What made you fall in love with storytelling?

I’ve always been captivated by movies. The way they can tell a story, how they can take you on an emotional rollercoaster and journey with the characters in just about 2 hours. At first when I was younger, I thought I just liked movies because they were just that… movies. But as I’ve gotten older and started telling stories of my own, I’d say I credit my love for storytelling to those movies I watched growing up. I don’t really have any particular ones in mind (although I always loved the way Disney told their stories, and now I can see why). 

Nowadays when I watch a film, binge a show, or read a book, I love to look at it from a storytelling perspective. How do they introduce the characters? How do they hook the audience? And the last thing would be this: The more I tell stories, the more stories I want to tell. 

Do you think words are the most powerful weapon at our hands?

I would say words really are the most powerful weapon we have. All of us can think back to a time when someone said something that made us feel a certain way. Sad, happy, proud, upset… Whatever it made you feel, it made you feel that way for a reason. And I think that’s a powerful thing.

You can use words to persuade someone, alter their emotional state, change their perspective, or even change their life. Think back to the most famous speeches in history and how powerful an impact they had and still continue to have. The way you connect with others all starts with words and communication. Most things in life start with words and have the ability to create reality, as cheesy as that sounds. And if you ask me, that’s a powerful thing. 

How long did it take you to figure out what you want to do in life?

To be honest, I’m still figuring out what I want to do in life. I don’t think any of us really know what we’re doing. As a kid, you look at adults and think, “Wow, they have everything figured out.” But as you get older, you begin to realize even they are still trying to figure things out. 

But I’ll say this. Over the past few years I’ve begun to get closer to what I want in life. And I found that by exploring, experimenting, and creating things of my own. I never would have found my love for storytelling if I never started telling stories to begin with. And that’s the same for anything. You never know unless you try. 

So if I had to give advice to someone who doesn’t know what to do or what they want in life, I would say to explore and try as many new things as you can. Because eventually you’ll find something that sticks. Eventually you’ll find that thing that sets your soul on fire. The thing you can’t picture your life without. 

What’s the best part of your work for you?

I honestly think the best part of my work is seeing the impact it has on others. Getting positive comments and hearing how much my work resonates or impacts someone, there’s nothing quite like that. I’ll also say that writing online and creating content opened so many doors for me that weren’t previously there. I’ve met so many amazing people and made some great friends all from putting my work out there. 

So the two things I like the best about my work is the ability to connect with others I otherwise wouldn’t and the ability to make a lasting impact on others. 

What do you think is the secret to connection with clients and readers?

The secret that I’ve found is to just be yourself. And yes, I know that sounds super cliché but it’s true. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. I’ve found that the most enjoyable type of writing to write and read is the most conversational. As a writer, all you’re trying to do is have a conversation with one person. So just be yourself and don’t take it too seriously. Pretend you’re having a conversation with an old friend. 

I think another secret to connecting with others is being relatable. Think about it, it’s a lot easier to build trust with someone when you see they’re just like you. Whether they were in your exact situation or come from a similar background. 

Being relatable and being yourself are the two things that will get you farthest when you’re trying to connect with your reader. 

What helped you find your voice in writing and presenting yourself to the world?

Honestly, I think the best way to find your voice is to replicate other writers first. When you’re new and haven’t written too much, it can take a bit of time to find out what works for you. So I know when I was in that position, I studied other writers and kind of picked apart the things I liked about their writing and took note of the things I didn’t like. Do I like their shorter style of sentences? Check. Do I like the way they use huge, complex words? Nope. The more writing you read from others, the more you’ll start to see what elements you would want to include in your own writing. 

And then the other thing may be obvious… but in order to find my voice, I had to write a lot. Most of the time I didn’t publish it, but I just wrote to myself over and over again. Eventually, I started to get a feel for the type of writing I enjoyed. 

So those are the two main things I did to find my own voice. I read a lot of work from other writers and took note of the things I liked and didn’t like, and I wrote a lot.

Office vs Freelance: what’s closer to you?

I would say I’m more of a freelance-style writer. I don’t have much experience in an office. But I’ve been writing freelance and writing for myself for quite some time now. I think I work best when I’m alone and focused on my work, so freelance writing has been able to do that for me. 

