That’s wrong.

IT solutions are growing at an astonishing pace, providing us a limitless amount of information, which is something people could only dream of in the past. Above all, they have revolutionized the face of modern education. The implementation of videos, presentations, smart boards, and messaging platforms has improved the way students learn and memorize data, as well as the way they communicate with their peers. Most importantly, it has made the teachers’ job much enjoyable and creative.

Let’s see how.

More Effective Assessment

Traditionally, the assessment was all about a teacher asking a question and a learner answering it. Even though this formula is still alive and kicking, the thing is that it has numerous drawbacks. For instance, the fact that a student gives you a definition of a particular term doesn’t mean that they understand it any better. This is exactly when new teaching tools shine. With them, the process of assessment has changed dramatically.

Namely, there are numerous benefits of technology-enhanced assessment. First, it eliminates the possibility of human error, meaning that it is impartial and far more accurate. Second, it is instant and time-saving. For teachers, this means saving time and focusing on more creative aspects of their job. Finally, it’s simpler. Students can take their tests from anywhere and at any time convenient, feel more relaxed while doing tests, and receive the real-time feedback.

A Personalized Learning Approach

Everyone working in the education sector knows that each student is like a snowflake. They have different personality traits, attitudes, and learning styles. To make sure that you’ve helped them get the most of the lecture, you need to implement a personalized learning approach.

With the help of sophisticated educational tools, this has never been simpler. Technology helps teachers adapt the pace of learning to the students’ needs. Most importantly, it gives them the opportunity to introduce activities meaningful to their learners, driven by their interests. For instance, visual learners can use presentations, graphs, and videos to remember the material better, while the gamification of the learning process may be an ideal solution for those with a short attention span.

Helping Students with Disabilities

Statistics show that the number of the U.S. students with special needs has grown 30% over the past 10 years. Moreover, the same study tells us that almost every classroom in the country includes a student with disabilities. So, what do these facts tell us?

To give students with special needs the opportunity to learn alongside their classroom peers, teachers need to tailor their programs to these students’ needs. Fortunately, the number of assistive tools on the market has risen rapidly. Let’s see some of them:

• Text-to-speech software helps learners with blindness, dyslexia or any other type of visual impairment and learning disability that affects their ability to read.
• Assistive listening systems help learners with hearing problems.
• Sip-and-puff systems are used by students who have mobility challenges.
• Math tools help students that have a trouble with doing math.

Improved Teacher-Student Communication

Today, we have transferred almost all aspects of our daily lives to the cloud, from paying bills to managing our private and personal obligations. The same goes for education. Teachers can use ClassDojo and Remind to communicate with students and their parents, Edmodo and Moodle for giving student feedback, and Slack and Schoology for collaborating on school projects. Not to mention some basic cloud storage platforms, like Dropbox that allow you to upload and share massive data with a wide range of students and colleagues. With the help of these awesome apps, your learners will be able to communicate in real-time, upload their projects and assignments instantly, and access important materials, regardless of their location.

Visualized Learning Materials

With the rise of technology, photographs, models, and maps are losing their popularity. Today, teachers can use a wide range of technologies to explain practically any concept. Most importantly, being able to visualize everything that is discussed, students can easily understand and memorize massive information easily. For example, Chromecast iPhone mirroring is very easy with an app and it can help teachers present visuals easily.

One of the most common and affordable ways to visualize your learning materials is PowerPoint presentations, which have already dominated the education landscape. For example, in Australia, the number of tech startups offering presentation skills training in Sydney and building online platforms for creating PowerPoint-like presentations is constantly rising.

PowerPoint gives you the opportunity to create interactive presentations, comprising text, audio, and video elements. Most importantly, as it is super-easy to use, teachers can inspire learners to create their own PowerPoint presentations on various topics and present them in front of their peers. These activities not only help them use technology for the right purposes, but also give them the opportunity to express their creativity and practice oral presentation skills.

Back to You

Technology helps us move from the traditional, repetitive learning methods to the interactive, creative, and more engaging approaches. Only by implementing IT solutions, teachers will be able to organize their lectures more effectively, save both time and money, engage their students, and build better communication with them.

The post How Technology has Improved Education appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Fiber-based technologies will significantly improve broadband speed, provide better-quality voice, and ensure faster data delivery. As such, it gives Australian businesses of all shapes and sizes an opportunity to enhance employees’ performance, boost customer satisfaction, and reach global markets.

Let’s see how NBN connections impact Australian businesses and what they should know before choosing the right plan.

Maximizing both Internal and External Communications

Increased internet speeds result in better workplace productivity. According to MonsterCloud’s survey, 60% of employees say slow Wi-Fi or internet connection speeds frustrate them the most. That’s where switching to NBN plans can help. Namely, the NBN speed can reach 100Mbps, depending on the plan you choose. By comparison, ADSL2 speeds can go up to 24Mbps.

