#especially when the blogger is known for encouraging and responding to messages!

[tamakey]

people who go off on random anon asks that are slightly irrelevant but ultimately unharmful are craaaaaazy to me (especially if they know it is like a teenager jfc) like clearly the person didn’t have any bad intentions and if an ask just kind of annoys you (but ultimately doesn’t have any bad intentions or threats in it) ignoooooooooore it my god just ignore ignore it it costs zero dollars to not be mean to someone on the internet it is not ‘emotional labor’ if they send you an ask that just kind of annoys you

[movieholicaarav]

From Hammers to Hashtags: Leveraging Social Media for Hardware Store Promotions

In an era where digital presence is as crucial as the physical one, hardware stores find themselves at a crossroads. How can businesses known for hammers, nails, and lumber effectively use hashtags, tweets, and stories? The answer lies in strategic social media marketing, turning everyday tools into conversation starters and your hardware store into a community hub online. Here's how to leverage social media for your hardware store advertising, moving from the aisles of nuts and bolts to the virtual world of likes and shares.

Define Your Target Audience

Before embarking on any social media promotional campaign, it's crucial to understand whom you're speaking to. What are the demographics of your ideal customers? Are they DIY enthusiasts, professional contractors, or homeowners looking for repair tips? Each group has different needs and interests, which should guide your content creation and marketing efforts.

Choose the Right Platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal, especially when it comes to promoting a hardware store. Instagram and Pinterest are highly visual, making them ideal for showcasing before-and-after project photos, DIY ideas, and product highlights. Facebook allows for longer posts, community engagement through comments, and the creation of event pages for in-store workshops or sales. YouTube can be the perfect platform for longer how-to videos and product demonstrations.

Create Engaging Content

Showcase Your Expertise

Use social media to demonstrate your expertise and establish your store as a go-to resource for home improvement and repair projects. Post how-to videos, tool tips, and project ideas that encourage followers to undertake their home projects. This type of content not only provides value but also subtly promotes the tools and materials needed, available at your store.

User-Generated Content

Encourage your customers to share their own projects by using a specific hashtag related to your store. Not only does this create a community of like-minded individuals, but it also serves as real-world testimonials and experiences that can attract new customers.

Promotions and Exclusive Offers

Leverage social media to promote sales, special discounts, or exclusive offers. Flash sales or coupon codes exclusive to your social media followers can increase engagement and conversion rates. Remember, the exclusivity can make your followers feel like part of a special club, increasing loyalty and repeat business.

Engage Your Audience

Be Responsive

Social media is a two-way street. Respond to comments, messages, and questions promptly. This level of engagement increases loyalty and helps build a community around your brand.

Polls and Surveys

Use polls and surveys to engage your followers and get insights into their preferences. This can inform your product stocking decisions or what kind of workshops to host next.

Measure Your Success

Utilize the analytics tools provided by social media platforms to track the performance of your promotional activities. Look at engagement rates, click-through rates, and direct messages to understand what types of content perform best and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Collaborate and Partner Up

Collaborating with local influencers, DIY bloggers, or even other local businesses can extend the reach of your promotions. These partnerships can introduce your hardware store to new audiences and deepen your roots in the local community.

Stay Consistent

Finally, consistency is key. Keep your posting schedule regular, your content quality high, and your engagement constant. Over time, your hardware store can develop a strong online presence that complements your physical store, driving both foot traffic and digital sales.

In Conclusion

Transitioning from hammers to hashtags might seem daunting at first, but by strategically leveraging social media, your hardware store can reach new heights of customer engagement and sales promotion. Remember, social media is about building relationships. By providing value, engaging with your audience, and staying consistent, your hardware store can transform followers into loyal customers and advocates.

[witchcraftingboop]

Further Insight on Briar's Recent Discourse & Prim's Apparent Grooming of Younger, Newer Witches

It was suggested to me that instead of making one long post (which I was genuinely sorry for creating in the moment as well), that I should offer the second half in a separate one so that it is easier to share and harder to simply ignore as a wall of text.

Here is the link to the first half of the current JBird and Briar discourse floating around. I highly encourage everyone involved in the Witchblr community to review both posts and not just this final addition. 

Regarding Prim stirring the pot, I actually do have proof of that on my page somewhere if you wouldn't mind my sending it to you? The person I reblogged it from, Mahi, also received death threats from Prim when they were only 16 and Prim was 20 (I can't ask him to share that though because Prim has since used her following to drive him off of Tumblr and he's still fairly [and justifiably] sensitive about it.)

Regarding Briar's statements more specifically though, I can see where the confusion is coming from. After the "in France" part, she's just defining a relevant term (hence the use of "irrelevant details) and then giving an explanation of how she came to be so knowledgeable about that term/concept. I wouldn't say she's calling Prim's activism an "irrelevant detail," but pointing out how Prim uses it as a shield against backlash whenever another blog (not just tradcrafters) calls out her platform. I don't expect you to fully understand or see what I mean when I say that, of course. Because you are still new, and these are habits I've observed of hers from nearly a year of following their interactions. I would, however, like to point out that Briar doesn't say anything racist about Prim and does not once bring up her race. In fact, I think if you read her entire post and not just point 3 as Prim has it cropped out in all of her mentions of it, you would see more fully the depth and amount of frustration Briar is trying to express. Similarly, Briar never threatened to dox Prim. She has, in fact, repeatedly tried to point out that Prim should be protecting her online information and be more aware of how to stop others from finding out about her private life/situation. These statements, however, have since been warped by Prim and her followers to come off as a threat on her life. Briar's statements above aren't a threat of doxxing. She's never once posted Prim's personal information or told others to find it or use it in any way. She has, however, searched for Taglocks on Prim, something witches especially are known to look for. In that search she found more than she was even looking for, despite trying to tell Prim repeatedly to stop being so open online with the information she posts about herself. Doxxing though is not racist. It is something used by them, sure, but it is not inherently racist.

Additionally, Prim has raised money, sure, but I still have not seen any actual receipts as to her *actually* donating it to any public or private organizations. This, for me, is highly suspect. In reality, we still have no idea where that money is. Whereas with Briar, she took no money in for a couple days on her readings and instead merely asked that those requesting a reading first submit proof of donation to an organization linked in the post. She raised substantial money for the BLM movement, but no one seems to want to bring that up in all of their "she's a racist" discourse. Also, the observation that someone is misleading or gaslighting their following is not racist. Just because she said Prim was recently using her BLM reblogs & promotions to do it *this time* still does not make it racist. Questionable wording is just something the reader disagrees with, in my opinion, and should be addressed as such.

I'm not going to lie, I do feel a little frustrated at this point. I was really hoping to come to you and see that you had concrete proof to offer that Briar is a racist. I do understand that you have your own reasons for feeding into the assumptions and twisted outlooks already taken on Briar's words, but I don't have enough energy in me to fully swallow my tongue on this one. I really do hope that you at least consider what I've said here. I'm not sure what I can say at this point because all of the information I've read from you thus far has been purely conjecture or assumptions or just "not feeling right" about the wordings on a single post. A racist, from my perspective, is not something I would ever feel comfortable calling someone off of this lack of evidence.

I understand it is hard to separate preconceived notions from your mind when reading through the words of others, but I really do miss when you were more open to the words of others. If I could ask one thing of you, it'd be to please try to read Briar's post again but from the perspective of seeing it how it was meant to be: a witch who has been on the butt end of Prim's harassment for going on three years now. She is tired of the wild accusations and constantly having to defend herself, and even when she supplied her proof a couple years ago, no one wanted to hear her. She has, largely, given up on being heard, and now screams into what feels like a void when attacked.

Proof of Prim stirring the pot that I offered: An example of Prim actively seeking out the community and trying to stir the pot with an already dealt with situation that had passed over a year ago.

A direct source that I offered as further proof of what has occurred already: This is one from the account mentioned before who was directly involved with the previous discord server where the Trio incident took place a couple years back.

[A Reply.] I think, to be fair, I saw your comments on her previous posts through your main, and with how much aggression you packed into those messages, I don't necessarily blame her for deciding not to engage with your private messages. As I've said, she's very used to people attacking her like that, and in her mind, unfortunately, you've probably been added to the list of aggressive people ready to fling the blame at her rather than look at the situation as a whole. I do apologize for the way her post may have made you feel, but I think it's also important to remember the potentially aggressive things you left on her page (I'm not saying you meant to come off that way, but even I couldn't help but read that way). Also, regarding the ask, it's no small secret that the occultists of the tradcraft group are skilled and well-versed in hexes and curses. When reading her posts about how she may respond to further antagonism on Prim's part, I see a fully realized occultist wielding their most well kept and trained weapon: baneful magic. I'm sure Prim herself also understands that the "threat on her life" she's saying she's so afraid of, isn't a physical threat, but a metaphysical one. She has repeatedly and continually tried to drag these people through the mud, and now that they're refusing to just sit back and be canceled, she's afraid. She knows how strong their magic is, and they aren't shy about it 🤷‍♀️

[A Reply.] No, I completely understand where you're coming from. I, personally, have seen your willingness to talk things through, despite how aggressive you can come off at times in the things you say, so I think that's why I was genuinely so surprised to see your comments on some of her posts. But I do think her response and refusal to further directly engage with you is warranted and her right. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell who is genuinely open to talking and who is just trying to bait and add to the problem. And with how aggressive your comments were, 8 honestly think she most likely was responding from a place of "oh look another young Prim follower here to bait and berate me." I don't think she looks down on you for your age, but her views are likely a reflection of the fact that a lot of 18yos follow Prim and have openly harassed her without even asking for her input on the matter.

At this point, I would like to talk about the second half of the title of this particular post. Grooming. This is a very serious allegation against Prim that I have not spoken on previously because I had no proof that it was happening. With this person's permission, I would like to share how exactly they wound up fighting Prim's battles for her.

I will note: I am highly disgusted by what follows.

[A Reply.] Oh no! You cannot fault yourself for this! Prim is a known manipulator, and the fact that she was able to make you somehow think this is part of your being "gullible and naive" is just testament to the fact that she's gotten wayyy too good at what she does. This is in no way your fault or because of some fault within you. Practiced manipulators are cunning and dangerous even to the best of us. It was unfortunate that she chose you, but her twisting you around is in no way a bad reflection on you as a person!

I've chosen to include my reply to this person rather than our continued discussion because of how personal and involved our conversation turned. I've included it to show, as well, that grooming others to fight your battles is (though this should go without saying) NEVER OKAY. Prim has shown her true colors, in my opinion, and while I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt time and time again, I simply cannot permit myself to ignore the harm and damage she's inflicted on not only the tradcraft community, but also this innocent group of friends. A group who that has hitherto dedicated their time to sussing out predators, terfs, nazis, and racists. A group that should never have had to deal with being gaslit and manipulated by a well-known and respected blogger on this platform.

I cannot reiterate enough how sorry and deeply shocked I am at the information this person has brought to my attention. I am still stunned by Prim's activities and unable to fathom how many other potential individuals are out there being groomed to support and fight for her cause. I am sorry to the Witchblr community as a whole. I feel as if I have sat by and watched as Witchblr has been manipulated and am therefore complacent in the damage and needless hurt that has been allowed to spread throughout our community. I am just so very, very sorry.

I will be taking a couple days off of Tumblr because of this, as I feel as if I need space and time to think, but my inbox is always open and I am always available to speak with others on my return.

[newstfionline]

In the Philippines, divided politics, divided web

Jessica Mendoza, CS Monitor, April 9, 2018

MANILA--Mocha Uson sweeps into her office at the presidential compound, assistant at her booted heels. She’s late, rushing in from another engagement that ran longer than planned. But she appears composed, almost reserved, as she arranges herself on a faux-leather settee and waits for the interview to begin.

In this setting it’s hard to picture Esther Margaux Uson, known countrywide as “Mocha,” sashaying across a stage in vinyl hot pants or dispensing advice on sex and relationships. Yet for the better part of a decade, provocative entertainment was the core of her career--first fronting for the Mocha Girls, an all-female music group known for racy numbers, and later responding to intimate reader questions via a series of written and video blogs.

