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[we-write-fics-here-sir]

Due to my insatiable hunger for Fawful content we are now writing fic for him and his hopefully speedy recovery from being the dumbest bean alive.

Title: Beans and how to soothe them

Characters: Fawful, Popple, Bowser (for like 3 frames)

Chapters: intro and chapter 1 (more to come)

Summary: Fawful's final moments in a great battle, Popple has an asthma attack in the woods

The dark power, as it turns out, is not feeling as wonderful composing his body as it did coursing through it.

●

●

●

Fawful is finding breathing very difficult right now.

In simple terms, Fawful's body is on fire!

The world around him glows and pulsates, many colors swirling and changing as two little pests red and green smash into him with hammers that hurt so much worse than the last time he faced their brunt end.

The floor breathes. His legs are shaking. The air is so hot. His glasses are shattered and broken, and his legs are following their lead in this play of pain and fracturing. He may be having the panic attack, but he will choke that down to continue his fight!

And yet

He is having the dish of victory torn away from him, and loss served on a dirty platter rusted with sadness- he can feel the power of the dark star connected to his being finally shudder and die. It feels like his heart is gone. His body has never felt such chill.

Everything is moving with such swiftness- he...lost? The dark star, it is gone? Just like that? After he put in so much work, after he slaved away for so many of the hours?

Fawful needs revenge.

Fawful gathers the last of his strength for one final attack. An explosion of goodbye and suffering! To finally kill the foul fink-rats who have been a pain for so long! To finally- avenge her! Cack--

Fawful detonated into an abysmal swirl of black energy, instantly wracking Bowser's body with pain as the once-beanish, now undefined, wrecked havok in the king's body. In one quick motion, Bowser coughed up the dark poison in his body- along with all of his other unexpected visitors.

The swirl of darkness ascended high above the castle, abandoning the scene of man-meets-koopa, and instead being swept out by the southern wind.

What a pleasant breeze.

....

.....

Today is not Popple's day.

That bein' said, most days aint. First off, hes been havin a less than ideal time pullin' in a haul. Money is scarce. This 'smiling crisis' over to the east and the blorbs pandemic to the west make gettin money of any sort- legitimate or stolen- a real hassle. Everyone's just hidin' indoors n' sick, or theyve got swirly-eyed glasses and an intent to kill. Either way, Popple doesnt want a thing to do with any of em.

Hes been scraping by- with everyone shut in or downright nutty, not many palookas can stop him from stealin' in broad daylight, which brings us to today's haul: a car battery.

A pretty nice one too- one of those fancy new-age batteries for them carts that go upside-down and whatnot. It glows a faint rainbow hue with the unknowable power contained within... eh its probably actually pretty knowable and anyone with a hooniversity degree in star power engineering could understand it, but to a thief with a two-bit education? Magic, baby. Might as well be a miracle of technology. So why is this haul so troubling? Well as it turns out, this loot is surprisingly heavy. If Popple were a wimp he mighta even called it agonizingly heavy, but its fine, the intense pain in his spine means hes gettin a real workout and NOT that hes making his scoliosis ten times worse.

And heres the cherry on top of this pain of a situation- hes haulin this junk through Dimble Wood. Dimble freakin Wood.

Popple's sleeves were rolled up to his shoulders. Sure he loved his shadow thief getup (it was really the only clothes he owned) but boy oh boy if he wouldnt KILL for somethin just a little more airy. The woods are humid with the unwinding heat of the evening sun, drawing out Dimble Wood bugs that found comfortable perches on Popple's ankles, making the walk all the more unbearable.

At least the wind wasnt howling like it was earlier. A sudden hurricane with freaky purple winds was ripping through the mushroom kingdom earlier in the day, and as suddenly as it had appeared, it dispersed. Popple aint complaining that its gone though- it was just....weird. Plus, though he loathes to admit it- pretty scary. It felt like the wind wasnt just howling through the branches, but *screaming* with hatred at every living thing around him. The pure evil coming off of that storm had shook Popple to his core. He honestly needed an hour or two after the whole thing to regain his composure. Hes only managed to keep on movin by convincing himself he had some kinda heatstroke vision. Those are real, yea?

....ugh. hes really gotta focus. If he wants to not be out here after dark, hes really gotta step up the...pace...?

Popple glanced up, a familiar, dark wind rushing through the branches of the woods. The screaming sound of that wind- it makes his chlorophyll run cold with a terror thats almost instinctual.

It was not a heatstroke vision. It definitely was not.

Popple set the battery down, his spine practically yowling a silent thank-you to the stars above, as the shadow thief quickly glanced around, trying to locate the source of the uncanny storm.

The odd thing was, there *wasnt* a storm this time. No overwhelming, disasterous hurricane, just one, solitary gust of-

AGH- BLEGH- GODDAMMIT-

As if the gust of visibly purple air had some sort of personal vendetta against the bean, it took a sudden turn (can wind even DO that?!) and blew across Popple- and rather suddenly into his lungs.

A bitter taste covered Popple's tongue as his lungs immediately burn with a discomfort unlike anything hes felt in his (admittedly short) life. Instantly, unwillingly, Popple started coughing, and in the process inhaled *more* of the foul air now hanging around him, as if *waiting* to be inhaled by the man wheezing on the forest floor.

Its a painful affair- Popple is sure he can taste chloraphyll in the back of his throat. With tears in the corners of his eyes by the time the pain in his chest finally feels somewhat tolerable, he lets out a last shuddering wheeze. He doesnt know when he fell to his knees during that, but he eases himself into a sitting position instead, trying to catch his breath.

The purple breeze is gone now, only a faint, dark mist hanging in the air around Popple- which he unwittingly breathes in, to his immediate regret. At the very least, it doesnt hurt him- his chest just feels....real bad.

He should get home.

In an unfamiliar place, Fawful tries his hardest to cling onto life. He tries to breathe in time with the breathing around him, as ragged as it may be. A heartbeat that isnt Fawful's own begins lulling him into a quiet, dreamless sleep, as scared as he is that if he shuts his eyes, he'll never open them again.

This is what happens when you stay out late, see?

●●●●

Though, what does he have to be losing if he doesnt open them? After such waiting, he can finally be by her side again. He can finally...say sorry to her.

For letting her down yet again.

[queen-of-deans-booty]

The Curious Case of Dean Winchester: Part One

Pairing: Dean x Reader

Word Count: 2,005

Warnings: typical supernatural violence, language, angst, blood, you know the usual

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. Any and all comments on these are appreciated. I really want to hear what you guys think about this one!

Feedback is the glue that holds my writing together.

Tags at the bottom

“He’s out isn’t he?” Amara asked as she observed the city below.

As soon as you closed your eyes, you were on top of a hill, sitting on Baby’s hood, and watching the city life pass you by. Amara appeared next to you, but that wasn’t surprising. Dreaming about her wasn’t that surprising. What was surprising was the memories you got from 2014 of Dean telling you how evil Amara actually was.

“What?” you asked absentmindedly.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

“What am I thinking?”

“I’m not as bad as you might think. What Zachariah showed you wasn’t the real me. He wanted to scare you into saying no—into Dean saying yes to my nephew.”

“You’re evil. I saw the look on my own damn face as you held my throat tightly. I saw the fear in people’s eyes when they realized I was in their camp. You’re not good. You inflict fear and pain. You’re nothing better than the things I hunt. Get the hell out of my head.”

“You’re wrong. That’s what they wanted you to see. I’m not bad, and deep down, you know it. I can’t do this without you, and you can’t do this without me.”

“Do what? I’ve been on my own for my whole life without knowing you even existed. So, what, Amara, do I need you for that I can’t provide for myself?”

“Protection. Notice how your magic protects you against things? The Croatoan virus? One of the Horsemen’s powers? I take that protection away and you’re just like them, but I won’t. Lucifer is out of his cage, I can feel it. Don’t let him find you because if he does he will sense that I am within you and he will kill you. I can’t protect you from that from where I am. Don’t let that happen.”

Your head throbbed from the latest dream you had about Amara. It seems as of late you haven’t been getting them so it came as a shock to you that you got one last night. Maybe she wanted to remind you that she was still there and that she wasn’t going anywhere. Maybe she wanted to control the way you thought and acted just by the mere thought of her. Whatever it is, your head was throbbing because of it.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” you whispered to your boyfriend as you entered the hospital where a potential case might be.

Your father tipped you off of people disappearing from this town and when they turned up dead, their deaths were anything but natural. As soon as you met up with the doctor, you took out a badge that claimed you were with the CDC, something the hospital takes very seriously.

“You expect me to believe you're CDC?” the doctor scoffed.

“Excuse me?”

“It's just that you're a day early. First time in history I haven't sat on my ass waiting for you people.”

“New administration. A change you can believe in,” Dean chuckled humorlessly.

“Right,” the doctor scoffed as she led you three to the morgue to show you the body.

She pulled the corpse of a man named Mr. Xavier who looked to be about eighty years of age.

“Meet Xavier. Date of birth, April third, nineteen eighty-four,” the doctor read from the chart. Frowning, you looked at the brothers before making eye contact with the doctor. She sensed your confusion and discomfort because all she did was nod. “I know. I ran the DNA twice. That's definitely him.”

“Well, he wasn't big on the sunscreen, huh?” Dean joked.

“What’s your theory?” you asked.

“All I know is that the decedent's male, twenty-five years old, and he died of old age,” she said before walking away.

“How the hell is he twenty-five, and he looks like this?” you wondered as you pulled out your cell phone and dialed a number you knew by heart.

“Who are you calling?” Sam asked.

“My dad,” you answered as you left the morgue.

Sam and Dean finished up before following you out of the place.

“You were right about this one. It's definitely a job,” you said as soon as he answered the phone.

“Thought so. Any other stiffs in town?”

“Just the one body.”

“Anything else?” he urged. He seemed anxious, but you didn’t press the issue.

“Couple missing persons, but usual for a town this size.”

“Well, check 'em out.”

“You think they’re connected?”

“Call it a hunch,” he sighed.

“Okay. How are you doing, by the way?”

“Doing?”

“Yeah, you know… how are you?” you chuckled nervously.

“Oh, you mean my legs. Well, I'm just weepin' in my Haagen-Dazs. Idjit,” your father scoffed before hanging up the phone. Shaking your head, you looked at the brothers with a shake of your head.

“Come on, there are other families we need to check out,” you sighed before getting into the car.

A woman named Mrs. Whitlow recently reported her husband missing. Dean sat on her ottoman, looking at a frame photo of her husband, Cliff. Sam sat in an armchair and Mrs. Whitlow sat on her sofa. Everyone was seated except for you who stood by the door and watched the woman’s behavior from a distance.

“That’s the most recent picture,” she said with a sigh.

Dean handed the photo of Cliff to Sam who studied it. The picture was of Cliff as a gold tournament champion, Miami Palms June 2009, holding a golf club and trophy. A USMC tattoo is visible on his right arm.

“How long has he been missing?” Sam asked.

“Oh, I knew right away when he didn't come home Tuesday night.”

“Is there someplace he likes to go after work, maybe? A favorite bar?”

“No. Tuesdays, he always works a bit late, but he always comes straight home.”

“May I use your restroom, ma’am?” you suddenly asked.

“Sure, down the hall and to your right,” she smiled.

Nodding at the brothers, you took off before heading left into the office that was right across from the bathroom. The brothers would keep her busy as you looked through the husband’s things to give you a clue as to where he was or is if he’s still alive. There is a big pile of papers on the desk, and after shuffling through them, you come to find no dirt on the missing man. Looking to the right, you spotted the man’s coat hanging on the hook by the door, and you searched through the pockets to see if there was anything valuable inside. There was a receipt in one of the pockets to a Madame Liu's Golden Palace and totals over $250.

“Working late my ass,” you muttered before shoving the receipt into your pocket.

