple skin care routine all on autopilot. Every other thing that happened during the day was completely overridden just by the presence of that biker, his voice, his warm gaze upon her, his smile, his face. 

She couldn't shake off the feeling, especially of his voice message in her thoughts that played like a broken vinyl record. She was sure that every single interaction she had with him would make it into her next book in some form or other. 

She slipped into her nightwear and then hung his jacket on the coat hook in the corner of her room, resisting the temptation to cuddle with the garment. She finally tucked herself in bed, surrounded by her cushions and plush animals. As soon as the night lamp was switched off and she had nearly sunk in and molded comfortably into her bed and pillows, she played the recording again, the cherry on top to end the long day. 

“Good night, love.” 

It felt like a kiss to the forehead.

End of Part 4.

Part 5

[little-pup-pip]

Hey! I just wanted to let you know, while I think the moodboards you make are super cute and I do love them a lot, they're super disheartening to see.

All of them, are pretty much just stolen content? You don't bother crediting or sourcing anything on them, so they're basically all just photos/art that doesn't belong to you :(

The small artists who create the deco pacis, the plushies, the photography, deserve to be credited and not have their stuff stolen. Especially when they are products the artist is selling (deco pacis, crochet, handmade collars, etc.) they deserve that attention and credit.

/nm but I've just seen SO many people not caring to source their posts. I really encourage you to credit the posts you create.

Hello hello!! First off, I want to tell you that, for the most part, you're right! This is actually something I think about a lot, and I get where you're coming from. Most of the things I post are uncredited pictures, and I'm going to explain why in the best way I can. But ultimately, it's up to you whether this explanation satisfies you or not (if you have suggestions on how to fix it after reading this whole thing, let me know)!

For context, most of the stuff I post are pictures directly from Pinterest, a site that is notorious for being awful at crediting creators and making it difficult to find the original creators of things. I wish Pinterest was better at allowing people to trace the origins of images, and I would love it if I could find the original creators of every picture I use. Unfortunately, it is genuinely impossible to find the people who take most of the pictures on Pinterest a lot of the time (because Pinterest will show you the most recent saver of a picture rather than the poster, and if you do manage to find the poster, you never know if someone reposted a picture, so the person who you think is the creator actually is not). It's really not a matter of "I don't bother to"; it's that often I can't (this is why I try to avoid using art not made by companies because I'd drive myself crazy trying to find the artist)!

I also want to point out that none of the stuff I use is "stolen"! If you look at Pinterest's terms of service, every picture posted there is entirely free to use, sort of like a stock image, and I have to assume that the posters know that. (Legal talk and a simpler version pictured below)

Additionally, I do show products, but often not by small stores or creators. Most of them are literally product advertisements from large companies that will not take any financial hit from this at all. If you go onto Pinterest and look up something like "blanket," you'll find that it's almost completely large corporations! And that is almost entirely the selection of product pictures I use, especially for my petre boards, as I don't think I have any handmade collars in any of my boards, just commercially made ones!

The pictures that are from smaller creators, such as products, as you stated, can easily be traced back to the creators by downloading the picture and using the Pinterest or even google image search; sometimes, there's even a watermark to make things easier. And, if you ask me, I'll find the creator for you if it's possible!

As a small side note, I never take credit for pictures that aren't my own, and I don't make any money from this. I'm not receiving anything that the creators aren't, except maybe views. And, if people asked me to remove pictures they didn't want on other people's accounts shown on one of my moodboards, I would. I have never had that happen, however, and when people do recognize pictures that they made in one of my moodboards, they have only ever been happy to see them. Here are two examples (check the reblogs)!! Example 1 Example 2

Ultimately, this is a grey area for content, and Pinterest has no better alternative. This debate is also nothing new! People have been making moodboards long before my time and will continue to do so after I stop. And I'm not saying I'm perfect or that other moodboard creators take the same precautions as me, but I am doing my best to make moodboards in a conscionable manner! If you can't get behind it, that's okay!! I would also be happy to discuss this more with you if you want!

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, AUGUST 2024

Hello, and welcome to my very last Marketing News update here on Tumblr.

After today, these reports will now be found at least twice a week on my Patreon, available to all paid members. See more about this change here on my website blog: https://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2024/8/12/a-new-way-to-get-ecommerce-news-and-help-welcome-to-my-patreon-page

Don't worry! I will still be posting some short pieces here on Tumblr (as well as some free pieces on my Patreon, plus longer posts on my website blog). However, the news updates and some other posts will be moving to Patreon permanently.

