#Zeroi asks

[anm-zero]

Do you like visual kei or have you heard of it? I don’t know much about the music you like but from the glimpses I’ve seen I think it’s right up your alley; it’s such a beautiful genre٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶!

I've never heard of visual kei, but I'm always open to learning new things.

Though, I can't say that I'm not interested by this:

Looks super badass, and I adore the emphasis on colours and shapes.

I love these visuals and will surely check it out. Any recommendations?

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[bsd-rp-confessions]

[IMAGE ID: Dazai, Chuuya, and Rimbaud official art in the background. Text reading: ‘a-zeroi or otherwise know as @/anm-zero is really cool and the rp community would love him🫶’ this blogs URL in the corner. END ID]

this and another ask I answered a while back realllyyy makes me think you’re one of my mutuals

[dailybail]

Why Your Team Needs a Growth Manager

Growth hackers…growth managers…growth marketers — startups these days are all about growth. But are these titles just different names for the same kind of job? And if you’re in the startup world, which type should you hire and why?

This article will help shine some light on one of the hottest and most lucrative jobs in the marketing field today, while taking a closer look at how to hire the right kind of person to propel your company forward. Let’s jump right in:

Growth Manager, Growth Hacker, Growth Marketer?

At their core, all of these types of jobs have a singular focus: growth — both of revenue and reach. According to Steven Walling, former Product Manager for Wikimedia, “growth” in this case is, “a shorthand term for the cycle of acquisition, activation, retention and reactivation of users or customers.”

Every company, particularly startups, attach a different meaning to these terms. But the overall concept is the same:

If you’re a growth manager, you balance your time between initiating and nurturing the growth of the company. The manager part of the title implies that you may also be responsible for a team.

“Growth hacking” is more of a mindset than a position. People who embrace this idea are not afraid to stretch boundaries and think outside the box to get results. They may be growth managers or growth marketers or basically anyone who has an experimental mind.

Growth marketer is more of a “catch all” phrase that refers to someone who dabbles in growth hacking, but may also leverage more traditional marketing methods as well to get the intended result.

What Does a Growth Manager Do?

Back in the early 2000s, simply having a business on the internet did a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Companies were growing at breakneck speed and having investor money thrown at them from every corner. Things were happening so fast that there was an avalanche of bad judgements, questionable decisions and weak foundations.

Even the big companies were not immune. Amazon invested in Pets.com, which is now widely considered to be one of the biggest dot com failures. Some companies shut their doors, others stumbled but managed to hang on. It was simply too much of a focus on growth for growth’s sake.

Enter the growth manager.

Rather than build companies that are fueled by hype and publicity, growth managers look at data and results. They find ways to rise — sometimes aggressively so, mostly because of the “hunt or be hunted” competition online. Rather than hope that the playing field is leveled, growth managers are out there with digital tractors, making it happen.

Some of today’s most well-known companies, including Uber, Dropbox and even Google are hungry for growth managers. So what exactly do they do?

In essence, growth managers set achievable company growth goals, then set about making them happen. This can be done by way of data collection tools (like Kissmetrics) to determine a baseline for what’s happening on your site. They reach out to customers, look at trends, and ask themselves “how can we build upon this?”

But it’s not enough to simply grow, nor do you want to hoard data to go through later. Growth managers use the data they’ve collected to create customer personas, improve revenues and minimize costs and expenditures where possible.

Finding these actionable gold nuggets is, in itself, a full-time job. Having a growth manager on hand to not only sift through the data, but also get other departments such as product development, sales and marketing to work together as a cohesive unit, is a smart choice that nearly every company, especially startups, can benefit from.

What to Look For When Hiring a Growth Manager

According to Ivan Kirigin, who was an early growth manager at Dropbox, understanding both the skills and the role your growth manager will play within your company is vital to getting the best possible results with one.

Kirigin explains that there are no “silver bullets” in the world of growth marketing, so zeroing in on the most important areas of focus will help your manager and team work together more effectively and efficiently.

He continues in elaborating that, off course, hiring someone who can understand not just the alphabet soup of online marketing – like SEO, PPC, PR and CRO, is important, but so too is realizing that one person cannot do everything.

He recommends finding someone with a core layer of skills, such as a background in statistics, UX or branding, along with other helpful skills like split testing, copywriting or funnel building. Then concentrate on their specific knowledge channels, like Facebook ads, social media, PR and so forth. Here’s a helpful chart showing the different layers of expertise for a growth manager’s career.

