#and because this is HR written for a MODERN audience

[triviareads]

I saw a post yesterday in a certain HR fandom that basically said the heroes having love interests/women they slept with before the heroines was tantamount to cheating and it was unfair because the women couldn't do the same.

[mermaidsirennikita]

to add to the Princess conversation, it wouldn't be common to find narratives where the hero fucks other women so openly in front of the heroine in a modern HR and if it was written ppl would lose their shit in the reviews lol I thought it was really refreshing the way it is written in Princess even though I don't even like the scenario personally it just felt interesting to read bc I knew I wouldn't find now like the author truly wrote freely

Oh for sure. If we're thinking about the same scene, I personally have no issue with it because a) I kind of love that shit in books I'm not even gonna lie b) it was before Darius and Serafina got together c) he had noooo concept that they would ever be ABLE to be together. And I think Darius's relationship with sex and trauma, which (I'm almost done with the book) is similar to Lazar's but not quite the same, informs why that scene happened. His sense of self worth is... not great.

And that's the kind of thing you would honestly not see as effectively if we didn't get a look into his sexual relationships with other women. And it's not at length, we don't have these long scenes, but we see that he's slutty and it hurts Serafina's feelings because even though there's no chance that they can be together and she's in fact engaged to another man, she still loves him and knows he knows she loves him and so on. BUT! Later on, when you're in his POV, you suddenly realize "Oh, it actually wasn't this fun and sexy time for Darius, he has a LOT of issues" (many of them related to his mom, SHOCKER the breastfeeding hero has mommy issues).

I often see readers say "well I could have gotten that without that scene" COULD YOU THO. Because to me, a real issue in the romance reading discourse about What is Good and What is Bad in romance is that people only read what they specifically KNOW they're good with. They never even try something else.

And that's fine. You can do that. But if you are ONLY going to try what you know for sure isn't going to push your boundaries in any sense, then I personally don't want to hear about what you think the genre shouldn't do. I'm not talking about people reading shit that triggers them. I'm not talking about saying, "Well, I don't really love a book where the hero has sex with a woman before the heroine on the page, but everyone says this is amazing and otherwise it sounds like my shit, so I'm going to try it".

I have recommended books to people that they get so excited about, and when I mention one thing that is not triggering but is simply not to their taste, they will just go "oh never mind". And again, that is FINE. But if all you're reading is books that don't do it, I don't think you can tell me that it never works and that it doesn't belong in the genre. Which some people absolutely do. "No cheating in romance" okay but you also won't try this book by your #1 favorite author that has all the other tropes you love that all your book friends endorse because it has cheating in it.

I don't think I'd care as much, but because romance has SO much discourse about What is Right and What is Wrong at the moment, I do think it's pushing a lot of authors to be safer. If you're constantly being bombarded with takes that say "I WILL NEVER READ THIS BC X" or whatever, and all you wanna do is sell a book in a very competitive, commercial market... idk.

And I actually think the market is much more curious and open to exploring than a lot of vocal online people would make you think, lol; because the online audience is very rarely truly representative of the average audience. Like, the average person who loves Ali Hazelwood isn't watching a million booktok takes about how her book had This Thing so you shouldn't read it. They just one-click her books because they love Ali. The GENRE may influence them more than the takes--I'm thinking of my friend who ADORES Ali but hasn't read Bride because she's reluctant to try PNR (booooo).

However, the prevalence of social media makes these things seem bigger. When Gaelen wrote Princess, she went off with her "Serafina sees Darius fucking another woman before they get together" shit, and her virgin lactation shit, and Serafina being a very spoiled brat who is beautiful and knows it and uses her beauty, and Darius having the self worth of a broken twig...

She didn't have all the takes and the admittedly dramatically transformed market on her mind. And conversely, because there was more of a divide between the reader and the author, the readers often did try shit that wasn't really their thing. Sometimes they liked it; sometimes they didn't. You weren't sitting there thinking about a billion tropes, tbh. You saw a hot cover and read the back copy and took it home. Or, you saw the author's name and went "I love Nora Roberts" and went out on a limb and tried her vampire books even though you'd only read her contemporaries. And maybe you liked it and read the other two books in the trilogy, and maybe you didn't.

I think it's kind of a snake eating its own tail thing, where the market has become so responsive to the loudest readers (by no means all readers... readers of color and LGBT+ readers and disabled readers who ask for rep and often don't get it comes to mind) that it moves incredibly quickly, and authors are just throwing shit at the wall trying to build an audience, and the quickest way to do that is by throwing the shit that the wall SCREAMS it wants and not throwing the shit that the wall SCREAMS is bad. Even if that's what YOU as an author like. And often, I gotta say, especially in the early parts of an author's career, I think that the best results will come from the author saying "fuck it, I'm gonna write what I would want to read".

Unfortunately, I don't think that's really as much the philosophy anymore. Writing to market has always been a part of romance and will always be a part of every commercial genre (I mean, look at how historicals have become sooo Regency- and Victorian-centric--that happened before social media took over the book spaces), but it has become a bit more confined, imo.

So that is something I've discovered I really love about reading older books. You can tell this person was like "fuck it, I wanna write this shit".

[cosmicangst]

weekly reads (12/10)

the bed me books (#1-3) | felicity niven: ★★★☆☆ (duke) | ★★★★★ (baron) | ★★★★☆ (earl)

⤷ series of regency romance books built on the premise of the fmc approaching the mmc for a temporary liaison. felicity niven is quickly rising to the top of my favorite hr authors. one thing i appreciate is the flaws of her characters, especially the mmcs. since many books in this genre appeal to fantasy, sometimes the leads are portrayed as ideals — that while the mmc can be imperfect they can't be too imperfect as to be unattractive or unsexy to the reader. i don't decry this since i actively seek these books out myself. however niven seems largely unafraid to paint her mmcs in unflattering and unattractive lights. and she does all this while maintaining a romance that is still pretty swoonworthy. i also just appreciate that sometimes her leads aren't conventionally physically attractive, which is my catnip in romance novels.

in duke i felt for the fmc and her plight. the chapter where the mmc writes a series of letters while he's convalescent in london and desperate to know if she's found another suitor is my favorite. he kept the lie up a little too long for me to swallow easily since all the while she was literally trying to find a way out of poverty. so that deserved a much longer grovel than it got. but i LOVE that she figured it out much earlier than he or the audience realized. a strength to the writing is how niven withholds information, especially if it's a pov character keeping a secret. and the reveals always catch me by surprise then make me appreciate how much everything they've done or how they act make perfect sense now in retrospect.

earl was just so sweet. i love a short king mmc and the way he just doted on the fmc was so heartfelt i teared up. they're just perfect for each other: he's chatty and sunshine and kind of shameless and uncultured while she's dark, reticent, bookish, and more pragmatic. one amazing small detail is that whenever it was the fmc's pov chapter, her words were written straight out in dialogue because she was ashamed of her lisp but in the mmc's, it was phonetically kept because he loved everything about her, especially the things of which she's most ashamed.

baron though was just the right amount of angst i've been craving. i LIVE for the premise of an mmc who's been too stupid and paternalistic (think knightley but if he was also an idiot) to realize that he's been in love with the fmc all this time until it's too late. and like the actual ramifications of that (the RAMMYS bro). i relished in his despair lmaooo but i was crying basically every other chapter because i could see so much of myself in phoebe and the way she basically molds herself to other people's validation especially the mmc's that a huge part of her journey is shedding that and learning who she really is.

anyway much as i enjoyed these books, my favorite niven is still a convergence of desire. that one is just honest poetry like there's no fighting that

the benevolent society of ill-mannered ladies (#1) | alison goodman: ★★☆☆☆

⤷ i read this thinking it was an hr with mystery elements but turns out it's more historical heist with mystery and romance elements. which i appreciated as a mini palate cleanser but def caught me off guard esp since i felt the romance was not as well paced as i would have liked. but i did appreciate the social justice bent of the "heists" (though any historical fiction that features all the protagonists or "good characters" with modern/anachronistically progressive outlooks on politics or being on the right side all the time kind of turn me off which is why i appreciate anne with an e because characters like anne and marilla who are fundamentally good still initially fall prey to the biases of their time but eventually learn for the better. like if it wasn't for the fmc's sister in this book i would have found the whole thing a little unbelievable to be enjoyable but I DIGRESS.) anyway the machinations in each section were structured a little too same-y that it was slow going on all parts except the "escape" portion of the heists, which i found acceptably suspenseful

my best friend's exorcism | grady hendrix: ★★★★☆

⤷ have no connection to this time period so i unfortunately couldn't fully appreciate the references but idc. this shit wasn't scary (except for a lil bit in the beginning when that normal ass voice said her name which was just unnerving in how deceptively mundane it was) but it did make me sob. you can't give me lifelong devotion (whether you construe it as purely platonic or queerly romantic) and not make me froth at the mouth. these characters prickled me like they always do in horror but i've never rooted for horror protags more than these two best friends. i do get thematically and functionally why the exorcist did what he did but i didn't really feel the impact of it because we don't spend nearly enough time to understand much less be invested in him. the ending otherwise was pretty much perfect.

[aspoonfuloffiction]

Seeing a lot of this:

(And this is before the Netflix tie in covers will be available mass market in the States when I can only assume Avon Books and Julia Quinn will profit even more off of POC bodies)

So if you find yourself in a situation where you’re looking for romance novels that feel Bridgerton-esq with actual South Asian representation after watching Bridgerton don’t reach for The Viscount Who Loved Me, try these:

The Marriage Game Series-Sara Desai. Contemporary Romance. Centers around a family in San Francisco. Very Julia Quinn tropey rom com vibes. My favorite is The Dating Plan, wherein the heroine enters a fake relationship with her brother’s best friend—if this sounds familiar it’s because it is.

Betting on a Duke’s Heart-Royaline Sing. Historical Romance. Set in Victorian England and follows an Indian British heroine with an affinity for horses and her enemies to lovers romance with a hero with a past that makes him hate love…listen no one has ever accused the romance genre of being original. The book also weaves in the Mahabarat story of Nala and Damayanti which I thought was really cool.

The Rajes-Sonali Dev. Contemporary Romance. A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s works but with an Indian American family at the center. Book one is called Pride Prejudice and other Flavors (gender swapped Darcy and Elizabeth archetypes! subverts a lot of P&P tropes actually) My favorite though is Recipe for Persuasion…however I also think Persuasion is my favorite Austen novels she’s adapted so your results may vary.

Two States- Chetan Bhagat. Contemporary Romance. This book was actually published in India. The author is pretty well known amongst Indian audiences. But book was written in English originally so definitely followable by non Indian audiences. The story is semi autobiographical and followed a relationship between a South Indian woman (Tamilian! Like both Simone and Charithra) and a North Indian man and the cultural differences that brings. There’s also a movie adaptation.

Those Pricey Thakur Girls-Anuja Chauhan. I actually don’t super recommend this series, especially to western audiences in the way I would recommend the ones above but in a funny Bridgerton connection that makes me laugh and thusly worth mentioning-this series follows a family of sisters that are also named in alphabetical order. Though I think they read more like the Bennets than Bridgertons.

There are other HRs with South Asian characters but literally all of them are written by white people and I really wanted to highlight South Asian authors but they do exist if you want to read them just know that they’re probably not the best representation of Desi culture

[hmel78]

In conversation with Keith Emerson ...

Keith Emerson (02.11.44  – 11.03.16)

The Father of progressive rock; the man responsible for the introduction of the Moog synthesiser to the ears of the unsuspecting music lover in the 1960’s; and without a doubt one of the 20th and 21st Centuries (to date) most prolific and talented composers of modern classical music.   In a career spanning 6 decades, which has earned him notability as a pianist and keyboard player, a composer, performer, and conductor of his own music alongside the World’s finest orchestras; as well as achieving super success with “Emerson, Lake, and Palmer” - 2014 has been no less eventful for Keith Emerson! With his 70th Birthday approaching, Helen Robinson caught up with him for a very ‘up-beat’ chat about (amongst other things) the re-releases of his solo records, a brand new album with Greg Lake “Live at Manticore Hall”, his favourite solo works, and his memories of the times spent writing and recording with ‘The Nice’, and ‘ELP’.

HR : This has been a busy year for you so far Keith!   KE : Yes! I’ve been up to allsorts! [laughs]

Music wise – what can I tell you?   Cherry Red , Esoteric, have re-mastered and re-released 3 of my solo albums – “Changing States”,  another which I recorded in the Bahamas called “Honky”, and a compilation of my film scores which consisted of  "Nighthawks”, “Best Revenge”, "Inferno”,  “La Chiesa (The Church)”, "Murderock”, "Harmagedon” and "Godzilla Final Wars”.

HR : That must have been a difficult selection to make based on the number of scores you’ve written! Do you have a particular favourite genre of film to write a score for?

KE : Favourite genre?  Boy, well, I just love film score composition, you know? When I first started I had been touring with ELP for some years, and we’d toured with a full 80 piece orchestra but it was just too expensive – we had to drop the orchestra and continue as a trio, which was very upsetting for me.   I was entranced by what an orchestra could actually do, and found that with doing film music I could work under a commission and have the orchestra paid for by the film company!