Please follow me there! https://www.patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

A US court ruled that Google is a monopoly, and has broken antitrust laws. This decision will be appealed, but in the meantime, could affect similar cases against large tech giants. 

Did you violate a Facebook policy? Meta is now offering a “training course” in lieu of having the page’s reach limited for Professional Mode users. 

Google Ads shown in Canada will have a 2.5% surcharge applied as of October 1, due to new Canadian tax laws.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Search Engine Roundtable’s Google report for July is out; we’re still waiting for the next core update. 

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta’s latest legal development: a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over facial recognition and privacy.  

Instagram

Instagram is highlighting “Views” in its metrics in an attempt to get creators to focus on reach instead of follower numbers. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is testing outside ads on the site. The ad auction system would include revenue sharing. 

Reddit

Reddit confirmed that anyone who wants to use Reddit posts for AI training and other data collection will need to pay for them, just as Google and OpenAI did. 

Second quarter 2024 was great for Reddit, with revenue growth of 54%. Like almost every other platform, they are planning on using AI in their search results, perhaps to summarize content. 

Threads

Threads now claims over 200 million active users.

TikTok

TikTok is now adding group chats, which can include up to 32 people.

TikTok is being sued by the US Federal Trade Commission, for allowing children under 13 to sign up and have their data harvested. 

Twitter

Twitter seems to be working on the payments option Musk promised last year. Tweets by users in the EU will at least temporarily be pulled from the AI-training for “Grok”, in line with EU law.

CONTENT MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Email software Mad Mimi is shutting down as of August 30. Owner GoDaddy is hoping to move users to its GoDaddy Digital Marketing setup. 

Content ideas for September include National Dog Week. 

You can now post on Substack without having an actual newsletter, as the platform tries to become more like a social media site. 

As of November, Patreon memberships started in the iOS app will be subject to a 30% surcharge from Apple. Patreon is giving creators the ability to add that charge to the member's bill, or pay it themselves.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Google worked with Meta to break the search engine’s rules on advertising to children through a loophole that showed ads for Instagram to YouTube viewers in the 13-17 year old demographic. Google says they have stopped the campaign, and that “We prohibit ads being personalized to people under-18, period”.

Google’s Performance Max ads now have new tools, including some with AI. 

Microsoft’s search and news advertising revenue was up 19% in the second quarter, a very good result for them. 

One of the interesting tidbits from the recent Google antitrust decision is that Amazon sells more advertising than either Google or Meta’s slice of retail ads. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

More than half of Gen Z claim to have bought items while spending time on social media in the past half year, higher than other generations. 

Shopify’s president claimed that Christmas shopping started in July on their millions of sites, with holiday decor and ornament sales doubling, and advent calendar sales going up a whopping 4,463%.

[marketerneha]

Facebook Marketing

Digital marketing is the promotion and marketing of goods and services to consumers through digital channels and electronic technologies.

Digital marketing, also called online marketing, is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing channel.

[siyainterior]

IBAIS MEDIA is a Digital I.T. & Advertising company.

We assist in promoting the business of all Manufacturers, Traders, Exporters and Importers across India through Architectural and Interior products like Architect & Interior Hardware, Tiles-Sanitary, Wooden, Furniture and in future Home Décor.

If you want to know more information, please visit our website: www.ibaisindia.com

We are creating future Online B2B, B2C & B2E building 🏢 material E-commerce platforms.

We advertise in 300+ cities of PAN India. we have also covered Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar, Africa and Dubai and other Neighboring Countries and All Social Media channels. (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Telegram, WhatsApp channel)

(More than 28,000+ Members have already joined our Digital Platforms. Those Who are involved in the HARDWARE business Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Dealers, Exporters, Importers, Architects-Interiors and Carpenters.)

IBAIS MEDIA is a digital platform for Branding, Marketing & Services. We are a Develop Marketing platform that Specialized in Strategy, Creativity, Design and innovative technology.

[mariacallous]

The latest in a series of duels announced by the European Commission is with Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Brussels suspects that the giant based in Redmond, Washington, has failed to properly moderate content produced by the generative AI systems on Bing, Copilot, and Image Creator, and that as a result, it may have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA), one of Europe’s latest digital regulations.

On May 17, the EU summit requested company documents to understand how Microsoft handled the spread of hallucinations (inaccurate or nonsensical answers produced by AI), deepfakes, and attempts to improperly influence the upcoming European Parliament elections. At the beginning of June, voters in the 27 states of the European Union will choose their representatives to the European Parliament, in a campaign over which looms the ominous shadow of technology with its potential to manipulate the outcome. The commission has given Microsoft until May 27 to respond, only days before voters go to the polls. If there is a need to correct course, it may likely be too late.

