September 2022 - Page 7 of 9 - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Article Linkbaiting Strategy – Deceptive Social Media Marketing In Action?

It is a fact that some people tend to misuse good opportunities in any field of human endeavor. On the subconscious level, the name “linkbaiting” may sound sneaky to some people or connote the use of “deceptive” tactics to quicky get web traffic to a marketing blog site, etc.. But then, it’s all a play on words or semantics because if you look at this definition in its purest form (the big picture), the objective is to provide long-term quality content to a niche audience.

I’ve brought up this issue because some Web users have this perceived image of “someone with a fishing rod and a fish bait at the end of a hook” trying to force-feed (or catch) and arm-twist

another person into accepting rehashed information or something for the purpose of getting backlinks. I’ve seen sentiments similar to these expressed on the Web and that’s why some so-called linkbait pieces never see the light of day or the originators of the linkbaits get banned (for real or perceived infractions) from forums or Web 2.0/Digg-style social media story submission sites!

Here in this article are just some of the red hot strategies or laser-guided tips you can easily use to enhance – and ensure that your linkbait article piece does not insult the sensibilities

of your discerning readers and potential readers, but takes you to the next business level. So, let’s get started, Right Here – Right Now! 🙂

Article Linkbaiting Strategy #1: “Strike Force Content” – Longer-Term Outlook!

The primary theme of your article(s) should not be dependent on time or become stale in 1, 2 or 3 months – but should serve as main reference guides for many years down the road for the

existing and future readers of your Web sites, blogs or other related blogs that have linked to your article(s). The longer-term outlook here has to project a powerful effect!

My use of the term “Strike Force” simply refers to the “delivery system” for breaking down industry jargons or techie language in order to simplify topical issues for beginner and intermediate

online niche marketers – and also give experienced online entrepreneurs new perspectives on industry-related issues.

So, the linkbait piece will subsequently spur appreciative readers from a targeted niche audience to visit your Web sites and/or blogs to build up a relationship – leading to sales of

front-end and back-end products and services. This also has the ability of ensuring a buzz situation or rapid spread of your unique articles or content in the blogosphere, on the Internet and in offline publications. Like Michel Fortin will say “Narrow your focus to broaden your sales.”

Article Linkbaiting Strategy #2: Article Titles Or Headlines

The title or main headline is the first thing your reading audience will come across, and you have to deliver your messages in simple but effective ways. You have to ensure that your copywriting skills are well-honed with reference to the AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) formula. Use trigger words or positive action words such as “New,” “Free,” “authentic,” “discount,” “unleashed” – and much more, to gain attention!

Your title has to progressively match the first few sentences of the introductory section of your article, otherwise the reader could get confused as a result of the short attention span that is encountered especially among Web surfers or the online reading audience if there’s a deviation from the real topic to off topic issues.

You’ve got to present unique observations – which could even be controversial in nature, give some current or freshly released research data that is not yet in the public domain – and which sheds more light on industry-related issues, and, much more creative ways exist that you can use to create unlimited unique content.

You can read more of my thoughts on the issues raised in Linkbaiting Strategy #2 in a series of articles on Article Marketing – entitled:

Article Marketing Surge Tactics – Top 6 Tips For Writing Persuasive Articles! Parts 1 and 2

Article Linkbaiting Strategy #3: Article Subtitles For Readibility

Subtitles help to focus the attention of your readers. Just like the reference I made in Article Linkbaiting Strategy #2, titles are crucial for drawing your audience into the introductory section of your article. I’ve seen very good articles posted on some blogs, forums, article directories and Web 2.0 or social news sites like Digg with the intention of providing resources for the reading audience. These had no subtitles – just paragraphs. Imagine the endless opportunities you can derive by just simply crafting 5, 6 or more subtitles, and then choosing the best one that will strike a cord with you and your potential readers.

The inference here is that your “strike force content articles” or linkbait piece(s) have to be sincere, while meeting the immediate, near/long-term needs and solutions of your niche market audience. The linkbait content should be the main drivers of a consistent Web site or blog traffic – consisting of unique visitors who will then generate a buzz by linking to your articles from their blogs or Web

sites – and you’ll get more page views per unique visitor on your online business sites as well.

