Facebook Messenger may follow WhatsApp in implementing stronger encryption, according to a new report.
The social network could add end-to-end encryption to its Messenger app later this year, even though it may come at the expense of some of Facebook's artificial intelligence features, The Guardianreports.
The new encryption measures, which would make messages sent through Messenger more secure, will reportedly roll out as an "optional" encrypted mode that users would need to opt into in order to enable it. If true, that would differ from the encryption recently implemented by Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which turned on end-to-end encryption by default on all its apps last month.
The difference, according to The Guardian, is that Messenger's encryption would come at the expense of some of its newer artificial intelligence efforts, including its bots. Facebook's Messenger bots (and its experimental assistant, M) learn from users' messages in order to get better at replying to requests. But, as the report points out, this requires that messages are stored on company servers, while fully encrypted messages can only be seen by the sender or receiver.
Messenger's encryption would come at the expense of some of its newer artificial intelligence efforts
A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the report but earlier reports have also suggested Facebook has been looking into increasing the encryption of Messenger in the wake of Apple's very public battle with FBI over its use of encryption.
Facebook isn't the only company looking to increase its security, even as it pushes harder into AI. Allo, Google's upcoming messaging app, will also offer extra security as an "opt-in" feature for those who don't want to take advantage of the more AI-focused features like smart replies and Google's Assistant.
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It's all too common for marketers to equate scaling content with simply producing more content, regardless of quality. But that approach is flawed, as it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve more visibility when your content isn't all that great.
How can you scale your content marketing while keeping up with the evolving standards for quality? Well, we'd be doing you a disservice if we told you it was going to be easy. The truth is, you'll likely run into a handful of challenges.
To learn more about some of the common mistakes marketers make when scaling their content, check out the infographic below from the folks at CopyPress. You'll learn everything from when outsourcing can be beneficial for your team, to why more traffic doesn't necessarily mean more leads.
via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/1XLBSzp
There’s no doubt that Photoshop is an incredibly powerful tool for marketers. Photoshop has thousands of features, tools, settings, and shortcuts that have drastically changed and shaped graphic design and photo editing over the last few decades.
With the sophistication of today’s design capabilities, however, comes the hassle of learning and staying up-to-date on Photoshop’s features.
Whether you’re a Photoshop wiz, a self-taught intermediate designer, or someone just starting out, there will always be more tricks and hacks to learn.
Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of 11 video tutorials for Photoshoppers at various levels to speed up your workflow. Some videos are better suited for beginners, while other videos are tailored towards people with more experience. So take a look, find the tutorials that are best suited for you, and use them to learn some helpful new tips and tricks.
11 Useful Photoshop Tutorials That'll Speed Up Your Workflow
Many of you likely recognize the value of Photoshop and other design software skills, but when it comes to self-teaching a new skill like Photoshop, it’s hard to know where to begin. Luckily, this 46-minute tutorial is a great way to get started.
Created by the Adobe Photoshop team, this tutorial feels more like a free webinar class: You have a friendly teacher who shows you the basics of how Photoshop works with Adobe Bridge, and then shows you ten basic techniques to get you going.
Tips in this video include removing blemishes in photos, working with Photoshop’s layers, cropping, editing image colors, removing parts of an image, and more.
There’s no better teacher than the maker, right? This second tutorial, hosted on Adobe’s Helpx site, gives quick basic tips for a better workflow. If you’re a self-taught designer, I highly recommend this video for a simple brush up.
The teacher starts out by taking you through quick grids and explaining how to maximize efficiency in your workspace. Then, he gives you helpful tips on placing elements (smart objects, linked files, etc.) and using clipping masks.
The best part of the tutorial is the way it quickly and visually touches on how Photoshop interacts with other Adobe products such as Typekit and Illustrator. The teacher quickly produces a magazine page on the screen by showing you different elements of Illustrator and Photoshop, making it easy to follow and easy to generate design ideas from.
Part of speeding up your process is simply knowing and using the multitude of keyboard shortcuts available for the Photoshop software.
Luckily, Graphic Geeks put together this handy tutorial featuring their top 10 photo editing shortcuts in action. It covers toggling through layer blending modes, creating inverted masks, using clipping layers, transforming layers, resizing brushes, zooming in and out, previewing soft selections, duplicating layers, fading brush strokes, and sampling colors directly on the canvas.
Want even more tips and tricks? Check out this blog post for a list of 66 Photoshop keyboard shortcuts.
There are plenty of ways to crop images on Photoshop, and if you compare your cropping method to someone else's, you might realize they do it differently than you do. Part of this is because Photoshop’s crop tools have changed throughout its different versions.
If you want to learn how to use the latest crop tool (as of Adobe CC) -- which allows you to hide cropped pixels instead of permanently deleting them -- this tutorial walks you through it.
This tutorial serves as part of a series by Lynda.com -- an excellent resource for extended Photoshop lessons.
If you’ve worked with Photoshop much at all, you’ve probably already realized that the undo/redo features don’t quite work the same way as they do in programs like Word, Illustrator, or InDesign. Instead, Photoshop’s undo/redo feature automatically sets to only undo one step. To go back through multiple steps, you have to use the history panel, and even the history panel is limited in the number of steps it remembers.
Photoshop is capable, however, of going back through older steps -- it just doesn’t always seem like it at first. This tutorial walks you through how to use Photoshop’s undo/redo tools, and how to set up your history panel to remember more steps than it does automatically.
Ever been working on an image that you just wish you could flip upside down like you could a sheet of paper? If you didn’t know already, with Photoshop, you can!
This two-minute tool tutorial by Creative Bloq walks you through this simple tool and shows you how to use it practice.
Don’t forget to browse through other videos on Creative Bloq’s “Two-Minute Tool” series to quickly increase your capabilities with tools you may not have used previously! Creative Bloq keeps their tutorial videos clear, quick, and straight to the point so you don’t have to waste time searching for the information you want to know.
As a photo editing and graphic design tool, it makes sense that Photoshop has hundreds of ways to sharpen, edit, change, and manipulate the look and feel of images. But it also means you may not know the best way to edit an image while maintaining the best quality.
This mid-length tutorial by Kelvin Designs takes you through the basics of sharpening images and why some ways are better than others. Your teacher will also give you tips on maintaining the quality of the images while explaining which tools work better for certain types of images.