Europe’s Strategy

Over the past few months, the European Commission has started to bang its fists on the table when dealing with the big digital giants, almost all of them based in the US or China. This isn’t the first time. In 2022, the European Union hit Google with a fine of €4.1 billion because of its market dominance thanks to its Android system, marking the end of an investigation that started in 2015. In 2023, it sanctioned Meta with a fine of €1.2 billion for violating the GDPR, the EU’s data protection regulations. And in March it presented Apple with a sanction of €1.8 billion.

Recently, however, there appears to have been a change in strategy. Sanctions continue to be available as a last resort when Big Tech companies don’t bend to the wishes of Brussels, but now the European Commission is aiming to take a closer look at Big Tech, find out how it operates, and modify it as needed, before imposing fines. Take, for example, Europe’s Digital Services Act, which attempts to impose transparency in areas like algorithms and advertising, fight online harassment and disinformation, protect minors, stop user profiling, and eliminate dark patterns (design features intended to manipulate our choices on the web).

In 2023, Brussels identified 22 multinationals that, due to their size, would be the focus of its initial efforts: Google with its four major services (search, shopping, maps, and play), YouTube, Meta with Instagram and Facebook, Bing, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Amazon, Booking, Wikipedia, Apple’s App Store, TikTok, Alibaba, Zalando, and the porn sites Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat. Since then, it has been putting the pressure on these companies to cooperate with its regulatory regime.

The day before the Bing investigation was announced, the commission also opened one into Meta to determine what the multinational is doing to protect minors on Facebook and Instagram and counter the “rabbit hole” effect—that is, the seamless flood of content that demands users’ attention, and which can be especially appealing to younger people. That same concern led it to block the launch of TikTok Lite in Europe, deeming its system for rewarding social engagement dangerous and a means of encouraging addictive behavior. It has asked X to increase its content moderation, LinkedIn to explain how its ad system works, and AliExpress to defend its refund and complaint processes.

A Mountain of Laws …

On one hand, the message appears to be that no one will escape the reach of Brussels. On the other, the European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, has to demonstrate that the many digital laws and regulations that are in place actually produce positive results. In addition to the DSA, there is the Digital Markets Act (DMA), intended to counterbalance the dominance of Big Tech in online markets; the AI Act, Europe’s flagship legislation on artificial intelligence; and the Data Governance Act (DGA) and the Data Act, which address data protection and the use of data in the public and private sectors. Also to be added to the list are the updated cybersecurity package, NIS2 (Network and Information Security); the Digital Operational Resilience Act, focused on finance and insurance; and the digital identity package within eIDAS 2. Still in the draft stage are regulations on health data spaces and much-debated chat measures which would authorize law enforcement agencies and platforms to scan citizens’ private messages, looking for child pornography.

Brussels has deployed its heavy artillery against the digital flagships of the United States and China, and a few successful blows have landed, such as ByteDance’s suspension of the gamification feature on TikTok Lite following its release in France and Spain. But the future is uncertain and complicated. While investigations attract media interest, the EU’s digital bureaucracy is a large and complex machine to run.

On February 17, the DSA became law for all online service operators (cloud and hosting providers, search engines, e-commerce, and online services) but the European Commission doesn’t and can’t control everything. That is why it asked states to appoint a local authority to serve as a coordinator of digital services. Five months later, Brussels had to send a formal notice to six states (Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Poland, Portugal, and Slovakia) to urge them to designate and fully empower their digital services coordinators. Those countries now have two months to comply before Brussels will intervene. But there are others who are also not in the clear. For example, Italy’s digital services coordinator, the Communications Regulatory Authority (abbreviated AGCOM, for Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, in Italian), needs to recruit 23 new employees to replenish its staff. The department told WIRED Italy that it expects to have filled all of its appointments by mid-June.

The DSA also introduced “trusted flaggers.” These are individuals or entities, such as universities, associations, and fact-checkers, committed to combating online hatred, internet harassment, illegal content, and the spread of scams and fake news. Their reports are, one hopes, trustworthy. The selection of trusted flaggers is up to local authorities but, to date, only Finland has formalized the appointment of one, specifically Tekijänoikeuden tiedotus- ja valvontakeskus ry (in English, the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Center). Its executive director, Jaana Pihkala, explained to WIRED Italy that their task is “to produce reports on copyright infringements,” a subject on which the association has 40 years of experience. Since its appointment as a trusted flagger, the center’s two lawyers, who perform all of its functions, have sent 816 alerts to protect films, TV series, and books on behalf of Finnish copyright holders.

