10 Qualities of A Successful Leader

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

—Barack Obama
What does it take to be a leader? Is she someone who brings to light the various issues and solves them? Is she someone that orates the mind and desires of the masses proactively and very well? Maybe she’s someone who knows what the followers want and helps manifest the norms. As a leader myself, I understand that leaders are born and made, inherited and natural; here are ten more qualifying traits of inspirational leaders that make the individual a powerful personality:

1. Plenty of Foresightedness

Managing a group is no easy task. Crisis happens and managing it should be the forte of a leader; foreseeing such situations should be one of the most important qualities of a leader. Foresight helps a leader make decisions ahead of time and can avoid mishaps, which will lead the team towards a path of development and progress.

Citing an example here would be that of Rupert Murdoch. The market monopoly created by the genius was the baby of his foresightedness, making him one of the most successful entrepreneurs in this world and placing his company as the second largest media house in the world.

2. Undying Hunger to Win

Leaders have an undying hunger to exceed expectations and successfully complete their promises and tasks. They are consistent and probe into areas never before treaded. Such leaders have a natural zeal and zest to learn and unlearn, helping them gain more knowledge and information as seen through the behavior of the masses they lead.

3. Always Committed

Lead by example. Motivation comes best when a leader is committed to their promises, duties and tasks, working alongside the rest and showing them that there isn’t a mountain high enough that cannot be conquered. In doing so, leaders earn respect from teammates and motivate them with energy and a zest to win!

Leaders stick to the commitments they make, which makes them fair and reliable, trustworthy too. In turn, their team is motivated to bring more to the table; following the leader. President Obama with his Obama Care health policies are proof enough on the commitments he made for the general public.

4. Be a Source of Inspiration

Leaders across the world understand the importance of getting to the root level and inspiring their teams. They generate enthusiasm amongst their teammates, which helps focus them on future goals and current issues at hand. Acknowledging human behaviors, downfalls and efforts on a personal level are some of the sources of inspiration every world leader in the past has shown.

Mohandas Gandhi, began the Quit India movement and the famous Salt Walk, which inspired Indians to do away with western produce and products and instead honor and promote indigenous handicrafts and products. He became an inspiring icon to the world.

5. Persistent by Nature

One of the best examples of persistence in leadership would be that of Henry Ford’s story back in the 1890s. This was a time when the Ford Quadricycle was launched with four large wheels and an engine powered by ethanol.

The Quadricycle was never a success, but that didn’t stop Henry Ford from making it to the top charts later on. Ford Motor today is the number one choice amongst the crème-de-la-crème and the who’s who of the motor vehicle world; Henry Ford today is one of the wealthiest and most well known leaders of the world and persistence got him to where he is!

6. Recognizing True Potential

Leaders are those that surround themselves with great minds and people with great thoughts. Citing an example here would be the life of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was an icon that looked for talent in unknown places and unique ways. Quite often, Steve Jobs, when visiting college campuses to deliver a lecture, would notice potential employees participating in the talk and personally interview them; hiring them thereafter for their unique and very powerful innovative visions and thoughts.

7. Authenticity is Their Cup of Tea

To be etched in the minds of millions. One of the most important leadership traits for world leaders is authenticity. No power plays, no muscle pulling or arm-twisting. Clear intentions and consistency proves authenticity.

Embracing diversity in all forms, being unique by displaying strengths and areas of weakness, understanding your own identity and knowing how to delegate roles and responsibilities, whilst making your own contribution towards success is what authenticity is all about.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is an example of an individual filled with empathy, an embracer of diversity and someone that knows his own areas of improvement and strengths that help the economy go forth. 

8. Fear Isn’t Their Middle Name

Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Atlantic, in his days as a youngster always was belittled by his aunt for not knowing how to swim when the family met for summer vacations. On his way back home one summer, Richard requested his dad to stop by the flowing river their car was about to cross. The next thing his dad saw was young Richard jumping into the river and swimming away—a bet he took with his relative and won. Cut to the new-age, Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic are names to reckon with. Being fearless is a trait that those who sit in their comfort zones don’t understand.

9. Understanding and Owning Up to Your Drawbacks

In recent times, Amazon was under the spotlight for supplying ‘unauthorized versions’ of famous books on Kindle. Needless to say there was a negative backlash by the masses, which caught the company in the red.

