Writing in the digital age: 3 ways how technology enhances the college writing experience

Writing in the digital age: 3 ways how technology enhances the college writing experience

by | Apr 20, 2023

Business Insights

Writing in the digital age: 3 ways how technology enhances the college writing experience

April 20, 2023

Future in the writing
The future of writing is being shaped by advancements in technology, revolutionizing the college writing experience. With the rapid evolution of digital tools and platforms such as Essay Writer, for instance. Students now have access to a wide range of resources that enhance their writing process and elevate their academic output. From AI-powered writing assistants to sophisticated plagiarism detection systems, technology is playing a pivotal role in transforming how students learn, create, and communicate through writing. 

In this article, we will explore the three ways in which technology is reshaping college writing, and providing students with new capabilities, and writing experience. Get ready to discover how the fusion of technology and writing is shaping the future of academia.

Innovations in writing tools

In the world of academic writing, the availability of innovative tools has revolutionized the way college students approach their drafting needs. These technological advancements have not only facilitated the creation of high-quality pieces but have also enhanced the overall writing experience. 

Let’s explore some of the remarkable innovations in writing tools.

  • Grammar checkers: Grammar checkers have emerged as indispensable tools for students seeking to deliver well-crafted academic compositions. By effectively identifying and rectifying grammatical errors, typos, and other linguistic issues, these tools have eliminated the necessity for individual editors. With grammar checkers at their disposal, college writers can now produce engaging and lucid content, taking their writing skills to new heights.

  • Cloud-based writing: The advent of cloud-based platforms, such as Google Docs, has simplified the process of content creation and sharing among college students. Gone are the days of struggling with file transfers for collaborative editing. With cloud-based writing tools, students can seamlessly create and share their work in real time. This not only fosters efficient collaboration among peers but also allows easy accessibility from any location, thereby eliminating the limitations of traditional file-sharing methods.

  • Voice recognition: Voice recognition technology has emerged as a valuable asset for students aiming to compose their pieces swiftly and proficiently. Tools like Dragon Naturally Speaking can accurately transcribe spoken words into written text. By leveraging this tool, college writers can effortlessly articulate their ideas through speech, transforming them into fully written document. This innovation has significantly simplified the writing process, enabling students to express their thoughts fluently and effectively.

These remarkable writing tools have revolutionized the way students approach their academic papers. By leveraging the power of these innovations, learners can now produce high-quality content without struggling. The incorporation of grammar checkers, cloud-based writing platforms, and voice recognition technology has undoubtedly elevated the standard of college writing, making it more accessible and efficient than ever before.

The future of writing education

As technology continues to advance, the potential for enhancing writing education becomes increasingly promising. Recognizing the diverse learning needs and preferences of students, personalized learning has emerged as a key focus within the educational landscape. Through the utilization of technology, we can establish a learning environment that nurtures personalized education and enables students to flourish.

Let’s explore some significant innovations that are influencing the trajectory of writing education.

  • Personalized learning management systems (LMS): LMS have evolved to cater to the unique abilities and learning styles of students. These systems provide a platform where students can progress at their own pace, free from judgment or rigid timelines. By accessing customized feedback and focusing on areas that require more attention, learners can optimize their writing skills effectively. The integration of personalized learning within LMS enables students to receive tailored support, ultimately improving their writing abilities.
  • Collaborative writing: Collaboration has always been a valuable aspect of education, and technology has amplified its potential. Tools such as Dropbox and Google Docs enable real-time collaboration on writing assignments, regardless of the geographical distance between students. This feature promotes collaboration, stimulates knowledge sharing among peers, and enriches student participation. Collaborative writing platforms facilitate seamless information sharing and allow students to collectively contribute to a project, fostering a dynamic and interactive learning experience.
  • Gamification: The incorporation of game elements in non-gaming contexts, known as gamification, has gained significant popularity in education. Gamification enhances student engagement and concentration by introducing interactive and immersive experiences. In the context of writing education, gamification can be used to create writing challenges, interactive quizzes, and storytelling games, making the learning process enjoyable and stimulating. By leveraging gamification techniques, educators can foster a positive writing environment that motivates students to actively participate and refine their writing skills.

These advancements in writing education are reshaping the way information is conveyed and acquired. By embracing personalized learning through innovative learning management systems, facilitating collaborative writing experiences, and incorporating gamification, educators can create an enriched learning environment that caters to the unique needs and preferences of students. Utilizing technology to deliver an immersive, tailored, and impactful learning experience is the key to revolutionizing writing education and empowering students with the necessary skills to thrive in the realm of writing.