… and a Mountain of Data

To assure that the new commission is respected by the 27 states, the commission set up the DSA surveillance system as quickly as possible, but the bureaucrats in Brussels still have a formidable amount of research to do. On the one hand, there is the anonymous reporting platform with which the commission hopes to build dossiers on the operations of different platforms directly from internal sources. The biggest scandals that have shaken Meta have been thanks to former employees, like Christopher Wylie, the analyst who revealed how Cambridge Analytica attempted to influence the US elections, and Frances Haugen, who shared documents about the impacts of Instagram and Facebook on children’s health. The DSA, however, intends to empower and fund the commission so that it can have its own people capable of sifting through documents and data, analyzing the content, and deciding whether to act.

The commission boasts that the DSA will force platforms to be transparent. And indeed it can point to some successes already, for example, by revealing the absurdly inadequate numbers of moderators employed by platforms. According to the latest data released last November, they don’t even cover all the languages spoken in the European Union. X reported that it had only two people to check content in Italian, the language of 9.1 million users. There were no moderators for Greek, Finnish, or Romanian even though each language has more than 2 million subscribers. AliExpress moderates everything in English while, for other languages, it makes do with automatic translators. LinkedIn moderates content in 12 languages of the European bloc—that is, just half of the official languages.

At the same time, the commission has forced large platforms to standardize their reports of moderation interventions to feed a large database, which, at the time of writing this article, contains more than 18.2 billion records. Of these cases, 69 percent were handled automatically. But, perhaps surprisingly, 92 percent concerned Google Shopping. This is because the platform uses various parameters to determine whether a product can be featured: the risk that it is counterfeited, possible violations of site standards, prohibited goods, dangerous materials, and others. It can thus be the case that several alerts are triggered for the same product and the DSA database counts each one separately, multiplying the shopping numbers exponentially. So now the EU has a mass of data that further complicates its goal of being fully transparent.

Zalando’s Numbers

And then there’s the Big Tech companies’ legal battle against the fee they have to pay to the commission to help underwrite its supervisory bodies. Meta, TikTok, and Zalando have challenged the fee (though paid it). Zalando is also the only European company on the commission’s list of large platforms, a designation Zalando has always contested because it does not believe it meets the criteria used by Brussels. One example: The platforms on the list must have at least 45 million monthly users in Europe. The commission argues that Zalando has 83 million users, though that number, for example, includes visits from Portugal, where the platform is not marketed, and Zalando argues those users should be deducted from its total count. According to its calculations, the activities subject to the DSA reach only 31 million users, under the threshold. When Zalando was assessed its fee, it discovered that the commission had based it on a figure of 47.5 million users, far below the initial 83 million. The company has now taken the commission to court in an attempt to assure a transparent process.

And this is just one piece of legislation, the DSA. The commission has also deployed the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a package of regulations to counterbalance Big Tech’s market dominance, requiring that certain services be interoperable with those of other companies, that apps that come loaded on a device by default can be uninstalled, and that data collected on large platforms be shared with small- and medium-size companies. Again, the push to impose these mandates starts with the giants: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, ByteDance, and Microsoft. In May, Booking was added to the list.

Big Tech Responds

Platforms have started to respond to EU requests, with lukewarm results. WhatsApp, for instance, has been redesigned to allow chatting with other apps without compromising its end-to-end encryption that protects the privacy and security of users, but it is still unclear who will agree to connect to it. WIRED US reached out to 10 messaging companies, including Google, Telegram, Viber, and Signal, to ask whether they intend to look at interoperability and whether they had worked with WhatsApp on its plans. The majority didn’t respond to the request for comment. Those that did, Snap and Discord, said they had nothing to add. Apple had to accept sideloading—i.e., the possibility of installing and updating iPhone or iPad applications from stores outside the official one. However, the first alternative that emerged, AltStore, offers very few apps at this time. And it has suffered some negative publicity after refusing to accept the latest version of its archenemy Spotify’s app, despite the fact that the audio platform had removed the link to its website for subscriptions.

The DMA is a regulation that has the potential to break the dominant positions of Big Tech companies, but that outcome is not a given. Take the issue of surveillance: The commission has funds to pay the salaries of 80 employees, compared to the 120 requested by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and the 220 requested by the European Parliament, as summarized by Bruegel in 2022. And on the website of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress, a politically left-wing tech industry coalition (all of the digital giants, which also fund CEPA, are members), stated that the DMA, “instead of helping consumers, aims to help competitors. The DMA is making large tech firms’ services less useful, less secure, and less family-friendly. Europeans’ experience of large tech firms’ services is about to get worse compared to the experience of Americans and other non-Europeans.”