Faster internet speed will increase your employees’ productivity and help them get their daily tasks done faster. It will also boost collaboration between your team members. They will be able to communicate, work on complex projects, use multiple collaboration platforms, and share files faster, in real-time. 

Above all, this may improve customer relationships. For example, many B2B businesses that operate globally schedule regular meetings with clients via video conferencing tools. Greater internet connection speeds will ensure these meetings will go smoothly, without any disconnections or buffering. 

Improving your Online Presence

Today’s customers are more demanding. With the growth of mobile technologies, voice searches, and artificial intelligence, they expect brands to provide them with exceptional service 24/7. Research says that 82% of them expect immediate answers to any sales and marketing questions. 

Unsurprisingly, your customer services and marketing efforts can be hamstrung by slow internet connections. Fortunately, with the NBN infrastructure, even the businesses in remote areas will be able to build and maintain a spotless online presence. This means:

• Building fast and responsive websites, tracking customers’ feedback and conversations in real-time, and improving customer support. With fast internet connections, you will be able to create a multi-channel marketing strategy, including your website, email campaigns, social networks, forums, etc. 
• Gaining a global reach. Small, brick-and-mortar shops are limited to their local audiences. Many of them are not able to target wider audiences or sell online due to slow internet connections. With the implementation of the NBN, this is going to change. Fast broadband will let you create an ecommerce website and sell your products online, regardless of your location. 
• Enhancing user experiences. Did you know that your customers expect your site to load in less than 3 seconds? Otherwise, they will kick it immediately. With better internet connections, they will explore your site effortlessly and covert faster.
• Building a stronger brand online. Strong internet connections let you build a consistent and recognizable brand image across different marketing channels. The quality of internet connections often equals the quality of your customer support and online content. 

Increasing Sales

Strong internet connections let you increase sales both online and offline. 

As for your online strategy, website responsiveness is key. By building a user-friendly ecommerce website, you can connect with customers from all over the world and even get a chance to export your products overseas. Faster page load speeds, customer support, and personalized online offers will build stronger relationships with them and encourage faster conversions.

You can use fast internet connections to boost in-store user experiences, too. For example, you could offer free Wi-Fi. In today’s mobile-first era, choose businesses that offer free Wi-Fi. They will spend more time in your store, increase their average order value, and come back to your store. Wi-Fi marketing is also a great chance for you to collect customer data and track their behaviors in order to personalize your services. Finally, you can expand your newsletter list by asking them for email addresses while logging in or take them to dedicated landing pages to promote your products and offers.

Those are sophisticated marketing tactics that cannot be implemented successfully without reliable internet connections. 

It Works for Both Small and Large Businesses

The major benefit of the NBN lies in the fact that it provides small and large businesses with equal growth opportunities. Using the combination of technologies (we’ll get back to that in later), it provides more Australian businesses with access to fast broadband. In 2019, there have been 6.2 million homes and businesses connected to the NBN. As the number of NBN users is constantly growing, it is estimated that 8 million individual users and businesses will be actively connected to the NBN by 2020.

Making high-speed internet infrastructures available to small and medium businesses is critical, given that account for the largest share of total employment in Australia. High-speed broadband will allow small businesses to automate certain aspects of their jobs faster, provide better customer experiences, and increase their global reach, irrespective of their location.

Switching to the NBN: What to Know?

Now that you know the benefits of the NBN for your business, let’s learn a few facts that will help you choose the right plan for your business.

The NBN Is about to Replace your Current Landline Network

The idea behind this project launched by the Federal Government is to fully replace the outdated phone and internet infrastructure with newer ones. Once the NBN becomes available in your area, you will have 18 months to choose the right NBN plan and switch to it. After this period, your existing phone and internet services will be switched off. To maintain satisfactory employee performance and customer service, you will want to pick the right carrier on time.

Checking the Availability of the NBN

You can connect to the NBN as soon as your address becomes available at your address. You will probably notice workers, who are connecting homes to the NBN by laying fiber-optic cables under the street. If you’re still not sure whether your neighborhood is NBN-ready, you can check that online. Many NBN providers offer broadband search tools, where you can enter your company’s address and learn whether the NBN is available in your area. 

There are Different Types of NBN

The NBN project uses a mixed-technology network. This means that your business will be connected to the network via one of the following technologies:

• Fiber to the building (FTTB)
• Fiber to the curb (FTTC)
• Fiber to the node (FTTN)
• Fiber to the premises (FTTP)
• Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC)
• Fixed wireless
• Sky Muster Satellite 

Sure, you don’t get to choose the method that will connect your business to the NBN. The type of NBN connections is chosen based on your location.

Setting Up the NBN is Free, You Pay for a Plan

The NBN is financed by the Federal Government, meaning that it will be installed free of charge. However, you need to pay for the monthly NBN plan you choose. The price of the NBN depends on the choice of a plan. 

Affordable NBN plans cost somewhere between $60 and $100 monthly, so you just need to check what they offer. Make sure your plan doesn’t sacrifice the network speed or data allowance. Also, check whether there are some additional business benefits. For example, can you bundle multiple plans to save up or are there any entertainment packages?