Amazon didn’t shirk away from its responsibilities, but admitted in a press statement its fault. Citing CEO Jeff Bezos, Amazon, the honcho went ahead to personally apologize and make amendments on the same lines calling the incident “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.” Proof once again that no one choked to death on their own pride by apologizing.

10. Outstanding positive behavior

Leaders do what others wouldn’t, and in outstanding ways too. From displaying individualistic traits to positive attitudes, there is always that X Factor in leaders which makes them stand out. Leaders stand out to support you when others walk away, or don’t watch your back when the tough times come calling.

Citing Ralph Nader here, “I start with the premise that the function of a leader is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” In short, leaders go the extra mile to make you feel special, wanted and recognize your competency and skill levels that help motivate you to perform better.

Wrap

The world stands in need of liberating leaders and not herds that follow masses. Be an inspiring leader and start afresh in your own small way.

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Words of Advice for the Social Media Marketer

If you’ve ever been to an amusement park, you’d know about that one ride almost everyone is waiting to try out. It’s hugely popular and can be immediately identified by the long line of people waiting in anticipation to get on it. Those who’ve had their turn will either love it or think it was okay, but not worth the hype it’s been generating. Very few will really hate it. They will generally put it down as a worthwhile experience, one that was educative, even if it didn’t pan out the way they’d imagined it.

Social media marketing enjoys similar attention these days. It’s impossible to talk about SEO or the online industry (or for that matter anything else) without this topic making a sneaky appearance. You may love it, you may hate it, but there’s no ignoring it. Sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest have become the byword in the marketing industry and few other things have excited online businessmen like the social media phenomena.

True to human nature, those who’ve tried social media marketing are always willing to part with valuable advice on what to do and what not to do. When marketers gather ‘pearls of wisdom’ and string together a social media marketing strategy that is very productive, we have a great strategy on our hands.

In this article, I make the attempt to go over a few common practices that have the potential of benefiting your social media campaign for the long run. Sounds good? If you don’t want to be successful, stay hooked all the way to the end of the article. It promises to be educational.

#1. Establish a Presence Almost Everywhere

The number of people who don’t take this seriously makes me believe that there seems to be a serious shortage of common sense in the world. There are many social network sites that are out there, but you should only go with the most popular. Let’s start with those:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Pinterest
• Tumblr
• Instagram

There are countless social networks for the taking, but if you’re hoping to be active on all of them, you’re going to end up dedicating many, many (exhausting) hours just managing your profiles—time you could spend doing something more constructive like, for instance, furthering the interest of your business.

The saner thing to do would be to take stock of your market, resources, and objectives, choose 3-4 social platforms that your audience is most active on, and use them dedicatedly. For instance, if your business deals with travel, interior designing, landscaping, or fashion, Pinterest would be a lot more useful as compared to LinkedIn. However, the latter makes for an invaluable resource if you are offering products and services for business professionals.

Spread yourself out thin over numerous platforms and you’re in danger of burning out really fast. To conserve time and energy, be selective about the medium you are using and you’ll be just fine. Trust me.

#2. Don’t Keep Posting Updates Tirelessly

Social media gurus will have you believe that inundating your hapless audience with a gazillion updates throughout the day is a good marketing strategy.

Posting a gazillion updates is not the same as high engagement. Flood social networks with inane banter and the only result you are going to see is your followers bailing out you, attempting to put as much distance as they possibly can between you and their profiles.

What makes matters worse is when you refuse to customize your posts according to the social network you are using. In case you haven’t noticed, every platform attracts a very specific fan following that sets the culture and tone of conversation. You cannot get away with having the same kind of content everywhere.

For instance, did you know that Tweeters prefer text based updates whereas ‘Facebookers’ are more engaged by image based posts.

What I am trying to say is that the cookie cutter approach doesn’t work here. It’s extremely important to tailor your posts according to your audience.

#3. Deal with Negativity

When it comes to handling negative comments on social media, the advice varies from the comical to the baffling to the downright bizarre. When reading through them, I can’t help but question the motives of these “so-called” experts who are ladling out wisdom to everyone so generously. If they are serious, we need to send them back to social media school for some basic lessons. If they aren’t, I can only dismiss them as pranksters who revel in mischief and mayhem.