Kovacevich represents an association financed by some of those same companies that the DMA is focused on, and there is a shared fear that the DMA will complicate the market and, in the end, benefit only a few companies—not necessarily those most at risk because of the dominance of Silicon Valley. It is not only lawsuits and fines, but also the perceptions of citizens and businesses that will help to determine whether EU regulations are successful. The results may come more slowly than desired by Brussels as new legislation is rarely positively received at first.

Learning From GDPR and Gaia-X

Another regulatory act, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has become the global industry standard, forcing online operators to change the way they handle our data. But if you ask the typical person on the street, they’ll likely tell you it’s just a simple cookie wall that you have to approve before continuing on to a webpage. Or it’s viewed as a law that has required the retention of dedicated external consultants on the part of companies. It is rarely described as the ultimate online privacy law, which is exactly what it is. That said, while the act has reshaped the privacy landscape, there have been challenges, as the digital rights association Noyb has explained. The privacy commissioners of Ireland and Luxembourg, where many web giants are based for tax purposes, have had bottlenecks in investigating violations. According to the latest figures from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), 19,581 complaints have been submitted in the past five years, but the body has made only 37 formal decisions and only eight of those began with complaints. Noyb recently conducted a survey of 1,000 data protection officers; 74 percent were convinced that if privacy officers investigated the typical European company, they would find at least one GDPR violation.

The GDPR was also the impetus for another unsuccessful operation: separating the European cloud from the US cloud in order to shelter the data of EU citizens from Washington’s Cloud Act. In 2019, France and Germany announced with great fanfare a federation, Gaia-X, that would defend the continent and provide a response to the cloud market, which has been split between the United States and China. Five years later, the project has become bogged down in the process of establishing standards, after the entry of the giants it was supposed to counter, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Huawei, and Alibaba, as well as the controversial American company Palantir (which analyses data for defense purposes). This led some of the founders, such as the French cloud operator Scaleway, to flee, and that then turned the spotlight on the European Parliament, which led the commission to launch an alternative, the European Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud, which counts among its 49 members 26 participants from Gaia-X (everyone except for the non-EU giants) and enjoys EU financial support.

In the meantime, the Big Tech giants have found a solution that satisfies European wishes, investing en masse to establish data centers on EU soil. According to a study by consultancy firm Roland Berger, 34 data center transactions were finalized in 2023, growing at an average annual rate of 29.7 percent since 2019. According to Mordor Intelligence, another market analysis company, the sector in Europe will grow from €35.4 billion in 2024 to an estimated €57.7 billion in 2029. In recent weeks, Amazon web services announced €7.8 billion in investments in Germany. WIRED Italy has reported on Amazon’s interest in joining the list of accredited operators to host critical public administration data in Italy, which already includes Microsoft, Google, and Oracle. Notwithstanding its proclamations about sovereignty, Brussels has had to capitulate: The cloud is in the hands of the giants from the United States who have found themselves way ahead of their Chinese competitors after diplomatic relations between Beijing and Brussels cooled.

The AI Challenge

The newest front in this digital battle is artificial intelligence. Here, too, the European Union has been the first to come up with some rules under its AI Act, the first legislation to address the different applications of this technology and establish permitted and prohibited uses based on risk assessments. The commission does not want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Mindful of the launch of the GDPR, which in 2018 caused companies to scramble to assure they were compliant, it wants to lead organizations through a period of voluntary adjustment. Already 400 companies have declared their interest in joining the effort, including IBM.

In the meantime, Brussels must build a number of structures to make the AI Act work. First is the AI Council. It will have one representative from each country and will be divided into two subgroups, one dedicated to market development and the other to public sector uses of AI. In addition, it will be joined by a committee of technical advisers and an independent committee of scientists and experts, along the lines of the UN Climate Committee. Secondly, the AI Office, which sits within Directorate-General Connect (the department in charge of digital technology), will take care of administrative aspects of the AI Act. The office will assure that the act is applied uniformly, investigate alleged violations, establish codes of conduct, and classify artificial intelligence models that pose a systemic risk. Once the rules are established, research on new technologies can proceed. After it is fully operational, the office will employ 100 people, some of them redeployed from General Connect while others will be new hires. At the moment, the office is looking to hire six administrative staff and an unknown number of tech experts.