Digital learning materials

The advancements in education have brought about a wealth of digital learning materials and resources that offer students unprecedented access to knowledge. These digital tools not only enhance affordability but also increase accessibility, transforming the way students learn. 

Let’s explore some of the key trends in digital learning materials.

  • E-books: The availability of e-books has significantly expanded the learning opportunities for students. These digital learning materials provide cost-effective alternatives to conventional printed textbooks, granting learners convenient access to a wide range of resources with just a few taps on their devices. Students are no longer dependent solely on traditional libraries, as electronic books can now be readily accessed on tablets and other digital devices. Furthermore, platforms like Google Scholar provide comprehensive support for students seeking academic resources and research materials.
  • Audio and video recording: Audio and video recording have emerged as powerful tools to promote student engagement and interactive learning. By utilizing audio and video technologies, students can actively acquire content and create their own pieces in a comfortable and immersive manner. These recording methods enhance comprehension and retention while fostering creativity and self-expression. Through recorded lectures, presentations, and interactive multimedia content, students can experience a more dynamic and participatory learning process.
  • New forms of writing: The digital age has given rise to innovative forms of writing that captivate and engage learners. Multimedia writing, which combines text, images, audio, and video, allows students to create compelling content that stimulates multiple senses. This form of writing promotes active learning, creativity, and critical thinking. Moreover, students can expand their skill set and effectively express themselves in diverse digital formats by engaging in various forms of digital writing, including social media writing, digital storytelling, coding, and programming.

These trends in digital learning materials are reshaping the educational landscape, providing students with diverse avenues to enhance their learning experiences. The availability of e-books has made learning resources more accessible and affordable, while audio and video recording tools promote engagement and interactive learning. Moreover, the advent of novel writing formats motivates students to delve into diverse mediums and cultivate crucial skills relevant to the digital era. 

Embracing these digital learning materials empowers students to acquire knowledge in innovative and exciting ways, preparing them for success in the modern world.

Conclusion

The digital age has brought forth remarkable advancements in technology that have greatly enhanced the college writing experience. The three ways discussed – grammar checkers, cloud-based writing platforms, and voice recognition tools – have revolutionized how students approach their writing tasks, enabling them to produce higher-quality and more engaging academic pieces.

By leveraging grammar checkers, students can now ensure their writing is error-free and polished, eliminating the need for manual editing. The convenience of cloud-based writing platforms allows for seamless collaboration and real-time sharing of documents, facilitating efficient feedback and reducing the burden of traditional file sharing methods. Additionally, voice recognition tools have simplified the writing process by allowing students to dictate their ideas, enabling faster composition and transcription.

As technology continues to advance, we can expect further innovations that will shape the future of college writing. Embracing these technological tools not only enhances the writing experience but also equips students with valuable skills that are essential in the digital era.

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8 Effortless strategies to increase your sales volume and crush your goals

8 Effortless strategies to increase your sales volume and crush your goals

by | Mar 21, 2023

Business Tips

8 Effortless strategies to increase your sales volume and crush your goals

March 21, 2023

How to increase volume of sales successfully

It’s not rare that a business owner finds themselves searching “How to increase sales volume” on Google. Boosting sales is virtually every business’ dream. Even those with more than decent profits. 

Knowing how to implement the right sales techniques that increase sales when numbers are on the low is a skill every good leader should possess, or at least their team of employees. But to increase sales volume takes more than doubling the number of cold calls or pouring more cash into your Google Ads account.

How to increase sales in consistently

The following tips come from well-versed entrepreneurs whose businesses practically depend on their sales skills and knowledge. Both of them run successful companies: Silvia S. Li is the founder and Lead Sales Strategist at Altezza Advisory Group, and Casey Halloran is the co-founder and CEO of Costa Rican Vacations.

To say they know a thing or two about how to increase sales would be a great understatement of their capabilities. Follow their tips to boost sales and we promise 2021 would be a year to remember for your business.

Create a sales strategy

The first tip when the time strikes to increase sales is you better HAVE a sales strategy. Very little happens in business until a SALE is made. So you’ve got to have a basic understanding of how to design, build, measure and motivate a sales team if you want to grow and boost sales.

Retain your top sales talent

Given the economic challenges the global financial system is likely to face post-pandemic, our focus is on retaining our top sales talent. There will be time for growth and record-breaking later…but improving sales is near-impossible to do if the best sellers leave for greener pastures.