Here are some generic bits of advice you can follow:

1. Respond to negative comments:Don’t play the ostrich burying it’s head in the sand until the negativity blows over. Your audience might be able to forgive a genuine mistake, but they’ll have a hard time forgetting that you didn’t even care enough to address the concern they raised. This would be brand management suicide at its worst.

2. Don’t respond to every last negative comment you receive: Do this and you’ll be doing little else all day long! As a businessman, it’s important to differentiate between people who are raising genuine concerns and trolls who are out to cause trouble or capitalize on your visibility. Choose your battles and fight the ones that are the most meaningful.

3. Deleted post doesn’t means problem fixed: Don’t bank on the “out of sight, out of mind” adage. Deleting a post or a comment will not get you out of the hot water you’re stewing in. What has been read cannot be unread and what has been seen cannot be unseen. Besides, contrary to what people may think, the audience doesn’t always have a short memory span. Their ability to remember and hold a grudge will surprise you.

4. Don’t disable commenting: Disabling comments is not going to stop people from saying what they have to about you. They will just do so on their own blogs or social media profiles where it will be a lot harder for you to mediate the discussion. Oh, and it also makes you look like a grumpy kid unwilling to deal with reality.

There is no one-size-fits-all policy I can recommend for handling negative comments, except one: keep it genuine. Remember, one comment is all it takes to make friends out of foes and supporters out of detractors. While I wouldn’t ask you to chase down every unflattering thing ever said about you, there’s no harm in admitting to the mistakes you’ve made and taking appropriate steps to rectify them. You’ll come across as someone who values feedback from a customer and cares enough to do something about it.

So what is the best social media marketing advice you’ve ever heard?

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Why Your Business Needs an Animated Explainer Video

Animated explainer videos are a perfect tool for attracting visitors to your site and telling them about the key benefits and features of your product. According to Nielsen Research, Training and Consulting Group, the average user spends about 10-20 seconds on a site if there is no compelling reason to stay longer. And the first ten seconds are critical for giving the user this reason to stay by clearly setting out your value proposition. Having such a short period of time, you cannot rely only on text and graphic ways to attract their attention.

If you do differ from your competitors, have a distinct advantage, or offer a unique service/product, you have to show this to the users, who often have neither time, nor desire to investigate why they should take your offer.

Why Does Video Work Better?

Let’s delve into the realm of psychology. Only 20% of people remember the information they read and only 10% remember what they heard. At the same time, 80% of people remember what they saw and what they did, and for another thing, visual information is processed 60,000 times faster than text. Based on these stats, we should accept that text and audio is less effective compared to non-verbal communication, and can influence a rather small percentage of your audience.

Animated explainer videos are able to clearly articulate your service or product in less than a minute or two. And since video allows people to acquire more information in less time compared to reading, you get a great chance to win these critical 10 seconds and capture the users’ attention.

Plus, animated explainer videos involve both visual communication and audio that significantly enhance the perception.Do these little psychological theories work when applied to online marketing? Recent facts show that they really do.

The Latest Video Trends

Cisco in its VNI Global IP Traffic and Service Adoption Forecasts for 2016-2019, states that by 2019 video will make up to 80% of all traffic compared to 67% in 2016.

So, according to “The Top 7 SEO Trends That Will Dominate 2016” by Forbes, it’s time to stop taking video and multimedia as an additional tool of online marketing, which only supplements textual information. Forbes predicts that B2C companies will try and use more video due to its higher reach, engagement, effectiveness and overall ROI compared to text content. It looks like B2B brands will follow the trend in the near future.

These predictions are based on statistics proving that both customers and businesses love video. Let’s turn to figures collected in an Invodo report on the results of 2015-2016:

• Video viewers are 1.6x more likely to buy
• 96% of customers believe that video helps them make purchase decisions
• 73% of shoppers are more likely to buy a product after watching an explainer video about it
• 58% of consumers are ready to trust the companies providing videos about their products
• 74% of B2C marketers and 92% of B2B marketers use video in their marketing strategies
• 52% of marketing experts chose video among other types of content as having the best ROI
• Social videos are shared more often than text and images combined by 1200%

But Why Animation?