Then in 2015, she learned about Rodrigo Duterte.

“He was different from traditional politicians. And at the time … there weren’t any well-known personalities who publicly supported him,” Ms. Uson says in a mix of English and Tagalog. “So I said, ‘I have to make a stand.’”

Through the first few months of 2016, she stunned the Philippine political world by converting the Mocha Uson Blog to an online rallying point for supporters of President Duterte. Its transformation was in some ways the singular product of a nation that regularly elects celebrities into government and ranks first in the world in social media use.

Her ascent, however, also reflects an evolving global political landscape, where information is democratized and every opinion has the opportunity to find a platform. Citizens can directly hold institutions like media and government accountable, while the latter can respond to their constituents sans mediator. Given reach and charisma, anybody with a voice--sex symbols, high-school students, TV comedians, real-estate moguls--can scale the heights of political influence and authority.

The price is often decreased civility, and consensus, say experts. Tribal lines are quickly drawn and held, and fact becomes flightier, hard to pin down and easy to manipulate. The social-media savvy--both individual and corporate--possess more power than ever to shape the tone, trajectory, and themes of political discourse.

Few countries today epitomize this new reality as clearly as the Philippines, the social-media capital of the world, with a norm-breaking president whose campaign supporters harnessed this shifting online landscape to win the election. And few individuals embody it as clearly as Uson. As the 2016 campaign season picked up steam, her name became inseparable from the Duterte lobby, drawing animosity and acclaim in near-equal measure from Filipinos at home and abroad. Her Facebook base has since ballooned from 2.5 million to more than 5 million--a figure that remains unrivaled even by the head of state she serves. In May 2017, after a brief stint with the government’s entertainment regulation board, she was named assistant secretary at the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Uson shrugs when confronted with her apparent success. “The journey has been colorful and exciting. And I have a sense of fulfillment,” she says. But to her, much of the road thus far seems inevitable. Her feelings about Duterte’s candidacy compelled her to speak out on his behalf, she says, and she felt just as obliged to use Facebook to do so. Because what better way to spread an idea than on a platform that boasts up to 67 million users in the Philippines?

“Everything is on social media,” Uson says. “We can’t avoid the fact that it’s the direction information dissemination is going.”

Experts around the world have been making similar pronouncements since at least 2008, when Barack Obama became among the first politicians to leverage social networks to get out the vote. Less than three years later, the Arab Spring--the series of revolutionary protests that, thanks to Twitter, swept across Tunisia, Egypt, and the Middle East--became, briefly, a symbol of social media’s potential to reinvigorate democracy.

Today about 2.6 billion people use social media worldwide, up from fewer than a billion in 2010. From India to Sudan, the US to the U.K., social media--and the very public web of information and misinformation it weaves--has helped elect leaders, birth movements, crush rebellions, and intensify divides.

Mr. Duterte’s election proved to be the watershed moment for social media and politics in the Philippines. Leading up to 2016, frustration with political leadership after decades of what was widely perceived as weak and corrupt government coincided with a rise in affordable mobile data plans. Filipinos yearning for political change had better access than ever to the online political sphere.

“It made it so much cheaper to engage with each other,” says Tony La Viña, former dean of the School of Government at Ateneo de Manila University. “People felt very liberated to be able to participate in debates, to have [their] opinions disseminated.”

For those who understood the social media space, it also meant new opportunities to amass both profit and political capital. Bloggers like Uson--”influencers,” in public relations parlance--rose to prominence, becoming the most powerful voices for those who had felt excluded from public discourse. Indeed, much of the success of social media in Philippine politics has pivoted on the perception that it is the unvarnished and authentic alternative to traditional media: the newspapers, television and radio stations, and online news sites that Duterte supporters say all but ignored the president’s campaign and continue to smear his administration with negative stories.

“It was the erosion of trust in mainstream [news outlets]. People were looking for an alternative voice,” says pro-Duterte blogger Rey Joseph Nieto, also known as “Thinking Pinoy” (a Tagalog slang term for Filipino). “They found me, [blogger] Sass [Rogando Sasot], and Mocha--for better or for worse.”

“Fake news” is a constant preoccupation of bloggers on the other end of the political spectrum, as well. But their goal is to support, not subvert, traditional media.

“Most of my posts are about debunking false propaganda and calling out the shortcomings of government officials,” says Jover Laurio, whose Pinoy Ako Blog (“I am Filipino”) drew attention for its cutting letters addressed to the administration and its allies.

“And to stop the killing,” she adds, referring to the president’s violent antidrug campaign. “Every time I write a letter, I pray that they read it.”

Less conspicuous than the blogger cohort are the PR and marketing firms who manage politicians’ social media campaigns. A report released earlier this year explored the extent to which such firms, and the strategists who run them, have developed a blueprint for manipulating political opinion in the Philippines via social media. Using the techniques of corporate marketing, these “architects of networked disinformation” hire teams of “digital influencers” to push a particular message on Facebook comment sections and Twitter feeds. The campaigns, which can involve seeding revisionist history or hijacking attention through artificial hashtags, are motivated largely by profit, according to the report.

“The thing about social media is, its incentive structures are about visibility,” says Jonathan Corpus Ong, co-author of the report and associate professor of global digital media at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “What comes up on our news feed is the one that is more popular and is most liked. There are ways in which these algorithms can be gamed and manipulated. That’s made it easy for particular operators to weaponize [it] for politics.”

The effects of all this on the Philippine political space have been far-reaching--and familiar, to audiences following social media’s effects in the West. Online vitriol is at an all-time high. Trust in traditional media outlets is at an equivalent low, with Filipino webizens saying they trust social media more than mainstream publications.

And there’s the sense that, especially on social media, there exist two realities. In one, the Philippines is a place of fear and chaos, where innocents are gunned down in the streets and a foul-mouthed despot encourages ruthless justice against those who defy him. In the other, the country is just beginning to ascend to economic heights and international prestige through the ministrations of a strong, if somewhat vulgar, leader willing to do what needs to be done.

[vicfrid]

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! (3/15/19)

‘Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.’ - Terry Goodkind

In the last few years, I signed up for several (don’t have enough fingers to count them all on) email newsletters. No, I didn’t make a New Year resolution to read more. I simply wanted to be informed on “world” news.

As someone who doesn’t make it a goal to pick up the newspaper on a daily basis and only watches BCC on the weekend (in addition to Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, of course...plus my new favorite The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj), I really liked receiving summaries and links to articles that keep me up-to-date. Some of my daily must-reads are as follows:

For politics and current events, I read theSkimm newsletter. For tech and business, I read The Hustle newsletter. For fashion, I read The Business of Fashion & Fashionista newsletter. For marketing, I the read MarketingDive newsletter.

SO, in the spirit of knowledge sharing, I have decided to share my industry insights and notable articles…starting now:

The Art Of Persuasion via Medium

Incredibly interesting when related to social media and influencer marketing. The key takeaway for me was the importance of the “human” factor, which of course builds trust. One of the main reasons influencers (originally known as bloggers and/or vloggers) became so “influential” and important to company marketing, PR, and advertising plans/budgets was the reliability factor.

More often than not, it’s the relationship we have with the messenger that influences us. In order words, it’s not about the product influencers push but the trust we have in them. True influencers have multiple engaging platforms, started growing their audience years ago within specific niche topics, and stayed true to their core messaging. That is why they outperform the actual effect of the new age of “influencers” popping up only on Instagram and gaining more likes for selfies versus the topics they claim to be “authorities” on.

Real Time Marketing via AListDaily  

Thanks to the multitude of social media channels, brands can now create marketing materials for the public within days, if not hours, to respond to and engage with real-time news.

Of course, this is both a gift and a curse. For some brands, a random celebrity endorsement is not just brand awareness but quick sales. This is especially true if the brands act fast to engage with the audience of the celebrity and therefore convert them into their own audience, which can then make that audience customers. For example, the response of Vanity Fair Napkins to John Mayer’s commercial suggestion via Instagram (aka this article), or Burger King’s take on the Big Mac menu (here), or Cars.com’s social media response to nearly all the million-dollar Super Bowl commercials (here), or HBO for the 20th anniversary of the “Sopranos” (here).

Other brands, however, find it deadly if there is not enough product or website/app capability to handle all the newly gained traffic. Negative comments can kill a business. For example Vero, a social media app, gained 500,000 users in 24 hours. Unfortunately, the app was not able to handle all of the signups.  

Instagram-able Moments via Mobile Marketer 

Over the last few years, there has been amazing success for the direct-to-consumer brands. These are brands built, marketed, sold and shipped without a traditional retailer or middleman. They were born on platforms that dominate today’s dot.com world (aka Instagram, Amazon, Facebook etc.), and therefore, they are able to grow fast and connect to their consumers directly (and even more importantly, personally aka article #1: the messenger or seller needs costumer trust to push their product). The best examples of such brands are Warby Parker, Everlane, Glossier, The Honest Company, Casper…AND, of course, Kylie Cosmetics and KKW Beauty.

More and more brands are popping up as many partner with influencers to create, design and/or curate their own collections for fashion, beauty, etc. Of course, the non-product/e-commerce brands want in on the action. AND the best way to do so is to create “Instagram-able” moments. Similar to the launch of KKW Beauty (KimK decorated rooms in her home with selfie mirrors with perfect lighting and floor to ceiling roses), hotels and restaurants a-like are working to make their décor as photogenic as possible. It is a brilliant move to encourage not only influencers (micro and macro) to visit and create free content (aka free guerrilla marketing) but regular guests with social media accounts (aka the “new” wave of influencers now being titled as nano-influencers).

Building A Socially Conscious Community via Marketing Drive

People love to rally around a cause. Whether it is women’s equality, or LGBT rights, or gun control, or global warming, people genuinely like to stand for something and be part of a movement to help make things better. For some it’s raising money, for others it’s giving money, for others it’s marching, etc. Every action towards change is a good action, big or small.  

For brands, it’s incredibly beneficial to donate to or partner with charities. By supporting a cause, the consumers of the brand feel a stronger community and are better able to rally around the brand. As Don Draper from ‘Mad Men’ said, “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness.” The big picture is that happiness is a feeling, and by associating a brand with cause, the concept of creating a feeling is done. Employees and consumers associate that feeling of kindness, happiness, community, etc. with your brand. Now you have ambassadors creating guerilla marketing through conversation and social media.

Retail Changes via Glossy

As more and more direct-to-consumer brands begin to pop up, retailers must restructure their costumer experiences. Not only is it important to be “Instagram-able” (how else do you get the millennial audience to visit and work for you, right?!) but to also allow for costumers to actually experience the capabilities of the store as a luxury experience.

It’s no longer about department stores (or any physical retailers) becoming a “one-stop” shop for their customers. It’s about creating a desire to leave the comfort of home and pjs to go shopping. Stores need to create an atmosphere and an experience for their clientele to want to spend hours within their space with friends. 

The way of some bridal stores is a great example. Not only do they encourage you to come with a group of friends and family, but they provide beverages and snacks in private areas for everyone to enjoy as they look at accessories, dresses and magazines for inspirations. Not to mention, they have the opportunity to have you fitted and to have items altered for various shoe options.     

Freedom of Speech via Business Insider

If you’re an influencer, your massive following doesn’t really matter if Instagram or Facebook cuts your reach (damn algorithms…no rhythm or reason). If you’re a brand, it doesn’t matter what social strategy you plan if again Facebook or Instagram block your ads. With so many companies and individuals relying on engagement from Facebook, which includes Instagram, WhatsApp, InstaStories, IGTV and soon a Pinterest-style capability, as their dependency on income how can we not define it as a monopoly?

Of course, there are several other channels to focus on as well as new apps popping up to recapture the purpose of sharing and “influencing” specific niche topics. Twitter is an amazing example of actually starting a conversation with your audience and showcasing personalization as well as building trust.    