Boost sales by offering incentives

Not for the buyers, although that’s not a bad idea to show appreciation to your customers, but for your sales team. Figure out the incentives that really motivate the team to do great work and be sure those are aligned with the behaviors you want. Amazing how often this is out of whack. An employee should feel appreciated in order to be motivated.

Measure, benchmark and report KPIs

Leading indicators vs lagging – you need a sales discipline focused on daily habits. Don’t stare at the scoreboard. Know what baby steps are required to move the football inch by inch. What are the pushups and situps of the sales routine? 

Measure, benchmark and report on those KPIs. If you build a team’s habits around a good process and the leading KPIs that actually matter, you’ll increase sales and get consistent results.

These KPIs and metrics can help accelerate your sales cycle. Lead Velocity Rate (LVR), as an example, helps with measuring the rate at which a company’s sales leads are increasing or decreasing over a specific period. It sheds light on the company’s capacity to generate fresh leads and expand its operations.

Conversion Rate and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) are also important sales KPIs. Conversion Rate measures the percentage of leads that turn into customers, while CLV helps determine the long-term profitability of each customer. Both KPIs can provide valuable insights and drive growth in your saales department.

Measure and track your prospect engagement activities and know their ROI

Without a clear understanding of what prospect engagement activities actually yield most sales success for you, any entrepreneur can easily veer off course and lose focus. The urge to be everywhere and be everything to everyone can easily overtake even the most well-meaning strategic plan when one doesn’t deliberately measure and track their activities and see clearly the progress they’re making/not making towards their sales goal through those activities. They can also unfortunately burn out easily and quickly from such an unfocused approach.

To prevent that, my suggestion is to start tracking, assessing, and reviewing critically and candidly where you’re spending your time on a weekly basis and whether it’s helping you get in front of your most ideal clients and what kinds of progress you’re making towards your business growth goals.

Understand your buyer’s path to yes

By better understanding how your ideal buyer will decide favorably on your offer and what they need to do to actually buy, you will save time and energy from including in your sales strategy unnecessary parts that instead of increasing sales they inadvertently add noise or even delay to your end goal.

For instance, not every buyer needs a 30-day trial to make a yes/no decision. By assuming in your sales strategy that that’s a need within the buying process, you might actually be doing everyone involved a major disservice by diverting precious time and resources away from what’s important: Solving the buyer’s pain or problem.

Focus on your ideal clients

FOMO is common among newer entrepreneurs, yet just taking any deal or new client without being fully discerning about fit and alignment can be extremely draining. A bad deal is worse than no deal is something I’ve learned in my 15 years of leading sales and now as an entrepreneur.

Learning to move away from simply adding a bunch of leads at the top of the funnel in the hopes of being able to close a bunch of them and boost sales will be key to success for more sustainable growth in your business. Instead, replace that mindset with firm know-how, confidence, and fluency in disqualifying the non-viable/unfit leads early and promptly so you can spend time and mindshare on engaging your most ideal clients.

Optimize your social selling efforts

One of the most high-yield yet often overlooked parts of an entrepreneur’s sales arsenal is social selling.

Social selling is not the same as simply having a social media presence or doing social media marketing.

A social selling strategy leverages a seller’s / provider’s social media channels to more effectively gain access to and reduce the friction in directly building meaningful rapport with more of their ideal prospective clients.

As 55% of all buyers do their research by using social networks, someone without a strong social selling strategy is missing out on a key opportunity to intersect and interact with potential buyers.

This is now especially critical during the pandemic, as the usual in-person socializing and networking opportunities, such as conferences or trade shows, have been reduced significantly or eliminated altogether. A strong social selling strategy and approach can help you get to your ideal buyers better and faster, thus increase sales.

Conclusion

How to increase sales volume is not an easy question and there’s not a simple answer to it. But if you make sure you tick the boxes of all advice given above, rest assured an increase of sales will follow and stay.

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Types of help desk software: How to choose the right one

Types of help desk software: How to choose the right one

by | Oct 31, 2022

Business Insights

Types of help desk software: How to choose the right one

October 31, 2022

Types of help desk software

Customer management is an essential aspect of any business, especially pertaining to customer service. You can manually handle customer management when a company is small, but you will need a digital system when it grows to a particular size. Help desk software is the solution that will help you better manage your customers. 

A help desk is a system that enables you to convert customer queries into tickets for resolution. The right help desk software could be the difference between happy and unhappy customers, which will subsequently affect your profits or lead to losses.

Types of help desk software you should be aware of

Before choosing help desk software, you should know which types exist.