Yes, animated explainer videos are just one way of visualization, and there is no one big reason for you to choose exactly this type of video content for every occasion. In some cases, staged video with real actors and props is more effective and reasonable. Still, there are a few important advantages animated explainer video has over other visuals:

Animation explainer video is perfect for those areas of business where it is difficult to present and to sell a product through other types of video or promotional methods. For example, you develop websites or you’re engaged in contextual advertising. Your explainer video should include information on target customers’ problems, benefits of the company and its workflow, several cases with figures and so on. You have to admit that it’s rather difficult to show traffic growth in video unless it’s animated. Virtually any information can be visualized with the help of animated explainer videos and this is its main advantage over real video.

Lively animated characters along with eye-catching cartoons, trigger strong emotions and create a very special atmosphere that engages an audience and captures their attention. This adds an emotional component to rational arguments, enhancing the desired effect. It’s easier and more interesting for the audience to keep up with a story line, when positive feelings are involved and the information presented in the video is more likely to stick in the memory. Plus, animated explainer videos are associated to a marketing tool in a less degree than staged video and that’s why it doesn’t come off as irritating or obtrusive advertising.

Animated explainer video is not limited to scripts. The characters can fly, dance, sing and wear any costumes, while the action may take place at any historical period and in any geographical location. This makes it possible to create an inventive storyline for better presentation of a product.

Summing up, by using animated explainer video it’s easy to communicate about complicated things, create memorable images and appeal to an audiences emotions. However, animated explainer videos can successfully solve real-world problems, improve search engines results and provide an increase in leads, conversions and sales.

Tried-and-True

One of the most striking case stories illustrating rapid success made by a startup using animated explainer video is Dropbox. Founded in 2010, Dropbox grew from zero to 100 million users in 5 years, using an effective viral campaign and the simplest web design, their landing page had only an animated explainer video and a download button.

The video campaign had its affect, increasing conversions by 10%. Considering the fact that it was viewed about 750,000 times in a month, it converted nearly 1 million of the visitors into registered users yearly.

So, what goals can you reach using an animated video?

• Increased conversions
• More sales
• Increased click-through
• Higher rankings in search engines
• Easy-to-remember marketing messages
• Customers’ engagement
• Reducing the number of consultations

An animated explainer video makes complex things simple by both explaining your product features to customers, and boosting your business in multiple ways. At Acesse we help clients boost their business in creative ways with animated explainer videos.

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Focusing on the Critical Few to Be Truly Effective

There’s an unstated elegance about focusing on less in your marketing and PR. In fact, over time my most successful blogs, clients, and digital marketing programs were ones where we refined efforts over time to do more of less. We discovered what worked, found a formula, dialed it up and relentlessly removed the fluff.

This is counter intuitive to how most of the marketing and PR world functions. Most want to implement an ever-expanding mix of tactics over time. And while I’m not advocating you don’t experiment (experimenting within the framework of a strategy makes a lot of sense) it shows maturity of a marketer to say no to more tactics being proposed simply for the sake of doing them.

Critical few metrics

You don’t need to obsess over every metric. In fact, Avinash makes a compelling case for focusing on the critical few:

If your business was on the line how would you know things are going well or badly? Cutting through all the clutter of data, what are the metrics that are your Critical Few?

Almost all of us have too many things we measure, too many things that distract us, take away our precious time / attention.

You probably have at most three Critical Few metrics that define your existence. Do you know what they are? If you have 12 then you have too many.

Indeed, while having more KPIs is OK to have as a gauge, find your critical metrics and focus on them as priority.

Critical few platforms

Seth Godin doesn’t spend time in Twitter or Facebook. He actually doesn’t spend much time creating content with frequency anywhere other than his own blog and is focused 100% on opt-in at the source. By doing this his community does all the propagation across channels for him and he can focus on what he does best: writing and sharing ideas with us.

Seth has true leverage on the web (and in the world) by having a community that is platform agnostic. Far more than those who have multiple communities updated sporadically in other people’s platforms where there is no control over the signal to noise ratio.