Over to You

The NBN benefits Australian business on so many levels. It will prompt your business growth, job creation, and workplace productivity. Above all, it will increase customer satisfaction and retention rates. These are all critical factors that may lead to the creation of 148,000 new jobs and increase Australian GDP by up to $10.4 billion.

Have you already switched to the NBN? Share your experiences in the comments!

The post How NBN Connections are Driving Business Growth appeared first on Tech Web Space.

But these are just some of the benefits of a company-wide digital transformation. Yet, not many business leaders are ready or willing to invest financial resources into such a potentially disruptive project. The key is to educate the business sector on all of the benefits, and to showcase some of the most promising trends pertaining to digital transformation that will dominate in 2020 and beyond. Let’s take a look at these trends and how they can help your business thrive.

Leveraging AI-driven data analytics

Nowadays, there is so much information and market data flowing around the web, and so much new information popping up at every corner, that business leaders are finding it difficult to collect and organize all of it and make actionable reports. The reporting process in the modern business world has become a cost and labor-intensive task, simply due to the lack of human-power or financial resources needed to handle and collate all of that information in a timely manner, or in a way that allows a company to act proactively to market trends instead of reactively.

This is where artificial intelligence comes in to make big data analytics a breeze and help companies make accurate predictions and forecasts without wasting resources. Software utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning is able to analyze and make sense of vast amounts of industry data, which makes customer, competitor, and market research in general more feasible in the long term. This means that, by integrating AI-driven analytics into your operation, you can always stay one step ahead of the game.

Creating a seamless omni-channel experience

Currently, online customers are visiting and spending time on numerous online platforms more than ever before – researching brands, scrolling through social media, reading posts on authority websites, and more. Now, while it used to be that customers would go to a website to purchase a product or sign up for a service, nowadays customers expect of their favorite brands to provide an omni-channel experience and give them the option to buy on their own terms.

In other words, if you don’t integrate new sales channels and methods into your strategy, such as sales and lead generation through compelling content, you are letting potential customers slip through the cracks. Chances are that they will run straight into the welcoming arms of your competitors who are using numerous modes of sales across the web – don’t let that happen.

Bringing software to market faster

In this fast-paced and ever-changing online marketplace, the brand that rolls its product out first, usually wins. Why? Because you’re beating your competitors to the curve, and providing a solution to a long-standing problem to an eager consumer base. Complemented by some smart preemptive marketing, the success of your product is almost guaranteed. But you need to roll the thing out first.

Software development is a typical example of a product that’s difficult to roll out in a timely manner, which is something that digital solutions such as DevOps aim to change by streamlining the software development process and implementing powerful organizational and CI/CD tools, among other things. This type of approach aims to shorten the system development life cycle and the time to market so that you can roll out your software before your competitors.

Utilizing AI-driven chatbot technology

In recent years, chatbots have become extremely popular across a myriad of industries, particularly in those niches such as Ecommerce where online stores experience drastic increases in traffic and have to handle an influx of customers in a timely and professional manner. Chatbots integrated with artificial intelligence and machine learning are able to take your customer service department to the next level by streamlining workflow, handling the bulk of customer queries and problems, and letting your human employees handle the complex issues. 

Boosting efficiency with cloud computing 

And finally, every business should migrate to the cloud in 2020. The benefits that this technology brings to the table are numerous, and include long-term cost savings, increased data security and stability, workflow and real-time collaboration, easy scaling, disaster recovery, and much more. One of the best parts about the cloud is that it allows you to minimize financial waste associated with running an in-house data center and IT infrastructure, while at the same time providing you with the tools you need to make every process in your company more efficient and cost-effective.

Wrapping up

This year and in the years to come, business leaders will have to focus on digital transformation and the integration of innovative solutions in order to retain their competitive advantage. Use these insights to take all of your processes to the next level in 2020, and set the stage for success in the years to come.

The post Digital Transformation Trends You Should Follow in 2020 and Beyond appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Look at the data

Recent advancements in technology have made it easy for business owners to collect financial data and identify areas where unnecessary costs occur. Invest in software that can help you keep track of your finances and pinpointing these areas shouldn’t be tough. The entire process may take some time but it’s much better to have a plan in place than just aimlessly try to reduce your costs. Once you figure out where these unnecessary costs are coming from, it’s time to start coming up with ways you can go about eliminating them.

Examine maintenance expenses

Keeping your office clean is extremely important, especially if that’s where you meet your clients. However, paying a cleaning service to make the office sparkle every week may not be necessary. Instead, you can have them straighten out the place once a month and have your team address the other weeks of the month. Show incentive and start cleaning the office yourself. While saving money on maintenance is a great idea, it doesn’t mean you should ignore critical maintenance issues. If a minor plumbing leak occurs, it’s always better to deal with it before it causes more damage.

