Who’s the boss? – Social media and business users

 

[Thinking man*]

At an online meetup session sponsored by the ATA Mastermind group, the moderators noted the importance of managing use of social media in terms of proper time investment. Just as in face-to-face meetings, it is neither practical nor healthy to be interacting with people every waking hour of a day. They noted several factors for a healthy presence on social media, including focus, frequency, feeling and effectiveness. Clearly, the ratio of time investment to benefit should be appropriate.

[Upward chart]

Whatever the media, including Facebook, Tweeter, Linked and Instagram, the participant can attain enjoyment, information, work or strategic position. Clearly, people follow certain sites for the pure pleasure of the content, whether it be pictures of cats or jokes about husbands, to name a few that I have heard of. It is perfectly legitimate to start and even end the day with a smile on the face. Information sites are more practical as colleagues are often the fastest source of help in overcoming the challenges of running a business and solving technical mysteries. Many freelancers actively use social media either to advertise their goods and services or find customers, a practice that has only increased in the last year. Finally, for certain services, a constant presence on social media is a key factor in creating and maintaining a market presence. All these results are potential benefits of social media use.

[Media types]

Given the sheer number of media types and forums, it is neither possible nor desirable to be everywhere even if you are a full-time social media director. The ideal strategy is to identify a few forums where your target audience, whether customers, colleagues or both, are found and continually monitor and participate in them. Not only will the time spent managing the media stay reasonable but the long-term benefit will be substantially higher as you become known or you catch the available job minutes after it is posted. Clearly, identifying the ideal forum is partly a matter of trial and error and may need to be assessed periodically. Still, properly directed efforts are a worthwhile investment of time.

[Clock]

Unlike teenagers during the summer vacation, business people generally have too many tasks to accomplish during a day. This fact creates the need for prioritization and scheduling. Social media management is one of these tasks and should be conducted when and how often as required, depending on the goal. Information and marketing can be on once a day without any loss while lead searching is a time-dependent goal and may have to done more frequently to be effective. However, it is clear that a one-minute scan of new posts should not regularly turn into a half hour break because it means that more vital tasks are being postponed. To attain the best results, scheduling a regular time for business media monitoring ensures proper attention without overinvestment of time.

[Battery]

One of the keys to daily and long-term success is positive energy. In other words, people must strive to eliminate any avoidable factor that saps energy. In practice, any site whose content and discussions mainly contain pessimism, hostility and one-upmanship should be avoided as their damage is greater than any benefit they provide. By contrast, forums that professionally and objectively discuss dilemmas help us form an opinion as if we had personally talked with a colleague. Thus, it is vital not only to consider the content of the media but also its tone. As said, since social media is an alternative, albeit a forced one, to face-to-face discussions, always choose positive people even if they disagree with you. You should feel encouraged after a personally social media exchange.

Bull and bear]

The ultimate test of social media time is the benefit attained. The assessment depends on the desired goal. For example, one or two leads a month may justify the time spent monitoring a certain site while it may be necessary to wait a year before reaping the benefits of a long-term marketing campaign. For information sites, an effective and quick solution for a time-consuming problem may justify a regular scan of the posts as it shows that that the site can be beneficial. As for the sites that makes us laugh, the measure is obvious – it makes us smile almost every morning. By contrast, if the site content is generally not relevant for whatever reason, it would be advisable to search for a better forum in terms of the time investment.

Entrepreneurs can utilize social media to improve their business or allow it to sap their time and energy. A conscious decision of how and where to allocate work time leads to effective use of these media for the intended purpose. These choices need to be periodically reassessed as circumstances change. It is vital that the entrepreneurs make active choices and show that they are the boss.

* Pictures allow the blind to fully access the Internet. All picture via Pixabay.

Much ado about nothing – Contemplations to calm the spirit upon seeing low rate offers

 

[Volkswagon Beetle*]

One of the dubious pleasures of being a service provider, freelance or otherwise, is the all too frequent awareness of colleagues that have no shame in offering very low rates, sometimes 25% of your rates, and undercut your business. In a business with no entry barriers, i.e., significant capital outlays or licensing requirements, any Joe and Jane can hang out a virtual shingle and offer the same service, as least as far as customers can tell. Since the fixed costs of a providing services are virtually zero especially for Internet-based businesses, the breakeven point for such providers is quite low. Thus, these market-breaking bids are legitimate offers.

