#ounder and CEO

[marketingprofitmedia]

Vid Monopoly Review – Creates Viral Shorts & Reels In 1-Click

Welcome to my Vid Monopoly Review Post. This is a real user-based Vid Monopoly Review Review where I will focus on the features, upgrades, demo, pricing and bonus how Vid Monopoly Review can help you, and my opinion. Creates the ultimate AI app that 100s of viral shorts and reels pull in millions of views, Subscribers and sales in just minutes!

<< Click Here to Get Vid Monopoly + My $29000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

Vid Monopoly Review: What Is It?

Vid Monopoly is an AI-powered platform designed to empower content creators like you to crack the code to viral video success. Forget struggling with ideas and editing complexities — Vid Monopoly provides a user-friendly suite of tools to streamline your workflow and boost your content’s reach.

Consider a straightforward platform that develops interesting screenplays, edits your video with drag-and-drop ease, and even recommends emerging themes to capitalize on. Vid Monopoly goes above and above by providing automatic thumbnail generation, social media scheduling, and thorough statistics to help you better understand your audience and improve your approach.

Vid Monopoly Review: Overview

Creator: Yogesh Agarwal

Product: Vid Monopoly

Date Of Launch: 2024-Jan-25

Time Of Launch: 10:00 EST

Front-End Price: $17

Official Website: Click Here

Product Type: Software (Online)

Support: Effective Response

Discount : Get The Best Discount Right Now!

Recommended: Highly Recommended

Skill Level Required: All Levels

Refund: YES, 30 Days Money-Back Guarantee

Vid Monopoly Review: Key Features

Effortlessly Dominate Every Short Form Video Platform — Youtube, Instagram, FB, TikTok, Linkedin and more.

​Ride the Trend, Enjoy FREE Traffic: Instagram, YouTube are pushing short form videos — ride the wave and enjoy free, organic traffic to your offers.

​Say Goodbye to Content Struggles: No more burnouts trying to brainstorm content ideas — let our AI do all the heavy lifting for you.

​No Need To Be On Camera, No Voice, No Complex Video Editing Skills Needed.

​Save Time, Money, and Effort: Replace expensive tools and tedious processes, save tons of time, money, effort & resources.

​Instant Exposure, Instant Traffic: With 100s of videos created & Viral accelerator method, magnetise traffic to your site instantly.

​Stay Ahead of the Competition: Capitalise on the latest trends by creating 100s of videos around popular topics.​​

​Newbie-Friendly and Simple: It’s simple, user-friendly, and requires no technical skills.

​Unlimited Potential: Works In Any Niche, Any Offer. It’s Fully Scalable & Repeatable.​

​Low 1-time Price During Launch Period

​Commercial Licence Allowing You To Re-sell These Videos For High Profits!

<< Click Here to Get Vid Monopoly + My $29000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

Vid Monopoly Review: How Does It Work?

Vid Monopoly Review: Can Do For You

Dominate EVERY Short Form Platform WITHOUT Breaking A Sweat!

Instagram & YouTube Favours Short Form Videos & Send You FREE Traffic

No More Struggling With Video Creation & Content Ideas!

Save Tons & Tons of Time, Money, Effort & Resources!

Gain Instant Exposure & Traffic To Your Websites And Offers!

Catch The Latest Trends & Stay Ahead Of The Competition!

Newbie Friendly, Easy-To-Use & No Skills Required

Scale To Infinity & Beyond!

FREE UPDATES IN FOREVER

24X7 Support and 100% Uptime Guaranteed

Vid Monopoly Review: Verify User Feedback

Vid Monopoly Review: Who Should Use It?

Affiliate Marketers

​Business Owners

​Youtube Content Creators

​Make Money Online Bloggers and Podcasters

​F​ounders, CEOs, CMOs, Founders

​eCom & Shopify Store Owners

​Social Media Marketers

​Coaches, Mentors or Gurus

​And anyone else who wants free, stress free and easy traffic!

Vid Monopoly Review: OTO’S And Pricing

Front End Price: Vid Monopoly ($17)

OTO 1: Pro Edition ($47)

OTO 2: DFY Edition ($147)

OTO 3: AudioAvatar Edition ($47)

OTO 4: MultiMarketer Edition ($47)

OTO 5: ChatGPT Edition ($37)

OTO 6: Reseller Edition ($147-$117)

<< Click Here to Get Vid Monopoly + My $29000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

Vid Monopoly Review: My Special Bonus Bundle

Vid Monopoly Review: Free Bonuses

Bonus #1: COMMERCIAL LICENSE (Value $297)

The commercial license allows you to use our videos in any way you want. This means you can use them for your personal or commercial projects without any restrictions. You can sell videos created with VidMonopoly to clients for any price you want. You can sell them on Fiverr, Upwork, Warriorforum, and anywhere you want.

Bonus #2: LIVE Webclass (Value $297)

Join Our Live Web Class Where We Show You The Fastest, FAIL-PROOF, Plug-n-Play System To Make $10,000 PER MONTH Just By Giving Away FREE Passes! Learn The Exact System With The Step By Step Training (Even If You’re A Beginner)

Bonus #3: Traffic On Demand CheatSheet (Value $197)

Learn the exact strategies that make Shorts go viral. The research part, the strategy, and the step-by-step method. Learn everything you need to start driving traffic to your YouTube short videos in no time.

Bonus #4: 100 YouTube Shorts Channels List To SPY & Take Inspiration. (Value $67)

We researched and created a list of 100 profitable YouTube Shorts Channels. You can use these for inspiration, create your own, and become profitable from Day 1.

Bonus #5: The Unshakeable Super Affiliate (Value $297)

As you start getting traffic with AI Video Tales, use our SECRET affiliate strategies to quickly achieve your 1st $100, $500, and $1000. How to stand out and build a long-term, sustainable, profitable & unshakeable online business with affiliate marketing!

Bonus #6: Become A Successful Social Media Influencer (Value $197)

Learn how to become a successful Influencer and charge huge amounts of money per post. Follow the exact steps, and system other successful Influencers have followed and copy it.

Bonus #7: TikTok Marketing Checklist (Value $97)

Increase your following on both YouTube and TikTok and post your TubeRushr videos on TikTok as well. Learn 18 TikTok best practices, 25 strategies, and the best organic best practices to get FASTER results on TikTok.

Bonus #8: Free Instagram Traffic (Value $97)

Learn how to use VidMonopoly videos to grow your audience on Instagram. This guide will help you to define your audience, retain them, attract more followers, create an online store, drive traffic to your website, and avoid common mistakes.

Bonus #9: Easy Video Strategies (Value $97)

Leverage the power of video marketing to become an online sensation! Connect to your potential customers and become a powerful brand name! Enjoy unrivaled brand exposure and Get a competitive edge over others.

Bonus #10: 100X Youtube Advertising (Value $67)

Want to 100x your results with YouTube ads? Launch a successful YouTube video campaign quickly. Learn how to reach new audiences, and maximize traffic and profits with YouTube advertising!

Vid Monopoly Review: Money Back Guarantee

There Is No Risk. You Are Covered By Our 30 Day Money Back Guarantee

Vid Monopoly Review: Conclusion

In conclusion, Vid Monopoly isn’t a viral cheat code, but it’s a potent weapon in your content creation arsenal. Its AI-powered features, user-friendly interface, and insightful analytics arm you to craft high-quality, engaging videos that resonate with your audience. While virality remains a fickle beast, Vid Monopoly significantly increases your chances of success, making it a valuable investment for serious creators seeking to own their corner of the digital content universe. Take the reins, embrace the AI assistance, and unlock your viral potential with Vid Monopoly!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Do I need to download anything to use VidMonopoly?

No, you don’t have to download anything. VidMonopoly is a cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) product. You can buy now and start using the product right away. All you need is your email ID and password to access it anytime from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Q. Is there a monthly fee?

No, once you buy VidMonopoly, you don’t have to pay a monthly fee. VidMonopoly is a one-time purchase product.

Q. What happens after the launch period?

The price will turn into a MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION and the low one-time price will never be available again! We encourage you to take action before the launch period ends.

Q. Can I have a refund?

We guarantee that you will get more value from your purchase of VidMonopoly than what you pay us. However, if for some reason the product is not living up to your expectations at any time within 30 days of buying it, we will give you a full refund, no questions asked.

Q. What if I have no subscribers on YouTube? Can I still get traffic?

Yes. We will provide you with our personal Video Ranking CheatSheet that will rank your videos in no time. So you can get free traffic to your videos straight away.

Q. What about the future updates?

You won’t pay a penny extra for future updates. And, you’ll get free lifetime updates to keep your product up-to-date.

Q. Will you add more resources in the future?

Yes, we will keep adding more high-quality resources to keep it updated for you. And it won’t cost you a penny extra.

<< Click Here to Get Vid Monopoly + My $29000 Special Bonus Bundle to Boost Up Your Earnings More Traffic, Leads & Commissions >>

Thank for reading my Vid Monopoly Review till the end. Hope it will help you to make purchase decision perfectly.