Reduce credit card debt

Using a credit card to purchase materials and other stuff for your business can do wonders for your business in terms of cash flow. However, if you don’t keep an eye on the relevant interest rates, it could easily hurt your finances even more. Therefore, your safest bet is to quickly compare credit cards and check whether you’ve opted for the ones with the lowest interest rates. It’s also recommended to check other perks and rewards you can get in a deal. To stay in control over your finances, try to pay off your balance every week.

Opt for cheap marketing channels

No business can survive without marketing. Small businesses don’t have high marketing budgets large corporations have but it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything to attract customers to your business. Instead of spending all the money your company has, you can opt for some of the low-cost ways to promote your business. Start by setting up social media pages for your business and creating quality content on a regular basis. You can also consider designing cheap promotional products such as pens and hats.

Save on office supplies

Office supplies expenses can snowball quite a lot if left unmonitored. When running a small business, even the tiniest expenses can hurt your budget a lot. This is why it’s a good idea to always keep an eye on how much your company is spending on office supplies. Even if it feels like there are no unnecessary expenses, you can still come up with ways to reduce your costs. For example, you can save money on paper by keeping most of your documents in digital formats. Going paperless also gives you a chance to aid in preserving the environment. Other ways to save on office supplies include buying in bulk and reusing smartly.

Renegotiate with suppliers

Another great way to cut your expenses is to renegotiate your contracts. Talk to your suppliers and identify those who might be able to give you a better deal if you commit to them long-term. Before you meet the supplier, make sure you bring your market data or you won’t be able to back up why they should renegotiate with you. Also, bear in mind that renegotiating doesn’t mean taking advantage of suppliers. They’ll only be ready to help you cut your expenses if you can find a deal that suits both parties.

Look into bartering

Depending on what kind of work you do, you might be able to find other companies that’ll be ready to exchange goods or services with you. It may feel like bartering doesn’t actually help you save money but the key here is that it allows you to avoid the initial outlay of funds to get goods or services your company needs. Just remember that the idea of worth and value isn’t the same when bartering and selling products or services. With bartering, it’s critical to consider things such as time, effort and skill when negotiating.

Final thoughts

Reducing costs in your small business is imperative for its success and growth. The ideas covered in this article are just some of those you can use to help improve your company’s financial situation.

The post Top Ways Your Small Business Can Reduce Expenses appeared first on Tech Web Space.

That said, back in the day, the only way to get a cryptocoin was to either buy it or mine it. Simply put, mining is borrowing hardware to the blockchain ledger so that it can verify and record transactions more effectively. However, that was back in the day, but ten years have passed, and crypto mining is still a thing. 

Nevertheless, people can’t help but wonder what the future holds for this activity. Now that Bitcoin is no longer the only option for miners, will they have to mine other currencies regardless or will the technology evolve to provide a different solution? With that in mind, here are a few things the future has in store for crypto mining.

Turning towards a greener solution

Up until now, mining crypto was mostly based on borrowing hardware. What’s more, the mining process required the “Proof of Work” (PoW) concept so that miners can actually participate in mining cryptocurrencies, as well as get rewarded for their contribution. 

Given that this approach is solely based on extremely high energy consumption and power draw, it’s also considered the very opposite of eco-friendly. That’s why many cryptocurrencies and entire mining processes are shifting towards a greener solution called “Proof of Stake” (PoS). 

Since the old PoW algorithm is being criticized for being energy-costly, many companies are simply ditching it for the PoS algorithm. This eco-friendly approach may revolutionize the mining process as we know it. The way the PoS system works is that it picks miners either randomly or based on a special system. There’s no reward aside from network fees. Ethereum is among the first cryptos to use the PoS system.  

Mining costs skyrocket

Back in the day, mining cryptocurrencies was more or less seamless. While the blockchain ledger does require hardware to execute complex algorithms in order to verify, authorize and record transactions, the hardware didn’t have to be especially powerful, nor did it consume too much power. 

Today, as more people become interested in cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin due to its high value, the mining process becomes much more demanding and more difficult. Nowadays, without powerful hardware, one shouldn’t even consider mining in the first place. 

What’s more, the power draw from such hardware may easily outweigh the profits of mining. Fortunately, the only way to make the best out of cryptocurrency mining these days is to invest in a specially-designed mining rig. That way you can reduce the costs and actually enjoy the profits. 

Many governments, such as China, Egypt and India have not only banned ICOs, but they’re also taxing the electricity to force mining activities out of their countries permanently. In other words, crypto mining will have to relocate to regions with cheap and stable electricity, as well as regions with favorable government environment for such activities. 

The end of cloud mining

Since mining hardware is generally very expensive, not to mention the power consumption prices, people often opt for so-called cloud mining. Cloud mining means subscribing for hardware in the cloud where companies can do the mining for you. 

However, this trend is slowly running out of interest. The main reason is that cloud mining is unable to provide investors with proper profits and is thus losing popularity. Poor ratings and services have caused investor outrage. Investors may never break even, and cloud mining companies may never recover from the scrutiny. 