Where do you look for inspiration in your work?

The main place I look for inspiration for my work is in the work of others. I can’t tell you how many ideas I’ve jotted down on my phone after seeing something on social media or the internet. We’re fortunate to live in a time when almost anything is accessible and anyone can share their ideas and creativity with the world. So I definitely take advantage of that. 

The other (often overlooked) place I find inspiration is in my own work. Many people think you have to come up with an original idea every time you create something. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve only recently started looking at my own work as inspiration, but it’s been a game-changer. Maybe I said something in a podcast that I want to expand upon in a blog article. Maybe I wrote a paragraph in an email that I want to turn into a video. Once you realize that inspiration is all around you, it becomes a lot easier to start creating. 

Do you have any advice for young freelancers and content creators?

The main advice I have is to just start. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. It may be scary at first or you may think others won’t care about what you have to say. But the truth is, we all have a story to tell. It’s just a matter of realizing your story is worth telling. 

So just start somewhere. Start small and eventually once you gain some confidence, work your way up. The hardest part is the first time you hit “publish.” After that, you realize it wasn’t so bad. So don’t be afraid to share your work and show your creativity. Because it can open more doors of opportunity than you ever thought possible. I know it did for me.

The post How To Find Your Writing Voice: A Talk with Connor Flynn, freelance writer and content creator appeared first on Linguix Blog.

For our interview we asked Tasmin about her career path and freelance days, how she maintains connection with her clients, what makes up outstanding content marketing,  And, of course, what drives her professionally and as a person to become greater.

You’ve started your journey while studying Psychology. What initially drew you to the mind’s secrets and how did it turn into the love for content marketing?

I studied Psychology at college and was fascinated by all the nuances of human behaviour. That fascination led me to study Psychology at university where I was introduced to Consumer Psychology. Studying Consumer Psychology unlocked a whole new level of love and intrigue for Psychology! I loved learning about the different motivations, emotions and behaviours underlying each and every purchase decision. This consumer psych knowledge complemented my love of writing, allowing me to create content that really speaks to people.

What was your first job in marketing? What was the most challenging for you at that moment?

When I left university, I secured a marketing role for a local B2B manufacturing company where I was responsible for marketing activity across various European countries. Aside from the low pay, the most challenging aspect was learning all of the new skills and processes associated with performing marketing activity that is localised to different regions. It meant working with various languages and global teams. While it was challenging to begin with, it was a fun challenge to have and really helped cement my love for strategy and accuracy.

What inspired Fika? How did you decide it was time for your own business?

I had been freelancing for roughly 18 months before I started Fika Digital. Freelancing had been going well for me and I just knew that it was time to make it “official” by creating a business that was bigger than just me. Building Fika Digital was fuelled by a desire to create an agency that holds community, connection, and well-being at its heart.

Do you miss your freelance days? What did it teach you?

While I may have transitioned to an Agency Owner, I never really left my freelance days behind. So much of what I have learnt from freelancing has followed me into my new journey as a business owner. I’m careful to never lose track of the things that make freelancing so beautiful — the work-life balance, autonomy over your work, and the close relationships you build with clients. Those are the aspects of freelancing that I plan to maintain in my role as an agency owner.

You value connection and community. What allows you to maintain deep bonds between you and your team and your clients?

I believe the success of any business relies on its ability to forge genuine connections and build a community.  Everything I do is focused on building trust and helping my team and clients achieve their goals. 

Fika Digital is actually named after the Swedish tradition of Fika whereby people take a break from whatever they are doing to slow down, eat cake, drink coffee and connect with people. It’s a state of mind and something that I want to embody within Fika Digital — this means always being transparent with my team and clients, making sure everyone can see what we’re working on at all, being down-to-earth, and just speaking to people like humans.  There’s nothing worse than a stuffy, corporate approach. We’re all human, so let’s act that way.

In your opinion, what makes up great content marketing?
Psychology! You need to create content that connects with your target audience. There’s no point writing content for Google, or creating social media posts because they “look good” if they don’t connect with your audience. You’ve got to get clear on who your audience are and what they want — tapping into consumer psychology allows you to explore these emotions, motivations, and behaviours so you can create content that your audience love.