Note: Yes, this is a paid tool, however the one-time fee is $17 for lifetime

[bitcofun]

Binance has actually taken over $450,00 0 worth of crypto properties taken in the Tuesday frontend attack on the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Curve Finance. Key Takeaways Binance has actually recuperated $450,00 0, representing about 83% of the whole amount taken in the Curve Finance frontend attack Tuesday. The crypto exchange Fixed Float likewise took about 112 ETH, presently worth around $212,00 0, bringing the overall possession healing to 100%. Binance creator and CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that the exchange is dealing with police to return the funds to the victims. The possessions Binance recuperated represent about 83% of the whole amount taken in the make use of. Binance Recovers Curve Hack Proceeds Binance has actually traced and taken the majority of the properties taken in this week's Curve Finance make use of. Binance froze/recovered $450 k of the Curve taken funds, representing 83%+ of the hack. We are dealing with LE to return the funds to the users. The hacker continued sending out the funds to Binance in various methods, believing we can't capture it. #SAFU https://t.co/Ekea9moeAw-- CZ Binance (@cz_binance) August 12, 2022 The exchange's ounder and CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed on Twitter today that the company had actually recuperated about $450,00 0 worth of cryptocurrencies taken in this week's frontend make use of on decentralized exchange Curve Finance. According to Zhao, the frozen profits represent about 83% of the overall amount taken in the event." The hacker continued sending out the funds to Binance in various methods, believing we can't capture it," he stated, including that the exchange was currently dealing with police to return the funds to users. Previously, the Lightning Network-based cryptocurrency exchange Fixed Float froze about 112 ETH, presently worth around $212,00 0. "Our security department has actually frozen part of the funds in the quantity of 112 ETH," Fixed Float tweeted Tuesday. The 2 seizures, in aggregate, bring the possession healing as much as 100%, indicating all victims that lost cash in the front-end attack on Curve can be totally compensated. Curve was made use of for about $573,00 0 on August 9 The assaulter spoofed the Domain Name Service of Curve's frontend, rerouting users to a phishing website that deceived them into authorizing a destructive clever agreement. After the unwary victims authorized the deal, the hacker had the ability to take crypto possessions straight from their wallets. Following the event, the assaulter started sending out batches of taken ETH to several addresses in an effort to obfuscate the funds' origin prior to moving the cash to central exchanges to squander. However, the assaulter obviously did a bad task of concealing the source of their taken ETH, as efficiently all of it has actually been taken by Binance and Fixed Float. Disclosure: At the time of composing, the author of this piece owned ETH and a number of other cryptocurrencies. The info on or accessed through this site is acquired from independent sources our company believe to be precise and dependable, however Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or guarantee regarding the timeliness, efficiency, or precision of any info on or accessed through this site. Decentral Media, Inc. is not a financial investment consultant. We do not provide tailored financial investment guidance or other monetary recommendations. The details on this site goes through alter without notification. Some or all of the info on this site might end up being out-of-date, or it might be or end up being insufficient or incorrect. We may, however are not obliged to, upgrade any out-of-date, insufficient, or unreliable details. You ought to never ever make a financial investment choice on an ICO, IEO, or other financial investment based upon the info on this site, and you need to never ever analyze or otherwise depend on any of the details on this site as financial investment suggestions.

We highly advise that you speak with a certified financial investment consultant or other certified monetary expert if you are looking for financial investment guidance on an ICO, IEO, or other financial investment. We do decline settlement in any kind for examining or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or products. See complete conditions Curve Finance Exploited in Ongoing Attack News Aug. 9, 2022 DeFi procedure Curve is presently being made use of through its frontend. Over $573,00 0 has actually currently been taken by the aggressor. Curve Frontend Exploited Curve Finance is being made use of. According to Paradigm ... SEC Investigating Binance, All U.S. Crypto Exchanges: Forbes News Aug. 5, 2022 The monetary regulator has actually stepped up its oversight of the digital properties area in current weeks. U.S. Exchanges Under Investigation Coinbase is not the only cryptocurrency exchange the SEC is ... Binance Serviced Iranian Crypto Traders Despite Sanctions: Report News Jul. 11, 2022 In indirectly reacting to the claims on Twitter, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao highlighted that the exchange has actually been utilizing Reuter's own KYC confirmation item, WorldCheck, given that2018 Binance Reportedly Operated ... Read More

[a-breton]

50 of the Best Social Media Tools Selected by Top Marketers

Editor’s note: You may have missed this article when CMI published it in 2016. It’s been updated because we know our readers always love to discover or be reminded of a great social media tool.

Let’s be honest, social media is a jungle. Forget about the flood of apps, integrations, and add-ons, just figuring which network you should invest in is overwhelming.

What if you could ask today’s influential online marketers one question: “What social media tool is your all-time, desert-island, can’t-live-without favorite?”

That’s what I did.

What follows are – by any list or metric – 51 big names in online marketing, content marketing, and e-commerce along with their top social-media tool and reason for loving it.

1. Instagram

Ann Handley, chief content officer, MarketingProfs

“Instagram is my favorite social network because of its social storytelling simplicity. From fun personal accounts – like Small Chalk and Adam Padilla – to corporate brands, it connects more immediately and deeply with people than any other platform. I still haven’t forgiven them for introducing an algorithm. (Chronological was so much more in line with the ethos of the platform.) But I can’t quit you, Insta.”

.@Instagram is my favorite social network because of its social #storytelling simplicity, says @annhandley. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 4 Tips for Engaging Instagram Content [Examples]

2. Twitter

Joe Pulizzi, founder, Content Marketing Institute

“I use social media as almost a pure response vehicle. And I won’t start any new social media app, platform, or tool until I’m 100% committed to it. My goal with Twitter is to keep in touch and communicate my appreciation to those people that support me. Once I built an audience on those platforms, my goals and execution changed.”

3. Buffer

Joanna Wiebe, creator, Copy Hackers

“Buffer. Three reasons. (1) You can install a browser widget that lets you Buffer any page or image you come across to be sent immediately or later. (2) Its Content Inbox: I can enter the URL of a favorite blog and Buffer instantly creates a huge list of tweets from that blog. (3) The company is transparent. I don’t expect every company to publish what they earn vs. what they pay people the way Buffer does, but it’s a warm-and-fuzzy approach to helping disconnected folks like moi see the humans behind a software company.”

4. BuzzSumo

Neil Patel, entrepreneur and influencer, NeilPatel.com

“With BuzzSumo you can see what is hot in your space on social media and what isn’t. From there you can craft ideas on the type of blog posts you should write to generate traffic and leads. The best part about BuzzSumo is it shows who has shared the content so you can reach out to those influencers and ask them to share your content as well.”

Use @BuzzSumo so you can see what’s hot in your space on #socialmedia & what isn’t, says @neilpatel. Click To Tweet

5. Animoto

Mari Smith, Facebook marketing expert

“Native video is the top-reaching post type on Facebook and gets three times the engagement of link posts and two times that of photo posts. I love using Animoto’s gorgeous templates, themes, and stock music. Its marketing builder tool also makes it super-duper easy to add text overlays – vital for sound-off autoplay videos in the Facebook newsfeed because 80% of video ads on Facebook are watched with sound off.”

80% of video ads on #Facebook are watched with sound off. Use text overlays, says @MariSmith. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Video Marketing Strategy: What Marketers Need to Know

6. Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer

Rand Fishkin, founder, SparkToro

“Next to BuzzSumo – and without sounding biased – my favorite tool is Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer. It’s great for setting up mention alerts as well as finding content to share socially through keyword notifications. The mention authority feature works directly with Moz’s page and domain authority metrics and helps sort through all the noise you normally get with catch-all monitoring tools.”

7. Tweeps Map

Brian D. Evans, founder, Influencive 

“The problem with a lot of marketing these days is that it’s not laser targeted and is far too broad. I use Tweeps Map because it gives me a visual representation of where my followers are geographically. I can then run targeting to followers from specific areas, and make sure that the content is relevant and valuable for those followers.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Data-Driven Creative: How to Use Twitter Data to Inform Your Marketing

8. Sumo

Jeff Bullas, CEO, JeffBullas.com 

“Sumo is a hybrid tool that’s a bit like a Swiss Army knife. It’s helped me thrive and survive in the wilds of the digital world by creating social-sharing buttons – onsite, SMS, Flipboard, and WhatsApp – and tracking my social counts on blog posts. The feature I really love is its Welcome Mat: a pop-up that captures emails. In less than 12 months, it’s collected over 40,000 email subscribers.”

I love @SumoMe’s Welcome Mat pop-up feature that captures emails, says @jeffbullas. Click To Tweet

9. Planoly

Candice Galek, founder, Bikini Luxe; columnist, Inc.

“While native social media posts get the most engagement, there’s nothing easier than scheduling posts that will be auto-shared while you sleep. Think about it, you’ve got Instagram followers from all over the world, and you can’t possibly be awake at all hours of the day and night.

“Planoly helps us to not only schedule and auto-post content, but also quickly discover (content) by searching for hashtags or usernames. There’s even a simple bulk upload function where you can add your own content and plan it in a way that makes your social media feed look cohesive and appealing. Since using Planoly, we’ve been able to source content more easily and our feed looks better than ever.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 11 Resources to Curate, Clip, Collect, and Collaborate Content

10. Elevate

Jason Miller, global content marketing leader, LinkedIn 

“I like to keep things simple and streamlined: Less is more. The tool I use religiously is Elevate: LinkedIn’s employee advocacy tool. I use it to share, organize, and measure all the content I post across my main three social accounts: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. I share daily from Elevate and track engagements.”

11. Twitter Promote Mode

Brian Clark, founder, Copyblogger

“Now that the days of organic social media distribution for content marketing are long in the rear view, the most valuable social media tools are the advertising features of the platforms themselves. Facebook (and Instagram) of course, but also Twitter given its high-profile resurgence. We’re testing Twitter Promote Mode, which for a recurring monthly fee promises to give constant broader reach – just like the good old days.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: A Quick-Start Guide to Paid Content Promotion

12. Facebook Audience Insights

Larry Kim, founder, MobileMonkey

“I’m big into audiences: figuring out what are the interests, behaviors, and demographics of your target customers. For this I use Facebook Audience Insights because it tells you just about everything you’d want to know: job titles, education level, lifestyle, location, household information, purchasing behavior, and much more.

“By better understanding who your target audience is, you can more accurately create content that they’re likely to engage with.”

Use #Facebook Audience Insights to better understand who your target audience is, says @larrykim. Click To Tweet

13. Backly

Sam Hurley, founder, Optim-Eyez

“Backly is one of my all-time favorite social media tools because it provides shared credit to both content publishers and the curators who spread their material. It’s simple, quick to use and integrates with other social-sharing tools like Buffer.

“Your face will appear in a pop-up on the articles you share, along with custom text and a link where you can direct visitors back to your own best content.”

14. Kicksta (formerly Kickstagram)

Cammi Pham, partner, ThinkRenegade

“With the new Instagram algorithm change, consistently posting at the right time has become even more important. Kicksta makes it easier to upload, process photos, schedule, and add hashtags to the first comment from desktop. For hashtags, I use 80% fixed and 20% tailored. This gives my team more time to focus on real-time engagement, which is life or death on social.”