Critical few words

Paul McHenry Roberts has a brilliant essay:  How To Say Nothing In 500 Words. The whole essay is worth reading and drives home the point of being succinct, but one of the points made highlights the elegance of less:

Instead of stuffing your sentences with straw, you must try steadily to get rid of the padding, to make your sentences lean and tough… You dig up more real content. Instead of taking a couple of obvious points off the surface of the topic and then circling warily around them for six paragraphs, you work in and explore, figure out the details. You illustrate.

As a writer and entrepreneur, I’ve been trying to refine my work for years to cut out superfluous layers and force myself to focus on the meat of the issue. It takes patience and self-control, but I find I’m much happier with the results.

More is common and expected. Less is rare and surprising.

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Measure Your Mobile App With Google Analytics

An obvious trend in the way we share ideas, collaborate and play is mobile. Mobile fluency is a skill that is a requirement for every marketer as well as developer and entrepreneur. And a large part of that, is of course measurement—a meta skill for everyone in tech.

Just like the rapid expansion of websites and web apps years ago (which continues) the number of mobile applications continue to grow, with more than 600,000 apps on Google Play, and 500,000 in iOS.

Mobile is also becoming front and center for marketers and businesses. As more of them understand the value of mobile apps, measurement tools are becoming core to creating and marketing apps. The researched being worked on with ClickZ, which is now being analyzed really reinforces this.

That’s why today the Google Analytics team is announcing a new set of reports in beta called Mobile App Analytics that help marketers and developers better measure their mobile apps.

To see more about the specific reports, here is a blog post from the Google Analytics Blog and you can also sign up for the beta whitelist:

Measuring a Mobile World: Introducing Mobile App Analytics

“Mobile is changing the way that people communicate, work and play, and much of the growing adoption and innovation we’re seeing in the industry is driven by mobile apps. There are already more than 600,000 mobile apps on Google Play alone, and we expect to see continued momentum throughout the industry. Mobile is also becoming front and center for marketers and businesses. As more of them understand the value of mobile apps, sophisticated measurement tools are becoming core to how marketers and app developers invest, analyze and market their apps.

That’s why today we’re announcing a new set of reports in beta called Mobile App Analytics that help marketers and developers better measure their mobile apps. The reports are tailored for mobile app developers and marketers, speaking the language that matters to them. They are designed to measure the entire mobile customer journey – from discovery to download to engagement. This enables the creation of app experiences that are more useful and engaging through data-driven decisions at each stage of the app lifecycle:

• Acquisition and user metrics such as downloads and new users

• Engagement metrics such as retention, crashes and conversions

• Outcome metrics such as app sales and in-app purchases

• Layout of new Mobile App Analytics reports

Acquisition and User Analysis Reports—discover your best sources of new users

New and active users – measure the number of new and active users who launch your app everyday and analyze your most valuable segments.

Google Play traffic sources: understand which traffic sources are driving new users and in-app conversions through Google Play to fine-tune your marketing initiatives.

App versions: keep track of the distribution of active users over the older and newer versions of your app so you know what to support.

Device overview: check out the top mobile devices and OS versions that your app runs on, and optimize the experience for each device.

Engagement Reports: see how users interact with your app

User behavior: assess how loyal your users are, how frequently they use the app, and the engagement level of each loyalty group.

Engagement flow – visually see the screens, actions and paths users take to move throughout your application in order to optimize usage.

App crashes: see trends in crashes and exceptions that will help you troubleshoot problems on certain devices and operating systems.

Outcome / Business Impact Reports—identify whether users are accomplishing your goals

Goal conversions: set up conversion events in your app, like spending 10 minutes in the app, or clicking on ads to gauge success.

In-App purchases: if you sell virtual or tangible goods in your app, you can measure the number of purchases and the revenue generated.

The new reports are part of a holistic experience tailored for mobile app measurement, including a new and lightweight SDK v2.0 that’s easier to implement and is opt-out ready, with a streamlined back-end infrastructure.

We’ve also revamped our sign-up process, so new users can choose whether they want to start measuring their website or their mobile app. This means you’ll be just 3 clicks away from setting up your app analytics account and downloading the SDK.

We will be opening the beta up to whitelisted users in waves, so if you’re interested in using Mobile App Analytics for your app, please complete this beta signup form and we’ll get you started soon. We anticipate the reports will be available to all Google Analytics users by the end of the winter.”