Some cloud mining companies, like  ViaBTC, have already shut down their operations while other companies, such as Genesis Mining and HashFlare are soon to follow due to poor ratings. In a lot of cases, it’s not just the poor ratings that are plaguing the cloud mining companies but also the obsolete hardware that’s no longer capable of mining profitably. 

The rise of pre-mined cryptos

Pre-mined cryptos might as well spell the end of crypto mining as we know it. Although this won’t happen any time soon, the rise or pre-mined cryptos is bound to reduce traditional mining drastically. Pre-mined cryptos are the new approach to coin distribution methodology for cryptocurrency networks. 

Again, Ethereum is pioneering this new trend with 1500 different ICO developed by them that are also pre-mined. The way it works is that ICOs a pre-mined so that enough of them are accumulated for the crowd sales distribution. A lot of other cryptos are starting to follow this trend as well. The more popularity these pre-mined ICOs gain the more traditional mining processes will decrease in the future. 

Mining crypto has become quite unprofitable today, especially for Bitcoin miners. High hardware prices and power consumption oftentimes top the profits. However, other cryptos are turning away from traditional mining processes and are exploring new approaches and methods. What will happen to mining is still unclear. We’ll just have to wait and see how the situation develops further. 

The post Whats the Future of Crypto Mining appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Well, now you get to drive some traffic toward it; otherwise, it’s just going to stand there like a lemon.

Come to think of it, there are actually many ways you can achieve this goal — influencer marketing, guest blogging, providing assistance on various forums, etc. Yet, all of these take up a lot of time and resources. 

So, what is the most optimal (and fastest) way to get organic traffic that converts — you host online contests.

Here are some five ways to do just that:

1. Choose the Right Type of Contest

An online contest encompasses many things — from simple giveaways to promotional events and competitions. As such, choosing the right type will determine the way you engage your audience. Now, ask yourself this:

Does your particular brand allow some room for creativity? If so, can you utilize it?

If the answer to both of these questions was a resounding ‘yes,’ you can probably make things more interesting by involving a healthy dose of creativity — or basing your competition on a particular skill — rather than relying on random chance to pick your winner/s. That way you will end up with a lot more user-generated content that will effectively engage others and draw them into the competition. 

Also, let the jury decide which contestant deserves to win — this will allow contestants to ‘campaign’ for themselves, expanding your reach in the process. 

Some engaging contest ideas include tag a friend, photo contests, best comment and caption competitions, and so on.

2. Promote Your Contest on Social Media

A neat contest idea and awesome prizes will be for nought if nobody hears about it first. So, start conversations with followers on social platforms to grab their attention!

Twitter, in particular, is exceptional for these kinds of engagements. Simply post a thread with interesting life hacks, some sound advice, or expertise and drop a link to your contest. This will further incentivize them to read the full story on your website, boosting traffic and converting onlookers into prospective contest participants. In addition, use the proper hashtags and add people to conversations to get the discussion going, and followers flowing.

According to one survey, social media accounts for some 25% of all site visits and even though Facebook has slightly dropped in popularity, Instagram and Pinterest have risen to take its place (almost).

Overall, you need to establish your authority on these platforms if you want people to actually click on your links and visit your website with some genuine interest (instead of just bouncing back). Therefore, merely grabbing their attention isn’t enough; you need to offer some real value for it to work. 

3. Offer Incentives

With great contests come great prizes. To really incentivize your followers and customers to join in on the fun, you need to offer some real value in return. After all, your main goal is not just to drive traffic to your website but to convert as well. This warrants some awesome rewards that are not only practical in nature but can really be of use to your participants. 

For instance, offering monetary rewards in the form of a neat universal gift card will attract more contestants than a niche prize ever could. What’s more, if you award these to your loyal customers they will repay you in kind by buying your products and services (with it), making this — quite literally — a gift that keeps on giving. 

4. Leverage the Use of Visuals 

Visual content is king. According to YouTube, their users watch a billion hours of video content on their platform each day. In 2017, Snapchat generated some 3.5 million photo messages a day, reports Statista. Today, with the rise of Instagram, the stats are probably even higher. 

Now, out of all these visually-based social media platforms, Pinterest is probably your best bet at generating traffic for your contest (and your website). In a nutshell, Pinterest is like a mini-search engine with cool pictures; the perfect place to promote your contest. The secret to ‘untapping’ its full potential — create amazing infographics. This will not only generate traffic from this platform but you can also repurpose the images to accompany your Facebook and Twitter posts as well!

Additionally, if you’re good at making video content, you should definitely try making a promo video for your contest; in general visual instructions are 3x better than written instructions. Just take a look at Tasty and the success they’ve had on Facebook, for instance.