Article Linkbaiting Strategy #4: Images And Online Video Presentations

It is a fact that most people are visual creatures – especially men. But many of us also respond to what we hear and feel! It is based on this well-known fact (based on researches going back to many decades ago), that the use of pictures, images and interactive online multimedia presentations can further enhance the quality of your linkbait article – but the images must tell a story as well. Having a high-resolution digital camera will come in handy here.

You can also get also images from Web sites like Flickr and have your free interactive Web or blog video presentation which is meant to engage all the human senses – to complement your unique linkbait content or articles. These have the added benefit of boosting your SEO strategies along with the profitable, high traffic niche keywords and keyword phrases in your articles.

Just A QUICK Note: Knowing full well that some images you’ll be using will not belong to you, YOU have to make sure that attributions are made or indicate the source(s) of the free photo images you’ll be using on your blogs for instance, since this is the standard global practice – just like published online and offline niche articles/books that have copyrights. I believe you may have also heard or read about well-crafted “Cease and Desist” emails or letters. 🙂

Article Linkbaiting Strategy #5: Call Into Action – Right Now!

It’s a fact that if you don’t tell or let people know what to do NEXT after taking the initiative to digest the unique contents of your articles, then all you’ve done will lead to a pathetic result. It’s just like a man who winks at a stunningly beautiful lady he likes (or loves), engages in a two-way conversation withher (with all the visible body language communication) – then fails to make a follow-up or signify his real intentions to her. This would leave her hanging in the air with regards to his true intentions, until an “alpha male” who easily does the right thing comes along to pull the rug from under his feet! 🙂 What a wasted opportunity this would be for the “winking” man.

That’s the way it is in online business and real-world business situations when readers of your linkbait content do not get a specific call into action in your articles, report summaries or “authors bio sections.” Another savvy online entrepreneur will simply appear on the scene like the “alpha male” in the short story above – and then take action by urging readers to use a plan or idea presented and make it work for themselves! This is a win-win situation ACTION plan!

Closing Thoughts

Whether you call it linkbaiting, pillar article, flagship content or “strike force content delivery system,” all online content publishers and article writers MUST keep in mind the guiding principles – that is the provision of good resources on your blogs and Web sites to ultimately build your credibility and brand in your target marketplace – as opposed to the hit-and-run writer of just one or two crappy articles who’s looking for quick inbound links to a site. This eventually insults the intelligence of the reading audience.

If you are an affiliate and Internet marketer, online publisher of eZines or newsletters, small business blogger, weight loss expert, health and fitness professional, provide information technology training and/or small Internet business consulting services – or belong to fields of human endeavour that require YOU to be in the frontline position of your niche market, then these 5 article linkbaiting strategies will come in handy in providing your readers with great resources – that are also entertaining – while building your reputation, boosting Search Engine position, higher PageRanks, strong backlinks from authoritative sites, creating spontaneous buzz in the online communities, and MUCH MORE. Literally your sales and profits will explode, at a lower cost – in record time.

So, last but not least, YOU have to get set for a renewed surge of linkbaiting energy, Right Here – Right NOW! “Oh… Where’s my hook? Hmm… I think I have to “hook up” with another one.” 🙂

To Your Article Linkbaiting And Niche Online Business Success!

Dekunle

4 Ways To Prolong A Relationship With Your 3PL Services

The task of managing or controlling the logistics and supply chain activities is not an easy one, it requires newest of techniques, methods, and tools to make it possible. When the business is Omni-channel, the role becomes tough because the attention has to be paid to every inch and corner of the activities. From production to supply everything has to be looked. The task of managing the logistics is a strenuous one. The concept of outsourcing is not ideal for every venture. It is suitable for those ventures who want to hand over the certain activity to some professionals, in order to reduce the burden and costs.

In logistics sector outsourcing the certain activity is not enough, forming a long-lasting relationship with a 3PL company should be a concern as well. Below are the certain ways that can help to form a strong and prolonged relationship with a 3PL services provider.

Involving them in Venture’s Long-Term Planning

Involving the logistics or outsourcing partners in your long-term futuristic planning will help them to ascertain the new acquisitions, brand expansion, weight or volume of product, changes in marketing strategies and much more within the business. This way, the outsourcers can understand the business better and can form a productive relationship with business.

Providing the Insights or Forecasts of Activities

A 3PL company works on an advance basis and demands the business’s future prospects regarding receipts, shipments, orders on the prior basis only. So that these companies can prepare the man and labour required to do the activities in advance itself.