Real-time engagement is life or death on #social, says @cammipham. Click To Tweet

15. AgoraPulse

Steve Rayson, director, BuzzSumo

“Keeping track and managing social mentions and messages is hard work. I love AgoraPulse’s approach of helping you achieve inbox zero and that great feeling when you have cleared your messages. AgoraPulse does more than bring together all your mentions and messages, it allows you to work effectively as a team to respond to everything.”

Use @agorapulse to help you achieve inbox zero, says @steverayson. Click To Tweet

16. Venngage

Ross Simmonds, digital strategist, RossSimmonds.com

“My favorite tool is Venngage. As someone who really likes experimenting with the potential of visual content and visual communication, having access to an infographics tool that is so easy to use speeds up my visual output. Whether you are creating graphics for social, SlideShare, or a presentation, Venngage is super versatile and intuitive.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Principles to Creating Great Infographics

17. IFTTT

Pam Moore, CEO and founder, Marketing Nutz

“I love using If This Then That (IFTTT) to enable native posting of images on Twitter that are originally posted to Instagram. You can set specific criteria by using hashtags or set it to post to Twitter automatically by default. IFTTT also offers a nearly limitless supply of social and cross-platform ‘recipes.’”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 17 IFTTT Recipes to Help Every Content Marketer Work Better

18. Rival IQ

Jay Baer, founder, Convince & Convert

“Rival IQ is a terrific tool to compare your own social media engagement rate and top-performing content versus your competitors’. Insightful and easy to use, it includes automated, custom reporting. One click and BAM – you have a PDF or PowerPoint deck with all the information you need to make better social media decisions. We use it daily.”

Use @RivalIQ to compare your own #socialmedia engagement & top #content vs competitors’, says @jaybaer. Click To Tweet

19. Foursixty

Griffin Thall, co-founder, Pura Vida Bracelets

“Pura Vida was a brand built on social media, especially Instagram. We’ve experimented a lot and use a pretty advanced e-commerce tool stack, but for social commerce, Foursixty is by far the best.

“Foursixty lets us create shoppable Instagram feeds onsite and add them to places like our homepage, product pages, and even the checkout. Conversions from the app make up roughly 17% of our online revenue. I would highly recommend it for any brand.”

20. Followerwonk

Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group

“Twitter remains my primary social media platform. But alone, Twitter’s unmanageable. That’s why I use Followerwonk to understand who my audience is, when they are most likely to engage, and to find followers who overlap with similar social profiles and influencers. Its analyze feature – which integrates with Buffer – tells you exactly when to post your most important updates for exposure.”

.@Followerwonk tells you exactly when to post your most important updates on Twitter, says @BrennerMichael. Click To Tweet

21. Edgar

Andy Crestodina, co-founder and director, Orbit Media

“This one is going to drive more traffic in less time than all your other tools combined. It’s like Buffer, but it never runs dry. Posts scheduled in Edgar stay in rotation forever. Once you’ve vetted your best stuff based on historical data, set up Edgar to share on your network(s) of choice at least a few times per day. You just saved yourself six to eight hours per month at least.”

.@MeetEdgar is going to drive more traffic in less time than all your other tools combined, says @crestodina. Click To Tweet

22. WordSwag

Rachel Pedersen, social media strategist

“Ever wish you had a 24/7 graphic designer to turn your social media ideas into gorgeous graphics? Then you will love WordSwag. It is a mobile application that turns your ideas, quotes, and content into attractive graphics that can be shared on Facebook, Instagram, and anywhere. In less than five minutes you have a high quality and visually appealing graphic that will make your followers think you have a graphic designer on call.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 37+ Tips and Tools for Picture-Perfect Visual Content

23. Quuu

Shane Barker, digital strategist, ShaneBarker.com 

“Quuu is a hand-curated and content-promotion platform. I use the promotion side to distribute everything. Each article is reviewed by a real person before it is approved because the goal is to promote only the highest quality content. Once the article gets the green light, Quuu adds it to its huge distribution network, which is cool, as I can then see the amount of shares and clicks for each article.”

24. Oktopost

Murray Newlands, co-founder, Due.com

“Most B2B companies on social media are missing a huge opportunity. Staff, customers, and clients won’t post positive comments unless they love you. Beyond that you have to get proactive and make sharing easy. Oktopost’s amplify and collaborate features are built to do exactly that: internally and externally. But love has to be the foundation.”

25. Native LinkedIn videos

Josh Steimle, speaker, writer, and entrepreneur

“Native video on LinkedIn is blowing up right now, with individual videos often getting hundreds of thousands of views even when made by amateurs like me. One problem with posting video to LinkedIn is something in the neighborhood of 85% of users watch internet video without the audio. Captions are the solution, but it can cost $10 and take 24 to 48 hours to have someone on Fiverr do it.

“Now, LinkedIn has made it one step easier (and about $9 cheaper) by adding functionality so you can add your own captions. You’ll still need to have a caption file (SRT file), but you can get this made in minutes at places like Rev.com for as little as $1 per minute of video or create your own. I know video is scary but trust me, grab your phone, make a quick video introducing yourself and talking about why you do what you do, and tag me in your post so I can see it. I’d love to see what kind of reaction you get.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Video-Phobic Marketers: It’s Time to Get Over Your Fear of Producing Video

26. Facebook Messenger

Sujan Patel, founder and CEO, Web Profits

“Social media is becoming more personal and customers are actually talking to companies. I’m not talking about comments or high-level conversations. I’m talking about customers ready to make a transaction. That’s why I love Facebook Messenger. Facebook has done a great job empowering business owners to communicate directly with their customers and, with the introduction of bots, Messenger is going to have a big impact in the coming years.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Automating Your Customer Interactions: Get Ready for Chatbots

27. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Johnathan Dane, founder, KlientBoost

“We’ve started using the LinkedIn Sales Navigator to reach out to decision-makers at companies that could be ideal clients. Once we’re able to pique their interest, then we ask them for a quick meeting … For lead generation, it’s phenomenal.”

28. Brand24

John Rampton, CEO and co-founder, Due 

“I really like Brand24’s dashboard to see every person who mentioned my brand on social media. I can then go and respond individually. This enables my brand to be on top of the good, the bad, and the amazing customers that are sharing feedback. You can even monitor your competition and take advantage of the potential customers out there that need your help.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 3 Models (and Tools) to Understand, Predict, and React to Your Social Media

29. AgoraPulse

Neal Schaffer, social media consultant

“AgoraPulse is a comprehensive social media dashboard along the lines of a Hootsuite, but it offers some unique functionality. The feature that I most love is auto post with queues. Basically, it’s a killer feature for companies who have lots of evergreen content and want to share it on a periodic basis across a wide variety of social networks. You can choose to post from your queue as often or as little as you’d like and stop sharing on a certain date, which is perfect if you are promoting an event.”

30. Owava

Ed Leake, managing director, Midas Media

“Marketers often overlook one big aspect of social – native advertising. As a paid click and data guy, I love Qwaya because it allows me to treat and optimize Facebook as I would AdWords: robust campaign structuring, split-testing, and automation tool set. If CTRs drop or CPC jumps … pause it. Might sound simple, but when you’re managing big accounts and budgets, it’s a godsend.”

Optimize #Facebook campaigns with @QwayaSocial as you would with search and AdWords, says @EdLeake. Click To Tweet

31. Evernote

Gerry Moran, global head of social media, Cognizant

“The key to every successful social media strategy is content that tells a story. However, the story doesn’t always get crafted in one sitting. It evolves from a collection of photos, animated GIFs, infographics, a line from a song, a saying from my grandmother, everyday pain points, scribbled design thinking on a white board, industry facts, etc. Evernote gives me a way to organize my storytelling making my social media strategy more successful.”

32. ClickToTweet

Brian Dean, founder, Backlinko 

“ClickToTweet gives your readers an immediate and easy way to share your content by creating one-click boxes of preloaded Tweets, hashtags, and mentions. Blog integration is super non-technical and they even have a ClickToTweet generator you can use to add links to emails and PDFs. More opportunities to share equals more shares. It’s that simple. I used it on this post and got 20% more tweets than my average.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 17 No-Cost Ways Writers Can Extend Reach of Their Editorial

33. Twitter

Glen Gilmore, founder, Gilmore Business Network

“At the risk of following Joe Puluzzi, Twitter is also my favorite tool. However, I use it a bit differently than most by creating niche accounts to share and hone my evolving passions while creating community and influence – @TravelEsquire, @FinancialSM, @HealthcareSMM, @SocialMediaLaw1, @ChinaDigitalBiz, etc. Then I build Twitter lists to track key opinion leaders and the competition.”

34. Canva

Matthew Toren, co-founder, Kidpreneurs 

Canva is a very handy browser-based design tool that makes it super straightforward for non-designers like me to create impressive images. Visual content has become so important for social media posts to help tell the story of your post and content. I’ve noticed that my visual content gets about 23% more clicks vs. non-visual. I love the fact that I can optimize the size for whatever social platform I need to use the design for.”

#Visualcontent is important for #socialmedia posts to help tell the story of your content says @matthewtoren. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 16 Visual Storytelling Tips to Give Your Content Marketing a Boost

35. Instagram Story DMs

Amy Porterfield, online marketing expert

“I love how I am able to connect directly with my audience through Instagram Story DMs. It’s a game changer. Because of the ‘Ask Me A Question’ feature, I have been able to not only see where my audience is struggling in their online businesses, but also offer real-time, personal solutions to help them. In the past, I’ve felt a bit disconnected from my community across the various social media channels, but this has brought a new level of engagement that feels real to me and ultimately helps my business grow.”

36. Sendible

Kristi Hines, freelance writer

“Sendible has most of the features you will find in other social media management tools: scheduling, automated sharing via RSS feed, analytics, team management, and keyword monitoring. What sets it apart is the number of networks it connects to: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram (via email reminder), GooglePlus, Tumblr, Medium, Instapaper, Pocket, Flickr, Delicious, Slack, and more.”