Cloud-based software

A cloud or web-based help desk software is an application hosted on a vendor’s website. Cloud-based software is typically a SaaS (software as a service). When using a web-based help desk software, you make monthly or annual payments instead of a one-time lump sum payment. 

The software company handles maintenance, security, and data backup. You can access the help desk as long as you have an internet connection.

Self-hosted software

Self-hosted or on-premise help desk software involves you making a one-time purchase for a proprietary software license. The company then owns and runs the software themselves. 

With self-hosted help desk software, you install the system on your own server and ensure its maintenance, data backup, and security, which might require an IT department. The software is often expensive but offers you total control over the software.

Enterprise help desk software

Enterprise help desk software is for large enterprises requiring advanced features and an IT team to manage the software. With enterprise help desk software, you get features like asset management, multi-brand support, advanced encryption, enterprise security, e.t.c. 

Enterprise help desk software is also highly customizable to allow companies to automate advanced functions for their IT team. Enterprise help desk software is the most expensive type.

Open-source help desk software

Open-source software means that you get access to the source code. You can then use and customize the code to suit your purposes. 

Therefore, your IT team can change or improve the software depending on your business needs. Developers can build open-source help desk software over time, add features, fix bugs, manage updates, and enhance security.

How to choose the right help desk software

The following are tips for choosing the right help desk software:

Determine what kind of customer service you want to offer

Your customers are the first and foremost factor to consider when choosing help desk software. Your business should have a customer service strategy and select the software that best helps you execute your strategy. Once you clearly understand what excellent customer service in your business looks like, choosing help desk software becomes much easier. 

Knowing what customers expect from your brand and the main ways they want to interact with your business is vital. Also, consider how your employees would best deliver outstanding customer service. Choose software that makes it as straightforward as possible for them to provide customer service.

Decide on essential features

When choosing a help desk software, you will also have to decide which essential features you want it to have. There are many help desk software with plenty of fancy features. However, you know the features your software should have to adequately provide the kind of customer service you want to offer. 

Once you know the fundamental elements that your help desk software needs, you can leave room for other features that improve the customer experience. Ensure the features enhance the productivity and efficiency of your customer service department. Accepting feedback from your customer service team will give you the best chance of getting the best features for your software.

Know your budget

Help desk software can be expensive, so you must have a budget outlining how much you are willing to spend on the software. Even if your business is relatively small, you should spend enough money to get the best help desk software you can afford. 

The good news is that there are many SaaS help desk solutions that, despite being rich with valuable features, are affordable for small businesses. A dedicated help desk solution will require a significant investment, whether you will pay an IT team to develop open-source software or pay the subscription for a cloud-based help desk solution.

Scalability

Scalability is critical when choosing help desk software as it is a factor that will ensure the software can handle the growth of your business. Consult your customer service team and find out the number of customers the solution you want can handle. Moreover, you do not want to pay more for a help desk solution as your business grows, so a scalable solution is vital.

Conclusion

A help desk software is a solution that can benefit many businesses. You should first consider the type of solution you need, which could be a cloud-based, on-premises, enterprise, or open-source software. 

You will then have to consider factors like scalability, essential features, budget, and customer service provision. Choose the right solution for your business, and the effect will be apparent.

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The pros and cons of social media for businesses

The pros and cons of social media for businesses

by | Sep 13, 2022

Business Tips

The pros and cons of social media for businesses

September 13, 2022

Pros and cons of social media for businesses

One day you are a local business with your regular daily customers. The next day, suddenly you are a viral sensation and people come pouring in from different parts of the world. What happened? One of those customers liked what you had to offer and shared it on social media. It does not matter if it is an influencer or not, if it gets traction, you’re suddenly an internet sensation. 

Of course, not all social media presence will get viral. Frankly, the chances are thin. But that doesn’t make social media any less valuable for businesses. Organic social media marketing is gold when it comes to brand awareness and building a community with your customers.

On the other hand, social media can also bring negative publicity, and even close your shop (as quickly as a bad location). Especially in today’s society when there’s zero tolerance for political incorrectness. Even if it’s something your employee posted, a personal opinion of theirs, it can trace back to your business and ruin your reputation.

For that reason, we’ve made a detailed analysis of the pros and cons of social media for business owners such as yourself, and how to respond to those.

Pros of social media for businesses

The list of pros of social media for businesses is long and dynamic. But we’ve managed to encapsulate the most important aspects.

Advertising

As Alexi Laine, from Black Belonging Matters, says, “one advantage of using social media for business is the ease in which businesses can set up and run ads.

