by Summer Worsley
                                   
Neuro-linguistic Programming and Digital Marketing: Pseudoscience or Is There Something Behind It? 

Over the past couple of years, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) seems to have been co-opted by a number of digital marketing gurus. It’s only fair to ask: is it a pseudoscience or is there something behind it? In this post, we’ll examine what NPL is, how it is being used in digital marketing, and how it differs from common rhetorical tactics such as presupposition and implicature.
 
What is NLP? 

According to the Linguistic Society of America, neurolinguistics is “the study of how language is represented in the brain”. This fascinating area of study is intertwined with cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics as it looks at how and where our brains store knowledge of languages and what happens when we acquire new knowledge.
 
The term ‘neuro-linguistic programming’ (NLP) was coined by University of California psychologists John Grinder and Richard Bandler as a way of describing how our thinking processes (neuro) and language (linguistic) can affect our behavior (programming). While neurolinguistics does overlap with NLP, the latter places an emphasis on how language can affect our body and our behavior.
 
Is NLP a pseudoscience? 

That’s a legitimate question to ask. After all, some of NLP’s biggest proponents, such as professional pick up artist Neil Strauss, have limited scientific credibility and a worryingly relaxed attitude towards ethics. Applying NLP principles to influence who people choose to date (as in the case of Strauss’ book ‘The Game’) has proved highly controversial. However, much of the scientific research backing NLP is legitimate.
 
Why NLP has been co-opted by digital marketing gurus 

The goal of all marketing and sales efforts is to influence people’s decisions and communicate a message more effectively to a target audience. It’s little surprise, therefore, that NLP has been seized upon as the missing piece of the digital marketing puzzle that might help train salespeople, copywriters, and marketers alike.
 
NLP is not only great for motivating people, it also fosters an atmosphere of positive thinking. Salespeople exposed to NLP ideology are therefore more likely to sharpen the same skill sets that might lead to positive results, regardless of whether NLP techniques work.
 
Do NLP techniques work? 

Yes. Most NLP techniques are backed by solid amounts of scientific data. One of the most studied techniques is ‘framing’, which holds that wording a given statement in a positive light is far more likely to generate positive responses. As UC Berkeley professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science George Lakoff observed, “The choice of language is … vital because language evokes frames — moral and conceptual frames.”
 
The evidence shows that this NLP technique works. When one study asked participants to choose between ground meat that was ’75 per cent lean’ and another meat that was ’25 per cent fat’, most people chose the lean option despite both types of meat being essentially identical.
 
When it comes to marketing, framing helps significantly. Michael Aagaard was able to dramatically increase signup numbers for a gambling website (bettingexpert.com) by framing headlines more positively. He found that headlines featuring the phrase ‘Make more money’ were 40 per cent more effective than alternative headlines promising readers that they would ‘Lose less money’, despite both options offering the exact same betting tips and advice.
 
Sometimes negative framing works well too 

While these two examples (as well as other studies) support the NLP principle that positively framed statements and headlines can work wonders for salespeople looking to convert, there’s also evidence that highlights the power of loss aversion, too. For instance, this study found that 61 per cent of women in a group who were shown a negatively framed video about breast cancer signed up for a mammogram. This was significantly more than the 51 per cent of women in another group who were shown a positively framed video.
 
Unfortunately, NLP doesn’t offer a cut and dry answer about which approach is best for a particular product, company or individual. Finding the right approach takes considerable amounts of research and testing.
 
How does NLP differ from common rhetorical tactics such as presupposition and implicature? 
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Some NLP tactics are borrowed from established rhetorical tactics that have been in common use since antiquity. A good example of this would be increasing the persuasiveness of text through the use of presuppositions. Many digital marketing gurus suggest this approach as a way of using NLP to maximize the impact of a text on its intended audience.
 
One well-known example of presuppositions in use was the notorious Protein World advert in the UK which featured an impossibly slim bikini-clad model next to the question; “Are you beach body ready?” The advert was roundly condemned as being sexist and generated a fair number of complaints, but its text was essentially a type of loaded question known as a presupposition.
 
According to the linguistic branch of pragmatics, presuppositions make an implicit assumption necessary for completing a thought, questions or statement. So, in the question, “Are you beach body ready?” the advert is implying that the viewer is headed to the beach and is likely to want to wear a bikini. It is also a good example of implicature as it implies that only those with slim bodies are able to wear bikinis.
 
This seems like a trivial technique, but it’s a powerful way of influencing the way that people remember adverts and marketing copy. Presuppositions and implicature are a good example of the way that NLP techniques borrow from established rhetorical tools.
 
While there is a significant body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of NLP techniques, there are clear similarities between some NLP techniques and established rhetorical tactics that copywriters have long used to influence readers’ decisions. NLP is more than pseudoscience and there is clearly something behind it, but when it comes to putting NLP techniques into practice, a solid knowledge of commonly used rhetorical devices will stand you in good stead.   
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by Samuel Gitukui

With over 3.7 billion emails users, and growing, a business can really put its name and brand out there to potential customers using email. However, it’s not just about sending a promotional message as we’ve seen throughout this post.

People are receiving tons of emails every day that clicking the delete or spam button is almost a reflex. So how do you make your email stand out? There are a few things that you can do to succeed at your first email marketing campaign. Let’s find out.

Have an email list

Of course, you will need people to send all those promotional messages to and that means putting in the time and effort to build your email marketing list.

This allows you to access plenty of qualified leads.

The question now becomes, how do you get people to sign up to your email list?

One proven way is to use a non-intrusive pop up whenever someone opens a page on your website. You can provide an incentive to encourage users into signing up such as a discount or a free present. An email list is one of the main elements of a successful email marketing campaign.

Pick a good and reliable email marketing service provider

It’s now time to get your campaign on track. It is never advisable to use Gmail or Outlook. You will need an email marketing service provider such as convert Kid, Mailchimp, or Constant Contact. These will provide you with plenty of benefits.

Some of these benefits include being able to send bulk emails, using customizable email templates and access to campaign management techniques.

Set goals for your campaign

Before you can even create those emails and send them, one thing you will need to do is understand why you are sending the emails in the first place. Sending emails without focus or goals will only end up confusing the readers.

An example of the goals for your email marketing campaign would be upselling, promoting products, getting people to read your blogs, educating readers about the products.

Keep in mind that the ‘why’, is only a part of the goals, you will also need to define the ‘whom’. You may be sending the campaign to repeat customers, to first time customers or to potential customers who have never bought a product from you.

Defining your goals will help you create the right email.

Crafting the email

Now its time to get to the meat of it. You will need to craft the right email and this will start with a catchy subject line that will grab your readers attention and excite them into opening the email.

Once in, they should find attractive images and attractive font.

The message should be sweet, short and straight to the point. The last thing a reader want are lengthy texts.

Once you have these three things in order, it’s time to press the send button. You can then analyze the response rate by checking the opening rate of the website, blog or conversion rate.

How to avoid sending spamming messages

One of the most important ways for businesses to market themselves is through email. It follows then that it can be quite the challenge when you are suddenly blocked as a spammer.

Getting out here could be a nightmare for many businesses. There is a huge battle going on. That between internet service providers and spammers. In fact, statistics show that up to ¼ of all business emails will never get to the recipient’s inbox.

This is because the email is either blocked or marked as spam.

Many who are just beginning at email marketing will often get the short end of the stick. They start off completely wrong sending as many emails as they can and hoping that some will receive a click to buy.

Instead what ends up happening is those emails will hit the spam folder or get blocked all together.

What’s even more ironic is that some companies will send few emails, trying to avoid being marked as spammers which then reduces the chances of reaching even more prospective customers. However, by following a few steps you can increase your odds of making those conversions and preventing your emails from ever going to the spam folder or being blocked.

1.      Work on your reputation

Once upon a time there were spam filters that could check emails and punish you for sending messages that were spammy. However, there is a general consensus among most experts that a business’s reputation is more important.

Just like you can have a lot of trouble getting credit due to a bad credit score, you can also get a bad sender score for your domain name. This can cause your emails not to reach your recipients inboxes.

Whether its Gmail, Hotmail, or yahoo, ISPs have their own strategies and algorithms for determining the senders score. The main one is the complaints by the users when many users click on the spam box on your emails. 

For most ISPs if you receive the spam button by more than a thousand users you will end up having your emails blocked.

And things only go downhill from here. Trying to get out of the spam folder is going to be very difficult.

What you need to start doing is to check whether you are liked or whether most recipients simply don’t like your emails. By using services such as senders.org, you can add your IP address and quickly see your senders score.

What’s more is that you will be able to tell where the problem is coming from and fix it.

2.      Always use clean lists

If say you have a shoddy email list, you are going to get punished by your ISP. One of the things that you will definitely need to avoid are buying lists as they often come with spam traps which are only fake addresses put there to trap spam messages.

They also include the addresses of those that do not want to receive emails. These are more likely going to complain and cause your senders score to decline fast.

While it will most likely take a considerable amount of time, you will benefit from creating your own list of real email subscribers who are willing to receive the emails that you are going to send to them. In fact, as you ask your customers for their emails, you want to make sure that you ask them what kind of emails that they would like to get from you.

If they agree to subscribe to a newsletter for example but make it clear that they do not want marketing content, always ensure that you avoid sending them content that they did not ask for. Otherwise you would only serve to bring down your business reputation.

Also, it is a good idea to separate your list according to the type of customers. This will make it easier for you to send your emails according to what the subscribers want.

Yet another thing that you want to make sure that you do is maintain good email hygiene. You can do this by removing emails from the list that have a tendency of bouncing or opting out. Also, you can take this a step further by sending emails asking customers if they wish to keep receive those emails. You can then only send emails to those customers that respond.

This is where you will really set yourself apart. Instead of concentrating on having a large email list, you are going to maintain only the high-quality customers on your list.

3.      Get skilled at writing good emails

If there is one thing you should know about spammy content is that it triggers the spam folder only around 17% of the time. This however could be higher if you are just starting out at email marketing and haven’t build a reputation yet.

