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Google AI: How One Tech Giant Approaches Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence
September 27, 2023/by
Google AI: How One Tech Giant Approaches Artificial Intelligence Have you ever sat paralyzed, trying to craft the perfect text message? Well, one experiment from Google AI may provide the perfect solution. The team’s AI-powered Magic Compose provides multiple sample texts, so you just have to choose the right one. You can already join the waitlist to try it out. This year, we’ve seen an explosion of AI tools — with the rise of Chat GPT and pending developments in AI search. Google is one of the major players looking to bring the power of AI directly to your fingertips. In this post, we’ll explore Google AI, its progress, and how the company’s innovations could impact the future. What is Google AI, anyway? Announced in 2017, Google AI is a division of the tech company that focuses on artificial intelligence. The group aims to build tools that make AI accessible. That builds upon the company’s core mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” The company published a look back on its 2018 research efforts on the Google AI blog, where it painted an extensive picture of where it has made the most progress within this realm of technology. At the time, the company wrote, “Some consumers don't directly feel that impact of AI, even when it carries out tasks that have become an integral part of day-to-day life for so many — shedding light on common misconceptions within this category of tech.”...
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Referral Traffic: 7 Ways to Drive It (And Get More Leads!)

Instagram Followers, Referral Marketing
September 23, 2023/by
Referral Traffic: 7 Ways to Drive It (And Get More Leads!) Referral traffic is a powerful and often overlooked way to give your website a competitive edge. In the never-ending quest for more traffic, marketers turn to search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), blogging, and social media marketing. The problem is that SEO takes time to work, PPC is expensive, Google is oversaturated with blog content, and it’s tricky to prove ROI with social media. That’s where referral traffic comes in. So, what is referral traffic, and how can you use it to generate more leads? Today, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know — why it’s important and seven steps you can take to improve yours. What is referral traffic? Why is referral traffic important? 7 Steps to Generate More Referral Traffic 1. Publish Your Website To Online Directories 2. Get Published On Review Websites 3. Publish Guest Blog Posts 4. Leverage Social Media 5. Comment On Blogs 6. Be Active On Industry Forums 7. Publish Infographics Next Steps What is referral traffic? When visitors land on your website from sites other than the major search engines, that’s referral traffic. When someone clicks a link on a website or social network, and it takes them to another site, tracking software, such as Google Analytics or HubSpot, counts that visitor as referral traffic. The originating website is the “referrer” since it refers to traffic from one website to the other. HubSpot’s marketing...
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Why You Still Need SMS Marketing & How to Get Started [+Data]

Lead Generation
September 23, 2023/by
Why You Still Need SMS Marketing & How to Get Started The average person spends five to six hours on their phones, while the average smartphone user unlocks their device around 150 times.  What the heck are we doing with our devices all day? Well, when we're not endlessly scrolling the web or social media, we're probably texting. In 2023, 15 million texts are sent per minute while nearly 70% of people open up a new text message within five minutes of receiving it. With endless stats like this in mind, businesses are presented numerous opportunities and touchpoints to engage their target market through SMS.  What is SMS marketing? SMS, an acronym for "Short Message Service," is a communication channel used to send and receive text messages on mobile devices. It allows users to send brief messages, typically 160 characters, to individuals or groups instantly. Text messaging has gained immense popularity due to its simplicity, convenience, and widespread availability across different devices and networks. On the other hand, MMS, or "Multimedia Message Service", goes beyond simple text and allows users to send multimedia content such as pictures, videos, audio files, and even formatted text.  SMS marketing allows businesses to connect with their target audience through personalized and timely text messages. It leverages the widespread use of mobile phones and the convenience of SMS to deliver promotional offers, updates, reminders, and other engaging content directly into the palm of the recipients' hands.  Integrating SMS marketing alongside email and social...
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5 Must-Read Books for Building Brands and Wealth by Entrepreneurs of Color

Breaking the Blueprint
September 22, 2023/by
5 Must-Read Books for Building Brands and Wealth by Entrepreneurs of Color Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a new blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success. White authors dominate book publishing, and it can be difficult for people of color to find successful entrepreneurship stories written by founders, CEOs, and marketing executives with similar cultural backgrounds.Penguin Random House, a “Big Five” publisher, reported that 76% of their released books in 2019-2021 were by white contributors. This percentage may correlate with 74% of their staff being white. Between statements to prioritize DEI efforts and leadership restructuring—like at PRH after their bid to acquire Simon & Schuster was halted—time will tell if publishing houses will make significant strides in diversity across their rosters and workforces. Learning from someone with lived experiences you can relate to is invaluable and affirming. It's a chance to feel less isolated when creating the blueprints for a company you once thought was an improbable dream. To learn new avenues for success and strategies to build your business, community, and wealth, here are five must-read books by entrepreneurs of color. 1. This Is Not a T-Shirt: A Brand, a Culture, a Community–a Life in Streetwear by Bobby Hundreds Image Source In his...
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How Sorority Rush Became Big Social Media Business

Marketing News
September 21, 2023/by
How Sorority Rush Became Big Social Media Business Sorority recruitment has transformed from a secretive process to big social media business. In the fall of 2021, sorority rush at the University of Alabama took TikTok by storm, effectively becoming RushTok. During that recruitment season, sorority hopefuls posted daily TikTok vlogs sharing everything from their outfits of the day, to what they’re carrying in their bags, documenting the entire process until the sororities made their final selections. Audiences worldwide quickly became captivated by the process, choosing their favorite recruits to follow and root for. To date, the hashtags #BamaRush and #RushTok have 4B and 2B views, respectively. Potential new members (PNMs) curated their social media feeds months in advance, hoping to make a good impression. Some PNMs who documented the process via TikTok used the week of events to jumpstart careers as influencers, continuing to deliver (sometimes branded) content to the audiences amassed during recruitment. @allison_carlson Thank you @Poppi #fyp #xyzbca #prhaul #unboxing #universityofalabama #bama ♬ Ceilings - beabadoobee It’s not just the potential recruits using social media to make an impression — the chapters also use social media as a recruitment tool. Plenty of RushTok videos also showcase highly choreographed dance routines and friendship-based content to woo potential new members. ...
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Creating a Fulfilling Workplace: 5 Guaranteed Ways to Boost Job Satisfaction on Your Team