Measuring Performance

For them, it is important to know the insiders of the business and that includes monthly or quarterly performance reports. So that, these partners can plan or prepare their strategies to be incorporated into their assistance. This way the outsourcing partners can easily understand the shortcomings of business and can suggest better steps or procedures for them to go further in the race.

Forming alleged Agreements or Contracts

Being a business, it is very much important to form agreements and contracts that are alleged or legitimate and contains all the terms and conditions. Also, businesses when dealing with their logistics partner must make sure the details or disclosures made are deemed to be true and detailed. Every basic requirement or expectation should be down on legal papers to process the upcoming activities.

The above are the certain ways that can help organisations to better understand their substantial 3PL services provider in long run and form a collective or long-term relationship with them.

Top 7 Tips to Starting Your Business Using Virtual Business Strategies

Most entrepreneurs wanting to start a business make the mistake of using their savings, maxing out their credit cards or borrowing from family, friends or banks to get started. The reason they fall into this trap is because mistakenly they believe this is the only way they can become business owners.

It is important to understand that starting a business in this new Information Age and Knowledge Era, does not require the large funding previously needed in the old, traditional Industrial Age business model. This means the entrepreneur has the ability to start a profitable and reputable business with little to no money out of pocket.

If you are currently planning to start a business, consider the following 7 tips to start a virtual business instead of an offline one. Even if you already started a brick-and-mortar business, you can still apply these tips to your back-office operations:

Use cloud technology for all your back-office systems. In other words, use all internet applications rather than technology hosted in your PC
Set up your entire communication channels using cloud technology
Set up your entire accounting department using cloud technology
Set up your entire customer support using cloud technology
Set up your entire human resources using cloud technology
Set up your entire marketing department using cloud technology
Set up your entire sales department using cloud technology

Don’t delay starting your business because of lack of funds. Hundreds, if not thousands of highly successful virtual businesses get started everyday. In the next 5 to 10 years, all if not most businesses will be run this way. By the simple act of implementing new business model strategies from the start, you have puts yourself miles ahead of the competition.

In cases where the business owner fails to adapt to this new information age business model, the speed to business failure greatly accelerates. If you talked in today’s terms, it would be like using telex machines and telegraphs to conduct day-to-day operations.

A virtual business allows a company to be geographically dispersed. It allows it to meet and support its customers wherever they are located. Employees can work from anywhere, at any time, at any pace; all accessible, networked and coordinated via internet applications.

You can see an example of a real sustainable, successful virtual business (100% virtual and paperless) at http://groupbenefitagency.com

As you can see, with a virtual business, all you need is a computer and internet access to get you going. Anyone can start a virtual business in minutes. You don’t need major start up capital. You don’t need investors. You don’t need to risk months or years trying to break even. You don’t even have to gamble your savings. You can implement sophisticated systems. You can hire the most qualified personnel from anywhere in the world. Most importantly, a virtual business allows you the free time to have a personal life too!

Top 10 Principles for Positive Business Ethics

This morning, I read about a company using on-line auctions to defraud customers. Last week, I consulted on an ethics complaint where a business coach betrayed a client’s confidentiality. And, recently a Physician was convicted of insider trading based on information from a patient, a violation of both business ethics and her professional ethics.

Business ethics are the key to profits. If clients and customers don’t trust you, and your business ethics, they will not do business with you. Would you buy from a company you didn’t trust? Of course not!

Business ethics have become a hot-button topic. There are often ethical conflicts between making money, and doing what is right. There can be dilemmas about doing what is best for your employer, what’s best for your own career, and what’s best for the customer. Business ethics is about negotiating these mine-fields. Here are my Top 10 Principles for Positive Business Ethics:

1. Business Ethics are built on Personal Ethics. There is no real separation between doing what is right in business, and playing fair, telling the truth and being ethical in your personal life.

2. Business Ethics are based on Fairness. Would a dis-interested observer agree that both sides are being treated fairly? Are both sides negotiating in good faith? Does each transaction take place on a “level playing field”? If so, the basic principles of ethics are being met.

3. Business Ethics require Integrity. Integrity refers to whole-ness, reliability and consistency. Ethical businesses treat people with respect, honesty and integrity. They back up their promises, and they keep their commitments.

4. Business Ethics require Truth-telling. The days when a business could sell a defective product and hide behind the “buyer beware” defense are long gone. You can sell products or services that have limitations, defects or are out-dated, but not as first-class, new merchandise. Truth in advertising is not only the law, business ethics require it.