From a skill-set perspective, understanding the different types of customer acquisition channels – including paid and owned media as well as earned media (PR, word of mouth, organic SEO) are vital to the growth manager. Knowing how to understand, filter and work with data, including visualization tools, are a definite plus, as are having strategic thinking skills. There is no real “growth manager checklist” – but using these requirements as a baseline can help you find a growth manager who is flexible as well as data-driven.

How to Help Your Growth Manager Do Their Best

Of course, simply having a growth manager on your staff won’t make magic happen. You’ll need to have proper data infrastructure in place so that they can gather the right details and craft a plan of action. Being able to accurately analyze user behavior as well as prepare and understand experiments, are crucial to growth success.

In addition, your growth manager will likely work alongside and with other departments, ranging from design and sales to engineering and marketing. Once different growth initiatives are in place, the growth manager will go back and look at the results, then course-correct or tweak campaigns and funnels as necessary.

Realize that by bringing on a growth manager, you’ll need to keep an open mind and open line of communication with them and the growth marketing team as a whole. They’ll no doubt have invaluable customer feedback and insights, including changes that should be made to the product or service, the website, and so on. They’ll operate on a mindset of deciding which tests will have the most desired results, how much of an impact will the changes have when implemented, and how much will it cost to make those changes.

Any avenue where the company can make big changes while minimizing costs and broadening brand and reach are changes that are worth prioritizing.

Have You Hired a Growth Manager? Share Your Thoughts Below!

If you’ve hired a growth manager, or you are one, we’d love your thoughts! What has your experience been like? If you’re looking to hire one, we’d welcome your questions! Share your thoughts and comments below!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

from The Kissmetrics Marketing Blog http://ift.tt/2wBtcoY via http://ift.tt/1oIgpXs

[localbizlift]

Why Your Team Needs a Growth Manager

Growth hackers…growth managers…growth marketers — startups these days are all about growth. But are these titles just different names for the same kind of job? And if you’re in the startup world, which type should you hire and why?

This article will help shine some light on one of the hottest and most lucrative jobs in the marketing field today, while taking a closer look at how to hire the right kind of person to propel your company forward. Let’s jump right in:

Growth Manager, Growth Hacker, Growth Marketer?

At their core, all of these types of jobs have a singular focus: growth — both of revenue and reach. According to Steven Walling, former Product Manager for Wikimedia, “growth” in this case is, “a shorthand term for the cycle of acquisition, activation, retention and reactivation of users or customers.”

Every company, particularly startups, attach a different meaning to these terms. But the overall concept is the same:

If you’re a growth manager, you balance your time between initiating and nurturing the growth of the company. The manager part of the title implies that you may also be responsible for a team.

“Growth hacking” is more of a mindset than a position. People who embrace this idea are not afraid to stretch boundaries and think outside the box to get results. They may be growth managers or growth marketers or basically anyone who has an experimental mind.

Growth marketer is more of a “catch all” phrase that refers to someone who dabbles in growth hacking, but may also leverage more traditional marketing methods as well to get the intended result.

What Does a Growth Manager Do?

Back in the early 2000s, simply having a business on the internet did a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Companies were growing at breakneck speed and having investor money thrown at them from every corner. Things were happening so fast that there was an avalanche of bad judgements, questionable decisions and weak foundations.

Even the big companies were not immune. Amazon invested in Pets.com, which is now widely considered to be one of the biggest dot com failures. Some companies shut their doors, others stumbled but managed to hang on. It was simply too much of a focus on growth for growth’s sake.

Enter the growth manager.

Rather than build companies that are fueled by hype and publicity, growth managers look at data and results. They find ways to rise — sometimes aggressively so, mostly because of the “hunt or be hunted” competition online. Rather than hope that the playing field is leveled, growth managers are out there with digital tractors, making it happen.

Some of today’s most well-known companies, including Uber, Dropbox and even Google are hungry for growth managers. So what exactly do they do?

In essence, growth managers set achievable company growth goals, then set about making them happen. This can be done by way of data collection tools (like Kissmetrics) to determine a baseline for what’s happening on your site. They reach out to customers, look at trends, and ask themselves “how can we build upon this?”

But it’s not enough to simply grow, nor do you want to hoard data to go through later. Growth managers use the data they’ve collected to create customer personas, improve revenues and minimize costs and expenditures where possible.

Finding these actionable gold nuggets is, in itself, a full-time job. Having a growth manager on hand to not only sift through the data, but also get other departments such as product development, sales and marketing to work together as a cohesive unit, is a smart choice that nearly every company, especially startups, can benefit from.