As an added bonus, Kelvin Designs linked the source files used in the video for you to download and follow along on your own computer. If you’re more of a hands-on learner, this might be a great tutorial for you.
For many graphic designers, creating and using patterns is a fairly frequent task. While there are multiple ways to create patterns -- one of which is by hand -- Photoshop actually has a simplified trick for making pattern building much easier than measuring, copying, pasting, and repeating over and over again.
In this video, the teacher -- Aaron Nace -- takes you through the basics of building patterns. Nace has tons of tutorials for Photoshop and Lightroom, so make sure to check them out.
(Pro tip: This video has a pretty long introduction, so skip to 1:37 if you want to cut to the chase.)
Ever wish you could just record a series of steps in Photoshop and apply those steps to a bunch of different files? Like cropping images to a certain size or a building a customer filter to use on lots of images? As it turns out, with Photoshop’s Action tool, you can.
In the second Phlearn tutorial featured in this post, Nace how to batch edit photos using the Action tool. What I love about this tutorial is that he gives you ideas for other ways to use the Action tool even as he uses it primarily to set a custom filter for a group of wedding photos.
There are numerous times when designers have to place a watermark, logo, or some other standardized feature on images repeatedly throughout their work. While placing the image into the document as a layer works just fine, it’s helpful to have those features already loaded into your workspace.
That’s where creating custom brushes for things like logos and watermarks is a super handy way to speed up your workflow. In this tutorial, Larry Loucey from PhotoEducationOnline.com teaches you how to create custom brushes so you can load logos, watermarks, etc. into your workspace.
Doing this allows you to easily transform and place your logos/watermarks from your brushes panel onto your designs without having to search through your computer files each time.
Layer masks tend to play a big role in many graphic design processes. Essentially, a layer mask allows you to apply something -- a color, shape, etc. -- to a specific part of an image, rather than the entire thing.
In this speedy tutorial, Tutvid.com dives into not only what masking is, but how to do it quickly. He uses the example of a car to show how a mask can be used to manipulate the car's color from red to green.
If you haven’t already given masking a try, definitely check out this tutorial.
What other Photoshop skills do you want to learn? Share them with us below.
via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/25xVGfD
Several years ago, Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan noticed something curious as she scrolled through Facebook: Many of her female friends used an image of their child as a personal profile photo. Even Schoppe-Sullivan made the switch without fully realizing the implications.
"It just kind of dawned on me at one point, 'Hey that's your identity, that’s a really profound statement,'" she told Mashable. "It's saying, 'This is who I am right now.'"
Of course, plenty of new moms see Facebook as simply a way of sharing joyous baby-related updates with family and friends.
Schoppe-Sullivan, however, thought something more complicated might be going on, particularly as moms tried to navigate the tricky terrain of balancing their new identity with their old one.
As a professor of human sciences and psychology at The Ohio State University, she set out to understand if and when women seek validation on Facebook for their roles as mothers, and whether they're at greater risk of depressive symptoms when they do so. She was already evaluating new parenthood in a long-term study and decided to explore those new questions in her ongoing research.
"A lot of moms may feel pressured to portray this very positive image of motherhood."
The results, published last week in Sex Roles, may make new moms reconsider why they use Facebook to post about their children. While the social media platform can offer guidance and support from a large community, frequent posting for some users can also amplify their anxiety about motherhood.
Schoppe-Sullivan and her co-authors analyzed data from 127 participants and found that when women felt more societal pressure to be perfect mothers and viewed motherhood as central to their identity, they were more likely to share child-related updates and photos. The majority of moms in the study did use their baby's image as a profile photo at some point.
The mothers who strove for perfection as parents and sought external validation for their maternal role also expressed stronger emotional responses — both positive and negative — to the frequency and nature of their friends' likes and comments..
That relationship with Facebook may have come at a cost. Nine months after giving birth, those same mothers reported more depressive symptoms like having a poor appetite, not being able to shake off the blues and experiencing restless sleep.
The study couldn't pinpoint a cause-and-effect dynamic between a new mom's desire for validation, her increased Facebook use and a greater risk for symptoms of depression, but Schoppe-Sullivan believes there could be a direct link.
"A lot of moms may feel pressured to portray this very positive image of motherhood, and if on the inside you're not feeling that good, I think that could be detrimental," she said.
The study does have some important limitations. Schoppe-Sullivan surveyed well-educated, employed women who were mostly white, which means the results aren't nationally representative. The participants also self-reported their social media use, which can be a reliable way to account for their habits but isn't necessarily the most accurate method.
"This is an evolving way of representing your identity and your family and what’s important to you."
Schoppe-Sullivan and her co-authors did control for several factors, including maternal age, education and personality traits that might make participants more prone to experiencing depression. Only one of five key traits — neuroticism — was associated with a mother's more intense emotional reaction to if and how people responded to her Facebook posts. The researchers also controlled for depressive symptoms at three months postpartum.
While some may be quick to use the study's findings as a justification for judging new moms who constantly post photos of their newborn, that's not the point Schoppe-Sullivan is trying to make.
Like with any personal social media post, users are trying to carefully craft their identity. New mothers, in particular, encounter unyielding expectations about how they should behave, which can feel magnified on a platform like Facebook.
They may feel pressure to adhere to impossibly high parenting standards, said Schoppe-Sullivan, and turn to Facebook for both support in meeting those expectations and validation that they're fulfilling a stereotypical maternal role.
"This is an evolving way of representing your identity and your family and what’s important to you," she said.
The working women in the study, she added, may have wanted to defy stereotypes about mothers who have careers and prove to friends and family that devotion to their child came first.
Some moms who post frequent updates and photos of their child may feel none of these pressures and care little about validation. But for those who notice that frequent Facebook posts involve stress and angst, Schoppe-Sullivan had some simple advice: take a break.
That can mean turning off notifications, posting less frequently and finding other ways to distribute photos to family members and friends eager to see them.
"There are ways to manage this," said Schoppe-Sullivan, "so you’re not necessarily getting sucked into it."
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
The birthday party is in crisis — and it's not getting better anytime soon.
As children, birthday parties were simple, elegant affairs. Your parents fed you supermarket cake on beautifully branded, plastic tablecloths and prayed that you didn't ruin the whole event by spontaneously crying or vomiting.