[50cyg]

It could be my asexual/aromantic streak talking, but am I the only one who doesn't see a Taiorato "romantic love" triangle? Am I the only one who just sees three very close friends where one of them simply happens to be a girl? Or, alternatively, two boyfriends in a lover's tiff and their best wingwomen who recently had just about enough of their shit?

Short answer is No you are not crazy, many people feel the same way as you who are not asexual or aromantic

Ridiculously long answer under the cut haha :P

Initial Reaction to thisAnon:

“two boyfriends in alover’s tiff and their best wingwomen who recently had just about enough oftheir shit?” laughed my ass off for like 10 minutes straight. I’m stilllaughing about this now, I love this so much!!

Second reaction:

I don’t believe I haveposted much regarding Taiorato so I’m very curious as to why I’ve received thisAnon Ask, I’m curious as to what made you decide to message me? Not that I’mcomplaining because I LOVE asks (they are the second-best part of having a Tumblrpage IMO, right behind getting to make friends with other bloggers) and I justspent like an hour responding to this and I wouldn’t put so much effort in if Ididn’t love it 😊

Reaction after severalhours of having this go through my head while driving around running errands:

It’s definitely not yourAsexual/Aromantic streak talking because I am not asexual or aromantic and Itotally get what you are saying and so do many other fans.

Since I am a Taiyama shipperI lean heavily towards the two boyfriends and their wingwoman concept but I’mgoing to try to be unbiased here. Also note that when I use Ship names likeSorato and Taiora I am both referring to the ship in a platonic sense as wellas a Romantic sense. So, like if I say “Taiora scene” I do not necessarily mean“a scene where taichi and sora interact that is meant to be taken romantically”,I likely am just meaning “A scene meant to highlight the relationship betweenthese two characters” or “hint at the potential future relationship of thesetwo characters” (in the case of Sorato)

I’ve definitely seen a fair number of moments throughout theTri series that can be interpreted as Sorato and Taiora romantic moments. Formost of the Sorato moments you can read my really long post about the Triships. As for the Taiora moments I have not compiled a list of moments but Imight if anyone asks. But honestly, they are all easy to refute, as are most ofthe shippable moments in Tri since they seem to be catering to most ships atleast a little and heavily catering to the three big ones (Taiyama, Takari,Koumi), which makes everything a little confusing and not very concrete. Also,these scenes could easily be interpreted as platonic scenes (with the onlyexception being the koumi scenes), and since really the show is meant to beabout friendship and not romance it makes sense that the scenes play out thisway.

To summarize the next 4 paragraphs (because they are reallylong and I ramble a lot so if you don’t want to read them you do not need to,just skip to the paragraph that starts with “as for taiorato”), Taiora playsout platonically probably because it is meant to be platonic both in Adventureand Tri. Sorato can be seen as platonic because it’s meant to be very subtle soif you aren’t looking for it you will probably miss it. Taiyama is the mosteasily interpreted as romantic because Toei wants it that way since A: it’s areally popular ship and B: their relationship has always been the primary relationshipwithin the series.

(skip ahead if you don’t want to hear me go on and on) Italk about this in my Digimon Tri Ship post I just mentioned but it’s prettyeasy to not see a love triangle when it is not being explicitly obvious. I meanthis “love triangle” is no Team Edward vs Team Jake (omg I just made a twilightreference and I am deeply ashamed but I’m sorry it works as a comparison), Yamatoand Taichi are not fighting over Sora, they have never fought over Sora, thatis not their relationship. Primarily this is because Taiora was never meant tobe in the running according to the original creator even though many otherpeople involved in the production did ship them. People can say all they wantthat it was only the English Dub staff but the Digimon Movies disprove that, especiallyDiablomon Strikes Back when Sora reaches for Taichi instead of Yamato, there isliterally no plot reason for that, it was put in there because someone in theproduction staff wanted it there and that must be because they ship it. Sobasically, Taichi was always meant to be the supportive friend encouraging histwo besties to be happy with each other.

Now the other interesting thing that I haven’t seen manySorato fans bring up is the fact that if Tri is meant to be a call back toAdventure, which is very obvious by all the scenes that are direct nodes to theoriginal series, then it makes sense that the moments between Sora and Yamatowould be very subtle while the moments between Taichi and Sora are a littlemore obvious. In Adventure Taichi and Sora had a lot of scenes together becauseTaichi was the character most focused on and Sora was his best friend as wellas the person who had known him the longest and since the show focused a lot onfriendship it makes sense to put Taichi and Sora’s relationship at theforefront. As for the Yamato and Sora scenes I think the main writer meant fortheir scenes to be subtle hence why he only told a select amount of people (Iwill never understand this executive decision and honestly blame him for allthe discourse within the fandom regarding Taiora vs Sorato. I know a lot ofpeople blame the English Dub but I have also heard people claim that there weremany people on staff in Japan who shipped Taiora and since the concept of the hot-headedleader and primary girl is pretty cliché it does not surprise me that manypeople would be behind it and even assume it is meant to be end game. If you donot make it clear you intend for something to be canon and have a ton of otherpeople writing whole episodes and character arks who may have their ownconcepts you very much run the risk of people putting in moments dedicated toother ships). Basically, these three factors (putting friendship at theforefront, wanting Sorato to be subtle, and lack of communication) allcontributed to both Taiora and Sorato being very easily seen as both romanticand platonic. But really the reason I brought this up was to compare it to Triand I’m sorta getting off topic I think (god all my posts really just feel likerants, I need to work on my writing style).

So, getting back to this being reflected in Tri. I recentlyread a really brilliant post that pointed out all the Sorato moments in Tri andhow some of them are very similar to the foreshadowing moments in Adventure.There was one specific scene in this post that totally blew my mind where theauthor talks about the scene where Yamato plays his harmonica in Confession.They point out how Yamato’s harmonica song, which was used in foreshadowingscenes in Adventure, plays throughout Sora’s scene and into the first part ofJyou’s scene when Jyou is talking about wanting to introduce Gomamon to hisgirlfriend and I just thought “holy crap that is actually a really brilliantly subtleway to hint at Sorato” (I am getting so sick and tired of referencing posts I can’tlink to and I’m so sorry, I’m going to go through all my likes and reblogs inthe next month and bookmark everything important so I can find and link stuffmore cause it’s really not nice of me to not link to the post for both thereaders and the wonderful people who create the posts. Seriously if anybody isreading this post and knows what I’m talking about please send me the link so Ican include it in this post because it was very well written and as a nonSorato fan I was super engaged and impressed). So basically, a lot of TriSorato scenes are call backs to the subtlety of Adventure Sorato scenes and Taiorascenes are more obvious because the Taiora scenes in Adventure were moreobvious.

And then we have Taiyama. If we are following the same logicas above then of course we are going to get the most of Taichi and Yamatobecause their relationship was the primary relationship in the original seriesand their fights drove a lot of the plot and virtually all of their characterdevelopment (especially Yamato’s character development but I’d say Taichi’sfinal ark of character development is solely due to his final fight withYamato). So if Tri is trying to mimic Adventure they are going to have theTaiyama fight scenes play into the plot and character development once again. Taiyamais one of the most popular ships in the fandom because of all theirinteractions in Adventure, many of which really do play out like two loversinteracting.

As for Taiorato, it can be often seen as just platonicbecause Digimon is meant to be a story about friendship between both thechildren and their partners as well as between the other children. Since Taioratois the golden Trio of the Digimon Adventure universe and always has been so weare going to get a lot of these guys interacting but there isn’t going to beany obvious love triangle stuff probably because it isn’t meant to be therejust like how it was never meant to be there in the original season, and alsobecause it would be pretty OOC if Taichi and Yamato suddenly started fightingover Sora. Sora is primarily designed to be, or at least try to be, a calmingagent between these two very different and strong headed boys. She is not meantto be a love interest and cause further discord, basically I’d say she is theopposite of what most girls in her role (lead female) end up being and that isreally great. These three are meant to be the three in command of the group andthey were designed to work well off each other and of course that is going tobe showcased in the show and it comes down really to their friendship sinceSorato is meant to be canon (at least in adventure) and Taiora are just greatfriends, and Taiyama are also Rivals to Friends. So yes, it makes sense thatsomeone would look at this and think “wow those three are an amazing trio offriends” cause that is the point.

But for seeing it as a love triangle, I think it is verylikely the Tri creators are pointing subtly at it for the same reason they aresubtly or not so subtly (cough cough koumi cough cough) pointing at it becauseit is prominent within the fandom and they are catering to it. They are bothplaying off the discourse within the fandom to cause more drama which oftenleads to interest which leads to sales. Also, don’t forget Taiorato as a Triadrelationship is super popular so they are likely catering to that as well inmaking it seem like they could all be together, oddly that can lead people toseeing it as solely platonic if you are not used to seeing a functioning Triadrelationship and not a love triangle with obvious discourse.

I tried to make this as unbiased as possible, even though ultimatelythese are of course opinions and interpretations of the material. If you arecurious about my biased opinions on this “love triangle” just ask and I can doa follow up post.

Thanks so much for the Ask 😊 I enjoyed responding to it

[amyddaniels]

Blogger Mia Caine On Conscious, Inclusive Wellness

“The Healthlete” blogger, yoga teacher, and brand strategist talks about performative and optical allyship on social media and how to effectively create change in real life.

Mia Caine is a wellness blogger who’s created a brand that stands for the values she believes in: integrity, inclusion, and self-care. Known by her community as The Healthlete, Caine’s passion for health and wellness is inspired, in part, by an earlier athletic career as a track star in one of the toughest races in the sport: the 400 meters.

Caine spent most of her young adult life training and competing at her high school in Boone, North Carolina, nestled in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. She always imagined there was more to life than this homogenous small town, and dreamed of moving to New York City. She was accepted to Columbia on a full scholarship and says she became the only student at her school at the time to attend an Ivy League university.

During the summer that followed her sophomore year, Caine traveled to Nigeria for the Olympic trials for a shot on the Liberian team, where her family of origin is from. She and her 4x4 relay squad missed their chance by a tenth of a second, which, after 16 years of running and competing, marked a turning point; it was time to try something else. After being told all her life what to do by coaches, Caine found herself wondering what other people did for fitness. She joined ClassPass, and entered her junior year with an open mind. She tried it all, from Pilates to cycling to yoga, which appealed to her in a holistic way that other forms of exercise had not.

See also What Most People Get Wrong About Self-Care

After graduating with a degree in political science and sustainable development, Caine worked briefly as a brand-to-brand strategist for an agency in Manhattan before she set out to work for herself. She aligned her yoga practice with a desire to start her own health and wellness blog, and has found that her studies from college inform the work she’s doing today. Caine splits her time between New York City and Miami, and recently launched Shop Wellthy, a conflict-free minimalist jewelry line she designs herself using sustainable materials. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shop Wellthy is donating 100 percent of the profits to the consumer’s charity of choice. “I’m doing my part to move the Earth forward in a sustainable direction,” Caine said.

Yoga Journal caught up with Caine to learn more about The Healthlete’s philosophy and discuss inclusive wellness and the problematic and illusory nature of optical allyship on social media.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

YJ: What does conscious and inclusive wellness mean to you?

Mia Caine: Wellness shouldn’t look one way. What I do in my day-to-day that makes me feel healthy and well is my choice. For each of us, the things we do to put our best foot forward are different. So much of wellness is based on what you need to buy: a $200 product or a $20 green juice. Wellness is centered on those with privilege and a certain amount of expendable income who can afford to spend the money to be well. But wellness can come from the small habits in your everyday life that can influence the rest of your life; the little things like meditating. I write in a journal every morning and night, and that's really helped my goal setting and keeping up with my intentions. There are just so many ways to be well beyond buying product after product. When I started blogging, I felt this pressure to go to all these boutique fitness places; that I needed to be wearing a certain type of athleisure wear. But when you do the math and add up the dollars it just doesn't make sense. Financial health is an important part of living a healthy life, and it’s unnecessary to spend all this money just for the appearance of being healthy and well. You can’t put a price tag on real wellness.

See also The Time to Rest is Now

Is part of your work to remedy wellness’s exclusivity problem?