5. Wrap Things Up

A lot of brands miss out on the opportunity to generate some additional traffic at the close of the contest. For example, one way to accomplish this feat is to announce the winner of your contest during a live streaming session hosted on your website. Sending follow-up emails to your subscribers — where you name the winners and offer them a chance to read the full story on your website — is yet another.  

All in all, you need to capitalize on the moment — everyone is extremely eager (and curious) to find out who the winner is. 

The post 5 Ways How to Run an Online Contest That Will Drive Traffic to Your Website appeared first on Tech Web Space.

On the other hand, there are so many online stores just like yours, if not better, offering similar services and products, that you need to have a distinct selling point to make your brand stand out, and stay noticeable among emerging businesses. This is not a one-time strategy, but it needs to be an ongoing effort to help you enhance your digital presence over time, with consistent growth in mind. Here are a few essential tips to help you stay at the top of your game. 

Utilize social media to your advantage

Most businesses invest heavily in the design and functionality of their web store, which is entirely necessary, but still doesn’t promise optimal traffic or sales. To give your web store the visibility it needs, you should use a range of social media networks visited by your audience. These platforms are hotspots of communication among brands and customers, and they’ll give you not just access to their preferences and valuable metrics, but also a gateway to your website.

Of course, sponsored posts and targeted ads are a part of the social media game. Make sure not to overdo it, though, as sponsored ads are the modern day’s equivalent of the old-fashioned telemarketing phone call in the middle of lunch. When you interrupt someone’s cat video to flash your latest shoe collection, you might get some dislikes. So, balance your paid and organic social strategy to complement your e-commerce store. Plus, keep in mind that social platforms also have built-in e-commerce functionalities, making it easier for you to sell there, too. 

Position yourself as the industry leader

In a vast sea of products, your brand should be synonymous with trust and success. In order to achieve and preserve such a reputation, you should use every opportunity to share insightful, valuable content for your audience that will not only help you sell your product, but also give you a leading role in the industry. That is especially vital in niche markets where you face few, but mighty competitors, and where your reputation is your main asset.

For instance, if you are in the business of selling oilfield equipment online, you can use your reputation as your key advantage and consistently provide value-driven content to your target customers. That way, they’ll understand your industry better, they’ll perceive you as their most trustworthy source of information, and they’ll trust their business with you. Ultimately, you’ll become synonymous with success. 

Work with influencers and ambassadors

Marketing your brand the right way can help you not just boost visibility, but also make your products more likable for your audience. When you were looking for a new pair of sneakers, the first thing you did was read the reviews for the model you were interested in, right? That’s a typical strategy people use to make sure that they’ll get what they need and what the brand promises. 

To instill trust in your customers and potential buyers, you can work with influencers that already have access to your target audience – they just need to green-light your product and you’ll see a noticeable surge in interest and sales. A collaboration with a loved social media star is a genuine way to promote your brand without actually being overly-promotional with your content. If they approve, their audience will naturally become more interested. 

Perfect your customer service

Every once in a while, customers have questions and worries of their own. Despite the amazing reviews, the tutorial videos, the informative how-to articles, they will come to you with queries, and your response will define their perception of your brand. The reason people go online to look for everything from shoes to drills is convenience. If you make your customers wait for too long, you take that convenience away.

Make sure that your customer service agents are not just ready and equipped to tackle the most complex of queries and complaints, but also to respond in a timely manner without causing long delays. If you don’t have the manpower to respond to all customers in time, use chatbots, expand your customer service team, do whatever it takes to stay on top of your service quality. The bond with the customer doesn’t end or begin with a purchase – it’s a blend of all possible touchpoints, so use them wisely to make a great impression.

The greatest website design cannot salvage your reputation if you don’t protect your e-commerce efforts with the right strategy. These tips are considered essential for any online endeavor, so use them to push your store at the forefront of your industry and to stay there for years on end.

The post Boosting Your E-commerce Business in 4 Essential Steps appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Unfortunately, cryptocurrencies and their potential were overshadowed by exploitations and frauds. Due to the fact that there are no regulation or rules that will guide the market forward, as well as keep the users in check, the crypto market has experienced extreme volatility and uncertainty. It also resulted in people generally losing trust in the concept of cryptocurrencies.

Even blockchain technology development slowed down at one point. Now, people are wondering what will become of the trend that was rumored to be bigger than the Internet itself. With that in mind, here are a few ways how blockchain and cryptocurrencies are shaping up for the future.

Advancements in blockchain development

As mentioned before, blockchain development has slowed down at one point. However, it didn’t slow down because people lost interest in this particular technology. As a matter of fact, it slowed down because people were wondering and planning where best to implement this technology and how to best develop it so that they can utilize its fullest potential. Nowadays, blockchain is much more than the technology that supported Bitcoin.

Ranging from the Ethereum project that improved the original Bitcoin’s blockchain and introduced smart contracts all the way to global supply chain implementation, blockchain has come a long way in just a decade. The future predictions indicate blockchain technology to be used in app development, widespread distributed data models, autonomous trade and negotiations, improved security measures and much more.