What to Look For When Hiring a Growth Manager

According to Ivan Kirigin, who was an early growth manager at Dropbox, understanding both the skills and the role your growth manager will play within your company is vital to getting the best possible results with one.

Kirigin explains that there are no “silver bullets” in the world of growth marketing, so zeroing in on the most important areas of focus will help your manager and team work together more effectively and efficiently.

He continues in elaborating that, off course, hiring someone who can understand not just the alphabet soup of online marketing – like SEO, PPC, PR and CRO, is important, but so too is realizing that one person cannot do everything.

He recommends finding someone with a core layer of skills, such as a background in statistics, UX or branding, along with other helpful skills like split testing, copywriting or funnel building. Then concentrate on their specific knowledge channels, like Facebook ads, social media, PR and so forth. Here’s a helpful chart showing the different layers of expertise for a growth manager’s career.

From a skill-set perspective, understanding the different types of customer acquisition channels – including paid and owned media as well as earned media (PR, word of mouth, organic SEO) are vital to the growth manager. Knowing how to understand, filter and work with data, including visualization tools, are a definite plus, as are having strategic thinking skills. There is no real “growth manager checklist” – but using these requirements as a baseline can help you find a growth manager who is flexible as well as data-driven.

How to Help Your Growth Manager Do Their Best

Of course, simply having a growth manager on your staff won’t make magic happen. You’ll need to have proper data infrastructure in place so that they can gather the right details and craft a plan of action. Being able to accurately analyze user behavior as well as prepare and understand experiments, are crucial to growth success.

In addition, your growth manager will likely work alongside and with other departments, ranging from design and sales to engineering and marketing. Once different growth initiatives are in place, the growth manager will go back and look at the results, then course-correct or tweak campaigns and funnels as necessary.

Realize that by bringing on a growth manager, you’ll need to keep an open mind and open line of communication with them and the growth marketing team as a whole. They’ll no doubt have invaluable customer feedback and insights, including changes that should be made to the product or service, the website, and so on. They’ll operate on a mindset of deciding which tests will have the most desired results, how much of an impact will the changes have when implemented, and how much will it cost to make those changes.

Any avenue where the company can make big changes while minimizing costs and broadening brand and reach are changes that are worth prioritizing.

Have You Hired a Growth Manager? Share Your Thoughts Below!

If you’ve hired a growth manager, or you are one, we’d love your thoughts! What has your experience been like? If you’re looking to hire one, we’d welcome your questions! Share your thoughts and comments below!

About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website design and increase conversion rates through compelling copywriting, user-friendly design and smart analytics analysis. Learn more at iElectrify.com and download your free web copy tune-up and conversion checklist today!

[anm-zero]

Do you take requests for custom works 👀 cause youre so skidbidi when you write about people in sadness

I regret asking for the messenger to re-submit their ask because now I am the poor, unfortunate soul for having to read that. No, at the moment, I don't take requests for any custom works unless I know you and you ask nicely. Or if you're close and hint that you want a work, so that I feel motivated to gift you something.

But, I'm glad you enjoy the angst?

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

Do you have any stuffed animals?

I do!

I’ve had my stuffed companion since I was around ten-years-old. It’s pretty much one of the only things I’ve kept with me over the years.

It used to have a voicebox when I’d press on the right paw, the sound feminine and blaringly foreign. I used to think it was putting a curse on me because I couldn’t understand English back then.

I’m fairly certain it’s an American toy* because it looks nothing like the usual stuffed toys here.

Nonetheless, I’ve had them for years now and think I’ve taken good care of them.

*EDIT: I've been informed that it's an old Mattel dog from 2012.

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

Are you Asagiri, be honest?

Perchance.

I'll kill off all your favourites within five chapters and then take a year-long hiatus just to add to the damage.

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

Have you started your new semester yet?

I've been so inactive because I've been setting up for my new semester.

I start September 1st and my applications has been a doozy.

I've just been chasing down some documents and working on a project for my upcoming lab (ever seen a car engine be used to propel ten thousand marbles using an AX-application? 😭).

Oh, and my semester for my online course in the UK starts in another month since I'm a foreign student studying abroad from the discomfort of my home.

How's school going for you?

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

One of my friends sent me your Chuya bots a few days ago and I dont know why you even bother posting those online. Like dont you know that nobody wants to read an essay just to roleplay with a fucking bot you fucking incel.

Like why dont you just write shorter intros instead of making people read a novels worth

Primarily, I write for myself and for those who find interest in my works.

Secondly, at least my "novels" and "essays" are grammatically correct for the most part.