Sending messages that are not only irrelevant but annoying could cause the recipient to quickly click the spam button. Make sure you target your messages in order to avoid all that and always identify yourself on the from section. The subject line, remember will hit the recipient first so ensure you write a crafty one that grabs interest.

Also, those messages should appear the right way on mobile phones as well as on PCs.

4.      Don’t hesitate to hire help

The one thing about sending business emails is that you will indeed benefit from sending many of them as long as you are sending the right type of email. If for example you were to send over 30,000 emails each month, your ISP would be able to tell whether or not you are legitimate.

But not all businesses can send that volume of emails. In this case, it’s a good idea to team up with other smaller businesses. Make sure you share the servers. You can boost your sender score in this way helping you to manage your email list and ensuring that you avoid some of the common pitfalls that trap many in email marketing that we’ve mentioned above.

As an email marketer its absolutely crucial to understand the main parts of an email.

Understanding the 4 main parts of an email

Billions of emails are sent each day. Why? Because emails just so happen to be the most important form of communication especially in business.

Simply put emails are not going anywhere and for you to be effective at writing business emails, you need to understand its main components.

If you are at that point where people are not responding to the emails that you send them, then there has to be something that you are simply doing wrong.

Let’s find out some simple yet effective tip on writing your emails.

1.      The subject line

This is something that you will come across often when it comes to business emails. It is the number one factor that will cause your email to either be read tor deleted.

Getting it the wrong way can cause it to be sent directly to the junk box. Other than being truthful and informative, the subject line needs to capture the reader’s attention, and make them curious as to what is contained in the email.

What this means is to create a feel of curiosity in the minds of the reader. If both the subject line and the email are talking about two different things then the reader will end up with a bad impression of your business.

2.      The email salutation

How you begin your email will create the tone that you are going to use throughout your email. These first few lines are where the reader will get a feel of what you are offering and will decide whether to continue reading or to completely ignore the rest of the email.

You definitely want to avoid appearing too formal or too impersonal. If you know the name of the person you are writing to, start by addressing them directly by their name.

On the other hand, if you do not know the name, start off with Hi, instead of using terms like “to whom it may concern”. What you should always keep in mind is that in business when trying to create good customer relations, you want to avoid sounding too formal.

3.      The middle of the email

Nobody likes reading extensively long text. If you are in a situation where you receive many emails every day, the last thing you are going to look at are extensively long emails.  Even if the recipient opens up the email and finds that to find that it is long, he will probably end up closing it and looking at something else.

Nobody is interested in spending more than the required time going through emails. Always make sure that you send only short and clear and straight to the point emails.

4.      The ending

If the recipient decided to read the email right up to the end, you want to make sure that you end it the right way as this will determine the impression that the reader leaves you with.

Ensure that it is clear what, you expect your reader to do but use a polite tone. Such as “I look forward to hearing from you” or “please let me know what you think”.

Then sign off with phrases such as “kind regards” or “many thanks”. Since this is a business email, you want to make sure that you include any relevant LinkedIn, twitter or Facebook accounts and include your name and signature.

Now that you have a clear understanding of email marketing and the different parts of an email, its time to take things to the next level!

If you want to expand your email marketing list, these are the 3 rules you need to break

Coming up with great copy and excellent promotions is one thing, but all that information and all those great offers need to mailed out to someone. If you don’t have anyone to send them to, you are really accomplishing nothing at the end of the day.

The normal procedures of getting people to your mailing list is to take their emails when they make a buy decision or when they register with your website.

Another way is to include a big “subscribe to our mailing list” button whenever they open a blogpost on your website, and granted, these are all methods that have been proven to work.

However, if you really want to take thing a step further from your competition, then you obviously need to figure out a way to do things different and that may mean breaking some of the conventional rules.

These are the 3 rules you should in fact consider breaking to add on to your emailing list.

1.      Avoid using pop ups

A pop up would normally appear when someone has opened a blog post or a page on your website for the first time.
Sometimes when you are trying to read content and a pop up appears, the first instinctive reaction is to close the pop up and try to access the content even without reading what the pop up is saying. If it is requesting you to subscribe to the mailing list, then you still haven’t been impressed by what the company is offering and so you will just close the window.

Instead, it is more beneficial to use pop overs. These work in a similar way to pop ups but will only appear when the reader clicks on two or more webpages.

By now he or she has an understanding of what the business offers and has decided mentally where there or not they would be interested on what is on offer.

Companies that have used this method have seen great improvement on the number of people who subscribe to their mailing list and the fact that the pop overs appear less frequency means that the reader is not annoyed when they do.

2.      Always ask for a double subscription or opt in

It sounds like going through a lot of unnecessary trouble having already received the first subscription but research shows that some customers will actually send an invalid email address because they don’t want their inboxes filled with emails that they are never planning to read.

However, by asking for an email the second time such as when a customer is purchasing a product, you are able to confirm their email address and send relevant content to them.

3.      Provide people with the option to opt pout

Instead of asking people to subscribe to your mailing list, you can actually ask them to opt out. This allows them control to decide whether they actually want this.

When your business is always popping up the question “would you like to subscribe to our mailing list?” then the reader feels like they are being coaxed into something. Providing the option of opting out gives the reader full control and surprisingly most will often decide to subscribe.

by Samuel Gitukui

When marketing your business through email, you will be sending plenty of these to your customers. However, your prospective customer may just decide to mark it as spam or completely disregard it.  

If your emails are not being read, then your conversions will be low as less people will actually get to see the buy button contained therein. Do you think that you spend too many emails but still your conversions are lagging behind? There are 4 things that you can do to turn things around and increase the number of people that actually read your emails.

This include solving a problem, providing them with interesting content, showing them how to save money or making them much smarter buyers.

1.      Helping your customers solve a problem

Imagine that you had a problem and a certain website convinced you that the content they would send would help you solve such problems. How willing would you be at subscribing to their newsletter? You would be very much willing, wouldn’t you?

Part of creating great content to send to your readers is understanding their problems and helping them solve those problem. Once your readers see that you are actually doing this, they are much more likely to open the emails that you send to them.

This strategy has been showed to have a huge effect on conversions with an opening rate of between 50 to 70 percent. The average opening rate for emails is 25.6%.

2.      Saving customers money

If there is one thing we all love is to purchase that item we’ve been wanting for so long time at a discount. Whether it’s that restaurant meal or that microwave, any chance to purchase a product at less than the stated price always seems to grab people’s attention.

Because of realizing this fact smart businesses will include promotions in their subject lines and include words like, promotion, save, sale, or even free shipping. This makes it that much easier for the customer to understand what is ono offer.

As you probably already know, the subject line is what the customer reads first before opening the email.

3.      Make them learn something, make them smarter

Many people embrace having more knowledge on a particular subject area. If you are in business, then you obviously want to know how to increase your conversions.

If you had a source of reading important business concepts, then you would want to subscribe and open their emails to learn more about turning yourself into a great business person.

Instead of focusing on always selling a product, sometimes you may just want to inform your readers on a particular topic of interest to them.

4.      Source of Entertainment

Perhaps one of the best ways to grab someone’s attention is to entertain them. People love a good laugh and if you can send regular blog posts that make them reach a point of bless then you can seriously increase your opening rate.

Try to include a fun blogpost and then include a promotional message somewhere in the text.

by Samuel Gitukui

Statistics show that over 2.5 billion people around the world use social media. It has become an integral part of daily life and businesses now tailor their marketing efforts to reach out to customers through social media.

This is all well and good until you realize that there are over 3.7 billion people using email. That alone should tell the savvy entrepreneur that email is still a force to be reckoned with in this time and age. Simply put email still outperforms social media and is going nowhere.

It follows then that business people should be able to create marketing campaigns that not only make use of email but still appeal to the social media generation. People do not like canned emails so you should aim to create personalized messages designed to fulfil the needs of the individual.

And this is how to do it.

1.      Make use of trigger emails

Did you know that an email is far more likely to be read if it is expected? If you just send random emails to your potential customers, they might view this as just another promotional message and ignore it.

However, for customers who register with your website and then receive a welcoming email telling them how they can benefit from your website and how to make a purchase, then this is more likely to be taken positively by the customer.
Another example is when a customer has started a search but never quite completed. You could send a reminder email asking them to complete their search.

2.      tag customers for follow up emails

It is all good to get customers to register with you for the first time but you could also lose a significant portion of these potential customers by just sending them a welcome email and not following up on them.

It is highly important that you tag your customers for follow up emails. This helps nurture that business relationship. You could send a follow up email asking, “how was that item that you bought working for you?” or something like, “we have noticed you bought this item last time, check out this other item that you can use with the first item.”

Such reminder and reengaging emails help to keep the business vivid in the minds of potential customers. In case they want to make a purchase it your business that they will think of first.

3.      Make the words count

It is not so much the email as how it is written that really engages the customer. You want to steer away from using long texts, tiny fonts or any other thing that could make it hard for the customer to read.

Instead the words should be sweet, short and simple. The font should be medium sized to large, easy to read and the images should also be less complicated.

Think of that time you received a long email. Did you really want to spend the time going through all that text?

by Samuel Gitukui

Social media is a great tool for marketing one which many businesses have recognized and embraced. It offers a more immediate and personalized way to connect to potential clients. This begs the question, are we seeing a decline in email marketing?

The short and simple, answer is no. In fact, email marketing has resulted in an increase in the number of emails sent each year. However, something to keep in mind is that your business is in competition with many other businesses trying to target the same market. This means that you should send emails that are going to stand out and catch the readers attention in seconds.

This is how.

1.      Start off with a good list

You need to make sure that the people in your email list are actually interested in your emails. Otherwise what would be the point of sending messages to someone who is not interested in them? They will have absolutely no effect and will end up being deleted.

One of the ways you can do this is to check the opening rate. According to data, emails have a 25% opening rate so if yours is below this, then you should consider that you may have a stale lust.

2.      Try something different

If your email marketing doesn’t have a good opening rate then you will want to try something different to grab the interest of the contacts in your emailing list. This could be offering promotions, sending something entertaining, and basically just doing things different.