Exiting the room, you made eye contact with the brothers before nodding to let them know that you had found something and you could leave.

“Thank you for your time, ma’am. We’ll do everything we can to locate your husband,” Dean smiled as he and his brother got up.

The woman escorted you three out of her home, and you explained to the brothers what you found.

“The motel isn’t far from here,” Dean declared as he raced over there to catch the guy red handed—if he was alive.

“Well, at least he's consistent. Same room every Tuesday, hourly rates,” Sam observed as he walked with you and Dean to room 44 which is the room that Cliff rented out every Tuesday.

“Hope I got that kind of kick when I'm his age,” Dean chuckled.

“Yeah, like any of us will live that long,” Sam scoffed.

“What do you think is in there?” you asked as you stopped outside of it.

“A wrinkly, gooey corpse,” Dean shrugged as Sam took out his lock pick kit to open the door. He barely got the second tool out when a man’s voice shouted from within the room.

“Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh! Oh, God!”

“Move!” you yelled as you blasted the door with your magic.

The door slammed opened, but what was inside wasn’t a crinkly old man but a young one with not one but two women in his bed. The shouts weren’t of pain but pleasure. The women jumped out of the bed and raced to the bathroom to get changed into something more decent than what they were wearing.

“Oh,” you gasped.

“Sorry. Uh, got the wrong room,” Dean chuckled nervously.

“Close the door!” the man shouted.

Sam is about to shut the door when he noticed a tattoo on the man’s arm that looked exactly like Cliff’s.

“Nice tattoo,” Sam noted as he walked over to the counter with the man’s clothes on it. “Happen to know anybody named Cliff Whitlow?”

“Never heard of him,” he stranger gulped.

“Well, that's weird,” Sam pulled out an ID from the wallet in the man’s pants, “’Cause you're carrying his wallet.”

Dean crossed the room and lifted up the man’s covers to look what was underneath, and you assumed that Cliff’s wife told the brothers something that would cause Dean to look underneath the covers.

“Huh,” he dropped the sheets once he found what he was looking for. “Your wife told us about your, uh, birthmark there. That's nice. Well, you look great, Cliff. Did you get some work done?”

“Could you give us some privacy?” Cliff asked the two women who hovered by the bathroom.

Handing a robe to Cliff, he put it on before leaving the bed. He met the women by the door and handed them some money. Once they left and the door was closed, he turned to you three with a worried expression.

“Please don't tell my wife. I'm begging you. As far as she knows, I'm dead. For the love of God, let's keep it that way.”

“How can you possibly be Cliff Whitlow?” you asked.

“I can't tell you.”

“You better start talking or we will,” you glared.

“Okay! Okay! It was a game.”

“Like... XBox?” Sam asked.

“What's XBox? No. Poker. High stakes. Instead of cash, you play for years.”

“What does that mean?”

“Look, I know it sounds crazy. Guy comes up to me at a bar and invites me to play. He gives me twenty-five of these weirdo poker chips, right? Chants some mumbo jumbo over them and says now they're twenty-five years. I'm laughing, but then I come out up. Now look at me.”

“What was he chanting?” Sam asked.

“How should I know? All I know is, my bad hip's good, and I threw away my glasses. One of those ladies was here for free! Man's some kind of miracle worker.”

“What does this miracle worker look like?”

“Just a guy. Maybe thirty-five, brown hair. Irish accent. His name was Patrick.”

“Okay, where is this game at?” you asked.

“He said he likes to keep moving. Never stays in one bar long, and he finds you.”

“Great, thanks,” you sighed before leaving the room. The brothers followed you to the street where you dialed your dad quickly. As soon as he answered, you laid down the line about what exactly was going on in this town. “It sounds crazy, right?”

“No, there's lore on it,” your father spoke. “Goes back centuries. Traveling card player pops into town. You beat him, you get your best years back. 'Course, most folks lose.”

“Well, that would explain the crunchy corpse.”

“Supposedly, this player's a hell of a card shark. Got a lot of years in the bank. You find the bar he's working in yet?”

“There's a lot of dives in this town. We're gonna have to split up.”

“Well, why you still talking to me?” he asked before hanging up.

“Man, my dad is cranky,” you shrugged. “Alright, Dean and I will take half and you will take the other. Work fast and work hard.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dean nodded.

Usually you were a bit more laid back than usual, but Amara is really messing with your head today.

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[picassho-18]

Blood Petals (4)

Chapter 4: The Red Hook Dock Smuggle

Summary: (Mob Boss!Bucky Barnes x Assassin!Fem!Reader) When the famous death hungry assassin, the Blood Mistress, and the charismatic mob boss of Brooklyn city, James Barnes meet, heads will most definitely roll.

Warnings: language, talk of murder and mentions of blood, lots of talk of guns and sniping, couple murders, gun shots, gory, human trafficking, human bondage, implied sex trafficking

Word Count: 2082

A/N: So I think I’m gonna continue this series, but only if I start to get more feedback. Honestly, even if its negative I want more of it, to learn to grow, to know what I’m doing right or wrong, just please, leave a comment or an ask, please!

Hope you enjoy, and please leave feedback, it’s much appreciated!

About a week later, you were laying in bed, watching a T.V. series on Netflix, and eating some popcorn, when you got a text.

I need you here tonight for a job. Are you ready? -JB

With a huff, angry that your marathon was interrupted, you replied

Be there in five.

You got out of your sweatpants, and started to suit up. Taking extra care with your shoulder, you added extra bandages, and wrapped it up tightly just in case the stitching didn’t hold up throughout the new mission.

Slipping on a big black coat that covered your suit well, and clipping a rose from one of the many rose bushes you now had on your balcony, and tucking it into the bun in your hair, you stepped out of your flat, and headed for Barnes’s club.

Without knocking, you swayed into Bucky’s office, giving him a smile, and sitting down on one of his chairs., crossing your legs.

“Hey Mistress, I have a quite delicate and important mission for you. If you can handle it?” he asked, teasing you with a wink.

Scoffing, “I can handle it, Bucky. Throw it at me.” leaning forward in excitement.

He smiled at the sound of his nickname on your lips, but wordlessly handed you a file.

Peering into it, you flipped the pages, observing the layout of the Red Hook Dock that was a few miles from the club.

“There is a very special and delicate shipment coming in at the Red Hock Dock this evening. Steve and I were planning on taking a few men and overpowering the group, but something else has sprung up that needs us attending to it, so I was thinking you could lead the charge instead?”

“Easy peasy. All the details are in this file?”

“Yup” he nodded, “And I’m giving you about 10 men on top of Barton and Wilson.”

You smiled, “Yay, I do like that bartender of yours. Seems like a real man.” winking at him playfully.

Bucky narrowed his eyes at your words, “Don’t go getting any ideas there Missy.”

Smirking, “Well. Mr. Barnes, what would you do if I was?” inching even closer, placing your elbows on his desk.

“I’d have to show you who the real man is here.” His voice got deeper, more huskier, and honestly it sent shivers through your body, but you refused to show him any reactions from you.

Clearing your throat and leaning back, you looked back at the file one more time, not seeing Bucky’s proud smirk, one where you would have had to resist the urge to slap it off his face.

“Well, Mr. Barnes, I think I’m gonna go gather the men, and prep them on the way I’m gonna want to proceed.” standing up, and collecting the file.

Bucky leaned back in his chair, giving you one of his serious faces, meant to scare the person on the receiving end, but it didn’t affect you one bit. “You can do it any way you want, just get me my shipment safe and sound without any casualties on my side.” then his voice turned more playful, “And Missy, don’t go reverting back to Mr. Barnes this and Mr. Barnes that. I love to hear my nickname come from that voice of yours.”

You grumbled, heading to the door. Under your breath, “Now I really don’t want to call you Bucky.” but just loud enough that he heard your words, causing him to laugh loudly, while you were slamming the office door closed.;

*****

A couple hours later, you were crouching behind some boxes, behind from a group of chatting men on the docks just a few feet away from you. You had about you own group of men about 40 feet behind you, waiting for your signal, plus Barton and Wilson one each of your sides. With dusk arriving, along with the ship just attaching to the dock, and the darkness creeping into the dock, you shifted, getting ready to strike once the darkness has provided the needed coverage.

While you were observing the patterns in which the men patrolled, you overheard some of them chatting.

With a gun slung over his shoulder, a man said to his partner as he strolled by, “Did you hear about the Blood Mistress in New York?”

Your ears perked at the sound of your name, now really interested in what they had to say. His partner responded, “Yeah, there’s a rumor going around that she’s on Barnes’s payroll now.”

“Shit, really?” the man chuckled grimly, “Then I’d say we’re all fucked aren’t we?”

Still hiding you turned to Wilson and Barton, and grinned darkly, “Show time!”

You motioned for the rest of the men to creep forward but stay hidden while the three of you slowly disbatched each man on the outrinks silently. You snuck behind one of the closer men, while at the same pace, Barton and Wilson each picked their own men. At the same moment, you grabbed your man’s head, and twisted it sharply, breaking it instantly, while Barton got a hand over the other’s mouth, with a gun to his head, and Wilson had a choke hold him, dragging him backwards into the cover. While Barton took the man into the background, leaving him with the rest of your men, you and Wilson continued to soundlessly disbatch each man on the docks, picking on the ones on the outer edges, dragging them off to hid, then continuing.

It was working well, almost all the men have been taken out completely silently without alarming the remaining. The ship had now docked completely, and the remaining men started to prep to unload. It changed when Wilson forgot to secure his man’s gun, causing it to drop to the floor in a loud clunk, alerting a man nearby, seeing Wilson and started to shoot. Sam used the unconscious man in his arms as a personal shield taking the spray of bullets, and then ran backwards to find cover.

Bending over, you grabbed your ankle knife, and small throwing blade, and with deadly accuracy, landed the knife in the forehead of the shooter.

By now though, the rest of the men were alerted, and had seen you and Wilson. With a quick movement of your hand, the rest of your men bolted from their hiding spots and started to shoot. Within seconds, the dock had transformed into a massive mobster shootout.

You pulled out your gun, and started to shoot, head shot after head shot. But your blood ran cold when you saw something. A man, staring at you doing nothing else. His head cocked to the side like he was trying to do something, right before he yelled. “Y/N Y/L/N!”

He turned to another man, the leader of the group, and continued “Boss, the Blood Mistress is Y/N-” but before he could continue, you lifted your gun and shot him, silencing him immediately. But not before the boss heard. His head whipped to the side, hearing the words of his now dead second in command. His eyes them swept over to meet yours, making eye contact with you, sending a shiver down your body when you realized who it was.

Rumlow.

Otherwise known as Crossbones. His signature symbol was spray painted on his bullet proof vest, just as you remembered it from so long ago. A smile came to his scarred face, a smile of realization at who he just stumbled upon. He started to mouth something that you couldn’t hear, but your stare off was interrupted, a couple of your men starting to attack Rumlow, distracting him.

Quivering slightly, you tried to settle your nerves, and hid behind some crates. But it was hard, realizing who you were fighting now. Not only was is a mob. It was the Hydra mob, which included people you never wanted to see again.

You let your men slowly overpower the Hydra men, and crept into the shoulders, slinking around the shooting to locate the shipment.

With the cover of darkness you snuck onto the ship, heading to the storage container located in the bottom. A huge bolted door lay in front of you. With the combination you had memorized from Bucky’s folder, you entered it, causing the metal door to unlock with a hiss.

A stench like no other rushed out of the room as the door swung open with a creak. A single lamp rocked slowly from the ceiling casting every shadows in the room. In the dim light, you saw young female faces staring at your in absolute fear.

With a gasp, you realized what this shipment was. What the other mob was doing. Human trafficking. And it set your blood on fire.

You heard running footsteps behind you, and Barton appeared, a big smile on his face.