It’s always a challenge. I think a lot of composers like to write dramatic music. I like writing romantic music as well – I’ve also written for science fiction where you can let your musical imagination go pretty much where you want, but generally you have to cater specifically to the film. First of all I like to get a good idea of who the producer and director is, and who is likely to be cast as playing the lead roles.  I like to read the script – which helps prior to meeting up with the director and producer. When I wrote the music to Night Hawks I was sent, by Universal films, news of a new film to be made by Sylvester Stallone, a new guy at the time called Rutger Hauer, and Billy Dee Williams, also Lindsay Wagner.   It was basically a terrorist film – not the terrorism that we shockingly see today – but back then it was the beginning of terrorism and was quite mild by today’s standards, however it was still sort of ground breaking as far as writing the score was concerned.  

It’s about vision with film score work.

Although really it’s all about vision with anything you’re writing, and I suppose many of the disagreements that ELP had during their time – of course a lot of it came to wonderful fruition – were not seeing eye to eye because we had such different tastes in music. Ubiquitous I would say – we bounded from one thing to another. Just when you thought it was getting serious we’d want to have some fun and do something light hearted but I’ve always maintained that variation is essential.

I think that’s what helped ELP quite a lot – especially live - in any particular set you had the heavy stuff like “Tarkus” and “Pictures At an Exhibition”, for the guys in the audience, and for the females who attended reluctantly - dragged along by their boyfriend or husbands and just sit there -  I mean, I didn’t sit, I was standing and leaping around [laughs] but you couldn’t help notice the glum looking females in the audience wondering when all this was going to be over.

I think when ELP were together as a unit, we managed to meet everybody’s needs. Greg came up with some really great ballads which sort of got home to the feminine heart, like “From The Beginning” – the feminine heart goes “aaah aint that nice” [laughs] and then suddenly you get the bombardment of something like “Karn Evil 9” and it’s like “Oh GOD”!!

HR : I’d like to talk more about ELP, of course, however there’s so much more outside of that unit , which you have been involved with, that has had quite an influence on modern music.   You’ve got an extraordinary and fairly extensive discography, which we can pick whatever you’d like to talk about, but I’d like to start with ‘The Nice’  -  “Ars Longa Vita Brevis” ...

KE : Ah Yes ‘’Art is long, life is short” - Lee Jackson came up with that title - he’d studied a bit of Latin ... [laughs]

Going back to the 1960’s then – I suppose it was ‘66 when ‘The Nice’ formed – originally as a quartet. Drums, bass, Hammond organ or keyboards, and guitar player.  After the first album we decided to move on as a trio, although I did try to find another guitar player.   I actually auditioned a guy called Steve Howe, who was considering getting together with Jon Anderson, and Chris Squire and forming a band called “Yes”.  Steve was much more interested in getting with the “Yes” guys, so meanwhile ‘The Nice’ continued as a trio with Lee Jackson on bass, Brian Davison on Drums, and myself on Hammond and keys.   It was during this time that I was introduced to a new invention designed by Dr Robert Moog, which became the moog synthesiser, so I was the first to introduce that into live performance.  

With ‘The Nice’ we had come out of an era called the underground / Psychedelia.  

I was very friendly with Frank Zappa and the mothers of invention, and they were really far ahead of their time.

Frank approached me one day, because I was composing and playing with the London orchestras even then, and said ‘’Keith - how do you deal with English orchestras? They’re hopeless!”

And I said ‘’Well, they’re very conservative Frank. If you really want to make it with the London Symphony, or the London Philharmonic - if you really want my advice, I think you should try and change some of the lyrics of your songs. If you’re going to get in front of the London Philharmonic and sing stuff like ‘’Why does it hurt when I pee?’’ obviously these guys are not going to take very kindly to it!” [laughs]

I’d actually done Bachs Brandenburg concerto #3 with a chamber orchestra and had a degree of success in the English charts-  around about the same time ,  Jon Lord  [Deep Purple, Whitesnake] was writing his concerto for orchestra too. I’d already written the “5 bridges suite” which I had recorded with ‘The Nice’ at Fairfield hall in London. So basically Jon Lord and I were kind of both struggling with Orchestras and moving along into what came next musically for the both of us –   Jon was a very good friend.

I think round about the turn of 1970, I had noticed what Steve Howe was doing and it was very harmonic, whereas ‘The Nice’ - well we were a bit more bizarre, and I listen back to it now and I suppose I have a slight bit of embarrassment about how ‘The Nice’ were presenting themselves.

And back then I’d started looking at bands like ‘Yes’, and there were a lot of other bands too, who were really concentrating on the tunes and the vocal element, so that’s when and why I formed ‘Emerson Lake and Palmer’ - in 1970 - and endorsed the whole sound with the moog synthesiser. It sort of took off, and became known as what we know today as “Prog Rock”.  We didn’t have a name for it at that time, we just thought it was contemporary rock. I mean it wasn’t the blues, it wasn’t jazz, but it was a mixture of all of these things, and that’s when we went through.

The first album of ELP, [Emerson, Lake, & Palmer] recorded in 1970; we were still learning how to write together as a unit, so consequently when you listen to it, you’ll hear a lot of instrumentals; mainly because there were no lyrics and there was a pressure on the band to get an album out. For some reason there was an extreme interest in the band - We were to be considered as the next super group after ‘Crosby Stills & Nash’, which we certainly didn’t like the idea of.   That album went very well.   Unfortunately the record company decided to release “Lucky Man” - which was a last minute thought – as a single, and it took off. My concern was the fact that, OK yeah the ending has the big moog sweeps and everything like that going on – but how on earth  do we do all the vocals live? Thousands of vocal overdubs over the top and neither Carl nor I sang.   You know - I sing so bad that a lot of people refuse to even read my lips!   And as far as Carl Palmer was concerned he had “Athletes Voice” and people just ran away when he sang! It was a hopeless task of actually being able to recreate “Lucky Man” on stage, so eventually Greg just did it as an acoustic guitar solo.   It was that one sort of Oasis, in a storm of very macho guy stuff, where the women just went [in a girly voice] “Oh I like that, that’s nice”.  [laughs]

So, inspired by that we got more grandiose and put out ‘’Pictures At An Exhibition” – another bombastic piece based upon Mussorgsky’s epic work. For some reason Greg wanted it released at a reduced price because he said it wasn’t the right direction for ELP to go. So we released it for about £1 and it went straight to number 1!  Then the record company called up and said ‘’what are you doing? This is a hit record and you’re just selling it for £1??!!’’, so I said ‘’well yeah it’s a bit stupid isn’t it?” – so when it was released in America it was at its full price and ended up nominated for a Grammy award! ELP had a lot to do to create the piece you know?   We disagreed on lots of issues but in order to keep the ball rolling we just moved on with the next one, which was in fact “Trilogy”.

I thought it was about this time in ELPs life that we had learned how to tolerate each other, how to write together, and how to be very constructive. “Trilogy” is a complete mish-mash, you go from one thing to another; there’s a Bolero, and then ‘Sherriff’ – which is kind of western bar jangly piano playing on it.   I don’t think you could find such a complete diversity buying a record like that these days. We were very much inspired by our audience accepting that.  

Actually Sony Records are going to re release it in 5.1 – they’re doing a wonderful package with out-takes and everything – I’ve just competed doing the liner notes.

We moved on again then, and started the makings of “Brain Salad Surgery” which was a step further.  

After that I worked on my piano concerto played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and actually it’s still being performed all over the world - Australia, Poland, and in October I’m going to East Coast America to do some conducting – Jeffrey Beagle, who’s a great classical pianist, is going to perform it then, and I’m going to perform some other new works of mine.  

HR : Are you likely to release a recording of it?

KE : Yes I guess it might be ... I’ll let you know. It’s a dauntless compelling challenge. I have conducted and played with orchestras before and I’m very thankful to have classical guys around me who are able to point me in the right direction.   I was never classically trained. I started off playing by ear and then having private piano lessons, and then basically teaching myself how to orchestrate. I’m still taking lessons in conducting and I don’t think I’ll ever get to the standard of the greats like Dudamel or Bernstein – I don’t think I’ll ever be able to conduct Wagner, but so long as I’ve written the piece of music I think I’ve got an idea of roughly how it goes!  [laughs] Thankfully I’ve worked with Orchestras who are very kind to me.

HR : Do you enjoy the performance as much as the writing?

KE : Actually I enjoy the writing more than the performance. I know I wrote an Autobiography called ‘’Pictures Of An Exhibitionist” but that’s the last thing that I am really.   I’m pretty much a recluse. I’ve got my Norton 850 and I’m happy ...

HR : I was going to ask you about the Theatrics on stage – Why Knives and swords? Was there something which influenced the decision to include that as a part of your performance, or was it purely born out of frustration from working with Carl and Greg?

KE : [laughs]  Well you see in the 60s, I toured with bands like The Who, and I watched Pete Townshend; I toured with Jimi Hendrix too, and I thought that if the piano is going to take off then the best thing to do is like really learn to become a great piano or and keyboard player, but I also thought “that aint gonna last with a Rock audience in a Rock situation”, mainly because the piano or Hammond organ  - well from the audience you look up on stage and it’s just a piece of furniture! Whereas the guitar player can come on stage and he’s got this thing strapped around his neck, he can wander up and down the sage, check out the chicks, and he’s the guy that has all the fun.   The organ player meanwhile is just seated there at a piece of furniture like he’s sat at a table.   So a lot of what I did was for the excitement of it, and I suppose to exemplify the fact that I could play it back to front. A lot of my comic heroes like Victor Borg, Dudley Moore – they all came into the whole issue too.

I’ll tell you this ok? I once went to see a band at the Marquee club when it was in Wardour Street in London, and I can’t remember this guys name now, but he played Hammond organ - he was a very narky looking fellow, and went on stage wearing a schoolboys outfit which caused a lot of the girls in the audience to chuckle.   I stood at the back of the Marquee club and watched his performance - a lot of the stops and things were falling off his organ, so he had a screwdriver to keep holding certain keys down, and then suddenly the back of his Hammond fell off – and I don’t think it was intentional, because he looked really quite distraught, but he caused so much laughter from the audience. I went away thinking “there is something there, I’m going to use that” ... I actually thought it would be a great idea to stick a knife into the organ, rather than a screw driver -the reason for this was to hold down a 4th and a 5th , or maybe any 5th, or say a ‘C’ and an ‘F’ or a ‘G’, whatever, and then be able to go off stage, take the power off the Hammond, so that it would just die away -  it would go ‘’whoooaaaaaaaoooooh’’; and  then I’d plug it back in and it would  power back up and create like the noise of an air-raid siren, and of course the drummer and bass player would react to that.  It got really interesting. We actually had a road manager at the time by the name of ‘’Lemmy’’ who went on to be with Motorhead.   He gave me 2 Hitler Youth Daggers and said [best Lemmy impression] “here! If you’re going to use a knife, use a real one!”

So that was the start of all that, and people loved it, and actually Hendrix loved it too –  somewhere in his archive collection there must be some footage of me almost throwing a knife at him [laughs] .

The phase for it was my objection to the 3 assassinations they had in the USA -  JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King -   I’d been to America once and seen how quick the Police were to pull out their guns to a woman parking her car illegally – so bizarre.  The 2nd amendment will not go away, as much as they want it to. I’ll reserve further comments on that but that was really the whole objective. I was banned from the Albert Hall for burning a painting of the Stars and Stripes, which took some time to get over, but everything worked and they allowed me live in California now. [laughs]

HR : What about the Manticore Hall show, also released this year, presumably you kept burning paintings off the agenda there? Was it good to work with Greg again? and then the complete ELP line up with Carl at High Voltage?

KE : No! [laughs], and Yes ... Actually that was recorded in 2010 and was an idea set up by a manager associate of mine, and an agent in California. I met up with them and they asked how I felt about doing a Duo tour to lead up to the High Voltage Festival in London.   They convinced me that it was a big festival ... and the idea was to have ELP on the Sunday night there. So the lead up was a duo tour with myself and Greg because Carl was off with Asia at the time.   It had its ups and downs, but it did eventually work very well and it was a very good warm up to doing that Festival date as the 3 of us.   I don’t think there was any intention of us going any further with it. I think the resulting “ELP at High Voltage” was good and also I think the album ‘’Live At Manticore Hall’’ - although it wasn’t released until this year, because Greg initially didn’t want it to be released at all - is good stuff too.   These things happen with bands, it takes a while for us to appreciate how good what we do is, sometimes.

HR : You’d had quite a break from ELP at that point, KE : [interrupts] I wouldn’t say that I ever take a break, if I can put it so lightly, and it’s not lightly, as to say that it’s kind of like a hobby – if I feel so inclined I will go to the piano and will write a piece of music. If that piece of music seems to warrant being augmented by anyone then I find the right people to do it.  I had a great experience last year of going to Japan and hearing the Tokyo Philharmonic play the whole of “Tarkus” – a 90 piece orchestra – I’ve never been so blown away. I worked with a Japanese arranger on the orchestration, and actually used it on an album which I recorded with Marc Bonilla, and Terje Mikkelsen called “Three Fates Project”,  which actually didn’t make it anywhere and I don’t know why. It’s a great album, very orchestral – I did the version of “Tarkus” on that complete with the Munich symphony orchestra. I changed it around slightly – I had Irish fiddle players coming in – I suppose, really you could refer to it as being World Music – it’s probably a great example of that.   It’s not based upon the ELP solo piano composition that we did on ELPs first album. I don’t think the record companies knew how to market it you know? Was it classical? was it rock? It has the complete amalgamation of group and orchestra. Wonderfully recorded. It really is quite mind blowing. Not that I want to blow my own trumpet!   Maybe if the art work had been a little more dynamic then it would have caught people’s attention. I agreed on it, but you see our names and they’re really small - I don’t think people realised who’s album it was.