But millennials took those simple pleasures for granted, and now, many parties have evolved into ravenous emotional beasts: month-long, highly intricate ceremonies that eat up all your your savings and Facebook notifications. Absence is not an option. Sickness is not an excuse. The rise of the birthdayzilla has transformed birthday parties from simple one-offs to totalitarian birthday months, and everyone must comply.
Not all holy birthdays look the same, but their DNA is almost identical. For me, invitations start off breezily, calmly. Often, they come in the form of a casual Facebook invite for beers. Or a last minute text for brunch — nbd if you can't make it! A 'LOL' is added to let you know that they're cool — a DGAF kind of person.
Yet read between the lines, or actually read that group email, and you'll notice some surreptitious follow-up clauses. The birthday beers are for everyone in Tier III of friendship, the most inclusive (as as well as my personal favorite) category. More intimate Tier II friends are required to attend to the birthday beers as well as the birthday dinner, held in a discreet location approximately 9,000 miles away from your house, only accessible by an intermittently functioning local bus. Quirky costumes and period-specific Hamilton hats are recommended, and please bring your wallets: this restaurant only accepts loose change.
Read even closer, check that cc: line, and you may even discover that you're a Tier I friend. I am proud to say I've been called a Tier I friend by some, though the responsibilities are grueling. Tier I friends aren't just required to attend all events — including the all-you-can-mimosa spa weekend for 100 of her closest girlfriends, ($100 for the Sephora goody bag!)—but be involved in the production capacity as well. This could mean anything from planning some questionably "hilarious" penis-inspired crafts, to putting together a yearbook of their greatest G-chat quotes, 1989-present.
Attendance and enthusiasm is required for all events.
Attendance and enthusiasm is required for all events. Non-compliance may result in ex-communication.
This may seem like hyperbole, but the phenomenon is grounded in real evidence. I reached out to some friends to get their sad tales of birthday obligation.
Here's just a sampling:
"She made me go to birthday pre-dinner drinks, birthday dinner, birthday post-dinner drinks, birthday club, birthday hotel. That was preceded by a series of birthday preliminary events, including a birthday floppy hat party in the park. It was not pretty." - "Ben" D.
"I received over 200 emails about the same birthday dinner," Megan H.
"He forced me to go to a cupcake tour," "Emily" S.
While not everyone feels the same, accurate way about cupcake tours (they are terrible), the pattern is clear: birthday parties/holy birthday months resemble their increasingly controversial cousin, weddings. The cost for attending a holy birthday month can be prohibitive, as is the cost for noncompliance. Forget to RSVP? Forget to show up? Good luck.
"I told her I was "too sick" to go to her party (I had the flu) and she told me "I didn't care enough," Megan H. told me.
There have been points in my life—points where I've been asked to travel over three hours to go to a crowded party at midnight in below-freezing temperatures where I know there'll be no stools, forget chairs—where I've seriously considered dropping the friendship, in the interest of transportation time.
It isn't just the logistics that scare me, however. It's the expectation that I need to go financially above-and-beyond for a fellow friend not because because they're in dire straights, but to satisfy a normative ritual. And an expensive one.
But attendance is only one small part of the modern birthday ritual.
Holy birthday months don't exist without recording them
Holy birthday months don't exist without recording them, on each and every platform, using each and every filter on social media. The event becomes secondary to its record.
Two years ago, I went to a birthday party as part of a holy birthday month. This wasn't the Tier I brunch portion where we ate New York's best legendary mini-cupcakes (ugh, were they mini). This was a a Tier III party – typically the safest of all parties – and someone had brought a Whole Foods cake (-3 points for failing to make it personalized, +2 for the brand)
But the birthdayzilla, like so many birthdayzillas before her, nearly blew off her face by taking a selfie of herself blowing out fire. She then proceeded to take a picture of her partially singed face and put it on Snapchat, because that's just what birthdayzillas – and burn victims? — do.
None of this is to say that birthday months shouldn’t exist, or that we shouldn't celebrate our friends or, you know, life.
But instead of forcing our loved ones to travel hundreds of miles and spend hundreds of dollars to eat stale Doritos crumbs at the bottom of a plastic bowl, or making them wear quirky sombreros and thematic t-shirts and dance to Journey on crumbling bar tables, or requiring them to read email after email, FB invite after FB invite, group text after group text, we celebrate birthdays the way nature always intended for them to be celebrated: among friends, with coupons, for one glorious day only.
Offer never expires.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Over recent years, the criteria for engagement on social media has evolved from announcing your brand or product to finding a way to tell a story.
Quality branded video campaigns allow companies to project said story in some really creative and unique ways. Whether you're spreading brand awareness, announcing a new product, or launching a company, great branded video makes customers feel an emotional connection. And that emotional reaction can be really powerful.
In fact, a recentsurvey by eZanga found that 30% of respondents were less likely to skip video content if it was humorous. And research by Dr. Karen Nelson-Field found that 65% of videos that elicited a feeling of exhilaration were most remembered.
When it comes to finding the right platform to promote your video, Facebook is a strong contender. In fact, just this past January it announced that platform now sees 100 million hours of daily video watch time. So to help inspire your video marketing efforts on Facebook, I put together a list of 10 clever examples from brands like Apple, LG, BMW, and more. Check them out below.
10 Excellent Examples of Video Marketing on Facebook
1) #TAYLORvsTREADMILL | Apple
When it comes to storytelling and connecting with an audience, Apple is among the marketing elite. Recently, they teamed up with the biggest voice in the anti-streaming movement to promote their new subscription music service, Apple Music.
What’s great about this video is that Apple and Taylor Swift managed to create something that is relatable -- regardless of her celebrity status. Everyone knows someone who has fallen while running on the treadmill, and there’s something even more hilarious about knowing that this happened to Swift, too.
3) #DayItForward | Chevrolet
Chevrolet has always been quick to adopt new marketing advances and incorporate them into their strategy. For the #DayItForward campaign, Chevrolet launched multiple videos on Leap Day to promote goodwill and of course, a positive brand image.
Rather than leveraging humor like the Apple video, it provokes empathy with viewers. Who doesn’t get the warm fuzzies when watching videos of people giving back? Now, those sentimental feelings translate with consumers when thinking about Chevrolet.
“The Chevy #DayItForward campaign resonated strongly with its audience because it was at once entertaining and informative while being tastefully branded,” said the CEO of Philo Media, Kevin Allodi. “Celebrity talent helps draw people in, but to keep them engaged you have to deliver authentic storytelling."
