Jeff Cassman, Author at Jeff Cassman

Top 5 Best Social Media Marketing Courses

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best social media marketing course for most people is Social Media Marketing Specialization (Coursera) or Social Media Marketing – Content Marketing Masterclass (Udemy).

Social media marketing is an integral part of any digital business. It can help you build a loyal audience, drive sales, and grow your brand. Taking a social media marketing course is a great way to kickstart your social media growth and give you an edge over the competition.

The Top 5 Best Social Media Marketing Courses

How to choose the best social media marketing course. Quicksprout.com's methodology for reviewing social media marketing courses.

Social Media Marketing Specialization (Coursera) — Best for In-Depth Learning

We’ll take a deep dive into the key features, benefits, and pricing of each course to help you decide which is the right social media marketing course for you.

If you’re looking for a course that will teach you the foundations of social media, Coursera’s Social Media Marketing Specialization is the one for you. Offered by Northwestern University through Coursera, this set of courses thoroughly covers the knowledge and resources you need to build a successful social media marketing strategy.

The Social Media Marketing Specialization is a six-part course covering social media marketing, analytics, engagement strategies, content creation, advertising, and business planning. The sixth and final piece of the course…

How to Believe in People

Belief enables leadership. You must believe in the people you lead.

Leaders who don’t believe in people are control freaks.

Knowledge guides belief.

The more you know about the people around you, the better you can trust them.
Know what everyone on the team does well. Don’t take a broken truck to the dentist.

Know people’s capacity to rise. Put weight on people and see how they respond. Some respond positively to challenges. Others prefer stability.

Know what lights them up. Motivation is intrinsic. Monitor everyone’s energy. When you see someone go bright you learn their motivations. Give people work that energizes them.

Confidence enables belief.

Finish this sentence for everyone on the team. I’m confident _________ can _________.

Autonomy expresses belief.

How can you let people make their own decisions? Maybe their job defines the work they do, but they can find their own way to do the work.

Challenge:

Past disappointments weaken belief. You trusted people and they let you down. But you trusted the wrong people.

Strengthen your ability to believe in people by learning about them. Exercise informed belief. Blind faith is dangerous.

Subscribe to Leadership Freak for daily inspiration and insight.

What role does belief play in leadership?

More to consider:

The Secret to Bringing Out the Best in Others

Believe in People: The Vitality of Authentic Leadership

The Power Of Believing In Others

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A Surprising Sign Of A High IQ Brain (M)

High IQ brains have greater functional connectivity and higher synchronisation, but this has an unexpected real-world effect.

Intelligent people take longer to solve difficult problems than those with lower IQs, a study finds.

The reason seems to be that people with higher IQs avoid jumping to conclusions, which means they are more likely to end up with the correct answer.

On simpler problems, though, people with high IQs do indeed answer more quickly.

Greater functional connectivity

The conclusions come from a study of 650 people who were given a series of logical problems to solve, which became steadily harder.

From a combination of brain scans and simulations of brain activity, the researchers found that the brains of smarter people took longer to solve difficult problems.

High IQ brains have greater functional connectivity and higher synchronisation.

It is these properties that allow the more intelligent brain to ‘hold out’ while complex information is being processed.

Dr Michael Schirner, the study’s first author, said:

“Synchronization, i.e., the formation of functional networks in the brain, alters the properties of working memory and thus the ability to ‘endure’ prolonged periods without a decision.

In more challenging tasks, you have to store previous progress in working memory while you explore other solution paths and then integrate these into each other.

This gathering of evidence for a particular solution may sometimes takes longer, but it also leads to better results.

We were able to use the model to show how excitation-inhibition balance at the global level of the whole brain network affects decision-making and working memory at the more granular level of individual neural groups.”

Brain simulations

To reach their conclusions, the researchers used simulations of brain activity, personalised for each of the 650 people in the study.

Professor Petra Ritter, study co-author, explained:

“We can reproduce the activity of individual brains very efficiently.

We found out in the process that these in silico brains behave differently from one another—and in the same way as their biological counterparts. Our virtual avatars match the intellectual performance and reaction times of their biological analogues.”

The simulations revealed that the brains of people with lower IQs cannot wait until all the various areas of the brain have finished their processing steps before ‘jumping to conclusions’.