5. Business Ethics require Dependability. If your company is new, unstable, about to be sold, or going out of business, ethics requires that you let clients and customers know this. Ethical businesses can be relied upon to be available to solve problems, answer questions and provide support.

6. Business Ethics require a Business Plan. A company’s ethics are built on its image of itself and its vision of the future and its role in the community. Business ethics do not happen in a vacuum. The clearer the company’s plan for growth, stability, profits and service, the stronger its commitment to ethical business practices.

7. Business Ethics apply Internally and Externally. Ethical businesses treat both customers and employees with respect and fairness. Ethics is about respect in the conference room, negotiating in good faith, keeping promises and meeting obligations to staff, employers, vendors and customers. The scope is universal.

8. Business Ethics require a Profit. Ethical businesses are well-run, well-managed, have effective internal controls, and clear expectations of growth. Ethics is about how we live in the present to prepare for the future, and a business without profits (or a plan to create them) is not meeting its ethical obligations to prepare for the future well-being of the company, its employees and customers.

9. Business Ethics are values-based. The law, and professional organizations, must produce written standards that are inflexible and universal. While they may talk about “ethics”, these documents are usually prescriptive and refer to minimal standards. Ethics are about values, ideals and aspirations. Ethical businesses may not always live up to their ideals, but they are clear about their intent.

10. Business Ethics come from the Boss. Leadership sets the tone, in every area of a business. Ethics are either central to the way a company functions, or they are not. The executives and managers either lead the way, or they communicate that cutting corners, deception and dis-respect are acceptable. Line staff will always rise, or sink, to the level of performance they see modeled above them. Business ethics starts at the top.

Ethics is about the quality of our lives, the quality of our service, and ultimately, about the bottom line. An unhappy customer complains to an average of 16 people. Treating employees, customers, vendors and the public in an ethical, fair and open way is not only the right thing, in the long run, it’s the only way to stay in business.

Tim Sales – Insiders Review of Professional Inviter and Professional Presenter

Tim Sales is a leading authority in Network Marketing and has developed great products such as Professional Inviter and Professional Presenter. If you are looking into purchasing these materials in hopes that it will help you build your business, read this article so you know what to expect and make sure it is right for you.

Tim Sales’ Professional Inviter is geared towards people who are in the Network Marketing industry and are looking at sharpening their skills in approaching prospects. Tim has a formula which he calls the ‘Inviting Formula’ and it breaks down how you can invite a prospect (whether it is for a product customer or and business partner) to see if what you have to offer is a good fit for the person.

The Inviting formula is:

1) Greet the prospect. The purpose is to have people talking openly and freely.

2) Qualify the prospect. The focus here is to see if they need or want what you have to offer.

3) Invite. Which means to invite the prospect to have a look at what you have to offer.

4) Close into action. Which means to schedule a time to talk for example.

5) Follow up and follow through. The focuse here is to make sure you are following up with your prospect.

In Tim Sales’ Professional Inviter he says that there is another ‘step’ that could happen anywhere in the formula, and that is to handle and questions and / or objections.

Tim Sales’ Professional Presenter is set to hit the market very soon. As we have a look at the inviting formula Tim has said a number of times (on different training calls) that the formula is very much the same, it just changes as to what you are INVITING your prospect to. In Professional Inviter you are inviting the prospect to a future meeting, where in the presenting formula you are inviting the prospect to get into a CONVERSATION (the presentation) about the product / service / opportunity you have.

Now obviously I cannot do the training materials Professional Inviter or Professional Inviter justice in this short article. This is one training material I would highly recommend if anyone is serious about building a home business.

If you are looking for new strategies to find QUALIFIED prospects, that’s a whole other game. I recommend you check out the link below where you will find the 7 Fatal Mistakes I have made in my business. I also share with you how I am now able to open my home business doors for business… to the world!

Tim Sales Professional Inviter and Professional Inviter are great tools, but the link below will show you how to go from part-time struggling network marketer to full-time success.

Free Publicity – How to Get People to Read Your Newsletter

One way to continue to get free publicity is to send a newsletter out to your customers and other contacts. Thanks to the Internet and email, you can create and send a newsletter essentially for free. Newsletters not only promote your products and services, they can establish you as an expert.