It gets tempting to hold on to contacts that remain unresponsive and it can sometimes be the hardest thing to get rid of unresponsive contacts but one thing to always keep in mind is that for you to truly reap the benefits, you would need to send emails to people who actually want to read messages.

3.      Using Images

The first thing that you want to do when using imagery is to source them from a stock photo website. After all you are trying to impress your prospective clients with high quality content, right?

However even while the emails you send should high quality, that doesn’t mean that you need to get professional photos. In fact, it could be harder for your prospect to engage with you as the message looks too promotional.

On the other hand, if you were to use your own real images from Facebook or Instagram for example, this would resonate more with the customers.

4.      Keep things simple

The last thing you want to do with sending emails is to use corporate jargon and complicated buzzwords. People do not want to spend their time trying to decipher what the email actually means. Instead, keep the language short and simple and assume you are talking to your friend.

When the reader goes through the email, he or she will find it much easier to engage with you and will actually spend time reading what it says on the email.

by Summer Worsley

Freedom of the press is all very well. However, as anyone serious about writing content fit for public consumption knows, there is some conforming to the norm. One of the key sources guiding publications and writers around the world is, of course, the Associated Press Stylebook.
 
The electronic version is kept current with any changes and updated regularly. The hardcopy edition is revised annually, with a new edition due for release at the end of May 2019.
 
Some of the most significant changes to this year’s AP Stylebook include:
 
Split Infinitives Are Now Acceptable
 
The force is now with us, and split infinitives are okay after all. An oft-quoted example of a split infinitive is Star Wars’ opening statement. Captain Kirk's attestation “To boldly go where no man has gone before” was previously an AP no-go. The split is the insertion of the word “boldly” between the infinitive “to go”. This type of construction is now acceptable to the AP to convey meaning and add clarity.

Their use is, of course, nothing new. As historical events often are, the utilization of split infinitives has been cyclical. They were okay in Old English or Anglo Saxon times, but not so much in Shakespeare's time. The arrival of prescriptivist grammar manuals in the late 16th century deemed split infinitives incorrect. This was, in large part, because these grammars were based on Latin rules.

Many writers have been gleefully splitting infinitives again for years. The AP Stylebook has just caught up with others on the infinitive frontier.
 
% Not Percent
 
How many times out of one hundred do editors correct the use of % to percent (US) or per cent (UK)? Quite often, in fact. But the AP Stylebook change for 2019 has made it simple: If you’re using numerals, you can just use the % symbol. Odds are that 99.9% of people will find that quicker, easier, and more intuitive than the writing out 99.9 per cent in full.
 
Suspensive Hyphenation              
 
Do you inhale deeply at the thought of how and when to hyphenate? Let alone figuring out the use of suspensive hyphenation? Good news, you can exhale that deep breath. The 2019 AP Stylebook has expanded advice on how to hyphenate.
 
Suspensive hyphens cut down the number of words needed in a sentence with similar elements or multiple compound modifiers. For example, the difference in the interest you may spend between 15-, 20- or 30-year mortgages. Compared to the differences you may spend between 15-year, 20-year, or 30-year mortgages.
 
With hyphenation in general, the 2019 AP Stylebook has moved with the notion that less is best. Feel free to take them out of any prefixes with double-e combinations. Rework re-establish as reestablish. If you want to bring back a dedicated worker you can reemploy them rather than re-employ them.
 
If the meaning of previously hyphenated words is clear without the hyphen, whip it out. A third-grade teacher is still clearly a third grade teacher without the hyphen. Likewise, a chocolate chip cookie remains unambiguous without a hyphen.

The Stylebook also removes hyphens used to fill the gap between anyone who identifies with one or more cultural or ethnic origins.  There is no need to hyphenate Americans of dual heritage whether African American, Hispanic American, Chinese American or Japanese American. Likewise American Indians and Native Americans. These two, however, are only to be used in general terms. When referring to individual people or groups, reference specific tribal affiliations.
 
The Terms Racism and Racist
 
The guide introduces new guidance on how to stay neutral and unbiased when it comes to reporting or writing about anything related to race. Thoughtful writing showing consideration and understanding of diversity is recommended. There is guidance on avoiding euphemisms such as “racially charged” or “racially motivated.”  Only use racial identifiers when relevant.
 
It also takes a stand on calling out and naming racism for what it is. A new entry on racism states: “The terms racism and racist can be used in broad references or in quotations to describe the hatred of a race or assertion of the superiority of one race over others.”
 
The AP Style Guide and Its Impact
 
The Associated Press Stylebook has been in use by journalists and writers of all kinds for decades. First released to media journalists in the 1950s, it’s been available for the public to purchase since the 1970s.
 
The AP Stylebook isn’t just a guide to grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The publication aims to help writers and editors produce accurate, neutral, and ethically written content. The overall guidance also informs writers on how to produce writing in a consistent style so that different audiences can readily digest and understand the content.
 
It doesn’t matter which topic you’re writing about, chances are the compilers of the AP Stylebook have considered it. The Stylebook gives in-depth guidance on how to write across social, economic, and political aspects within many topics. Want to know what legalised marijuana dispensary employees should be called? (It's budtenders).
 
The AP Stylebook is available in hardcopy and electronic versions for phones, computers, and tablets. If you want to go a step further, there's the StyleGuard app to check if you've applied the principles and parameters.
 
To help keep your text in order, check out the options for the updated 2019 AP Stylebook in hardcopy or the electronic version. Or, if you’d like to keep your eyes on the bigger picture and let others worry about hyphens, infinitives, and other niggly grammatical concerns, get in touch with us today.  

by Samuel Gitukui

Every one of us especially in the corporate world receives a sheer number of emails every day. It is a common way of communication and may people will spend a considerable amount of their time in the office reading and replying to emails.

But the high number of emails that require your attention has caused many to lack a good understanding of how to make proper replies. It’s absolutely paramount that you use a professional tone when replaying to emails.

Here are some of the email etiquette rules to always follow when writing your emails.

1.      Use the right subject line

The subject line is the first thing people look at when they get your email and it follows then that it should be clear, concise and direct. For example, if you are changing the date for a meeting, you can write, “Changed Meeting Date”.
In fact, people will decide whether to read the email based on the subject line alone.

2.      Make sure that your email address is professional

One of the things that you need to ensure is that your email address appears professional. If you are working for a particular company then you need to use the company’s email address.

On the other hand, if you are self-employed, you can use your email address but always make sure it is professional. You don’t want to be sending emails with an address that looks like beerlover@, or babyboy@...

3.      Salutations should be professional

Many people often use the wrong salutations when writing business emails. It is certainly not correct thing to do to use salutations such a “Yo”, “Hey you guys” or “what’s up guys”. Instead use more professional salutations such as Hi or Hello.

Another thing to always keep in mind is to never shorten the name of the recipient. For example, if you are sending an email to Michael, it’s improper to say, “hi Mike”.

4.      Don’t over use exclamation marks

Yet another thing to always note is when using exclamation marks. Some people may want to express their level of excitement and use a number of exclamation marks after a sentence to display their high excitement.

However, this takes away the professional feel and tone of the email. Just one exclamation mark is enough.

5.      Try and avoid humor

When writing professional emails, you want to avoid adding humor to your text as this could be interpreted the wrong way by the recipient.

And in cases where you know the recipient well, ensure that you are not doubtful as to how they will receive the humor. If you are in doubt, avoid humor even if you know the recipient well.

6.      Take note of the recipient’s background and culture

The same message can be interpreted differently by people from different cultures as the communication is always different. When writing a professional email, always ensure that you are aware of the recipients’ culture and background to make sure that they do not end up being offended and that they receive the email well.

by Archu Dhamija

Benefits of Using Local Language Translation Services for Businesses

In order to grow further, businesses need to tap new markets in various parts of the world. But to attract customers in these new markets towards their products and services and to engage them, businesses need to communicate with them in their own language. By translating their company documentation, website and various other online and offline marketing materials into the language of their target audience, local language translation services can enable businesses to better communicate with their clients and customers. Thus they can influence the clients to do business with them and motivate customers to purchase their products or services. This will help to boost their profits, grow their business and take their success to the next level.

​1. Provides high quality, accurate and relevant translation

A local language translation service has got knowledgeable and skilled language experts who are well versed in the language of the local population. They have knowledge about the grammar, words, metaphors, presuppositions, slangs, phrases, idioms and other elements of the language. So they will correctly translate a business’s marketing materials like website, flyers, brochures, etc. originally written in English into the local language which will appeal to the customers. So they will be able to relate with the business and will be eager to purchase its products or hire its services.

Also, the service’s language experts will accurately translate a business’s legal documents in English into the language of the target audience. Without correct translation of its legal documents, the business may get caught up in legal issues which may take a toll on its finances and damage its reputation among its customers and clients.

2. Delivers fast and efficient translation services

Businesses not only need to get their documents and marketing materials translated correctly, but they also want them to be translated in a fast and timely manner. A professional language translation service has got dedicated language experts. They are punctual in meeting deadlines and will deliver the translated documents to businesses on time. So businesses can timely share them with their local clients for their further action.

3. Meets bulk translation requirements

After their entry into a new market, businesses will work to capture customers’ attention in a particular city or area. After attaining success in this objective of theirs, businesses will try to attract customers in the nearby cities or areas. For this,  businesses need to get translated an increased number of online marketing materials like blogs, landing pages, newsletters as well as offline marketing materials like letterheads, postcards, banners, etc. So their translation requirements will increase manifold. A translation service has got enough resources to meet their increased and bulk translation requirements. If the service operates on a smaller scale, it can network with other translation services and their translation experts to meet increased translation demands of businesses.

4. Maintains consistent language style and tone

While getting its various marketing materials like blogs, brochures, banners, etc. translated into the local language, a business needs to ensure that all its translated materials have a consistent style and tone of its voice. So the local audience does not get confused and they can understand that the message in these materials is being propagated by the same business.