4) Story for a Cause | Unicef
Over the past few years, you've likely seen a ton of media coverage surrounding the Syrian refugee crisis. The political debate that ensued prompted Unicef to create a video that transforms the headlines into a story that tugs at the heartstrings of its viewers.
The video turns the political issue into a humanizing and heartbreaking story, that’s meant to shine a positive light on a global issue. This is a powerful example of using a current controversial event to spread brand awareness and a positive message.
Note: While this video has been well received by many, it's important that brands are incredibly careful and thoughtful when creating content around a controversial issue.
5) #LikeAGirl | Always
Always is perfectly in tune with their audience when it comes to their advertising campaigns. The newest video in the series reaches out to a younger demographic by raising a concerning question about the gender bias in emojis.
While Always does incorporate a controversial topic into the story, the newest #LikeAGirl video was a success because of their use of supporting stats. Using the stats and accompanying them with concerns from the girls featured in the video packs a powerful message that leaves little room for criticism.
6) #LowBatteryAnxiety | LG
The mobile device market is extremely competitive. LG’s newest video campaign strives to stand out in a market dominated by Samsung and Apple. They achieve their goal by telling a story that is hilariously relatable.
Low battery anxiety is real, people. There’s something about a phone’s battery diving into the single digits that send people into panic mode. LG used the relatable crisis and exaggerated it to create a video that features a dramatic support group that helps people cope with anxiety driven by a low battery. People love to make fun of themselves and LG tapped into the perfect scenario for this campaign.
7) Groups | Facebook
Since the conception of Facebook, the social networking service has evolved from a collegiate platform to one for the whole family. The company has become infused in our society, making FOMO, or the fear of missing out, a real thing.
Meeting friends, and sharing your life with those friends, is the business of Facebook. The platform’s ‘Groups’ video perfectly portrays how it helps people connect with others who share similar interests. It creatively identifies how users can benefit from using Facebook by providing a clearly defined problem and a beginning, middle, and end.
2) Save a Bro You Know | Organic Valley
In Organic Valley’s new video campaign, they embraced their "inner bro" in an effort to promote their new line of protein drinks.
What’s great about this video is that it hilariously (yet, not maliciously) pokes fun at the target audience, while also identifying the downfalls of their competitors' products. Not to mention, they cleverly found a way to increase their share count and views by having users send the video to other "bros" they know on Facebook and other social channels. By urging viewers to rally support for this faux cause, Organic Valley was able to expand the reach of the video and get more out of their investment.
8) #LoveAtFirstTaste | Knorr
Food is said to be the one thing that is always certain to bring families together. In their latest video campaign, Knorr -- a spices and seasonings company -- suggests that food and all its flavor has the ability to not only bring families together, but also help people find love.
With this genius video, Knorr found a way to connect with a huge audience -- garnering over 31 million views in a single week. Everyone loves food and most everyone has experienced love or the desire to be loved. By connecting their product with a human emotion, the video resonates even further with its audience -- all while promoting a positive brand image.
Knorr even created an accompanying quiz for viewers, to help them find their own unique flavor profile to assist in their quest for love ... or just great recipes.
9) Tea vs. Photo | ROC Live Life Loud
Roc Live Life Loud, a speaker and headphone brand by Cristiano Ronaldo and Monster, uses Real Madrid’s star forward to their full advantage in Tea vs. Photo.
While the campaign is obviously centered around Cristiano Ronaldo and has little to do with the brand itself, there’s something to be said about the tasteful product placement in the video. It shows a prime example of how the most successful video ads focus more on the story, than the product itself.
10) #EyesOnGiGi | BMW
Using new innovative technology is a great way to stand out from the competition and captivate an audience. BMW took advantage of Facebook’s latest 360 video technology for their most recent campaign featuring model Gigi Hadid.
Sometimes companies struggle when advertising with new technology. However, BMW does a perfect job of utilizing the 360 video by making the content interactive. (Not to mention, having Gigi Hadid as part of the campaign never hurts.) But what really makes this campaign a success is its interactive game that drives viewers to the website to play and share with friends and family.
What's your favorite Facebook video ad? Share your thoughts in the comments.
via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/24gzbpA
In today’s world, everything needs to be faster, easier, and free to get our attention. I sometimes wonder how anyone got anything done in the days before the internet.
While on one hand it’s a little scary to realise how much we depend on digital apps to run a business, on the other hand, it also makes our lives a whole lot easier.
Just take a scroll through Google's Apps Marketplace. You'll find everything from reporting tools, to accounting software, to business card creators. And as of this week, you can even find HubSpot CRM there.
While we were busy admiring our new listing, we decided to round up a few of the most helpful free tools we also came across. Check them out below.
(Note: While some of the apps on this list do offer paid options with more advanced features, each of them has a free option available.)
The Top 10 Free Apps on the Google App Marketplace
What is it? A cloud-based all-in-one document viewer and markup tool.
What does it do? Kami allows you to view, annotate, share, and collaborate on your files on Chrome.
How can you use it? This tool is particularly useful for folks that frequently collaborate with team members or partners on content or the creation of formal documents such as co-marketing agreements, as it makes it easy to communicate edits.
What is it? A mind mapping and concept building tool.
What does it do? Mindomo allows you to visually outline complex concepts, tasks, ideas, and other related information in a structured form.
How can I use it? When it comes to planning out a marketing campaign, you need to think about content assets, promotional channels, budget allocation, and coordination of a hundred different things to get it to launch. This tool can help to organise your ideas and ensure a smooth transition from concept to campaign.
What is it? A simple and fast reporting tool for teams.
What does it do? It quickly generates team reports for managers to review.
How can I use it? Sometimes it can be hard for managers to spend time with every employee to discuss how things are going. With this free tool you simply fill in your progress, plans, and problems in minutes and it will send an automatic email report to your manager.
What does it do? SurveyLegend allows you to create mobile-ready online surveys and forms on your tablet or PC.
How can I use it? Whether you want to ask for customer feedback, perform buyer persona research, or collect data for a cool piece of content you're working on, surveys are a part of a marketer's life. This app allows you to create engaging surveys without installing software and offers real-time results.
What does it do? This free tool downloads email messages and file attachments from Gmail and automatically saves them to Google Drive as searchable pdf files.