But it’s one thing to send out a newsletter, it’s another to get people to open and read it. That’s why it’s critical to have quality content. Here are some of the types of things you can include in your newsletters to keep them interesting:

How-to Articles — help your subscribers learn how to do something that relates to your business. Financial planners can give tips on investing, choosing stocks, tax issues and so forth. Personal trainers can offer exercise and nutrition tips.

Surveys — people love to give their opinions. Ask your customers their thoughts on a variety of topics.

Milestones — tell your readers when you’ve sold your widget 10,000, 25,000 times or more. You can also mention time-related milestones such as your 10th or 25th year in business.

Flashbacks – Relate anecdotes about what your and/or your company were doing this day X number of years ago. They can be serious or funny.

Product knowledge — tell people how they can better use your products or services.

Questions — solicit questions from your customers and prospects about how they can better benefit from your products and services.

Case histories — share how your product or service helped someone solve a problem.

Testimonials — without being too hard-sell, include a testimonial or two in each edition.

Sales — Tell people you are running a sale.

Coupons — put in a coupon that people can print out and bring in to your place of business. While you’re at it, encourage people to share the coupons with their friends. It could bring you new, long-term customers and clients.

These are just a few of the things you can put in your newsletters. You don’t have to use them all in each issue. Just a few. Mix them up so that each new newsletter will arouse interest and curiosity to help you get more and more free publicity.

Learn the Strategies From Those Who Really Know Internet Marketing

The biggest secret of successful online entrepreneurs lies in their income, effort and time leveraging mechanism. A lack of leveraging strategy implies hours of burned energy to achieve minuscule and negligible results. You are trading time for money if you don’t have a mass and perennial distribution system to take care of your information and product dissemination.

The income trap syndrome occurs when for instance you put in 10 hours of time and effort and get remitted only for those 10 hours of work that you could handle. This means you have merely traded time for money and you can expect to earn only for a maximum of 24 hours a day since you obviously don’t have more time. A complete contrast to this phenomenon is the wealth creation by the use of technology and other focused marketing systems through which you work for 10 hours and generate income worth 100 hours by cognitively leveraging time and efforts. This is how you can truly create permanent wealth and not mere temporary income.

Running an online business on autopilot is a sure-shot mechanism of achieving success in the online business domain over a long period of time. It’s an on-going process where you set up the business once and reap its benefits for years to come. An online business on autopilot generates passive or residual income for the entrepreneur through which continuous income is generated thus giving the business the power of leverage. If you put your business on autopilot, this allows you to have a number of businesses operating simultaneously. You can sell informational content in your area of expertise to a market eager to lap up any specialized knowledge that is relevant to them. Network marketing wizards while imparting superior training on autopilot online businesses have changed the fortunes of online businesses overnight by reaching out to the target customer base quickly and efficiently. Learn the technique of moneymaking while reaching out to a focused group by a mechanism that repeatedly seeks to sell on your behalf. Never ever doubt you could do this and you will succeed.

Though you may be intimidated by the exhaustive stock-pile of information available on the internet on online marketing strategies and skeptical of the incredible success stories, you could be the next example of a starkly successful entrepreneur with the right marketing technique. Anyone can do this, even you!

Here’s What Industry Insiders Say About PPC Advertising

Paid advertising is a vast field of opportunity for every individual who wants to expand his business and grow with the trends of the market. Today the world is digitalizing itself and moving forward opening new doors in the paid marketing industry. There are many techniques for research on the Google AdWords campaign with immense technology advanced paid marketing strategies and campaigns which can run online without any restrictions and with a smooth functioning process.

Let’s now understand more about a particular ad by Google named PPC Advertising.

Concept of Google AdWords: –

Google has come up with an advertising word tool called “Google AdWords”. It has a bunch of words collected which are bid the highest by online users. Google AdWords is also known as Paid Marketing. The advertisers have to pay to bid those keywords which are present in the paid campaign. Less-Effective keywords reduce the ad rank of the business.

Google AdWords sets the budget bar as per your requirement. You can choose the bid on the lowest rated word also and run your campaign with low budget as you desire. In the world of AdWords, impressions, click strategy, keyword planner plays the major role for a successful paid marketing on a digital platform.