37. Bit.ly

Shayla Price, B2B content marketer

“Bit.ly is a must-have tool for your social media stack. The platform does more than just shorten links. You can use it to track links, measure performance from your campaigns, and learn which channels bring in the most traffic. I use Bit.ly to monitor the daily activity of all my marketing and growth efforts along with most of my clients so I can attribute and track my efforts.”

Use link shorteners like @Bitly ‏to track links & learn which channels bring in most traffic. @shaylaprice Click To Tweet

38. PopSocial

Everette Taylor, serial entrepreneur

“With Instagram now surpassing one billion users, it’s become the premier platform for many brands and individuals to grow their audience and attract customers. The biggest challenge now is growing that audience and engaging with those users with all of the changes to algorithm.

“PopSocial provides not only an efficient way to grow and engage your audience on Instagram, but an affordable one. For companies with tight budgets that need real results, there’s no better tool.”

PopSocial provides an efficient (& affordable) way to grow & engage your #Instagram audience. @Everette Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Outperform Fortune 500 Brands on Instagram [Research]

39. InShot

Daniel Knowlton, founder, KPS Digital Marketing

“Since social media algorithms have evolved in 2018 and the platforms consistently penalize users for automation, we’ve cut back a lot with social media automation tools.

However, one tool we continue to use to create social video content on the go is InShot. It’s super quick and easy to edit creative video in various size formats.”

40. Ripl

Scott Stratten, president, UnMarketing

“At the risk of being a curmudgeon, I don’t really have any favorite tools because I don’t use many. But I’m enjoying trying out Ripl right now. Visual content evokes emotion. And Ripl is the easiest tool that goes beyond static images and lets you create animated visuals to post in your channel of choice.”

41. Pocket

Kevan Lee, director of marketing, Buffer

“Pocket helps me batch all my social media reading. I can find interesting stuff, save it to Pocket, get back to work, then read it all later. Plus, it has some smooth integrations with sharing directly to Twitter and Facebook or sending straight to Buffer. And it has its own recommendations area that might be one of the few remaining unknown areas to build a following and authority, not to mention collect content for curation.”

Use a tool like @Pocket to batch all your #socialmedia reading for later, says @kevanlee. Click To Tweet

42. Post Planner

Diana Adams, owner, Adams Consulting Group, Inc.

“Sophisticated marketers know that engagement is the most important (and hardest) metric to nail, and that’s where Post Planner comes in. It was built for engagement and gives you access to the most viral posts on Facebook and Twitter (regardless of your niche). Plus, it provides a huge list of status ideas. My favorite feature is the recycle button to load up evergreen content so it posts once a week or once a month … or whatever.”

43. Narrow

William Harris, founder, Elumynt

“The thing I love about Narrow is that it lets me scale my Twitter account intelligently. Rather than sitting at my computer, manually following everyone that tweets with a hashtag that I find relevant, Narrow is programmed to interact with hashtags, audiences of influencers, keywords and more, which allows me to stay focused on providing relevant content for my audience.”

  44. LinkedIn

Benji Hyam, co-founder, Grow and Convert

“LinkedIn is great for prospecting. Before I do cold outreach, I look at the person’s profile and do as much research about them as possible. Simple touches like including common contacts, their job title, and past projects they’ve shared dramatically increase your chances of getting a response. Customize your messages and relate to them based on the information gathered. Above all, be personal not robotic.”

When doing outreach on @LinkedIn, be personal not robotic says @benjihyam. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 60+ LinkedIn Profile Tips for Marketers

45. Buffer

Jon Morrow, founder, SmartBlogger 

“Being completely honest, our teams don’t do a lot on social media … However, given that my goal with social is simply to stay active – and to get the most out of the investment – Buffer is my go-to tool for scheduling updates. It’s easy to use, time efficient, and covers all my social-media bases.”

46. Repost

Monina Wagner, social media community manager, Content Marketing Institute

“In social media, relationships matter. Repost is a simple yet effective tool that takes the challenge out of engaging with others by sharing content while giving credit. The app gives brands an opportunity to tell their story with user-generated content – creating a positive emotional experience, building consumer loyalty, and securing customer retention.”

In #socialmedia, relationships matter says @moninaw. Click To Tweet

47. Crowdfire

Chirag Kulkarni, entrepreneur, speaker, and advisor 

“The tool that I love is Crowdfire. For $10 a month, I can follow the most engaged followers of people in my industry (Neil Patel, Jeff Bullas, etc.) and because those top influencers have a large following of readers many of them convert and start following me. I can use an automatic DM feature to A/B test some of my most popular articles, which drives traffic to my website and gets me leads.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Road Map to Success: Content Distribution Essentials That Win Eyeballs

48. Snapchat

Nadya Khoja, CMO, Venngage 

“Although Snapchat may not seem like the most trackable social media platform, it’s phenomenal for engaging with your audience and giving your followers a look behind the scenes at your company or personal life. The one measurable metric is views, so in order to keep them climbing, you need to be creative. Trust and advocacy are built on being an entertaining and useful marketer.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How 3 Serious Brands Engage Humanly on Social Media

49. Blog

Heidi Cohen, chief content officer, Actionable Marketing Guide

 “My favorite social media tool isn’t a tool. It’s a form of social media: a blog. Your blog is owned media you support with quality content. Done well you can optimize your blog for social media, search, influencers, and your business. On that front, two tools stand out. My favorite blog plugin is Yoast for SEO. And I love Feedburner because it distributes posts via email when they’re published. Like I’ve said before: ‘Hands down, email is the king of social media.’”

#Email is the king of #socialmedia says @heidicohen. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Build Your Email List: The (Better Than) Ultimate Guide

50. You

Tommy Walker, global editor in chief, The QuickBooks Resource Center

“You are your own best tool. Focus on the craft of writing and work constantly. Short form, long form, and everything in between. Twitter, and all the other social media sites, on their own, give you access, but it’s the writing that sparks interest and keeps them hooked.

“Excellent writing carries itself and makes the rest of the work infinitely easier. Identify your patterns and break them. Seriously, this is a big one that holds everyone back.

“Be unique. Earn your byline. Make it something to be proud of. If they can’t tell it’s YOU without the byline, go back, focus on your craft.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Secrets of High-Performing Online Content

Check out the latest tools to help your content marketing programs at Content Marketing World. Register today for Sept. 4-7 event in Cleveland, Ohio, and use code BLOG100 to save $100. 

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

from http://bit.ly/2Mrioix

[lucyariablog]

50 of the Best Social Media Tools Selected by Top Marketers

Editor’s note: You may have missed this article when CMI published it in 2016. It’s been updated because we know our readers always love to discover or be reminded of a great social media tool.

Let’s be honest, social media is a jungle. Forget about the flood of apps, integrations, and add-ons, just figuring which network you should invest in is overwhelming.

What if you could ask today’s influential online marketers one question: “What social media tool is your all-time, desert-island, can’t-live-without favorite?”

That’s what I did.

What follows are – by any list or metric – 51 big names in online marketing, content marketing, and e-commerce along with their top social-media tool and reason for loving it.

1. Instagram

Ann Handley, chief content officer, MarketingProfs

“Instagram is my favorite social network because of its social storytelling simplicity. From fun personal accounts – like Small Chalk and Adam Padilla – to corporate brands, it connects more immediately and deeply with people than any other platform. I still haven’t forgiven them for introducing an algorithm. (Chronological was so much more in line with the ethos of the platform.) But I can’t quit you, Insta.”

.@Instagram is my favorite social network because of its social #storytelling simplicity, says @annhandley. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 4 Tips for Engaging Instagram Content [Examples]

2. Twitter

Joe Pulizzi, founder, Content Marketing Institute

“I use social media as almost a pure response vehicle. And I won’t start any new social media app, platform, or tool until I’m 100% committed to it. My goal with Twitter is to keep in touch and communicate my appreciation to those people that support me. Once I built an audience on those platforms, my goals and execution changed.”

3. Buffer

Joanna Wiebe, creator, Copy Hackers

“Buffer. Three reasons. (1) You can install a browser widget that lets you Buffer any page or image you come across to be sent immediately or later. (2) Its Content Inbox: I can enter the URL of a favorite blog and Buffer instantly creates a huge list of tweets from that blog. (3) The company is transparent. I don’t expect every company to publish what they earn vs. what they pay people the way Buffer does, but it’s a warm-and-fuzzy approach to helping disconnected folks like moi see the humans behind a software company.”

4. BuzzSumo

Neil Patel, entrepreneur and influencer, NeilPatel.com

“With BuzzSumo you can see what is hot in your space on social media and what isn’t. From there you can craft ideas on the type of blog posts you should write to generate traffic and leads. The best part about BuzzSumo is it shows who has shared the content so you can reach out to those influencers and ask them to share your content as well.”

Use @BuzzSumo so you can see what’s hot in your space on #socialmedia & what isn’t, says @neilpatel. Click To Tweet

5. Animoto

Mari Smith, Facebook marketing expert

“Native video is the top-reaching post type on Facebook and gets three times the engagement of link posts and two times that of photo posts. I love using Animoto’s gorgeous templates, themes, and stock music. Its marketing builder tool also makes it super-duper easy to add text overlays – vital for sound-off autoplay videos in the Facebook newsfeed because 80% of video ads on Facebook are watched with sound off.”

80% of video ads on #Facebook are watched with sound off. Use text overlays, says @MariSmith. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Video Marketing Strategy: What Marketers Need to Know

6. Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer

Rand Fishkin, founder, SparkToro

“Next to BuzzSumo – and without sounding biased – my favorite tool is Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer. It’s great for setting up mention alerts as well as finding content to share socially through keyword notifications. The mention authority feature works directly with Moz’s page and domain authority metrics and helps sort through all the noise you normally get with catch-all monitoring tools.”