The set up process on most social media sites is almost intuitive. They allow businesses to quickly and easily adjust or correct ads without needing marketing expertise, and without relying on a traditional advertiser. Which can’t really be said for Google Ads.

No matter what time of day it is, the business owner can add, delete or correct ads to their heart’s desire. The turn around for ad approval is typically much faster than other mediums as well.”

Cost-effectiveness

“One advantage of using social media to market your business is that it’s incredibly cost-effective. Even with running paid campaigns, the return on investment is high and you have the added value of getting market insights, additional brand awareness, and a direct connection to your customers even if you are only relying on organic social media tactics”, says Ricardo Mello from ManhattanMiami.

Community

According to Pedro Campos, Founder of Advertongue, “social media allows businesses to not only build relationships with prospective customers and existing ones, but also to create a community around the brand. A community is essentially goodwill, it´s a long-term strategy between the business and the audience that builds tangible and intangible results beyond just brand loyalty.”

To build a community, be noticed and actively followed on social media requires a lot more than posting promotional content. In the words of Samuel Scott, “the basic rule is that people follow other human beings and emotional topics on social media. In general, people use social media to catch up on the news, connect with friends and family, and follow politicians, causes, celebrities, sports teams, influencers, and entertainers. They do not follow mustard and dishwashing soap brands.

So, if your company does fall into one of those categories, then social media can work wonders. People will engage with and share posts that provoke emotional responses. While organic reach is practically zero on Facebook, a good advertisement with some paid support can still get massive reach. But typically that is possible in only these niche industries.

And if your target audience is Generation Z, then social media is a no-brainer – especially newer networks such as TikTok. Even better, the ad offerings of these platforms are still in their infancy and have not reached the point where organic reach will likely be cut there as well.”

Networking

“One advantage of social media is growing your professional network, especially during the pandemic when we can’t network in person. I reach out to at least 10 new people a day on LinkedIn and have made some excellent connections, and even gotten new clients, by doing so”, says Emily Weisgrau from Weiswood Strategies.

Yes, in-person networking events were replaced with virtual ones, but that doesn’t mean you should wait for events to grow your network. Facebook groups, for example, are breeding ground for new connections. Join a few groups that resonate with your business and you’ll not only grow your network but your business knowledge as well.

Influencers

The new retail trends suggest gone is the day of superstar influencers, and people turned to nano-influencers for product opinions and recommendations.

“Social media hosts influencer content which is an example of authentic media. Consumers trust influencers, and when influencers (or brand ambassadors) demonstrate genuine excitement about their favorite brands, that excitement overflows onto engaged followers”, says Ken Fortney from GRIN.

One deal with the right influencer can position your brand at the top of the market a lot quicker and easier than multiple marketing efforts combined together. You just have to find the perfect person who stands for the same values as your brand and whose followership matches your target audience.

Brand loyalty

“I think an often overlooked advantage is improving brand loyalty”, says Kelsey from CocoSign, “it is one thing to get customers, it’s another to engage your already existing customer base. Using social media posts, infographics, articles, videos and other forms of content, you can keep your customers engaged. Make them feel like a part of the family by providing them with incentives and see them stay loyal to you even if your direct competitors come with more tempting offers.”

Small businesses often make the mistake to think of social media only as a magnet for new customers. In fact, the social networks are perfect to nourish your existing customer base.

Strategic positioning

As Maria Tudor from Rolzo puts it, “social media channels are fantastic means to optimise your strategic positioning in relation to competitors. For example, having an active LinkedIn page has enabled us to compare ourselves with other industry players on key performance metrics and adjust our communications strategy accordingly. As a result, we have optimised our social media content, bringing our engagement rate above that of established companies in the sector.”

Market data

In recent years, all social media platforms introduced analytics where you can find data like who your followers are, how engaged are they with your content, what type of gets most traction etc. Draw conclusions from this data and do not take it for granted. In the past, businesses would pay gold to get this kind of information.

Moreover, social media users are keen on leaving feedback and reviews. Even when it’s not direct. For example, a follower left you a comment that he’s satisfied with your product but it took him forever to get his hands on it. What they basically say is that you have to improve your distribution network and find new/more vendors.

SEO

What every business that’s present online fights for is better SEO rankings. The benefits of SEO are well known but the practices to increasing your rankings are a constant topic of discussion among experts. However, social media presence undoubtedly is a big plus.

Deepak Shukla, the co-founder of Serpwizz, notes that a clear advantage of social media marketing is that it helps to establish E-A-T (expertise, authority and trustworthiness). This combination has been announced by Google as a frontrunner for its 2021 analytics push. Regular social media updates, network connections and customer interaction all help establish brand credibility. It’s also great for your SEO rankings!