I recognize that the industry isn't as inclusive as it represents itself. Wellness brands and companies need to understand that there is no formula for trendy buzzwords or tokenizing of BIPOC images to appear inclusive. Much of their audiences are savvy and can see straight through that performative allyship. Real inclusivity is about breaking stereotypes, amplifying minority voices that already exist within their niche, valuing the work of those same voices equally, developing a brand voice that is not afraid to speak out on humanitarian issues, and then aligning with those values by ensuring that they’re shared within the workplace and with their consumers. By doing these (and more), inclusivity stops being a conversation and starts happening in real life. As someone who blogs and gets reached out to by brands every single day, I've had to really dig deep and recognize that while it's great to have all these partnerships, I have to make sure that what I'm putting out there for my audience is in alignment with my message [of saying No to brands that aren't aligned with the message of inclusivity that I'm putting out there. I won’t partner with someone who has a product at a price point that is only realistic for a small percentage of people. I'd be doing my audience a disservice by telling them that a product like that is necessary.

What practices have you leaned on during these times of uncertainty and upheaval to steady yourself and stay motivated?

It's OK to slow down. There's this sense of urgency all the time, but not every single thing is of the utmost importance all the time. Time is a construct—if we can't get it all done today, it'll be OK. Instead of trying to do everything all at once I’ve tried to schedule things so that I can focus on one thing at a time. I also make time to breathe, and I meditate almost daily. But I don't put the expectation on myself that I have to every single day. So it's OK to skip a day, a few days, whatever it may be. But meditation is really a key part of it—it's a nice way to wake up, tune in, and focus on my breath—and just celebrate that I am alive to see another day. After about five to ten minutes of meditation, I write down in my journal three things that I'm grateful for, three things I can do today that can further my goals, and how I can make someone's day better. Recognizing that there's a lot for me to be grateful for, and that I can continue to do the work that I do from a grateful heart but still meet my goals, helps keep me in a positive mindset.

See also 18 Reasons to Practice Self-Care

Is this inner work an integral part of the anti-racist work that’s needed now?

Definitely. There's just so much going on in the news—every single day I see another name added to the list. I need to stay centered while I’m also trying to do as much as I can to help, whether it's donating, signing petitions, sharing information on my social media, or having conversations with the people in my life. It’s hard not to get emotional about this stuff because it just keeps happening. As a Black woman, I have had my own disadvantages, but at the same time, some of my struggles have afforded me some privileges. Could I turn away and say that I just can't handle it? Yes, I could, but I don't, because I recognize that there are so many people who can't, and I need to stand up for those people, too. I need to do whatever I can to amplify their voices to support this movement, to make sure that more people can live their lives the way that I do now—and not live in a place where they experience fear on a daily basis. I just learned of Elijah McClain’s story; he was put in a chokehold by police in August 2019. There are so many stories like these that we never heard about that just swept under the rug; that are treated as normal and acceptable. It just frustrates me so much. But even as an entrepreneur in the wellness space with an Ivy League education who has experienced many great things in life, there's no amount of acceptable blackness that protects me from this. These are not isolated incidents that only happened in certain places—it can happen anywhere.

There's so much sadness, uncertainty, anger, frustration, and grief in the collective psyche right now. What advice do you have for those who are struggling with their emotions?

While it's important to show up as much as we can to keep moving this cause forward and keep fighting for justice and equality, it's OK to take care of yourself. If your cup is empty it helps no one; you need to take time for self-care and healing. It's also important to not just protest or donate, but to have conversations with the people around you. I really encourage everyone to not only discuss how all of this has disproportionately affected Black people—especially police violence and systemic oppression—but also to talk about white privilege. I know that it's a hard topic for some people and that the concept of privilege is uncomfortable. But privilege manifests in both small and big ways. To understand white privilege is to really think and reflect on the ways in which your white privilege might have helped you or might have put someone else down. When people start to look at their own life and try to understand the moments in which they’ve experienced white privilege, it helps them to notice when it happens in the future, like, wow, I see something really wrong happening here. That’s your moment to speak up. That’s your moment to be of service and actually stand up in the face of injustice—and not just post something on social media, which is just optical allyship since you're already in solidarity among like-minded followers. Whether you’re walking down the street, sitting at your desk at work, or headed to the grocery store—it’s those real-life moments happening right in front of you and how you respond to them that really matter. Social media is not the only world in which you can make a difference.

See also Why Every Yoga Teacher & Practitioner Needs Inclusivity Training

[biofunmy]

How Huawei Lost the Heart of the Chinese Public

On the first anniversary of her arrest in Canada, Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, issued an open letter describing how she experienced fear, pain, disappointment, helplessness, torment and acceptance of the unknown.

She wrote at length about the support she received from her colleagues, about friendly people at a courthouse in Vancouver and about “numerous” Chinese online users who expressed their trust.

Her letter, posted on Monday, was not well received on the Chinese internet, where Ms. Meng is known — in a term meant to be endearing — as “princess” because she is a daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei.

On the Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, many users posted the numbers 985, 996, 251 and 404 in the comment section below her letter. They were slyly referring to a former Huawei employee who graduated from one of the country’s top universities in a program code-named 985, worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week and was jailed for 251 days after he demanded severance pay when his contract wasn’t renewed.

His story went viral in China, generating angry responses online. That resulted in 404 error messages as articles and comments were deleted, a sign of China’s censors at work.

The former employee, Li Hongyuan, was eventually released from jail with no charges and received $15,000 in government compensation last week. He shared his story online last week, and that was when the hit to Huawei’s reputation began.

“One enjoyed a sunny Canadian mansion while the other enjoyed the cold and damp detention cell in Shenzhen,” Jiang Feng, a psychologist, commented on the Quora-like question-and-answer site Zhihu. Ms. Meng has been under house arrest in a six-bedroom home, awaiting potential extradition to the United States on charges that she conspired to defraud banks about Huawei’s relationship with an Iranian company.

The anger directed toward Ms. Meng reflected an uneasy moment for both Huawei and China’s middle-class professionals. In the past year, Huawei had been fending off claims by the United States government that it is secretive and unreliable and that it spies for Beijing, an allegation the company has repeatedly denied.

In China, however, Huawei has been considered the crown jewel of the country’s tech industry and has enjoyed tremendous good will. Many Chinese proudly abandoned their iPhones for Huawei phones. But the backlash to the jailing of a longtime employee after a labor dispute has made it clear that people in China are starting to sour on the company.  

The anger on social media was also indicative of new insecurity among members of China’s middle class, who have never experienced an economic downturn and have always thought they had more protections than lower-paid migrant workers. People said they could see themselves in Mr. Li.

“Many middle-class Chinese used to believe that if they went to good schools, worked hard and cared little about the current affairs they would be able to realize their Chinese dreams,” a blogger wrote on Weibo. “Now their dreams are in tatters.”

Huawei declined to comment on the public response.

Mr. Li, a Huawei employee for 12 years, negotiated a $48,000 severance package in March 2018, according to interviews he gave to Chinese media outlets. But he didn’t get an end-of-the-year bonus that he said had been promised to him. He sued Huawei in November last year.

A month later, he was detained in Shenzhen and accused of leaking commercial secrets. He was officially arrested in January on an extortion accusation. But he was released in August with no charges. He did not respond to interview requests.

Huawei insisted in a statement that it had done nothing wrong and challenged Mr. Li to prove that he had been treated unfairly.

“Huawei has the right, and in fact a duty, to report the facts of any suspected illegal conduct to authorities. We respect the decisions made by the authorities,” the statement said. “If Li Hongyuan believes that he has suffered damages or that his rights have been infringed, we support his right to seek satisfaction through legal means, up to and including lawsuit against Huawei.”

Online commentators called the statement “arrogant” and “cold blooded.” “The elephant stepped on you, but you can step back on it,” one popular WeChat article said. “What a response of justice!”

Jiang Jingjing, a blogger, criticized Huawei for trampling on its employees’ rights with its tough performance evaluation system and legal firepower. “Once a company becomes a cold, dehumanized grinding machine, what’s the point for it to exist?” he wrote.

In some ways, new criticism of Huawei harks back to the early days of the company. Huawei cultivated an aggressive “wolf culture” that encouraged its employees to work extremely hard.

New employees would get a mattress when they joined because everyone was expected to work late and often sleep in the office. Over a decade ago, a series of employee deaths drew harsh scrutiny of the company. An investigative report by a news weekly counted six unnatural deaths in two years, including four suicides.

Since then, especially after the United States started a global campaign to try to stop its allies from using Huawei’s next-generation wireless technology, known as 5G, Huawei has become a symbol of China’s technology prowess and American attempts to keep China down.

After Ms. Meng’s arrest, there was an outpouring of support for Huawei. In the most recent quarter, Huawei’s smartphone sales in China grew 66 percent from a year earlier. Sales for Apple and most of Huawei’s domestic competitors declined, according to the research firm Canalys.

Now many people are talking about boycotting Huawei products. Images of a pair of Huawei-branded handcuffs are circulating online as a new, smart-fitness wristband. One of the “bands” is called the “free meal and accommodation version,” referring to jail life.

Tang Ting, a public relations executive, posted on his WeChat social media timeline that the outrage could cause long-lasting damage for Huawei’s brand. Chinese companies think consumers respond only to freebies and discounts, he wrote, “but a very high percentage of the young generation care about values, too.”

In a sign that many middle-class professionals are worried that what happened to Mr. Li could happen to them, online users circulated articles about jail life, especially in the Longgang detention center in Shenzhen, where Mr. Li spent more than eight months. Huawei is based in Shenzhen’s Longgang district.

Some online users are circulating a three-part blog post by a programmer who spent over a year in the detention center for working on gaming and gambling software. Gambling is illegal in China. The blogger wrote in detail what it was like to live in a 355-square-foot cell with 55 people in tropical weather — what they ate, wore and did every day.

Many Chinese are especially outraged by the degree to which news coverage and online responses have been censored. They say they feel helpless because they can’t criticize the government. Now they feel they are also not able to criticize a giant corporation.

One of the Weibo posts of Ms. Meng’s letter received 1,400 comments. Many simply said 251, the number of days Mr. Li was detained. Fewer than 10 comments, sympathetic ones, are still visible to the public.

“A company that’s too big to criticize is even scarier than a company that’s too big to fail,” Nie Huihua, an economics professor at Renmin University in Beijing, told the news site Jiemian on Tuesday.

Jiemian’s interview with Mr. Li, published on Monday, was deleted.

Sahred From Source link Technology

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[jessicakmatt]

5 Social Media Metrics Musicians Think About All Wrong

5 Social Media Metrics Musicians Think About All Wrong: via LANDR Blog

Metrics for musicians.

It’s a phrase that’s becoming more and more important these days. And for good reason too. In a recent poll, NME ranked social media (26%) just behind playing live (51%) as the most important channel for musicians looking to get their music heard.

Today you have all sorts of numbers flying at you: likes, shares, listens, plays, streams, royalties and mentions. It can all seem pretty hollow when you’re trying to stay inspired and dedicated to producing your best work.

This week we added the new LANDR Share to Social feature that lets you share your music directly to your social channels from your LANDR account and connect with your fans in many ways.

We added it because sharing your music to your fans is just as important as the creative process that led you to being finished in the first place. So it should all be part of the same workflow—creation to promotion in one simple step.

But it got me thinking, “After I share my music, what now? What metrics actually matter? And who’s really listening?”

To make sure you don’t get blinded by all the noise of social media—and the numbers that come with it, I decided to unpack the 5 most important metrics and find out what they really mean for independent music (hint: it’s not the numbers, it’s what’s behind them that counts).

Understand your metrics, track your following and make the connections that really matter for building a healthy and happy fanbase.

1. Likes

So your music is finally done! You take the plunge and share it to socials. Great, people start liking your track on social media! The thumb is getting sore from thumbing so much!

Likes are great. They’re a perfect starting point for tracking your success…

But the question you need to be asking is WHO liked your track and why?

