To Inspire is Greater than Being Inspired!

When people are INSPIRED to act, they frequently demonstrate the following characteristics: they have the relevant Information about an issue; they feel that their action around that issue is a Necessity; they experience a sense of Solidarity and shared commitment with others; they consider themselves part of a greater Purpose; they are often responding to an Injury they or someone they care about has suffered; they have been illuminated by a new vision of the future, enabling the Reimagination of their world; they feel Empowered to act; and, ultimately, they give themselves in Devotion, long-term, to the cause. People who are inspired may not exhibit all these elements, but people experiencing them all are definitely inspired. In philosopher-speak, these are “sufficient but not necessary conditions” for inspiration.

Information
If people are to be inspired to act around an issue, they need to know about that issue. They need information: what’s wrong, what can be done, and how they can help – specifically. Conveying your ideas clearly is essential to inspiring people – crystal clarity counts.

NecessityThe second element of inspiration is necessity: people need to feel both that it is necessary to act on your issue, and that their participation is necessary. If you lack the first aspect of necessity, people will think “why now?” If you lack the second aspect, they will think “why me?” Neither of those responses is the excited “Yes! Me! Now!” of the truly inspired.

Solidarity
The third element of inspiration is solidarity: people will frequently only act if they feel that others are acting with them. In the words of organizer and Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz, people need to feel like they are part of an “Us” – a group with shared values – in order to act collectively to solve a problem. Solidarity is the heart of every “Us”.

Purpose
This one’s huge: when people are inspired they often feel a connection to a mission or calling way bigger than themselves, something which they are dedicating their energy to which supersedes and surpasses them in importance. In short, they feel a sense of purpose.

Injury
It might seem strange that “injury” is one of the elements of inspiration, but when it comes to inspiring people to act, few experiences are as effective as spur as the sense that we – or someone we care about – has been injured. If we can make it clear the injury caused to real people by actions we oppose, then we will be much more effective at inspiring people to act.

Reimagination
It’s no use telling people what’s wrong, and what needs to change, if you don’t offer them a vision of a different future. That’s why reimagination is so important to inspiration: when people are inspired, it’s often because they’ve been presented with a reimagined view of the future, an idea of how things could be.

EmpowermentTo inspire people, you also have to empower them. If you understand an issue, know what needs to change, feel it’s necessary to get involved, can see what a different future might look like, but don’t feel like you can make a difference, how likely is it that you will act? Empowerment overcomes this problem: it awakens people to their own potential, demonstrating that they do have the power to make change.

Devotion
Finally, devotion: the ultimate end-point, the hallmark of the fully committed. Inspiration can be a transitory thing, a momentary relief from the burdens of the everyday, and that’s nice enough. But people who are inspired are devoted to their cause: they give themselves to it, immerse themselves in it, make it the center of their life. If you can engender this level of commitment, then you know you have truly INSPIRED.

8 Common Grammar mistakes you should never make again

When creating marketing copy, even the most adept writers make mistakes from time to time. Here are 8 of the most common for you to learn and avoid.

As more companies create customer-targeted content for their websites, the grammar police seem to be out in greater force. And that can create writer's block: Many business owners stress about writing anything at all, for fear of using incorrect grammar that will be made fun of across the Web.
Last month, a post in the OPEN Forum community provided this advice on writing and grammar:
"As a writer, I was told that I should simply write and write some more. I was afraid my grammar was bad, and I had made an F on a theme in college I never forgot, and had no confidence that I could write a sentence. As an attorney I wrote briefs but I felt they were no good. But I kept writing, and soon lost my fear, realizing that this next piece wasn’t going to win a Pulitzer ... Get [the writing] out of you. It can always be fixed to perfection later. Few artists give birth to the work in perfect form. If you cannot write it for one reason or another, get it written by a professional. Don’t delay. You are unique, and your idea will perish with you if you don’t preserve it."
Part of creating your own content is to do exactly that: Write. Just write. After all, you can't become a better writer if you don't practice your craft.
But there also are some basic grammar mistakes almost everyone makes, no matter how good (or bad) a writer he or she is. If you can learn to get these right, you're off to a good start.