7. Tweeps Map

Brian D. Evans, founder, Influencive 

“The problem with a lot of marketing these days is that it’s not laser targeted and is far too broad. I use Tweeps Map because it gives me a visual representation of where my followers are geographically. I can then run targeting to followers from specific areas, and make sure that the content is relevant and valuable for those followers.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Data-Driven Creative: How to Use Twitter Data to Inform Your Marketing

8. Sumo

Jeff Bullas, CEO, JeffBullas.com 

“Sumo is a hybrid tool that’s a bit like a Swiss Army knife. It’s helped me thrive and survive in the wilds of the digital world by creating social-sharing buttons – onsite, SMS, Flipboard, and WhatsApp – and tracking my social counts on blog posts. The feature I really love is its Welcome Mat: a pop-up that captures emails. In less than 12 months, it’s collected over 40,000 email subscribers.”

I love @SumoMe’s Welcome Mat pop-up feature that captures emails, says @jeffbullas. Click To Tweet

9. Planoly

Candice Galek, founder, Bikini Luxe; columnist, Inc.

“While native social media posts get the most engagement, there’s nothing easier than scheduling posts that will be auto-shared while you sleep. Think about it, you’ve got Instagram followers from all over the world, and you can’t possibly be awake at all hours of the day and night.

“Planoly helps us to not only schedule and auto-post content, but also quickly discover (content) by searching for hashtags or usernames. There’s even a simple bulk upload function where you can add your own content and plan it in a way that makes your social media feed look cohesive and appealing. Since using Planoly, we’ve been able to source content more easily and our feed looks better than ever.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 11 Resources to Curate, Clip, Collect, and Collaborate Content

10. Elevate

Jason Miller, global content marketing leader, LinkedIn 

“I like to keep things simple and streamlined: Less is more. The tool I use religiously is Elevate: LinkedIn’s employee advocacy tool. I use it to share, organize, and measure all the content I post across my main three social accounts: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. I share daily from Elevate and track engagements.”

11. Twitter Promote Mode

Brian Clark, founder, Copyblogger

“Now that the days of organic social media distribution for content marketing are long in the rear view, the most valuable social media tools are the advertising features of the platforms themselves. Facebook (and Instagram) of course, but also Twitter given its high-profile resurgence. We’re testing Twitter Promote Mode, which for a recurring monthly fee promises to give constant broader reach – just like the good old days.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: A Quick-Start Guide to Paid Content Promotion

12. Facebook Audience Insights

Larry Kim, founder, MobileMonkey

“I’m big into audiences: figuring out what are the interests, behaviors, and demographics of your target customers. For this I use Facebook Audience Insights because it tells you just about everything you’d want to know: job titles, education level, lifestyle, location, household information, purchasing behavior, and much more.

“By better understanding who your target audience is, you can more accurately create content that they’re likely to engage with.”

Use #Facebook Audience Insights to better understand who your target audience is, says @larrykim. Click To Tweet

13. Backly

Sam Hurley, founder, Optim-Eyez

“Backly is one of my all-time favorite social media tools because it provides shared credit to both content publishers and the curators who spread their material. It’s simple, quick to use and integrates with other social-sharing tools like Buffer.

“Your face will appear in a pop-up on the articles you share, along with custom text and a link where you can direct visitors back to your own best content.”

14. Kicksta (formerly Kickstagram)

Cammi Pham, partner, ThinkRenegade

“With the new Instagram algorithm change, consistently posting at the right time has become even more important. Kicksta makes it easier to upload, process photos, schedule, and add hashtags to the first comment from desktop. For hashtags, I use 80% fixed and 20% tailored. This gives my team more time to focus on real-time engagement, which is life or death on social.”

Real-time engagement is life or death on #social, says @cammipham. Click To Tweet

15. AgoraPulse

Steve Rayson, director, BuzzSumo

“Keeping track and managing social mentions and messages is hard work. I love AgoraPulse’s approach of helping you achieve inbox zero and that great feeling when you have cleared your messages. AgoraPulse does more than bring together all your mentions and messages, it allows you to work effectively as a team to respond to everything.”

Use @agorapulse to help you achieve inbox zero, says @steverayson. Click To Tweet

16. Venngage

Ross Simmonds, digital strategist, RossSimmonds.com

“My favorite tool is Venngage. As someone who really likes experimenting with the potential of visual content and visual communication, having access to an infographics tool that is so easy to use speeds up my visual output. Whether you are creating graphics for social, SlideShare, or a presentation, Venngage is super versatile and intuitive.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Principles to Creating Great Infographics

17. IFTTT

Pam Moore, CEO and founder, Marketing Nutz

“I love using If This Then That (IFTTT) to enable native posting of images on Twitter that are originally posted to Instagram. You can set specific criteria by using hashtags or set it to post to Twitter automatically by default. IFTTT also offers a nearly limitless supply of social and cross-platform ‘recipes.’”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 17 IFTTT Recipes to Help Every Content Marketer Work Better

18. Rival IQ

Jay Baer, founder, Convince & Convert

“Rival IQ is a terrific tool to compare your own social media engagement rate and top-performing content versus your competitors’. Insightful and easy to use, it includes automated, custom reporting. One click and BAM – you have a PDF or PowerPoint deck with all the information you need to make better social media decisions. We use it daily.”

Use @RivalIQ to compare your own #socialmedia engagement & top #content vs competitors’, says @jaybaer. Click To Tweet

19. Foursixty

Griffin Thall, co-founder, Pura Vida Bracelets

“Pura Vida was a brand built on social media, especially Instagram. We’ve experimented a lot and use a pretty advanced e-commerce tool stack, but for social commerce, Foursixty is by far the best.

“Foursixty lets us create shoppable Instagram feeds onsite and add them to places like our homepage, product pages, and even the checkout. Conversions from the app make up roughly 17% of our online revenue. I would highly recommend it for any brand.”

20. Followerwonk

Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group

“Twitter remains my primary social media platform. But alone, Twitter’s unmanageable. That’s why I use Followerwonk to understand who my audience is, when they are most likely to engage, and to find followers who overlap with similar social profiles and influencers. Its analyze feature – which integrates with Buffer – tells you exactly when to post your most important updates for exposure.”

.@Followerwonk tells you exactly when to post your most important updates on Twitter, says @BrennerMichael. Click To Tweet

21. Edgar

Andy Crestodina, co-founder and director, Orbit Media

“This one is going to drive more traffic in less time than all your other tools combined. It’s like Buffer, but it never runs dry. Posts scheduled in Edgar stay in rotation forever. Once you’ve vetted your best stuff based on historical data, set up Edgar to share on your network(s) of choice at least a few times per day. You just saved yourself six to eight hours per month at least.”

.@MeetEdgar is going to drive more traffic in less time than all your other tools combined, says @crestodina. Click To Tweet

22. WordSwag

Rachel Pedersen, social media strategist

“Ever wish you had a 24/7 graphic designer to turn your social media ideas into gorgeous graphics? Then you will love WordSwag. It is a mobile application that turns your ideas, quotes, and content into attractive graphics that can be shared on Facebook, Instagram, and anywhere. In less than five minutes you have a high quality and visually appealing graphic that will make your followers think you have a graphic designer on call.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 37+ Tips and Tools for Picture-Perfect Visual Content

23. Quuu

Shane Barker, digital strategist, ShaneBarker.com 

“Quuu is a hand-curated and content-promotion platform. I use the promotion side to distribute everything. Each article is reviewed by a real person before it is approved because the goal is to promote only the highest quality content. Once the article gets the green light, Quuu adds it to its huge distribution network, which is cool, as I can then see the amount of shares and clicks for each article.”

24. Oktopost

Murray Newlands, co-founder, Due.com

“Most B2B companies on social media are missing a huge opportunity. Staff, customers, and clients won’t post positive comments unless they love you. Beyond that you have to get proactive and make sharing easy. Oktopost’s amplify and collaborate features are built to do exactly that: internally and externally. But love has to be the foundation.”

25. Native LinkedIn videos

Josh Steimle, speaker, writer, and entrepreneur

“Native video on LinkedIn is blowing up right now, with individual videos often getting hundreds of thousands of views even when made by amateurs like me. One problem with posting video to LinkedIn is something in the neighborhood of 85% of users watch internet video without the audio. Captions are the solution, but it can cost $10 and take 24 to 48 hours to have someone on Fiverr do it.

“Now, LinkedIn has made it one step easier (and about $9 cheaper) by adding functionality so you can add your own captions. You’ll still need to have a caption file (SRT file), but you can get this made in minutes at places like Rev.com for as little as $1 per minute of video or create your own. I know video is scary but trust me, grab your phone, make a quick video introducing yourself and talking about why you do what you do, and tag me in your post so I can see it. I’d love to see what kind of reaction you get.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Video-Phobic Marketers: It’s Time to Get Over Your Fear of Producing Video

26. Facebook Messenger

Sujan Patel, founder and CEO, Web Profits

“Social media is becoming more personal and customers are actually talking to companies. I’m not talking about comments or high-level conversations. I’m talking about customers ready to make a transaction. That’s why I love Facebook Messenger. Facebook has done a great job empowering business owners to communicate directly with their customers and, with the introduction of bots, Messenger is going to have a big impact in the coming years.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Automating Your Customer Interactions: Get Ready for Chatbots

27. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Johnathan Dane, founder, KlientBoost

“We’ve started using the LinkedIn Sales Navigator to reach out to decision-makers at companies that could be ideal clients. Once we’re able to pique their interest, then we ask them for a quick meeting … For lead generation, it’s phenomenal.”

28. Brand24

John Rampton, CEO and co-founder, Due 

“I really like Brand24’s dashboard to see every person who mentioned my brand on social media. I can then go and respond individually. This enables my brand to be on top of the good, the bad, and the amazing customers that are sharing feedback. You can even monitor your competition and take advantage of the potential customers out there that need your help.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 3 Models (and Tools) to Understand, Predict, and React to Your Social Media

29. AgoraPulse

Neal Schaffer, social media consultant

“AgoraPulse is a comprehensive social media dashboard along the lines of a Hootsuite, but it offers some unique functionality. The feature that I most love is auto post with queues. Basically, it’s a killer feature for companies who have lots of evergreen content and want to share it on a periodic basis across a wide variety of social networks. You can choose to post from your queue as often or as little as you’d like and stop sharing on a certain date, which is perfect if you are promoting an event.”