Use your likes to get to know your audience, start a discussion in the comments about your process, discuss parts you weren’t feeling great about and parts that you were really happy with, link to your influences and inspirations and ask for feedback!

It all helps to build a story around your track and add value to the plays that you’re getting.

Nothing is better than a real honest exchange, digital, or real life. Likes should be a starting point for building a relationship with your fans, not the endgame that you obsess about too much.

Hot Tip: When you’re sharing your releases to social, ask a question in your post. It’s a great way to get your fans involved and encourage discussion around your tracks. It also shows that you care about your following’s opinion.

Explore who’s listening by checking your likes. You might even be surprised at who’s supporting your music. Are they also musicians? Why not listen to their track in exchange and give a like back. Or better yet, drop them a DM and connect. That way you build a relationship of mutual support, and you encourage people to continue following and liking you.

Nothing is better than a real honest exchange, digital, or real life. Likes should be a starting point for building a relationship with your fans, not the endgame that you obsess about too much. Build your likes, but use them once you have them for developing your fanbase.

2. Shares

Sharing is caring. The same goes for your music. If people share it, it means they’re doing more than scrolling through their feed and liking something distractedly or out of obligation.

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When something comes from the heart, people see it and want to share it further. When you’re crafting your social post, tell some of your story. Why are you happy to share your release? Was it the product of months of hard work, with the precious help of many collaborators? Include some of that in your post.

Hot Tip: When you make a social post, tag everyone that is credited on your album—the vocalists, each band member, the mixing engineer, producer, the designer of the album art and anyone else involved. It’s a nice way to say thank you, and increase the chances of having them share your release too.

3. Streams

So you just distributed your track. You’re nervously checking your stats every hour in hoping your stream count go up.

Trust me, I’ve been there too. Whatever you do, don’t let it become an obsession! Stressing about stream stats can distract you from understanding the bigger picture.

Of course, if a song is made and you don’t let people know, you’ll miss out on most of your streams. Any release needs a promotional campaign on social media. Post about it on Facebook and Twitter. Make a fun Instagram story about it.

Stats aren’t the end game—they’re a starting point for discovering your audience. Use them to guide your decisions and connect better.

The total number of streams may seem like the only metric that matters but there are other important factors at play on streaming platforms.

Your track’s position in Spotify’s recommendation algorithms isn’t determined by number of plays alone.

Your ratio of plays to user library saves is important, as well as how many followers your artist profile has.

These two lesser known metrics can help evaluate how engaged your audience is with your music. They’re essential to working your way up to Spotify’s editorial playlists.

But think about what those streams tell you about the listeners behind them. Check in a day, a week, a month or even a year to get the full picture of your releases streams. Ask yourself: where do my streams come from, what countries and cities? How can I reach out to those areas? Here are some ideas:

Reach out to a blog from a region where your music is getting streamed to feature your music

Reach out to a local radio station

Write to fellow musicians you admire in those areas

Book an out of town show

Even though music has no boundaries these days, the humans who listen to it live in specific places. Those are the places where you’re gonna want to focus your resources. Stats aren’t the end game—they’re a starting point for discovering your audience. Use them to guide your decisions and connect better.

4. Subscriptions

Aside from your social media, there’s another fantastic tool to get in touch with your fans: a mailing list. Mailing lists let you turn one-time listeners into long time fans.

They’ve been around forever. Many bands used to post a form at their merch table at shows to give fans the option to stay in touch. Newsletters have since gone digital, but the benefit is still there for staying connected.

Services like Mailchimp or Bandzoogle let you capture and manage your contacts and send out quick and simple newsletters direct to your fans.

Your mailing list is an effective communication tool, especially at a time when social media feeds are overcrowded. Your newsletter is a space that’s all your own.

A casual fan on social media becomes a longterm supporter when you give them the option of signing up to your mailing list.

Subscriptions are a sign of trust. If someone gives you their email, they trust you to use it well. It means they’re paying attention and they want to stay updated about your music. So subscribers is one of the most important metrics to target. Every subscriber is not just a listener, but a true fan who is interested enough in your music to let you into their everyday lives—pretty powerful when you think about it…

It’s your chance to send personalized, honest, interesting content to a receptive audience—like a photo essay from your last tour, your upcoming shows, your radio appearances, your releases, press about you, your merch (also a great place to offer discounts), etc.

Add your newsletter signup link when you share newly released music or in your social media bios.

A casual fan on social media becomes a longterm supporter when you give them the option of signing up to your mailing list. So your subscriptions stats going up are a great sign that you’re doing it right.

5. Your Inbox

The most important connection you can make with your fans is meaningful one-on-one interactions. So messages in your inbox is another important metric. Treat each on like a connections that could open doors to opportunity.

Think about it: a direct message means that a fan, blogger, or booker:

Likes your project enough to take the time out of their busy schedule to message you directly.

Views you and your music as approachable and honest.

Wants to dig deeper into your music and learn more about something that’s intrigued them.

It’s a very human response when so many things in music today can seem cold and lifeless.

Make yourself available to your fans and community by posting your artist email on your social profiles or when sharing a new release to your social media pages (fan mail starts with fans knowing where to send it!).

The most important connection you can make with your fans is meaningful one-on-one interactions.

Respond as quickly as you can and make every encounter as wholesome as possible. One genuine interaction with someone that’s interested in your music can make heaps of difference when most music industry emails or direct messages are forgotten. It’s the little things that add up over time.

Having your contact info out in the open shows that you are approachable and makes people more inclined to get in touch with you. Which means potential invites to make a guest mix, appear on a radio show, or even release on a label. You’ll never know unless you’re available.

If people write to you make a point of personally responding to each message. Set a good precedent by being a nice person (what a concept!). Make it what makes YOU stand out.

Metric system

Every social metric counts towards your big picture. Don’t obsess over specifics like boosting your plays or your likes.

Look at all your social sharing and platforms as part of a bigger goal: Building a following of dedicated and engaged fans that feel a personal connection with you and your music.

Behind every stream, like or play there’s a human being. Use your social sharing tools and platforms to do everything you can to be a human back.

The post 5 Social Media Metrics Musicians Think About All Wrong appeared first on LANDR Blog.

from LANDR Blog https://blog.landr.com/music-metrics/ via https://www.youtube.com/user/corporatethief/playlists from Steve Hart https://stevehartcom.tumblr.com/post/185523130869

[lodelss]

An American City, Inhabited Yet Abandoned

Until 2015, Baltimore seemed to be on an upswing — population growth, investment, development, rising income, lowered crime rates. Then Freddie Gray died in police custody. But it wasn’t the community uprisings that marked the start of decline, it was the the reaction of the police when six of their own were charged in connected with Gray’s death.

“Cops don’t necessarily stop in their tracks because another cop is charged in a crime,” Kevin Davis, one of Batts’s deputies at the time, told me. “Typically it’s a bad cop, a crook, a drug dealer or a drunk or someone who abuses his wife. But when these cops got charged criminally and the probable cause was not easily understood by the rank and file — that gave them a sense of dread.”

The department’s officers responded swiftly, by doing nothing. In Baltimore it came to be known as “the pullback”: a monthslong retreat from policing, a protest that was at once undeclared and unmistakably deliberate — encouraged, some top officials in the department at the time believe, by the local police union. Many officers responded to calls for service but refused to undertake any “officer-initiated” action. Cruisers rolled by trouble spots without stopping or didn’t roll by at all. Compounding the situation, some of the officers hospitalized in the riot remained out on medical leave. Arrests plunged by more than half from the same month a year before. The head of the police union, Lt. Gene Ryan, called the pullback justifiable: “Officers may be second-guessing themselves,” he told The Sun. “Questioning, if I make this stop or this arrest, will I be prosecuted?”

Ray Kelly, a West Baltimore community activist, had achieved measured success in building relationships with officers along the drug-riddled Pennsylvania Avenue corridor, where his organization had an office. Suddenly, those officers were gone. “We saw a pullback in this community for over a month where it was up to the community to police the community,” Kelly told me. “And quite frankly, we were outgunned.” In the vacuum, crews took new corners and people settled old scores. Not a single person was killed on the day of the rioting. But the following month, May, would conclude with 41 homicides — the most the city had experienced in a month since the 1970s, and more than the city of Boston would have for the entire year.

The trials led to three acquittals and one hung jury, and the remaining cases were dropped. But then something else dropped: a 160+ page report from the U.S. Department of Justice finding that Baltimore police had engaged in “a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the Constitution or federal law.” The aftermath, coupled with ever-dropping numbers of police officers, exacerbated the existing chaos and poor community/cop relations.

The Justice Department’s report, meanwhile, had led to the federal “consent decree” that the city negotiated with the department — a sweeping set of reforms of the Police Department that set out new rules governing stops and searches, internal discipline and much more. Gene Ryan, the leader of the police union, complained that his organization had been shut out of the process of drafting it. Tony Barksdale, who had been retired for three years and now spent his days trading stocks online, attacked it incessantly on Twitter, accusing city leaders of “handcuffing your own cops while turning the city over to criminals.”

One afternoon not long after Guy began her job as the consent-decree monitoring team’s community liaison, she strapped on a bulletproof vest and rode along with a city police officer to see the realities he and his colleagues faced. The officer started his shift at 9 a.m. and, because of the department’s shortage of officers, would work until 2:30 the next morning.

They cruised block after block of rowhouses in an especially drug-plagued area. The officer received a text message to disperse a cluster of young men — a frequent point of confrontation in the city. Young men often congregate in front of corner stores or liquor stores, sometimes just hanging out, other times selling drugs; the city would have a record 692 fatal opioid overdoses in 2017.

“I’m supposed to clear this corner,” the officer told Guy, showing her the address on the screen.

“Can you do that?” she asked.

“No,” he said. As he understood it, the consent decree barred him from dispersing the young men. So he didn’t. But then his phone rang. “I guess when I ignore a call, then I get a phone call telling me I need to do my [expletive] job,” he said. Which was indeed what the call was.

In a complex but comprehensive story in the New York Times Magazine, Alec MacGillis takes us through the causes and consequences of Baltimore’s rising violent crime rates, the result of “a failure of order and governance the likes of which few American cities have seen in years.”

Read the story

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2CsiqU5 via IFTTT

[kyaranflowers]

mature singles free dating

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3 Keys for Finding Your Mr Right As a Mature Dater

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Finally just remember that , your head is usually a muscle which is over looked once we age. If staying in shape and healthy has been stimulated by the regarded attracting a whole new partner then try to stimulate your mind by starting conversation. As we get older we get stuck within our ways often unwilling to try a new challenge. New relationships are about compromises looking to discover common ground. Try new things and in many cases better encourage that unique person to join you. Laughter is infectious and may quickly bring individuals closer together.

[silvino32mills]

10 Blogging ‘Firsts’ to Celebrate (From Launch Onwards)

Do you ever look at other bloggers and feel you’ll never catch up to where they are?

Perhaps they have hundreds – or thousands, or even hundreds of thousands – of subscribers to their email newsletter. Maybe they’re making a full-time living blogging, or even employing a whole team of staff.

If you’re still in the early stages of blogging, it can seem like no matter how hard you work you’re not really achieving anything at all.

But you are.

Every little step you take brings you closer to your goals. And today I want you to think about the milestones you’ve already achieved (or are close to achieving).

For each milestone I’ll share links to further help and guidance on ProBlogger, and a note on where you can get help with that particular milestone in:

our free course, Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog

our premium course, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

Before we begin, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to hit these milestones in order. There’s no right way to reach them, and you may want to tackle ‘writing a guest post’ long before you get your first comment on your blog.

Milestone #1: Creating Your Blog Itself

This is a huge milestone, and one many would-be bloggers never actually achieve. Launching your blog is a real achievement, so celebrate it.

You may not have written any posts yet. Your blog might not look quite the way you want it to. And you may feel confused or a bit lost when you stare at the WordPress dashboard. But your blog is online, and that’s what matters. You can keep learning and tweaking as you go forward.

Further Reading:

Which is the Best Blog Hosting Solution?