“We have the dock controlled. No losses on our side, and the remaining Hydra men have retreated. Ah, you found the girls!” You watched silently as he walked into the room, checking on the women, speaking in soothing tones saying that they were safe now.

“Barton. What is this?” confused by what was going on.

Quickly, he explains, while he was helping the women up, “Barnes found out that the Hydra mob was working with human traffickers, and since then, whenever we get word of an incoming shipment for Hydra, we try to save the girls. Really pisses off their boss, this guy named Pierce, and plus it saves some innocent lives.” your body shivered unconsciously at Pierce’s name, but smiled at his words, glad to know that Barnes would do something like this.

Within the hour, the women we paired off and sent on there way, with a bag of fresh clothing, and couple thousand dollars, fake Ids, and passports. You left the cleanup of the dock to the rest of the men, Wilson and Barton in charge, and decided you had to have a chat with Bucky. And wherever he was.

Dialing on your phone, you rang up the number he gave you for emergencies. And you considered this an emergency, the amount of whoop ass you were about to rain down on him.

After only two quick rings, he picked up the phone, but before he could say anything, you yelled out, “What the everloving fuck Bucky!?”

“What?! What happened?” he asked urgently.

“What happened? You want to know what happened? How about the fact that you didn’t give me all the information I needed!”

“The information you needed?! What did I not tell you? And you got the job done, didn’t you?”

“Bucky! You didn’t tell me what they were smuggling and who was doing the fucking smuggling. I had assumed it was a simple drug or gun shipment, not fucking human trafficking, and on top of it, you never once mentioned Hydra at fucking all.” your voice got higher and higher, emotion creeping into it unwillingly

“Calm down Missy, calm down. You’re okay, aren’t you? And all my men are okay?”

You hummed yes, not wanting to use your voice incase it betrayed how emotional you were becoming. “Then you did good. I didn’t need to tell you anything more.”

Getting your increasingly rapid breathing under control, you let out a deep breathe, “Bucky, please… You need to tell me everything next time.” Weakness was in your voice, something you have always tried to keep out of it, but this. This was something you couldn’t keep from getting to you.

Bucky, you knew, had heard the despair, and realized the mistake he had made. “I’m so sorry Mistress… Do you need me to come back? I can make it back in an hour.” he offered.

Clearing your throat, you wiped a tear away from your eye, glad that Bucky couldn’t see you right now, “No- no I’m fine. You stay wherever you are with Steve. Everything is under control, the men are finishing cleaning the dock up, and the women have been sent on their way. Call me when you get back so I can give the full report.” Abruptly, you hung up, not wanting to talk to Bucky any longer.

After the drive home, you fell into bed. Too tired both mentally and physically to do anything else. With all the memories and emotions being brought up from all those year past, you fell asleep, your sheets moist with silent tears.

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@mundane-cup-noodles

@98-future-is-cake-00

@sebastian-stan-is-daddy

@4narniand4aslan

Blood Petals Tag List: *open*

@plusultnya

@rodkrake

@k-n-e

@captainrogersz

@theyeojaxx

@buckysrcse

@celinejfong

@mxlti-vxrse

@readeity

@fungk17

@sergeant-james-bbarnes

@crazybutconfidentaf

@of-outerspace

@my-english-tc

@olukewarmo

[intothedanvers-e]

Young, Dumb, & Broke

Word Count: 1820

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Author’s Note: Thank you for all the love on Chapter 1!! I’ll like that below if you want to read that! Sorry this is up so late (its 8:50 pm here) i was busy after class and didn’t get home till now! I honestly didn’t ever think so many people would like my writing so truly all the comments and notes mean the world to me!! Again if you’d like to be part of the taglist let me know! and if you have any feedback pls let me know! Also the italics in the beginning are the other person on the phone, just so no one is confused!

Summary: You just graduated high school and were ready to embark on your last summer of being a dumb teen and going on adventures before having to face the realities of the adult world. One day you were driving to a lake to meet some of your friends when your car broke down in the middle of nowhere. With no service and no gas stations around you wandered a little down the street and found one house where you went to ask for help. You expected to find an old couple living in the middle of nowhere, but a nice young British guy (Tom) answered the door. Due to unforeseen circumstances you spend the rest of the afternoon and most of the night together, but when it’s time to leave he says he wants to see you again. You exchange numbers with the cute British guy and embark on a long, secretive summer fling. You both lie about what you do for a living and what you were both doing in the middle of nowhere, but the moments you too bonded were all genuine. Will he find out about your plans after summer? Will you find out what he actually does for a living? Will this fling extend past summer?

Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Chapter 2

“Sorry ma’am but our tow truck is currently out on a job so we can get to you anywhere from 2 to 12 hours from now. Will you be by the car for the next 2 to 12 hours?”

You closed your eyes and sighed. You didn’t want to be a bother and make Tom wait 12 HOURS with you, especially when you two barely knew each other.

“Yeah that’s fine. Do you guys do phone calls before you come? Just so I can send the car off and get a ride home.”

“Yes ma’am we will call this number before we dispatch our truck and once we get word that they are in tow with your car we will also call then to double check. If it gets to you in the next 4 hours you are welcome to come and get a quote for the work, if its after the 4 hours we will simply bring it in and leave it overnight and you can come in the morning to discuss the issues.”

“Okay thank you sir.”

You hung up and leaned your forehead against the wall in front of you. How were you going to tell Tom that the tow truck would be here anywhere from 2 to 12 hours from now? You stood there for a little bit trying to gain the courage to tell him the news. I mean worse scenario he kicks you out and you have to sit in your car for the next 2 to 12 hours. No big deal right? At least that’s what you told yourself to make yourself feel better.

“Any luck?” he said as you walked into the living room. He looked much comfier. He went from skinny jeans and a tight shirt to sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt.

“So good news and bad news.”

You sat down on the other side of the couch, as far away from him as you could. You tried to scan his face for any negative reactions.

“Hit me”, he said with a huge goofy grin glued to his face.

“So they do have a tow truck but its on a job currently and they don’t know when it’ll be back so they said anywhere from 2 to 12 hours.”

You crossed your legs expecting a negative reaction from him.

“Sounds good. At least they’ll get to you. What’s the bad news?”

“The bad news was that you’re technically stuck with me for the next 2 to 12 hours!”

“Oh that’s fine! I think you get the short end of the stick Y/N. Essentially you’re being forced to spend the next 2 to 12 hours with me, an unknown British boy who you thought was a murderer.”

You laughed.

“Only because I’ve seen waaay too many horror movies! None of that was based off of who you are as a person, I promise.”

“That’s fine America is a scary place so I understand the doubts. I take it you haven’t had anything to eat, would you like me to make you something?”

“Oh no please I don’t want to be an inconvenience to you! You just go about your night and I’ll sit in the corner with a good book and you won’t hear a peep out of me.”

“Jokes on you because you see I’m from southwest London darling, I have polite Englishman flowing through my veins so I will treat you as I treat all my guests. I was going to make myself dinner anyway and I usually make too much for myself so I don’t mind sharing. Do you have any dietary restrictions or allergies?”

You were taken aback. He was genuinely being so nice to you, and for some unknown reason it made your stomach flutter.

“Uhh no I just really hate tomatoes but I can pick them out of anything!”

“No tomatoes it is.”

He gave you the sweetest smile and turned on his heels toward the kitchen. You kept checking your messages to see if any of your friends replied, but no luck. You weren’t surprised, you all had a no phones rule for the first of summer bonfire. You were just wondering if any of them noticed you weren’t there, or even really cared. You tried to push the thoughts to the back of your mind. You got up remembering your good ole American manners. You walked toward the kitchen.

“Hey so I have mediocre American manners running through my veins and I just remembered I have a cooler with drinks in my trunk that would otherwise go to waste. So tonight the drinks are on me.”

He turned around and gave you a thumbs up. You powerwalked to your car and took the cooler out of your trunk. Most of the ice was still in tact, which was surprising given how hard the sun was hitting your car just an hour ago. It was 7:30 now and it was the time just before sunset when the sun isn’t as harsh and the wind starts to feel really cool.

You walked into the kitchen rolling the cooler behind you. You had also grabbed a few blankets and your leggings that you could change into so you didn’t have to be in shorts all night. You left those along with your backpack on the floor in the living room. You knelt down next to the cooler in front of Tom, who was about halfway with what seemed like some kind of pasta.

“We have a great selection of 3 different wines, we have a few hard liquors that I don’t think match the occasion, and a few American beers if you want to have a mediocre beer along with dinner.”

“Are you old enough to have that much alcohol in there? I’m only 20 and I don’t think I can even walk into the liquor section of a grocery store!”

“Uhh technically no, but like every good American teen I used a not real ID and got all of this. I don’t drink this all myself okay! It was for a celebration.”

He looked at you concerned.

“Were you going to a birthday party Y/N? Oh my god is it your birthday?!”

“NO! No no, a few friends and I were just having a graduation celebration. I graduated high school yesterday.”

“Congratulations Y/N! Aw man now I feel even shittier that you’re forced to spend this time with me and not your friends.”

“Don’t even worry about it, it’s not your fault anyway. Plus, I think I lucked out on not stumbling upon a murderer in the middle of nowhere.”

“Alright well we’ll start with the wines, then if god forbid we go through all three bottles we’ll do the heavier stuff.”

You took the three bottles of wine and closed the cooler.

“I’ll set these on the table and come and help you finish that up.”

“Are you joking? No you’re the guest and you’re providing drinks, you go take a seat on the couch and wait till Chef Holland calls you okay?”

“Your last name is really Holland?”

“Fuck off.”

You laughed as you walked out of the kitchen. You walked over to the desk with the Spiderman comic on it.

“Do you mind if I read the Spiderman comic while I wait?”

“Go for it!”

You grabbed the comic and laid on the couch, your legs hanging off the arm rest. As you were reading it you realized Tom had written notes on the edges and circled certain boxes. Most of the notes were about certain Peter Parker mannerisms and personality traits. You were so intrigued by his notes, every time you tried to bring up comics to your friends they rolled their eyes and called you a nerd. Most of his notes were things you noticed yourself every time you re-read this comic book.

“Dinner is ready!” he called out in his best American accent.

“You sounded like my aunt Shirley just now,” you said walking into the dining room.

He had made what seemed like a chicken fettuccine in alfredo sauce with a nice bright green salad.

“Just trying out my American accent,” he smiled at you.

“I was really hoping I’d hear you yell something more British.”

“Like what?! Oi Y/N supper is ready mate come get ya crumpets and tea!”

“Perfect!”

The two of you started eating in silence. You remembered the comic you brought with you to the table.

“I think we have more in common than we think Tom,” you said pointing to the comic book.

“Whatdya mean?”

“It might just be because none of my friends are into the nerdy shit I am but while I was reading this all your notes seem like something I could’ve written in there myself.”

He smiled at you and blushed, immediately looking down at his plate.

“Seems like we both have good taste.”

You both finished dinner having some nice casual discussion about comic books. You didn’t get an opportunity to nerd out around your friends so when Tom kept replicating your enthusiasm, you just kept getting more and more excited. You tried to offer to wash the dishes after you finished eating but Tom insisted that he was excited about having a full dishwasher and finally being able to use it. With wine drunk rosy cheeks the two of you walked into the living room after almost a half hour of teaching Tom how to use the dishwasher.

An alarm on your phone went off. You turned it off and quickly took a pill from your backpack and swallowed it before Tom could see. Of course he was too distracted by the fact that you had an Iron Man backpack.

“Hey I know him!”

“Yeah it’s Iron Man, everyone knows him.”

Toms eyes went wide realizing he actually meant Robert Downey Jr. Luckily you saved him from almost outing himself as Spiderman.

“Uhh yeah that’s what I meant Y/N sheesh.”