HR : Have you any plans to perform it in the UK, or other parts of Europe? Scandanavia, for Blackmoon fans? Any tour plans at all?

KE : The thing is, first of all, that the direction that I am going at the moment is very orchestral. And that does take an awful lot of planning. As I say I’m going to play with the South Shore Symphony on the East Coast of America, but touring with an orchestra, as I learnt back in the late 70s with ELP, is very expensive.  It doesn’t make any money if I’m perfectly honest. If someone was to come up with the cost of shipping the instruments about then ...  but it’s not like dishing out the orchestral charts to an orchestra and then have The Moody Blues come on and play, and the strings do all the backing stuff, you know! This music is the music which I’ve written and really demands quite a lot of practicing.

For instance when I was recording “Three Fates” with the Munich Symphony, in Munich, I was interviewed during the break after the first day by a radio station, and they asked ‘’how do you think its going?’’ and I said “well if the orchestra are still here with me in 5 days time, I should be very surprised” [laughs] .   I remember on about the 4th day , one of the members of the orchestra had obviously heard the radio broadcast.   As and I walked out into the garden at break time, I passed one of the Trombonists who was smoking a cigarette and he said ‘’well we’re still here”...

There is an awful lot that can go wrong, of course, especially with orchestras. The copyist can sometimes write a b natural rather than a b flat, or they can get a whole load of other things wrong – and that’s what happened this particular recording.  

Marc Bonilla actually came up to me on a break and said “I think you should go up to the control room, and look at the score mate, something doesn’t sound right”, so you can imagine the look on my face! So off I go I’m up in the control room; radio through to the rehearsal room and start going through the score and sure enough it was wrong. I don’t know why I hadn’t heard that before, but it was down to the copyists – its the same with writing a book and you give it away to the editor – they can still mess it up – as copyists do with music. And sometimes you’ll get the orchestra, and they’ll just play what’s written rather than put their hands up and say “that doesn’t sound right”, for fear of retribution I suppose – so it is frustrating, but it’s very rewarding.

The Mourning Sun, taken from “Three Fates” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PcOI8nDDeU

It’s been quite funny with some of these albums that Cherry Red are rereleasing. I happened to give one to my eldest son. I gave him ‘’Honky’’ and he came up to me and he said ‘’here Dad I’ve been listening to the Honky album and it’s really really good!’’  He and his friends are in their 40s now and they’ve all complimented me on it, so that’s the biggest compliment I could have really.

I was recording that album when he was about 4 years old. [laughs]

HR : Is that your favourite then? Honky?

KE : Oh yeah – I had so much fun making that album and I think it shows in it’s humour. It was great. The objective behind it was that I wanted to record with all the local bohemian people - I was living at the time in Nassau in the Bahamas. I didn’t really experience a lot of problems with the black bohemians –  I got on great with them all. There were some great musicians, and I wanted to do a very ethnic album to bring to the attention of the world that we can all get on! I used to drive around Nassau in a limited edition Jeep and kids would run out and yell at me ‘’Honky!’’ and I’d wave thinking ‘that’s kind of fun’.  Then, when I worked in the studio I noticed that the black musicians would all greet themselves with the ‘’N’’ word – we can’t say that now - says in an accent “Yo N ...” – so I thought ‘well if they can do that I am going to call myself a Honky!’ And they were horrified!!  [laughs] So I bluntly spoke to them and I said “listen you guys call yourselves ‘’Ns’’ so I’m calling myself a Honky, and damn it I’m going to call the album that too!” [laughs].  It was a lot of fun.

*** Honky - a derogatory term for a Caucasian person.

HR : We must get something down about Blackmoon – given that this is the title of the Magazine!

KE : [laughs] ELP, Blackmoon.  *sighs* Well  ... I remember from this time that Carl Palmer and myself wanted to have a different producer.

It was all well and good that Greg produced all the other albums but – I don’t think it’s a very good idea for any band ; if they’re involved in the writing and the playing, and then one band member decides he’s going to be a producer too.   You need someone objective to come in and say that they think it’s too long, or whatever ... whereas if you have a part in writing and playing, its obvious that you’re going to pay more attention to it, and Carl and myself really wanted an objective opinion about how to make it work. The producers that we auditioned were very familiar with ELPs work and were really considerate in how they constructed it.  The main consideration - and I think really it was a difficult time because Greg could see that his role as being a former producer of ELP was going to be taken away from him. Whereas for me I felt that Greg’s attention should be more on the writing and the lyrics and other aspects. There is so much that one had to pay attention to when running a band. There are the legal, accounting, and everything else – and above all you have the creative aspect and you really cannot go into a studio and become the producer and wear all these different hats. It doesn’t work, I don’t allow that even on my own music writing.  I’m quite happy to go in and play my music as long as I trust that the guy behind the music desk, and the mixing desk,  are on the same page, know who I am, and what I’ve done before – so at least there is a rapport where the engineer can see what you are trying to do and he will say – “ah you know what, why don’t we try and go for that you did on Trilogy - lets try it!” You have to work with people who understand you and then you can just sit back and work on it , accept a good idea, be pushed to your limits. The thing is with Greg - he felt that he had been removed from the situation which he had most power and pride in. Whereas I think most pride he should keep as the fact that he s a damn good singer and has written some great music. If you want a great team you have to designate to the right person.

That’s why I had Lemmy as my roadie.  If I hadn’t had Lemmy the knives wouldn’t have come out [laughs]. We owe Lemmy a lot! HR : Absolutely.  You two should record a duet!   Which Instrument would you choose? Moog, Melotron, Hammond?

KE : Hmmmmmmmm.  Piano. I’ve always written on the piano. I do have a mandolin hanging on the wall here, which is out of tune at the moment. You wouldn’t want to hear me play this mandolin ...

HR : Because it’s out of tune, or just in general?

KE : [laughs] because it’s out of tune but even if it was in tune I don’t know if it would work. It looks great hanging on the wall though ...

© Helen Robinson -  June 2015 Originally published in Blackmoon Magazine.

[Keith and I were great pals - I miss him <3]

[articlewritingbd]

5 Steps of Writing a Business Article Like a Pro

Does the prospect of writing a service article make you worried? Company writing can feel daunting, but if you damage down the process right into actions, you will certainly recognize that writing a business article is like writing for any kind of another style.

What is Business Article?

A business article writing is any content you create to directly or indirectly share details regarding a service. The different kinds of organization writing consist of blogs, news releases, newsletters, brochures, flyers, emailers, and also presentations.

Business writing entails a range of writing designs.

The content writing design will certainly vary with the sort of company content you have actually been asked to write. For example, compared to a blog, an emailer should have a much more concise pitch. Likewise, a flyer will certainly have to offer a concept really quickly, while in a company sales brochure, you have the deluxe of being extra descriptive.

I have been writing for medium-sized and also tiny companies for practically seven years currently. In that time structure, I have created business articles on myriad markets, such as modern company technology, software advancement, sustainable energy, educational working as a consultant, childcare service, online assistant solution, as well as clinical invoicing.

Over the thousands of short articles composed, I have developed a company article writing approach that I'd such as to show you today. My method of writing a company and looking into the article may not function for you, but it is one you might definitely use as a start point to create your own variation of a writing system.

For this post, I will adhere to the prep work, looking into, structuring, writing, and editing stages of writing a service article.

Here goes.

5 Steps to Writing a Business Article

Let's repaint a lovely picture ... but with words.

STEP 1: PREPARE - Understand what is expected of you.

Allow's think that you are working for a customer for the very first time, and also, you have actually been given a topic 'X Reasons to Have a Blog.' As soon as you tackle this job, you need to get answers to the complying with inquiries:

1. Who is the target audience of your customer?

Understand that you are writing for and also what the customer desires

Is your customer targetting companies or people? The target audience will influence the means you create. A company targetting individual customers will certainly prefer a writing style that is much more conversational, individual, as well as perhaps also tied with wit. On the other hand, a B2B customer might desire an article that is interesting and also highlights the business's expertise.

When we say business article, of training course, do not assume that you require to create content that appears like a monitoring publication remove. Today, every web content you compose needs to be simple to review and have to communicate the benefit the viewers will originate from the 10 mins they invest in reviewing what you have actually written.

2. Does the customer have key phrases in mind for the article?

In my experience, most clients will certainly enjoy letting you organize this and choosing the most effective keywords phrases for an article. Once you have picked the search phrases, make certain that you include them in the article heading, subheadings (where feasible), as well as at a regularity of 3 to 4 times every 500 words of the article.

3. Anticipated format and also the design of the article.

A lot of clients will certainly share an example of the sort of article they wish to create. Look at previous messages on their web site and clarify if the client wants you to maintain a comparable writing design if they do not.

Also, settle on the format of the entry. For example, a customer that I have been writing for a long time is a digital solution supplier called Virtasktik. All blogs submitted to the customer has to contain a meta summary, along with material for social media blog posts on the article for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, as well as Google+.

ACTION 2: RESEARCH-- Evaluate the Available Information as well as Extract the Pertinent Bits

You need to be a master at both trying to find details online as well as selecting the most pertinent bits.

As you start researching the subject, think regarding the 2 to three key factors your article needs to consist of. After that, these concepts end up being the beginning point for research on the online search engine.

Alternatively, various kind expressions associated with the blog site subject you have been provided. For instance, for the topic 'X reasons to blog site,' your keywords can be--.

- Benefits of organization blog site.

- X Reasons why every business needs to have a blog.

- Statistics / Data on the benefits of having a service blog.

As you can via the appropriate posts, Google (or other search engines) will certainly toss-up tips on various other similar search expressions; appearance at those.

While looking into the details readily available online, I suggest doing the following:

1. Stay existing: Reference articles published no later on than 3 years earlier. Because understanding and technology are evolving quickly, you have to publish material that is relevant and progressive.

2. Usage reliable sources: Extract your content from reputed internet sites or blogs of well-known firms in the sector.

3. Provide credit rating: It's important to give credit report where debt is due, so include a minimum of 1 or 2 web links to reputed internet sites within the article.

4. Include information: Where feasible, try to find recent advancements, market stats, or infographics pertinent to your topic.

5. Essence, as you read: Highlight or draw out one of the most pertinent portions of web content as you check out the short articles. Some writers use devices like Evernote to do this, yet I like to do it the old-fashioned way and also paste all the appropriate material right into a solitary word document. Let's call this the 'base file.'.

6. Review several articles: As a thumb policy research study, at the very least 5 to 6 trustworthy sources of info for every single web page of 500 words that you need to write.

7. Include a quote: Depending on who you are writing for, including a genuine quote for your article is a terrific suggestion.

For an article on blog writing, you can approach prominent blog writers for their guidance or reach out to internet marketing experts to contribute to your article. You can contact them with their website, via e-mail, or perhaps their Facebook service page.

Tell them who you are, the customer you are writing for, the subject, searching for a 2 or 3 line quote, and when you require the return. I often use this technique and have a 25 to 30 percent success rate, which means I come close to, at the very least 4 potential contributors to get a solitary quote. The study stage will take you anywhere between one to one hr thirty mins.

ACTION 3: STRUCTURE - The Information as well as Your Thoughts.

Identify essential points and also determine which item of info goes where.

If you are writing a 1000 word article, you should contend the very least a base record of 2500 to 3000 words by the time you have researched the information. As soon as convinced that you have actually collected all the appropriate information, begin reading your base file.

Having actually experienced the paper, open one more word data and begin writing the crucial points, or have to have information for your article. I such as to reorganize as well as highlight the content in the base record, making use of different shades. The material that I want to consist of in the opening para is highlighted in yellow, the primary body in pink, as well as article referrals in environment-friendly. What you are doing at this step, is structuring the details as well as your thoughts prior to you start writing.

By the time you are done, you will certainly have your article skeleton-- opening, subheadings, bullet points under each, and also takeaways from your article (or the ending paragraph), in addition to the information that needs to come under each area.

If you are dealing with a word limit of say 1000 words, you can choose to create 150 words for the article opening, 800 words on the text, and an additional 100 for writing the conclusion. Naturally, it's a good idea to write the initial draft of about 1200 to 1300 words. As you boost the web content throughout the editing and enhancing stage, word count will immediately be minimized.

Structuring the article prior to you begin writing will certainly take you 25 to 30 minutes.

You have, by this time, already invested 2 hours in your article.

Currently, allow's start writing.

ACTION 4: WRITING - Write, Don't Edit

It's time to just compose. Create as you believe as well as talk.