5. Makes customers emotionally connect with a business

Translating business documents and marketing materials from English to local language is not just about translating them correctly. Also, the language of the translation has to be such that it makes the customers feel that a given business is not an inanimate thing, but is a human just like them. Such a language will make the customers emotionally connect with the business which is so important for its success. Language experts of a professional local language translation service have the ability to translate a business’s message into this kind of language. This will help the business in gaining acceptance among the local customers. Also, the customers can better relate with the business.

6. Enables businesses to provide improved customer support

When a business is offering its products or services to customers in a new market, it needs to provide better and fast customer support for addressing issues and problems faced by the customers as they use its products or services. Translation services help businesses clearly understand concerns and issues faced by their customers and let businesses provide fast necessary instructions and guidance to their customers in their own language. So they are able to win the customers’ trust and retain their loyalty.

7. Makes a business’s message reach a wider audience

Though English is the most commonly spoken language over the world, but there is still a huge population which does not speak English. Local language translation services help businesses take their message to a large non-English speaking population of the world by translating their business documents and marketing materials into the local language. Their translation expertise enables businesses to reach a wider global audience and lets them influence the audience to become their followers and customers. This in turn helps to improve their profitability and ROI.

8. Helps businesses in getting ranked higher in local search engine result pages

While translating a business’s website content, blogs, articles and its other online marketing content pieces, translation experts of a professional translation service will exactly use those keywords in the content which local customers type on the internet for finding products or services they need. The presence of these keywords in its content will make the business get ranked higher among the local search engine results. So local customers will be able to find the business on the internet when they surf for the products they need. This will make them believe in its credibility and influence them to purchase its products.

9. Provides tailored services

Every business has got different needs and requirements. A professional language translation service provides businesses tailor made services in accordance to their specific needs and requirements.

10. Meets technical translation requirements of different kinds of businesses

As a language translation service has to translate technical content for Information Technology, healthcare, law and other kinds of businesses, it needs to acquire knowledge about technical terms used in the respective business fields. To gain knowledge about these terms, the service’s language specialists will not only consult the internet and books, but will also meet IT experts, doctors, lawyers and other experts, so as to ensure the accuracy and quality of the translation done by them. So businesses hiring a professional translation service for translation of their documents and marketing materials can feel assured about the accuracy and quality of the translated content provided by the service.

11. Follows latest technological trends and changes in language conventions and cultural contexts

The expert translators of a language translation service keep themselves updated with the latest technological trends and any changes occurring in the language conventions and cultural contexts. They will cover these trends and changes when translating a business’s content from English to the local language if these are relevant to the content. Moreover, its translators will keep on working for their professional development which will reflect in the quality of their work.

12. Enables businesses to focus on their core tasks

Local language translation services save businesses from devoting their precious time and resources towards translating their business documents and marketing materials. As a language translation service will take care of translating its documents and marketing materials, the business need not bother about translating them itself. So it will become free to devote its attention, energy and resources towards growing its business and generating more income and revenue.

13. Promotes business expansion

Businesses who want to expand their base into new markets will be greatly benefitted by utilizing expertise of local language translation services. By translating its business documents and online and offline marketing materials into the local language, a language translation service will enable a business to better connect with the local audience. The business can better engage them and capture their attention towards its products or services and motivate them to purchase the products. With an increased number of local customers buying its products will enable the business to boost its growth and profits. It will be able to beat its competitors. Thus, the business will be able to achieve its specific goals and take it success to the next level.
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In view of the various above stated benefits, businesses keen to expand into new markets should avail services of local language translation companies. These will ultimately help to improve their profitability and ROI. Witinall is a leading and trustworthy German to English translation service. By performing accurate and efficient translation of your business’s documents and its online and offline marketing materials written in English into the German language, the service will help you better communicate and connect with the German audience and influence them to become your customers. Thus the service will play a crucial role in your business’s profitability, growth and success. 

by Samuel Gitukui

Business is reinventing thanks to the concept of the gig economy. There is more and more automation owing to technological advancements which means companies now require fewer workers. Because of this, people need to find a way of making a living.

Some people may find it easier to find new jobs but others will turn into freelancers working for multiple companies. Millennials have embraced the gig economy saying that they prefer to be their own boss.

Granted, the gig economy tends to render the traditional job roles obsolete in some sectors but there is benefit to this. Some companies have actually embraced the gig economy allowing them to make use of workers with highly specialized skills sets.

Freelancers are offering companies the best way to compete. One of the main benefits is that companies have is that they are able to choose the perfect person for a particular task and make use of their services at the required time.

After all, why would you pay someone to sit at a desk all day waiting for the opportunity to prove themselves while you can get qualified professional for the task?

Some freelancers and contractors are not permanent, companies can only spend their resources as of when needed.
And if you want another reason to make full use of the gig economy think of increased productivity and efficiency. Companies pay on per hour basis which means that very little of their resources goes to waste. Also, in a company is not satisfied with the productivity of a worker, they can cut short the contract and get another more suitable freelancer for the task.

Even better is that there is very little training required. Freelancers already have the skillset needed to perform a task.
Now the gig economy doesn’t mean that companies will shut down. It only means that in the coming years we are going to see more companies take on outsourcing. This has already started to happen in large companies such as FedEx where over 20% of the workers are outsourced.

Once workers realize that they stand to gain more from freelancing than in their full-time jobs, the traditional roles are more likely going to change.

Businesses should not see this as a perilous change but rather as a shifting from the old ways and an opportunity to grow the business even bigger.

Setting the business up for the gig economy

As an entrepreneur you may have been considering the idea of hiring freelancers as a great way to stay competitive and remain efficient. However, perhaps it is now time for you to fully embrace the concept.
And this is how!

1.      Breaking down tasks

The first thing you will need to do is to break down tasks into much smaller tasks. This makes it easier to find a good skill set for each individual task.

It is much more effective to find a freelance worker for a smaller task than one who can perform all tasks. The specialization of skills means that the end result is of far higher quality.

Let’s say for example a pharmacist wants a blog post on a complex and technical area. The best writer would be one that has the right skill set with a back ground in health. However, finding such a writer could prove difficult.

You can keep accepting proposals until you find the best writer or you could get material from a health specialist and then get a high-quality writer to put it down into an easy to read blog post.

It will all come down to understanding the task and what the business needs are. If you break down the task and remain flexible, you can get the project completed fairly easily.

2.      Create virtual and open lines of communication with your freelancers

Communication is one of the most important factors when it comes to freelance workers. Without free-flowing communication, projects may not run as expected.

One of the best ways to ensure enhanced communication is by using technology. The technology could include video conferencing or just be about email.

Phone is great but you want to have an audit trail of previous conversations so as to reference in case of any misunderstandings or if you want to clarify something.

3.      Leverage the expertise of freelancers

Part of having a healthy workforce is ensuring that everyone is engaged in the development of the company. Research shows high number of workers feel disengaged and if you want to reverse this, then you could integrate both freelance and full-time employees so that they work together for a common goal.

Freelancers have picked up plenty of skills as they work for multiple companies so leverage this and give them credit when something positive happens as a result of their skillset or when you take their ideas and put them into action.

4.      Go to marketplaces that are best suited for your needs

The quickest way to find the right freelancers for the job involves searching in freelance market places. Companies can find a gig worker for the task in a matter of hours and freelancers can find jobs in as fast as 24 hours.

The trick is to find a freelancer market place that you can trust. Plenty of the platforms available are not vetting their freelancers which means you are going to have to go through rating left by other clients.

This however is not a highly reliable way for finding freelancers as the ratings may be left by companies who specialize in a different business to yours.

A single market platform may not provide you with solutions for all your tasks needs so it’s a good idea to register with multiple freelancer platforms. Even better is to find marketplaces that specialize in your individual company needs.

The business environment is changing and businesses need to get on board the gig economy train. Over a century ago, the industrial revolution came and changed how things were done. Eventually everyone had to conform to the new way of doing things.

Now the gig economy is here and it is expected to shape the business environment for the better.

Some stereotypes about freelance workers

For some businesses freelancer workers still haven’t appealed to their better nature. They still conform to the old ways. If you are the manager of a company and are stuck in this old thinking, they there is a chance that you may have fallen prey to some of the most common freelancer misconceptions.

The influence of freelancers and todays gig economy cannot be denied. It accounts for a significant portion of the workforce. Freelancers are nothing new, even with the old ways of doing businesses there were still contractors hired to perform certain tasks.

Then there was the recession and many people got laid off. Advancements in internet technology also happened at a fast rate. When western economies dropped more people found themselves in serious need for cash and there was mass embracing of contractor jobs.

Corporations were busy firing workers and freelancers were busy making ends meet. Then the millennials who never wanted to experience the pain of losing their jobs took over from their parents. Today over half the millennials population are freelancers.

Freelancers enjoy setting rates for their skills and being in control of their lives. What’s even better is that they make enough to live a comfortable life and go on holidays.

On the other hand, companies welcome the idea of not having to rent extra office space, pay benefits or even pay for training.

The relationship could never be more mutually beneficial. However, there are still some stereotypes that get in the way of businesses embracing the gig economy.

1.      Freelancers cannot perform complex tasks

Some people tend to think that it’s hard to find a highly qualified freelancer for the task at hand. The truth is that it is actually possible and quite simple to get the right freelancer.

More than half of all freelancers come with associate degrees. This means you can access workers who have just about any type of skill that you are interested in allowing you to easily fil gaps in your organization.

If one of your IT guys quit his job, all you need is to find an IT specialist who has some of all of the skills needed for the task and the business continues to run as normal.

It’s important to note that freelancers themselves will create their own niches. This allows them to specialize and become great at their work. As the old saying goes, jack of all master of none!

This means that if you get a freelancer that specializes in a section if the tasks, they will be able to provide you with high quality work.

2.      Freelancers want short term contracts

This is yet another myth that needs to be dispelled. Many entrepreneurs think that freelancers are here today and will be gone in a few days. Granted freelancers are not for a full-time employment but they also believe in longer term contracts.

Freelancers are more than willing to continue with the contract for as long as the business relationship is ideal. As long as the terms are met by both sides, then you could have a freelancer work for you for months and sometimes even years.