30. Owava

Ed Leake, managing director, Midas Media

“Marketers often overlook one big aspect of social – native advertising. As a paid click and data guy, I love Qwaya because it allows me to treat and optimize Facebook as I would AdWords: robust campaign structuring, split-testing, and automation tool set. If CTRs drop or CPC jumps … pause it. Might sound simple, but when you’re managing big accounts and budgets, it’s a godsend.”

Optimize #Facebook campaigns with @QwayaSocial as you would with search and AdWords, says @EdLeake. Click To Tweet

31. Evernote

Gerry Moran, global head of social media, Cognizant

“The key to every successful social media strategy is content that tells a story. However, the story doesn’t always get crafted in one sitting. It evolves from a collection of photos, animated GIFs, infographics, a line from a song, a saying from my grandmother, everyday pain points, scribbled design thinking on a white board, industry facts, etc. Evernote gives me a way to organize my storytelling making my social media strategy more successful.”

32. ClickToTweet

Brian Dean, founder, Backlinko 

“ClickToTweet gives your readers an immediate and easy way to share your content by creating one-click boxes of preloaded Tweets, hashtags, and mentions. Blog integration is super non-technical and they even have a ClickToTweet generator you can use to add links to emails and PDFs. More opportunities to share equals more shares. It’s that simple. I used it on this post and got 20% more tweets than my average.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 17 No-Cost Ways Writers Can Extend Reach of Their Editorial

33. Twitter

Glen Gilmore, founder, Gilmore Business Network

“At the risk of following Joe Puluzzi, Twitter is also my favorite tool. However, I use it a bit differently than most by creating niche accounts to share and hone my evolving passions while creating community and influence – @TravelEsquire, @FinancialSM, @HealthcareSMM, @SocialMediaLaw1, @ChinaDigitalBiz, etc. Then I build Twitter lists to track key opinion leaders and the competition.”

34. Canva

Matthew Toren, co-founder, Kidpreneurs 

Canva is a very handy browser-based design tool that makes it super straightforward for non-designers like me to create impressive images. Visual content has become so important for social media posts to help tell the story of your post and content. I’ve noticed that my visual content gets about 23% more clicks vs. non-visual. I love the fact that I can optimize the size for whatever social platform I need to use the design for.”

#Visualcontent is important for #socialmedia posts to help tell the story of your content says @matthewtoren. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 16 Visual Storytelling Tips to Give Your Content Marketing a Boost

35. Instagram Story DMs

Amy Porterfield, online marketing expert

“I love how I am able to connect directly with my audience through Instagram Story DMs. It’s a game changer. Because of the ‘Ask Me A Question’ feature, I have been able to not only see where my audience is struggling in their online businesses, but also offer real-time, personal solutions to help them. In the past, I’ve felt a bit disconnected from my community across the various social media channels, but this has brought a new level of engagement that feels real to me and ultimately helps my business grow.”

36. Sendible

Kristi Hines, freelance writer

“Sendible has most of the features you will find in other social media management tools: scheduling, automated sharing via RSS feed, analytics, team management, and keyword monitoring. What sets it apart is the number of networks it connects to: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram (via email reminder), GooglePlus, Tumblr, Medium, Instapaper, Pocket, Flickr, Delicious, Slack, and more.”

37. Bit.ly

Shayla Price, B2B content marketer

“Bit.ly is a must-have tool for your social media stack. The platform does more than just shorten links. You can use it to track links, measure performance from your campaigns, and learn which channels bring in the most traffic. I use Bit.ly to monitor the daily activity of all my marketing and growth efforts along with most of my clients so I can attribute and track my efforts.”

Use link shorteners like @Bitly ‏to track links & learn which channels bring in most traffic. @shaylaprice Click To Tweet

38. PopSocial

Everette Taylor, serial entrepreneur

“With Instagram now surpassing one billion users, it’s become the premier platform for many brands and individuals to grow their audience and attract customers. The biggest challenge now is growing that audience and engaging with those users with all of the changes to algorithm.

“PopSocial provides not only an efficient way to grow and engage your audience on Instagram, but an affordable one. For companies with tight budgets that need real results, there’s no better tool.”

PopSocial provides an efficient (& affordable) way to grow & engage your #Instagram audience. @Everette Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Outperform Fortune 500 Brands on Instagram [Research]

39. InShot

Daniel Knowlton, founder, KPS Digital Marketing

“Since social media algorithms have evolved in 2018 and the platforms consistently penalize users for automation, we’ve cut back a lot with social media automation tools.

However, one tool we continue to use to create social video content on the go is InShot. It’s super quick and easy to edit creative video in various size formats.”

40. Ripl

Scott Stratten, president, UnMarketing

“At the risk of being a curmudgeon, I don’t really have any favorite tools because I don’t use many. But I’m enjoying trying out Ripl right now. Visual content evokes emotion. And Ripl is the easiest tool that goes beyond static images and lets you create animated visuals to post in your channel of choice.”

41. Pocket

Kevan Lee, director of marketing, Buffer

“Pocket helps me batch all my social media reading. I can find interesting stuff, save it to Pocket, get back to work, then read it all later. Plus, it has some smooth integrations with sharing directly to Twitter and Facebook or sending straight to Buffer. And it has its own recommendations area that might be one of the few remaining unknown areas to build a following and authority, not to mention collect content for curation.”

Use a tool like @Pocket to batch all your #socialmedia reading for later, says @kevanlee. Click To Tweet

42. Post Planner

Diana Adams, owner, Adams Consulting Group, Inc.

“Sophisticated marketers know that engagement is the most important (and hardest) metric to nail, and that’s where Post Planner comes in. It was built for engagement and gives you access to the most viral posts on Facebook and Twitter (regardless of your niche). Plus, it provides a huge list of status ideas. My favorite feature is the recycle button to load up evergreen content so it posts once a week or once a month … or whatever.”

43. Narrow

William Harris, founder, Elumynt

“The thing I love about Narrow is that it lets me scale my Twitter account intelligently. Rather than sitting at my computer, manually following everyone that tweets with a hashtag that I find relevant, Narrow is programmed to interact with hashtags, audiences of influencers, keywords and more, which allows me to stay focused on providing relevant content for my audience.”

  44. LinkedIn

Benji Hyam, co-founder, Grow and Convert

“LinkedIn is great for prospecting. Before I do cold outreach, I look at the person’s profile and do as much research about them as possible. Simple touches like including common contacts, their job title, and past projects they’ve shared dramatically increase your chances of getting a response. Customize your messages and relate to them based on the information gathered. Above all, be personal not robotic.”

When doing outreach on @LinkedIn, be personal not robotic says @benjihyam. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 60+ LinkedIn Profile Tips for Marketers

45. Buffer

Jon Morrow, founder, SmartBlogger 

“Being completely honest, our teams don’t do a lot on social media … However, given that my goal with social is simply to stay active – and to get the most out of the investment – Buffer is my go-to tool for scheduling updates. It’s easy to use, time efficient, and covers all my social-media bases.”

46. Repost

Monina Wagner, social media community manager, Content Marketing Institute

“In social media, relationships matter. Repost is a simple yet effective tool that takes the challenge out of engaging with others by sharing content while giving credit. The app gives brands an opportunity to tell their story with user-generated content – creating a positive emotional experience, building consumer loyalty, and securing customer retention.”

In #socialmedia, relationships matter says @moninaw. Click To Tweet

47. Crowdfire

Chirag Kulkarni, entrepreneur, speaker, and advisor 

“The tool that I love is Crowdfire. For $10 a month, I can follow the most engaged followers of people in my industry (Neil Patel, Jeff Bullas, etc.) and because those top influencers have a large following of readers many of them convert and start following me. I can use an automatic DM feature to A/B test some of my most popular articles, which drives traffic to my website and gets me leads.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Road Map to Success: Content Distribution Essentials That Win Eyeballs

48. Snapchat

Nadya Khoja, CMO, Venngage 

“Although Snapchat may not seem like the most trackable social media platform, it’s phenomenal for engaging with your audience and giving your followers a look behind the scenes at your company or personal life. The one measurable metric is views, so in order to keep them climbing, you need to be creative. Trust and advocacy are built on being an entertaining and useful marketer.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How 3 Serious Brands Engage Humanly on Social Media

49. Blog

Heidi Cohen, chief content officer, Actionable Marketing Guide

 “My favorite social media tool isn’t a tool. It’s a form of social media: a blog. Your blog is owned media you support with quality content. Done well you can optimize your blog for social media, search, influencers, and your business. On that front, two tools stand out. My favorite blog plugin is Yoast for SEO. And I love Feedburner because it distributes posts via email when they’re published. Like I’ve said before: ‘Hands down, email is the king of social media.’”

#Email is the king of #socialmedia says @heidicohen. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Build Your Email List: The (Better Than) Ultimate Guide

50. You

Tommy Walker, global editor in chief, The QuickBooks Resource Center

“You are your own best tool. Focus on the craft of writing and work constantly. Short form, long form, and everything in between. Twitter, and all the other social media sites, on their own, give you access, but it’s the writing that sparks interest and keeps them hooked.

“Excellent writing carries itself and makes the rest of the work infinitely easier. Identify your patterns and break them. Seriously, this is a big one that holds everyone back.

“Be unique. Earn your byline. Make it something to be proud of. If they can’t tell it’s YOU without the byline, go back, focus on your craft.”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Secrets of High-Performing Online Content

Check out the latest tools to help your content marketing programs at Content Marketing World. Register today for Sept. 4-7 event in Cleveland, Ohio, and use code BLOG100 to save $100. 

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 50 of the Best Social Media Tools Selected by Top Marketers appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/08/best-social-media-tools/

[linabrigette]

Crypto Crying out for Regulation as Thailand Leads the Way

Industry professionals and CEOs of blockchain companies are clamouring for regulators to clarify the legal status of cryptocurrencies to open up innovation and help ‘smart money’ to move into the space. Thailand has shown how it can be done even if their policies are not crypto-friendly enough.