The number one tip at this stage is to create as you assume. Compose as fast as you can type but keep referencing the base record to see the sub-points as well as the details you want under each point. Be careful as to not 'copy-paste' web content from your base documents.

As you write the initial article draft, I highly suggest that you use a distraction-free full-screen editor such as Write Box to aid you to compose without diversions.

Right here some extra tips on writing a business article:

1. Share the article objective in the opening para: Write an appealing opening paragraph that shows the main concern the article is going to answer. To put it simply, why should someone review your blog site? As an example, here's an opening I wrote for an article on task delegation:

" Are you a star at entrusting things to do in your business? Or are you one of the numerous local business owners that shy's far from job delegation due to the fact that you are the afraid job will not occur as expected, or that you will not' understand exactly how points are advancing when you have handed off the job?"

2. Consist of key phrases: As you write, attempt to consist of the essential expression(s) where feasible, however specifically in the article opening paragraph, subheadings of the article, and also within the web content with a frequency of concerning 3 to 4 reps for each 400 to 500 words.

3. Consist of interior and also external links: Add 2 to 3 hyperlinks to posts published on various other reputed web sites, along with links to related content within your customer's internet site. When you include weblinks, use appropriate 'anchor expressions' to explain them. Rather than stating 'visit this site for additional information,' include the links within your text.

4. Encourage readers to do something about it: Close with a takeaway paragraph of what the viewers ought to learn or the final thought you intend to entrust the viewers. For instance, you might invite visitors to sign up for a monthly company newsletter, leave a discuss their very own experiences/ expertise of the subject, or load the sales call type.

5. U.S vs. U.K English: Write in the U.S or U.K English depending upon which country your client is based.

6. Compose in energetic voice: Minimize the usage of passive sentences, write in 'active voice' to the extent feasible.

Writing a 1000 word article can take around 2 hrs. At this stage, depending on your research study and writing performance, you have actually already invested in between 3 to 4 hours in your article.

ACTION 5: EDITING - The Most Important Part of the Writing Process.

Modifying is important to producing a top-quality article, just like polishing a diamond to bring the sparkle.

Consider your article (written thus far) as a harsh ruby that requires sprucing up. Spending significant effort in editing an item is vital to producing quality work that will certainly make your customers coming back for even more.

Paste the content from the message file to an MSWord data. Review the article you have actually created until now. I find that checking out the web content aloud on your own or utilizing the 'Read Aloud Speech' function under the Review tab in Microsoft Word is valuable in recognizing sentences that must be re-written or re-arranged to improve the article flow.

Examine your material on web content editing and enhancing tools such as Grammarly or Hemingway App to boost readability once you are completely satisfied that the article circulation is good. These apps can aid in identifying easy sentences (which you may desire to reword in an energetic voice), recognize expressions with a much more simple expression, or rectify the inaccurate use of spelling. You can reduce wordiness-- as an example,' you have to choose' can be created a lot more concisely as' you need to make a decision.'

Cross-check the performance of the article header using devices such as Coschedule's Headline Analyzer when you find yourself stuck for concepts on writing an engaging headline, attempt the blog site title generator by SEOPressor.

Focusing on the tiniest details at the editing stage will certainly make it a lengthy process. However the end, the outcome will be worth it. For a 1000 word article, I can conveniently invest an hour attempting to modify as well as improve it. On the other hand, there is no end to the quantity of modifying you can do in an article. Past a factor, you should decide if the existing variation of the article is excellent to go. Prior to you release your organization article or send it to the customer, guarantee that you do a plagiarism check. I like to utilize Copyscape.

So there you have it, my tell-all article on writing organization write-ups. As well as would you know it, it also occurs to be the lengthiest blog post ever published on my blog site.

[rajeshcynixit]

Enterprise and core concepts for workday application

At Workday, I spend a lot of time describing how we're different by design. The key difference between Workday's cloud Workday applications and traditional enterprise Workday applications. This is how the object model became the foundation of our architecture.We make a long list of points to explain our different approaches. But at the core, the main difference between Workday applications. Then traditional enterprise Workday applications is how we've made the object. Then you have modelled the core of our architecture.

The object model is to describe the structure as well as the logic of our Workday applications. Besides, it includes classes, relationships, and attributes, methods. Metadata is to describe all aspects of the object model. Workday systems are up of millions of metadata descriptions. This is rather than the thousands of relational tables. Then millions of lines of code that make up conventional enterprise software. Workday stores both metadata and Workday application data in a relational database. Workday holds all device metadata and most Workday application data. This is in memory to improve Workday application efficiency.

Enterprise project in Workday application

Before next year's training opportunities, the Enterprise Project is continuing to develop awareness. This is about Workday for core device users. Core users will invite to learn about a set of Workday principles. Then unique to their business area after participating in an introductory Workday session.

The first collection of Workday principles is at human resource practitioners. More than 180 HR professionals from across campus. Then the recently viewed a presentation of Workday's Foundation Data Model (FDM). This is which includes Supervisory Organizations. The sequence for the Workday Core Concepts for HR Workday is in the diagram below.

HR Core Concepts for the Workday application

The Foundation Data Model for Workday illustrates how the system's information and features. This is such as business processes and reports. The FDM explains how Workday divides data between Supervisory Organizations. Besides, has reporting relationships, Cost Centres, financial ownership, and Academic Units (academic structure). Supervisory Organizations provide administrative information for all staff around the university. Then the Medical Centre, which is especially useful for HR professionals.

Effortlessness

The pace is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of ERP. When you're a start-up trying to compete against large ERP software vendors. But you must consider the need to move quick. The object model was to launch Workday in 2005. Then enabling us to dramatically speed up Workday application growth. As they design new features and products, developers can quickly update Workday must applications. This is without having to worry about changing the underlying database. Then performing any database administration operations.

This is how, instead of the industry or longer for conventional tech improvements. We will provide customers with three Workday updates a year. We can adapt rapidly to new customer requests. Then the shorter development cycle makes it easier. This is for customers to participate as design partners. Waiting 112 years or more to see the idea become a reality. This will turn off even the most ardent client. But with Workday, the payoff will happen in as little as four months.

Safety is paramount.

Our developers and customers including those working with them. Then can't navigate the database where customer data is because of Workday's approach. All customer information is and only the Workday application server has access to it.

This is a big step forward in terms of overall business security. Any on-premise ERP implementation, and most hosted enterprise Workday application implementations. Then do not limit the point of access to data to the Workday application server. Even though the vendors selling those implementations call them "SaaS."

Change is inevitable.

The ability to create Workday applications that are open to change. This is the most significant catalyst for our different approaches. Also, after 30 years, business software requirements continue to evolve at a pace. Long-standing requirements such as efficient transaction processing, scalable batch processing. Then high-volume data import must still be met. However, new criteria such as built-in analysis, configurable, and collaborative workflow are becoming more important.Then mobile access is becoming increasingly important.

At Workday, we've shown our ability to meet both old and new criteria. Our iPhone app has undergone new feature updates in less than two years.

Demonstration

During the demonstration portion of the presentation, for example, session participants. These wereable to see how simple and efficient Workday-generated org charts are. From a university-wide map to a single team, Workday offers on real-time employee data. For many HR practitioners, designing and maintaining org is still a manual operation.

The HR leadership will be able to make more decisions to better represent the interests. Then students with this direct view into reporting relationships around the university.

Foundation Data model

The Enterprise Project will continue to involve various groups of university audiences. Then it includes payroll and finance practitioners. This is in recognizing applicable Workday principles in the coming year.

The Foundation Data Model is a classification scheme with several facets.Thus, allows users to tag transactions with common keywords, or "work tags." The university can easily report and analyse data by marking information with workings. Thus, it exchanges between business areas (Finance, HR, Payroll, and Student).

Work tags are to a transaction that provide data for reporting and analysis. Work tags will categorize into three groups.

Framework specifications for workday applications

Workday provides standard work tags as part of the existing framework specifications.

 Work tags identified

A set of work tags will develop to satisfy the university's unique reporting.

Work tags will not use.

The state will not be using the regular Workday work tags.

A visual list of Ohio State's work tags for finance, HR, payroll, and student services can be below. Please press the Work tags button above for more work tag information in a list format.

Significance of FDM

Given the conflicting data needs of units around the FDM would affect the entire Workday. The FDM would influence both developed business processes and structures. While the FDM's layout will result in cleaner data, greater clarity, and precision. Then there'll be a major overhaul of Ohio State's Chart of Accounts and other data items.

Transforming workday application

In PeopleSoft and Great Plains, the FDM will replace the financial Chart of Accounts.

· All work tags around the university and Medical Centre will have common meanings. Then values, removing the need for “user-defined” tags.

· As the backbone of HR info, the FDM will provide supervisory org and work profiles, among other things.

FDM design

The FDM is in produce collaboratively. An iterative process of defining criteria, interpreting design impacts. Then you can drive it validating the design by a working group of subject matter experts (SMEs). As the project progresses, the FDM will begin to develop.

Conclusion

Complex relational database architectures are too slow. This is to adapt to modern enterprise Workday application requirements. For Workday applications written on these architectures, the road to new capabilities is integration. Then you can rewrite rather than a smooth evolution. Because of our industry's rapid pace of transition. Then the topic of Workday application architecture is more critical than ever. That makes describing how Workday is different more satisfying. You can learn more about core concepts through Workday online training.

[workfromhomeyoutuber]