On May 29, the first round of bids in support of the regulation expired. These included the AI Innovation Accelerator, a center that provides training, technical standards, and software and tools to promote research, support startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises, and assist public authorities that have to supervise AI. A total of €6 million is on the table. Another €2 million will finance management and €1.5 million will go to the EU’s AI testing facilities, which will, on behalf of countries’ antitrust authorities, analyze artificial intelligence models and products on the market to assure that they comply with EU rules.

Follow the Money

Finally, a total of €54 million is designated for a number of business initiatives. The EU knows it is lagging behind. According to an April report by the European Parliament’s research service, which provides data and intelligence to support legislative activities, the global AI market, which in 2023 was estimated at €130 billion, will reach close to €1.9 trillion in 2030. The lion’s share is in the United States, with €44 billion of private investment in 2022, followed by China with €12 billion. Overall, the European Union and the United Kingdom attracted €10.2 billion in the same year. According to Eurochamber researchers, between 2018 and the third quarter of 2023, US AI companies received €120 billion in investment, compared to €32.5 billion for European ones.

Europe wants to counter the advance of the new AI giants with an open source model, and it has also made its network of supercomputers available to startups and universities to train algorithms. First, however, it had to adapt to the needs of the sector, investing almost €400 million in graphics cards, which, given the current boom in demand, will not arrive anytime soon.

Among other projects to support the European AI market, the commission wants to use €24 million to launch a Language Technology Alliance that would bring together companies from different states to develop a generative AI to compete with ChatGPT and similar tools. It’s an initiative that closely resembles Gaia-X. Another €25 million is earmarked for the creation of a large open source language model, available to European companies to develop new services and research projects. The commission intends to fund several models and ultimately choose the one best suited to Europe’s needs. Overall, during the period from 2021 to 2027, the Digital Europe Program plans to spend €2.1 billion on AI. That figure may sound impressive, but it pales in comparison to the €10 billion that a single company, Microsoft, invested in OpenAI.

The €25 million being spent on the European large language model effort, if distributed to many smaller projects, risks not even counterbalancing the €15 million that Microsoft has spent bringing France’s Mistral, Europe’s most talked-about AI startup, into its orbit. The big AI models will become presences in Brussels as soon as the AI Act, now finally approved, comes into full force. In short, the commission is making it clear in every way it can that a new sheriff is in town. But will the bureaucrats of Brussels be adequately armed to take on Big Tech? Only one thing is certain—it’s not going to be an easy task.

[a-halo-for-you]

Useful Online Resources for Creative Students

Tips to controlling your creative chaos.

Studying Creative Writing and Theatre led me to exploring more about myself as an individual as well as an aspiring writer and actress. And in my writing I managed to compile a few more secret helpers to my party so when I am on the verge of a meltdown due to stress and writer’s block, there’s always a helping hand to get me out of a tricky situation. 

Every writer has their tools, from their brain to the type of pen they most prefer to make notes with and which software they prefer to work on. In this article I will be going through some of the tools that have best helped me through my time at university. 

⊱ ────── The Dictionary and Thesaurus ────── ⊰

I know, I know, not particularly exciting and original but it is imperative for us to have these at the ready, whether through technological means of the internet or in printed editions. We have all been in that place where there is a word on the tip of our tongues but we just can’t find it and that is where these come to our rescue. 

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

⊱ ────── YouTube ────── ⊰

YouTube has plenty of channels dedicated to writing, publishing, editing etc. It also has footage of our beloved authors who give plenty of valuable advice from their extensive experience in the job. It is also home to many wonderful playlist channels- no doubt helping me with the flow of my stories a few times or concentrating on studying an essay. 

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

⊱ ────── Spotify ───── ⊰

Speaking of music! Music is probably a number one for me personally, it creates the atmosphere internally before you cry, sweat and bleed it out onto the pages yourself with your own words. Spotify is my favourite as with a student discount you can get a premium membership that means no advertisement interruptions. You can also spend time creating different playlists for different works, for characters, settings or a collective emotion.

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

⊱ ────── Pinterest ────── ⊰

Now, if you have not come across the wonders of pinterest I must direct it towards you as some are stimulated by music others are stimulated by photos. Helping to visualise characters, clothing, setting they have many wonderful photos for this, as well as plenty of information that can be shared on history, culture, creative ways to get rid of a body etc. There are also posts specifically tuned for writers, a large amount coming from Tumblr blogs which I would also recommend looking at. 

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

⊱ ────── Reedsy ────── ⊰

The next site I recommend is Reedsy. Reedsy is an online blog and website that connects writers, editors, artists and publishers. They have writing software where you can write your book in a publishable format, they have apps and tools that vary from generators and prompts to online classes that you can subscribe to. They also have writing competitions which help to create portfolios for new writers. At Reedsy you can meet other like minded individuals through the marketplace and post for your online portfolio.