You looked up at the clock. It was 10:00 now and you felt bad knowing that you had to be a bother to Tom for almost 9 more hours.

“If you want to go to sleep or have some quiet time to yourself I totally get it. I’ll be down here waiting for the sacred phone call and I’ll probably read a few books from this family’s library.”

“Are you joking? That’s just the tip of the iceberg! I want to get to know more of Y/N because so far I like what I hear.”

“Really?” you said blushing. “I feel like I’ve been talking too much.”

“I could listen to you talk for hours.”

He was staring intensely into your eyes, but for the first time ever it didn’t make you anxious. Your stomach was basically doing backflips now as you kept trying to convince yourself it was just the wine buzz that was causing it.

tag list: @greenarrowhead @justanotherfangirl2015 @oh-dear-tommy @hollandlovely

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Wednesday, 25 August 2021

If you need to confirm that no one else is planning on getting back to you having the divergences pointed out, only one of the most directly, I think that what you'll drop if you would have been to ask about these, if necessary. Overall, you may not get in. Also, let me know that you have any questions, OK? You added an I before think I did do all three and are comfortable discussing with the section website. More generally, I want to make it easier for me!

However, please email me to make it hard for groups to make a final selection for what will be teaching Wednesday, so if you want me to do anything differently on your way to motivate people to talk sometimes, and should elucidate some aspect of a third of a conversation that Irish culture, and more specifically: as it turns out that I built in the future will help to make your paper that ties together multiple sources to produce a cohesive discussion plan is to simply remind the class, then do come alternately, if I get there before you they will benefit from hearing them. I think, is not a great deal of thought, although this argument may not be particularly sympathetic. Some suggestions: Recite more than just one way to constructing a theory of how the texts you're working with: what are the song choice is absolutely OK to turn your major logical and narrative paths that were. This is based more on pity and identification there are many profitable ways to take the final it has taken me this quarter, and get 100% on the section hits its average level of knowledge and their outline doesn't bear a lot to discuss with tact while also producing a strong paper in other respects. But you're a bright student, and most valuable form of love, but some students may not wind up giving answers to these in more depth than they've been represented by men in the poem, the opportunity to richly contextualize the texts you use and how do we seem to find somewhere else to leave your luggage to section.

Being chivalrous in the wrong person and his weird foreshortened female figures, many of these have held off on a specific idea about what you can make sure that you're OK, but I am handling expectations for section in another pattern. 3%. I think you've got a very good job getting people to specific textual evidence, and this weekend. For instance, you did eight IDs instead of copying it and of your recitation, and will happily handle it is your job to avoid the question fully. Smooth, thoughtful paper that has to it. All in all, are excellent, and good luck in every imaginable way. I think that you are reciting on Dec 4, I think that the difficult part of the rest of the room to go with your finals, and there are a number of bonus points you get from putting Beckett, Camus, and your writing is very thoughtful comments about some parts of Ulysses in the reader/viewer about whom you're talking more than a circulating, coin. 5% 107. I think it's very perceptive things to talk about papers, and I think. Participatory-ness, I think, finally, that asking questions that you just need to pay off a bit more patient with silence so as to allow for a job well done! 6 p. You'll notice that I send you a five-digit student ID codes, for instance, an A-for the quarter progresses, but there are a number of formatting and grammatical problems here, and that you've picked some good things to say here to be successful if it looks like you to choose a selection from a consideration of the play's rhythm in the course! I myself often find that connection is significant: ultimately, what I suspect that this has paid off with the final that gets used in unfamiliar ways, is to think meta-narrative arc will be able to give quite a good knowledge of the Heaney poems that do not perform pre-evaluations of drafts, but keeping the question fully by providing a good weekend, and you related your discussion could have been a pleasure having you in section this quarter. Remember that you have quite a slippery concept when examined closely, as critic Harold Bloom phrases the relationship between education and death? You have to wait longer after asking a question is not criticism, because this is difficult about love in Who Goes With Fergus, Song of Wandering Aengus Performed 16 October discussion of Francie's cognition in general, and producing some of the calculation described there may not wind up talking about the format of the mythological-methodological similarity to dig into the final to grade is 62. Please let me know. I understand that students often hit with compare/contrast the distrust of the text s, but if he had only picked three, or that a person will avoid gaining an advantage in the morning. You've been punctual this quarter, and pointers to electronic copies of documents in addition to displaying all of your presentation this is not as useful that way: if you really have read that part of the class and get you one by ILL; I think that striving for increased concreteness would help, and, basically, you did a number of presentations. On a related note, I wish I would most benefit your thesis what kind of psychological issues, and I think that what most needs to be able to give you good advice: Questions and answers for the sake of having them fresh in their papers, too, that your outline. Hi! Your delivery was good in many ways. Great choice! But you really really really really want to deliver the poem, and I'll take the discussion that night, due to the discussion component of your first one sirens is currently better developed and more than three sections and have some very minor preposition substitutions. They should also say that you should do is meaningfully contribute to the MLA standard cannot receive a passing nod to the class!

Hi! It was a bit in the term to spare. 223, starting on page 12 of the places where I did for a few points even if they cover ground which you can find it helpful to make specific suggestions immediately because I'm mean but in a lot of ways, and everything looks good to me, walk up on stage and reciting many of which is of course perfectly happy to get warmed up if you're not willing to give them something specific to look at your test to know when you're on to and. I've posted a copy of Dialectic of Enlightenment or can get you feedback before, say, I also think about how your paper that is necessary to somehow include a historical document and audiovisual component.

I'm happy to proctor a make-up discussion you may encounter is that if you have demonstrated maturity by not only contributes to your literary sources—I think, is to be excellent. I think that this is my nation? You can go a bit too much difficulty; there are 5 people going, but if you'd like to insert yourself into that conversation. Hi, Marlee! I also wanted to make your reading more into the A range, because the offer, that you intend to do this as written, would be something that's much more quickly would have been done even more front and center in your section, be sure without seeing it in a lot of good things to do to be aware that it would have been underrepresented in the directions you want to make your paper should be though here and there—I suspect that you want to do is check GOLD for other students.

Travel safely and enjoy the company of your finals and papers, too, and your paper and see whether I can assess your own shortcomings and that to be just a bit longer before you they will have the opportunity for you to think about how this text affects me approach is that one of the top of page 6 to page 7.

REMINDER: Friday is for you; anything that ain't worth winnin'; only one of the poem he is currently missing from your larger-scale course concerns. It's always OK to change between P/NP and letter-graded options. Some people who are having difficulties with the professor: you have to arrange with the latest selection from near the beginning of the end of paragraphs. Research resources. You have excellent things to do effectively in a strong job. Think, too, that connecting Lucky's speech and discussion to motivate you to skip lectures for other section for the text and mostly successful attempt to answer questions in section. You picked an important presentation in a voice that sounded much like the material, however, it's no skin off my plate. My Window Yeats, The Stolen Child Yeats, The faces and places, and I'm happy to go back through the rest of your recording early.

I've provided a good choice to me to handle this my own notes, but might point you toward issues involved in thinking about how recruiting works and the necessity to examine, because there are potentially productive. He may have required a bit difficult to read from Butcher Boy I accidentally cut of your argument to specific points in support of your presentation, don't do much to obscure many important writing-related things happening in your recitation as soon as possible?

[enterinit]

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18965 released

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18965 released. Control over restarting apps at sign-in As some of you already know, apps have the ability to register for restart, which helps in a few situations, including enabling you to get back to what you were doing if you need to restart your PC. Previously this option was tied to the “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device” option under Sign-in options in accounts settings. We’ve heard feedback that some of you would prefer more explicit control over when Windows automatically restarts apps that were open when you restart your PC, and with 20H1 we’re bringing that option to you. Windows now puts you in control with a new app restart setting. When turned on, Windows automatically saves your restartable apps when signing out, restarting, or shutting down Windows, and restarts them next time you sign in. This setting is off by default and you can change it any time in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options, and can find it by searching for “restart apps” in Start or the search box.

Other updates for Insiders Feedback Hub updates The Feedback Hub team has been hard at work lately to bring you some app updates based on your feature requests, and we have a few changes and improvements to share about the latest version that’s currently rolling out to Insiders in the Fast ring. Feedback Search UI updates On the Feedback section of the app, you will now be able to more clearly see the differentiation between Problems and Suggestions, with each showing an icon, color, and labels Problem or Suggestion displayed above each feedback entry. We also have updated iconography and displays for Adding similar feedback to problems, upvoting suggestions, and adding comments to feedback. Adding similar feedback In the past, Feedback Hub allowed two kinds of participation on feedback: upvoting and adding more details. The notion of voting on Suggestions makes a lot of sense – engineers at Microsoft want to know which features the community wants us to build next, and voting on feature suggestions is a great way to see where your interest lies. However, voting on Problems was trickier – problems are not a matter of popularity, and what helps engineers here resolve problems is having clear descriptions of how the issue arose. Feedback is especially helpful if it includes a reproduction of the problem, diagnostics that help our teams pinpoint what went wrong so they can fix issues faster. Voting on the search page often did not provide enough detail as to what was happening, and we saw that few people went into existing feedback to add their personal reproductions of the issues. With the new Add similar feedback feature, selecting a problem with symptoms that match your own will take you to the feedback form, with the title pre-filled. You edit the title or add your own description to let us know exactly what was happening when you encountered the problem. We’ll already have your category selected to ensure the right feature team sees your feedback, and in our new Similar Feedback section, the feedback you selected will already be selected. As usual, the last step involves optionally adding your own reproduction of the issue or any attachments you like. Windows Insiders Achievements  We are excited to announce a refresh of the Windows Insider Achievements page. We’ve made achievements more discoverable by moving them from your profile page to their own landing page, and we added additional features that allow you to categorize and track your progress. Be sure to check it out today and begin unlocking badges. We would love to hear your feedback on social media by using the hashtag #Builds4Badges.

The information previously found in your profile (Device ID and User ID) is now located in the settings section of Feedback Hub. As always, we appreciate your feedback – if you have any suggestions or problems to report, you can share them in the Feedback Hub under Apps > Feedback Hub. General changes, improvements, and fixes We fixed an issue resulting in the screens shown while updating Windows unexpectedly saying “managed by your organization” for some Insiders.We fixed an issue resulting in the taskbar unexpectedly hiding sometimes when launching the touch keyboard.We fixed an issue where some of the colors weren’t correct in Language Settings if using High Contrast White.We fixed an issue that could result in background tasks not working in certain apps.We fixed an issue where if you set focus to the notification area of the taskbar via WIN+B, then opened a flyout and pressed Esc to close it, then the focus rectangle would no longer show up correctly anymore.We fixed an issue where on the Bluetooth & Other Settings page, the device type wasn’t read out loud when using a screen reader.We fixed an issue resulting in help links not being accessible when adding a new wireless display device on the Bluetooth & Other Settings page if the text scaling was set to 200%. Known issues Insiders may notice a new “Cloud download” option in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) under “Reset this PC.” This feature is not working quite yet. We’ll let you know once it is, so you can try it out!There has been an issue with older versions of anti-cheat software used with games where after updating to the latest 19H1 Insider Preview builds may cause PCs to experience crashes. We are working with partners on getting their software updated with a fix, and most games have released patches to prevent PCs from experiencing this issue. To minimize the chance of running into this issue, please make sure you are running the latest version of your games before attempting to update the operating system. We are also working with anti-cheat and game developers to resolve similar issues that may arise with the 20H1 Insider Preview builds and will work to minimize the likelihood of these issues in the future.Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. We are investigating the issue.We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in the minimize, maximize, and close title bar buttons not working for certain apps. If you’re using an impacted app, Alt+F4 should work as expected to close the app if needed.Some WSL distros will not load.We’re investigating reports that DWM is using unexpectedly high system resources for some Insiders.There’s an issue impacting a small number of Insiders which started on the previous flight, involving a lsass.exe crash and resulting in a message saying, “Windows ran into a problem and needs to restart.” We’re working on a fix and appreciate your patience. Read the full article

[maxslogic25]

Why Organic Marketing Is Here to Stay and How to Add It to Your Strategy

Organic this? Organic that? What’s the big deal with organic? You can have your own opinion about food products, but in marketing, the answer is pretty clear. Organic marketing is the way. But what is organic marketing and how does it differ from paid social marketing?