In contrast, greater synchrony in high IQ brains allowed time for all the brain regions to complete their processing and deliver up an answer that was more likely to be correct.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications (Shirner et al., 2023).

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Easy Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies: A Practical Guide On How To Optimize Your Store

If you’re a store or website owner, one of your biggest goals is likely to increase customer conversions. After all, successful conversion rate optimization can make a world of difference when it comes to growing your business.

What if we say you can take your struggling to store to a successful one by just making some small tweaks?

Yes. There are plenty of proven tactics that can help you increase conversion rate of your store while also boosting profits. And no, you don’t need much technical experience for that.

In this comprehensive guide, we will outline everything from understanding Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) to implementing easy-to-understand strategies that will take your store’s results up another level.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

What Is Conversion Rate?

Simply put, the conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to your website or store who take a desired action. It can be anything from signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, sharing content, or downloading an app.

Most often, though, it’s used to measure how many people are actually buying something on your site.

Conversion rate is a good way to measure the success of your store. The higher the rate, the better it is for you in terms of sales and customer acquisition.

What Is A Good Conversion Rate?

The answer to this question depends on the industry you’re in, as well as factors such as:

Traffic source
Your Goals
Audience profile
Your Offer
and a couple of other things

Generally speaking, though, a good conversion rate is anything above 2%.

However, remember that improving your conversion rate is always an ongoing process. If you have a decent conversion rate today, there might be room for improvement tomorrow. That’s why you should continuously track and analyze your data to fine-tune performance.

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?

Conversion rate optimization (also often called CRO Optimization) is the process of improving the performance of a website or store through measures that increase conversions.

In other words, it’s about identifying which elements on your site work best and which need to be improved. CRO can involve testing different design elements, making changes to the user experience, or even running campaigns with special offers and discounts.

The primary goal of CRO is to increase your store’s overall performance by improving customer satisfaction, increasing sales, and driving more traffic to the site. Doing so can make more money and improve your bottom line.

But how do you calculate the conversion rate?

How To Calculate Conversion Rate?

Calculating your conversion rate is fairly simple. All you have to do is take the total number of visitors to your website or store, divide it by the total number of conversions, and multiply by 100. The resulting figure will give you an idea of how effectively your store converts visitors into customers.

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The Beginner’s Guide to CRM Integrations

CRM (customer relationship management) software functions well on its own. But to really get the most out of these tools, you need to understand CRM integrations.

Integrating your CRM software with other business tools can make your life easier and take the system’s functionality to the next level.

By leveraging CRM integrations, your team will limit the number of times they need to bounce back and forth between multiple platforms. Integrating with the right tools can streamline your workflow and improve the data within your core CRM solution.

If you’re interested in getting started with CRM integrations but don’t know where to start, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will explain everything you need to know about CRM integrations.

Top Rated CRM Software to Improve CRM Integrations

If you want to improve CRM integrations, you’ll need CRM software. Here’s the best options.

You can read our full reviews of each CRM software here.

Quicksprout.com's complete beginner's guide to CRM integrations.

What Are CRM Integrations?

In short, a CRM integration connects your CRM software with a third-party tool or application.

By integrating two or more business tools, you’ll benefit from extended functionalities, automated actions, and a streamlined workflow in your CRM process. The CRM software can pull data from multiple sources and compute everything in a single source of truth.

Integrations also help eliminate wasted time switching between platforms and manually entering data.

Lots of CRM platforms and business solutions support integrations. But these five systems are our favorite.

1 — Zoho CRM

Companies like Amazon, Bose, Netflix, and Suzuki all rely on Zoho CRM to manage customer relationships….

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Dear Dan: Negative Comments Cause Self-Doubt

Dear Dan,

How do I overcome the nagging doubt that arises when someone else makes a negative comment about me or my performance? It may be a minority view. Everyone else is happy but there is the one person who finds reason to be unhappy with me. How do I put that into a broader perspective?

Pete

Dear Pete,

Self-doubt is a miserable burden that we impose on ourselves. Our feelings are ours. Detractors don’t make us feel anything. Owning our emotions is a lesson we learn and relearn. My problem is I want to be liked.

Self-doubt is the desire to be liked yelling at us.