Johns Hopkins University : Associate Director, Hire Hopkins

Headquarters: Baltimore, MD URL: https://www.jhu.edu/

Associate Director, Hire Hopkins General Summary/Purpose: Hire Hopkins, one of three new innovation offices at Johns Hopkins University is a remote-first, newly launched, start-up department. We're focused on developing relationships with employers from a wide variety of industries to enhance job recruitment opportunities for students at all nine academic divisions of the university. Our purpose is to lead and streamline the interactions major employers have with the university to ensure that neither side misses an opportunity to connect a talented and qualified student with a potential job. We support Hopkins grads and post-doctorate fellows towards getting multiple offers for jobs they're excited about. To provide some context about this office, Johns Hopkins University has developed an ambitious vision to continue to integrate life design, experiential learning, and mentoring in the academic and co-curricular learning experience for all students and postdoctoral fellows. Under the leadership of Dr. Farouk Dey, the inaugural vice provost for integrative learning and life design, the university has announced the creation of three new departments and several new initiatives and mission that will ensure that every student and postdoctoral fellow will have the ability to pursue life purpose regardless of background, field of study, or social capital. Read more about this plan here. This new vision is focused on scalability of resources and services. For this transformation to work, traditional one-on-one counseling and coaching services are taking a backseat to a culture of scalable programs and interventions. Those who thrive as counselors, advisors, and coaches and do not enjoy the intense focus on scalability and metrics may not be the best fit for this organization. About the role: Reporting to the Executive Director of Hire Hopkins, the Associate Director of Hire Hopkins will assist in building relationships with companies for the benefit of all students, postdoctoral fellows, and alumni at Johns Hopkins University. The Associate Director will work to attract top employers who can work with multiple schools across the university and grow employer representation at all divisions and departments. They will work closely with the Executive Director to collaborate with leadership across the university, career centers, Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures (JHTV), DAR, and Corporate Relations to implement institution-wide programs that help university staff to best engage employers and ultimately, recruit talent for internships and employment. At its core, this is a highly collaborative and strategic position that will require coordinating business development, meetings, phone calls, training and follow-up actions among employers, career centers, and schools. Because Hire Hopkins is a “start-up” office, the Associate Director will also need to be able to help the Executive Director successfully launch Hire Hopkins within a decentralized university by offering operational support, which can vary from marketing & communications, to learning & development. This is a great opportunity for someone with a proven track-record in employer development, recruiting, business development, and/or sales who would also enjoy supporting operationally and doing whatever is needed to make things work. This is a “start-up” type operation with the perks of a larger organization's resources. Specific Duties & Responsibilities: • Develop strategies for targeting decision-makers at companies in order to book meeting pitches. • Lead outbound outreach (cold calls, sending emails, and leading high-level discovery calls) with companies who can work with and hire Johns Hopkins graduates and post-doctorate fellows. • Drive hiring partner pipeline through setting up qualified meetings with top employers. • Identify potential hiring partners and act as a front door for those partners into Hopkins. • Initiate and coordinate partner engagement including site visits or alternative options to explore opportunities for future or expanded collaboration. • Take a leadership role in coordinating all aspects of deal negotiation and oversee hiring partnerships from identification through closure stage. Attention to detail and proper follow up is critical. • Conduct market research and forecast hiring trends of top employers. • Collaborate with colleagues across divisions and units, especially Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures (JHTV), Corporate Relations, Development & Alumni relations, and the career centers to ensure a unified approach. Maintain and continue to build relationships within the university to create a culture of trust and collaboration. • Be a subject matter expert on Johns Hopkins University's various schools, departments, and students, what they bring to the table, and how they compare to other talent pools. • Report weekly to the Executive Director on market intelligence gained, business development activity and success. • Use Salesforce and other relevant tech tools to track actions, metrics, and results. • Manage ongoing relationships with partners at a high level, and work with employer engagement staff members to communicate reporting milestones and other progress. • Support engagement in social media, digital outlets, and academic and professional journals and associations to establish Hire Hopkins as an exciting brand, tell the story, and serve as a thought leader at Johns Hopkins University, industry, and in higher education. • Willingness and ability to travel up to 25-30%. The Ideal Candidate: The ideal candidate is entrepreneurial, data and outcomes driven, strong in planning and execution, comfortable leading programs and interventions with groups, and enjoys developing relationships and connections with multiple stakeholders at once. They must be transparent, open-minded, creative and committed to working and unifying members in a heavily decentralized institution. Also, the ability to resolve complex problems while maintaining a sense of humor and a solution-oriented, positive attitude is critical. We have modernized our approach and expect that our teams can work from anywhere for the purpose of scaling our impact across the institution. For this model to work, the ideal candidate must present excellent skills in relationship development, being self-driven, and engaging audiences in groups digitally. The ideal candidate has experience working remotely and is comfortable with co-working and flexible work arrangements. We expect the ideal candidate to be available during the Eastern time zone and comfortable working from a home office or co-working space. We will provide a laptop, cellphone, and co-working stipend if need be. A big plus if they are an effective user of tech tools, social media, and other digital outlets to engage multiple audiences, strengthen individual and organizational brand, scale impact, and influence public opinion. Minimum Qualifications: • Bachelor's degree required. • Three (3) years recent direct experience in business development, sales, HR consulting, or recruiting with large-scale organizations. • Proven track-record of having successfully executed business development and negotiated partnerships. Preferred Qualifications: • 2+ years operational experience in start-up, small business, or decentralized higher ed environments. • Professional experience in marketing, communications, branding, and/or social media. • Experience in college recruiting. Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: • Must have a mastery of best practice in prospecting, sales, recruiting and business development. • Excellent oral, written and interpersonal skills. Great listener, strong presenter, and a highly professional image with the ability to interact with people at all levels (from staff members to C-suite executives). You're comfortable both drafting a memo and making a 20 minute presentation to an audience. • Strong problem solving, negotiation and persuasion skills. You're able to get buy-in by connecting with what employers need. • Enthusiasm for the clarity that metrics bring. An obsession for clearly tracking and measuring results. • Must be able to demonstrate effective time management skills and the ability to work independently with minimal day-to-day supervision, while delivering on-target results. • Extremely organized and takes an analytical approach to solving any kind of problem. Brings clarity to complex situations and is able to be solution-oriented and positive under pressure. • Record of success in securing large deals and/or partnerships. • Comfortable working within a complex, multi-divisional environment to establish priorities, set objectives and achieve stated goals. • Demonstrated motivational and consensus-building skills. • Commitment to the use of information technology and the management of database systems. Classified Title: Business Program Manager Working Title: Associate Director, Hire Hopkins ​​​​​ Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PD Starting Salary Range: Commensurate with Experience Employee group: Full Time Schedule: Mon-Fri 8:30-5 Exempt Status: Exempt Location: 01-MD:Homewood Campus Department name: 60009252-Integrative Learning and Life Design Personnel area: Homewood Student Affairs The successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check. If you are interested in applying for employment with The Johns Hopkins University and require special assistance or accommodation during any part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HR Business Services Office at mailto:jhurecruitment@jhu.edu. For TTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711. The following additional provisions may apply depending on which campus you will work. Your recruiter will advise accordingly. During the Influenza ("the flu") season, as a condition of employment, The Johns Hopkins Institutions require all employees who provide ongoing services to patients or work in patient care or clinical care areas to have an annual influenza vaccination or possess an approved medical or religious exception. Failure to meet this requirement may result in termination of employment. The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas, laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving community contact requires documentation of immune status against Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for those employees who provide results of blood tests or immunization documentation from their own health care providers. Any vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost in our Occupational Health office. Equal Opportunity Employer Note: Job Postings are updated daily and remain online until filled. EEO is the Law Learn more: https://ift.tt/1SMrNfa To apply, visit https://ift.tt/3dtOFDb Copyright ©2017 Jobelephant.com Inc. All rights reserved. https://ift.tt/2tJultD jeid-9125b6a7c1df204db6a30f7c4f27fe40

To apply: https://apptrkr.com/1882256

from We Work Remotely: Remote jobs in design, programming, marketing and more https://ift.tt/3bx1meZ from Work From Home YouTuber Job Board Blog https://ift.tt/2UjOzqd

[lancecarr]

How to Solve 10 Common Training Problems With Video

Most trainers, both formal and informal, have the same goal: to make learning that sticks.

The problem with that is, well, problems. There are tons of roadblocks that come up when you’re trying to get other people to absorb information, especially if you’re not the subject matter expert.

In this post, we examine ten pain points that video training addresses – the first of which is the time and money spent on face-to-face learning for repetitive tasks.

Problem #1: Face-to-face training is time-consuming and expensive

Thorough training for employees is entirely necessary for facilitating productivity and safety, but it can quickly become time-consuming and expensive. U.S. companies spent an estimated $70.65 billion on training in 2016 and, on average, lost 53.8 productivity hours per employee while getting them acclimated, according to Training Magazine’s 2016 “Training Industry Report.” 

In most cases, scaling back training is not viable, especially for health care, finance, government, and other strictly regulated industries. But high-quality training in less time is a real possibility and is necessary for businesses that want to curb costs and inconveniences tied to face-to-face job preparation. 

Step one is to replace certain face-to-face orientations and training with video-based learning content. In-person training occupies the schedule of at least two people at any given time – the trainee and the employee administering that training. 

Recommended Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Easily Make Instructional Videos

While nuanced functions inevitably require physical demonstrations, more universal tasks such as filling out time cards or basic, repetitive knowledge work can be proficiently communicated with a well-produced series of on-screen demonstrations and lectures. 

Moving appropriate face-to-face training to video-based training can reduce time, and therefore money. Record it once, share it as many times as you need. 

Problem #2: Schedules can be a nightmare to coordinate

Time spent in face-to-face training sessions is often preceded by an uphill battle to coordinate schedules. Additionally, training coordinators are often under pressure to complete training within tight timeframes. 

This is a struggle given how many people’s schedules need to be considered: 

HR reps responsible for administering and/or coordinating training sessions.

IT team members needed to help with demonstration setups.

Subject matter experts brought in from other departments or locations.

New learners, who are all too easily double-booked as they ramp up. 

Higher-level managers requesting to sit in on certain sessions. 

The beauty of video-based training is that it can be easily recorded at a time that is convenient for those administering the session, and slotted into trainees’ schedules without excessive coordination between multiple parties. Sessions can also be saved and shared through web-based platforms to be used later as teams grow. 

This way, nothing, and no one, falls through the cracks. 

Problem #3: Training across the globe is difficult

Training is often a national or multinational endeavor that requires extensive resources and coordination. The costs of traveling to and from different office locations, and, in some cases, renting space to hold a training session, really add up. Meanwhile, coordinating schedules around multiple time zones can quickly become a hairsplitting exercise.

Language barriers can also present problems during training seminars, requiring translators to make sure everyone gets value from the experience. 

All of this begs the question: Is the cost and complexity of global training justified? 

In some cases, yes. But often, video can be used as a substitute. For instance, when onboarding new personnel, you can use screen recording or video editing software to record webinars and training demonstrations. These videos can then be edited to include captions or subtitles, translations or even quiz questions to gauge how well viewers are learning the content. More importantly, these training assets also work as scalable and repeatable resources. 

In other words, with video, organizations can create concise, compelling reference material that employees can view asynchronously and worldwide, and captioned in their language, as needed.

Problem #4: I’ve only got one shot to capture everything I need from my subject matter expert

Video-conferencing between two or more people is a great way to share information and ideas. It is also ideal for communicating complex and technical information that may be specific to certain specialists, for instance, in medical fields. 

This is because:

The brain processes imagery 60,000 times faster than words, according to Fast Company. 

Humans retain content with imagery better than audio content alone. 

But anyone who has participated in a meeting knows the feeling of trying to pay attention while also taking detailed notes. When the person on the other side of the screen is a busy subject matter expert who is not readily available, you need to ensure you get the right information the first time around. Or do you?

Screen recording and video editing tools let users record interviews so they can be 100-percent engaged during interviews and conversations.

Alternatively, a trainee could send a list of questions to a busy Subject Matter Expert (or SME), who can answer those questions in video-format. Either way, using video for SME interviews enables the creation of a permanent multimedia resource that can be played back on-demand at variable speeds, and even annotated with markers and notes if necessary. You can even get the video transcribed to turn the audio into text if needed.

Capture, consume, annotate, repeat.

Problem #5: The brain drain is real

In his book Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance, Jay Cross compared formal training to riding a bus, where the driver takes you where you need to be, and informal training to riding a bike, where you make your own route, according to Brainshark.

Just as you might need a bus one day and a bike another, formal and informal video-based learning both have their place in the modern business. 

Formal training is effective for establishing a knowledge base for new employees. It’s also crucial for inflexible processes such as medical protocols and compliance management. Processes like this need to be exact, and therefore conveyed in a procedural manner rather than as ad hoc lessons learned. Formal training is typically given in a deliberate order, by a specific and sometimes certified trainer, within a required time frame – for example, an engineering safety procedure video series. 

Informal training happens more on a learn-as-you-go basis. For example, imagine your company has a data management system that was built in house, but the employees who built it are leaving or retiring. All of their expertise and knowledge will also leave with them, causing a void in knowledge that will be difficult to fill. Informal training can solve this through employees creating training videos around their own areas of expertise. As business processes evolve and become more efficient, employees might create video content that shares self-learned best practices. 

The great thing is, you can create both formal and informal training programs with video and screencasts easily and affordably across your entire organization. 

Problem #6: I work with smart people. How do I learn from them?

There is a lot of value in a well-produced series of onboarding videos that help employees acclimate to their roles quickly and inexpensively. But there’s also value in the organic development of a training community that employees can contribute to, and learn from, ad hoc. 

This process, called social learning, doesn’t happen formally, or at management’s request. Rather, it’s the natural outcome of democratizing visual communication tools. Case in point, if someone who is asked to explain pivot tables enough times has access to easy to use video creation tools, they might just go ahead and record a quick “How To” video. 

The second part of that is having a hub where these videos can be uploaded and shared with a relevant audience. 

With intuitive screen capture tools and a collaborative sharing platform, workplace knowledge and training can be crowdsourced. 

Problem #7: Slide decks get boring…fast

Slide decks fulfill a useful function: to organize and present content-heavy training sessions with short, bullet-point summations and visual media. 

The problem is that too many slide decks fail at the “ visual media” element by not using images or media at all. The goal of any good slide deck should be to tell a story, not to read facts and information from a screen verbatim. Part of telling that story is showing the audience something that visually communicates the message. 

One of the best ways to avoid creating a mundane or overwhelming slide deck is to include screenshots, GIFs and video clips. Presenters can visually annotate screenshots to more effectively illustrate their points. No more excessively long, bulleted lists. 

Video and animated GIFs also liven up the presentation. 

Whoever said slide decks have to be boring? 

Problem #8: Remember that training from three months ago? Me neither…

The biggest drawback of traditional, in-person training sessions and written training manuals is that it’s easy to forget the content, and hard to find it when you need it later. Instead of digging back through past notes from training sessions, what if the initial training had been recorded, and then broken into several short videos? 

The videos would serve as short, digestible content that can be absorbed quickly, but also passively. In other words, it can be watched over and over again as needed, and with very little work on the part of the employee. Just record the original training, and break it up into microvideos for anyone to watch when they need to. 

Another option is to include a table of contents for training videos, which let viewers jump to the most relevant topics in the video, depending on their needs at the time. 

Present it once, watch it once and reference it as many times as you need. 

Problem #9: So much training, so little time

Companies are taking twice as long to hire than they were just a few years ago, The Wall Street Journal noted. Understandably, managers are therefore eager to get new employees trained quickly. This means businesses are under pressure to teach employees faster in a shorter time period. 

However, managers also don’t want to leave new hires feeling unprepared to handle tasks being thrown at them – which is too often the case. According to HR Morning, approximately one-third of hires quit within the first six months of employment, and the fourth most commonly cited reason for leaving is “inadequate training.”

One way companies have sought to change this is by using video to more effectively convey information in an engaging, memorable format. According to Forrester, employees are 75 percent more likely to watch training videos than to read training documentation.

As an added bonus for employers, many video editors let you add quiz questions to check if your viewer is learning the content correctly, so trainers can keep tabs on user progress. 

With more friendly video creation tools on the market, it’s easier than ever to create engaging videos that include motion graphics, effects, and captions, rather than just a trainer talking through the content. Give the people what they want–engaging video-based training content that presents a message concisely and memorably–and they’ll be more likely to give you what you want: a shorter learning curve and a longer tenure.

Problem #10: Scaling training is complicated

Last but not least, as businesses grow and change, training must change with it to stay fresh. 

A notable benefit of using video and other eLearning media is that you can create and share more training content in less time. Rather than developing a series of slide decks, coordinating schedules and delivering multiple sessions to users, training coordinators can focus on the production of multimedia training resources that can be delivered to trainees without any of the physical presentations or scheduling challenges. 

Another big benefit of video-based training content is that you can always edit it if the content needs to be changed or updated, and then simply redistribute the updated content instead of calling everyone back together for face-to-face training. 