Stablecoins to the rescue

It’s no secret that the cryptocurrency market wasn’t only plagued by high volatility. As a matter of fact, numerous frauds, hacks and scams also contributed to people losing their trust in the cryptocurrencies. This has resulted in the creation and rise of stablecoins.

Their purpose is to provide security and stability to not only the users, but also the market itself. Companies, such as Anchor AG have taken upon themselves to develop a stable coin that will help reduce the crypto market’s volatility and uncertainty, as well as protect investor holdings. All of that with the goal of encouraging people to place their trust in cryptocurrencies once again.

Unlike other cryptos on the market, stablecoins are pegged to assets in the real world, such as fiat money, precious metals, oil and other assets. With that in mind, the next big cryptocurrency that’s likely to surpass even the Bitcoins is most likely to be a stablecoin.

The future of cryptocurrencies

The entire purpose of cryptocurrencies was for them to be decentralized from any government or central bank regulations. In other words, cryptocurrencies were supposed to be everything fiat money isn’t.

However, the challenges that cryptocurrencies faced, such as the risk of losing assets due to the susceptibility to hacks and computer chases, lack of regulation, lack of widespread consumer acceptance and others, prevent them from becoming more widely used. Moreover, it also prevents them from becoming a part of the mainstream financial system. Fortunately, the future of cryptocurrencies is favorable, especially since new developments are focused on overcoming such limitations.

Some experts predict that government regulations are required to ensure stability and security even though that contradicts the fundamental purpose of cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, others predict that cryptocurrencies simply require a verified ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) that will allow cryptos to be floated on the Nasdaq stock exchange, as well as to make it easier for people to invest in crypto and to add credibility to blockchain technology.

Shaping up for the future

One of the things that are certain when blockchain and cryptocurrencies are involved is that the future is, in fact, uncertain. No one knows for sure what will happen but no one can deny the impact and the potential of both cryptos and blockchain technologies on the modern world either.

Even though there were setbacks, both crypto and blockchain aren’t about to be forgotten. The fact of the matter is that cryptos are being developed in a way that will satisfy the divergent criteria, which will allow them to be more widely spread and used.

They are becoming more mathematically complex to resist frauds and hack attempts, remaining decentralized but with proper safeguards and productions for users and they’re preserving a level of anonymity but without being used as means for tax evasion. On the other hand, blockchain is being used as a pioneer in revolutionizing modern technological systems. How things are going to develop further remains to be seen.

The future of both blockchain and cryptocurrencies is foggy at best. However, both of these trends have shown their potential and new technological advancements might carry these two into a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities.

The post How Blockchain and Cryptocurrency are Shaping up for the Future appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Among many strategies that brands utilize to make themselves noticed and interesting in the crowded social worlds, giveaways speak to a very simple, but profound human quality: we like freebies. Luckily, social networks have enabled us to help disseminate our brand message through giveaways without too much trouble, and there are many different ways you can achieve just that. Let’s go over a select few of those methods that might benefit your own business in getting more traction on social channels!

Get visual

If there’s anything marketers love, that would be numbers, and for a few excellent reasons. Number one being that they are one of the most impartial ways to determine the impact a certain strategy has on the brand they are serving. When it comes to visuals, 2019 and upcoming years will be big on visual content in general. To be more specific, though, 40% of the interviewed parties stated that original graphics lead to more engagement compared to charts and stock photos as a few examples. That simply means that if you’re looking to drive engagement, the more original you get, the greater your chances.

The same applies to the visuals used in your social media giveaways! If you want a greater reach and a better response from your audience, make sure that your visuals are as appealing as ever, that they are original, and that they drive reactions. Use images created by and within your brand, use videos, and rely on live streams, and your engagement rates will be through the roof!

Personalize whenever you can

As buzzwords go, this one has earned its right to be used so much in any industry when it comes to proper marketing in the modern era – personalization is a way for brands to truly engage with their customers. You have an event coming up and you’re looking to boost your attendance? A great way to do that is to have people sign up so that you can send them branded promotional lanyards with personalized passes attached, a personalized thank-you note, and perhaps a gift certificate for a few drinks at the cocktail party after the presentation.

That way, you give them something of value that they’ll make an effort to earn through shares, likes, and comments, and you’ll garner even more visibility by sending out branded items that will be a topic of many a conversation preceding the event. Giving them a chance to personalize the giveaway can make it more interesting for them to take part in the contest to begin with!

Use trendy hashtags

Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past several years, you already know and use hashtags every day to reach your followers, start up conversations, and make some buzz on social media. However, hashtags can be used even in giveaways to get more visibility, even beyond your current follower base. If you know how to select the right hashtags, your contests can reach a much wider audience, earn you more followers, and ultimately foster an even more vivid conversation than you could have planned for.

This is particularly important for seasonally-specific posts on social networks, such as during different holidays, or those designated shopping spree days such as Black Friday. That way, you can expand your reach, keep your audience interested, and as you hand out discount cards and coupon codes, you make sure that people who will genuinely benefit from the giveaway will actually reach your posts on social networks.