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

⊱ ────── Fantasy Name Generators ────── ⊰

Now to some writers, using Generators can seem like a cheat but if you’re stuck then this website is a good place to go, whether you’re struggling with world-building or character creation and need some good names there’s always something you can find and note down. A tip to give would be to take two names and mix them to come up with something new, that way it also feels a little less of a cheat. 

⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝

Finishing here, I hope that any of these tools are useful for you as they have been for me in organising my creative chaos. And my last piece of advice for any unpublished writer or writing student would be not to compare your works in progress with any published works. Who knows which draft number it is so don’t compare it to your first!

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[gonzalez756]

In the bustling world of e-commerce, standing out can be both a challenge and an opportunity for small businesses. Crafting a well-rounded marketing plan is essential to gaining visibility, driving sales, and building a loyal customer base. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your existing strategies, a structured marketing plan can set the foundation for success. Here’s a comprehensive guide to developing a marketing plan tailored for a small e-commerce business.

Understand Your Market and Audience Before diving into marketing tactics, it's crucial to have a deep understanding of your market and target audience. Conduct market research to identify your ideal customers, their needs, preferences, and shopping behaviors. Use surveys, interviews, and social media insights to gather data. Analyze your competitors to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and the market gaps you can exploit. Key Questions to Answer: Who are your ideal customers? What are their pain points and needs? How do they prefer to shop online? What are your competitors doing well, and where are their shortcomings?

Define Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) differentiates your business from competitors. It should clearly articulate why customers should choose your products or services over others. Your UVP should focus on the unique benefits and features of your offerings, such as superior quality, exceptional customer service, or exclusive products. Steps to Develop a UVP: Identify what makes your products or services unique. Highlight benefits that resonate with your target audience. Communicate your UVP clearly across all marketing channels.

Set Clear Marketing Objectives Setting clear and measurable marketing objectives is essential for tracking progress and ensuring that your efforts align with your business goals. Objectives might include increasing website traffic, boosting conversion rates, or growing your social media following. SMART Objectives: Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve. Measurable: Ensure you can track progress (e.g., increase website traffic by 30%). Achievable: Set realistic goals based on your resources. Relevant: Align objectives with broader business goals. Time-bound: Set a timeline for achieving each objective.

Choose Your Marketing Channels Selecting the right marketing channels depends on where your target audience spends their time. A mix of channels often works best, but it's essential to focus on those that will yield the highest returns. Key Channels to Consider: Social Media: Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are excellent for brand building and driving traffic. Tailor your content to each platform’s audience and features. Email Marketing: Build and nurture an email list with personalized and targeted campaigns. Regular newsletters, promotional offers, and abandoned cart reminders can drive sales and customer retention. Content Marketing: Create valuable content such as blog posts, videos, and infographics that address your audience’s pain points and interests. Quality content can drive organic traffic and establish your brand as an industry authority. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimize your website and content for search engines to increase organic traffic. Focus on relevant keywords, high-quality content, and a user-friendly website structure. Paid Advertising: Invest in pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on Google Ads or social media ads to drive targeted traffic. Utilize retargeting strategies to convert previous visitors into customers.

Develop a Content Strategy A well-planned content strategy helps in creating engaging and relevant content that attracts and retains your target audience. Your content should align with your brand’s voice and address the needs and interests of your audience. Content Strategy Components: Content Calendar: Plan your content in advance to ensure consistency. Include blog posts, social media updates, email campaigns, and other content types. Content Types: Diversify your content with articles, videos, infographics, and user-generated content. Engagement: Encourage interaction through comments, shares, and feedback. Respond to customer inquiries and engage with your audience to build relationships.

Leverage Analytics and Track Performance Monitoring and analyzing your marketing efforts is crucial for understanding what works and what needs adjustment. Use analytics tools to track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs. Analytics Tools: Google Analytics: Track website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates. Social Media Insights: Analyze engagement metrics on social media platforms. Email Marketing Metrics: Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates from email campaigns. Regularly review your performance data, compare it against your objectives, and adjust your strategies accordingly. Continuous optimization based on data insights will help you stay competitive and achieve better results.

Budget Wisely A well-defined budget ensures that you allocate resources effectively across different marketing channels. Determine how much you can invest in each area and prioritize spending based on potential return on investment (ROI). Budgeting Tips: Allocate Funds: Distribute your budget across channels that align with your goals and audience. Track Spending: Monitor your expenses to avoid overspending and ensure efficient use of resources. Adjust as Needed: Be flexible and adjust your budget based on performance and changing priorities.