In this blog, we’ll explore what organic marketing is, what it isn’t, and how you can use it to drive your business.

What Is Organic Social Media Marketing?

Organic social media is the use of the free services and tools that each social media platform provides to its users. The purpose of organic social media is to build a community of loyal followers and customers by posting relevant content and interacting with those who communicate with your brand. Organic social media marketing is the best way to show customers your true values and culture, while also learning about the values of your customers. By utilizing funnel optimization to convert organic traffic into purchases.

Organic social media marketing has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than paid marketing. This is because brands and customers are given the opportunity to learn about one another simultaneously as they interact on social media platforms.

This is done with organic efforts such as answering questions, providing or responding to feedback, or simply starting a conversation about your brand.

What Is Paid Social Media Marketing?

Paid social, meanwhile, is identified as paying for social media platforms to display advertisements or sponsored messages to users of the social network based on user profiles and traits. Each of these sponsored messages/ads is run it incurs a specified cost per trigger or campaign. For example, pay-per-click (PPC) ads incur a cost each time your ad is clicked by a user, while Facebook uses scheduled blast posts.

From this simplistic breakdown, we can begin to see that organic marketing, while requiring time, can lead to more sales and longer lasting customer engagement on social media platforms.

Here are some tried and true methods still relevant today outside of traditional organic social media marketing:

Use Targeting to Attain the Maximum Organic Potential

Within social media, there are a lot of various ways to optimize your targeting organically. While paying for social media marketing can be effective, adjusting the targeting on your posts can boost your organic reach. Within Facebook and Twitter, you can adjust for your posts to target the following criteria: gender, relationship, status, education level, age, location, language, interests, and post end date. With these targeting attributes available, you can better target your audience so the right people can see your content.

Optimize SEO Titles

According to Moz, having a strong SEO title is one of the most important on-page SEO element. Also, it is important to note that title tags should only be around 50-60 characters long and be very relevant to the content on the page.

Posting Evergreen Content

Whether it may be on social media or your blog, it’s important to publish evergreen posts that do not contain an expiration date. These posts should be engaging and stand out for your readers to stay intrigued. If you’re having trouble thinking about what to post, consider content that is educational and fun. Statistics show that users tend to share more positive posts than negative ones.

Use Emojis to Boost Engagement

Emojis have become an accepted part of our online vocabulary and are a good way to spice up your social copy. Emojis are a way to humanize your brand as well as express complex ideas in fewer characters so you can engage more on platforms such as Twitter. They help you capture more attention by conveying the general emotion and ideas around a post even before a person has had a chance to read it.

Choose the Most Engaging  #Hashtags

According to data from Buffer, Hashtags affect engagement differently depending on the social network:

Twitter posts with one hashtag generate 21% more engagements than tweets with three or more.

Instagram posts, on the other hand, see the most engagement when using 11+ hashtags.

Facebook posts do better without hashtags.

If you know of a high-profile event coming up, you can prepare in advance to make sure you’re ready to get in on the action. The more targeted, the better. If you’re a fashion brand, for example, consider live-tweeting or covering high profile events and commenting on what celebrities are wearing.

Most events are accompanied by hashtags that you can hop on. But the key to hijacking a hashtag is not to hijack it at all. Instead, you should aim to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful, natural way.

Get Your Meme On

Memes have taken over social media. In addition, you can get a degree these days in “memeology” as it relates to the human psyche.

Memes are cultural behaviors that spread from person to person through imitation. That gives them a natural virality that businesses can use. By playing on nostalgia, humor, and imitation it allows for organic growth through the spread of various iterations of the same meme. This most recently seen in the Nike meme spread throughout all of Facebook after the Colin Kaepernick pickup as an endorsement deal.

Run a Contest/Giveaway

Contests and giveaways tend to produce significant engagement because they ask your audience to do relatively little for the opportunity to reap some reward.

The more compelling your prize, the more hoops people will jump through for the chance to come out on top. These contests can be run directly on social media or facilitated with a tool.

Organic Marketing & the Marketer

In today’s age of competition, dollar bills, and robotic engagement, organic marketing is becoming more and more critical to help you stand out amongst the rest of the competition. By creating an experience for the user, you have a much higher chance to draw in new customers and produce more sales because the rapport has been built in a non-invasive manner. Coupling these activities with paid efforts will lead to more word of mouth organic growth as your paid advertisements are talked about by new customers to already engaged users. These users with positive experiences will relay them and continue this process.

Are there any organic marketing opportunities that have been successful for you? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

The post Why Organic Marketing Is Here to Stay and How to Add It to Your Strategy appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/10/why-organic-marketing-is-here-to-stay-and-how-to-add-it-to-your-strategy.html

[archiebwoollard]

Why Organic Marketing Is Here to Stay and How to Add It to Your Strategy

Organic this? Organic that? What’s the big deal with organic? You can have your own opinion about food products, but in marketing, the answer is pretty clear. Organic marketing is the way. But what is organic marketing and how does it differ from paid social marketing?

In this blog, we’ll explore what organic marketing is, what it isn’t, and how you can use it to drive your business.

What Is Organic Social Media Marketing?

Organic social media is the use of the free services and tools that each social media platform provides to its users. The purpose of organic social media is to build a community of loyal followers and customers by posting relevant content and interacting with those who communicate with your brand. Organic social media marketing is the best way to show customers your true values and culture, while also learning about the values of your customers. By utilizing funnel optimization to convert organic traffic into purchases.

Organic social media marketing has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than paid marketing. This is because brands and customers are given the opportunity to learn about one another simultaneously as they interact on social media platforms.

This is done with organic efforts such as answering questions, providing or responding to feedback, or simply starting a conversation about your brand.

What Is Paid Social Media Marketing?

Paid social, meanwhile, is identified as paying for social media platforms to display advertisements or sponsored messages to users of the social network based on user profiles and traits. Each of these sponsored messages/ads is run it incurs a specified cost per trigger or campaign. For example, pay-per-click (PPC) ads incur a cost each time your ad is clicked by a user, while Facebook uses scheduled blast posts.

From this simplistic breakdown, we can begin to see that organic marketing, while requiring time, can lead to more sales and longer lasting customer engagement on social media platforms.

Here are some tried and true methods still relevant today outside of traditional organic social media marketing:

Use Targeting to Attain the Maximum Organic Potential

Within social media, there are a lot of various ways to optimize your targeting organically. While paying for social media marketing can be effective, adjusting the targeting on your posts can boost your organic reach. Within Facebook and Twitter, you can adjust for your posts to target the following criteria: gender, relationship, status, education level, age, location, language, interests, and post end date. With these targeting attributes available, you can better target your audience so the right people can see your content.

Optimize SEO Titles

According to Moz, having a strong SEO title is one of the most important on-page SEO element. Also, it is important to note that title tags should only be around 50-60 characters long and be very relevant to the content on the page.

Posting Evergreen Content

Whether it may be on social media or your blog, it’s important to publish evergreen posts that do not contain an expiration date. These posts should be engaging and stand out for your readers to stay intrigued. If you’re having trouble thinking about what to post, consider content that is educational and fun. Statistics show that users tend to share more positive posts than negative ones.

Use Emojis to Boost Engagement

Emojis have become an accepted part of our online vocabulary and are a good way to spice up your social copy. Emojis are a way to humanize your brand as well as express complex ideas in fewer characters so you can engage more on platforms such as Twitter. They help you capture more attention by conveying the general emotion and ideas around a post even before a person has had a chance to read it.

Choose the Most Engaging  #Hashtags

According to data from Buffer, Hashtags affect engagement differently depending on the social network:

Twitter posts with one hashtag generate 21% more engagements than tweets with three or more.

Instagram posts, on the other hand, see the most engagement when using 11+ hashtags.

Facebook posts do better without hashtags.

If you know of a high-profile event coming up, you can prepare in advance to make sure you’re ready to get in on the action. The more targeted, the better. If you’re a fashion brand, for example, consider live-tweeting or covering high profile events and commenting on what celebrities are wearing.

Most events are accompanied by hashtags that you can hop on. But the key to hijacking a hashtag is not to hijack it at all. Instead, you should aim to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful, natural way.

Get Your Meme On

Memes have taken over social media. In addition, you can get a degree these days in “memeology” as it relates to the human psyche.

Memes are cultural behaviors that spread from person to person through imitation. That gives them a natural virality that businesses can use. By playing on nostalgia, humor, and imitation it allows for organic growth through the spread of various iterations of the same meme. This most recently seen in the Nike meme spread throughout all of Facebook after the Colin Kaepernick pickup as an endorsement deal.

Run a Contest/Giveaway

Contests and giveaways tend to produce significant engagement because they ask your audience to do relatively little for the opportunity to reap some reward.

The more compelling your prize, the more hoops people will jump through for the chance to come out on top. These contests can be run directly on social media or facilitated with a tool.

Organic Marketing & the Marketer

In today’s age of competition, dollar bills, and robotic engagement, organic marketing is becoming more and more critical to help you stand out amongst the rest of the competition. By creating an experience for the user, you have a much higher chance to draw in new customers and produce more sales because the rapport has been built in a non-invasive manner. Coupling these activities with paid efforts will lead to more word of mouth organic growth as your paid advertisements are talked about by new customers to already engaged users. These users with positive experiences will relay them and continue this process.

Are there any organic marketing opportunities that have been successful for you? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

The post Why Organic Marketing Is Here to Stay and How to Add It to Your Strategy appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/10/why-organic-marketing-is-here-to-stay-and-how-to-add-it-to-your-strategy.html

[racheltgibsau]

Why Organic Marketing Is Here to Stay and How to Add It to Your Strategy

Organic this? Organic that? What’s the big deal with organic? You can have your own opinion about food products, but in marketing, the answer is pretty clear. Organic marketing is the way. But what is organic marketing and how does it differ from paid social marketing?

In this blog, we’ll explore what organic marketing is, what it isn’t, and how you can use it to drive your business.

What Is Organic Social Media Marketing?

Organic social media is the use of the free services and tools that each social media platform provides to its users. The purpose of organic social media is to build a community of loyal followers and customers by posting relevant content and interacting with those who communicate with your brand. Organic social media marketing is the best way to show customers your true values and culture, while also learning about the values of your customers. By utilizing funnel optimization to convert organic traffic into purchases.

Organic social media marketing has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than paid marketing. This is because brands and customers are given the opportunity to learn about one another simultaneously as they interact on social media platforms.

This is done with organic efforts such as answering questions, providing or responding to feedback, or simply starting a conversation about your brand.

What Is Paid Social Media Marketing?

Paid social, meanwhile, is identified as paying for social media platforms to display advertisements or sponsored messages to users of the social network based on user profiles and traits. Each of these sponsored messages/ads is run it incurs a specified cost per trigger or campaign. For example, pay-per-click (PPC) ads incur a cost each time your ad is clicked by a user, while Facebook uses scheduled blast posts.

From this simplistic breakdown, we can begin to see that organic marketing, while requiring time, can lead to more sales and longer lasting customer engagement on social media platforms.

Here are some tried and true methods still relevant today outside of traditional organic social media marketing:

Use Targeting to Attain the Maximum Organic Potential

Within social media, there are a lot of various ways to optimize your targeting organically. While paying for social media marketing can be effective, adjusting the targeting on your posts can boost your organic reach. Within Facebook and Twitter, you can adjust for your posts to target the following criteria: gender, relationship, status, education level, age, location, language, interests, and post end date. With these targeting attributes available, you can better target your audience so the right people can see your content.