Additionally, video enables the sharing of knowledge, presentations, and demonstrations among employees and ensures that there’s a community for both formal and informal learning. 

Lights, camera, training. 

Ready to start solving your training problems with video? Camtasia is the best all-in-one screen recorder and video editor that’s helped millions of video-beginners quickly create great instructional videos. Try it now!

The post How to Solve 10 Common Training Problems With Video appeared first on Welcome to the TechSmith Blog.

https://www.techsmith.com/blog/solve-training-problems-video/

[triviareads]

I didn't even read the 'Kama Sutra' fic but frankly any fic that has Kate and Anthony do stuff that's even just dirty talk to each other when they're not at least engaged makes me give the author a side-eye. Like listen, I get that you want them to have fun with each other and everything but literally what's stopping you from having them do that once they're engaged or married? After the gazebo thing happened Anthony was ashamed of it because he took advantage of the situation despite her being a lady. Why shouldn't Kate be treated with the dignity of a lady by Anthony just like any other woman should be? Also, even if Kate were more "knowledgeable", that doesn't make her less worried about her surroundings? Kate can do w/e with Anthony once they're married, she can't do anything if he was only recently courting Edwina or most importantly he's not engaged to her or even courting her. It just falls back on the tired old "this brown woman is more Experienced than her frail white women peers 😏" trope

Yeah, maybe you shouldn't read HR. Look, I've thought about this a lot too- where's the line between wanting sex in your fics and fetishization?- and I think what you're saying is a step too far and highkey puritan. Just because Kate Sharma is an Indian woman, she shouldn't have premarital sex? Come on. By connecting "dignity" to "no premarital sex", you're basically playing into the patriarchy's idea of women being debased in some way just because they have sex before marriage. It is a notion that absolutely existed in the regency era, but remember, this is historical romance. It is written for a modern audience, so why shouldn't we portray premarital sex, especially when it's consensual and all about mutual pleasure and whatnot? Modern authors have the choice to portray premarital sex as something wonderful and exploratory rather than ladened with guilt and slut-shaming, and possibly fetishization.

I think the show actually did a good job of portraying Kate as a woman who, imo, probably hasn't done a whole lot sexually, but as a 26 year old woman, she's more aware of her desires than, say, an 18 year old. And I don't think Anthony was ashamed post-gazebo scene- he was adorably happy lol. The show did fine when it came to portraying Kate's sexual agency, and tbh, I think they should have kissed way sooner. Where I draw the line is when fics outrightly fetishize Kate (see: making her some Kama Sutra expert).

[mermaidsirennikita]

Since you read a lot of HR how do you feel about the debate that you shouldn’t judge characters through a modern eye since its 1800 or whatever? I see it a lot after bridgerton still getting discussed how emotional cheating and cheating are modern day concepts and not fair to judge characters for but I also see that critique in romance forums like reddit people excusing characters for things like dubcon because its the time period. How do you feel about that?

I think people are talking bullshit on several levels there, lol.

Cheating still existed in the 1800s. It may have been more tolerated culturally, but how it affected couples was very much an individual thing. Lmao, do these people not realize that religion was very significant and the Bible says “don’t do that”? Many rationalized it, sure, but people knew you technically should not do that and some partners did make a huge fuss over infidelity. So I’m calling immediate bullshit on that.

In fact, the entire concept of “well it was history so nobody knew it was bad” it usually entirely wrong. Almost every issue that we “now” know is bad was called out back in the day, it was just culturally tolerated or the legal repercussions were weak. Like people who say “well, nobody knew slavery was bad so” nah they did. For as long as slavery has existed, there have been people against slavery, and if you were a follower of a Judeo-Christian religion your religious text most likely had the story of the exodus from Egypt to support the idea that slavery was bad, but anyway. Dubcon is the same thing. It’s like that argument that rape was fine back in medieval times so it’s cool for the dragon show to do it. Nah, bro. Rape has been considered a crime for quite a while. How seriously people took it varied wildly, and indeed prosecuting someone for it was difficult. But there was literally a movie recently about the last duel in medieval France being fought in pursuit of prosecuting a man for rape. Sexual assault was more common than it is now…. Sort of? It’s still honestly remarkably common now. But it wasn’t something where everyone just went “okay that’s fine” and it wasn’t as casual as movies and fiction want you to believe. The 1800s were no that long ago, and our cultural mores have not changed as much as people want to think. Dubious consent is perhaps a bit grayer because it’s literally dubious, but people knew the difference between someone being enthusiastic and excited about sex and someone being cautious about it.

And then there’s the other thing…. Historical romance DOES NOT in any way reflect history accurately. The significance of love in marriage. The number of dukes, lol, the way people talk and act. They’re all ahistorical to varying degrees. The books are influenced by history, because history is wilder than people think, but they’re not accurate, and they frankly shouldn’t be because a truly accurate historical fiction novel of any sort cannot relate to a modern audience. I would argue that it’s impossible to create a truly accurate work of historical fiction because you haven’t as an author lived that era. Even the “accurate” books aren’t. Heyer’s chaste books are praised for accuracy—nah bro, she’s reflecting her own 1950s sense of morality.

So throw that out. And frankly, the idea that we’re arguing over the moral rightness of fictional characters is tiresome and pointless. It’s fiction. I don’t care if they’re acting correctly. I care if they act in a way that is interesting to me, and I care if the author made a good point and wrote the story well. I’m not surprised you see it on Reddit, but like….. it’s not for me. I don’t need to justify a character’s actions if the story is written well. See: why the dubcon in It Happened One Autumn I like, while a similar scene in The Duke and I bothers me.

I’m honestly more concerned about the modern political perspectives and morality of authors writing today than the morality of their characters.

[lambofthelions]

This might be an odd question but I want to make one of my characters less of a Mary Sue and I was wondering if you had any tips on doing so.

(HO BOY. At least you came to the right person.

So I’m going to tell you something you might not want to hear. Some people, no matter how much research, effort, time, and re-writes you put into a character, will call your character a mary-sue. Vanya has been called a Mary Sue before, and I have spent YEARS on research and very careful character building. The term gets thrown around a lot, even when the characters themselves don’t deserve the title. I have written real mary-sues, TERRIBLE, JAW-DROPPINGLY BAD mary-sues, and I’m a little less liberal with the term because of it.

The modern Mary Sue has changed dramatically since I was a teenager. Back then, the Mary Sue was more innocent. Her parents were killed or eaten by wolves, she was an orphan, her hair was weird colors and hr eyes changed depending on her mood. She had half a dozen wildly colored pets, mostly unicorns or other beasts indicative of her status. She was both sexy and naive, virginal and chaste while wearing a cotton ball’s worth of cloth. The ‘Purity Sue’ (A saintly character that can do no wrong) was far more common than not. The Gary Stu, her brother, hasn’t changed much since then. He’s still as broody and backwards as ever, usually a male power fantasy taken to the Nth degree. These days, a Mary Sue is a bit more...broken. Her backstory has gotten darker, she’s now saddled with 15 different mental disorders, she cuts herself, her parents either sold her off into child slavery or sexually abused her until she ran; yes, I realize that these things happen in real life, but your average 13 year old suburbanite teenage girl writing fanfiction about her Purity sue character redeeming Loki and having his 6 bastard babies hasn’t experienced world-altering trauma like that.

This got long, so I’ve put it under a cut.

Research your canon, and obey its rules. Making your character slide seamlessly into the canon, no matter what canon it is, is the most important thing you can ever do for your story and your character. You, by making this OC and putting them into the canon you’re writing for, are altering the make-up of that world. If a world doesn’t have wildly colored hair as a commonplace thing, don’t give your OC wildly colored hair. If elf ears aren’t common, don’t give your character elf ears. Making connections to canon characters, such as making a North Ireland OC the younger brother of England, alters it further in the mind of a potential reader. Readers are fickle, and unless you blend that character into the world they’re altering, they won’t give your story a chance. Let’s take Hetalia, for example. A character that is a region in south-eastern Spain that harbored a low-key crush on Turkey during his Ottoman days, and imitated his tilework to try and catch his attention? I’d buy that. It ties into canon as well as having historical backing! Hell yeah, gimme dat. A character that is a spanish half-dragon that became Turkey’s harem girl and bore Cyprus as his quarter-dragon spawn? ...Nah. 

Don’t use rape as a backstory. I didn’t think I’d ever have to say this, but this is so unbelievably common these days that I have to. Rape as a story element has to be treated like the literary nuke that it is. It will take any narrative you have and bring it to a grinding halt, and very few people have the wherewithal to write about it correctly. Bennett the Sage had a great discussion on rape as a literary device. Check it out on youtube.

Find a niche and exploit it. I don’t need to tell you that there’s holes in canon storylines that are glossed over by manga writers or TV show exec’s. It’s easier for a reader to buy a character that’s connected to the canon tangentially than it is a character that crashes into the story headfirst. I wrote an entire group of semi-nomadic people for the Naruto canon once by doing this (Iwagakure-based mountain cliff-dwellers that had re-breathers shaped like ram skulls, it was neat), and any canon with a decent amount of world-building can have the same done to it. If you’re willing to side-step the main story, you have a little bit more freedom to play around with.

Use restraint, and use canon as a measuring stick. This one is obvious. It can be tempting to give your character powers that are technically found within the canon, but unless its relevant to their character and would build the story further without disrupting canon, don’t do it. Little things, like giving a marvel character natural super strength and a piston-powered rocket punch is fucking COOL. I’d want to read about the misadventures of a teenager getting used to super strength, and needing an exosuit to restrain their powers! Giving them super strength that’s better than Hulk’s, bigger brains than Tony Stark, super speed faster than the flash, probability manipulation like the Scarlett Witch, and mind control powers better than Charles Xavier’s with none of the drawbacks? You’ll break the canon down around your character. ...that, and you’d be a god-moder, and NOBODY likes god-moders.

Characters do not have to be ‘unique’ to be interesting. Sometimes people have an urge to make their character exceptional, special, or that breaks and shakes the foundations of the system they’re in. You want to stand out, that’s understandable. You can have a character that just wants to b a better painter, and that would make a better, more realistic story than a character whose paintings talk back to her. There’s nothing wrong with making a character that slides into the background. Hell, I did that with one of my first Hetalia OC’s, @disgruntled-dogmusher. She’s a state. She slides into the background very easily, and isn’t part of large-scale world events. That’s fine! She has her own shit to deal with, and I never run out of things for her to do.

Ask yourself, ‘Why?’ every so often. This one is super simple, and it’ll keep you from making mistakes. ‘Why does this mortal character have a child with Canada?’ Oh, right. Human AU with World War I as a setting about coping with PTSD and outdated societal expectations of masculinity; That checks out. ‘Why is this mortal character Canada’s incestuous lover with semi-mortal twins while simultaneously being England’s child and secondary love interest?’  If you can’t answer ‘why’ or ‘how’ when it comes to a major plot point, or character trait, can it. Don’t use it. It’ll destroy the reader’s suspension of disbelief.

The mary sue isn’t a litmus test, it isn’t a score card, and it isn’t a series of definable traits. It’s a disconnect between the reader, the writer, and the canon. Think of Sasuke, a textbook canon sue that the western audience HATED. He started out likeable enough, albeit shoe-horned in because the editors thought Naruto needed a rival. He was the typical, run of the mill shounen broody rival staple, and usually those mellow out and blossom into their own characters as time goes on. He spiraled out of control as the series went on, and we all started eyerolling when a new power popped up when he conveniently needed it. We, as the western readers, stopped caring about him. If you pound how awesome your OC is down the reader’s throat enough, they’re going to hate your guts. Tone it down a notch.

Don’t be discouraged. You’ll improve. You’ll become a better writer. You’ll learn and take away helpful criticism. Sometimes, readers are wrong entirely about a character, and will be hateful, vindictive pieces of shit for literally no reason, or just because your OC ‘gets between a ship’. The Harry Potter fanfic community was RIFE with this sort of shit for ages, and from what I heard, still is. With Hetalia, modern Hetalia at least, it’s an uphill battle from the get-go. You’ll be lumped in with people that make up nations and throw lightning bolts from their hands, or use painful real-world events in history to justify their OC ship. If you’re a female character AT ALL in Hetalia, you’re going to get accused of being a Mary Sue. Sometimes, it’s just going to take time. Maybe they’re wrong. Maybe, you’re wrong. Just keep trucking, keep adjusting, and eventually you’ll figure it out.