Growth

The more people follow and engage with your content, the bigger the chances to convert them, thus increase your sales. With the right social media content plan, you can not only grow your followership but also your sales. In today’s world, social media is the first place consumers check for information about a brand. 

So make sure you have the right social media mix. In other words, not all networks will be suitable for your type of business. For B2B, usually,  TikTok or Instagram will be a bad choice. But for B2C it’s the place you should be. Facebook plays on both sides. Pinterest is perfect for D2C businesses with creative undertone.

Cons of social media for businesses

With the good, always comes the bad, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Except to be aware of it and keep it under control as much as possible. Check these negative effects of social media for businesses and always have them in mind.

Restrictions

Sure we like to believe in a democracy everyone can say and advertise anything, but that’s not the case. With the rise of fake news and similar issues, many social networks introduced restrictions.

Alexi Laine goes on to say that depending on the industry, you may find yourself an unintended collateral damage:

“For example, Facebook, Facebook-owned Instagram, and Twitter, have all instituted restrictions on advertising as a result of the Presidential election. The move was reportedly designed to reduce election interference.

Included in the restriction on advertising are ads related to social justice. My company, which runs ads relating to employment equity for Black people, has been shut out of advertising during this period.

I wouldn’t go as far to say the restriction was designed to suppress Black voices, but it certainly has had that effect.”

Privacy

I believe we all remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when personal details of over 86 million Facebook users were used for political campaigning, without their consent. TikTok, although relatively new in the social media game, got its share of privacy accusations too, ending up being banned in several countries.

This brings us to a conclusion that social media are unsafe thus imposing your customers’ data at risk. In fact, it’s not even your data.

Reputation damage

One of the biggest cons of using social media for business is that sometimes it is difficult to draw a fine line between personal sentiments and professional acumen” says Kelsey Chan. 

In the same manner,  she continues to explain, “should your social media handler be too preoccupied with trending posts and hashtags, they may go overboard and make posts that will endanger your brand’s reputation. Take, for example, when McDonalds tweeted about Trump being a ‘disgusting excuse of a President’. They stepped over the line and may have gone too personal. The backlash was too difficult to handle for them.”

Tracking ROI

Sure there are many tools that claim to track ROI on social media marketing but the figures will never be 100% right. It’s hard to understand how much of your profit comes from social media because likes and comments only serve your ego, and not your business.

Sure you can try keeping track of the purchases coming from social media, but only those you’re aware of, and there could be many more which you’re oblivious of.

Trolls

Trolls are everywhere. They crawl up to your page and leave their nasty comments and reviews hoping to bring you down. They are miserable, annoying and everyone hates them. Yet, they can influence presidential elections. Unfair, right?

Well, life isn’t fair and neither is business. 

So if they can have such a huge impact on who’s going to run the biggest economy in the world, imagine what they can do to your tiny business. Sooner or later, every business is faced with trolls on social media, so you better prepare for them. Don’t let them paint an inaccurate picture of your brand. Learn at the best of your ability how to deal with negative reviews and rude people in the comment section. They can smell fear, so don’t give them that satisfaction.

Time-consuming

Sure social media is a budget-friendly marketing solution for businesses, but that also makes it time-consuming. Because if you don’t want to outsource or hire a social-media-savvy youngster, you’ll be doing it all by yourself. And that takes time.

Ricardo Mello is right when he says that “the time spent on creating and curating content is a disadvantage of marketing your business on social media. It takes time to find content to

share, design graphics, or create videos – not to mention the effort put into hashtag research and engaging with other accounts.”

That becomes even a bigger challenge if you’re not the tech fellow who knows Canva like the back of their hand or can quickly set up auto-publishing apps.

As Marcos Brisson from Kaizntree vividly describes it “it’s a black hole. Once you start using social media, it’s so easy to lose yourself into prioritising it over other business activities. There’s this false perception that businesses need to be active, need to post daily, need to do this and that. It’s too easy to overestimate its importance.”

Short-lived trends

“Social media trends are extremely difficult to keep up with. Within the same week, your marketing team drops everything else to plan, produce, and share content or risk losing a chance to glow brilliantly for your followers every time a new trend comes out. The world is always changing, and so is social media. What works for you today may be totally pointless tomorrow” says Jason Wong, founder of DoeLashes.