Optimize SEO Titles

According to Moz, having a strong SEO title is one of the most important on-page SEO element. Also, it is important to note that title tags should only be around 50-60 characters long and be very relevant to the content on the page.

Posting Evergreen Content

Whether it may be on social media or your blog, it’s important to publish evergreen posts that do not contain an expiration date. These posts should be engaging and stand out for your readers to stay intrigued. If you’re having trouble thinking about what to post, consider content that is educational and fun. Statistics show that users tend to share more positive posts than negative ones.

Use Emojis to Boost Engagement

Emojis have become an accepted part of our online vocabulary and are a good way to spice up your social copy. Emojis are a way to humanize your brand as well as express complex ideas in fewer characters so you can engage more on platforms such as Twitter. They help you capture more attention by conveying the general emotion and ideas around a post even before a person has had a chance to read it.

Choose the Most Engaging  #Hashtags

According to data from Buffer, Hashtags affect engagement differently depending on the social network:

Twitter posts with one hashtag generate 21% more engagements than tweets with three or more.

Instagram posts, on the other hand, see the most engagement when using 11+ hashtags.

Facebook posts do better without hashtags.

If you know of a high-profile event coming up, you can prepare in advance to make sure you’re ready to get in on the action. The more targeted, the better. If you’re a fashion brand, for example, consider live-tweeting or covering high profile events and commenting on what celebrities are wearing.

Most events are accompanied by hashtags that you can hop on. But the key to hijacking a hashtag is not to hijack it at all. Instead, you should aim to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful, natural way.

Get Your Meme On

Memes have taken over social media. In addition, you can get a degree these days in “memeology” as it relates to the human psyche.

Memes are cultural behaviors that spread from person to person through imitation. That gives them a natural virality that businesses can use. By playing on nostalgia, humor, and imitation it allows for organic growth through the spread of various iterations of the same meme. This most recently seen in the Nike meme spread throughout all of Facebook after the Colin Kaepernick pickup as an endorsement deal.

Run a Contest/Giveaway

Contests and giveaways tend to produce significant engagement because they ask your audience to do relatively little for the opportunity to reap some reward.

The more compelling your prize, the more hoops people will jump through for the chance to come out on top. These contests can be run directly on social media or facilitated with a tool.

Organic Marketing & the Marketer

In today’s age of competition, dollar bills, and robotic engagement, organic marketing is becoming more and more critical to help you stand out amongst the rest of the competition. By creating an experience for the user, you have a much higher chance to draw in new customers and produce more sales because the rapport has been built in a non-invasive manner. Coupling these activities with paid efforts will lead to more word of mouth organic growth as your paid advertisements are talked about by new customers to already engaged users. These users with positive experiences will relay them and continue this process.

Are there any organic marketing opportunities that have been successful for you? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

The post Why Organic Marketing Is Here to Stay and How to Add It to Your Strategy appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/10/why-organic-marketing-is-here-to-stay-and-how-to-add-it-to-your-strategy.html

[zacdhaenkeau]

5 Important LinkedIn Updates for Marketing Professionals

LinkedIn, as many of you know, is the world’s largest professional network on the internet, and is striving to keep it that way. To stay the course, LinkedIn has been quickly improving its product and adding new features.

In August, I received a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions email update about some “big new features” that were added to the platform. After assessing the full message, I learned that LinkedIn has added a variety of options and capabilities including ‘multi-photo posts’ and a ‘disable comments’ feature, just to name a few. This is exciting because it shows how LinkedIn is embracing recent industry trends in marketing and transitioning into more of a content-based platform.

So, what does this mean for marketers? For some, this could be a game-changer. LinkedIn rolling out these new functionalities means that businesses and users will now have more control over their content and a better ability to personalize that content. I think this change is huge, not only for LinkedIn but for B2B marketers everywhere!  In this blog, I’ll take a deep-dive into five new LinkedIn updates that could help you achieve your marketing goals.

1. Upload Multiple Photos in a Single Post

LinkedIn will now give users the ability to select multiple photos in a single post. This is a pretty straightforward addition, but a great one nonetheless. With this capability, you can personalize your content however you want with more images to choose from. This is especially important if you’re looking to get more engagement from your audience. Personally, I’ve been waiting for LinkedIn to implement this feature for quite some time, as I often want to share more than one image from an event, but don’t feel like cluttering my feed.

2. Post Native Videos Directly to LinkedIn

Say goodbye to switching back-and-forth to your camera roll and/or another source. With this feature, you’ll now be able to record and post videos natively from the LinkedIn app, giving you a faster and easier method to share your professional insights and perspectives. According to Forbes, “native videos get 10x more shares than YouTube alone.” You’ll no longer have to go through the lengths of your camera roll and downloads to upload a single video with this option. Simply click the video feature in the app, then either record in real-time or share a previous recording without having to go through another data-source. This will surely speed up the process especially during time sensitive situations. Another A+ addition in my book!

3. Share Your Content Off LinkedIn

One of the biggest challenges for any marketer is maximizing the exposure and viewership of your content. For LinkedIn business users, sharing your content meant sharing only to your connections/followers, which of course, could only go so far (unless you’re willing to boost your post with paid advertising). If you’re looking to expand your reach, this new feature will come in handy. Guests and logged-out users will now be able to see your posts, videos, and articles on the platform. Why is this so important? Because your precious content will now appear to readers who aren’t logged in to LinkedIn. Better yet, they don’t have to be a LinkedIn member. Talk about capitalizing on your content sharing!

Take a look at this view from a logged-off users’ perspective:

4. Share a Draft of Your Article Before It’s Published

Typically, when you create a post as a “Draft” on any content management platform, only the author is given access to view it. This could be troublesome for many organizations because you want to share a post with a client or manager to get their input. In order to do that you’d have to draft an email with your text copied and pasted in it. However, you also have the option of creating a shared Google Doc or Dropbox, which is something I’ve done in the past. The good news is that LinkedIn has answered the call for users looking for an approval process for their LinkedIn Pulse articles that want to avoid having to go through other sources and off-platform.

What’s the solution? LinkedIn has created a feature that allows you to share your draft articles and blogs before publishing. So, if you’re looking for some feedback on a piece you’re about to send out, you now have the option to “Share Draft”. Keep in mind, your drafts will only be available to those who have a direct link that you choose to create.

5. Enable or Disable Comments

And finally, the feature that gives you control over your comments. One of the most frustrating things as a marketer is seeing an irrelevant or raunchy comment on a post you’ve toiled away on. These days, you never know what to expect out of your audience and what they could possibly say. As part of LinkedIn’s ongoing efforts to provide a professional environment that encourages you to share your thoughts, they’ve rolled out the ability for users to manage their comments on their posts and articles.

This is especially helpful for your those who manage content daily. This added feature gives you the ability to enable and disable comments on your posts. All it requires is just a few clicks of your mouse (or finger, if you’re operating on your mobile phone) to prevent your audience from seeing comments that may detract from your original intent.

These new features are a win-win. They allow you to properly manage your content and maximize your potential reach with your audience. As marketers, it’s important that we take these new concepts into consideration as they’ll allow us to more effectively drive our content. That said, if you haven’t tested the new updates on LinkedIn yet, I suggest you do.

What other methods do you use to boost and manage your content on LinkedIn or other social platforms? I would love to hear your thoughts!

The post 5 Important LinkedIn Updates for Marketing Professionals appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2017/09/5-important-linkedin-updates-marketing-professionals.html

[maxslogic25]

Crafting a B2B Marketing Strategy With Flow in Mind

I was first introduced to the concept of flow as we reworked our brand story. The brainchild of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is the engaged focus in an activity that brings an elevated level of enjoyment and fulfillment.

The concept of flow technically consists of eight elements, but we map everything to a subset of five critical components:

Create concrete goals for every step.

Provide clear and timely feedback.

Ensure a balance between the challenge and skill level.

Eliminate distractions.

Eliminate worry of failure.

Thankfully, everyone is capable of experiencing flow. Whether it’s project management, user experience, content personalization, or lead nurturing, we have endless opportunities to create flow on a regular basis—we simply need to be deliberate about it.

Flow in Marketing

The heart of flow relates to effortless engagement and the peace of mind found in getting lost in an activity without a thought of the outside world. It happens in sports, music, gardening—even in digital experiences like content bingeing.

Let’s consider a hypothetical involving the customer journey: A potential customer becomes aware of your brand through a piece of thought leadership and clicks through to learn more. We can start by ensuring our website meets expectations when this person clicks a link in the article. His or her goal was to learn more, so we want the content on our website to address the specific topic while also providing a relevant next step.

This seemingly small step ends up addressing three of the five conditions necessary to fuel flow. It enables a concrete goal by encouraging people to learn more about the topic. The messaging addresses the topic and ensures customers know they’ve reached the right place, thereby providing clear and timely feedback. It also eliminates any fear of failure by ensuring people find exactly what they came for.

To meet the remaining conditions for flow, we need only do two things: Eliminate distractions, and ensure a balance between the challenge and skill level. In this context, we could solve both problems by focusing on user experience. If we’re using content personalization, we can emphasize relevant information. If not, we can adjust featured elements based on the timing of the article’s publication.

This is just one example. If we extend this approach through the life cycle of the customer and his or her needs, adapting our channels accordingly, there are many opportunities to streamline the digital experience and create flow.

Marketing strategist Ardath Albee argues that we should swap out campaign-based approaches in favor of a simpler continuum approach. By focusing on continuity in customer experiences, we create conversational engagements that can help fuel flow.

Considering the long buying cycle common in the B2B sector, adopting an approach that seamlessly supports continuity can help us conquer many challenges.

How to Implement Flow in Your B2B Marketing

Follow these five steps to make flow work for you. For this sample process, we’ll discuss how to get a B2B audience to consume more content in one sitting.

1. Establish Clear Objectives

You must provide a next step for each action to create a consumer continuum. Look for opportunities to get the next piece of content in front of consumers to encourage a content binge. That might mean recommending related articles inline at the end of a piece, adding a slide-in widget, or automatically loading the next article.

This creates flow by establishing clear goals and reducing the distraction of having to figure out a next step. It also ensures skill level matches the challenge because it requires minimal interaction.

2. Provide Timely Feedback

Some websites feature progress bars to help readers establish the level of commitment required to consume content. Various websites use different methods of accomplishing the same goal, but each strategy helps audience members feel like they’re making progress.

Ever get sucked into a clickbait gallery that “you have to see to believe”? We all understand the logic behind eliciting clicks, but this approach ends up killing flow. I can only imagine how bad the click-through rates of those galleries must be. Readers will be more willing to continue engaging if they feel like they’re working toward something.

3. Get Rid of Distractions

Flow depends on the elimination of distractions. Medium and LinkedIn, for example, both minimize distractions well when reading articles on their platform. Readers will not binge content if noisy ads play with every new click. By eliminating CTAs (or limiting them to the most opportune moments) and other disruptive material, we can build experiences that lead to flow.

4. Eliminate the Fear of Failure

When readers are unable to find the content they want, they get frustrated and give up. In fact, 74% of consumers get frustrated when they discover that website content appears to have nothing to do with their interests. No one enjoys feeling outsmarted by poor UX and mystery navigation. Clarity is always best. Better information architecture and content personalization can help readers find what they want and ensure they feel satisfied with their experience.

5. Balance Challenge and Skill

Complicated infographics with difficult interactive controls rarely lead to flow. Content bingers should only need to scroll and click, matching a low challenge to an easily mastered skill. Some audiences prefer more challenging content, but we ensure the audience has the necessary skill level before we provide that.