1. Affect vs. effect. The easiest way to remember the difference between the two is that "affect" means "to influence." So if you're going to influence something, you will affect it. If it's the result of something, it's an effect.
2. Impact. Impact is a noun, not a verb. A plane can crash on impact. You can have an impact on something. But you cannot impact something. (When you are tempted to use "impact" as a verb, use "affect" instead; see #1.)
3. Their, they're and there. You'd think everyone would have learned this rule in fourth grade, but it's a very common mistake. Use "there" when referring to a location, "their" to indicate possession, and "they're" when you mean to say "they are."
4. Care less. The dismissive "I could care less" is incorrect. If you could care less about it, then you're saying you could care less about the topic, and you've lost the impact you meant to have. To use this phrase correctly, insert the word "not" after the word "could," as in, "I could not care less."
5. Irregardless. This word doesn't exist. The word you should use is "regardless."
6. Your and you're. Another mistake you'll often see in people's social media profiles or other content they create is the incorrect us of "your" and "you're." If you mean to say "you are," the correct word is "you're." Use "your" when referring to something that belongs to "you," as in "your business."
7. Fewer vs. less. Another common mistake, "less" refers to quantity and "fewer" to a number. For instance, Facebook has fewer than 5,000 employees, but I got less sleep than you last night.
8. Quotation marks. Among the great debates, people ask all the time whether or not punctuation belongs inside or outside of quotation marks. Let's set the record straight. The period and the comma always go inside quotation marks. The dash, the semicolon, the exclamation mark and the question mark go inside when they apply to the quoted matter (if it's not the entire sentence) but outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

People make so many grammar mistakes today that The Elements of Style is on its fourth edition. If you keep a copy of it on your desk and practice your craft, you'll never have to worry about the grammar police paying you a visit.

As posted by: OpenForum.com

What's your Timeline look like?

In March 2012, businesses had to convert to Timeline for Pages as the standard for businesses, organizations, and brands. We think there are some pretty cool things in the Timeline format and below we’ll tell you how to take advantage of them!

What Timeline for Pages looks like

Timeline for Pages is similar to the Timeline currently present for personal profiles.

Picking the right cover photo

The cover photo is the first impression you'll make on your customers and prospects who visit your Page, you’ll want to make it something that looks great and also represents who you are as an organization in both substance and style.
Your photo sets the whole tone for the conversation that you want to happen on your Page. All you have to do is roll your mouse over the cover photo, select “change cover,” and choose a new photo.

You may also want to revisit what you say in the "About" section of your Page; it's more prominent now and lives just below your cover photo.

Adding milestones to your Timeline

You can add key dates from your history to the Timeline so that when visitors scroll down, they can read your whole story, not just your posts.
For example, add when you were founded or hit some key achievement like opening a second location or publishing a book. To add a milestone all you have to do is click on “milestone” where you would normally post a status update and follow the instructions. 

Pinning posts

If you have a post promoting your latest campaign or some other piece of content that you want to make sure everyone sees, you’ll want to take advantage of the new pinning option. Pinning a post means that it will stay above all of the newer posts on your Timeline.

Here's how to do it:
Log into your Facebook account and go to your Page. Next you’ll want to hover your mouse over the right corner of the post that you want to use and a set of buttons will appear, click the pencil and select “Pin to Top.” That’s it, you’ve now pinned a post!
Note: Pins only stay for seven days at which point you can repin the same post or create a new one. You can always remove the pin earlier if you like - just click the Edit button and select "Unpin from Top".

Highlighting posts

Highlighting a post is just as easy and allows you to have certain posts stand out from the rest of your timeline because they stretch across your entire page.
To highlight a post simply hover your mouse over its right corner then click on the star. Your post is now highlighted!

Traditional vs. Social Media Marketing

There’s little doubt that technology has changed our lives, the way we are influenced and how we influence others. But for marketing, it’s more than just doing the same old thing using new tools. Social media marketing isn't your grandmother's marketing—it's different from what most of us have traditionally learned about marketing.

Here’s what you need to know…

Traditional Marketing 101

Most everyone thinks of marketing as the business of promoting and selling products or services.
Marketers commonly refer to a “funnel” to describe the way they attract new prospects and convert them into customers.
What Do We Mean By Funnel?
Traditionally, we've prioritized our limited resources and time on trying to find and convert new prospects (the top of the funnel).
Keeping those hard-earned customers (the bottom of the funnel) has often been an afterthought.
That’s because, until recently, there was little we could do to keep existing customers that was drastically different from the tactics used to attract new ones.
Historically, the best you could do after turning a prospect into a customer was to provide a great customer experience and just hope they come back to buy more—and bring their friends with them.
But technology, namely social media and email, has changed the game.