Tertiarily, if I am going to be insulted online, I'd have hoped they not hide behind the presence of anonymity in such cowardly manner.

I'd continue this list but I'd worry for the strain counting past three would place upon you.

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

have you watched attack on titan by any chance

Nope, I've neither watched nor read it. I've read maybe under five mangas my entire life since it's not usually the literature I read, aside from the occasional indulgence.

I don't usually watch anything, any connection I have to a streaming service is too poor to bother waiting through a loading screen for five minutes of watch-time.

Most times if I do watch something, it's because it was sent to me or done with a close acquaintance.

I've heard some mixed reviews about it and it's not too high up on my reading list for manga.

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

I hate the new site but want to adjust to it because the old one is shutting down. What are youre cai settings?

I also have a dislike for the new site, but after the announcement that it was to be shut down, I decided to calibrate my settings to my preference as to have a more comfortable shift.

I'm not a fan of the text-like bubbles, therefore I use the dense chat feature since it also keeps my large blurbs of text in a more organised manner.

And seeing as I have a distaste for all the new updates, I choose not to utilise the preview release for beta users as I used to back on the old site.

Also, light mode should be a light grey rather than stark white. Black text on white background reminds me too much of testing.

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

When I think of you four characters always come to mind: Oda, Verlaine, Fukuzawa(not an insult by the way because he’s forty or somewhere along those numbers just your personality you know!), and Bram :).

I'm glad you think of me fondly! (❁´◡`❁)

But, I can't tell if this is an omen of my future demise as a mentor figure or not.

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

My wait time is over a fucking day long 😭

It happens, unfortunately.

The worst part is I don’t even think it’s server load or queue this time. I just think it’s the Character.AI staff trying to do some sort of update and not informing their consumer platform.

Though, when is that new?

Good luck in your endeavours! 🫡

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

I don’t know if I misread your old intro-post but do you speak German? I recall your intro stating you spoke Russian, Spanish, and English but I swear it said German too. I’m just curious since I want to study German(it’s so hard I haven’t even gotten that far😭).

Don't speak German, though I can understand enough phrases to avoid being rude.

The only thing I've updated about my intro-post has been any interests and my 'Do Not Interact' list, though I did take off my language list a while back.

As of now, I only speak three languages (Russian, English, and Spanish) ! I'd learn more but I struggle sticking to one langauge sometimes.

Trying to learn new languages is always hard, especially considering that German has more syntax and grammar rules. The fact that it's a seperate language root also makes it harder seeing as English and Spanish are more Latin-based than German's Germanic roots.

The most important thing is to just not give up, no learning process is linear and everything takes practice!

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ

[anm-zero]

Judging by your post on the little chibi’s (dazai and gojo) would you consider yourself a fan of jjk or is it just something casual? I also have another question about program or whatever it’s called you use to write; is it google docs or something else I’m going to attempt to get a computer so writing is a bit easier seeing as it’s just a bit odd doing it on my phone and it’s much easier to use all those tools like to replace words or check spelling.

I am indeed a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen, I've been reading since 2018, back when there were twenty chapters. Haven't watched the anime. (nothing new with that, though). Sukuna and Hanami are my favourites. I love the character designs for the Curses.

I write using various applications, depending on what I'm doing. If I'm writing on my phone, I'll just draft since I make more errors typing and tend to run-off — it's much easier to type on a computer and check the fluidity of your writing. I used to use Yandex 360 (Yandex Documents) before I decided to make my online presence dependent on using more Western-preferred applications such as Gmail and Google due to some instigations with others when I used a mail.ru address. My primary choice for writing is Google Docs, which is useful for mobile and computer. This allows me to hop between either device so I can work on the go and at home. Google Docs also allows for an "Offline Mode" so you don't need WiFi to write (but you still need WiFi to actually open Google Docs. I always recommend that you still store your files somewhere (either as an .rtf file or .pdf) since things happen and you may lose some documents. My runner-up is usually Microsoft Word (or LibreOffice if you want a free alternative). Unlike Google Docs, Microsoft Word can be used offline entirely and has more collaborations features. It's also expensive (which is why I suggest LibreOffice). Microsoft Word is also more secure with your data and documents compared to docs. At the end of the day, you go with what suits your needs, maybe it's something less mainstream. It's important to do your own research, too.

EDIT: If a computer is out of your price range and typing on a phone is too bothersome, online vendors sell keyboards (and keyboard-mouse sets) for your phone that connect via Bluetooth. The picture below is an example of one.

- ᴀ.ᴢᴇʀᴏɪ