Regulation Will Encourage Growth

Regulation is often given a bad press but in light of the six-month bear market defining 2018, it appears that innovation is waiting on regulatory clarity. During London Tech Week, the common theme was that the industry wants clear regulation.

Speaking at the ‘Zeroing In On Europe’ conference on June 16, former Blackrock investor, Adam Grimsley, co-founder of Prime Factor Capital, said:

“Concerns around volatility, lack of liquidity, and regulatory uncertainty were more than enough to prevent the so-called traditional smart money from entering the arena.”

Coinbase UK CEO made a speech at the Blockchain Summit on June 13 in which he said that the industry needs to work with current financial institutions and educate them before we can achieve a crypto ‘utopia.’ Zeeshan Feroz, UK CEO of Coinbase, told NewsBTC:

“From a government point of view, we should be engaging with the space and looking at how we facilitate it. The biggest step at this stage is regulation, give businesses some certainty and give them a framework to operate within that will help grow it.”

A lot of ICOs have banned U.S. citizens from participating due to a lack of clarity over whether or not they classify as securities. Monaco VISA told U.S., India, Hong Kong and Singapore citizens that they are excluded due to ‘excessive regulatory risk.’ Rather than risk engaging with these markets, ICOs are just enforcing blanket bans to protect themselves, missing out on further funding and more development of the industry.

Speaking at BitcoinCRE on June 14, the founder of CPROP, Sandy Selman said: “We decided to use a tradeable entity. If it became a security it would kill our business. We decided not to take any U.S. money to not deal with the problem.”

Governments Can Regulate Crypto

Thailand has shown that governments can provide clear regulation on cryptocurrencies. In May, it enacted a regulatory framework for ‘digital assets and digital tokens.’ The bill sets out requirements for ICOs to register with the Thailand SEC to make sure that they comply with current laws. Although the taxes are currently quite high, it proves that governments can successfully regulate the industry.

In order to achieve the same clarity, the U.S. needs to decide which bodies are regulating cryptocurrencies. Recently, the SEC cleared up a few questions and confirmed that Ethereum is not a security but the IRS has deemed it property, and taxable. In response to the confusion, the state of Florida has created the position of a ‘crypto czar’ to help make state-specific regulations.

Across the globe, other countries need to speed up their decision-making processes. In Europe, the UK established a task force back in March and the European Commission launched the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum in February. However, no regulation has yet been made apart from an anti-money laundering agreement by the EU.

  Image from Shutterstock

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[cryptochurp]

HyperBlock Acquires Cryptocurrency Mining Firm CryptoGlobal for C$106 Million

Canadian technology firm HyperBlock announced the acquisition of all issued and outstanding shares of cryptocurrency mining company CryptoGlobal in a CAD$106 million deal, subject to regulatory approval.

HyperBlock to Merge with CryptoGlobal in C$106 Million Deal

The merger is due to take place in May 2018 under the name HyperBlock Technologies Corp. and will give absolute control of Hyperblock over CryptoGlobal’s operations and assets, including its thousands of mining rigs currently focused on Bitcoin, DASH, Ether, and Litecoin. HyperBlock’s range of services includes Mining-as-a Service (MAAS), self-mining, server hosting, and server hardware sales.

“Our aim is to become a comprehensive direct-to-consumer crypto company, offering products and services to the mainstream customer for making and managing their crypto-asset investments,” Sean Walsh, CEO at HyperBlock, told Reuters. “Combining HyperBlock’s large-scale mining-as-a-service model with CryptoGlobal’s existing mining, custodial storage, and crypto trading businesses creates a strong foundation for both organic growth and growth through acquisition.”

Sean Walsh will become the CEO of the combined company, while CryptoGlobal co-founders Rob Segal and James Millership, will join the management team. The C$106 million deal comes one week after CryptoGlobal announcing the acquisition of Blockchain Dynamics, in a buyout valued at approximately $30 million. The founder of the firm, Chris McGarrigle, will also join the management team of the combined company. HyperBlock plans to issue up to approximately 60.4 million common shares to CryptoGlobal shareholders, which will own about 25.2 percent of the new company, HyperBlock Technologies Corp.

“We are poised to become a global leader and consolidator in cryptocurrency mining and asset management”, said Walsh, as HyperBlock Technologies will be offering a wide range of services, including MAAS, server hosting, self-mining, server sales, cryptocurrency storage and trading, as well as a “SaaS-based cryptocurrency insights platform”. The combined company will own over 21,000 mining servers and 28 MW of power, extensible to 90MW, to mine cryptocurrencies in North America.

 CryptoGlobal had agreed to acquire Bitcity in February 2018 in a deal consisting of $39,000,000 common shares to be paid in four instalments and a $1 million cash payment in exchange of a 100 MW, ten-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and hosting deal to build out a 40,000 sq foot cryptocurrency mine in Ontario.

A previous acquisition deal between CryptoGlobal and BitCity Group announced in February will have its due diligence period extended to 30 April 2018. CryptoGlobal’s agreement to acquire BitCity Group includes a 100 MW, ten-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and hosting deal to build out a 40,000 sq foot cryptocurrency mine in Ontario. CryptoGlobal also canceled a $15 million debt financing agreement announced in March.

Once the acquisition is completed at the end of May, HyperBlock Technologies Corp. will apply to be listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

Image Courtesy of Shutterstock

The post HyperBlock Acquires Cryptocurrency Mining Firm CryptoGlobal for C$106 Million appeared first on NewsBTC.

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[thedeadshotnetwork]

A new CEO won't be enough to save Chipotle (CMG) Chipotle said Wednesday that f ounder and CEO Steve Ells will step down . The stock initially rose after the announcement, but it won't be enough to reach its highs set earlier this year. There's finally a change at the top for Chipotle Mexican Grill , as CEO Stephen Ells will be stepping down after a suitable replacement is found. The founder CEO will then assume the role of executive chairman. Shares of Chipotle opened sharply higher on Wednesday morning's news, just as a losing team's fan base rallies when a new head coach is tapped. However, a bad team is still a bad team -- and an out-of-favor burrito roller is going to continue to be an out-of-favor burrito roller. If you're holding out for a wizard to magically turn things around the way that Steve Easterbook did at former Chipotle parent McDonald's , you're being naive about where the chain was when its popularity and stock peaked two years ago, where it is now, and the realistic potential of where it will be in the future. No one Ells I'm not going to argue that sticking with Ells would've been the right call. Even with this morning's pop, the stock is still 60% below where it was when it hit its all-time high of $758.61 during the summer of 2015. The stock peaked weeks before the first of the food-borne illness outbreaks slammed the brand, and while Ells and his team badly mishandled the situation, it's just the first of the many flubs at Chipotle during the stock's slide. Let's start with the market's chilly reception to the recent queso rollout. How do you blow queso? Chorizo came and went as a new protein option. It lasted less than a year. Last year's three-month Chiptopia rollout was supposed to lead to a permanent loyalty rewards program. We're still waiting. Meanwhile, former parent McDonald's is killing it with its discounts-emitting mobile app. A strong sister concept was supposed to soften the blow when the namesake chain would stumble, but we've seen ShopHouse close up shop , Pizzeria Locale expand too slowly, and Tasty Made debut to reviews so bad that only a Chipotle queso-topped burger would make things worse. All of this -- along with the obvious cratering of comps and contracting margins -- happened under Ells' watch. He had to go. However, expecting a new CEO to fix things by looking things over with a fresh set of eyes is nutso. Chipotle will never be as popular on a unit-level basis as it was two years ago. The chain may have 400 more restaurants now than it did when its stock peaked -- something that may or may not be cannibalizing sales -- but it's not as if giving consumers the integrity-blurring queso that they crave will take comps back to where they used to be. The marketplace has changed. The copycats adapting Chipotle's assembly line and bowl concepts across various fast-casual specialties make the chain less relevant and unique. Outside of the build-a-bowl workshops sprouting up everywhere, you have the better burger and quick-bake made-to-order gourmet pizza places growing at the expense of what was cool circa 2015. Even McDonald's is relevant, and don't tell me that it's a coincidence that the comps turnaround at Mickey D's started in late 2015 just as the store traffic started to head south at Chipotle. What's a new CEO going to do? Is he going to handover company-owned restaurants to franchisees the way that McDonald's has done under Easterbrook? Is she going to dramatically ramp up the expansion of Pizzeria Locale to take advantage of the one hot niche where Chipotle has its foot in the oven door? Chipotle is beyond the point where good-tasting queso or a new dessert item can return the chain to its prime. If it looks in the mirror, it will see how badly it has aged in the past two years. A new CEO is necessary, but the reflection isn't going to change. Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . NOW WATCH: This animation shows how terrifyingly powerful nuclear weapons have become December 3, 2017 at 10:30AM

[tortuga-aak]

A new CEO won't be enough to save Chipotle (CMG)

Chipotle said Wednesday that founder and CEO Steve Ells will step down.

The stock initially rose after the announcement, but it won't be enough to reach its highs set earlier this year. 

There's finally a change at the top for Chipotle Mexican Grill, as CEO Stephen Ells will be stepping down after a suitable replacement is found. The founder CEO will then assume the role of executive chairman. 

Shares of Chipotle opened sharply higher on Wednesday morning's news, just as a losing team's fan base rallies when a new head coach is tapped. However, a bad team is still a bad team -- and an out-of-favor burrito roller is going to continue to be an out-of-favor burrito roller. If you're holding out for a wizard to magically turn things around the way that Steve Easterbook did at former Chipotle parent McDonald's, you're being naive about where the chain was when its popularity and stock peaked two years ago, where it is now, and the realistic potential of where it will be in the future. 

No one Ells 

I'm not going to argue that sticking with Ells would've been the right call. Even with this morning's pop, the stock is still 60% below where it was when it hit its all-time high of $758.61 during the summer of 2015. The stock peaked weeks before the first of the food-borne illness outbreaks slammed the brand, and while Ells and his team badly mishandled the situation, it's just the first of the many flubs at Chipotle during the stock's slide. 

Let's start with the market's chilly reception to the recent queso rollout. How do you blow queso?