Social Media Marketing — Flip that Funnel

Social Media Marketing is about recognizing that your existing customers are your best assets.
And technology now enables us to influence consumer behavior both before and after the sale.
With low-cost and easy-to-use tools like social media and email, you no longer have to hope that customers come back and bring their friends with them.
Now you can reach out to your existing customers to remind them to come back, and make word-of-mouth as easy as clicking the share, like, or tweet buttons.
Bottom line: successful businesses understand that marketing does not end with the sale, but rather it begins after the first sale (the bottom of the traditional sales funnel).

Social Media is an Important Part of Your Marketing Mix, but Not the Only One.

Social media marketing is not a replacement for other marketing tactics and we highly recommend that you continue to do what has worked for you in the past.
Traditional marketing activities that still work for you, like advertising in a newspaper, sending direct mail and attending networking events, are still essential.
However, for most, social media marketing is now a critical component of an effective marketing strategy.
In fact, social media marketing works best when combined with other marketing activities, especially email marketing.

Information Gathered from:
http://www.socialquickstarter.com/content/7-traditional_vs_social_media_marketing

Six Fundamentals in Social Media Marketing

1. What Your Customers Say About You Matters

Let’s face it. We live in a world full of advertisements and we just don’t trust what brands say about themselves.
However, we do trust what our friends say.
That is why so many people are willing to try something new based on what their friends say on social media.

Some call this word-of-mouth, some call it peer-to-peer recommendations. No matter what you call it, getting people to recommend you can go a long way to driving both new and repeat business.

2. Online Recommendations Translate into Purchases

Good or bad, people are influenced by their friends. So friend recommendations have a significant impact on purchasing decisions.
How big is that impact? According to a MarketingProfs survey, 73% of the U.S. participants had learned about a product online and 51% had purchased a product based on an online recommendation.

3. You Must Provide a Great Customer Experience

Social media provides every person with a stage to share their thoughts and opinions with friends and other consumers.

• If you provide them with a great customer experience, social media will reward you with positive reviews and endorsements that attract new business.
  
• If a customer has a less than perfect experience, social media will let you know. But that's not such a bad thing so long as you take the opportunity to respond to them and use that feedback constructively to improve the way you serve your customers.

Bottom line: There's no marketing cure for providing a poor customer experience.

4. Permission is Key

In a world full of interruptive marketing noise, permission-based marketing is a powerful tool for fighting through the clutter.
Simply put, by obtaining consent from your customers and prospects to contact them with marketing messages they are more likely to respond to your offers, more likely to share with their friends, and less likely to ignore you or consider your messages spam.
Permission comes in many forms:

• Opt-in with an email address
  
• Facebook "Like"
  
• Twitter Follow
  
• LinkedIn Connection
  
• Attendance at an Event

That permission is part of what makes both email and social media marketing so powerful.

 

Permission is Good for Business

People who like a brand on Facebook, follow a brand on Twitter or subscribe to a brand’s email newsletter, are more likely to buy and recommend.

ExactTarget, "Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The collaborative Future." September 8, 2010

5. You Must Listen and Respond

To be a good conversationalist, you need to be a great listener.
Social media marketing is more about listening and responding than it is about broadcasting a message.
It's critical that you monitor what people are saying to you and about you, your industry, your areas of expertise and your competitors. (Don’t worry, we'll show you how easy it is to monitor the online conversations.)
You've also got to be responsive—whether it's to respond directly to a customer’s question or suggestion or join a discussion where you can share your knowledge.
Remember: To build relationships you don’t need to speak “social media,” you just need to be yourself.  Talk on social media the same way you do in real life.

6. Social Media Marketing is a Commitment

Don’t worry, you don’t have to put a ring on it, but just like in real life, it takes time and effort to build relationships. And unfortunately, sometimes that effort doesn’t generate immediate results.

With social media marketing, you need to be consistent and patient. Those relationships you build will pay off over time through increased customer loyalty and advocacy.