How can I use it? You can use the add-on to easily backup important emails, video files, large images, Microsoft Office documents, travel receipts, and other emails from Gmail to your Google Drive.
What does it do? It looks after things like time tracking, online invoicing, project management, and auto-billing so you can stay more organised.
How can I use it? With this tool, you can become more efficient in your project management with clients, freelancers, or agencies. It should also help you with budget allocation and keeping tabs on important information to send to your finance department.
What is it? A free customer relationship management system.
What does it do? HubSpot CRM keeps track of all of your contacts (prospects, customers, and past customers) and their interactions with your company across the buyer’s journey.
How can I use it? This free CRM makes it really easy to add, nurture, and track customers along the buyer’s journey. It provides a deals dashboard, call recording, and email templates. It also integrates with the HubSpot Marketing Platform for valuable sales and marketing alignment.
What does it do? GQueues is a collaborative online task manager for Google and Google Apps users.
How can I use it? With just a couple of clicks, your emails, web pages, and anything else of interest are added to your task list. Your tasks then appear in your Google Calendar and in your task list on the right-hand side of your calendar.
What does it do? This app enables you to design and print new business cards quickly and easily.
How can I use it? With just a few clicks you can design some slick, on-brand business cards without needing to bother your designer. Although this app is not 100% free, your first batch of business cards is, and they are a very low price after that to get more printed.
When it comes to SlideShare marketing, there's no better feeling than seeing your prized presentation featured on the SlideShare homepage.
In addition to giving a boost to your self-esteem, landing a presentation on the first page of SlideShare will give your performance metrics a boost.
With 70 million people checking out the SlideShare website monthly, it's no surprise that nabbing one of those coveted "featured" spots has the potential to send your presentation's views, likes, and shares into overdrive.
Some things in life are relatively straightforward to learn.
Want to knit a scarf? Head the local craft store, pick up a book, and get to work. Sure, your gauge might be all over the place and your transitions between balls of yarn might be haphazard, but you'll still end up with something good enough to keep you warm during the winter.
Learning to lead others isn't so linear.
Sure, you can pick up a book to get you started, but that's all it will be -- a start. You've got to read, and listen, and ask questions, and make mistakes, and course-correct, and then you might be at a "good enough" level.
If you're on that leadership development path and looking for some more materials to help you along that journey, we've got you covered. Below are some of our favorite podcasts, tools, tips, and resources to become a better leader.
Even if you're not a basketball fan, you can learn something from Bill Walton. The NBA legend worked alongside two of the most prominent leaders in basketball: John Wooden, his basketball coach at UCLA, and Larry Bird, his teammate on the Celtics. In this episode of HubSpot's podcast, The Growth Show, you'll hear more on what made those leaders so special -- and apply those insights to your own career.
While public speaking isn't a requirement for being a strong leader, it certainly can help you differentiate yourself at work. Whether you've got to nail a presentation in front of a room of execs or you're worried about presenting an idea to your manager in your next 1:1, knowing how to frame your idea and effectively communicate it to your audience is incredibly important.
This resource is a near one-stop-shop for public speaking tips. Check it out to get advice on everything from developing your idea, to designing your slides, to actually delivering your presentation.
Though it can be tempting to feel like you have to master everything to be a leader, the most exceptional leaders embrace their vulnerability -- and use it to their advantage.
If you're struggling with being vulnerable with your team, look no further than Brené Brown's book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. In the book, Brené Brown dives into a decade of research to unveil the power of vulnerability, and gives tips on how you can open up more in your own life.
Think about the hardest piece of feedback you've ever gotten. Chances are, it was rough to receive ... but you were better in the end for it.
That's exactly what happened to Kim Scott. After an important presentation, Scott's boss, Sheryl Sandberg -- yes, that Sheryl -- had some feedback. Harsh feedback. The kind of feedback that stings. But because Scott knew that Sandberg was coming from a compassionate place when giving the feedback, Scott accepted it, moved on, and became better.
Scott took this pivotal interaction and used it to develop a framework for giving better feedback at work. No matter what stage of your career you're in, I'd highly suggest taking the time to read her framework.
(We also had the pleasure of having Kim Scott on The Growth Show. If you're interested in hearing more about her perspective on leadership, listen to her episode below.)
Speaking of feedback: While you're putting all the advice from all of these books, blogs, podcasts, and frameworks into practice, don't you wish someone would give you feedback on how you're doing?
Enter CareerLark, a Slack bot that helps you seek out on-the-fly advice on skills you're most interested in improving.
Here's how it works. Let's say the skill you'd like to get better at is public speaking. You could use CareerLark to ping your boss after your next big presentation to get real-time feedback on how it went -- all through Slack.
Micro-feedback in real-time? Great for your skill development (and great practice for your boss, too).
6) Advice From Real People
Sometimes, getting feedback from someone who isn't in your company or industry can be the most enlightening. If you're looking to step outside your bubble, here are a few apps to help:
RealTalk: This app features interviews and advice from real people in tons of different industries. Learn what it's really like to be in a job -- it could help you better benchmark your own experiences and uncover new ways of thinking.
Advice.vc: Even if you're not in a startup, turning to a venture capitalist (VC) for advice could get you through the trickier situations at work. For $20 (which gets donated to charity, not pocketed), ask a VC expert about a problem you're facing, and get help finding a solution.
Glassbreakers: If you're a woman struggling to find a mentor in your industry, check out this tool. It'll match you with another brilliant woman in your space who could give you great advice about developing your leadership skills.
7) Online Courses
So far, the leadership resources largely have to do with management and communication ... but that's not the only way to level up in your career.
Sometimes, it's about becoming really, really good at a certain part of your job (or a skill that you want to be part of your job one day). For that to happen, you just need to hunker down and learn it.
An online course can be a great way to do just that. While where you find an online class differs greatly by the skill you're looking to develop, here are a few places I'd recommend checking out if you want to improve your marketing-related skills:
Inbound Certification: If you want a deep dive into some of the most important aspects of marketing today, check out our free certification.
Design Lab: Want to up your design skills? Check out Design Labs. You'll be given real assignments to build your knowledge -- and a mentor to help you through each one.
Codecademy: Learn to code -- for free -- at Codecademy. This is especially helpful if you're the type of person who learns best through lots of hands-on experience.