Work with an influencer

Perhaps the most powerful asset in your social media arsenal, influencers are the go-to solution for any campaign and giveaway of modern brands who are in need of increased engagement. However, you need to have a standing relationship with an influencer that matters in your industry, so that you can rely on their voice to truly send the right message when communicating with your audience. Some of the most common ways you can work with an influencer during a giveaway campaign is to feature their videos or images for a set period of time.

Then again, some brands like to allow influencers to take over their brand’s accounts on social networks, which might drive even more engagement and get your audience to communicate through social shares, comments, and reactions of all sorts. Alternatively, you can turn your most loyal customers into influencers for a day, and make sure that they post their own videos using your products, and those who get the most engagement on their post can win something of value, whether it’s a gift certificate, a discount in your store, or a freebie you know they’ll love.

Social media is considered the final digital frontier by some experts. Use these tips to turn your social media giveaways into more engaging strategies, and your brand will get more visibility and grow more awareness as a result of those campaigns!

The post Increase Engagement with Giveaways on Your Social Media appeared first on Tech Web Space.

It stands in the core of effective digital marketing in the current engagement economy. The world wide web is filled with content marketing, customers inboxes are overflowing with well-designed emails, while account-based tactics are becoming a norm.

66% of B2B consumers wish to advocate for brands that they’re engaged with, while 73% of buyers said that great customer experience is a crucial factor for their purchasing decisions.

Its importance in driving revenue is obvious. Lower churn, increased consumer retention, greater loyalty and customers for a lifetime represent different consequences that arise with a great customer engagement strategy.

But these strategies can vary from business to business. In this article, we will present to you some time-proven customer engagement strategies that will increase your revenue and create from your brand a memorable and pleasant experience for any new or current customer.

Dive into the Youth Market

Denny’s – a well-positioned coffee shop, pancake house, fast casual family restaurant chain with over 1,500 locations around the globe. The company’s engagement strategy is focused on Twitter in a wacky way – one that will never be described as corporate. The consequences? When Denny’s Tweets, the youngsters are listening.  Their Tweets go something like this:

• Instagram and Facebook are down but Denny’s is always open.
• If you get pancakes to go, you’re technically a golden retriever.
• just once we’d love to see a struggling musician jot down some lyrics on an omelette instead of a napkin.
• “a recent study shows that men think about nachos every 7 seconds” – nacho scientists.

The end results? This random and weird strategy is delivering positive results. Instead of being a dinner place where you would end up with your grandma only, Denny’s embraced the younger generations and engaged them with humor.

The business used a language the youngsters understand and thus effectively connected and engaged with their target audience. Without needing to create landing pages tags, call to actions or discounts. Of course, this strategy isn’t applicable to every niche, healthcare or legal companies definitely wouldn’t benefit from it.

Customer feedback

Only one out of dozens of customers will actually complain. While a single unhappy one will tell dozens of their friends and family members about one negative experience. This negative publicity is the enemy number one for any business wishing to be successful. With the advent of social media and online reviewing, the actual expenses of irritated consumers for business are unaccountable.

But by using a customer feedback app you can minimize the negative consequences that arise with an unhappy experience. These apps can reshape your customers into mystery shoppers.

You will be able to directly tap into that silent unhappy majority and discover exactly what your customers feel about your company, brand, product or service. Such an easy feedback system will enable you to easily gain knowledge about your consumers’ experience.

Unhappy customers will be discovered in real time and thus your business will have a chance to win them back through live consumer alert – increasing your customer retention manifold.

Content is king

Engaging content creates engaged customers. The greater the quality of content, the more interactions it will attract. More attraction equals more people on your website, thus providing you with ample opportunities for lead conversion. 84% of consumers expect brands to create content.

When creating content, remember to look out for customers reviews. Reviews represent an efficient tool to improve conversion rates from social media. Consumers always search first for content created by real people instead of looking at content shared by the company. These reviews, or reactions, will always appear more trustworthy in their eyes. Review traffic is more engaged than any other traffic driving channel available.

Businesses like HubSpot went ahead of their competition by creating highly engaging and innovative content that’s backed by a powerful customer support team. Their content is shared online and targets consumers and their issues, instead of targeting their business. This helps consumers understand utility, trends, market standards, and value its products create for their life – instead of revenue generation for the business.

Online content includes, besides other things, webinars, blog posts, email campaigns, social media posts, about pages, product or service descriptions, white papers, news etc. Use content strategy to create news, Facebook or Instagram posts and Tweet that will engage your audience through multiple channels.

Discover what your target audience likes. Speak in the same language whenever possible. Create trustful relationships. Let their experience be a positive one. And your brand awareness will rise as new loyal customers come by the hordes.

The post 3 Advanced Customer Engagement Strategies that will Inspire Loyalty and Increase Retention appeared first on Tech Web Space.