When DIY Blogging isn’t for You: 5 Alternatives to Self-Hosted WordPress

Take the Course:

Completing our free course, Ultimate Guide to Starting Your Blog, will help you get ready to launch. But Step 7 in particular will guide you through the process of getting your blog up and running.

Milestone #2: Publishing Your First Post

You might well have written your first post before you launch your blog. But whether you did or not, publishing your very first blog post is always something to celebrate.

Hitting ‘Publish’ on that first piece might feel daunting (or even terrifying), but from here onwards it will get easier.

One post might feel very insignificant. But all bloggers started with zero posts. And that one post could be the start of a major project, or even a whole new career.

Further Reading:

5 Things to Do after You Hit ‘Publish’ on Your Next Blog Post

What You Need to Have Ready Before You Launch Your Blog (podcast)

Take the Course:

Hopefully, post #1 will be the first of many. To learn more about the content creation process, check out Day 7 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, which covers the publishing process.

Milestone #3: Receiving Your First Comment

The first comment you receive on your blog is a real achievement. Someone isn’t just reading. They’re taking the time to respond.

If you share your blog with friends and family, hopefully at least one of them will leave a comment. But you may want to look for other new bloggers (perhaps in a group such as the ProBlogger Community), and make a point of commenting on their posts. Hopefully they’ll return the favour and comment on yours.

Further Reading:

Five Ways to Encourage Readers to Comment More Often on Your Posts

A Commenting System to Rule Them All: Why Choosing the Right Comment System can Make or Break Your Blog

Take the Course:

To learn how to create content readers will pay attention to (and hopefully comment on), take a look at Day 16: Get Your Reader’s Attention in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

Milestone #4: Getting Your First Email Subscriber

Just getting an email list set up can be a challenge for many new bloggers. So if you’ve managed that, congratulations. Hopefully it won’t be long before you have your very first subscriber.

One subscriber might seem like a tiny drop in a very large ocean. But if you can persuade one person to sign up for your email list, you can persuade more. Soon you’ll be able to celebrate 10 subscribers, and then 100.

Further Reading:

6 Reasons Why Your Blog Needs an Email Newsletter

How I Increased the Subscriber Rate on My Blogs by 80 – 1000% (podcast)

Take the Course:

For help with setting up your email list, check out the bonus module to the Ultimate Start a Blog Course: Your Blog’s Email List. (You’ll receive this bonus module at the end of the course once you’ve worked through the launch process.)

Milestone #5: Sending Your First Email Newsletter

You’ve got your email list set up, and people have subscribed and received your welcome message. Now it’s time to send out your very first email newsletter.

If you’re writing separate content for your email newsletter (rather than just sending out your blog posts), it can feel like a waste of time creating newsletters for the three people on your email list – especially if they’re your mum, dad and big sister. But all the newsletters you write will be archived by your mailing list provider, so you can link to them from future newsletters or even your blog.

Further Reading:

3 Examples of Content You Can Include in Your Email Newsletter

7 Common Newsletter Problems Solved 

Take the Course:

For help with writing and sending your first email newsletter, take a look at Day 19: Newsletter of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

Milestone #6: Getting Your First Tweet or Share

When someone shares one of your posts on Twitter or Facebook, their followers or friends might click through to read it – potentially bringing you lots of new readers.

Even if you don’t get a single new reader from your first tweet/share, it’s still a lovely moment. Someone cared about your blog post enough to want to tell everyone they know about it.

Most bloggers (even those who get a lot of tweets) think it’s nice to say “Thanks” to people who share their posts. This can be a great way to build a relationship with your readers, who may be well on their way to becoming firm fans.

Further Reading:

How to Get Top Bloggers to Share Your Content and Boost Your Traffic

The Step-by-Step Method to Making Your Content Shareable on Social Media

Take the Course:

The bonus module ‘Your Blog’s Social Media’ (part of the Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog course) helps you get set up with Facebook, Twitter and so on.

Milestone #7: Reading Your First Email from a Reader

Once you’ve been blogging for a few weeks or months, you might be quite used to getting comments, tweets, shares and so on.

But your first actual email from a reader, though can feel very special. It might be a reply to your newsletter, perhaps saying, “This is just what I needed to read. Thank you!” Or it might come as a message through your contact page, with a reader telling you how much they enjoy your blog.

Save any emails like this somewhere safe. You might want to give them a particular tag in Gmail, or even copy them into a separate file. On the days when blogging feels like a lot of hard work for little reward, re-read them. They might make all the difference.

Further Reading:

How to Create an Efficient Contact Page That Boosts Your Productivity 

Optimize the Most Underutilized Page of Your Blog

Take the Course:

Getting emails from readers is lovely. But emailing your readers individually can be a great way to grow your blog in the early weeks and months. For help with this, check out Day 25: Personally Email Your Readers in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog course.

Milestone #8: Writing Your First Forum or Group Post

Not all bloggers want to join forums or groups. But if you’re willing to give them a try they can be a brilliant source of help and support – no matter what stage you’re at.

Writing your first post on a blogging-related forum or in a blogging-related Facebook group can feel daunting. But simply ‘lurking’ and reading other people’s posts won’t be nearly so helpful to you.

Many people begin by writing an introduction post, which can be a good way to start. But you’ll get a better response from starting a new topic where you ask a question.

That might be a question relating to something you’re struggling with (“I can’t seem to get Google Analytics working and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong”). Or it could be an open-ended question that engages others (e.g. “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from blogging in the past six months?”)

If you’d like to be part of a friendly and supportive Facebook group for bloggers, check out the ProBlogger Community.

Further Reading:

5 Ways You Can Use Facebook Groups to Benefit Your Blog

How LinkedIn Groups Can Explode Your Blog Traffic

Take the Course:

For more help with joining groups and networking, check out Day 11: Engage and Network in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog course.

Milestone #9: Writing Your First Guest Post

This is a milestone some bloggers feel they’re not ready for. But the truth is you’re probably more ready than you think.

Writing your first guest post for another blog is a great way to get your name out there and to bring in more readers. Many large blogs accept guest posts, and they won’t normally care how big or well known your own blog is. They just care about how well you can write.

Guest posting is a huge topic we’ve covered in depth on ProBlogger (see the Further Reading below). But the most important thing to remember is the worst anyone can say is “No”. Even if you reach out with a post and it’s rejected, you can simply try another blog.

Further Reading:

7 Powerful Non-SEO Reasons to Try Guest Posting

How to Craft an Outstanding Guest Post 

Take the Course:

Day 21: Guest Posting in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog covers what you need to know to have a great chance of success with your guest posts.

Milestone #10: Making Your First Dollar

Not all bloggers want to make money. But if you do, making your very first dollar is a crucial milestone.

You might think one dollar is hardly worth celebrating. But that one dollar shows it’s possible to make money from your blog. If you can make one dollar, you can make ten. If you can make ten, you can make a hundred. And so on.

That first dollar might come from any number of means. It could be advertising revenue, or an affiliate commision. It might be a donation, or someone supporting you on Patreon. It might be your first sale (or a fraction of it) after you’ve launched a product.

However you make that dollar, it’s well worth celebrating.

Further Reading:

The Full Blog Monetization Menu – 60+ Ways to Make Money With Your Blog

Make Money Blogging

Take the Course:

For lots of help on making money, check out Day 14: When and How to Make Money Blogging in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.

All these ‘firsts’ are ones you could reach quite early on in the life of your blog – potentially in the first few weeks. But if it’s taken you longer than that, please don’t feel there’s anything wrong with your blog or your approach to blogging. Gradual, steady progress is still progress.

Once you’ve been blogging for a full year, you might want to see how many of these milestones you’ve managed to achieve . You might also want to evaluate how that first year went for you.

Here’s a quick recap of all the “firsts” we’ve covered:

Milestone #1: Creating Your Blog Itself

Milestone #2: Publishing Your First Post

Milestone #3: Receiving Your First Comment

Milestone #4: Getting Your First Email Subscriber

Milestone #5: Sending Your First Email Newsletter

Milestone #6: Getting Your First Tweet or Share

Milestone #7: Reading Your First Email from a Reader

Milestone #8: Writing Your First Forum or Group Post

Milestone #9: Writing Your First Guest Post

Milestone #10: Making Your First Dollar

Which of these have you already achieved?

Which one are you working towards next? How will you go about it (especially if it’s something you can only influence or encourage rather than control)? Leave a comment below to tell us.

Photo credit: Social Cut

The post 10 Blogging ‘Firsts’ to Celebrate (From Launch Onwards) appeared first on ProBlogger.

       from ProBlogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/i_7IvjPVRIo/

[writewaystudio-blog]

March 2018 Featured Creator

What is a Featured Creator?

Write Way Studio’s “Featured Creator” segment is my way of showing appreciation for the creators of the world.  Creative outlets are limitless, because there is no end to human imagination.  Every month shows the succeeding featured creator.  If you would like to be a part of this collaborative project, contact me at studiowriteway@gmail.com!

Introduction

Now, allow me to introduce you to him, the one and only The Kao.  He is better known online by his brand and business under the same title.  Under the mark of the lion, Leo, his birth-date falls on July 31st.

He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts for Illustration of Columbia College, Chicago.  That was back in 2015, a crazy three years ago.  He currently creates illustrations and comics for a living.

What Sparked the Creator Passion?

When asked this particular question, The Kao mentioned how “[he] always had a passion for drawing since childhood.”  Thanks to the two franchises Pokemon and Toy Story, his (sort of) first comic was born:  “[he had drawn] in elementary school about [his] Pokemon plush and [the two of them] having adventures together.”

Then came the hard part of adulating:  his future career.  As he mentioned from his contemplation, “The difficult part was trying to find which artistic industry I wanted to go into and/or if I wanted to work for myself . . . [since] many options for an aspiring artist who loves creating characters and making stories [exist].”  He listed storyboarding, visual development, comics and children books, all of which are just a few avenues he can explore.  But even he admitted that there is only so much you can do for a career.

Eventually, he returned to his first comic book he ever made.  He decided to focus on comics (for now).

The Kao’s Creation:  Mondo Mango

How It All Began

Believe it or not, Mondo Mango started as a hobby!  He had only been illustrating for class assignments and work.  The series had been heavily influenced by the encouragement of friends and family.  He always wanted to create a full-length manga, but his writing skills made him reluctant to start.  Eventually, Mondo Mango came to be, a way to still make a comic strip with less perfectionist tendencies and more relaxation.  The Kao acknowledged how “the series is a huge part of my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I thank my family, friends, and mentors that pushed me to continue making the series when I had my doubts.”

All about Mondo Mango

Mondo Mango is a slice-of-life story focused essentially on The Kao himself.  Its main content zeroes in on the brighter aspects of his life as he highlights enjoying and appreciating the little things that go unnoticed.  Although it may be mundane in subject matter at first glance, he manages to shine a funny and relatable light on everything as he hopes to bring joy to his audience.

His most recent work is pushing him towards fiction when he introduced the series’ new mascot, GoGo, the adorable mango dragon that continues to bring a positive outlook on life.

For the most part, his content is suitable for children.  There are, however, sexuality explanations that are LGBT-friendly as well as life and school struggles.  So his work also appeals to teens and young adults.  The series is on the inter-webs via Tapas, Line Web Toons, and/or Instagram.

Future Projects

If you are interested in The Kao’s work, I suggest supporting his Kickstarter!  There, a new Mondo Mango book called The Freckled Mango: A Mondo Mango Collection is now available!  The book contains 130 pages of more than one hundred Mondo Mango strips, exclusives, manga specials and art tutorials.  The Kickstarter is up now, so go check it out!

There is also the Tapas Incubator program with Tapas Media.  The Kao was recently accepted into the program, which had been an open call for creators to work with Tapas Media for creating original content.  In short, he is currently working on a new comic that will be released later this year!  So be on the lookout!

Where to Find You? Support You?

The Kao is available on multiple outlets, some for his comics and others for his business associations.  If you are interested, don’t hesitate to check the information below!