Build Strong Customer Relationships Customer retention is as important as acquiring new customers. Focus on building strong relationships through excellent customer service, personalized experiences, and loyalty programs. Retention Strategies: Personalization: Tailor recommendations and communications based on customer behavior and preferences. Loyalty Programs: Reward repeat customers with discounts, points, or exclusive offers. Customer Feedback: Encourage and act on customer feedback to improve your products and services.

Adapt and Innovate The e-commerce landscape is constantly evolving, and so should your marketing strategies. Stay informed about industry trends, new technologies, and changing customer preferences. Be prepared to adapt and innovate to remain competitive and meet your customers’ evolving needs. Staying Ahead: Industry Trends: Follow industry news and trends to stay updated. Emerging Technologies: Explore new technologies and tools that can enhance your marketing efforts. Customer Feedback: Continuously gather and act on customer feedback to improve your offerings. Conclusion Developing a comprehensive marketing plan for your small e-commerce business involves understanding your market, defining your UVP, setting clear objectives, and choosing the right channels. By creating a strategic content plan, leveraging analytics, budgeting wisely, and focusing on customer relationships, you can drive growth and achieve success. Remember, a successful marketing plan is dynamic and should evolve based on performance and market changes. Embrace innovation and stay adaptable to build a thriving e-commerce business.

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Elevate Your Pinterest Marketing Strategy with Professional Services

Introduction

Pinterest has become one of the most popular visual platforms for businesses to promote their products and services. It’s also a great way to drive traffic and conversions. With over 400 million active Pinterest users and an audience that’s highly engaged, Pinterest is a great place for brands to reach out to potential customers. However, managing Pinterest marketing can be overwhelming, especially when you’re dealing with algorithms and trends that are constantly changing. That’s where expert Pinterest marketing services can help. In this blog, we’ll look at the key advantages of using expert Pinterest marketing services to improve your Pinterest presence and take your marketing strategy to the next level.

Tailored Pinterest Strategy

Our Pinterest marketing services begin with an in-depth analysis of your brand, target audience, and marketing objectives. Our research and competitor analysis helps us create a Pinterest strategy aligned with your business goals. This allows us to create optimized content for Pinterest, relevant to your audience and enables you to stay ahead of the competition.

Captivating Visual Content

Pinterest is about visuals that captivate and engage your audience. Professional Pinterest marketers have an eye for creating eye-catching pins that match your brand identity and are optimized for maximum search engine visibility. Whether it’s creating eye-catching graphics or creating eye-catching infographics, we can help you impress your audience with professional services.

Keyword and SEO Optimization

Pinterest is a search engine. That’s why keyword optimization is essential. Pinterest marketing professionals use SEO techniques to optimize your profile, pins, and boards for specific keywords. By optimizing your content for search engines, you’ll drive organic traffic, increase your reach and improve your overall visibility.

Consistent Pinning and Scheduling

One of the most important things you can do to stay relevant on Pinterest is to keep consistent with your pinning schedule. Marketing professionals use analytics to determine the best time to post and ensure your pins are hitting the right people at the right time. Pinning consistently builds trust with your audience and creates a positive perception of your brand.

Pinterest Advertising Expertise

Pay-per-click Pinterest advertising is one of the most effective forms of paid advertising on Pinterest, and it’s easy to see why. With professional Pinterest marketing services, you can create and run targeted ad campaigns that meet your goals. Whether you’re looking to increase conversions, traffic, or brand awareness, professional marketers can help you get the most out of your advertising budget.

Tracking and Analytics

It’s essential to know how you’re doing on Pinterest. A good Pinterest marketing service will track your analytics regularly, giving insights into pin activity, click-through rate, and audience behavior. This information lets you make data-informed decisions to improve your marketing efforts continually.

Staying Updated on Trends

Pinterest is no different than any other social media platform. From trending topics to algorithm updates to feature updates, staying on top for the latest trends can be challenging. That’s why it’s essential to partner with a professional service that can help you stay up-to-date, stay ahead of the curve, and take advantages of the latest opportunities.

Conclusion

Pinterest marketing services provide a complete solution to increase your brand’s visibility on this visual-centric platform. From personalized strategies and eye-catching visuals to SEO optimization and analytics, professional marketers will help you reach your marketing goals effectively. With their experience and commitment, you’ll be able to focus on what’s important – running your business – while reaping the rewards of a Pinterest marketing campaign.

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BetterHelp used a wide variety of tactics to share the health information of over 7 million consumers with platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest for the purpose of advertising.