To be an effective social media marketer you need to:

•     Invest time in both talking and listening (Even just 10-20 minutes/day)
  
•     Have a plan for creating engaging content
  
•     Find the right tools that will help you save time (We can help you with that!)

 

It’s Time To Go Social. Make it Simple.

If you're wondering if social media marketing is right for your business, the verdict is in … social media is a great way to drive repeat business and to attract new customers.

Same Old Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Social Media has changed the way people connect, discover, and share information. But let’s skip the jargon. Here’s what you need to know:

Social media is the technology that connects people—whether it’s to share content or just to chat.
Social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are the places where social interactions happen (discovering & sharing).
Social media marketing is the way to use that technology to build relationships, drive repeat business. and attract new customers through friends sharing with friends.
Sound familiar? That’s because social media marketing is really just word-of-mouth powered by technology.

75% of people are somewhat or highly likely to share content they like online with friends, co-workers or family—49% do this at least weekly.

Set Your Goals

It's important that you set goals and understand what you want to achieve from your social media marketing efforts.

Here are some of the main ways you can use social media to have a big impact on your business:

• Spread the Word. Show customers and prospects who you are and what you can do for them. It’s great for brand awareness!
• Drive Sales. Give customers offers that are so good they’ll share them with their friends. Your promotions can go viral!
• Provide Great Customer Service. Listen and respond to what your customers are saying about you and to you. It’s a wonderful feedback loop!
• Keep Your Customers Coming Back. Build deeper relationships so customers will get to know, like, and trust you more.

Because social media is all about discovering and sharing cool stuff, every interaction you have through social media has the potential to reach many new people.
That’s awesome because social media will ultimately help to spread your message and attract new audiences.

Social Media & Email Marketing Go Great Together

A report from Monetate, an e-commerce software firm, has found that email marketing is still driving more overall sales than social media efforts.
But there’s no need to start grappling your forehead and deleting Facebook Pages left and right. It’s important to keep in mind that all of these channels work together, not against each other.
Social media sites, in general, are a far more casual environment that can help build brand awareness, provide bite-size bits of industry information, and create communities among your customers.
That said, email has the advantage of directly reaching a single person. Not only that, you can use analytics to see what that person clicks and opens, which are statistics you can use to segment your list and direct different customers to personalized destinations.
So, if you're asking yourself the question, "Can't social media and email marketing just get along?" The answer is a resounding ... YES!

5 things you need to know about antioxidants

It's billed as an epic story of good versus evil — biology in comic-book form. The villains: free radicals, those nefarious DNA-attacking poisons of modern life. Our fearless defenders: antioxidants, poised to protect us from—well, everything, right? You've heard the claims:

They cure cancer!

They prevent aging!

They supercharge your immune system!

But while we think we know what antioxidants do, few of us know what antioxidants actually are. And food manufacturers are fine with that; the less you know, the more likely you are to swallow the hype. "Antioxidants have a health aura around them," says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University. "They are supposed to fight something bad in your body. Who wouldn't want to consume more of a helper like that?"

There's no doubt that antioxidants can be good for you. But to maximize their benefit, we first have to strip away some assumptions.

1. Free radicals must be destroyed. Not so fast.

The basics: Antioxidants fight free radicals, which are unstable molecules in the body that can cause DNA mutation. Even though free radicals have been linked to serious conditions like heart disease, Parkinson's, and cancer, they aren't necessarily villains — they're by-products of a basic metabolic process called oxidation. "They're absolutely essential to life," says Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., director of the antioxidants lab at Tufts University. "For example, immune cells will shoot free radicals onto invading bacteria in order to kill them. They're an important part of the body's defenses."

Too many free radicals, on the other hand, are harmful. Pollutants, cigarette smoke, and sun overexposure can generate so many free radicals that your normal antioxidant defenses become overwhelmed, leaving you vulnerable to cell damage and disease. Some researchers also link free-radical oxidation with aging.

That's where antioxidants come in. "We need to make sure we have adequate antioxidant defenses to combat all the excess free radicals," says Blumberg.

Do this: Assuming you've curbed bad habits such as smoking and excessive tanning, turn to your diet. If you eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, your diet is naturally rich in thousands of antioxidants. Studies suggest eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day to reap the most health benefits.