The Kao

o   Website > thekao.net

o   Book > thekao.net/book 

o   Patreon > https://www.patreon.com/thekao

The Kao Instagram > @thek40

Comics

o   Website > mondomango.com

o   Instagram > @thekao

Kickstarter > https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1554061715/the-freckled-mango-book 

Tapas Media > https://tapas.io/series/MondoMango

Line Webtoons > http://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/mondo-mango/list?title_no=56963

Last Tidbits

As a nod to some of his most asked questions, Kao revealed this bullet list:

I use an intous 4 wacom tablet

I use Paint Tool Sai and Clip studio for my art programs

I prefer Digital art but don't mind traditional work once in a while. 

I am Taiwanese American 

Important Notice

Please understand that some information will not be shared by the creator’s request.  If you cannot understand that, there is not much more I can do to help you.  Safety is a top priority here, and I am here to help the creators, not instigate negative behavior.

Collaboration Disclaimer

The information provided in my Featured Creator articles is, in fact, from the real people, not some random Internet bot.  I do not use random stock photos to fill an imaginary photo quota.  Any photos in the Featured Creator segment are provided by the creators with permission to use them in this manner.  I want to support the original person behind the work, not a random online copycat creeping around.

To The Kao,

Thank you very much for accepting my request to work on this!  I know that you are super busy, especially with a special dragon and book of yours coming out, so I appreciate every bit of effort you’ve put into this collaboration.  I love your art style, sense of humor and various messages that you provide in your comic.  I wait in anticipation for what else you will create in the future.

Honestly, I was shell-shocked that you actually responded to my request, let alone accepted.  You may not realize it, but you have helped me to see that I can do more than I thought previously possible with my writing.

I wish only the best for you, GoGo and CK in all your future endeavors!

Sincerely,

Jasmine Love

{Write Way Studio creator and blogger}

[gustavowilh]

8 Ways to Use Notes

Here at Apptentive, we’re focused on driving customer engagement and improving in-app customer communication. Our Notes tool makes it easier than ever to engage with your customers at specific times and places throughout your mobile experiences, expanding your ability to deliver personalized messages that notify, encourage action, or both.

Notes are a one-time message that enable you to engage a broad group of your customers. Notes allow you to link to different interactions, specific locations within your app via a deep link, or even to a web page by adding different button options. They’re easy to configure from the Apptentive dashboard, launch in five minutes or less, can be turned on and off as needed, and can be scheduled to launch automatically.

Three main benefits to using Notes are:

Communicating on a broad scale: Quickly deliver a message to the audience you need to reach, without having to release a new version of your app, or just say “hello.” Notes are a way to communicate without asking customers to take an action.

Proactively reaching out to minimize churn: If there is a known bug or a payment failed, send a Note to help save the relationship. Don’t wait for your next app release to take action.

Educating and delighting customers: Did you add a new feature? Is there a piece of content customers won’t want to miss? Send a Note at the right time to educate and delight, including deeplinking to other areas of your app.

Now that we’ve explained what Notes are, it’s time to show you the many ways they come to life. In today’s post, we go through eight different examples of how to use Notes to better communicate with your customers.

1. Surprise and delight

Notes enable you to engage customers who have completed a set of in-app activities. Whether the customer is engaging for the first time or is one of your loyal customers, a Note can be used to reward loyalty and boost retention. Perhaps your customer made their first in-app purchase and you’d like to reward them with a 20% coupon off their next purchase, or they’ve reached a high score on the latest level of your game and you’d like to show them a preview of new level to keep them playing; in both cases, a Note is a great way to keep customers engaged.

To reward through Notes, link one of the buttons in your Note to content, or to another part of your app. In the example below, the Note is linked to a coupon on a mobile-optimized web page (through a deeplink).

2. Teach customers about new features

If you have a new feature in your app customers are experiencing for the first time, you can use a Note to guide them through it and hear their thoughts. Linking your Note to a survey offers you a chance to learn first-hand about the customer experience, and to help your customers learn more about the feature.

You can use a Note as a request for opt-in for a new feature (i.e. “Would you like to try a new feature of ours?”) or simply let customers know about the new feature, as seen below. Knowledge is power, and Notes are a great way to keep customers informed when you release new, exciting features within your app.

3. Gather customer feedback

Notes make it easier than ever to solicit customer feedback. You can use Notes as a single question survey, or as a lead-in to a longer survey to learn more about your customers to better serve their needs.

Many Apptentive customers who leverage the power of Notes with Surveys see high survey completion rates, which means respondents are less interrupted and more willing to give feedback.

4. Make announcements

Whether you’d like to communicate to some or all your mobile customers, Notes can be used to alert your customer’s in-app. Notes give you the power to announce a new version or feature, promote a sister-app release, and so much more.

To launch an announcement Note, link the button in your Note directly to the App Store or Google Play, or link to a product-landing page. For example, this customer used a Note to encourage customers to upgrade to a new version of their app.

You can also leverage Notes to give customers a heads-up, especially when it comes to scheduled maintenance or downtime.

5. Share positive reviews

Many companies (especially retailers or those with brick and mortar locations) can benefit from making it easy for their fans to share their positive reviews on Google Places, Yelp, etc. Notes can help you prompt fans to rate your business through the app, rather than simply prompting them to rate the app itself in the App Store.

By using a Note coupled with Apptentive’s Love Dialog, you can understand whether or not customers love your business. If they answer yes, prompt them to leave a review that shares their experience. If they say answer no, connect them to a person or feature that can take their feedback so you can understand why. As always, you can deeply segment customers into cohorts before prompting for reviews with a Note.

6. Acknowledge mistakes

Unfortunately no one is perfect, and on the rare occasion that something goes wrong in your app (it crashes, something doesn’t load, a payment doesn’t go through, etc.), sending a Note to apologize to your customers can go a long way. In fact, Apptentive’s research shows that 51% of customers who have a negative experience will respond positively if the company directly addresses the issue. A Note can be a great temporary fix before your next app release.

To launch an acknowledgment Note, identify common issues within your app and target events to them. A Note can help explain to your customers that you know of the problem and are addressing it.

7. Encourage social engagement

Notes can be used to help drive social marketing campaigns. You can leverage a Note to encourage customers to tweet a screenshot with campaign hashtags to be entered to win contests for swag prizes, and to notify customers of upcoming ways to engage outside of the app.

In addition to powering social sharing, Notes can also be used to encourage app customers to drive social following. This type of outreach gives your social marketing campaigns a way to come full-circle across your mobile experience.

8. Drive customers to content in real-time

Many companies (especially in the media and entertainment industries) need a way to promote content within their app in real-time. Notes can serve as a way to alert customers who are currently using your app that there’s a broadcast, livestream, etc. that they might want to watch happening right then, containing a deeplink so the content can be viewed immediately.

To help drive customers to watch content in real-time, you can use a Note to alert people who are currently using the app that the event is occurring. You can distribute multiple Notes over the course of a broadcast to encourage as many real-time views as possible, segmenting customers along the way to ensure their experience is not disrupted.

Get started with Notes

Notes is a powerful tool that allows our customers to drive customer engagement and improve their in-app customer communication. Through Notes, you can better connect with customers to keep them informed, delight them in-app, and ultimately, gather their feedback to continuously improve your mobile experience.

Are you interested in learning more about Notes, along with the entire Apptentive product suite? We’d love to connect and answer your questions! Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or request a demo to learn more.

The post 8 Ways to Use Notes appeared first on Apptentive.

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[itbeatsbookmarks]

(Via: Hacker News)

Today in Tedium:

Email is such a pain in the butt. (Hopefully not this specific email.) We’ve been doing everything in our power to fight the influence it has on our lives, to minimize the spam, the marketing,

the burden

. That

burden

leads lots of folks to fruitlessly hunt for the perfect email client

like I hunt for the perfect word processor

. Others have followed the path of least resistance: Either Gmail or Outlook. But there was a time when we didn’t feel this way, when getting email was actually exciting. The email client Eudora, named for Eudora Welty, was designed to capture this excitement—the idea that mailboxes were no longer tethered to physical space. But even as the die-hards held on, it couldn’t. Tonight’s Tedium ponders the demise of Eudora, and whether we lost something great.

— Ernie @ Tedium

Editor's note: Tonight's GIF comes from a Computer Chronicles episode and stars John Markoff's inbox.

“In addition to being embarrassed that I appropriated the great writer’s name, I’m glad I brought her to the awareness of a larger audience—people who’ve never heard of her.”

— Steve Dorner, the creator of the Eudora email client, discussing his personal embarrassment over naming the client after the famed author that inspired it, Eudora Welty. (Welty once wrote a story called “Why I Live at the P.O.”; Dorner was inspired by the idea of a mailbox that comes to you, rather than the other way around, which inspired the name.) For her part, Welty (who was alive during the client’s successful years) wasn’t really a computer user, but she told her local paper, The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi: “I find it all very mysterious, but I was certainly flattered to be a part of it.”

Join the ten million other Eudora users, the box says. (via Amazon)

Eudora was a success story, but not one that made its creator rich

It was a contrast that was too delicious for The New York Times to ignore.

In early 1997, two applications were in the process of taking over the internet, and both had roots in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. One of those applications, Netscape, became a bedrock of how we surf the web. The other, Eudora, put a graphical twist on email.

Netscape, of course, helped its creator, Marc Andreessen, eventually become a billionaire, and drove a Silicon Valley boom that we’re still seeing some reverberations of to this day—in part because Andreessen leveraged his financial success into further financial success and later, a plum role as a venture capitalist.

In contrast, Eudora maker Steve Dorner created an incredibly popular program, loved by power users at a time when power users owned the internet. Of the early protocols that ruled the ‘net, the web and email were the two most important ones—and UIUC was a proving ground for both.

But the Times only showed up at Dorner’s door for a piece about why he had failed to become a multi-millionaire for what he created—which one could say is a backhanded compliment of an article.

(Not that Dorner appeared to mind: “To have other people use and enjoy your program is probably what a certain breed of programmer is really interested in,” he told the news outlet at the time. “That's the ultimate reward.”)

The reason is simple: There were some differences in what Andreessen and Dorner had done. Andreessen was a student at UIUC when he created NCSA Mosaic in 1993, while Dorner was an employee when he built Eudora in 1988.

Andreessen rebuilt the software under a new name (Netscape) and ownership structure; Dorner didn’t.

And while Andreessen moved to California, Dorner stayed in Illinois, telecommuting for Qualcomm, which eventually acquired his work from the university, for years. Dorner’s main job for many years was maintaining Eudora.

(Side note: This is why you should never create something you truly care about under a work-for-hire structure, because you won’t own it.)

He got a long-term gig out of the move, obviously, but it meant that his idea was at the whims of a large company that was better known for designing communications hardware than email clients. Eudora was a loss leader of sorts—while it had a shrink-wrapped version, most people used the free one, and the success of the free app gave Qualcomm name recognition at a time when it was still pretty obscure.

Soon enough, Qualcomm would move to naming football stadiums for that type of name recognition—and Eudora became the app of choice for power users, perhaps at the cost of the broader internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XluovrUA6Bk&t=94s

Five things Eudora has that most modern email clients don’t

High customization capabilities: Eudora was an incredibly flexible client for its time, allowing users to tweak it in any way they wanted, allowing for both scripting and sophisticated actions. For this reason, Eudora was Steve Wozniak’s favorite client. He told Lifehacker (in friggin’ 2009!) that he believed it was the most important productivity tool he had. “The reason I do is, it has an incredible feature that every single mail client should have,” he emphasized. “Any feature in the menu list, any action there, can be added as a button.” (Wozniak, remember, made an incredibly nerdy remote control.)

Fine-toothed filtering: Eudora had the ability to filter out spam, yes, but it was also designed to filter messages with great amounts of detail and sophistication—think Gmail’s search options, but even more in the weeds. In a 1995 episode of the PBS series Computer Chronicles, New York Times reporter John Markoff explained that the filtering capability made it possible for him to parse thousands of messages daily—including one from Steve Jobs that he humblebragged about during the episode.