What inspires your growth professionally and as a person?
Everything I do is inspired by possibility and curiosity — what happens if I do this? If someone else can achieve X, why can’t I?

Having a curious mind means you can look at all the opportunities around you and see them as possibilities. Then, it’s just a case of putting those dreams into reality. You need to take action. Curiosity + action = growth.

Do you have any advice for young freelancers and content creators?
Step out of your comfort zone and trust in your power — the feeling of fear never really goes away. So, you’ve got to learn to see that fear as a motivator. See it as an opportunity to push the boundaries of your comfort zone and try something new. Chances are the worst thing that could happen isn’t really that bad at all. Just trust in your power and do the damn thing! 

The post How To Create Compelling Content: Advice by Tasmin Lofhthouse, freelance copywriter and founder of Fika Digital appeared first on Linguix Blog.

But as more and more people have begun working remotely over the years, the market has sought to provide the tools that facilitate more efficient and effective remote working practices. As a result, there are an abundance of tools on the market that can truly assist this approach to perform your job, whether you’re seasoned at it, or if you are embracing it for the first time.

Here are the tools you need to know:

Zoom, for your video conferencing needs

Even though you are working remotely, it’s still nice (and sometimes essential) to get a bit of face time with colleagues and/or clients. Zoom is a tool that facilitates both intimate and larger meetings and comes with a plethora of features including the ability to share screens, use shared whiteboards and perform remote screen control options. The quality of the connection is usually great, and Zoom enables you to create individual meeting URLs that you can schedule and share in synchronization with third-party options such as Google Calendar.

Slack, for messaging

Slack is a great tool for sharing communications and content within teams and specific groups within companies or between collaborative organizations. Tailor your groups as you require, and take advantage of Slack’s instant-messaging service, full of gifs and emojis akin to WhatsApp. This great collaboration hub can also be used to pin messages and track documents and tasks, so it’s an all-in-one place for in-company teams to work from, particularly when that team is dispersed remotely.

Formstack, for data management

For many of your data management needs, Formstack is a great option. With it you can collect the relevant information connected to an array of online forms, helping to measure analytics connected to recruitment practices, attendance, engagement, and payments, among many others.

Linguix, for producing accurate written content

Linguix’s tool is an AI-powered writing assistant that greatly helps in producing high quality written content. Along with the sophisticated grammar, style and vocabulary/spelling checker is Linguix’s array of useful templates, suited to both work and study. The dictionary tool allows you to easily find definitions and synonyms for any word you read online, ensuring a learning experience at the same time.

Linguix’s tool is available as an extension for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, and the Premium version offers an even more extensive array of checks. The Linguix web app provides audience-specific corrections and access to stats and readability scores to further improve your writing.

Hubspot, for marketing, sales and customer service needs

Okay, so Hubspot is not necessarily a remote working tool, because it is used by many companies as an automation system for all of their inbound marketing needs, from social media marketing to content creation and management, and from SEO considerations to web analytics. It can also be used as the place to store all company contacts, both internal and external, and so if you are now working as a remote tool, it truly adds value.

Dropbox, for filesharing

When working remotely, filesharing is one of the most fundamental considerations. Dropbox is perhaps the most well-known and among the simplest-to-use filesharing tools, especially if you don’t need the full G suite offering. Dropbox Office is a slightly more comprehensive option, but the free account is a good place to start.

Todoist, for self and team organization

Todoist is really a simple and smart to-do list tool (as the name would suggest), but when working remotely, it can easily operate as your project management system too. Timeframes, due dates, priority levels, and ownership can all be attributed using Todoist and shared between remote teams, so whether you are working individually, or collaboratively as part of a group, this is a great (and simple) PM tool to use. It dovetails nicely with your personal activities too.

For more on working from home, how to be productive and tool to use, check out this Remote Playbook.

The post Essential Tools for Remote Workers appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Value added is king

The concept of value added came to the world of media and marketing from the world of business. Companies have always tried to understand what incentives they can give customers to deter them from buying competing products. In the information overload era, any article or other content becomes a product of sorts. But it doesn’t compete with a handful of companies, it competes with hundreds or thousands of other articles.