3.      Freelancers are not loyal

It’s very true that freelancers do not have bosses that are always on their case but what is also true is that freelancers can be very loyal to their clients. When it comes down to it, it is the clients that the freelancer depends on to make income.

Freelancing is more like having multiple supervisors instead of the usual one at the permanent job. While they aim for more flexibility, they are not willing to lose a valuable source of income and this is why they can be incredibly loyal.
They are fully aware of the fact that if the freelancer does not perform their job to the best standards, they will be replaced by someone who will.

Thus, the high-quality freelancers are always maintaining good lines of communication with their clients and put them first.

So, when you have a position that needs to be filled, instead of going through the usual recruitment process, why not give a freelancer the task? You may end up spending less and getting more quality work such that you become a big fan of the gig economy. You may even decide to make the majority of your workers freelancers.

How to Get top value form your freelancer

Having a freelancer work for you is not only cost effective for your business but also allows you to scale as the business grows and to easily cut ties when the task has been completed. However, you can only make the most of the relationship by upholding a few main factors.

Tips to thriving in the gig economy for a gig worker

Many freelancers will agree that ten years ago, they would not have been able to make as much as they do now. The combination of the internet and companies that embrace the concept of the on-demand workers, the gig economy is now a thriving place for anyone who has skills.

Freelancers attest to how the gig economy can completely change people’s lifestyles. Some freelancers double what they used to earn in their full-time jobs by working fewer hours. There is more personal time available by being able to set their schedule and they enjoy having more control over their jobs.

What to consider

There are plenty of advantages to the gig economy but there are also many issues and factors that need to be considered if you are going to work as a freelancer. The first thing that anyone interested needs to understand is that future revenue is uncertain.

While it is possible to get a long-term client that offers you plenty of work, this is not always the case. For the average freelancer, you will need to hustle in order to ensure a steady flow of clients.

Another thing to consider is that you will not get any benefits as is the case with the traditional jobs. Because of this it is up to the freelancers to find their own health insurance or retirement savings, as well as vacation time.

Even with the whole idea of independent working the reality is no one is completely independent and you will be accountable to someone. While this could be simple and straightforward, plenty of people think of freelancing and automatically their mind thinks of freedom. Remaining realistic is crucial.

However, that said there is really a lot of freedom as you get to choose your work hours and as you balance this with our private and personal time. But this is where you need to be careful. The last thing you want is to have overdue work and your client sees you posting photos of your lasts surfing adventures on social media.

This goes without saying will create some tension. Keep your personal life private and always complete work ahead of time.

When freelancing its important to work like you are on vacation. But what doesn’t this mean? Minimizing distractions, prioritizing your work, and remaining open for anything.

It is easy to overestimate or underestimate the quantity of work that you can get done in a day. Most freelancers do this. However, after you’ve gained experience, you will be able to judge just how much on average you are capable of competing in a day and plan your schedule around this. Things get complicated when you promise a client that you will have completed their work after a couple of days only for it to take a week.

A way to get around this is to always under promise and over deliver. For example, if you think that work could take a couple of days, you can promise to deliver within a week. If you do manage to finish within a few days you can then send work in earlier. The client will always be delighted that you always deliver ahead of time.

As much as freelancing is about short-term contracts, repeat business is always a good thing as it spares you the time and effort needed to send proposals and come to agreement with a client. Always deliver quality work ahead of time so your current clients ensure repeat business.  

This needs special planning.

The gig economy isn’t just for the young

Many people might think that the future is for the young and we have all seen how technology has influenced how work is done. The gig economy is now seeing more adaptability and flexibility in careers.

And this is not just with the millennials but with the older generation as well. In fact, you could argue that it is also very well suited for the boomers. They can boost their income before getting to retirement.

We can see this in the taxi industry where some drivers as old as 74 are still making ends meets as uber drivers.

by Samuel Gitukui

For many organizations, talent management is a top priority. In order to bridge an existing talent gap, companies are making use of the crowd, either through open innovation platforms and sometimes through the gig economy.

However even while companies use these open innovation platforms there is a problem. Its success rate is hindered due to a lack of talent within the company. With this in mind, its now easy to understand why the simpler option for many organizations is to turn to the gig economy.

Some companies have reverted to creating platforms that are designed to help them source the best freelancers for the job. Some of these platforms not only allow managers to get into contact with the best freelance clients but also ensures that they jump on board to start work quickly which also allows them to make an impact much faster.

For companies wanting to set up a work force that is modern and for the future business its important to first appreciate that the relationship between the employer and the employee is changing. Workers now seek more flexibility and the number of contractor workers continues to rise.

Companies are now having strategies to recruit short term employees and freelancers when the need for them in the company arises. This allows them to have a flexible and agile workforce and since there are no geographical barriers, the business is able to gain access to global talent.

In order to attract the right freelancers, companies are going as far as allowing contractors use the same material and platforms that the more permanent workers use for job training.

One of the greatest assets for any organization is its work force and the best talent will allow it to thrive. Most of the time, some of the best talent comes in the form of freelancers. That said, organizations are realizing the need to provide support to its workers to allow them to adapt in an everchanging business world.

Millennials are perhaps the biggest proportion of the gig economy. What is starting to pop up is the question of job security and compensation and whether there is any regulatory body.

The companies, organizations and government will need to start looking at work in a whole new way instead of trying to amend the current in place job regulations.

Something to keep in mind however is that the gig economy is not all roses and sunshine. Some freelancers may have to work overly long hours and still make little money depending on how you set up your business of course.

There are different types of gig workers within the economy from plumbers to writers to vets. However, they have a few similarities.

There is no guarantee of future work and workers are called as when needed. They are also paid as after completing the gig. Often workers will not be paid per hour but as par a specific job.

As for the capital required to perform the tasks it is up to the workers to supply it.  

by Samuel Gitukui

Around 10 years ago, people realized how difficult it had become to secure a full-time job. Many started to do temporary jobs just to get by. Soon they realized that in order to have consistent income, they needed to work for more than a single company.

And the idea of flexible work began and quickly took hold. Now working as a freelancer is something to be desired. You get to earn more than you would in a full-time job and you are flexible which means more time to do what you love.

But freelancers are not the only ones benefiting from this gig economy. Companies are beginning to realize as well that flexible workers are the answer to most of the company woes and have their eyes set on an ever growing and diverse talent base.

The role of freelancers in company culture

The majority of companies employ a number of workers when business is good only to lay them off when a major client moves off to another company.

It is a regular cycle that has a big impact on the morale of the company and its remaining workers. They tend to feel unstable which in turn makes the remaining employees feel insecure in their jobs.

Freelance workers eliminate this feeling. The whole nature of freelance working agrees with the set up so when the contract ends, the freelancer will walk away happy knowing that they played their part. The rest of the employees should be informed of the set up and this allows them to feel more secure at their jobs.

Now its important not to treat the freelancer as a temporary worker even if they are. Include them in team building, parties and other company functions. In this way, the permanent workers will view them as part of the company even if its for the time being.

Focus on the task

Another way of getting rid of the unconventional mindset that other more permanent workers may have on freelance workers is to focus more on the task being accomplished in the company and of the time spent in the company.

This way everybody in the organization is more likely to view freelance workers as a valuable addition to the company all working towards the same goals of the company.

Understand why freelancers choose to freelance

In order to create a mutually beneficial relationship with a short-term worker it’s important for the company to understand why they choose to do freelancing rather than full time employment in the first place.

A worker may value flexible working hours because it allows them to attend class. Another would do this to have enough time to still take care of her kids at home.

Freelancing has also allowed people to gain a sense of freedom to engage in other contracts and treat their freelancing as a business. It provides them with more flexibility.

By knowing this, the company is able to use freelancers to maintain its culture and create a more stable working environment for everyone.

by Samuel Gitukui

In the early days, people who worked as freelancers were viewed as being just a level away from being completely unemployed. Now in this modern age more and more people have turned to this cool and lucrative way of making a living.

Working as a freelancer certainly has its perks. Finding gigs allows you to work around your own time and to remain flexible.

However, if you think that gigs are up for grabs then think again. There are also hundreds of people who are aiming to get that gig that you have your eyes set on. In other words, the world of freelancing is full of competition.
This is how to remain competitive

Market your skills

Freelance working is all about offering skills to companies on short term basis which them means you should aim to put yourself in front of companies that are searching for these skills.

One great way to allow you to be seen and to market your skills is to register with multiple freelance sites.  Create a profile where need be and always ensure that you keep it updated with things that keep you ahead of your competition.

Do your research

Even while gigs are not going to be long term, employees will still expect top notch quality work. Do your homework and show a high level of understanding of the companies’ values and expectations and include this in your proposal.
Once the employer sees that you care about the company and its development, they are going to be more likely to offer you a job.

Offer excellent work

When you finally do get a job, you want to use it as a platform to get rehired. This is how to succeed in the gig economy. Companies do not enjoy constantly looking for someone to fill a position every so often so if you can offer the best quality work, you stand a chance to be rehired.

In fact, the majority of companies would like to have a person they always contact when they need their particular services. Go over and above what normal freelancers would do and set yourself apart.

Start off by getting to work earlier than most. When you have a deadline, always submit work before the deadline.
Be readily available and respond to messages and emails immediately. When the managers request something, always be willing to say yes. This puts you across as being reliable.

Ensure that you deliver on what you promise, and perform exceptionally. Perhaps one of the most important points to consider is, if you feel like you do not have the skills or time for a job, do not apply for it in the first place.

Don’t take things personal

Of course, you are not going to land every gig that you apply to. Sometimes you may get a response telling you that your application was denied. That’s part of being a freelancer. Always remain positive and keep applying for jobs and soon you will land the ideal one for your skill set.

by Samuel Gitukui

There is no denying that the gig economy is growing and it covers every aspect of independent work from accounting, to writing to home repairs. While freelancing was considered as something many people would do between jobs, the reality is that people are now freelance full time and are thriving.

Research into the gig economy reveals why this many people are opting to do freelance work.