However, for those professionals trying to make a living over the long term, these offers are both threatening and infuriating. First, the presence of low bids creates the impressions that your rates are unjustifiably high. This dissonance forces established providers either to lower rates or communicate their added value. On an emotional level, seeing a supposed colleague undercut your prices causes anger and frustration. These emotions are expressed in wishes, private or public, to have the guilty party hung at the gallows, exiled to Elba, spend time in a re-education camp in China or tongue-lashed by the principle, to name just a few options. However, the phenomenon of undercutting is as ancient as prostitution and just as indestructible. Thus, I offer some calming thoughts to help the suffering professional accept reality.

[Cup of coffee

The first point in mind that it is possible to earn a very good income with such rates on condition the cost of living is proportionally low. To provide a perspective, within the developed world, the price of a cup of coffee ranges from $0.74 in Lisbon to almost $3.50 in Tokyo. For those in living in the developing world, costs of living are even lower. Thus, with the same net income, one person can live like a king by local standards while someone in a more expensive country may be homeless. Therefore, the proposed low rate may be quite respectable for the provider.

[Typing on keyboard]

Even if a person lives in a posh place, it is possible to earn a decent living with low rates. The key is technological prowess. Since the value of services are essentially time-linked, people that work efficiently can produce more in an hour and thus earn a respectable daily wage. At an APTI conference in Spain several years ago, a translator gave a half-hour explanation of how to efficiently use the key board to expedite translation. The productivity of a person with such skills is clearly higher than the those not native to the technology. Thus, through effective use of time and technology, service providers can even thrive at low rates.

[Butter]

While the income from low-rate offers may seem low, it may be sufficient for the needs of certain providers. In many fields, including translation, providers have full time jobs in other fields and only provide the service to gain extra income. Peasant women used to call this butter money since it served to pay for treats and luxuries, however these were defined. Consequently, these service providers are not even trying to make a living, which gives them full freedom to set rates. The one-eyed consider themselves fortunate in the kingdom of the blind.

[Father teaching child]

For many, low offers are the tools to take the first steps in a new profession. Lacking experience and skills and needing to acquire them, they are willing to pay for their apprenticeship by cutting down on potential income until they are able to raise their rates. In any case, that approach only partially works. The reality is that raising rates is very difficult in almost all fields at any time. Furthermore, most customers demand the same level of work regardless of experience or lack thereof. However, starting out at low rates appears to be an effective strategy for entering a new profession. Most translators began in this manner.

[Child in fear]

Fear can be a factor. Some service providers may be aware that their prices are low but are very dependent on that scant income. The worry is that any attempt to raise rates will lead to the loss of the vital income or prevent them from attaining any new customers.  This previous year has clearly increased the number of freelancers in this category. This concern is real, difficult to overcome and worthy of sympathy.

[3 monkeys]

Finally, there are those that follow the advice of the three monkeys: they don’t look for, ask about or discuss rates. They are perfectly happy earning their daily bread (without the butter) and will not demand more. Some eventually attain wisdom and realize they have been working for peanuts for years, ultimately raising their rates. Others never grasp that they are cutting themselves short or simply do not care. Maybe ignorance is bliss.

The next time you find yourself muttering curse words after reading some offensive offer by a service provider in Facebook or a professional portal, take a deep breath and consider the possible justifications for the low rate. Clearly, anger only harms the person getting angry, especially when it can fuel no constructive action. Remember that Audi and Mercedes-Benz have been no less successful than Volkswagen and Seat. To quote Voltaire, in the face of price-lowering competition, il faut cultiver son jardin, i.e., create your own universe and not worry about others, at least as much as possible.

* The blind need captions to fully access the Internet. All picture from Pixabay.