[jayvoicetrg]

You’ve seen it all before. The charming small-town, home to a cool spunky girl, a guy who graduated just in time to get his parents talking about marriage and his childhood best friend. It has the same atmosphere of movies off-late, set in Kanpur and Lucknow with a mainstream cast of new-age Bollywood's Bhumi Pednekar, Kartik Aryan and Ananya Panday. With a star kid and an overrated actor capitalizing on Pyaar Ka Punchnama, you have your average hindi cinema-goer’s excuse to go watch a “new” movie. Well, at least that’s what they’re calling it. Pati Patni Aur Woh, written by Mudassar Aziz, runs on the 1978 film’s template and tries to give it some patchwork. Should we care? Abhinav Tyagi (Kartik Aryan) is the average guy tossed into the marriage market with Vedika Tripathi (Bhumi Pednekar) and his lack of agency and her willingness to try “restriction” instead of rebellion (coupled with her appetite for sex) the two become Pati Aur Patni. They have a few years of fun in them till they tire of each other. This is where the Woh, Tapasya (Ananya Panday) enters with a questionable booty shot because of course and is spotted by Tyagi’s wandering eyes. His attraction for her becomes the catalyst for marital problems, affairs and rife foundation for sexist jokes. Would it help if I mentioned her tells her that his wife is having an affair to sell a sob story and make himself available to her? If you thought Kartik Aryan was annoying, Kanpuriya Kartik Aryan is even more obnoxious Kartik Aryan known for his sexist monologues is trying real hard to keep up with his rep, keep up with his wife (who happens to be way cooler than he is) and keep his reputation clean as the privileged upper-middle-class guy in this movie. Pati Patni Aur Woh wants to sell you a victimized bechara Kartik Aryan all over again. Poor guy, he has no control over his adulterous tendencies, he has no regard for his wife who wants to move to a better city and he has absolutely no cares to give his friend Fahim played by a sorely misused Aparshakti Khuranna. Rajat has come a long way from Mumbai to play Chintu Tyagi. This transition is accompanied by a moustache, a wardrobe change and the most annoying smile (sidenote: where is his upper lip in this film? It looks like it’s been turned inside out). A few minutes into the film, our story’s Pati might have just said his opening lines and I was already annoyed. I knew he won’t have a single good thing to say throughout the 2.8 hr runtime and I was right only to be proved wrong when he started monologuing again. Things got so much worse. T-Series Pati Patni Aur Patriarchal values reinforced The problem with Pati Patni Aur Woh is that it thinks the woke movie-goer won’t notice the outdated arcs it’s selling. Vedika after choosing to be domesticated for her new husband and dubbed adulterous finds out about his affair. Later in the film, she is given the agency and means to walk out. It is here that she meets a man from her past (and is probably judged by the uncles and aunties who were laughing at sexist jokes at the screening I was at) and thus begins an all-new chapter of messed up. Even with the reworked marital monologue, it’s still pretty misogynistic. The story tries to subvert the problematic gender stereotypes of first, the temptress and the wayward woman but, ends up reinforcing them. It is all done to make the hero look good, who by the way, is the whiniest guy, still upset about his ex-girlfriend who dumped him unceremoniously. The film gives her the role of a fickle woman and criticises even an off-camera plot device, imagine what it does with the women on the screen! All the focus is placed on the man’s plight with dialogues like “sabse barbaad pati hi hota hai” and “aashiq kuch bhi kar sakta hai” (we’ll come back to this line later). Let’s get one thing straight, Abhinav has practically no problems. His trials are highlighted only at the cost of making the women look bad. Coming to the main problem of the movie- T-Series Saving women for collateral damage in the Pati’s story While he is carrying on his extramarital tryst we see Tapasya play the dimwit, the city girl trapped by the charms of a simple guy. And somehow the movie wants to convince you that Abhinav still is that naive, nice guy caught between two women who are just two problems in his life. They have no other function than to bring out the boyish lover, the adoring husband, the depressed aashiq and the righteous guy in him. Tyagi is none of these things but the film wants so desperately for you to believe it that it makes villains out of its female characters. Tapasya is particularly ill-used as she’s given the job of seducing a married man since she’s unattached and then aiding the couple’s getting back together plan. Vedika too is equally eager to win her loser husband back and spend even more emotional labour than she already has. As if that wasn’t enough, there are sequences that see the women doing things for themselves but, even these are on a stencil of pleasing the man. Tapasya changes into desi attire in no time to meet the guy’s parents and Vedika gets into a western outfit for her big walk out of marital shackles (saree-wearing women are too sanskari to do that na?). By twisting traditionality and modernity, the film reinstigates the idea of a man wanting both, the girl who will take him to a club and dance to that annoying ‘Dheeme Dheeme’ song and the one who will settle for the Kanpur life where he chills with his homie and cribs about the injustice he’s being dealt with. The women in his film are used merely to supplicate the hero who progressively becomes a worse human being. The problem is that the audience I watched in the company of didn’t see that judging from the uproarious laughter and some clapping at what I can only describe as lazy dialogue writing. T-Series And it’s so boring! More than watching it through the layered lens of Pati Patni Aur Woh conforming under the guise of a non-conformist film, you’ll see how utterly plain it is. The comedy-drama has absolutely nothing new to offer. It is the same old story dragged along for over two hours and by intermission, you’ll be vying for the climax and the sweet relief of getting out of the auditorium. Halfway into the run-time and I was already eyeing the exit signs prominently placed right under the screen. So tempting! This film has all the regressive comedy tropes, the idea of a man trapped in marriage, lured by a temptress and the hilarity that comes from hiding his affair. It’s exactly what you’d find in an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show. Run-off-the-mill lines, puns that are done to death and humour straight from the 70s. This movie is nothing of the patchwork it promises its predecessor. If anything, it furthers that agenda and adds the “aashiq kuch bhi kar sakta hai” line in a time when Kabir Singh is a thing! If you want to travel back to everything that was wrong with 1978 India go ahead, watch the movie and try not to be immediately pissed off by Kartik Aaryan’s new excuse to monologue. It’ll be as impossible as feeling sorry for bechara Chintu Tyagi.

You’ve seen it all before. The charming small-town, home to a cool spunky girl, a guy who graduated just in time to get his parents talking about marriage and his childhood best friend. It has the same atmosphere of movies off-late, set in Kanpur and Lucknow with a mainstream cast of new-age Bollywood’s Bhumi Pednekar, Kartik Aryan and Ananya Panday. With a star kid and an overrated actor capitalizing on Pyaar Ka Punchnama, you have your average hindi cinema-goer’s excuse to go watch a “new” movie. Well, at least that’s what they’re calling it. Pati Patni Aur Woh, written by Mudassar Aziz, runs on the 1978 film’s template and tries to give it some patchwork. Should we care? Abhinav Tyagi (Kartik Aryan) is the average guy tossed into the marriage market with Vedika Tripathi (Bhumi Pednekar) and his lack of agency and her willingness to try “restriction” instead of rebellion (coupled with her appetite for sex) the two become Pati Aur Patni. They have a few years of fun in them till they tire of each other. This is where the Woh, Tapasya (Ananya Panday) enters with a questionable booty shot because of course and is spotted by Tyagi’s wandering eyes. His attraction for her becomes the catalyst for marital problems, affairs and rife foundation for sexist jokes. Would it help if I mentioned her tells her that his wife is having an affair to sell a sob story and make himself available to her? If you thought Kartik Aryan was annoying, Kanpuriya Kartik Aryan is even more obnoxious Kartik Aryan known for his sexist monologues is trying real hard to keep up with his rep, keep up with his wife (who happens to be way cooler than he is) and keep his reputation clean as the privileged upper-middle-class guy in this movie. Pati Patni Aur Woh wants to sell you a victimized bechara Kartik Aryan all over again. Poor guy, he has no control over his adulterous tendencies, he has no regard for his wife who wants to move to a better city and he has absolutely no cares to give his friend Fahim played by a sorely misused Aparshakti Khuranna. Rajat has come a long way from Mumbai to play Chintu Tyagi. This transition is accompanied by a moustache, a wardrobe change and the most annoying smile (sidenote: where is his upper lip in this film? It looks like it’s been turned inside out). A few minutes into the film, our story’s Pati might have just said his opening lines and I was already annoyed. I knew he won’t have a single good thing to say throughout the 2.8 hr runtime and I was right only to be proved wrong when he started monologuing again. Things got so much worse. T-Series Pati Patni Aur Patriarchal values reinforced The problem with Pati Patni Aur Woh is that it thinks the woke movie-goer won’t notice the outdated arcs it’s selling. Vedika after choosing to be domesticated for her new husband and dubbed adulterous finds out about his affair. Later in the film, she is given the agency and means to walk out. It is here that she meets a man from her past (and is probably judged by the uncles and aunties who were laughing at sexist jokes at the screening I was at) and thus begins an all-new chapter of messed up. Even with the reworked marital monologue, it’s still pretty misogynistic. The story tries to subvert the problematic gender stereotypes of first, the temptress and the wayward woman but, ends up reinforcing them. It is all done to make the hero look good, who by the way, is the whiniest guy, still upset about his ex-girlfriend who dumped him unceremoniously. The film gives her the role of a fickle woman and criticises even an off-camera plot device, imagine what it does with the women on the screen! All the focus is placed on the man’s plight with dialogues like “sabse barbaad pati hi hota hai” and “aashiq kuch bhi kar sakta hai” (we’ll come back to this line later). Let’s get one thing straight, Abhinav has practically no problems. His trials are highlighted only at the cost of making the women look bad. Coming to the main problem of the movie- T-Series Saving women for collateral damage in the Pati’s story While he is carrying on his extramarital tryst we see Tapasya play the dimwit, the city girl trapped by the charms of a simple guy. And somehow the movie wants to convince you that Abhinav still is that naive, nice guy caught between two women who are just two problems in his life. They have no other function than to bring out the boyish lover, the adoring husband, the depressed aashiq and the righteous guy in him. Tyagi is none of these things but the film wants so desperately for you to believe it that it makes villains out of its female characters. Tapasya is particularly ill-used as she’s given the job of seducing a married man since she’s unattached and then aiding the couple’s getting back together plan. Vedika too is equally eager to win her loser husband back and spend even more emotional labour than she already has. As if that wasn’t enough, there are sequences that see the women doing things for themselves but, even these are on a stencil of pleasing the man. Tapasya changes into desi attire in no time to meet the guy’s parents and Vedika gets into a western outfit for her big walk out of marital shackles (saree-wearing women are too sanskari to do that na?). By twisting traditionality and modernity, the film reinstigates the idea of a man wanting both, the girl who will take him to a club and dance to that annoying ‘Dheeme Dheeme’ song and the one who will settle for the Kanpur life where he chills with his homie and cribs about the injustice he’s being dealt with. The women in his film are used merely to supplicate the hero who progressively becomes a worse human being. The problem is that the audience I watched in the company of didn’t see that judging from the uproarious laughter and some clapping at what I can only describe as lazy dialogue writing. T-Series And it’s so boring! More than watching it through the layered lens of Pati Patni Aur Woh conforming under the guise of a non-conformist film, you’ll see how utterly plain it is. The comedy-drama has absolutely nothing new to offer. It is the same old story dragged along for over two hours and by intermission, you’ll be vying for the climax and the sweet relief of getting out of the auditorium. Halfway into the run-time and I was already eyeing the exit signs prominently placed right under the screen. So tempting! This film has all the regressive comedy tropes, the idea of a man trapped in marriage, lured by a temptress and the hilarity that comes from hiding his affair. It’s exactly what you’d find in an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show. Run-off-the-mill lines, puns that are done to death and humour straight from the 70s. This movie is nothing of the patchwork it promises its predecessor. If anything, it furthers that agenda and adds the “aashiq kuch bhi kar sakta hai” line in a time when Kabir Singh is a thing! If you want to travel back to everything that was wrong with 1978 India go ahead, watch the movie and try not to be immediately pissed off by Kartik Aaryan’s new excuse to monologue. It’ll be as impossible as feeling sorry for bechara Chintu Tyagi.

  President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday signed into law, the Kenya Roads Board (Amendment) Bill 2019.

The signed Bill restructures the mandate and operations of the Kenya Roads Board and other agencies in the roads sector by, among other changes, outlining how funds including exchequer resources will be utilized in the construction and maintenance of the county’s roads.

One of the reforms outlined…

[goodra-king]

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on 2019 Marketing Trends

‘Tis the season for end of year lists and content that’s looking to trends in the New Year. Rather than run through all of the ins and outs of what I see coming up on the marketing horizon, I’ve decided to focus on what I see as the four most important marketing trends for 2019.

If you’re a small business owner or a marketing consultant who works with small business teams, these are the trends you can’t afford to ignore.

1. Get Up to Speed on Google My Business

Google has been trying to crack the social media and small business ad platform code for a while. Some attempts, like Google Plus, have not worked, but it seems like they may have finally found their sweet spot with Google My Business. This is a tool where local businesses can advertise and consumers can find nearby businesses on mobile devices.

Over the past few months, Google has been more and more focused on the Google My Business platform. It’s become more feature-rich and useful for business owners, and I think it’s likely that it will become a sort of social CRM tool in the near future.

Photo courtesy of Google

What do I mean by that? In addition to the features like leaving reviews, finding directions, and making suggestions to edit the page, Google has recently added a feature where people can follow a Google My Business page. Not only that, Google’s recently introduced an app just for their Google My Business product.

These changes lead me to believe that they’re aiming to make Google My Business like a social network for businesses. This serves local business owners well. When someone starts to follow your company on Google My Business, that’s obviously a strong indicator that they’re interested in what you have to offer. This provides yet another channel for you to identify hot leads and connect with your fans.

If you’re running marketing efforts for a small business, then you should be paying close attention to all of these developments and additions to the platform and keeping pace with them accordingly.