Lynda's Excel Courses: If you're interested in advancing your data analysis skills, you're gonna have to learn how to use Excel. Period. Check out Lynda's Excel courses for more help.
8) Industry-Specific Slack Communities
Many of us are on Slack all day to communicate with our coworkers, but there are lots of opportunities to use the platform to connect and learn from folks outside our company. In fact, many industries have Slack groups you can join to talk about the latest trends and get advice on problems you're facing. (Or lurk in the background like I do to absorb as much information as possible.)
To find a community to join, I'd recommend checking out these two resources:
Maybe the resources above haven't appealed to you. Maybe you're at a loss for what kind of skills you want to develop. Maybe you're not even convinced you want to be a leader in your field at all ... but you aren't sure what to do next.
If you're already doing a little soul searching, you should take a few minutes to check out The Next Five. It's a free assessment that can help you identify the next step in your career.
Bonus: Your "diagnosis" will come with looooots more resources to help you make meaningful progress toward that new goal. (Because the only thing better than nine leadership resources is tailored resources to your specific situation ... am I right?)
What are some of the most helpful leadership resources you've come across? Share your favorites in the comments.
via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/1RwivDi
As marketers, it's pivotal that we measure our work.
How many leads are we generating? What are our best channels? How quickly are our leads closing? And perhaps most importantly, how much revenue are our leads bringing in?
There are lots of metrics that matter. While we all wish otherwise, there's no silver bullet report -- no single metric that sums up all of our efforts. That's where dashboards come in.
The basic concept of a dashboard? Take a series of reports and put them next to each other. Sounds simple enough. Creating a dashboard is easy. However, creating a great audience-aware dashboard that can be easily iterated on over time is not so easy. In fact, dynamic marketing dashboards take a lot of planning and forethought.
Not sure where to start? It's all about asking the right questions.
26 Questions to Ask Before Creating Your Next Marketing Dashboard
1) Why is the dashboard being created?
If you're a fan of Simon Sinek, you're familiar with the concept of "starting with why." (If you're not, check out his TED talk, then come right back.)
Make sure you're creating a dashboard for the right reasons. For example, are you creating a dashboard when a single report would do the trick?
2) Who is the dashboard for?
Will you be presenting to your CEO? The VP of Sales? The Board of Trustees? Your Social Media team? In marketing, we construct our content with our buyer personas in mind. When creating a dashboard, keep your audience in mind.
3) What questions do they need answered?
The CEO is on the hook for the company's bottom line. She likely cares less about your inputs (how many hours you put in, how you titled your blog posts) and more about your outcomes and big-picture results. Other members of your organization value other components of your reports.
Before creating your dashboard, write down a few of the questions your audience needs to answer --- chances are, they'll be asking them come presentation time.
4) How much time do they have to review the numbers?
Will they review the numbers for fifteen minutes? Or spend an entire three-hour meeting poring over them? The answer to this question determines how many reports your dashboard should include. If your audience won't spend much time with the data, only include the two or three most impactful reports.
5) What language do they speak?
We're not talking about English, Spanish, or Arabic. Think about what type of vocabulary they're familiar with. More importantly, which words don't they know? Do they know what a Marketing Qualified is? How familiar are they with the concept of Organic Search?
If you don't ask this question, you run the risk of presenting data that will go over the head of your audience. Not sure where to start? Read through emails your audience has sent you in the past, or ask your teammates.
6) How data-savvy are they?
As marketers, many of us geek out over web analytics. Does your audience? If you're speaking to someone who doesn't love data as much as you do, stick to simpler reports.
7) Do they need to know the story behind the data?
If so, be ready to tell it.
8) How nitpicky do they get?
Make sure you can explain any data inaccuracies or outliers. If "No value" or "Encrypted Keywords" appears in the data, be ready to discuss.
9) What tools do you have at your disposal?
Does your company use a marketing analytics tool? Google Analytics? Excel? A whiteboard?
10) How much time can you block off?
Hold yourself accountable for building the dashboard. Don't save it until the last minute.
11) What format should it be in?
Should the dashboard be housed in an online tool? Should it live in Excel? Does it need to be presented as a slideshow at the next board meeting?
12) What other members of the organization do you need on your team?
Do you have a business operations team that controls certain tools? Does the sales team hold the keys to revenue data? Align yourself with internal stakeholders, and set proper expectations on what you need and when you need it.
13) Which metrics should the dashboard include?
Every organization values different KPIs. Use your answers to questions three and five to get going in the right direction. If you're not sure where to begin, raw data and conversion rates on visits, leads, and customers are a great starting point.
14) What should the dashboard not include?
When we set goals at HubSpot, we identify both positive and negative aspects --- things we'll commit to accomplishing, and others that we'll intentionally exclude from focus. Are there certain metrics that you're deprioritizing?
15) Does the dashboard need more than just visuals?
Will every member of your audience be presented the information on your dashboard in a live session? Often, it's constructive to add additional context to your dashboards with help text.
16) What time frame makes the most sense?
For some organizations, monthly check-ins work best; for others, quarterly works better. Think back to question two. For the questions your audience is asking, how often do they need answers?
17) Which report is most important?
Prioritize the report with the biggest impact --- make it the biggest, and place it front and center on your dashboard.
18) What types of graphs fit the data best?
If you're plotting trends over time, use line and area charts. If you're comparing values, try a bar or column visual instead.
Here's a quick example. Take a look at the two charts below. The same data is presented, but notice how the second graph shows a more compelling trend in MQL growth over time.
Before:
After:
Not sure how to choose chart types? Here's a great resource to get you started.
19) Do you have benchmarks or goals to include?
Does it make sense to plot your data compared to a previous time period, or to a goal you set in the past? Do you have competitive data to use as a benchmark?
20) Does the dashboard need to be segmented?
Reporting on all your data is valuable, but it often doesn't tell the full story. For example, if your marketing team is divided into personas or countries, find a way to present each segment's unique data.
21) What actions do you want to drive out of each report?
Never run a report just for the sake of it --- for each data point you highlight, make sure you have a tangible strategic takeaway to share with your team. Don't walk away from the report with nothing at all.
22) Do you need more than one version of the dashboard?
If you have more than one audience, create unique variations that speak to each one's most pressing questions.
23) Who owns the dashboard?
Are you charged with creating the dashboard every month? If you win a free trip to Hawaii next month and are out of the office, who will create the dashboard?