This is why an article published by a blog or media outlet should contain something that will make a user pick it from hundreds of others. An example is how media works with news.

The upcoming deal between Uber China and Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest taxi service, has been extensively covered by the media. Bloomberg was the first to report it.

Competing media outlets faced a choice: simply rewrite the news piece or try to develop it. Venturebeat chose the first option, adding nothing more than a screenshot of the then CEO Travis Kalanick’s blog entry with confirmation of the deal. However, TechCrunch published an article on possible outcomes of the deal. Moreover, Wired offered its readers a detailed analysis explaining why this step showcases Uber’s failure on the Chinese market.     

In a similar manner, those creating corporate posts should realize what constitutes the value added that their competitors lack. It could be statistics, a valuable expert comment (it’s crucial to root out unimportant information) or foreign-language content that hasn’t been published or properly explained yet.

More content, better results

This statement is not obvious, but true. Editors preparing content for publication on blogs or expert columns have to get a feel for their job. Also, frequent publications increase reach.

Publication timing affects success

Marketing experts around the world analyze how the time of a publication affects its success. For instance, social media expert Dan Zarella together with KISSmetrics, HubSpot and Search Engine Land conducted research on the optimal timing for posting blog entries.

According to the results, Monday is the best day for posting content for US companies. Articles released after 11 a.m. had the biggest reach. Entries posted on Saturday after 9 a.m. showed the biggest number of comments. Finally, articles released on Monday or Thursday after 7 a.m. had the most external links.

In turn, marketing expert Noah Kagan analyzed the data on 100 million articles collected by BuzzSumo. He found out that articles posted on Tuesday get the most shares on social media and, as a result, the most views. On the contrary, users of LinkedIn and Pinterest prefer to share links to blog articles on Monday.

Our friends from Smile Bright Media Inc. content agency also analyzed statistics on blog and social media articles released by companies in the b2b and b2c segment. We reviewed hundreds of articles posted in IT communities, blogging platforms and other resources.

It resulted in some interesting facts. B2B companies prefer to post their articles on Tuesday and Thursday, but the number of views on Tuesday is quite low, users are only less active on Friday. The best numbers came on Saturday.

As for b2c companies, they tend to release new content on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, which is not the best choice. The numbers of views are not great on Thursday and Friday – they are much bigger on Saturday.

Obviously, a well-written and interesting article will have readers on any day of the week, but it’s possible to improve results with correct timing. Thus, analyzing the timing of competitors makes it possible to either pick a different time or to lure readers away. It depends on specific tactics and you have to test different options.
Likewise, realizing that nobody posts anything on weekends and people simply don’t have anything to read, allows a company to dominate the media realm during this quiet period.

Bells and whistles distract from what really matters

Marketing technologies constantly evolve as more and more interesting tools emerge. For example, HARO makes it possible to get comments on popular media.

However, the fact that technologies make the work of marketing experts and editors easier does not mean you have to use them.

It’s really that simple: the best content in history was written with a pen or a typewriter. Keyboards are the only tool needed to write a fascinating article. All the fancy technological features just distract from the important stuff (and earn money for their inventors).

Summing Up

• An article should have added value: why should the reader choose this piece among hundreds of others?
• The more articles, the better the results: practice makes perfect and allows you to experiment with various formats and increase the reach.
• Timing affects success: studies show that companies post more content on certain days but it doesn’t mean that they get more views.
• Technological features distract readers from the essence: new tools are not a prerequisite, as one can achieve great results without them.

This is merely a quick guide to getting priorities right when creating content. Writing high quality business articles is a broad topic that cannot be explained in a nutshell. This is why we help marketing specialists and managers deal with important issues and avoid typical mistakes in our corporate courses.

The post How to Attract First Readers: 4 Rules to Follow appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Our math

We looked into 500 articles published by the following resources:

• • TechCrunch — high-profile tech blog on technology and start-ups;

• • VentureBeat — one of the most noticeable English-speaking resources on start-ups;

• • The Next Web — a well-known European media-holding which team works on a web resource dedicated to a wide range of topics, including IT and technology;

• • ZDNet — a forum which publishes some serious news on IT industry from journalists and independent bloggers, and who also publish overviews and analytics within the industry;
  • Tech in Asia — an IT-related project focused on the Asian regions.