Marketing fun with Pfizer and Sinovac

 

[Avatar with syringe*]

With a plethora of COVID-19 vaccines on the market or in the pipeline, it is clear that within the foreseeable future, oversupply and competition will occur. As humor is often the best medicine, it would be entertaining to consider how these mighty and not-so-mighty brands can market their products to the future masses that will require the initial or booster doses. As the Chevy’s marketing department in the 1950s and 1960’s insisted, the key for a successful ad is the story, not the technical details. I playfully propose two vaccine ads:

[Red carpet]

Scene: an elegantly dressed couple walks down a street in New York with confident strides, almost ignoring the people around them, who seem to move of their way. They resemble a New Yorker cartoon, for those who remember those. Imagine a deep, male voice.

Script: Some people have it. The confidence to feel in control where ever they are. What gives this couple that feeling of invincibility? It is not the tailored designer clothes they are wearing. Nor is it the elegant but comfortable Italian leather shoes on their feet. No, it is the Pfizer vaccination they took just a week ago. They could have settled for any old vaccine but they insisted on the best and know, with Pfizer on their side, they can conquer the world. Do you want that feeling?  Get yourself a Pfizer. You are worth it.

To quote Monty Python, and now for something different:

[Chinese wise man]

Scene: a Chinese couple dressed in simple traditional clothing sits at the head of a large table covered with food delicacies and surrounded by their family.

In China, being wealthy does not earn you respect but how you get there does. Believers in the saying that a fool and his money are soon parted, they seek and respect value. Anybody can pay more and receive less but only the wise know how to attain the perfect product at the perfect price. That is why these parents chose to take the Sinovac vaccination over the more expensive brands and now serve as a shining example for this family and community. Show your wisdom. Insist on the Sinovac vaccination.

Granted that modern ads are often on YouTube, Tweeter, Facebook and other social media and have a very different style. In addition, by law, these ads would be followed by one minute of the fastest possible recitation of the potential side effects and a reminder to consult your doctor, which would spoil the whole effect. Still, in my opinion, the message would still work as it does for perfume. Besides, we all need a good laugh and a reminder that some kind of normal will eventually and shortly return.

* The blind need captions for access. All picture though Pixabay.

Negative events as a fuel for action

 

[Light bulb*]

2020 was not a great year for most freelancers, to put it mildly. For many entrepreneurs, the private news was as bad if not worse than the public news. The year was filled with negative events of all kinds to one degree or another. Yet, while the word negative may have connotations of failure and retreat, in practice, negative events can be the engines of positive changes.

It is clear the extreme reductions in business activity, lockdowns, bankruptcies and outstanding overdrafts have had a catastrophic effect on both salaried employees and freelancers but the latter generally had less help available to them, depending on the country. The immediate consequences include firings, crises in paying the mortgage, extreme loss of income and even hunger in same places. Entrepreneurs, who often make a living on “luxury” projects, found themselves with no customers or government support. In the short term, most people strongly felt the downward effect.

However, many impacted workers harnessed their frustration and anger in order to make positive changes whether in the nature or manner of their work. The negative energy, like the electrons in an atom, can create the momentum to make important life changes that will ultimately improve life quality. In practice, without a good kick in the rear, people often do not do what they want to or should do, including in regards to choice of livelihood.

[Finger flicking man]

 For example, many technical people were fired, an   experience that may be even more emotionally than   financially stressful. Regardless of the reason or manner   in which it is done, the act of being informed that you are   not good enough or superfluous hurts. For many, the   immediate reaction is paralysis and depression. However,   being shoved out of one door can be a shove into a better room, one where you really wanted to go but were afraid to try. Many mid-level managers and salaried programmers have claimed for years that they know better than their bosses and hate the “framework”’. Without the golden cage of a salary, they are free to test their wings and check their true worth. The desire to prove the boss wrong is a very strong motivator.

[Collapsing bricks]

Many freelancers found that their major customers stopped or severely reduced job orders, with dramatic consequences on income. The immediate reaction is distress and worry. It should be noted that it is always poor business practice to be overly dependent on any single client. The entrepreneur can use the involuntary free time to seek additional customers in the same area and consider other areas in which to expand. Most entrepreneurs know that these marketing efforts should have been done a long time ago but necessity is the evil stepmother of invention.

[Collapsed road]

 If your industry is likely to be permanently affected by   events due to developments in technology and medium-   term global financial instability, the immediate reaction   is  consternation and long-term doubts. This fear can fuel   the effort to conduct a new self-inventory of skills and   market survey in order to find a new niche to enter.   While  the fear of the unknown is strong, the thrill of a new challenge can easily create an energizing force. There is ultimately great satisfaction in changing careers even if you did not choose the moment.