Or, as Pedro Campos says, “social media is a real job, it takes a lot of work and patience, it´s like a hungry monster that´s never satisfied. It requires you to be consistent and creative with content creation and learn from the things that didn´t work, most won´t by the way. You have to prepared to show up over and over again, be willing to fail, and try new approaches because what worked 6 months ago might not work today, on social media.”

Crazy algorithms

The algorithms are constantly changing and it’s hard to keep up with them. Take Instagram algorithm for example, two years ago everyone got their fair share of likes or comments regardless if they were an influencer or a John Doe. Nowadays, it feels like that to get engagement, even from your sister and brother, Mercury shouldn’t be in retrograde, roses should be in bloom on Antarctica and clocks should tick backwards.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are numerous pros and cons of using social media for businesses. However, it all falls upon whether you can learn from your mistakes, and invest enough time in creating a strategy on how you will deal with social media engagement. After all, it is a powerful tool and all businesses need to take advantage of it.

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How fear of making decisions is damaging your business

How fear of making decisions is damaging your business

by | Aug 5, 2022

Business Tips

How fear of making decisions is damaging your business

August 05, 2022

Fear of making decisions

Life is not a computer game. You can’t go to your previously saved game when you make mistakes and continue from that point. Yet, life and business are about making decisions and taking the right opportunity. Even though it is in our nature to fail after all, and we spoke about how failure can be turned into an advantage, Today, we are going to talk about one of the toughest challenges for entrepreneurs – fear of making decisions. 

Fear is a powerful emotion. Some people spend their lives not taking any chances, nor making hard decisions because they are afraid. It’s good to feel comfortable in your safe zone and target the same customers that keep buying the same products. But, working every day without expecting anything more than yesterday it’s the wrong path for your business. Hence, that should never be your choice if you don’t want to limit your real potential.

How fear of making decisions affects your business

If you do nothing, nothing will happen. Fear will prevent you from fulfilling your dreams, and blind your vision when creating long-term plans. That voice in your head is not always right. It is called the superego, and it is made of rules and fears created by our parents, teachers, friends, and overall our personal life experience.

You are not different if you are afraid to make decisions, in reality, we all are. However, some have learned their lesson, whilst others have not. If you are one of those who didn’t, read the following testimonials from experienced entrepreneurs. Find out how being afraid to make decisions has affected their business and follow their tried and tested advice on how to overcome your fear of making decisions.

Fear of making decisions eliminates chances of succeeding

In the past, I was afraid to make decisions. It’s costly to make a mistake and I don’t want to lose clients. The fear of making the wrong decision eliminated our business’s chances of growing and succeeding. I’ve learned that taking action is better than remaining stuck. Success is not about making no mistakes, success is doing your best and striving for growth.

To overcome the fear of making decisions, I took it one step at a time. I avoided thinking negative thoughts. Whatever the outcome, I know that I can learn something from it that will help me make better decisions next time. Making mistakes in business is common and it can help us improve our knowledge and develop our personality which can help us achieve the success we are all aiming for.

Lauri Kinkar, CEO at Messente

Fear causes turmoil in your business

A fear of decision-making can cause turmoil in your business. With you unable to make a choice, your employees will be unable to perform their jobs appropriately and may get frustrated with the situation. If you feel unable to make a decision try listening to your gut. Your first, gut instinct is usually right, so go with it.

John Levisay, CEO of The Pro’s Closet

How to overcome the fear of making decisions

The first thing in overcoming the fear of making decisions is to accept it. Sometimes you make investments that may not pay off, but taking action is still better than standing still. If you don’t do anything, you are eliminating all chances of succeeding by default.

Although the market can be unforgiving, predicting the future of your business industry is hard if you don’t possess the right knowledge. Even in order to gain new information, you will need to make an investment decision, and find a good way to upgrade your business knowledge.

Rationalize with facts

Rationalize the fear of making the wrong decision with facts. Nobody knows how your decision will turn out, until the moment you make it. It all falls to rationalizing and making decisions based on facts.

If the data shows you can invest in something different, you should try it, in order to stay on the growth path. If you calculate based on facts, no wrong decision can cause huge damage to your business. The main benefit from a wrong decision that will be useful, is the experience you will gather. Therefore, one of the most valued characteristics of an experienced entrepreneur is being a fearless decision-maker.

Think about the long-term effect

When making business decisions that will affect a business long or short term is always difficult. The best way to handle your fear of making decisions is to have a process in place for checks and balances. Think about what the long-term effect of the decision will be as well as the short-term effect. 

Evaluate what you are currently doing to fill that space now and if the new decision supplements or improves that. A good business comes down when you stop being afraid to make decisions so focus your efforts to find a way to overcome your fear.