We analyzed 100 articles per resource – these were not just news updates, but editorials or dedicated entries of independent representatives of different companies.

Famous publications have almost stopped the practice of using open view counters. This is why the popularity of the material was determined via data of social media likes and “shares” (here included Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+). The number of resources represented by “social” buttons of specific resources can differ, but the four above mentioned services always remain.

Important footnote: some research shows that it is common thing to share articles within social networks without actually reading them. Most well-known entry upon this topic – a text by Slate published back in 2013. Media analytics resource Upworthy also has data proving that users who have read 25% of the word count, are more likely to “share” the piece, than those who did not read the text. Or, those who stayed on the web page for a longer period of time, and then that indicator goes up again.

Therefore, social network “shares” cannot represent a universal way of measuring readers’ engagement, but they allow us to compose a particular opinion on the involvement of the audience regarding the content.

Furthermore, given the the resources in question do not represent other instruments to measure popularity, we used what was at our disposal.

Stats: readers’ preferences

We broke down our analysis into several lines – technology and startups topics, more specialized “analytical” materials and a topic connected to reading English-speaking materials by users from Asia.

TECH AND STARTUPS: TECHCRUNCH, VENTUREBEAT, THE NEXT WEB

Readers’ preferences can vary within the topic of tech and startups.

For instance, TechCrunch visitors prefer medium-length articles of 5 000 to 10 000 words. That said, longer articles attract some interest as well: if we put together data from “10k to 15k word count” and “15k symbols and above”, the result would be roughly the same as the popularity of short articles (up to 5k symbols):

Different length articles popularity on TechCrunch

Speaking of Social Networks, the situation is different from publication to publication. TechCrunch readers prefer Facebook, then comes Twitter. Although LinkedIn is used quite actively – this social network has a little less than third of reposts:

TechCrunch articles partition by social networks

VentureBeat readers in turn love “minor forms” and actively read short pieces of up to 5k symbols. Mid-length texts and Long-reads are less favored here:

The popularity of different length articles on VentureBeat

Readers tend to repost more frequently on Facebook, followed by Twitter. LinkedIn, even though it gets a third place, yields seriously:

VentureBeat articles allocation within social networks

The Next Web readers also prefer short articles which are up to 5k symbols, though their attention still may be attracted by medium length article. Long-reads, however, are quite unpopular:

Different length articles popularity on The Next Web

Social networks preferences in here do differ from other resources related to startup and tech topics: the public reading the The Next Web strongly prefers Twitter. Facebook merely gets a second place in popularity:

The Next Web articles repost allocation by social networks

ANALYTICS, REVIEWS AND “SERIOUS” TECHNOLOGY: ZDNET

ZDnet.com has all the reputation of a serious outlet publishing only specialized material. This audience is formed not only by tech fans, but also by C-level IT managers.

Taking that into account, we were expecting to see favor towards long-reads, however it appears that readers’ preferences do not differ much from what startup fans like: short texts win with a huge advantage:

Pieces of different length performance on ZDNet

In terms of choosing a social network for sharing the content, the preferences are divided almost in half between Twitter and Facebook with a slight lead of the former:

The ZDNet articles repost allocation by social networks

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS IN ASIA: TECH IN ASIA

Those readers, who consume English-written content while staying in Asia, have got predilections which make them differ from the West. According to Similarweb, the majority of readers visit the Tech In Asia web page from Indonesia, India, and Singapore. These readers tend to fancy mid-length texts:  

The popularity of different length articles on Tech In Asia

What is in it for marketers

Here are several recommendations for content marketers based on our stats:

• • Readers do not like long reads on tech and startups — you should be brief enough not to loose reader’s attention.

• • Asia-based English readers prefer medium-length pieces to short ones. People from those regions do not pay much attention to long reads, however, super short pieces are not their choice either. While dealing with this audience it is better to prepare interesting and well composed pieces of medium length.

• • There is no need to artificially make the text shorter. Our survey shows that almost every article which fits the mid-length category finds its reader, though such pieces may give way to short texts in terms of readership.
  • One should not underestimate LinkedIn. Our social media analysis shows that this network is a great source of traffic as readers of different media tend to share there content they like.