1.      It is both viable and sustainable

In a certain study, 5 out of 6 freelancers were shown to reach their income goals within two years. More than 42% of freelancers will actually do so in a year. And the driving force behind these numbers is that when you realize that you are growing as a freelancer, you will be more likely to pursue your goals.

And it doesn’t top there, for those who think freelancers don’t secure their future, the truth is that majority are saving for their future and many of have taken insurance policies.

Many companies are welcoming the idea of freelance workers and the gig economy continues to grow.

2.      Freelancers work toward growth

Freelancers are not here on a temporary basis and in fact plan on pursuing their goals for the long term. Research in fact shows that the majority of them have no intention of being employed full time.

Freelancers are also marketing their skills regularly spending considerable amounts every month on marketing alone.
While not all freelancers are marketing their skills, those that are spending money on marketing initiatives every month are receiving more gigs and earn considerably more.

3.      Freelancers are happy at their gigs

Granted millennials may have been the first to use social media to launch and grow their businesses, but they are not the first people to start freelancing.

Freelancers that are over 35 years plan on never going back to being fully employed and are content with the life work balance that is as a result of the gig economy.

Many freelancers are not referring to themselves simply as “freelancers”. They are instead calling themselves small business owners, self-employed and entrepreneurs. This proves that they consider their work more as a business.

The gig economy is here for everyone

As the months and years pass, the gig economy continues to grow which sees freelancers grow their income and turn their gigs into lucrative businesses. To put things into perspective over $3.2 million freelancers in the US are earning more than $100,000 a year.

There are still those who think that the gig economy is not sustainable but more and more people are embracing freelance work due to the many benefits that come with it.  One of the great motivators is not just the opportunity to have more income but the flexible work life balance involved.

Companies are looking to become more flexible as well and one of the ways they can do this is by hiring freelance workers.

The talk is that the gig economy is here to stay and as the months go by, we will see more and more people joining the freelance world.

by Samuel Gitukui

One thing that is certainly true is that the gig economy isn’t going anywhere. Whether your company has temporary or permanent workers, consumer habits have changed and they have now become used to getting what they need and want delivered straight at their doorstep.

The gig economy has impacted business in three main ways…

1.      Workers are demanding more flexibility

May freelancers welcome the idea of autonomous working and being able to create their own work schedules. Even while your workers may take a while to leave their jobs and become full time gig workers, it is quite obvious that the flexible working hours have become a major attraction.

Even so, many companies simply can’t match up to the flexible working schedules that freelancers get. That’s said, more and more thriving companies are ditching the traditional strict working schedules.

In fact, it has become a competitive factor in the job market so if your company isn’t offering flexible working hours, your competitors might have an edge over you if they are offering flexible working hours.

In order to reduce employee turnover and attract some of the best employees, the company should come up with methods on how to provide flexible working hours to employees. This makes the employees feel more loyal and as a result will become more productive.

2.      Consumers now expect more

The gig economy has shown customers that they are able to get what they want and when they want it. Companies that are smart know how to leverage this by including an on-demand strategy to their business model. This gives them an edge over their competition.

If you have your own business, then you could be wondering if there is a way that that you could take advantage of the gig economy. In truth there is always a market for any skill that you have that could earn you some money. Chances are there is an opportunity for your business too.

People are willing to pay extra to have their items or orders delivered to them and this can give you an edge if you know how to take advantage of this.

And if you are still looking for ways to take advantage of the gig economy, you can read through the feedback of customers starting with when they were searching for products until they make their purchase.

3.      There are plenty of resources at your disposal

One of the main advantages of the gig economy is that it allows businesses to provide an enhanced customer experience all while putting less strain on your business.

Look at it this way, it is expensive to hire permanent workers, add in the fact that they are full time and will also require you to pay benefits.

The great thing is that there are plenty of people who are looking for short term gigs. They will have the right qualifications, will need less training and will help your business accomplish its goals.

by Samuel Gitukui

Initially it was the more permanent employees that received social recognition. Having a stable job that you were going to keep throughout your career showed you had what it takes to survive.

Secondly there was the career path. Lawyers, doctors and the like received way more social recognition than say the plumber or electrician.

Now with the gig economy freelance workers are starting to receive their fair share of recognition.

The driving force behind worker status

It was not uncommon in the earlier days for someone to spend their entire career life working for a single employer as they slowly rise up the ranks over the years.

Then with the young jobseekers coming in at an influx, there was competition for less available job opportunities. And it only got worse. Employees had to shift to short term contacts to make ends meet. Soon they realized that this could actually be the only way to earn a decent living and maintain a healthy work life balance.

With the gig economy the flexibility of workers means that people can to be selective on who and what they want to work on. This is not a luxury that permanent employees get to enjoy and this is what has driven up the social recognition for freelancers.

Smart businesses have also realized that in order to remain competitive, they will also need to embrace the concept of the gig economy. Freelancing may have initially been a risky venture but now, its benefits are apparent to everyone.

Freelancers are highly skilled individuals

There has always been this misconception that people working in permanent jobs are highly skilled and that if you are not in a permanent job however, then you lack some essential and highly important skills.

Things couldn’t be further from the truth. Freelancers often come with a myriad of skills and what’s even better is that they can apply these skills in a number of different areas in the company. And as if that is not enough, they are plug and play individuals which means that less time is wasted in training.

How to boost people’s attitude of temporary workers even more

It’s clear that people’s attitude of temporary workers is changing but there is still something that can be done to improve people’s attitude.

For one, companies can give some temporary jobs to their permanent workers. This provides them with a feel of what freelance work is like and allows them to judge for themselves if the gig economy is actually a better concept than the more traditional job roles.

Secondly, it’s important for both parties to be clear with one another. Employees need to state what exactly they require and the skill sets that are seeking for the task. On the other end of the spectrum, temporary workers need to show exactly which skills they have and what they can offer.
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Both parties will then agree on the payment terms as well as the time allowed to complete the task. This creates an official vibe to the job and shows that there is still an employee, employer relationship here.

by Samuel Gitukui

There is this negative perception around the gig economy that companies use freelancers for cost cutting. The media doesn’t report on the high skill levels of the freelancers.

However, the truth is that online platforms allows companies to connect with some of the best service providers and allows the company to actively seek out specific skills. Here gender, age or location is not a driving factor and the result is a level playing field.

This opens up a whole new world of opportunities one where social barriers do not get in the way of someone trying to showcase their talents.

The modern business environment is always talking about the need for diversity. What better way to uphold diversity than through the gig economy?

Diversity creates value

This is one of the main advantages of the gig economy in that it provides value.  Workers are more accessible through online platforms and people are able to work even from home. You can think of stay at home moms that need to raise their children.

Companies get more accessibility to workers and vice versa. It also offers the best way for retirees to make some extra money and not just rely on their pension.

Access to the best skills

One of the main advantages of the gig economy is that it provides businesses with the opportunity to gain access to high quality skills. These are skills that would be more difficult to come across if the business used the traditional way of job advertisements.

What’s more is that by employing short term skills the company is able to considerably reduce the cost of having workers around when there is no work.

The gig economy will work both ways and is an efficient way of earning a decent income as well as getting tasks done.

For example, suppose you wanted some graphic design work done. It is much easier to send an advert online than to drive to the nearest graphic design firm. Once you have agreed on the job and what needs to be done, you can then send payment once the job is completed to your standards.

Access to international talent

One other way that the gig economy adds to diversification is that it allows companies to gain access to global talent. There are no geographical barriers and the more reach that you have the more you are likely to come across the best talent for your business.  

It breaks down old narratives and allows businesses to compete much more efficiently. Look at it this way, a business only hires workers for a specific task which allows it to ultimately cut down on the costs. Even better, the business is able to get a higher quality job from a worker who is in japan or Germany.

In fact, if the business wants to remain ahead of the game, then having short term workers can allow it to dedicate more of its funds to marketing. The internet opens up whole new possibilities.

by Samuel Gitukui

Perhaps people got tired of the constant hassle of looking for a job. With how things were going, getting a job was one of the hardest things to do, and overqualified graduates often had to settle for less than ideal jobs just to make ends meet.

It must have been the constant adaptation of humans that brought about the gig economy, these very adaptive qualities that made us conquer every corner of the globe.

Now more and more people are choosing to work as freelancers rather than being permanently employed. It is a new way of entrepreneurship where you get to use your skills to work for multiple clients.

Freedom, having to work within your own schedule and fulfilling your own goals rather than that of someone else is what the gig economy is all about.

By the looks of it, it is here to stay and the great thing is, people are able to make more money than they would have otherwise done in full time employment.

The statistics will shed light on the prevalence of this gig economy. In the west, up to a third of the workforce are working as freelancers.

A contractor’s theme

In the older days, a contractor would have been the blue-collar job guy who came to fix your plumbing or cut down trees in your back yard. Now everyone in the gig economy is working as a contractor.

Freelancers work by finding their own clients which has in turn resulted in the formation of service aggregators. These are online sites that connect service providers with customers further fueling the gig economy.

It makes it that much easier to connect and find work and it doesn’t always benefit the service provider. Companies are finding it more efficient to hire skills instead of a static work force.

So, the concept of the gig economy, when it’s all said and done is nothing new. It’s just a remodeling of the old franchising business model.

The downside

With the aggregators, there are better lines of communication between customers and service providers. But there is a downside to this.

There are also plenty of service providers that could provide substandard work. There is after all no rigid or systematic way to judge the value of the service. That said, it also exposes the business to high quality service over and beyond what you may be able to get in your geographical region.

The upside

Every freelancer will agree that making the decision to freelance their skills was one if the best they ever made. You get to create your own schedule and since workers are less stressed and are motivated by the terms of their contract, they are far more likely to provide high quality work.

Even better is that it provides owners of skills the opportunity to scale up, make more money and live a better life.
The gig economy is a win-win situation for both service provider and customer.

by Samuel Gitukui

Are you ready to set up your new business? Your target market should be at the forefront of your business’s objectives.

In fact, it is the target market that is going to define which products or services you are going to offer.
But how do you decide on the products?