Artie Baxter, CEO and Co-founder at Paperclips

Use your worst-case scenario

My fear of making decisions was born from the fear of making the wrong decision or causing someone an inconvenience. I worked through that by using my worst-case scenario blueprint. When I have a big decision to make, I weigh all the alternatives and then think through what is the worst thing that can happen in the process? Then, I make a plan for dealing with that scenario.

With a plan in play, I feel more confident in making the decision knowing that if it works, great. If it doesn’t, I already have a plan to deal with it and the fallout of it. Given that it’s the unknowns that cause us anxiety, knowing that you have a plan for whatever comes is helping to overcome the fear of failure.

Camille D. Jamerson, Founder and CEO of CDJ and Associates

Learn how to seek help

I used to dread making big business decisions. After all, if I make the wrong turn, I could lose everything. But I realized that I don’t have to do this alone, so I learned how to seek help and where to find help. This can be a bit unorthodox, but I just think that more heads are better than one. But I also make sure that the people I ask for help from are really trustworthy.

David Stellini, Co-founder at AllFront.io

Learn from your mistakes

Fear of making mistakes is what demolishes many of us from making decisions. Don’t neglect that even a bad decision is better than no decision at all. We work and hopefully, we learn. Don’t underestimate the power of bad decisions. My mistakes helped me make smart decisions.

Salvador Ordorica, CEO at The Spanish Group LLC

Be confident

I presumed that I had only two options. Either I can stop making decisions from now and regret it my whole life, or I can make a major decision regarding my business from now onwards and feel proud of myself someday later. I challenged myself and then came up with some smartest business moves and I employed them with all my confidence and without any fear. 

Because when you are confident about something your business mind works excellently. I took my bad decisions as my motivation. I started believing in my capabilities and ended up with a successful businesswoman.

Emily David, Owner of Wiringo

Research before you make a decision

I was also prone to the scary word “fear” because I used the wrong decision-making strategy. Usually, people make decisions based on their perceptions the same as I did. But our perceptions are not always accurate. It led me to see failure when I thought of a software flaw as a technical issue, and it cost me a lot while there was no such issue. After the experience, I used to research the matter thoroughly before making any decision.

Hitesh Agarwal, Director at TechExactly

Accept you are not perfect but do your best

When it came time for me to make critical decisions, I was tentative and oftentimes hesitant which led to inefficient processes that interrupted enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of scaling the business. I stopped being afraid to make decisions by coming to accept that I will never be perfect and win, lose, or draw. I was ok with the results as long as I prepared and executed to the best of my abilities.

Zachary Thames, CEO at Golden Intellect

Educate yourself on the options

A great way to overcome a fear of making the wrong decision is to educate yourself on the options. Research what the options entail and the risks with each option. This way you will be able to make a fully informed decision with less fear of failure.

Alex Czarnecki, Founder and CEO of Cottage

Measure the impact

Measure the impact of the decision. Change is necessary, but how significant will the change really be? Will the planned expansion destroy your business, even if it does not do as well as expected, or will you manage to survive? Ask yourself – what is the worst thing that can happen to your business?

Sometimes predictions can be hard to make, but often people find the fear of making a decision worse than the current market trends that can do real damage to their businesses. Is the decision going to change the business too much? Measure its impact. People experience difficulty making decisions when they are afraid that their business is going to suffer major changes. They feel the fear that they cannot get a grip on it, as before. 

Clear your mind

Clear your mind. Sometimes a walk in the park can release all tension and fear. Your mind will be sharper, and the fear of making decisions will disappear. Additionally, many entrepreneurs use meditation as a way to release negative energy. As fear builds up a lot of power, the body seeks a way to release it. 

This might be a reason you cannot make a decision, you feel under pressure. Moreover, negative energy can hurt your mental health, so don’t overthink things, get that exercise and clear your mind. You will be refreshed and feel enlightened, for making decisions. 

Get support

Get support from your loved ones. In difficult times, you need support, and what better way to get support than from your loved ones. Technology made everything easier; now even at thousands of miles away with just a touch on your phone, you can speak to your loved ones, and receive their support. They will help you rationalize fear, and give a different insight into the problem, even though they might not have a business and industry background.

Conclusion

We cannot hide from fear. However, it is in our benefit to manage the fear of making decisions better, if we want to succeed. If the inability to make decisions damages the future of your business, the points we made in this article will help you understand, rationalize and combat that. Don’t be a silent voice in the business world, because “sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.” It’s up to you.

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