The ability to “redirect” emails, rather than forward: Forwarding emails is a common functionality of email clients, of course, but it always gets dicey when, say, you want to send a message to someone, but encourage them to respond to the original sender, rather than you. Eudora made it possible to do this with its “redirect” function—something most email clients don’t support today.

Bottom posting of replies: Perhaps the most controversial feature of Eudora—reflecting an era in which many internet users posted in Usenet newsgroups or listservs—was the concept of “bottom posting,” or putting replies below the original message, rather than above. The internet, driven by clients like Gmail, has largely abandoned bottom posting in email clients, in favor of top posting, but there are still many partisans out there.

An arcane way for power users to modify the app: Everyone is familiar with Gmail Labs, but it’s nothing compared to x-eudora-setting, a URI-based tool that can be used to change things under the hood. Basically you paste in one of these codes into a blank message, then click on it, and it changes some obscure setting in the app that otherwise is inaccessible through other means. It’s like having a Game Genie for your email client.

A version of Eudora for Windows. (via Queen Mary University of London)

Eudora was great, but it was way more than most users needed

“If an e-mail program can survive the merciless scrutiny of the internet community, it's got to be good,” a 1995 ad promoting Eudora stated.

Certainly, from a distance, this sounds like a good way to promote a piece of software like this. Lots of people use it, therefore it’s good.

The problem with this line of thought is that the merciless scrutiny of the 1995 internet means something different than the scrutiny of the 2017 internet.

For one thing, there’s more people. And on top of that, getting online in 1995 required more technical knowledge than it does now, especially if you wanted to use a graphical interface. Back then, before you could even get going on Windows, you had to set up the ability to connect to the internet using Trumpet Winsock, a networking tool for Windows 3.1 that allowed users to connect directly to the ’net before Microsoft added it to Windows itself.

Winsock, intentionally or not, was a great way of naturally filtering out people whose skills didn’t meet a certain level. Those who couldn’t figure it out could just use AOL.

The technical hurdles of internet access were later solved, of course, and that meant later generations of internet users—the people who failed the Winsock test in prior versions of Windows—needed more help from their email clients.

Customization was great for people who could wrap their heads around something like Winsock, but later internet users simply wanted things to work—and that led them to the arms of webmail clients like Hotmail.

In a 2015 interview with blogger Joe Clark, Dorner made the point that later internet users were less interested in customization than something that worked out of the box. Combined with the growing flood going into our inboxes, our collective philosophy around email had simply changed.

“[A] lot of the sort of later development of Eudora was all about harm reduction, really,” he explained. “It was about trying to get rid of the incredible volume of spam. … And, you know, people increasingly didn’t want to put in the time to sort things themselves, to manage things, to learn anything. They just wanted it all to be what they wanted without them having any hands-on.”

(Dorner added that modern users are less sophisticated these days, noting that “a lot of what is in the basic DNA of the Internet assumes more competence” than many users have.)

His interviewer is not unbiased on the issue of email. Clark, like a lot of of folks who used Eudora back in the day, says the modern users missed out on the good stuff.

“You don’t know what’s possible; you don’t know what you’re missing,” Clark wrote.

We probably don’t. With smartphones our most common email vector these days, we’ve had to simplify our messaging needs, rely more on machine learning and artificial intelligence to figure out what we don’t want to see, and embrace that while we can customize some things, we’re mostly putting our trust in Microsoft, Google, or some random startup to get things right.

Eudora was a room full of knobs, perfect for tweaking to your heart’s content. But we’re in an era in which it’s preferable to hide the knobs away—whether or not that’s wise.

I won’t go so far as to say that Eudora has generated a nostalgia movement along the lines of what we’ve seen with video games or old computing platforms like the Amiga, or even a modest revival like we’ve seen with Gopher.

But the people that were there loved this friggin’ email client. But while the client can technically be used in Windows to this day, it hasn’t worked on MacOS since version 10.6, due to Apple’s architecture change to Intel. Only imperfect replacements exist, and people used the hell out of it way back when.

(If there is a modern parallel, it’s probably TweetDeck, the power-user Twitter app that was never quite the same after the social network acquired it, to the point where outdated versions remained in heavy use until Twitter shut ‘em down.)

Tech writer Adam C. Engst, who literally wrote the book about how to use Eudora and used the platform as a home base for his long-running newsletter TidBITS, had quite a challenge when he had to move his messages to another client.

“The problem is that my Eudora Folder has somewhere approaching 1 million messages and thousands of attachments, stored in over 600 nested mailboxes,” he wrote in 2011. “My Eudora Folder is nearly 8 GB in size, and since it has grown organically over 18 years and innumerable updates to Eudora, having been moved from Mac to Mac repeatedly over that time, corruption is undoubtedly lurking within the files.”

With an inbox that dates to the days of the Classic Mac, before even IMAP was in wide use, the cloud wasn’t an option. It took him a lot of testing and a lot of different applications, but he managed to keep most of his emails.

Could you imagine using something that much, that aggressively, then having to give it up?

[yes-dal456]

Never Downplay The ‘Worst Headache Of My Life,’ And More Key Facts About Brain Aneurysms

Editor’s note: Last week, we began an emphasis on American Stroke Month with the story of a woman whose life was saved by her son because he know how to spot a stroke F.A.S.T. We continue with the cautionary tale of a woman who suffered a different type of stroke, and her husband’s promise to ensure that other families avoid the devastating loss he and his boys face each day.

In March 2015, Lisa Colagrossi began suffering the most intense and frequent headaches she’d ever felt. They intensified in bright light.

One afternoon, she arrived home from work, clutched her head and told her husband, Todd Crawford, “I have the worst headache of my life.”

If only he’d known what it all meant.

After you read this, Todd hopes you’ll never forget.

***

Lisa Colagrossi joined WABC, the ABC network’s flagship station in New York City, soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Once she and Todd had children – Davis and Evan – Lisa took an early morning shift. This let her pick up her kids from school and be with them through bedtime.

The afternoon she complained of the violent headache, Todd encouraged her to see a doctor. She opted to power through it. After all, she rarely suffered anything more than a cold. Maybe this was just all those nights of five hours of sleep finally catching up.

The following Wednesday night, Lisa, Todd and the boys huddled around the kitchen table filling out their NCAA tournament brackets. When Todd took Davis to hockey practice, Lisa and Evan mounted the brackets on colored paper and displayed it all on a door in the kitchen.

She wanted everything ready for their Super Bowl-esque tournament-watching party that was to begin right after school Thursday.

***

Early Thursday, Lisa reported live from a four-alarm fire engulfing several homes in Queens. At the usual time – 7:15 a.m. – she called home to make sure the boys had their lunches and homework ready to go.

“I love you,” she said. “See you this afternoon.”

After enjoying a laugh with the driver of the news truck, she clutched her head with both hands and said, “Marvin, something is happening to me.” A cameraman flagged down an ambulance.

Around 9:30 a.m., a doctor at Presbyterian Hospital called Todd. Lisa’s heart had stopped and been revived.

“You need to check her head,” Todd said. “She’s been complaining of massive headaches the last few weeks.”

***

Lisa had a subarachnoid hemorrhage. She was bleeding in the space between her brain and skull.

The bleeding came from a blood vessel that tore open – a ruptured brain aneurysm.

An aneurysm is a weakness in a vessel wall that causes it to bubble out. That “worst headache of her life” was the aneurysm emerging.

Had she taken it more seriously, doctors could have discovered and probably repaired it.

Now?

“As soon as I saw her, I knew she was not going to make it,” Todd said.

Doctors discussed end-of-life options with Todd. During his hour-long drive home, he searched for the words he knew would forever shatter their sons’ lives.

Davis and Evan were watching basketball when he arrived.

***

Everyone said goodbye to Lisa at the hospital Friday morning. Todd went first.

He held her hand and kissed her forehead. He leaned to her ear and whispered:

“I love you. Please go be with God. I will raise the boys the way you want me to. And I promise to do everything I can to prevent this from happening to other people.”

***

The vow wasn’t planned. The words tumbled from his lips in that moment.

Weeks later, the promise became his purpose. Todd would support a credible organization promoting awareness and education about brain aneurysms. He just needed to find it.

Googling “brain aneurysm foundation,” he came across organizations that funded research and treatment. As for awareness and education …

“A big, big void,” he said.

And, from his perspective, a big opportunity.

***

The Lisa Colagrossi Foundation launched in September 2015.

The organization’s tagline is, “Shedding light on brain aneurysms.” It all starts with teaching the warning signs and symptoms, the most common being:

Sudden WHOL – “Worst headache of life.”

Sudden sensitivity to light.

Sudden stiffness of neck.

Many of the other brain aneurysm signals are the same as the F.A.S.T. warning signs for a stroke: face drooping, arm weakness and speech difficulty. That’s because brain aneurysms trigger a type of stroke. It’s also why the response should be the same: Call 911.

Between Lisa’s friends and fans, and Todd’s connections over 30 years as an executive in sports and entertainment, he began spreading the word on “Good Morning America,” “Fox & Friends,” “The Dr. Oz Show” and more.

He built a crew of ambassadors including Whoopi Goldberg, chef Mario Batali, actress Maryam D'abo, NASCAR driver Joey Gase and several current and former NFL players. All either survived a brain aneurysm or lost a loved one to a brain aneurysm. (Goldberg’s connection is especially chilling: The day after Lisa died, Goldberg paid her respects on “The View,” adding, “Please love your families. Moments happen like that,” she said, snapping her fingers. A month later, her brother died of a ruptured brain aneurysm.)

Last September, the foundation held its first gala, dubbed “A Cerebral Affair.” A featured guest: Kris Sorensen, the first person to credit the foundation for saving her life.

Kris’ sister heard Todd discussing the warning signs on Glenn Beck’s radio show. When Kris called her sister complaining about “the worst headache of my life,” her sister insisted that Kris get to a hospital. She eventually had an operation to repair two aneurysms.

Todd has heard from many others around the world who credit the foundation’s work for lifesaving awareness. They’ve reached him directly or left messages on the foundation’s Facebook page.

“Our approach has been validated,” he said.

Anecdotally, Todd knew most people know little about aneurysms. He quantified it through a survey last September, which is National Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month.

Among the findings: 90 percent of American adults don’t know what a brain aneurysm is. Not a single responder knew all the warning signs, leading to this headline for the foundation’s news release:

100% OF AMERICANS FAILED TO IDENTIFY ALL WARNING SIGNS OF A BRAIN ANEURYSM, YET RUPTURES OCCUR EVERY 18 MINUTES

Awareness and public education will remain the foundation’s top priority. Todd is considering targeting medical professionals, too, such as those in emergency rooms (because of the need for immediate diagnosis) and obstetricians-gynecologists (because women face a 50 percent higher risk than men). He also notes that the first support group recently began in Florida.

And, just in time for what would’ve been Lisa’s 52nd birthday Tuesday and Mother’s Day on Sunday, the foundation released its first public service announcement.

***

Davis turned 17 last week and is a junior in high school. Evan is 13 and in seventh grade. Both have a gaping hole in their lives.

They also understand how sudden and random catastrophic events can be.

“If I’m even 30 seconds late for school pickup, my son automatically begins to panic,” he said. “He calls me and the first words out of his mouth are, `Are you OK?’”

They’re working through their grief together. They also take solace in the lives saved by The Lisa Colagrossi Foundation.

“Even though it’ll never bring back their mom, they know we are making a positive difference in the world,” Todd said.

Another challenge is the annual arrival of the NCAA tournament. Its connection to both their final happy time with Lisa and to her death make it tough to navigate. To the boys, the eve and opening day of the tournament are the anniversary more than the actual dates.

Then there’s Todd. As the founder, executive director and lead spokesman of The Lisa Colagrossi Foundation, and as a widower/single parent, his life revolves Lisa’s absence.

Some people might find that more difficult. To him, it’s empowering.

“Love does not die in death,” he said. “I still talk to Lisa every day. I believe she is guiding this organization from above.”

He’s also driven by this thought:

“If somebody had been doing the work that the Lisa Colagrossi Foundation is doing today, Lisa might still be with us.”

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