24) Who can access it?
Make sure that every member of the team who needs to see the dashboard has the correct level of access within your tool of choice. On the flipside, keep unwanted sets of eyes out of the data by customizing permissions.
25) How will you distribute it?
If your system allows, set up an automated email at your chosen frequency to save yourself the manual send each time. At HubSpot, the marketing team receives a lead generation dashboard at noon each day with month-to-date data. Depending on the time frame your team chose in question 16, pick the cadence that makes the most sense.
26) Does your process need to be repeatable? How will you iterate on it?
If you need to recreate your dashboard in the future, make it easy on yourself by documenting the process in a Google doc or internal Wiki page. Note the parts that were trickiest and jot down specific instructions for next time.
What else do you keep in mind when creating marketing dashboards? Share your thoughts in the comments.
via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/1XBKjNu
The new Fifth Harmony album is upon us, and dancing in your bedroom while you get ready to get into trouble will never be the same.
To celebrate the 5/27 release of 7/27 (named after the day the group formed), Fifth Harmony is unveiling a custom Twitter emoji that will appear every time you use the hashtag #5H727.
The band talked about the 7/27 emoji in a statement to Mashable.
Twitter has allowed us to build our collective voice as a group, and become the place where we share exciting news & announcements, new music & videos. More importantly, Twitter gives us a direct line to our fans: it's the place we talk to fans and share our lives. We are so excited to be working with Twitter on our new release and can't wait to show the Harmonizers our 7/27 emoji and see how they use it - we hope they love it as much as we do!
The emoji is a great way to connect with other humans if you happen to be working from home.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Standing out from a crowd of candidates can take more than brushing up your resume. College student Graham Allgood got the attention of his dream workplace by marketing himself in another way with the help of Snapchat.
Allgood designed a custom geofilter for the New York-based advertising agency where he wanted to work as a summer intern in the hopes of catching a hiring manager's eye.
Once he completed the design, a sleek illustration incorporating Horizon Media's logo and Manhattan headquarters, he paid $29.65 to purchase an on-demand Snapchat geofilter ― temporary, location-specific photo overlays often used for events such as weddings or birthdays. He scheduled his filter to run during work hours at the Horizon Media office in early May.
Allgood, a senior at California Baptist University, said in a blog post that he had designed on-demand geofilters in the past, and even used Horizon Media's own Snapchat to determine which day the company used the platform the most (Tuesday, it turned out.)
Once it was live, Allgood tweeted a Snapchat of the filter to Horizon Media, and crossed his fingers the approach would grab the company's attention. And it did: within hours, Horizon Media sent an enthusiastic tweet in response, and by 4 p.m., requested Allgood come in for an interview the next day.
Though Allgood said initially on his blog the company told him all its summer internship spots were filled, Horizon Media eventually offered Allgood a paid summer social media internship― via Snapchat, of course.
When Horizon sends you a snapchat (after my interview in their LA office) to let you know you made the team in NYC! http://pic.twitter.com/IslZ3Y5ZBd
The scale is tipping from traditional media to social media as a source for news. That’s the conclusion reached in a new study published on Thursday by Pew Research Center.
Pew surveyed over 4,600 people who told them that they’re increasingly using their favorite social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and even Snapchat — as their go-to sources for news. According to the study, News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2016, 62% of all Americans now get news from social media.
Proportionally, Facebook, which has 222 million monthly active users across the U.S. and Canada (1.6 billion worldwide), is the No. 1 go-to source for news among social media sites. According to the study, 66% of Facebook’s U.S. audience gets their news from the site. It’s an interesting and timely stat, considering Facebook’s recent Trending Topics controversy.
The social network came under fire recently when former Trends contractors alleged that they might have been filtering out some right-leaning news sources. Facebook denied the accusations, but ultimately changed how it filters Trending Topics.
Trending
This is actually the second time Pew has conducted this study. The first was in 2013, and it noted growth in social platforms as news sources across virtually all the surveyed platforms.
Facebook, notably, saw the biggest jump (47% versus 66%).
that people are gathering their news from these platforms reminds the media about 'about the importance of being on various platforms and connecting with them there'
Reddit actually boasts the largest percentage of users who say they turn to it for news (70%), but its user base is much, much smaller than Facebook’s.
More than half of Twitter’s users say they turn to the micro-blogging platform for news, but the numbers didn’t change much in the last three years (59% versus 52% in 2013), which may make sense since Twitter’s user growth has all but stalled.
Not news
Likely few will be shocked by these findings, certainly not those who have been following the media industry for years. “I’m not surprised that people are [getting] their information from the platforms they’re on and what they’re exposed to,” said Sree Sreenivasan.
A social media and digital exert, Sreenivasan worked as a journalist for over two dozen years and is currently The Metropolitan Museum’s Chief Digital Officer.
The fact that people are gathering their news from these platforms reminds the media about “about the importance of being on various platforms and connecting with them there,” said Sreenivasan.
As for concerns about whether news found on chosen social media platforms might only reinforce persisting views, Sreenivasan told me that concern is not new, either. When blogs arrived nearly two decades ago, readers quickly adopted those that may have conformed their worldview, and ignored those that didn’t. “We used to talk about blogs and the echo chamber of blog, reading what they’re comfortable with and not leaning across the aisle,” said Sreenivasan.
It’s up to the reader, he said, to be aware of who they read and don’t read.
Who reads the news
17% of Snapchatters report getting news from the ephemeral platform
The study also reveals who is getting their news from these platforms. As you might expect, LinkedIn, which 19% of its users tap for news, has the largest majority of college educated users (65%, outpacing the U.S. average of 28%), while YouTubers have the fewest college degrees. Of the platforms surveyed, Facebook and Instagram are the most heavily female, 57% and 65%, respectively. Instagram, by the way, has, by far, the youngest audience, with 58% between 18 and 29.
Those surveyed also reported getting news from Yahoo’s Tumblr, Vine(!) and Snapchat, which didn’t even make it onto the 2013 survey. Now 17% of Snapchatters report getting news from the ephemeral platform, which should be music to the ears of all the media companies (including Mashable) who are currently filling the Snapchat Discover digital magazine platform.
The Met’s Sreenivasan told me he has twin 13-year-olds who are begging to be on Snapchat. “They say their friends know what’s going on because they’re on Snapchat.”