Human Resources
September 21, 2023/by
Creating a Fulfilling Workplace: 5 Guaranteed Ways to Boost Job Satisfaction on Your Team Job satisfaction is like a warm, cozy blanket on a cold winter day. It‘s waking up and being excited to go to work. It’s the feeling of achievement and gratification after completing a task. In other words, job satisfaction is the degree of joy and fulfillment a person attains from their selected occupation. Would you like your workforce to be driven, devoted, and efficient? Then, you need to focus on their job satisfaction. Research has revealed that content, happy employees are likely to remain in the organization, take fewer absences due to illness, and be more efficient. It falls upon you as a manager to ensure that your team members are satisfied and dedicated to their work. This article will explore five guaranteed ways to boost job satisfaction on your team, backed by data and research so that you can improve productivity, retention, and overall success in your organization. Table of Contents What is job satisfaction? Why is job satisfaction important? Famous Companies Take On Job Satisfaction How to Boost Job Satisfaction Job Satisfaction Statistics What is job satisfaction? Job satisfaction refers to the overall fulfillment, contentment, and positive emotions an individual experiences towards their job. It’s influenced by factors such as meaningful work, autonomy, fair compensation, opportunities for growth and development, and work-life balance. According to a global survey run by LinkedIn and Imperative, 74%...
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How to Run a Perfect Kickoff Meeting

Client Onboarding
September 20, 2023/by
How to Run a Perfect Kickoff Meeting Starting your project without a kickoff meeting is like hiking without a map. Sure, you might enjoy some cool trails, but you'll probably get lost without a map and a clear plan. The same happens when launching projects without a kickoff meeting. Only with solid communication and a plan can you keep your project on track. It’s like a GPS helping you reach your destination. Let’s learn more about it. Table of Contents What is a kickoff meeting? The Benefits of Kickoff Meetings 4 Types of Kickoff Meetings How to Run a Successful Kickoff Meeting 6 Kickoff Meeting Best Practices What is a kickoff meeting? A kickoff meeting sets the stage for success by clarifying project goals, defining roles and responsibilities, and outlining the project timeline. Altogether, this results in smooth project execution. Think of it as the official start of your project — like the opening ceremony of the Olympics. There are two types of kickoffs — internal and external. Internal kickoffs focus on aligning the internal team, while external kickoffs bring together external stakeholders or partners involved in the project. The Benefits of Kickoff Meetings 1. Improved Alignment and Communication The beauty of kickoff meetings? They allow everyone to share their priorities, insights, and plans. This means your team can align and agree on critical elements from the get-go. Sage Journals conducted a community-based study highlighting the importance of kickoff...
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A Conversation with Hotjar: How They Scaled Organic Traffic Into Millions

SEO
September 19, 2023/by
A Conversation with Hotjar: How They Scaled Organic Traffic Into Millions User empathy is at the heart of everything we do at Hotjar, and that extends into our content strategy. It is how we grew non-branded organic search traffic by 734% in just 3 years (2022 versus 2019). More importantly, it is also how we were able to turn this traffic into 1,398% growth in new paying customers during the same time period. Our annual non-branded new visitor numbers are now in the multi-millions, and the heights we've hit in the last two years in particular are a testament to the user-centric approach we've applied. So how did we do it? We've been able to achieve the growth we have by painstakingly balancing the needs of existing and potential Hotjar users with the demands of search engines. We're relentless in our commitment to satisfying our readers, but we're not naive to playing the search engine game. To succeed at a high level there is a great deal of nuance that goes into getting this right. For us, that breaks down across a number of areas but there are a handful of core fundamentals that stand out: Embracing product-led content Clustering content around the user journey Powering keyword research with customer insights Leveraging qualitative and quantitative data Nurturing your historical library Before we go deeper though, I would be remiss not to cover the very fabric that holds all this together: without deep...
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How to Mix Data Science and AI Without Expertise in Either (Expert Tips & Tools)

Artificial Intelligence
September 19, 2023/by
How to Mix Data Science and AI Without Expertise in Either (Expert Tips & Tools) As a marketer, you‘ve likely noticed data’s importance in decision-making and strategizing. You're also probably tired of being bogged down with manually collecting and reporting data. Data science is integral to the marketing world, but time is money, and the time you spend working with large datasets could go toward performing other tasks, such as content marketing. Fortunately, artificial intelligence can blend with data science in many ways to make your job as a marketer easier without neglecting essential practices like data reporting. We will explore the connection between data science and AI and tools you can use as a marketer regardless of your skill level in data analysis. Difference Between Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Data science is an umbrella term that describes analyzing, managing, and interpreting large amounts of data to inform decision-making. Artificial intelligence is a field in which a computer or a robot completes tasks that typically require human intelligence and discernment. Though data science and artificial intelligence are different fields, they often combine to streamline tasks, improve efficiency, solve problems, or increase productivity. For instance, AI often depends on data scientists to study, clean, and feed data so the machine can learn and improve. However, data science is less dependent on AI since the science can analyze and explain datasets on its own. However, AI can extract information from data in a way that isn't possible with typical...
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