Well, a good place to start is to interview a few members of your target audience and ask questions such as, what do you think would help in your situation? Would you use the product frequently? and would you suggest this product to your friends in similar circumstances?

With the answers from your research, you can then develop your product.

But here’s where it gets tricky.

How do you market this new product to the rest of the target audience?

Let’s take a look at a few tips, shall we?

1.    Develop a networking system

The main problem that is initially faced by most startups is the fact that few people are aware of its existence.
Which is the most efficient way to get your business known, you might ask?

By using your few clients to network by giving them an incentive such as a discount if they refer a new customer who would be interested in the products or services that you offer.

But there’s method to this!

Always make sure that the incentive is big enough to catch their attention but not big enough to affect your profits.
You need to find the right balance.

2.    Enlist bloggers and Vloggers

A cheaper way to get the word out about your business is to contact vloggers or bloggers that have a large number of followers.

By offering them a free sample of your product, they could write or vlog about it helping you reach even more potential customers.

3.    Targeted Ads

Everybody comes across an ad every time they are using the internet. This has caused many people to develop an add blindness where they simply overpass the add and concentrate on what they are trying to find.

By getting the potential customers demographic information, you can develop ads tailored to the specific customer. This increases the odds of making a sale and helps startups save on the much-needed cash.

4.    Taking part in events

One of the most effective ways to get your business known especially within your local community is by taking part in events such as conferences, seminars, and festivals.

By renting a space or booth and having your products on display, potential customers can try out and sample these products for free as you highlight the benefits.

Another great way is to hold public talks which has the advantage of showcasing you as a worthy participant in the industry. This helps to gain customer trust which builds on your business brand.

Being able to identify and market to your target audience gives your business an edge against the competition. This provides your business with a great foundation from which to develop and grow.

by Samuel Gitukui

Market research is key to the survival of your business. It should be included when starting a business and much so before coming up with a product.

And the reason is simple.

It is the customers that are aware of their own challenges and the problems that they face every day. While many entrepreneurs design products based on an idea or a hunch, the savvy businessman aims to fully understand the customer’s needs.

And understanding the customer can only be done through direct contact and interaction.

The aim here is simple.

Learn about the customer’s way of thinking, psychology, challenges as well as economic, emotional and cultural situations.

Only then will you design a product that caters to those needs.

While conducting market research may sound like a walk in the park, the truth is that it is faced with many challenges.
Lack of a process is one of them. This is where the researcher simply goes out into the market with the intention of collecting information, without any plan. Sometimes even with a plan, a researcher may fail to follow through which could cause the entire process to fail.

A second challenge is information bias. The researcher choses only the information that confirms what he is thinking as opposed to collecting all information and analyzing it without bias.

Family bias could step in where the researcher is trying to gain information from family members. They may not want to offend you so they tell you what you want to hear. This obviously is not a good representation of the market.

One good way of overcoming the biases in market research is to have multiple people conducting the research with some, if not all of them understanding the possibility of the bias that comes with the process.

The first step is to make a plan. The market research plan should include the goals and objectives, the criteria for recruiting interviewees, how to run the program and how to digest the results from the research.

It’s always helpful to conduct secondary research, from various sources to gain a good introduction into the market.

Next conduct a qualitative research. This will involve asking open ended question allowing the customers to provide you with long answers. Only then should you focus on asking quantitative questions which you will draft from the responses from the qualitative data.

Go to where your customers are likely going to congregate. This can be looked at two-fold, physically and digitally. However, it is always a good idea to interact with your potential customers directly to be able to obtain better responses. Using Facebook and other social media platforms will not give you the face to face interaction that you might want.

Getting customers to give you a few minutes of their time to talk is not easy and you will get plenty of rejections. But do not worry, it gets easier with more experience. Ask your contacts to refer you to someone else they know that buys the products you offer but approach them with a purely inquisitive tone rather than a salesy one. 

by Summer Worsley

We read a lot online. Well, we start reading a lot of articles and blogs online but according to data from marketing firms, we often don’t finish what we start. In fact, the average web user will leave a page, or “bounce” in marketing speak, within the first four paragraphs.
 
The most common explanation for these bounce rates is that people on the internet have very short attention spans and don’t always “engage” (more marketing speak) with what they’re scrolling through.
 
It’s food for thought. So for those bouncers among us, let me give you the condensed version of this article now, so you stay engaged.
 
Is SEO Changing the Way we Read and Write Online?

Yes.
 
 
Still here? Let’s continue then.
 
If we have short attention spans when it comes to web use, it’s reasonable to assume that we don’t want to spend a lot of time going through pages 2–10 of the Google results. We’re far more likely to choose from the first few hits displayed when we make a search. Are those first results the best sources of information or are they simply SEO optimised to perfection?
 
If the latter is true, there’s a very real concern that SEO is dictating what we read and what we don’t.
 
At this point, it’s handy to ask:
 
What Is SEO? 
Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is a method which aims to generate the best possible search engine rankings for a web page or piece of content published online.
 
To achieve this, writers and digital marketing agencies utilise primary and secondary keywords. Keywords are terms, phrases, and even short sentences that consist of what people actually search for. So it could be something like “best hotel Vienna” or “pain in lower back”.
 
Have you ever been reading online and suddenly come across a phrase that was grammatically unsound in a piece of writing that otherwise had excellent spelling and grammar? There’s a high chance that was a keyword.
 
Keywords are just one part of the equation though. SEO marketers also gear their content so that it is rewarded by search engines in other ways. Above and beyond providing valuable content to readers, this involves writing that consists of short and easily scannable sentences, an uncomplicated style, and ample use of headings and subheadings.
 
Let’s take the popular SEO plug-in Yoast as an example. Yoast rules dictate no more than 300 words of text without a subheading, no paragraph longer than four lines, sentences no longer than twenty words, and a carefully constructed keyword density rating.
 
The preferred reading age is a 7th to 9th grade level. The passive voice is discouraged, as are adverbs, frequent use of adjectives, and multiple clauses.
 
The Dumbing Down of Content 
As we saw above, search-engine-friendly content is simple, easy to read, easy to understand, and never too taxing on the reader. Several phrases and reiterations of that same phrase are repeated at regular intervals throughout the text. Just in case the reader — who, of course, is assumed to read at an 8th-grade level — forgot what they were reading about. Short attention spans after all.
 
It’s not much of a stretch to make the charge that we are dumbing down the internet. All writers who put their keyboards to use for content writing are guilty of it. I’m guilty of it too. Not all clients allow me creative freedom and the chance to use long sentences and multiple clauses (thanks Alexandra!) [You're welcome. I love your style. xxx]
 
But here’s the strange bit, my own style has started to change. It’s become more SEO-friendly without any effort on my behalf. Now, I might do this for a job, but whether you’re a writer or not, we’re all absorbing information from the net. We’re all subjected to the new rules which dictate what and how we read.
 
It’s easy to imagine that the changes brought about by SEO are affecting everyone’s taste, and everyone’s preference when it comes to style. Are we homogenising writing? This is an interesting question which is closely related to the homogenisation of online culture as a result of rising global connectivity.
 
Answers to this question aren’t readily available (even on Google) but as the academic field of digital literacies grows and gains prominence, which it must, there will surely be debates surrounding our changing reading-and-writing mores and the style of writing which is taking over the net.
 
The style and formatting preferred for web writing make it easy for the reader to skim through the content, getting a basic understanding of the general gist without having to pay much attention. This is affecting both online and offline reading patterns, to the point that the Guardian has declared skim reading “the new normal”.
 
The knock-on effect of this is that we aren’t really grasping the complexity of what we read and we aren’t critically engaging. Perhaps we too will become as dumbed down as the content we read online.
 
But are our new reading patterns purely a result of our hindered-by-technology attention spans or are SEO’s rules and style guidelines to blame?
 
The Chicken or the Egg? 
In many ways, the SEO versus style and content debate is kind of like the chicken and egg scenario. It’s impossible to ascertain if SEO practices are driving the change or if changing reading habits are responsible.
 
More likely, a complex interrelationship between the two is making us adjust our expectations of a text and the way we approach it. As digital marketing and marketers become even savvier than they are now — and trust me, they’re pretty crafty when it comes to gaining exposure and minimising bouncers — the new, preferred style for online content is likely to continue gaining momentum. Until the next big shift, that is.
 
That this current style is affecting the way we read both offline and online, is, in this web writer’s opinion, a crying shame.
 
What do you think? We’d love to hear your opinion so please leave us a comment below. 

by Samuel Gitukui

Social media’s impact on modern business is undeniable. With billions of people using social media every day, it opens up a whole new market for businesses to exploit.

And the platforms are many.

From Pinterest to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Which begs the question…which social media platform is the best? The simple truth is that you can market your business’s products on all of them.

However, given the limited resources and time, it would be inefficient to use all platforms. The trick is to identify your target market and start from there.

Let’s discover!

1.    Defining the target audience

Before you can even begin to think about marketing your products, you need to first identify who your target customers are.

These are the people who will be most interested in buying your products.

There is no getting around this fact.

For the business to be successful and be able to compete in the dynamic and always volatile modern business environment, targeting a specific market group is paramount.

2.    Going online

Once you know who you are marketing your products to, it’s now time to go online and find them.

Suppose you have a product that is geared towards the older generation. Facebook will be their preferred social media platform.

On the other hand, if your target market consists mainly of millennials, then Instagram is the best platform for developing a good online presence.

This is not to say that you pick just one platform. It is perfectly fine to choose two or even three social media platforms provided you don’t pick too many that you cannot effectively and efficiently perform marketing on all of them.

3.    Study the competition

Your business can benefit from the competitors’ activities. Search them out on social media and find out who is following them.

But be careful.

You should only seek out the competitors that are in a similar niche as you. You’ll be able to see who they are targeting, and how they are tailoring their marketing campaigns to the target market.

Then you can come up with similar or even better ads for your target market.

4.    Social media insights

One very important tool to gauge the success of your social media advertising is using insights from the major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

And what’s more…

You can even find out the interests of your followers through these insights. If for example your followers are food enthusiasts and show an interest in fitness, you can use this information to branch out on the content you offer.