If you’d like to get started building your own professional business app, go to Appmart.com for the best experience.

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The Importance of Becoming an SEO Expert

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization for the uninitiated, has changed quite a bit in the last few years, thanks to the growing complexity of Google’s algorithms. The crux of Google’s algorithms is that if your site helps users achieve their goals, it should rank higher. It gives emphasis on offering a great user experience. A modern SEO expert, thus cannot restrict himself to the backend; he has to be proactive in ensuring that he offers a combination of methods to make the site rank well on Google. Today’s SEO expert needs a combination of technical, creative and strategic skills to be effective. Here are a few key components an expert SEO accomplishes:

Offers a Great Site Experience

An SEO expert really needs to put herself in the shoes of the user. What do users expect from a site?

• It needs to load fast and on any device of their choosing.

• It should be easily navigable

• And it should help achieve their goals.

Mobile has already surpassed desktop as the most favored device. Google made it very clear that mobile-friendly sites will have better rankings. Thus, it is important to have a responsive design that makes it easy for users to visit and experience the site on their mobiles.

If the site can do all this and be aesthetically pleasing at the same time, your job is done. The SEO expert needs to work closely with the visualizer, programmer and UI/UX expert to achieve this objective.

Creates Different Content Formats

Content development should be strategically linked to content marketing. A QuickSprout post gives you different ways to achieve this. Some of them include:

• Create content that which Wikipedia can link

• Create content based on keyword data.

• Ask customers questions and discover why they aren’t converting

• Focus on indirect conversions.

• Cross-link.

Leverages Content Marketing

Content development has come a long way from keyword and key phrase stuffing. Today, it is more about writing about interesting topics that entertain and inform. The content on websites needs to be unique, error-free and relevant. It should be interlinked within the site in such a way so as to offer comprehensiveness of information to the user. If the user can achieve his informational goal on a single website, Google will rank it higher. Also, emphasis needs to be given on creating different content formats like visual (videos, graphics) as well as audio (podcasts) content, apart from written content.

Targets Customers Locally

Targeting local customers is a simple way you can use SEO. If you are a local business, you can target local customers by using highly targeted keywords that denote geographical intent.

Target Customers Locally

When a user searches for a product or a service on Google, local listings are the ones that will always appear on top. Trends show that customers are more likely to click on these listings.

Get acknowledged as an authority.

Linking to other websites is no longer enough to make Google believe that you are an authority. Today, an SEO expert needs to build relationships with other bloggers and site owners to get a chance to publish on their sites. This can happen with the right mix of high quality content and PR. If your content is valuable, it will naturally attract more inbound links. This is seen by Google as a sign of credibility and trust.

Rich Snippets

A documented case study has shown that structured markup using Schema Microdata, GoodRelations and Google Rich Snippetsincreases CTR by as much as 30%. By being creative with the format, you can use Rich Snippets for a variety of web pages. You have to do testing to see how successful your Rich Snippets are in increasing your CTR and how you can adjust them to perform better. 

Use Rich Snippets to Increase CTR

From a SEO standpoint, Rich Snippets aren’t important, but they sure are effective in increasing click-through ratio. You can use Rich Snippets to show helpful information like ratings, reviews, pricing, etc. in the search results pages to attract customers.

Understands How the Importance of Technical Skills

Many experts will have you believe that since all Google wants you to do is give users the best experience and it will rank your site higher. But this is not entirely true. The modern SEO expert will definitely need skills beyond his usual technical repertoire as noted above but at the same time, needs more technical skills than what he needed a few years ago.

It is simply not enough to write quality content and reduce bounce rates to rank well on Google. It is an oversimplification of the SEO expert’s job. A short list of the technical skills that are required by the modern SEO has been put up by Rand Fishkin here.

Conclusion

SEO is a rapidly evolving phenomenon. As an expert, you have to stay abreast of the latest developments. Apart from emerging and traditional technical skills, you also need creative and strategic skills to make your site rank better. Also, it will help you avoid penalizations if you stick to the same old strategies that Google might one day deem as illegal. The margin for error is shorter than ever. Stay informed as you wear multiple hats.