The post How Long Should Your Content Be appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Hustling for attention is hard and doing it for your company’s blog seems even harder but there’s a simple set of tips to be used in case you don’t want to waste time and resources on fruitless blogging.

Look around: content is everywhere

One of the most frequent excuses for not blogging we hear from tech co’s is “we don’t have anything significant to blog about”. Half of the startups we meet tend to believe that their potential audience is not interested in posts about anything less than graduating from YC.

It’s sort of true as you should not really pose yourself as a top selling company and try to do Apple-like presentations but there’re multiple other ways to produce interesting content. Just look around – there’s a whole world around you and your company to talk about.

You’ve got a nice office – do a blog post about it. This will not only free you of discussing your product while working in dev mode (or even stealth), lifestyle posts give an insight into your company’s life and humanize the image of it. Even a minimalistic setup can attract like-minded folks, potential co-workers, and confederates.

This is exactly what one UX-agency based in Easter Europe did a couple of years ago. They had a nice office so they just went and published a post with multiple pics of it. The piece was in a local language, however, juicy pics of their amazing two-storey workspace made it resonate with design folks around the world including John Maeda who retweeted it to his 400k+ followers. This single post got up to 25k views.

Stand out: highlight your unique features

Newcomers face strong competition as they try to enter today’s tech market. Early stage products may be relatively hard to market as they often have much more modest feature set compared to their competitors who don’t waste time bragging about their updates here and there.

This is when it’s a good time to look at your product from the jobs-to-be-done point of view and think of its features that may interest a particular client (or user) groups. You should highlight these features (or even one single feature) and see how your potential clients react.

Kato.im (team-chat for a business that was finally pivoted to Sameroom.io) did this exact thing with their Vim-like hotkeys feature and open source projects. This type of posts is something people can profit from and relate to.

React to news

People are obsessed with news, which is why social network newsfeeds are so effective in killing time. And this is also why corporate PR guys are doing their best to publish comments on hot topics from their company’s experts. This tactic is so popular because it is simple yet effective.

If you see something interesting happening in a field that is somehow connected to your business and you feel that you have something to say about it — go for it. You can prepare a comment and pitch it to journalists (there are a number of tools for doing this, such as HARO) or create a blog post or an in-depth column discussing consequences and reasons for the event. In such cases, mentions of your products, services, and experience may be quite relevant.

There are multiple industries where this approach works just fine. For example — information security, where journalists and the public need someone to explain how hacks and cybercrimes become real (here is a classic hack story with the expert’s comments).

You just need to spend half an hour either talking with the journalist or writing a comment or a blog post to become the one who explains to the public what the heck is going on here.

Post a listicle

If there is nothing happening out there, and your connections are slow with their comments on a blog post, you can still forgo the necessity of involving other people. Just create a list of something. If you work in a marketing startup, for example, then compose the ultimate list of useful marketing tools, best marketing conferences of the year, or main events that will affect your industry.

This will give readers instant value – they will find out new interesting tools, events, or market insights. All in one place, curated for them – this is something to be grateful for.

Here is an example – the guys at Buffer published a blog post with a selection of 60 marketing tools they use themselves. The piece was so useful that 1.5k people shared it and dozens commented.

Interview and comments

Journalists like interviews and expert comments because it is a great opportunity to get first-hand information from an expert. And if they can do it, why can’t you?

Interviews and comments are great content marketing tools in many ways. First of all, if you publish an interview or a comment by a well-known, trusted expert and influencer in a certain field, it immediately boosts the credibility of your blog and company.

Second, the ‘vanity factor’ should not be underestimated. Every human is pleased if his or her opinion or thoughts are considered to be interesting by someone else. And thus, he or she will definitely share a link to your piece containing these opinions and thoughts. Such industry influencers can have thousands of followers across different social networks.

You can also combine these methods and create posts where different experts answer different questions or give their advice (here is an example of how this can look). Ten experts in such a post can lead to dozens of thousands of people reached when they share your link.

So you are killing three birds with one stone — getting great content, building a relationship with industry experts (which is always useful), and maximizing reach.

The post How to Decide What to Write About appeared first on Linguix Blog.