Eventually, I anticipate that a business’s Google My Business platform will become a ranking factor in Google searches. The more followers you have on your page, the higher you’ll rank in search results. The quality of your business’s online assets and reviews are already ranking factors, so it’s not a leap to think that Google My Business will affect ranking in the future.

2. Focus on Retention

There’s an awful lot of work that goes into generating leads. It’s time, it’s money, it’s effort. This means that retaining leads is really where a business’s bread and butter lies. Research has shown time and again that it’s cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to go out and find a new one.

So what does that mean for your marketing efforts? It means you need to focus on your basic online presence. Existing customers will only stick around if their experience in interacting with you is one that builds trust. When you have a shoddy online presence that’s inconsistent or has big gaps in information, you make your customers doubt you. Have you ever thought twice about using a particular service provider because they had a bare bones website or they weren’t anywhere to be found on Yelp?

Retention is also about focusing on building a robust on-boarding process for existing customers. This needs to be a process that’s clear-cut and allows you to monitor results and make changes and improvements based on the data you’re seeing.

Finally, you need to make sure you’re creating real value for your existing customers. Build campaigns that really train them, events that are experiences that surprise and delight, and a referral process that provides true incentive for them to pass your name along to others.

CRM and marketing automation tools can help you manage these processes. These tools allow you to segment your audience so that you can easily guide, train, and over-communicate with the customers you already have so that retention stays high.

3. Embrace the Cloud

In recent years, the Cloud has become a bigger and bigger part of doing business. And small business owners have already begun to use cloud-based technology to improve their internal systems and processes. Cloud-based storage and communication systems have made it easier for distributed teams to collaborate and get things done.

However, the future lies in harnessing cloud technology to provide an even better customer experience. It’s not just about convenience or lowering cost, it’s become a part of the customer’s expectation that cloud technology is used to enhance the customer experience.

As you begin 2019, think about how you can use cloud-based tools that help with payment collection, online collaboration, and other customer service features to make your customer experience even more seamless.

4. Use Video Content Everywhere

We’ve been talking about content and we’ve been talking about video separately for years, but I think 2019 is going to be all about video content. Short form video content, in particular, is an important marketing trend. Studies continue to show that video content gets the most engagement and highest return on investment.

Developers and tech companies have caught wind of the trend as well. They continue to come out with new tools and products that make it easier for anyone to produce short and engaging videos that can be used for any and all marketing efforts.

Video isn’t just something splashy to put on your website’s homepage anymore. It can and should be used to provide meaningful content all throughout the customer journey. You may use it during the early phases to introduce the brand story and team members, but it can also be employed further along the journey to share content that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry (building trust with prospects), and later to provide in-depth tutorials for customers so that they can get the most out of their recent purchases.

You should be using video across channels, too. Video on your website is great, but also put your video content to use in ads, social media posts, and as a way to introduce your blog posts. When video is used in this way, it goes beyond being just a tool to becoming something that produces deep, meaningful content all along the customer journey.

I hope taking a look at these trends gets you excited about all of the wonderful marketing possibilities ahead in the New Year!

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Gusto! Payroll and benefits are hard. Especially when you’re a small business. Gusto is making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for modern small businesses. You no longer have to be a big company to get great technology, great benefits, and great service to take care of your team.

To help support the show, Gusto is offering our listeners an exclusive, limited-time deal. Sign up today, and you’ll get 3 months free once you run your first payroll. Just go to Gusto.com/TAPE.

from http://bit.ly/2V0OHcP

[vidmktg30245]

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on 2019 Marketing Trends

‘Tis the season for end of year lists and content that’s looking to trends in the New Year. Rather than run through all of the ins and outs of what I see coming up on the marketing horizon, I’ve decided to focus on what I see as the four most important marketing trends for 2019.

If you’re a small business owner or a marketing consultant who works with small business teams, these are the trends you can’t afford to ignore.

1. Get Up to Speed on Google My Business

Google has been trying to crack the social media and small business ad platform code for a while. Some attempts, like Google Plus, have not worked, but it seems like they may have finally found their sweet spot with Google My Business. This is a tool where local businesses can advertise and consumers can find nearby businesses on mobile devices.

Over the past few months, Google has been more and more focused on the Google My Business platform. It’s become more feature-rich and useful for business owners, and I think it’s likely that it will become a sort of social CRM tool in the near future.

Photo courtesy of Google

What do I mean by that? In addition to the features like leaving reviews, finding directions, and making suggestions to edit the page, Google has recently added a feature where people can follow a Google My Business page. Not only that, Google’s recently introduced an app just for their Google My Business product.

These changes lead me to believe that they’re aiming to make Google My Business like a social network for businesses. This serves local business owners well. When someone starts to follow your company on Google My Business, that’s obviously a strong indicator that they’re interested in what you have to offer. This provides yet another channel for you to identify hot leads and connect with your fans.

If you’re running marketing efforts for a small business, then you should be paying close attention to all of these developments and additions to the platform and keeping pace with them accordingly.

Eventually, I anticipate that a business’s Google My Business platform will become a ranking factor in Google searches. The more followers you have on your page, the higher you’ll rank in search results. The quality of your business’s online assets and reviews are already ranking factors, so it’s not a leap to think that Google My Business will affect ranking in the future.

2. Focus on Retention

There’s an awful lot of work that goes into generating leads. It’s time, it’s money, it’s effort. This means that retaining leads is really where a business’s bread and butter lies. Research has shown time and again that it’s cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to go out and find a new one.

So what does that mean for your marketing efforts? It means you need to focus on your basic online presence. Existing customers will only stick around if their experience in interacting with you is one that builds trust. When you have a shoddy online presence that’s inconsistent or has big gaps in information, you make your customers doubt you. Have you ever thought twice about using a particular service provider because they had a bare bones website or they weren’t anywhere to be found on Yelp?

Retention is also about focusing on building a robust on-boarding process for existing customers. This needs to be a process that’s clear-cut and allows you to monitor results and make changes and improvements based on the data you’re seeing.

Finally, you need to make sure you’re creating real value for your existing customers. Build campaigns that really train them, events that are experiences that surprise and delight, and a referral process that provides true incentive for them to pass your name along to others.

CRM and marketing automation tools can help you manage these processes. These tools allow you to segment your audience so that you can easily guide, train, and over-communicate with the customers you already have so that retention stays high.

3. Embrace the Cloud

In recent years, the Cloud has become a bigger and bigger part of doing business. And small business owners have already begun to use cloud-based technology to improve their internal systems and processes. Cloud-based storage and communication systems have made it easier for distributed teams to collaborate and get things done.

However, the future lies in harnessing cloud technology to provide an even better customer experience. It’s not just about convenience or lowering cost, it’s become a part of the customer’s expectation that cloud technology is used to enhance the customer experience.

As you begin 2019, think about how you can use cloud-based tools that help with payment collection, online collaboration, and other customer service features to make your customer experience even more seamless.

4. Use Video Content Everywhere

We’ve been talking about content and we’ve been talking about video separately for years, but I think 2019 is going to be all about video content. Short form video content, in particular, is an important marketing trend. Studies continue to show that video content gets the most engagement and highest return on investment.

Developers and tech companies have caught wind of the trend as well. They continue to come out with new tools and products that make it easier for anyone to produce short and engaging videos that can be used for any and all marketing efforts.

Video isn’t just something splashy to put on your website’s homepage anymore. It can and should be used to provide meaningful content all throughout the customer journey. You may use it during the early phases to introduce the brand story and team members, but it can also be employed further along the journey to share content that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry (building trust with prospects), and later to provide in-depth tutorials for customers so that they can get the most out of their recent purchases.

You should be using video across channels, too. Video on your website is great, but also put your video content to use in ads, social media posts, and as a way to introduce your blog posts. When video is used in this way, it goes beyond being just a tool to becoming something that produces deep, meaningful content all along the customer journey.

I hope taking a look at these trends gets you excited about all of the wonderful marketing possibilities ahead in the New Year!

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Gusto! Payroll and benefits are hard. Especially when you’re a small business. Gusto is making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for modern small businesses. You no longer have to be a big company to get great technology, great benefits, and great service to take care of your team.

To help support the show, Gusto is offering our listeners an exclusive, limited-time deal. Sign up today, and you’ll get 3 months free once you run your first payroll. Just go to Gusto.com/TAPE.

https://ift.tt/2PL7GnP

[duiatty48170]

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019

The Top Four Marketing Trends for 2019 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on 2019 Marketing Trends

‘Tis the season for end of year lists and content that’s looking to trends in the New Year. Rather than run through all of the ins and outs of what I see coming up on the marketing horizon, I’ve decided to focus on what I see as the four most important marketing trends for 2019.

If you’re a small business owner or a marketing consultant who works with small business teams, these are the trends you can’t afford to ignore.

1. Get Up to Speed on Google My Business

Google has been trying to crack the social media and small business ad platform code for a while. Some attempts, like Google Plus, have not worked, but it seems like they may have finally found their sweet spot with Google My Business. This is a tool where local businesses can advertise and consumers can find nearby businesses on mobile devices.

Over the past few months, Google has been more and more focused on the Google My Business platform. It’s become more feature-rich and useful for business owners, and I think it’s likely that it will become a sort of social CRM tool in the near future.

Photo courtesy of Google

What do I mean by that? In addition to the features like leaving reviews, finding directions, and making suggestions to edit the page, Google has recently added a feature where people can follow a Google My Business page. Not only that, Google’s recently introduced an app just for their Google My Business product.

These changes lead me to believe that they’re aiming to make Google My Business like a social network for businesses. This serves local business owners well. When someone starts to follow your company on Google My Business, that’s obviously a strong indicator that they’re interested in what you have to offer. This provides yet another channel for you to identify hot leads and connect with your fans.

If you’re running marketing efforts for a small business, then you should be paying close attention to all of these developments and additions to the platform and keeping pace with them accordingly.

Eventually, I anticipate that a business’s Google My Business platform will become a ranking factor in Google searches. The more followers you have on your page, the higher you’ll rank in search results. The quality of your business’s online assets and reviews are already ranking factors, so it’s not a leap to think that Google My Business will affect ranking in the future.

2. Focus on Retention

There’s an awful lot of work that goes into generating leads. It’s time, it’s money, it’s effort. This means that retaining leads is really where a business’s bread and butter lies. Research has shown time and again that it’s cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to go out and find a new one.

So what does that mean for your marketing efforts? It means you need to focus on your basic online presence. Existing customers will only stick around if their experience in interacting with you is one that builds trust. When you have a shoddy online presence that’s inconsistent or has big gaps in information, you make your customers doubt you. Have you ever thought twice about using a particular service provider because they had a bare bones website or they weren’t anywhere to be found on Yelp?

Retention is also about focusing on building a robust on-boarding process for existing customers. This needs to be a process that’s clear-cut and allows you to monitor results and make changes and improvements based on the data you’re seeing.

Finally, you need to make sure you’re creating real value for your existing customers. Build campaigns that really train them, events that are experiences that surprise and delight, and a referral process that provides true incentive for them to pass your name along to others.

CRM and marketing automation tools can help you manage these processes. These tools allow you to segment your audience so that you can easily guide, train, and over-communicate with the customers you already have so that retention stays high.

3. Embrace the Cloud

In recent years, the Cloud has become a bigger and bigger part of doing business. And small business owners have already begun to use cloud-based technology to improve their internal systems and processes. Cloud-based storage and communication systems have made it easier for distributed teams to collaborate and get things done.

However, the future lies in harnessing cloud technology to provide an even better customer experience. It’s not just about convenience or lowering cost, it’s become a part of the customer’s expectation that cloud technology is used to enhance the customer experience.

As you begin 2019, think about how you can use cloud-based tools that help with payment collection, online collaboration, and other customer service features to make your customer experience even more seamless.

4. Use Video Content Everywhere

We’ve been talking about content and we’ve been talking about video separately for years, but I think 2019 is going to be all about video content. Short form video content, in particular, is an important marketing trend. Studies continue to show that video content gets the most engagement and highest return on investment.

Developers and tech companies have caught wind of the trend as well. They continue to come out with new tools and products that make it easier for anyone to produce short and engaging videos that can be used for any and all marketing efforts.

Video isn’t just something splashy to put on your website’s homepage anymore. It can and should be used to provide meaningful content all throughout the customer journey. You may use it during the early phases to introduce the brand story and team members, but it can also be employed further along the journey to share content that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry (building trust with prospects), and later to provide in-depth tutorials for customers so that they can get the most out of their recent purchases.

You should be using video across channels, too. Video on your website is great, but also put your video content to use in ads, social media posts, and as a way to introduce your blog posts. When video is used in this way, it goes beyond being just a tool to becoming something that produces deep, meaningful content all along the customer journey.

I hope taking a look at these trends gets you excited about all of the wonderful marketing possibilities ahead in the New Year!

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Gusto! Payroll and benefits are hard. Especially when you’re a small business. Gusto is making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for modern small businesses. You no longer have to be a big company to get great technology, great benefits, and great service to take care of your team.

To help support the show, Gusto is offering our listeners an exclusive, limited-time deal. Sign up today, and you’ll get 3 months free once you run your first payroll. Just go to Gusto.com/TAPE.

https://ift.tt/2PL7GnP