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Steve Renner’s “Professional Performance 360 Special Edition: Success” Now on Amazon’s Bestseller List

Thought leader, author and entrepreneur Steve Renner recently hit two Amazon.com best-seller lists with the new book, “Professional Performance 360 Special Edition: Success”

Steve Renner, along with a select group of entrepreneurs from around the world, including Richard Branson, Ken Nunn and Betsi Bixby co-write the book titled, Professional Performance 360 Special Edition: Success, published by CelebrityPress® and released on September 19, 2015.

Professional Performance 360 Special Edition: Success reached best-seller status in two Amazon.com categories on the day of release – reaching #11 in the category “Direct Marketing,” and #62 in “Sales and Selling.” Steve’s chapter is titled “High Performance 360—My Quest for Success.”

CelebrityPress® describes the book:

“You can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”-Napoleon Hill

The Professional Performance 360 Special Edition: Success authors and entrepreneurs in this book may be considered the offspring of those ambitious goals: Success and Achievement. In this compilation, they share their experiences (both successful as well as those to avoid) to help others better understand the prerequisites of success.

This careful selection of experts highlights the qualities that are required to achieve goals-regardless of their nature. The reader may note that it is no different mindset to set aspirations for lofty goals or down-to-earth ones. In fact, some experts need to work their way up to higher goals while others have a mindset to go for broke-and both make it work!

Among the main drivers in high achievers are: knowledge, goal setting, planning, perseverance, passion, and action. While finance is not to be ignored, entrepreneurs and ‘doers’ do not allow this element to destroy their dreams, and merely factor it into their plans. Success becomes a habit and a precious quality to share with all who wish to achieve.

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” – Abraham Lincoln

Professional Performance 360 Special Edition: Success is available to purchase now on Amazon.

A portion of the royalties from sales of Professional Performance 360: Special Edition: Success will be awarded to Entrepreneur’s International Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating unique launch campaigns to raise money and awareness for charitable causes.

About Steve Renner:

Steve Renner is an Internet marketing pioneer. He started his first Internet service company back in 1998, providing Internet services for individuals and small business. In 2001, Steve pioneered online payment services with Cash Cards and V-Cash, and became a leader in the industry.

In 2011, Steve started the Acesse search engine, which is now ranked as a top web destination in the world.

He has gone on to build a successful Internet services company, which employs over 100 people, and provides services to small business customers around the world.

Steve is well liked and respected in the industry, and speaks to thousands around the world at live events. His first book, Transform; a collaboration with well known Sales Trainer and Motivational Speaker Brian Tracy, is an Amazon #1 Best Seller.

Steve is also a member of the National Academy Of Best Selling Authors, and will be recognized for his contributions to Professional Performance 360: Special Edition: Success.

Steve also writes music and is an accomplished blues guitarist. He enjoys spending time with his family, his children and especially his grandchildren.

For the original version visit PRWeb.

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Get the Most of Out Twitter’s Video Monetization Feature

“Twitter Monetization, Now at Your Fingertips,” was posted a couple months ago on The Twitter Media blog. I understand if your schedule is already set from now until Christmas, but the expansion of their creator revenue programs will provide you with the ability to monetize your content and generate some serious new revenue. So what’s the lowdown on Twitter’s Video Monetization?

If a significant number of YouTube creators in your target categories start creating more Twitter videos, there are going to some very interesting new advertising opportunities—just in time for the holidays. We’re going to answer the following questions in relation to Twitter’s new revenue-generating feature:

• How do you earn revenue with Twitter video uploads?
• What makes video on Twitter different from video on other platforms?
• What types of video attract audiences that attract advertisers?
• Should creators go it alone or split the risks and rewards with a brand name partner?
• What are the metrics that matter to not only to creators but also to advertisers?

According to CNBC, here’s the skinny on Twitter’s new deal: “Creators who publish videos on Twitter will get about 70% of the ad revenue, according to a source close to the situation.” Now, that’s potentially a better deal than YouTube’s Partner program, which gives creators 55% of ad revenue, and keeps 45% for itself. Facebook also offers a 55/45% split, but only to larger content creators like the NBA, Fox Sports, and Funny or Die. In contrast, Twitter is offering the 70% split to “creators of all sizes.”