By offering content on fitness, you have an extra touch point with your followers which further strengthens their interest in your products.

5.    Analyze your website’s traffic

Okay, granted we are talking about social media.

However, isn’t the goal of social media marketing to direct traffic to your website where people can then make a purchase?
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Now that we have that out of the way, using tools such as Google Analytics will help you gauge whether your target marketing efforts are paying off. More people to your site will ultimately mean more conversions.

by Samulel Gitukui

One of the most important aspects of product design and improvement for any business is useful feedback from the customers. It is the customers themselves who know what they are looking for and what exactly they need from a product.

However, it is no easy task to get reliable customer feedback and many entrepreneurs would rather not go through the seemingly grueling task. Still, with the right strategy, you can get customers to tell you everything you need to know to turn your product into something that conquers the market.

Here's how!

1.      Ask for feedback

It might sound simple but as much as asking for feedback is the most direct and effective way to get it, it still needs to be approached in the most efficient way.

The idea here is to get as many responses as possible, since fewer answers can be skewed by the noise. The more the responses are, the less susceptible they are to being skewed, making the results more reliable.

You can get useful feedback by getting customers to leave comments. To do this, there are tools that you can utilize such as Zendesk for sending comment requests through emails. You can also ask customers to take surveys.

2.      Know the ‘WHY’

Most times on the comments, customers will send you feature requests on what about the products they would like to see improved.

Naturally, any business person might be tempted to alter the products as per the customer’s requests without understanding why they are asking for them in the first place.

It’s important to know the reasons behind the requests otherwise you might find yourself making changes all too often.

3.      Identify trends

Feedback will tend to be quantitative in nature. You might find yourself being biased by all the information and proceed to provide the simple solutions first.

By developing a list based on frequency of requests, you can instead focus on providing solutions to those that have the most impact. After you’ve done this, then you can focus on the second request on the list.

4.      Segment your customer requests

Some requests will be from paying customers while others from free customers. However, the free customers may only focus on the features about the products. Even if you were to spend a considerable portion of your resources to fulfill their needs, it would still be unclear whether they would convert to paying customers.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t put any focus on fulfilling free customer requests. The trick is to know what to prioritize. With paid customers, there is a high chance that providing solutions to their requests will create loyal customers.

5.      Go with the largest impact

Regardless of the type of business, there is one challenge that every entrepreneur must face—limited resources.

You will not be able to handle all the requests. By prioritizing on the those that have the largest impact, you can utilize your resources more efficiently and come up with solutions and product changes that reach the most people.

Hi everybody!

The sun is shining and I'm feeling adventurous, which is why I decided to say a few words this time (to introduce Summer's February blog article) and let you know that I really appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and post your comments. A big thank you (and a hug) to all of you out there! 

Summer's article addresses a topic that never goes out of fashion because it is so important. New communication technologies develop all the time, language changes, fashions change, but human nature essentially stays the same. Read here what sociolinguistics has to say on the gender bias in our new "online" era.

Speaking of language change, I find it amazing how creative people are with language. You might know the German word "Kampfansage", but you may not have heard the word "Streitansage" which I recently heard on the radio. Are our fighting days over and are we set to become civilised linguistic quarrelers? Let's hope so (though, of course, the word "Streit" does not imply using words only). Have a nice week!
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Yours,
Alexandra

Gender and Language Online
by Summer Worsley

Depending on your age, think back or ask a Gen Xer to reflect about experiences of communicating electronically in the early 1980s or 1990s. Obviously, we’ve come a long way since then in terms of technology.

As naturally happens with language over time, there have also been shifts in how we describe what we do online. Does anyone ever say they’re going to look something up on the worldwide web anymore? Nope, it’s just a simplistic matter of going online to check something out.

As a means of communication, the computing and internet experience started out as gender biased in terms of both use and discourse. It was, predominantly, a man’s world. Then came the freedom for anyone and everyone to communicate in a gender-neutral way – but did we then and do we now?

Is it obvious from written text online what gender someone may be in their own body and mind from either what they say or how they write? Yes, apparently so.
 
Getting Connected in the 80s 

If you were around in the early 80s, air-conditioned high school computer labs, and computer rooms in workplaces, were pretty much the secretive domain of guy geeks only. If you were female, chances are you were encouraged to take typing classes on manual or electric typewriters, with predominantly female classmates.

For many women in the workforce in the early 80s, their first piece of electronic computing equipment may well have been in a chunky IBM desktop PC. Its use may have been in gender-stereotyped roles in payroll, accounting, word processing and in the early days of the introduction of electronic mail.

There were, of course, exceptions. The smart futuristic types, who broke and blurred boundaries. Males and females who learned the invaluable skills and core language needed from learning both skill sets.

What’s more, things began to change. In the corporate world, women in their shoulder pads were getting in on the vernacular of the boardroom. A new generation was exposed to social marketing and initiatives and mantras such as “girls can do anything” to encourage gender diversity in traditionally male roles.

The internet hadn’t quite arrived. But the encouragement to break with gender stereotypes in terms of communicating as an adult had.
 
Using the Web in the 90s 

The internet became more commercially available to the public in the early 1990s. With it, came the ability to use electronic means to communicate with other people around the world. By the mid, to the late 1990s, the ability to talk online had taken off in people’s private and professional lives.

With that came the supposed ability to be whoever you wanted to be. This was, of course, pre-Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media giants. These are the big guns that brought self-promoting selfies and real name log-ins to the world.

Text-based chatrooms, list serves, discussion groups, and instant messaging platforms with pseudonyms and monikers prevailed. Initially, a more faceless and anonymous means written communication, the bias, and barriers were gone.

Hope sprung that this would be a democratic medium of communication offering a possibility for gender equality and neutrality. Unless you disclosed it by using your real name or stating your gender, nobody would know whether you were male or female, right?

A now iconic New Yorker cartoon from 1993 with the idiom “On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog” has continued to be cited and reworked today. You’ll still find the phrase used in the context of everything from abusive online cyberbullying and trolling to the use of AI-generated content and responses.

Academic findings of the late 90s soon concluded that not only was the infrastructure around the internet still very much a male-dominated industry, but early users were too. Use and engagement with the internet eventually evened out between genders by the 2000s.

However, no matter whether people use a gender-neutral name or pseudonym, correlations were soon identified in the way genders communicate and interact with others online. We tend to behave using written methods online that correspond with the same gender tendencies in spoken communication.
 
The Differences Between Men and Women 

Socialization plays a big part in how we communicate both in private and in public. How we navigate taking turns to speak can be influenced by power dynamics around combinations of age, status, education, gender, and so forth.

In patriarchal societies, men generally have been attributed with a tendency towards conversational dominance in public settings and conversations. Male communication styles will lean towards being more individualistic, and females to being more collaborative.

Men may focus on building individual status and taking the floor, so to speak. The inclination of women, on the other hand, is to interact with others on more of a level playing field to relationship build and form connections. There are also differences in the strategies genders use to change topics, question, use minimal responses and take control.

Over time, the online world is also changing the way we write. However, from analyzed text content online, it seems that the ways people form phrases and interact online can be a gender giveaway.

The types of language and punctuation used to express assertiveness, aggressiveness, supportiveness, disruptiveness, cooperativeness, verboseness, politeness, and so forth, can be telling of your gender. Generally speaking, men may be more verbose to get their point across. Women will tend towards more punctuation and use of emoticons to convey emotion and feeling.
 
What Does It All Mean? 

Everyone knows by now it is hard to stay truly anonymous online. Not only has the web become more commercialized over the past few decades, so too has the use of the very data and text we create ourselves become invaluable.

The ability of social scientists to differentiate between genders from textual data from the front end of online platforms is only part of the equation. The combination of both front-end conversations with back-end behavioural data is a rich mine for generating advertising revenue indeed.

If you’re looking for gender anonymity online – good luck! Or maybe AI spun content will be able to help with that...

by Samuel Gitukui

When conducting market research, many entrepreneurs have fallen short of creating products that customers really want. Thus, the business doesn’t achieve momentum. In fact, very often startups fail.

One of the reasons why this is the case is due to confirmation bias and positive test strategy.

Let’s understand the two, shall we?

Confirmation bias is when you go out to perform market research and instead of being open to information that may not agree with your beliefs, you instead search for information that confirms what you think.

On the other hand, positive test strategy occurs when instead of asking objective questions, we design questions that are meant to give us the answers we are looking for.

These two psychological problems need to be overcome if you are to take your business to the next level. Let’s find out how.

1.      Develop hypothesis from your assumptions

Every entrepreneur finds themselves making assumptions about their customers and what they need from the business and its products. However, nothing beats real, genuine and objective information.

Instead of guessing what your customers want, find out the truth and one way to do this is to turn all those assumptions into hypotheses and then search for answers to those hypotheses.

For example, suppose you assumed that when you lower the price of your products, customers would buy more resulting in an increase in revenue. Turn this into a hypothesis that states, if you bring down price, there will be an increase in sales.

If you assume that being active on social media will create customer trust, the hypothesis to this would be, if I answer customer questions on social media, there will be an increase in revenue and customer trust.

2.      Testing the hypothesis

The next step is finding out whether the hypothesis is true or not. If you are testing customer reaction to price reduction, lower the price and see if there are more sales after a predetermined time span.

If on the other hand you are testing customer loyalty through social media engagement, track a number of specific customers who you reply to and see whether they make repeated purchases over and above the customers you do not reply to.

3.      Ask quality questions

The right questions will help you overcome confirmation bias as well as positive tests strategy. The trick is to avoid leading questions such as “did you base your buying decision on the price?”. Instead ask “what was the main reasons why you made the purchase?”

In this way the customer is far more likely to provide you with the whole truth instead of answering a direct question. You might find that what you were assuming is far from the truth. While you might think that price was the main reason the customer bought more, you may find that the quick delivery and fast response was actually the determining factor.

Simply put, you cannot just make business decisions based on what you are thinking as the possibility of error is high.