Media upside
It isn’t all bad news for traditional media. The Pew Study notes that the very same people who are either accidentally finding news on these platforms or purposefully turning to them each day for news, also pay attention to traditional media. 39% of Facebook users still watch the local news. 15% of them actually still read newspapers. Contrast that with the 8% of Twitter users who still consume content from print.
Even so, it’s clear the trend of people getting news from social media will continue and expand.
“We’ll see this come more into focus in the years ahead as these platforms become more dominant in our lives,” said Sreenivasan.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
The social landscape today looks a lot different than it did last year ... or even last month. As soon as your figure out a successful strategy on one channel, another one shows up and begins to demand your attention.
Sound familiar?
For a lot of marketers, determining exactly where and when to spend your precious resources (read: bandwidth and money) can be a challenge. That’s why it helps to have a plan in place for considering your options.
At HubSpot, we've developed a series of questions to help folks determine if it's really time to create a new social media account. So if you're struggling to figure out whether or not you're ready to expand your social presence, take some time to run through the list below. We've got a feeling it'll help.
9 Questions to Ask Before Creating Another Social Media Account
1) Is my persona on this network?
Different social networks have different user bases -- even the major ones. For example, 72% of adult internet users are on Facebook, while only 25% are on LinkedIn, according to Pew Research Center. Each of those networks attract users for different reasons, and cater to different user behavior.
Just because a network is hot right now, doesn't mean you should be using it. The key is to figure out where your personas are engaging on social media and figure out a strategy for connecting with them there. (Don't have personas yet? Check out our persona templates to get started.)
Note: Keep in mind that the personas you're targeting might differ between departments. For example, your recruiting department may be looking to engage with different folks than your marketing department.
2) Will this account fill a need that is different from one of my other accounts?
If you have a social channel for your company already, you likely already have an audience that's interested in receiving your content and updates. Congrats, that’s hard work.
When you start a new account, you are building that audience all over. Don't do the work for nothing. Unless there is specific content that your audience cannot receive in the original area, or there is a need to serve a new user base, there might not be reason enough to create another account.
In other words, don’t create a need for a new segment if it isn’t already there. Creating a new account should be to drive a business need, not to create one from scratch.
3) Do I have the time required to build an account?
If you are going to have a handle represent your brand it is important for that handle to be meeting the expectations of the customers. Most commonly that means building a sizable following and consistently posting to the account. Otherwise, the handle can look inconsistent with your other handles -- or worse, dormant.
That being said, it takes time to build and publish to a new account (multiple hours a week for several weeks). This is a laborious process that requires a big time commitment in order to be successful. Before committing to your new account, take a look at the calendar and see what your team can realistically handle.
4) Do I have the time required to monitor the account?
This is the one that surprises most people. When you open up a direct channel of communication, your audience will use it. Being able to monitor an account is imperative for a good brand experience. This expectation of service can be great if you’re looking to start a support account, but trickier if your account has primarily a marketing function.
Keep in mind that expectations will be different depending on the network you're considering. On Twitter, 70% of surveyed users expect a response from brands, and 53% want that response in under an hour. Brands that don’t respond actually hurt their brand reputation. Facebook is also encouraging faster responses by giving brands who respond to 90% of messages within 5 minutes a “very responsive” icon on their pages.
While you may have a slightly longer grace period for brand comments (like on Facebook or Instagram), when people are reaching out to you directly on an account, they are doing it because they want a rapid response.
This may be the most time-consuming part of your social strategy, but some (myself included) would say it’s the most important. Content is what will keep your social channel front of mind, and it’s also what will bring in the views, interactions, and leads. Suffice to say, when creating a channel you should have a plan for sustained content creation.
When thinking about your new social channel, consider where you will be getting the material and how you’ll be able to sustain this to create multiple posts a week. Remember, this content should also serve a unique function from your existing accounts.
6)How many posts/week am I able to commit to this account?
Posting consistency is key. Once you have a content plan, be sure that you’re able to keep up a consistent posting schedule as well. After all, your accounts aren’t doing much for you if you’re not posting from them. Dormant accounts also can give off the impression that you don’t care, or can’t commit to brand followers.
Exactly how often you post is dependent on network and industry, but you should plan to have at least 1-2 Facebook posts a week, and 4-5 on Twitter (if not more). For some of the quieter networks with less links to click (think: Snapchat, Instagram, etc.), you can manage posting a couple of times a month, rather than weekly.
7)Do I have budget to help build/scale this account?
Money talks on social media. This is an unfortunate truth we are seeing more and more often. While you don't really need budget to build out an account, a little spend can go a long way for boosting posts or putting yourself in front of new followers -- especially on algorithm-dependent networks such as Facebook.
If you choose to put your money behind advertising in social, watch it carefully. Define goals beforehand, and put it into a network that is really worthwhile for you. Each network has a slightly different way of handling paid advertising. For more on how to navigate paid social advertising, check out this free guide or click on any of the respective links below:
(Note: Snapchat ads can be quite expensive. You may want to consider an on-demand geofilter instead).
8) What is the goal of this account? How will I know if it's successful?
When you’re launching any initiative it’s important to know what value it will bring you, how you know you should double down on your efforts, or when you may want to cut and run.
Whether your success is measured in leads, applicants, or share of voice, knowing your goals can help you prioritize your time and report your wins back to your team more effectively.
9) Why is time spent on this social account more valuable than time spent doing other marketing activities?
If you’re feeling good about the questions above, you’ve hopefully determined that creating a new social account will take you a healthy (but totally worthwhile) amount of time. Now you have to ask yourself: Am I best spending my time creating content for this specific channel, or should I consider other marketing tactics (running experiments, optimizing emails, hosting events, etc.)?
At the end of the day, it comes down to you and your team. Specifically, to whether or not you can create and sustain a new account to a degree that feels worthwhile to your company. If these questions have you planning a run for the hills, perhaps a new account is not the right fit. At least not right now. On the other hand, if they have you feeling excited about the content you’ll post with this account, or the goals you’ll be trying to hit, sounds like you have some creating to do.
How many social accounts does your company have? Which ones are most effective? Share your thoughts in the comments.
via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/1Rt0zJM
Just as cars are fueled by gas, or a plant is feed by the sun, associations are powered by their members.
But what does an association do when they can't attract as many new members as they need to support their cause? Or their current members' engagement has plateaued?