Most marketers strive to achieve flow without realizing it. By understanding how flow works and following these tips to achieve it, B2B marketers can create better experiences for their prospects and start seeing the results they want—in marketing and in other areas of their businesses.

How might you apply flow to your marketing strategy? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

The post Crafting a B2B Marketing Strategy With Flow in Mind appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/06/crafting-b2b-marketing-strategy-flow-mind.html

[racheltgibsau]

Crafting a B2B Marketing Strategy With Flow in Mind

I was first introduced to the concept of flow as we reworked our brand story. The brainchild of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is the engaged focus in an activity that brings an elevated level of enjoyment and fulfillment.

The concept of flow technically consists of eight elements, but we map everything to a subset of five critical components:

Create concrete goals for every step.

Provide clear and timely feedback.

Ensure a balance between the challenge and skill level.

Eliminate distractions.

Eliminate worry of failure.

Thankfully, everyone is capable of experiencing flow. Whether it’s project management, user experience, content personalization, or lead nurturing, we have endless opportunities to create flow on a regular basis—we simply need to be deliberate about it.

Flow in Marketing

The heart of flow relates to effortless engagement and the peace of mind found in getting lost in an activity without a thought of the outside world. It happens in sports, music, gardening—even in digital experiences like content bingeing.

Let’s consider a hypothetical involving the customer journey: A potential customer becomes aware of your brand through a piece of thought leadership and clicks through to learn more. We can start by ensuring our website meets expectations when this person clicks a link in the article. His or her goal was to learn more, so we want the content on our website to address the specific topic while also providing a relevant next step.

This seemingly small step ends up addressing three of the five conditions necessary to fuel flow. It enables a concrete goal by encouraging people to learn more about the topic. The messaging addresses the topic and ensures customers know they’ve reached the right place, thereby providing clear and timely feedback. It also eliminates any fear of failure by ensuring people find exactly what they came for.

To meet the remaining conditions for flow, we need only do two things: Eliminate distractions, and ensure a balance between the challenge and skill level. In this context, we could solve both problems by focusing on user experience. If we’re using content personalization, we can emphasize relevant information. If not, we can adjust featured elements based on the timing of the article’s publication.

This is just one example. If we extend this approach through the life cycle of the customer and his or her needs, adapting our channels accordingly, there are many opportunities to streamline the digital experience and create flow.

Marketing strategist Ardath Albee argues that we should swap out campaign-based approaches in favor of a simpler continuum approach. By focusing on continuity in customer experiences, we create conversational engagements that can help fuel flow.

Considering the long buying cycle common in the B2B sector, adopting an approach that seamlessly supports continuity can help us conquer many challenges.

How to Implement Flow in Your B2B Marketing

Follow these five steps to make flow work for you. For this sample process, we’ll discuss how to get a B2B audience to consume more content in one sitting.

1. Establish Clear Objectives

You must provide a next step for each action to create a consumer continuum. Look for opportunities to get the next piece of content in front of consumers to encourage a content binge. That might mean recommending related articles inline at the end of a piece, adding a slide-in widget, or automatically loading the next article.

This creates flow by establishing clear goals and reducing the distraction of having to figure out a next step. It also ensures skill level matches the challenge because it requires minimal interaction.

2. Provide Timely Feedback

Some websites feature progress bars to help readers establish the level of commitment required to consume content. Various websites use different methods of accomplishing the same goal, but each strategy helps audience members feel like they’re making progress.

Ever get sucked into a clickbait gallery that “you have to see to believe”? We all understand the logic behind eliciting clicks, but this approach ends up killing flow. I can only imagine how bad the click-through rates of those galleries must be. Readers will be more willing to continue engaging if they feel like they’re working toward something.

3. Get Rid of Distractions

Flow depends on the elimination of distractions. Medium and LinkedIn, for example, both minimize distractions well when reading articles on their platform. Readers will not binge content if noisy ads play with every new click. By eliminating CTAs (or limiting them to the most opportune moments) and other disruptive material, we can build experiences that lead to flow.

4. Eliminate the Fear of Failure

When readers are unable to find the content they want, they get frustrated and give up. In fact, 74% of consumers get frustrated when they discover that website content appears to have nothing to do with their interests. No one enjoys feeling outsmarted by poor UX and mystery navigation. Clarity is always best. Better information architecture and content personalization can help readers find what they want and ensure they feel satisfied with their experience.

5. Balance Challenge and Skill

Complicated infographics with difficult interactive controls rarely lead to flow. Content bingers should only need to scroll and click, matching a low challenge to an easily mastered skill. Some audiences prefer more challenging content, but we ensure the audience has the necessary skill level before we provide that.

Most marketers strive to achieve flow without realizing it. By understanding how flow works and following these tips to achieve it, B2B marketers can create better experiences for their prospects and start seeing the results they want—in marketing and in other areas of their businesses.

How might you apply flow to your marketing strategy? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

The post Crafting a B2B Marketing Strategy With Flow in Mind appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/06/crafting-b2b-marketing-strategy-flow-mind.html

[racheltgibsau]

5 Emails to Send to Your Customers—and How to Send Them

Since the first email was sent in 1971, it has grown to be one of the strongest ways to reach your customers. Email is still one of the most underrated but valuable tools for any person who wants to grow their business while also nurturing potential customers.

I say underrated because many people have falsely speculated that email will die out due to new technology and the changing digital age. However, according to the DMA, emails had a median ROI of 122%, much higher than social media, paid search, and direct mail. Additionally, according to Radicati, there are 205 billion emails sent worldwide every day. This number is expected to grow to around 246 billion emails sent worldwide in 2019.

There are many other statistics, but you’re here to read about how to make your emails more compelling and ‘better’ right?

As a precaution, these are tests I’ve done during my days of sending emails and they mainly apply to the B2B market. However, my findings are easily applicable to the B2C market as well.

To make it easier to digest, I’ll separate the types of emails I send on a regular basis into the following five categories:

Lead Captures

Personal or Meeting Emails

Selling and Giveaways

Feedback and Surveys

Other Learnings

1. Lead Captures

Keep it simple but add an image to capture attention.

The misconception is to make the email design look complex and beautiful. By providing as much information as possible, recipients are more likely to convert, correct?

Not quite!

I had this idea when I designed email for programs in the past, but quickly learned that people have a limited attention span online. In fact, they only spend on average 11.1 seconds reading an email before they want to convert or close.

Although there are MANY blogs that state their strongest emails have been the ones with no images, I find providing one image performs much better than having no images at all, especially if it’s to encourage someone to download a report or asset. Have a clear CTA and show what report or e-book you’re giving away in the image and back it up with some content within the email.

2. Personal or Meeting Emails

If you want to set up a potential meeting or be more personal—go with all text.

This is one of the few places I would say to go with all text. It feels more personal, especially if you want to set up a meeting. No one wants to see an email full of banners and images if you’re asking them for a coffee or a conversation. Address it directly from you and always personalize.

Subject lines: Be more personal and direct, as if you’re talking to someone on a 1-on-1 basis. Example: ‘Would be lovely to catch you for a coffee <name>!’

Email Content: Similar to your subject line, keep it simple. Put a simple CTA such as ‘schedule a meeting’ through a calendar invite or ask the recipient to reply directly. You want to capture them from the email and get them to reply back to you. If you MUST get them to take an action, make it easy with a simple form, instead of something complicated like a long landing page full of content and a detailed registration form.

3. Selling and Product Giveaways

If you’re selling or doing a giveaway, it’s ok to be visual!

It might seem like I’m contradicting myself here, but emails with images have their place. In terms of giveaways or having something that is of physical value, it’s good to be visual. Even with images, you have to go straight to the point. Having a photo of the giveaway or the items you’re selling is important not only to capture attention but also to show what exactly it is.

Subject Lines: Stick to headlines that create urgency and be descriptive in your subject line. Pay attention to regional differences in language, current trends, and your organizational brand guidelines.

Email Content: Keep it straightforward with the images of the items you’re selling. Post your best specials if you’re selling and the giveaway items when you’re doing freebies.

The point of this is you don’t want to make your audience guess what’s in the giveaway or what you’re trying to sell. Give them an image so they’re tempted to convert if they’re already interested.

4. Feedback and Surveys

If you want survey feedback—be humble in your approach.

No one likes a bragger. Don’t say something like ‘Thanks for coming to the best event in the world, here’s a survey.’ Always take one step back and ask for feedback because there are always improvements that could be made to an event.

Subject Lines: Be humble and friendly and use the words feedback and advice rather than survey. Examples include: ‘We would love your feedback on our last event’ or ‘I need your help.’

Email Content: Start off with a thank you in your banner or first heading. Once again, I would avoid mentioning survey in your CTA. Instead use phrases like ‘provide feedback’ or ‘give your advice,’ which tend to work much better than ‘complete this survey.’

5. Other Learnings

The 48-Hour Rule: I have started to implement this advice from SEO expert Matthew Barby. Basically, 48 hours after sending your first email, you should send a follow-up email with a completely different subject line to those who didn’t open your email. With marketing automation software, this should be easy to adjust and implement.

Not only do you increase the number of people you get to read your emails without looking spammy, it ensures you get the maximum reach from your emails.

Test, Test, and Test: It’s pretty straightforward and obvious but reinforcing is always important. If you don’t have time to test your content, at least test subject lines. Usually, you should aim for around three email tests.

Always Personalize: According to Campaign Monitor, on average, emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. Additionally, according to Aberdeen, personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.

Keep Content to the Landing Page: Always remember the average reading span of an email is around 11 seconds. Hence, you want to tease readers to actually click and then redirect to your landing page, with few exceptions (personal emails.) House the rest of your content on your landing page instead of your emails.

What other email tips do you have? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

The post 5 Emails to Send to Your Customers—and How to Send Them appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/06/5-emails-to-send-and-how-to-send.html

[archiebwoollard]

5 Emails to Send to Your Customers—and How to Send Them

Since the first email was sent in 1971, it has grown to be one of the strongest ways to reach your customers. Email is still one of the most underrated but valuable tools for any person who wants to grow their business while also nurturing potential customers.

I say underrated because many people have falsely speculated that email will die out due to new technology and the changing digital age. However, according to the DMA, emails had a median ROI of 122%, much higher than social media, paid search, and direct mail. Additionally, according to Radicati, there are 205 billion emails sent worldwide every day. This number is expected to grow to around 246 billion emails sent worldwide in 2019.

There are many other statistics, but you’re here to read about how to make your emails more compelling and ‘better’ right?

As a precaution, these are tests I’ve done during my days of sending emails and they mainly apply to the B2B market. However, my findings are easily applicable to the B2C market as well.

To make it easier to digest, I’ll separate the types of emails I send on a regular basis into the following five categories:

Lead Captures

Personal or Meeting Emails

Selling and Giveaways

Feedback and Surveys

Other Learnings

1. Lead Captures

Keep it simple but add an image to capture attention.

The misconception is to make the email design look complex and beautiful. By providing as much information as possible, recipients are more likely to convert, correct?

Not quite!

I had this idea when I designed email for programs in the past, but quickly learned that people have a limited attention span online. In fact, they only spend on average 11.1 seconds reading an email before they want to convert or close.

Although there are MANY blogs that state their strongest emails have been the ones with no images, I find providing one image performs much better than having no images at all, especially if it’s to encourage someone to download a report or asset. Have a clear CTA and show what report or e-book you’re giving away in the image and back it up with some content within the email.

2. Personal or Meeting Emails

If you want to set up a potential meeting or be more personal—go with all text.

This is one of the few places I would say to go with all text. It feels more personal, especially if you want to set up a meeting. No one wants to see an email full of banners and images if you’re asking them for a coffee or a conversation. Address it directly from you and always personalize.

Subject lines: Be more personal and direct, as if you’re talking to someone on a 1-on-1 basis. Example: ‘Would be lovely to catch you for a coffee <name>!’