#1 How Do You Earn Revenue with Twitter Video Uploads?

Twitter only asks creators to make a couple of picks before they can monetize their content. The first pick is whether or not to join the Amplify Publisher Program, which provides approved creators in the US with the ability to monetize their videos on Twitter. Pre-roll ads will run against their content and 70% of the ad revenue will be shared with creator. Program participants can either opt-in each video Tweet-by-Tweet, or pre-set monetization for all of their Twitter videos. Content can also be opted-in for monetization “100% non-exclusively,” which means creators can monetize it on other platforms as well as Twitter.

Niche helps creators work with leading brands on a campaign-by-campaign basis. A part of the Twitter family since 2015, Niche has already helped 35,000 creators worldwide work with top brands to develop authentic and engaging branded content as well as monetize their social presence across major social networks.

Last month, Twitter also announced some product upgrades that it claimed will make publishing and monetizing on Twitter “as effortless as sending a Tweet.” Creators can now upload, manage and publish videos across both Desktop (via the new Media Studio, which replaces video.twitter.com) and Mobile (via the Twitter Engage app, which now has a new “Earnings” section).

#2 What Makes Video on Twitter Different from Video on Other Platforms?

Some people believe that a video is a video is a video. But this is a mistake. For example, you use hashtags, not keywords, to help your videos get discovered on Twitter. You will be prompted to edit your Twitter videos to 2 minutes and 20 seconds or less in length. You’ll also need a different set of tools to identify Twitter influencers, who rival friends in building consumer trust.

Research has found that audiences who are emotionally connected are more responsive. For example, TV viewers who are emotionally invested in a show tend to recall ads they see, on TV and on Twitter and this drives a response. Of course, relevance also plays an important role. In an eMarketer study, subjects were shown a variety of ads and the most relevant and interesting ones received the most positive responses from viewers.

For example, research shows that moms are 67% more likely to research products using Twitter and 45% more likely to make purchases based on Twitter. Mothers control 77% of household purchases and they’re 3 times more likely to be high spenders of packaged food and household goods. More importantly, “Twitter moms” are also 3 times more likely to be early adopters, making them a highly desirable consumer segment that’s critical to a brand’s success.

#3 What Types of Video Attract Audiences That Attract Advertisers?

Getting lucky isn’t much of a business strategy. So, before creators of all sizes rush to make videos on Twitter, they might want to get their hands on a map showing what types of video attract the kind of audiences that attract advertisers.

The first thing that you’ll see is that 92% of Twitter video views happen on mobile. Next, you’ll notice that video views on Twitter have grown 220 times year over year. And if you look closely, you’ll discover that videos are six times more likely to be Retweeted than photos, and three times more likely than GIFs. This explosive growth in video consumption and sharing in a live environment like Twitter makes this as good a place as any to stake a claim and begin some exploratory digging.

#4 Should Creators Go it Alone or Split the Risks and Rewards With a Brand Name Partner?

While joining Twitter’s Amplify Publisher Program is an easy choice to make, joining Niche may also be a smart choice, too. So, imagine how quickly you’ll move to the top of the list of Twitter influencers in this category if you created videos about your most recent purchases and retweeted your favorite ads for computers, smartphones, tablets, TVs, cameras, headphones, wearable technology, and home technology.

Imagine how popular your videos on Twitter would be, to moms as well as to brands and their agencies, if you made videos of deals and sales on women’s apparel. Also, imagine striking gold by creating home improvement how-to videos, and including links to product pages where your followers can easily convert to purchase within a click or two.

Aim to become a Twitter Star by sharing product recommendations that align with seasonal trends, from Halloween to Christmas.

#5 What Are the Metrics That Matter to Creators & Advertisers?

Now, it’s good to know that over half of all brand videos posted to Twitter get their first views within 10 seconds of being posted. But, at the end of the day, creators will want to be able to show the metrics that matter to advertisers if they want them to buy more pre-roll ads that will run against their Twitter content. Creators will also need to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) to show the brands who work with them on a Twitter campaign.

Creators as well as brands and agencies should invest a serious amount of time thinking about whether or not to join Twitter’s new video monetization programs. You don’t want to wait until the beginning of next year to discover that other creators and brands have already found the mother lode.

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