Search Engine Marketing: –

The conceptualization of SEM is done to elaborate the functioning of paid marketing on Google search engine. The major examples of SEM are Google, Bing, Yahoo wherein they allow the advertisers to advertise but through various methods like: –

1.) PPC: Pay Per Click (Advertise is taken into consideration)

2.) CPC: Cost Per Click (AdWords are taken into consideration)

3.) CPA: Cost Per Acquisition (Impressions are taken into consideration)

The most relevant form of advertising through a search engine is PPC Advertising. Pay- Per- Click marketing strategy reduces the wastage of money to an extent. In this paid marketing strategy ads are shown to the users as per the keywords entered by them in the Google search engine. The advertiser’s money will only be deducted when a user will click on their respective ad and will visit the page. The advertiser cannot boost his ad by paying more to go ahead of his competitors. The whole PPC marketing revolves around the keywords used by the users. Thus it is also known as

“Keyword Marketing”. PPC Campaign is effective as it reaches out to a potential audience which is genuinely interested in the product and the ad gets proper exposure in the industry through this marketing tactic.

Importance of PPC Advertising: –

1.) PPC Campaign has a hyper-specific audience that clicks on a particular ad of his taste of interest.

2.) From the monetary aspect, it is well-secured tactic wherein deduction happens on a click.

3.) There is no unwanted impression or surfing happening by clicking the paid marketing ad.

4.) PPC occurs with full authentication through ad auction, each and every keyword is auctioned for a search engine to determine the advertisements validity through Search Engine Result Page (SERP).

PPC Advertising Examples: –

Olay BB Cream had come up with a PPC Marketing tactic which involved site links, an offer, and a trademark.

The mixture of these three elements makes an ad look reliable and eye-catchy because of the stated offer. Site links give an opportunity to the user to click wherever he is amenable to look for the stated product. The registered trademark can accelerate your rank in the search engine.

An Audi PPC Ad Campaign had site links, verbs and social extensions which uplifted the ad in the search engine.

Site links are a sure game changer as they give freedom to a user to know the insights of a product in a more systematic pattern.

Verbs from the ancient times have described an item’s quality in a much better way than writing a simple line. Audi had created one single line that stated “Experience New Audi Luxury Cars and Models at Audi USA.com”.

A social extension with a huge amount of followers changes the game on the Google platform in a wink of a second.

Conclusion: –

A PPC Campaign is the most effective and economical way to deliver paid ads. It is a backbone for growing as well as the giant business’s marketing model. Keywords for generating an ad can be auctioned by bidding and the rank of the business can be known from the Google search engine.

PPC Marketing gives a niche market audience that engages in a product and uplifts the features of it at the same time. It allows displaying ad in a specific demographic or a country globally or locally with time and day preference. It helps in targeting customers and redirect them back to advertiser’s website.

3 Tried & Tested Insider Keys to Captivating Your Audience

Do you know that the average attention span of a human is less than that of a goldfish? Wait, you had heard that already, but you forgot, didn’t you? I know I did.

In 2015, a Microsoft led study concluded that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, to eight seconds over the last 15 years. The same researchers also found that the ability of humans to multitask has improved.

Your job as a speaker is getting more difficult with each passing year. Your audience is now checking the stock market, texting their family, dispensing a treat on their connected dog app, maybe even taking a selfie while they are supposedly listening to you. Phew! Is it any wonder that you now have to work twice as hard to capture their attention? No matter how good you already are, you will have to skill up your game significantly.

#1 Have a conversation

I work with a business leader who captivates audiences. Every time he makes a speech, he steals the show. Audiences can’t have enough of him, and other speakers prefer not to take the stage after him. I asked people why they love him, and the universal response is he makes them feel like they are having a personal conversation, the message directed specially to them.

If, like him, you want your audience’s unwavering attention, converse with your audience, don’t just talk at them. Speak, then pause and listen. Keep your audience active and focused on you, making them a part of your speech.

Here are some easy and fun techniques we use to involve the audience:

· have a show of hands

· use technology to conduct an “in-room” live poll

· leave some blanks on your slides and invite the audience to guess or fill these in

· ask for volunteers to help you demonstrate a process

· after you share an idea, give them a minute to practice it

· share an idea, and ask the audience how they would apply it to their own situation

#2 Tell a Story

I heard you groan, didn’t I? It seems like storytelling is the new “it thing”, and everyone wants in on it. Yes, that’s because it works.

Everyone loves a good story. It’s the earliest form of human communication. Stories are how children first learn to understand the world around them, and it works just as well later in life. So, use a story to set up your theme, weave a thread through your speech, and direct your audience’s attention to your key messages.