Email Content: Similar to your subject line, keep it simple. Put a simple CTA such as ‘schedule a meeting’ through a calendar invite or ask the recipient to reply directly. You want to capture them from the email and get them to reply back to you. If you MUST get them to take an action, make it easy with a simple form, instead of something complicated like a long landing page full of content and a detailed registration form.

3. Selling and Product Giveaways

If you’re selling or doing a giveaway, it’s ok to be visual!

It might seem like I’m contradicting myself here, but emails with images have their place. In terms of giveaways or having something that is of physical value, it’s good to be visual. Even with images, you have to go straight to the point. Having a photo of the giveaway or the items you’re selling is important not only to capture attention but also to show what exactly it is.

Subject Lines: Stick to headlines that create urgency and be descriptive in your subject line. Pay attention to regional differences in language, current trends, and your organizational brand guidelines.

Email Content: Keep it straightforward with the images of the items you’re selling. Post your best specials if you’re selling and the giveaway items when you’re doing freebies.

The point of this is you don’t want to make your audience guess what’s in the giveaway or what you’re trying to sell. Give them an image so they’re tempted to convert if they’re already interested.

4. Feedback and Surveys

If you want survey feedback—be humble in your approach.

No one likes a bragger. Don’t say something like ‘Thanks for coming to the best event in the world, here’s a survey.’ Always take one step back and ask for feedback because there are always improvements that could be made to an event.

Subject Lines: Be humble and friendly and use the words feedback and advice rather than survey. Examples include: ‘We would love your feedback on our last event’ or ‘I need your help.’

Email Content: Start off with a thank you in your banner or first heading. Once again, I would avoid mentioning survey in your CTA. Instead use phrases like ‘provide feedback’ or ‘give your advice,’ which tend to work much better than ‘complete this survey.’

5. Other Learnings

The 48-Hour Rule: I have started to implement this advice from SEO expert Matthew Barby. Basically, 48 hours after sending your first email, you should send a follow-up email with a completely different subject line to those who didn’t open your email. With marketing automation software, this should be easy to adjust and implement.

Not only do you increase the number of people you get to read your emails without looking spammy, it ensures you get the maximum reach from your emails.

Test, Test, and Test: It’s pretty straightforward and obvious but reinforcing is always important. If you don’t have time to test your content, at least test subject lines. Usually, you should aim for around three email tests.

Always Personalize: According to Campaign Monitor, on average, emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. Additionally, according to Aberdeen, personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.

Keep Content to the Landing Page: Always remember the average reading span of an email is around 11 seconds. Hence, you want to tease readers to actually click and then redirect to your landing page, with few exceptions (personal emails.) House the rest of your content on your landing page instead of your emails.

What other email tips do you have? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

The post 5 Emails to Send to Your Customers—and How to Send Them appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2018/06/5-emails-to-send-and-how-to-send.html

[archiebwoollard]

5 Important LinkedIn Updates for Marketing Professionals

LinkedIn, as many of you know, is the world’s largest professional network on the internet, and is striving to keep it that way. To stay the course, LinkedIn has been quickly improving its product and adding new features.

In August, I received a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions email update about some “big new features” that were added to the platform. After assessing the full message, I learned that LinkedIn has added a variety of options and capabilities including ‘multi-photo posts’ and a ‘disable comments’ feature, just to name a few. This is exciting because it shows how LinkedIn is embracing recent industry trends in marketing and transitioning into more of a content-based platform.

So, what does this mean for marketers? For some, this could be a game-changer. LinkedIn rolling out these new functionalities means that businesses and users will now have more control over their content and a better ability to personalize that content. I think this change is huge, not only for LinkedIn but for B2B marketers everywhere!  In this blog, I’ll take a deep-dive into five new LinkedIn updates that could help you achieve your marketing goals.

1. Upload Multiple Photos in a Single Post

LinkedIn will now give users the ability to select multiple photos in a single post. This is a pretty straightforward addition, but a great one nonetheless. With this capability, you can personalize your content however you want with more images to choose from. This is especially important if you’re looking to get more engagement from your audience. Personally, I’ve been waiting for LinkedIn to implement this feature for quite some time, as I often want to share more than one image from an event, but don’t feel like cluttering my feed.

2. Post Native Videos Directly to LinkedIn

Say goodbye to switching back-and-forth to your camera roll and/or another source. With this feature, you’ll now be able to record and post videos natively from the LinkedIn app, giving you a faster and easier method to share your professional insights and perspectives. According to Forbes, “native videos get 10x more shares than YouTube alone.” You’ll no longer have to go through the lengths of your camera roll and downloads to upload a single video with this option. Simply click the video feature in the app, then either record in real-time or share a previous recording without having to go through another data-source. This will surely speed up the process especially during time sensitive situations. Another A+ addition in my book!

3. Share Your Content Off LinkedIn

One of the biggest challenges for any marketer is maximizing the exposure and viewership of your content. For LinkedIn business users, sharing your content meant sharing only to your connections/followers, which of course, could only go so far (unless you’re willing to boost your post with paid advertising). If you’re looking to expand your reach, this new feature will come in handy. Guests and logged-out users will now be able to see your posts, videos, and articles on the platform. Why is this so important? Because your precious content will now appear to readers who aren’t logged in to LinkedIn. Better yet, they don’t have to be a LinkedIn member. Talk about capitalizing on your content sharing!

Take a look at this view from a logged-off users’ perspective:

4. Share a Draft of Your Article Before It’s Published

Typically, when you create a post as a “Draft” on any content management platform, only the author is given access to view it. This could be troublesome for many organizations because you want to share a post with a client or manager to get their input. In order to do that you’d have to draft an email with your text copied and pasted in it. However, you also have the option of creating a shared Google Doc or Dropbox, which is something I’ve done in the past. The good news is that LinkedIn has answered the call for users looking for an approval process for their LinkedIn Pulse articles that want to avoid having to go through other sources and off-platform.

What’s the solution? LinkedIn has created a feature that allows you to share your draft articles and blogs before publishing. So, if you’re looking for some feedback on a piece you’re about to send out, you now have the option to “Share Draft”. Keep in mind, your drafts will only be available to those who have a direct link that you choose to create.

5. Enable or Disable Comments

And finally, the feature that gives you control over your comments. One of the most frustrating things as a marketer is seeing an irrelevant or raunchy comment on a post you’ve toiled away on. These days, you never know what to expect out of your audience and what they could possibly say. As part of LinkedIn’s ongoing efforts to provide a professional environment that encourages you to share your thoughts, they’ve rolled out the ability for users to manage their comments on their posts and articles.

This is especially helpful for your those who manage content daily. This added feature gives you the ability to enable and disable comments on your posts. All it requires is just a few clicks of your mouse (or finger, if you’re operating on your mobile phone) to prevent your audience from seeing comments that may detract from your original intent.

These new features are a win-win. They allow you to properly manage your content and maximize your potential reach with your audience. As marketers, it’s important that we take these new concepts into consideration as they’ll allow us to more effectively drive our content. That said, if you haven’t tested the new updates on LinkedIn yet, I suggest you do.

What other methods do you use to boost and manage your content on LinkedIn or other social platforms? I would love to hear your thoughts!

The post 5 Important LinkedIn Updates for Marketing Professionals appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2017/09/5-important-linkedin-updates-marketing-professionals.html

[maxslogic25]

5 Important LinkedIn Updates for Marketing Professionals

LinkedIn, as many of you know, is the world’s largest professional network on the internet, and is striving to keep it that way. To stay the course, LinkedIn has been quickly improving its product and adding new features.

In August, I received a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions email update about some “big new features” that were added to the platform. After assessing the full message, I learned that LinkedIn has added a variety of options and capabilities including ‘multi-photo posts’ and a ‘disable comments’ feature, just to name a few. This is exciting because it shows how LinkedIn is embracing recent industry trends in marketing and transitioning into more of a content-based platform.

So, what does this mean for marketers? For some, this could be a game-changer. LinkedIn rolling out these new functionalities means that businesses and users will now have more control over their content and a better ability to personalize that content. I think this change is huge, not only for LinkedIn but for B2B marketers everywhere!  In this blog, I’ll take a deep-dive into five new LinkedIn updates that could help you achieve your marketing goals.

1. Upload Multiple Photos in a Single Post

LinkedIn will now give users the ability to select multiple photos in a single post. This is a pretty straightforward addition, but a great one nonetheless. With this capability, you can personalize your content however you want with more images to choose from. This is especially important if you’re looking to get more engagement from your audience. Personally, I’ve been waiting for LinkedIn to implement this feature for quite some time, as I often want to share more than one image from an event, but don’t feel like cluttering my feed.

2. Post Native Videos Directly to LinkedIn

Say goodbye to switching back-and-forth to your camera roll and/or another source. With this feature, you’ll now be able to record and post videos natively from the LinkedIn app, giving you a faster and easier method to share your professional insights and perspectives. According to Forbes, “native videos get 10x more shares than YouTube alone.” You’ll no longer have to go through the lengths of your camera roll and downloads to upload a single video with this option. Simply click the video feature in the app, then either record in real-time or share a previous recording without having to go through another data-source. This will surely speed up the process especially during time sensitive situations. Another A+ addition in my book!

3. Share Your Content Off LinkedIn

One of the biggest challenges for any marketer is maximizing the exposure and viewership of your content. For LinkedIn business users, sharing your content meant sharing only to your connections/followers, which of course, could only go so far (unless you’re willing to boost your post with paid advertising). If you’re looking to expand your reach, this new feature will come in handy. Guests and logged-out users will now be able to see your posts, videos, and articles on the platform. Why is this so important? Because your precious content will now appear to readers who aren’t logged in to LinkedIn. Better yet, they don’t have to be a LinkedIn member. Talk about capitalizing on your content sharing!

Take a look at this view from a logged-off users’ perspective:

4. Share a Draft of Your Article Before It’s Published

Typically, when you create a post as a “Draft” on any content management platform, only the author is given access to view it. This could be troublesome for many organizations because you want to share a post with a client or manager to get their input. In order to do that you’d have to draft an email with your text copied and pasted in it. However, you also have the option of creating a shared Google Doc or Dropbox, which is something I’ve done in the past. The good news is that LinkedIn has answered the call for users looking for an approval process for their LinkedIn Pulse articles that want to avoid having to go through other sources and off-platform.

What’s the solution? LinkedIn has created a feature that allows you to share your draft articles and blogs before publishing. So, if you’re looking for some feedback on a piece you’re about to send out, you now have the option to “Share Draft”. Keep in mind, your drafts will only be available to those who have a direct link that you choose to create.

5. Enable or Disable Comments

And finally, the feature that gives you control over your comments. One of the most frustrating things as a marketer is seeing an irrelevant or raunchy comment on a post you’ve toiled away on. These days, you never know what to expect out of your audience and what they could possibly say. As part of LinkedIn’s ongoing efforts to provide a professional environment that encourages you to share your thoughts, they’ve rolled out the ability for users to manage their comments on their posts and articles.

This is especially helpful for your those who manage content daily. This added feature gives you the ability to enable and disable comments on your posts. All it requires is just a few clicks of your mouse (or finger, if you’re operating on your mobile phone) to prevent your audience from seeing comments that may detract from your original intent.

These new features are a win-win. They allow you to properly manage your content and maximize your potential reach with your audience. As marketers, it’s important that we take these new concepts into consideration as they’ll allow us to more effectively drive our content. That said, if you haven’t tested the new updates on LinkedIn yet, I suggest you do.

What other methods do you use to boost and manage your content on LinkedIn or other social platforms? I would love to hear your thoughts!

The post 5 Important LinkedIn Updates for Marketing Professionals appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2017/09/5-important-linkedin-updates-marketing-professionals.html