2. All antioxidants are created equal.
Not even close.

Any molecule that protects your cells against oxidation is technically an antioxidant, says Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania. "They're anti-oxidation." This includes familiar nutrients, like vitamins, as well as more unfamiliar types of antioxidants, like flavonoids and polyphenols—about 8,000 varieties in all.

But don't assume that all antioxidants operate the same way, Blumberg warns. "You can't say, 'Well, I'm not going to worry about taking in enough vitamin E, because I take lots of vitamin C.' All the vitamin C in the world won't substitute for vitamin E," says Blumberg.

Some antioxidants excel at fighting certain types of free radicals (yep, there are different varieties of those, too) while others are effective only in specific parts of a cell. Still others can battle free radicals only under the right conditions.

"Think of antioxidants as an army," he says. "You need generals, lieutenants, corporals, privates, and others with specific duties. You can't fight an enemy with only generals." So how do you create an effective defense system in the battle for your life? By building a multipronged counteroffensive—er, diet.

Do this: Branch out and try something new in the produce aisle. In a 2006 study, researchers at Colorado State University found that people who ate the widest variety of fruits and vegetables had the most DNA protection.

3. All antioxidants come from fruits and vegetables.
Nope.

The entire plant kingdom—including beans, nuts, seeds, and grains—is awash in antioxidants, according to a recent study from the University of Scranton. That's because all plants produce antioxidants to fight against predators and UV rays, says Vinson. It's important to steer clear of refined grains, though; they've been stripped of most of their antioxidant benefits.

Even meat, dairy products, and eggs contain some antioxidants, which mainly come from the nutrient-rich plants the animals fed on.

Do this: Eat whole-grain foods, beans, nuts, and seeds regularly. When animals are on the menu, make sure they've been grass-fed; meat and dairy products from these better-fed beasts have been shown to contain higher levels of antioxidants. Eggs from pastured hens also rank higher in antioxidants—look for them at farmers' markets.

4. Antioxidant-fortified foods are healthier. 
Not really.

The ink was barely dry on early antioxidant studies when food companies started slapping the A-word on their packaging. You can even chug an antioxidant-fortified version of Cherry 7UP. The FDA requires food manufacturers to list the variety of antioxidant in a product; that part is often in fine print. Look closely, and the label reveals that you're receiving a tiny helping of vitamin E. Perhaps "Cherry 7UP Vitamin E" didn't sound as impressive.

If you're relying on processed foods to supplement your antioxidant intake, you may be surprised to find that many processed foods have relatively small amounts of just one or two kinds. Since variety is critical, you probably aren't making up for lost ground.

Do this: Ignore the hype — there's no research to prove that packaged products provide the same health benefits that whole foods do. Instead, focus on the ingredient list. If a food product contains mostly plant foods, it's likely to be rich in antioxidants.

5. If I exercise and take antioxidant supplements, I'll be superfit.
Maybe not.

Working out leads to more oxidation and an increase in free radicals. That's not a bad thing. "Since free-radical production is a normal response to exercise, taking a large dose of antioxidants right after a workout could interfere with the natural, beneficial response to exercise," says nutritionist Alan Aragon, M.S., a Men's Health weight-loss expert. The logic is unexpected but clear: Scientists speculate that the oxidative stress triggered by exercise promotes insulin sensitivity and weight loss, and possibly reduces your risk of diabetes. (Belly not budging?)

Case in point: A 2009 German study found that when exercisers took antioxidant supplements (vitamins C and E), they weren't rewarded with the typical postexercise boost in insulin sensitivity. So much for that well-intentioned antioxidant-fortified recovery drink. Michael Ristow, M.D., an author of the study and chairman of the department of human nutrition at the University of Jena, Germany, speculates that other antioxidant supplements might have similar negative effects, though more study is needed.

Supplements can even sap your power: A 2006 British study found that runners who took 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily for a week lost muscle strength.

Do this: If you're exercising to lose weight, your antioxidants should come from whole foods, not from supplements or antioxidant-enhanced food products. When it comes to antioxidants, more isn't always better.

To find out how Kyäni can help balance your antioxidant levels. Visit KyaniScience.com

Origninal Article:

2010-http://www.nbcnews.com/