Hearing negative comments is worth it if taking ownership of self-doubt is the only thing that comes from it. Victor Frankl said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Connect with your freedom.

You don’t have to agree.
You don’t have to change anything.
You can lean in with curiosity.
You may choose to work on improving something in yourself.
You may choose to challenge their behavior and assumptions.
You may choose to let it go.
You will only open your mouth to make things better.

“The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.” Herbert Agar, A Time For Greatness.

Notice self-doubt:

Don’t try to defeat self-doubt, just notice it. “Well, hello there Mr. Self-Doubt.” Write down everything that self-doubt wants you to feel and think and do. Throw away the paper when you’re done.

Should you have a conversation with nagging critics?

How powerful is the person who is unhappy with you? If it’s the boss, go to them and hash it out. Ask them not to evaluate your performance in public.

If it’s a colleague, thank them for their feedback and move on. Don’t bring it up again.

If it keeps nagging you, go to them in private.

Don’t defend yourself. Don’t make excuses. Say, “I notice you said xyz about my performance. I’m committed to be the best I can be. What caused you to bring that up?”

Accept their perspective. “Thanks for sharing that.” If you disagree, just leave it. If a response is required, tell the truth. “I respect your thoughts. I don’t see things like you. Right now, I’m focusing on other things.”

Choose openness over defensiveness.

Defensiveness is weakness. Be open. They could be right. Express gratitude, even if it stings. The alternative to…

The Plant-Based Supplements That Lower Cholesterol

The pill contains natural substances that help lower “bad” cholesterol in an effective way.

A plant sterols and stanols (PSS) pills can reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the so-called “bad” cholesterol.

Daily dietary supplementation of PSS from 1.5 to 3 g has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol by 7.5 percent to 12 percent, a review of different studies concludes.

One study found that 1.8 g of soy stanols pills over the course of 6 weeks could reduce bad cholesterol by nearly 10 percent.

Professor Anne Carol Goldberg, the study’s first author, said:

“Those who started with higher LDL got a bigger response, a bigger drop in their LDL, when they added plant sterols to their regimen.”

PSS, also known as phytosterols or plant steroids, are natural substances that are produced by plants.

Nuts, seeds, whole grains, vegetables, legumes, fruits, and vegetable oil-based margarines contain good amounts of PSS.

Phytosterol dietary supplements and phytosterol-enriched foods have been sold for decades.

The National Cholesterol Education Program advises that people with high cholesterol should consume foods containing plant sterols, because of its effect on reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

PSS have a similar structure to cholesterol and compete with cholesterol to get absorbed.

This happens in such a way that it lowers the absorption of cholesterol in the gut and so they cannot be transported into the blood.

But PSS are not easily absorbed in the intestine unless they have been dissolved in something absorbent in the intestine.

Margarine is one sterol-containing food that has been found to lower LDL cholesterol, as well as some juices and puddings which have added plant sterols.

One or two tablespoons of sterol-containing margarine per day could reduce LDL cholesterol considerably.

However, these types of sterol-containing foods can be inconvenient for some patients or those who need to lose weight.

Professor Goldberg said:

“One problem is many of our patients already have lowered their intake of fats and calories and don’t use products like margarine on a regular basis.

In addition, many of these people eat out regularly, and they can’t easily take a particular brand of margarine to a restaurant.”

Consequently, the sterols in pill form can be a practical and helpful option but to see the benefits, they should be consumed with a proper meal such as breakfast, lunch or dinner and preferably twice a day.

The review was published in the Journal of Nutrients (Elke et al., 2018) and the study was published in the American Journal of Cardiology (Goldberg et al., 2006).

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How to Create a Writing Portfolio That Clients Love

How to Create a Writing Portfolio That Clients Love – Copyblogger 18&63,h=A>>12&63,n=A>>6&63,o=63&A,u[l++]=i.charAt(a)+i.charAt(h)+i.charAt(n)+i.charAt(o);while(d 0; if (swpButtonsExist) { swp_admin_ajax = “https://copyblogger.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php”; swp_post_id=422175; swp_post_url= “https://copyblogger.com/create-writing-portfolio/”; swp_post_recovery_url = “”; socialWarfare.fetchFacebookShares(); } }); ]]> ]]> {{{ ( data.maybeFilterHTML() === ‘true’ ) ? _.escape( data.label ) : data.label }}} ]]>

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Top 7 Best Billing and Invoicing Software

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best billing and invoicing software for most people is BILL or FreshBooks

Collecting payments from clients and customers can be challenging. Ineffective invoicing systems can create serious cash flow problems.