Recently, I was prepping a speaker who wanted to showcase the value of industry ecosystems as enablers of the Internet of Things. To set up this assertion, we told a story from India’s struggle for independence. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, aka India’s first revolt against British rule, may never have come to fruition if in 1851 the East India Company had not laid the foundation of a railway network in the country. For decades, there had been escalating unrest among various sections of Indian nationalists, and it was manifest as isolated small-scale protests scattered across the country. These uprisings had failed to capitalize on each other’s momentum?-?for lack of communication and coordination.

The Sepoy Mutiny began in the barracks in Meerut, when the soldiers rebelled against the use of cow and pig grease on bullets. At any other time, this is where it would have started and ended?-?but this time was different. The railway network?-?which connected a few major cities in the northern and central parts of India?-?enabled news of the uprising to spread. It also allowed for congregation of the various mutiny leaders in a short period of time, and transformed a localized mutiny into India’s first war for independence.

We then drew a parallel between this episode and how different industry clusters are going to ride the network (internet) and collaborate to build the Internet of Things. This helped the listeners to visualize the network as an enabler of ecosystems and growth.

#3 Timing is Everything

The way people process information is changing. A 2010 study asked students to self-report lapses in attention while attending three lectures, with different speakers and teaching styles.

The results revealed a pattern of attention loss, with “spikes” at

· 30 seconds into the lecture, indicating a “settling in” period

· about five minutes after the initial distraction

· seven to nine minutes into the lecture

· nine to ten minutes in, just a couple of minutes after the last spike

I have found that it is possible to keep your audience engaged, when you use attention-heightening techniques to counteract these attention lapses. Nudge the audience into active listening by varying the tone and pace of your delivery. Display a striking visual or write on a flip-board to keep their eyes focused on you. The conversational / interaction tactics we discussed earlier work particularly well at these times.

Covid-19: The Elephant in the Room

There’s little doubt that the Coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed the way you live and the way you think about things that you previously took for granted. For most, becoming infected will result in symptoms similar to a bad case of the flu, while some may have no noticeable symptoms. However, a small percentage of folks who become infected will suffer tremendously, and some will die. Early in the year, as the virus was just reaching our shores, we observed other countries as they were further along the “curve.” We were told that this virus could be fatal, but mostly to the elderly who were already suffering from other chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and COPD. It became critically important to protect our vulnerable seniors, particularly those in community living housing or nursing homes. We scolded the young who partied on beaches over spring break, bringing the coronavirus back to their homes, family, and grandparents.

Then the other shoe dropped when we learned of young Americans becoming hospitalized and even dying from this “old person” illness. Why are young people dying in the U.S. yet other countries don’t report the same statistics that we’re seeing here? Are other countries not reporting accurately, or is there something different about the virus when it arrived in the U.S.? Why do we see such high death rates, (Coronavirus deaths as a percentage of population) in our large cities that exceed the rates of other countries?

While we in the United States may choose to ignore the elephant in the room, other countries warned of our vulnerability.

Being overweight is a major risk for people infected with the new coronavirus and the United States is particularly vulnerable because of high obesity levels there, France’s chief epidemiologist said on Wednesday.

World News

April 8, 2020

Americans are among the world’s most vulnerable to coronavirus because of their rising rates of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure

Dailymail.com

Published: 18:58 EDT, 30 March 2020

Other countries talk about America’s obesity problem, but here in the U.S., we blame the bad outcomes of the virus on high blood pressure, diabetes and pre-diabetes, race, poverty, etc. However, it’s rare to hear that being overweight is an independent risk factor even though it underlies almost all of the chronic illnesses that make us vulnerable.

Dr. Robert Eckel, president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, told Business Insider that a “sophisticated internist” in New York City told him at least 90% of the people under age 50 he’s seen ventilated due to COVID-19 were obese.

Business Insider 4/11/2020

Yes, America, we’re fat and we don’t want to talk about it. But there’s good news amidst the bad… We can learn from this pandemic and change our habits and lifestyle to become healthier and boost our immunity at the same time. Amazingly, often losing just 10 pounds can reverse type 2 diabetes and improve most other chronic illnesses. And maintaining a healthy weight is not only protective for Covid-19, but also for other viruses and influenza infections.

So let’s not waste any more time America! You can get on the path to health right now by scheduling a free health consultation to learn the steps you can immediately take to improve your resistance to this and future viruses.