Chorizo came and went as a new protein option. It lasted less than a year.

Last year's three-month Chiptopia rollout was supposed to lead to a permanent loyalty rewards program. We're still waiting. Meanwhile, former parent McDonald's is killing it with its discounts-emitting mobile app. 

A strong sister concept was supposed to soften the blow when the namesake chain would stumble, but we've seen ShopHouse close up shop, Pizzeria Locale expand too slowly, and Tasty Made debut to reviews so bad that only a Chipotle queso-topped burger would make things worse. 

All of this -- along with the obvious cratering of comps and contracting margins -- happened under Ells' watch. He had to go. However, expecting a new CEO to fix things by looking things over with a fresh set of eyes is nutso. 

Chipotle will never be as popular on a unit-level basis as it was two years ago. The chain may have 400 more restaurants now than it did when its stock peaked -- something that may or may not be cannibalizing sales -- but it's not as if giving consumers the integrity-blurring queso that they crave will take comps back to where they used to be. The marketplace has changed. The copycats adapting Chipotle's assembly line and bowl concepts across various fast-casual specialties make the chain less relevant and unique. 

Outside of the build-a-bowl workshops sprouting up everywhere, you have the better burger and quick-bake made-to-order gourmet pizza places growing at the expense of what was cool circa 2015. Even McDonald's is relevant, and don't tell me that it's a coincidence that the comps turnaround at Mickey D's started in late 2015 just as the store traffic started to head south at Chipotle.  

What's a new CEO going to do? Is he going to handover company-owned restaurants to franchisees the way that McDonald's has done under Easterbrook? Is she going to dramatically ramp up the expansion of Pizzeria Locale to take advantage of the one hot niche where Chipotle has its foot in the oven door? 

Chipotle is beyond the point where good-tasting queso or a new dessert item can return the chain to its prime. If it looks in the mirror, it will see how badly it has aged in the past two years. A new CEO is necessary, but the reflection isn't going to change.

Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

NOW WATCH: This animation shows how terrifyingly powerful nuclear weapons have become

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[humanengineers]

The Best Leaders Are Great Coaches

The Best Leaders Are Great Coaches

Source | Lollydaskal.com  |  BY:Lolly Daskal, ounder and CEO of Lead From Within

Great leadership is made up of numerous different elements and roles, which come together differently in different leadership styles. One role that’s often overlooked is that of serving as a coach.

If you’ve ever played or trained under a great coach, you already understand how vast their influence can be.

The best…

[evolutionproperties]

House price growth at lowest levels since 2013

  The latest housing stats from Halifax have revealed that house prices in the last three months were up 1.7% against the previous three months. This compared to the 2.3% quarterly rate of change in January, and was the lowest since November 2016.

Between January and February, house prices saw a 0.1% increase following January’s 1.1% decline.

According to Halifax, mortgage affordability is significantly better than a decade ago, up by 18 percentage points since 2007. Typical mortgage payments for new borrowers (both first-time buyers and homemovers) at the historic average loan to value ratio stood at 30% of earnings in 2016 Quarter 4  compared to the peak of 48% in 2007 Quarter 3.

Housing Activity

Total UK home sales on a recent upward trend. Sales in January were 4.9% higher than in December 2016; the fourth successive monthly increase. At 104,820, sales were the highest since March 2016 when transactions were dramatically boosted ahead of the introduction of higher stamp duty rates on second homes and buy to let purchases. In annual terms, sales in January 2017 were almost identical to those in January 2016.

Supply remains very low. The number of properties coming on to the market for sale fell in January after holding broadly steady over the previous three months. This indicator has now failed to increase for 11 successive months. As a result, average stock levels on estate agents’ books remain close to historic lows.

Housebuilding fell by 1% in 2016. New housing completions in England were estimated at 35,980 (seasonally adjusted) in the final three months of 2016. This was 4% lower than in the previous quarter, and 2% below their level in the same quarter in 2015. Overall, completions in 2016 were 1% lower than in 2015. Completions were 43% above their recent trough in the first quarter of 2013, but remain 26% below their recent peak in the first three months of 2007.

Martin Ellis, Halifax housing economist, said: “House prices in the three months to February were 1.7% higher than in the previous quarter; down from 2.3% in January. The annual rate of growth fell to 5.1% from January’s 5.7%, the lowest since July 2013.

Housing demand is being supported by an economy that continues to perform well with employment still expanding. Meanwhile, the supply of both new homes and existing properties available for sale remains low.  This combination is pushing up prices.

The annual rate of house price growth has, however, nearly halved over the past 11 months. A sustained period of house price growth in excess of pay rises has made it increasingly difficult for many to purchase a home. This development, together with signs of reduced momentum in the jobs market and squeezed consumer spending power, is expected to curb house price growth during 2017.”

Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, said: "These figures are interesting as they slightly conflict with the Nationwide survey from a few days ago, although both show a housing market which is broadly stable with prices continuing to be supported by a lack of supply and low interest rates. This reflects what we are finding on the ground.

Looking forward, activity does seem to have picked up a little since the slow start to the year and we hope the Chancellor doesn’t do anything to stop the market in its tracks tomorrow and in particular supports first-time buyer activity."

Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, says: "Mortgages may be more affordable than a decade ago, according to the Halifax, but there are still borrowers struggling to get funding, such as older borrowers or the self-employed, because they don’t meet lenders’ tougher criteria. There may be a solution out there but advice is more important than ever. The good news is that lenders are keen to lend and continue to offer competitive deals to attract borrowers."

Russell Quirk, ounder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, had this to say: “It would seem the cobwebs have been dusted off after the New Year hangover with these latest numbers showing the UK housing market remains resilient and is bouncing back after a seasonally slow start to 2017, reversing the downward trend seen last month.

With prices having increased both annually and monthly, albeit only marginally, it is probable that we will continue to see the property market blossom as we enter into spring, in what is traditionally the busiest time of the year.

However, the continued growth of these numbers could hinge on tomorrow’s budget announcement and whether or not the government decides to actually tackle the shortage of housing in the UK. If they do finally take a step in the right direction price growth could cool to a certain extent, as buyer thirst is quenched with an adequate level of housing stock, although this would be a slow process.

But this is unlikely and relief will probably come in the form of a relax on stamp duty for high-end homeowners which should trickle down to the lower echelons of the market. This ease in market congestion will be as welcome for the average homeowner, as it will be for the beleaguered oligarchs from Marylebone to Kensington Palace Gardens

If this should be the case, the drastic drop in transaction levels seen throughout  £1.5m plus market could well be reversed and this additional market activity could further inflate the current market with house prices continuing to increase as a result.”

[ebizupdate]

Caicloud Releases Its Kubernetes-based Cluster-as-a-Service Product (ClaaS 2.0) and the First TensorFlow-as-a-Service (TaaS 1.1), while Closing $6M Series A Funding

SHANGHAI, Mar. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Caicloud, a Chinese startup that provides Kubernetes-based cluster management service and enterprise deep learning solutions, today announced that it has raised a $6 million Series A funding led by Matrix Partners China with follow-on investments by Cybernaut. This comes after a previous angel investment from Cybernaut in July 2015.

Caicloud was founded by several ex-Googlers, who were formally core contributors to the Google cluster management system and machine learning platform in the Pittsburgh office. They are also CMU alumni consisting of research experts, ACM medal winners, and gold medal winners in robotics world competitions.

Today, the company also launched its latest Kubernetes-based Cluster-as-a-Service product (ClaaS 2.0). Leveraging the powerful computing framework provided by Kubernetes, Caicloud released the first "TensorFlow-as-a-Service" (TaaS) 1.1 running on top of ClaaS, forming a complete and unique "Cloud + AI" solutions for enterprises.

Caicloud's ClaaS 1.0 was launched in Dec. 2015 and has been seamlessly integrated with most popular public clouds in China and with on-premise infrastructures such as VMware, OpenStack, or bare-mental. ClaaS 1.0 has provided robust enterprise k8s distribution to multiple Fortune 500 companies in China. The newer ClaaS 2.0 launched today adds more cluster management features that go beyond just container management and complement the mainstream Kubernetes with richer security management, DevOps capabilities, application orchestration, and troubleshooting intelligence.

Caicloud initially released TaaS 1.0 in Feb. 2017. Built on top of Kubernetes and ClaaS, TaaS provides distributed, GPU-enhanced TensorFlow-based deep learning tools and models to transform enterprise rich dataset into invaluable business insights. TaaS adopts the "Cloud Artificial Intelligence (CAI)" philosophy and makes cluster management and DevOps more intelligent. The complete ClaaS+TaaS solution enables automatic anomaly detection, autonomous service lifecycle management, data-driven troubleshooting, and multiple industry- specific ultra-fast AI solutions such as time-series predication, audio/video classification, etc. Compared to TaaS 1.0 that can only run on enterprise on-premise infrastructures, TaaS 1.1 is integrated with Microsoft Azure public cloud to provide public TensorFlow services.

"This is definitely a milestone for us today. One thing is that we are announcing Series A funding from Matrix Partners China, a top-tier venture capital firm that focuses on enterprise services, though we actually closed the deal in Dec. 2016. More importantly, we're proud to deliver ClaaS 2.0 and TaaS 1.1 with unique values that have never been seen before," said Xin Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Caicloud. "We leverage but go beyond Kubernetes to empower enterprise customers to really maximize the value of the physical resources and the dataset they already possess."

Besides its commercial products, Caicloud has also been an active open source player and the leader of the Kubernetes/CNCF community in China. Caicloud includes multiple Kubernetes contributors and maintainers, has open-sourced multiple original Kubernetes plugins and tools, and has open-sourced the first Kubernetes-native CI/CD project called Cyclone in Nov. 2016 (github.com/caicloud).

Starting from Q4 2016, the integrated ClaaS + TaaS solution stack has been proven powerful in large Chinese enterprise accounts and is now generally available.

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Read this news on PR Newswire Asia website: Caicloud Releases Its Kubernetes-based Cluster-as-a-Service Product (ClaaS 2.0) and the First TensorFlow-as-a-Service (TaaS 1.1), while Closing $6M Series A Funding