For service businesses, freelancers, and B2Bs, billing and invoicing software can simplify your payment collection process. You’ll get paid quicker while simultaneously giving your customers more convenient options to pay.

The Top 7 Best Billing and Invoicing Software

BILL – Best intuitive interface and automated workflows
FreshBooks – Best all-in-one billing and invoicing software
Square – Best for low-volume invoicing
Zoho Invoice – Best automation features
Xero – Best invoicing software for small businesses
Wave – Best free billing and invoicing software
Invoicely – Best simple billing and invoicing software

How to choose the best billing invoicing software. Quicksprout.com's methodology for reviewing billing and invoicing software.

After researching and testing dozens of different billing and invoicing solutions, we’ve narrowed down seven that we can confidently recommend. Continue below for in-depth reviews containing the features, benefits, pricing, and use cases for each tool on our list.

BILL – Best Intuitive Interface & Automated Workflows

Simplify and speed up payments
Customizable invoice templates
ACH and credit card payments
Risk-Free Trial

Try it now

BILL is a great billing and invoicing solution with an intuitive user interface that anyone can use…

3 Questions That Move Experienced Leaders Forward

“When issues are confusing and decisions are stressful, I’m the go-to person for my team. In some ways that’s good, but I wonder what I’m doing to cause dependency?” (Asked during a coaching conversation.)

It’s impressive when leaders ask probing questions about themselves.

Ego loves being the go-to person. But dependency makes people weak. And leaders get in the way when they need to be needed.

3 questions that move experienced leaders forward:

Question one: What do you want for your team?

“I want my leaders to feel empowered to make decisions on their own.”

Question two: Who are your go-to people?

My friend said, “I’m often asked who my go-to people are. I tell them I have a coach.” He added five others to his list. Three people are outside his company and three inside.

“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” Unknown

Question three: How did you collect a team of go-to people?

He answered this question with three practices.

Seek out people with technical expertise.
Follow up with people you meet at industry specific events. Perhaps there’s a connection.
Build relationships with talented people inside your organization.

My observations suggest character traits matter too.

Leaders with a personal team of go-to people practice humility. They admire the skills and talents of others. They respect outside perspectives. And they relentlessly improve themselves.

Subscribe to Leadership Freak to receive daily inspiration and insight.

Summary:

What do you want for others?
How are you doing it yourself?
How can others apply what you know?

Well timed questions enable people to answer their own questions.

Note: This line of questioning works with experienced leaders. Novices may not know.

What questions help people find their own path forward?

Still curious:

Have you Fallen into the Destructive Practice of Offering Harmful Help

The Seven Powers of Powerful Questions

The Power of Second Questions

The Goal of Helping is Enabling, Not More Helping

3 Key Questions for Moving Forward

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The Top 5 Best Social Media Marketing Courses

Social Media Marketing Specialization (Coursera) — Best for In-Depth Learning

How to Believe in People

Knowledge guides belief.

Confidence enables belief.

Autonomy expresses belief.

Challenge:

More to consider:

Like this:

Greater functional connectivity

Brain simulations

Related

What Is Conversion Rate?

What Is A Good Conversion Rate?

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)?

How To Calculate Conversion Rate?

Top Rated CRM Software to Improve CRM Integrations

What Are CRM Integrations?

1 — Zoho CRM

Dear Dan: Negative Comments Cause Self-Doubt

Connect with your freedom.

Notice self-doubt:

Should you have a conversation with nagging critics?

Choose openness over defensiveness.

The Top 7 Best Billing and Invoicing Software

BILL – Best Intuitive Interface & Automated Workflows

3 Questions That Move Experienced Leaders Forward

3 questions that move experienced leaders forward:

Question one: What do you want for your team?

Question two: Who are your go-to people?

Question three: How did you collect a team of go-to people?

Summary:

Still curious:

Like this: