Seven Essential Skills New Marketers Must Have

7 essential skills new marketers need to succeed. 

Hi, I'm Pete Ashton, CEO of SP Digital Consultants, here to show you the 7 skills new marketers will need to succeed.

As the digital marketing is now an industry that is moving fast - and marketers need to move faster, but if you want to take your marketing to the next level you need to have these essential skills.

First essential skill is is analysts. Marketers leverage web behavior and if your data minded you will be a hot commodity.

Second essential skill is social media. Planning and strategies and staying up to date with the cutting edge of social media  helps you be the trend - not follow it. Did you know that 92% of marketers believe that social media is important for their business.

The third essential skill is data visualization. Bite size visual media is on the rise. Images are easier to share and very popular. Digital marketers create images that people are excited about.

The forth essential skill is technical skills. Having technical skills - for example - learning basic coding for video production - if your in the understanding of basic tech skills you will have the understanding of what co workers or clients want.

The fifth essential skill is Team work. As social media teams continue to increase, so if you have  skill and ability to work with others as this is paramount to be a team player.

The sixth essential skill is Newsjacking. Be up to date with the local and national news, be first to deal with the social media and fleet marketing as this can create amazing opportunities.

The seventh and final essential skill is soft skills. Pay attention to the the soft skills around you, relationships, communication skills friendliness and flexibility.

Has this post been helpful ? if there is a suggestion that you would like to add, please comment below.

"Can I use Self Help to Help Become a Success?"

Can I use Self Help and Self Development for Success ? 

Yes....Spencer,

Simply by following any one or more self help and self development routines given on this page .

Let me explain how our mind is;
We are all born with a clean slate for a mind. But all the rubbish that we are fed with during the process of growing up spoils the slate that was initially clean.

The mind of the baby is like a glass of pure, crystal clear water. As the baby grows, impurities are introduced in this clean water. The water gets muddied. And it will stay so and will even get more muddied if care is not taken to clean it.

Fortunately, there are ways to clean this water:

Simply pour more clean water into the glass!

The dirty water will first get diluted, and as more and more clean water is poured, it will get cleaner and cleaner.

If we keep on pouring clean water in, a stage will come when the water in the glass will become almost as pure as it was initially!

And this is exactly what we can do with our mind using self help. When we submerge our mind with good, positive thoughts, the junk is forced out.

Positive thoughts bring about positive results and life becomes attractive again.

Every individual is different. Hence, the same self development program may not work for everyone. A person may need self help for any of the following (or more):

• to come out of depression
• to manage stress
• to make money (and fast)
• to boost self esteem.

The mind

Our mind is made up of two parts, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

The conscious mind makes up only 10% of the mind and controls such things as rational/logical thought.

The subconscious mind makes up 90% of the mind and stores habits and beliefs, memory, personality, self image and such things.

It is estimated that we are bombarded with more than ten thousand external stimuli every day. Imagine what a difficult task our mind must have in dealing with so many stimuli. Hence nature has devised a system to protect the mind.

In between the conscious and subconscious mind is a filter called the Reticular Activating System (R.A.S.). This filter scans all the incoming stimuli from the outside world and decides the priority of each item. It is then sorted and some information is sent to the conscious mind and some to the subconscious mind.

For example, remember your experience of buying a new piece of apparel, say a dark blue denim jacket. Then, wherever you go suddenly you begin to notice every person wearing a a dark blue denim jacket. It is not that these people did not wear a dark blue denim jacket before. But it is only NOW that you start noticing it. This is called selective attention.

It is as if the radar in your brain, in this case the Reticular Activating System, has tuned into a dark blue denim jackets as an important factor in your life.

It chooses to bring every person wearing a dark blue denim jacket you see into your consciousness for a time, until the novelty of having a new leather jacket wears off.

The R.A.S. is the security guard that chooses what gets through to the subconscious mind, and it is estimated that less than 30% of the input that our conscious mind receives gets through to the subconscious mind.

But there are ways to bypass the R.A.S. so that new information can get into the subconscious mind. The key is relaxation.

When you relax, which slows down your brain, the R.A.S. filter opens up and allows free flow of information between the two minds.

The point is that if you are trying to achieve something using only rational thought you are only using 10% of your mind, which of course is not very efficient self help. It is far more effective to use that section of your mind which is predominant.

This is the basic technique followed in all self help exercises. There are a variety of ways of impressing the subconscious mind with the thoughts and ideas of our desire.

All the techniques are discussed below. Choose and implement, the technique that suits you.

Self help techniques to change your life.

An important factor to bear in mind is that the conscious mind uses the information stored in the subconscious mind, for example beliefs, as one of the programs to run your life.

So, for effective personal growth it is necessary to change the beliefs, i.e. it is necessary to reprogram the subconscious mind.

If you want to live a full, satisfying life, you have to fill your subconscious mind with thoughts of the kind of life that you desire. All the self help programs that I discuss here will show you how to do that.

• Affirmations are simple, straightforward statements of positive action or a declaration of your current status.
  
  We repeat affirmations over and over again so that the subconscious mind starts believing them as true.
  
  It then molds your actions to suit your thoughts, which takes you nearer to the life of your desires.

• Creative Visualization is probably the most powerful life changing tool.
  
  You simply visualize, or see in your mind’s eye, the kind of life you desire.
  
  Do this again and again till your subconscious mind starts believing it as true and makes you act to bring it about.

• Hypnosis is yet another way of bypassing the conscious mind and influencing the subconscious mind to change your life for the better.
  
  And you don’t even need a hypnotist for that!
  
  There are ready made MP3s and CDs on almost all topics.

• Setting goals and achieving them is an important step in self help and self development.
  
  It helps you become an achiever and raises your self esteem.

• It is impossible to succeed at anything if one has low self esteem.
  
  Low or negative self esteem is a bane and every effort should be made to raise one’s self esteem.

• If you want to make great strides in life, it's necessary to remain positive.
  
  You have to cultivate positive thinking because positive thinking generates positive expectancy and it is expectancy that gets results.

Finally, it is important to remain motivated during the process of self improvement.

Inspirational quotes from famous and successful individuals will educate and uplift you in your quest of self help and self development.

I wish you great luck in your attempt to improve your life. The journey is interesting and fulfilling. Enjoy!
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4 Essential Social Marketing Strategies

4 Essential Social Marketing Strategies

Marketers tend to think of social media as a channel in-and-of-itself—a way to engage, interact and dialogue. But what every marketer should know is each social network or platform has its own requirements. Social is not "done" by creating some content blurbs, posting some video and calling it a day.

When we think about marketing on social networks, we need to understand how they work and why they are different from each other in order to fully take advantage. And then we need to think about how they work together—a seamless social strategy that integrates into a brand's marketing strategy, overall.

Let's take a look at the top social networks and some elements of them marketers should consider in a social marketing strategy:

1. Facebook

Most every marketer today is leveraging Facebook, or trying to figure out how to do so. Marketers can decide how much investment to put against this customer-centric platform and determine their goals. While some see it as a branding play, others are trying to drive direct marketing from it. Either way, consider these points:

• Engagement vs. Marketing: This debate still rages on, but the choices about post intent should follow your strategy, overall. If a brand wishes to balance engagement and marketing, remember that engagement posts (posts that ask questions or encourage response) are more likely to get those sought-after "likes" and comments.

• Likes and Comments: So why are they important? The more likes and comments, the more a page is seen as relevant by Facebook. Just like a search engine, Facebook uses data to decide how relevant posts are and how visible they are to a given marketer's fans.

• Remember Where a Brand's Posts Are: When a post is displayed to your Facebook fans, that message is on their walls, not your brand page. Avoid asking fans to check out any part of a Facebook page without providing a direct link to that page.

• Leveraging Facebook: Like many sites, Facebook wants brands to keep their fans within Facebook's walls—literally. Although you may want to link outside for certain campaigns, remember to link to branded Facebook pages or applications, as well.

• Keep it Short: Just like an email subject line, Facebook posts work better when they are short and concise. Funny how that works. Of course, it's about scanning content and making it easy for fans to engage.

• Timing Is Everything: Forgive another analogy to email, but sending messages out at the right time is really important on Facebook. And just like email, it's based on the customer or fan base. Test different times of day for posting messages to any targeted audience.

• Measure and Measure Again: Like all digital marketing media, measurement is possible and really critical to understanding how much budget should be allocated to Facebook and how this channel contributes to marketing efforts.

2. Twitter

Twitter is a network for both consumer and B-to-B brands. It can be used very successfully for customer service, marketing, engagement, branding and all combinations. Marketers can leverage the power of 140 characters successfully by:

• Having a Strategy: Every marketer needs to think about strategy on every social network. But, with Twitter, it seems more important. It's OK to have more than one Twitter account (one for service, marketing, education, etc.), and that will help make sure messages are relevant for each account, respectively.

• Engaging in the Channel: It's tempting to think of Twitter as a blast of content, but it's really a one-to-one channel. Be prepared for individuals to challenge or respond to a Twitter post as they contribute to the conversation.

• Be Ready to Respond: Not responding to a direct message on Twitter is different from not responding on Facebook, in that messages sent through Twitter were probably directed to the accountholder to begin with. On Facebook, it's all about community. But, on Twitter, it's likely the customer is looking for an accountholder (the brand) to respond.

• Keep it Short: It's best to keep messages even shorter than 140 characters. Allow followers to "retweet" content by giving them room. Try to keep tweets to 110 characters.

• Hashtags Rule: Hashtags are a way of organizing content because users choose how to see their Twitter content by looking at hashtags. This works for brands in two ways—it allows content to appear to new people who are tracking or searching on the topic, and it can lead to new followers on an account as a result. Hashtags are single words, but you can run several words together, like "#MyWishList." See what is trending on Twitter or look at sites like Hashtags.org to help choose appropriate hashtags.

• Create a Voice: A brand can have fun with Twitter. Consider creating some personalities who can leverage the channel. Like all social media, be transparent, but also keep it real.

3. Google+

Much of what has already been said can apply to Google+, and brands are still finding their way in the channel. One additional element that can be leveraged on Google+ is natural search. Google intends to leverage social media even more in search results, so it stands to reason that what a brand says on Google+ might end up in Google's natural search results.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is used by most companies today in a variety of ways—for recruitment, company pages, groups and advertising. Marketers should think of their LinkedIn profiles as introductions to them—for prospective clients, customers and employees, in both consumer and B-to-B markets.

• Company Pages: Make sure to include keywords for natural search in corporate profiles to ensure that the page appears in search listings. Include links to your primary site and other social properties of the brand.

• Relevant Groups: If you choose to create a group, think about your communication strategy. LinkedIn groups can be very busy and interesting places, provided the host takes care of the community. Make sure group members aren't advertising inappropriately. Post interesting and thought-provoking content. Find the sweet spot for conversation through testing and measurement—and, when interest generates conversation threads, do more of the same.