[Bored man]

Finally, faced with the too much free time due to temporary closures, many previously busy people struggling with boredom and a feeling of a lack of usefulness. This idleness had led many to take courses and even start degree programs in areas that they only dreamed of. The free time has now become an important asset, not an emotional liability.

Entrepreneurs clearly do not have complete control of outside events nor can generally predict them. Thus, while it is easy and natural to consider certain events negative, we have the choice to render them positive, at least in the long term, and harness them to make productive and emotionally beneficial changes in our careers. I personally have experienced each of these states in my life and not only survived but eventually thrived. Even when challenged, as Perry Como sang, you have to accentuate the positive and thus eliminate the negative, whether that be in 1958, 2020 or 2021.

* Integrate the blind by posting with picture captions. Pictures through Pixabay.

For an adjective, it is all about the place

 

[series of adjectives*]

According to the theory of universal grammar, attributed to Naom Chomsky, children are not born tabula rasa, empty headed, but instead with an innate sense of the structure of grammar. Otherwise, it is argued, children would be unable to learn their first language. One aspect of this inherited knowledge is the relationship between nouns and adjectives, specifically they are adjoined. The curious variation is their actual order depends on language and meaning but children have no difficulty grasping the specifics of the language of their surroundings.

[boy and girl]

In practice, many languages whose adjectives must reflect the gender and/or number of the noun begin with the noun. These languages include many of the romance and Semitic languages. It is simply much simpler to state the noun, note whether it is masculine or feminine, singular or plural, and then adjust the form of the adjective. For example, if I am talking about a bunch of female teenagers, the adjective form would be the feminine, plural form as in this Hebrew phrase בנות יפות [banot yafot], pretty girls, as compared to בנים יפים [banim yafim], handsome boys. Thus, some children learn to place the adjective after the noun.

[German shepherd]

By contrast, a few languages, notably English, do not require adjective/noun agreement since they lack a broad linguistic gender structure. Therefore, the most important word, the noun, is placed last with the any and all adjectives preceding it.  For example, a person may be scared of the big, brown, growling German Shepherd puppy. Any post-noun adjectives require either a relative pronoun (who, which or which) or a participle, the ing form of the verb. Back to the example, the person may be scared of the puppy that is looking at him or just looking at him. Therefore, children with English among others as their native tongue learn that the noun follows the adjective.

[Mayan vase]

Of course, hybrid systems are also quite common. In some cases, the adjective can be either before or after the noun, depending on the meaning and form. Some examples in French include un ancien ministre (a former minister) as compared to un vase ancien (an ancient vase) and ma chėre tante (my dear aunt) and une bague chėre (an expensive ring).  See this list. I imagine other languages also have situations where the meanings change depending on whether the adjective is before or after the noun.

[packed desk]

In at least one case, the actual form of the adjective may change based on its location as well as having a slightly different connotatoin. Russian has short and long forms for some but not all adjectives. The long form is used before the noun while the short term is used after the noun as if the verb to be, non-existent in the present tense in Russian, was there. Compare длинная очередь [dlinaya ochered] (a long line) with очередь длинна [ochered dlina] (the line (is) long). Furthermore, if a long form is used after the noun, it indicates a permanent status as compared to the short form. Compare Он очень занят [on ochen zanyat], meaning he is very busy right now, with Он очень занятый [on ochen zanyati] – meaning he is generally very busy. Learning Russian always reminds of the great Tom Lehrer line about new math: “it is so simple, so bloody simple, that only a child can do it”, or in this case, intuitively understand it.

There is Israeli joke about recognzing the speech of new immigrants in that they say  עברית היא קשה שפה [icrkit hi kasha safa], literally Hebrew is a difficult language, which places the noun and adjective in the wrong order. This comment reflects the variance in language structure as well as the fact children are far better at picking up languages than adults. To make minor changes to the song, in regard to adjective and noun placement, it is all about the place, about the place, no trouble, at least for children.

*Picture captions allow access to the blind. All pictures via pixabay.