WordPress Blog Hosting - How to Pick a Host and What to Look For

Picking the privilege facilitating supplier for your blog can be extreme. In addition to the fact that you have to consider each prospect dependent on its surveys, execution, and value, you additionally need to factor in your special needs. At the end of the day, it implies searching for the best WordPress blog facilitating suppliers available.Fortunately, weve obtained a lifetime of experience already on more than one occasion, soâ we have a lot of experience with regards to facilitating. Also, manyâ of the WordPress blog facilitating suppliers well examine offer serious costs, so your spending plan wont must be a restricting factor.In this article, were going to discuss what you should search for in a WordPress facilitating supplier for blogging, at that point acquaint you with three of our preferred picks. Well discussion about every supplier execution, cost, and key highlights, so youll have all the data you have to settle on an educated choice. Lets bounce directly in! In shor t,â cost is a key factor when searching for a blogging host. Youll need toâ look for something reasonable, since you may not be getting a lot of cash from the outset. Its additionally shrewd to pick a host with a reputation for high uptimes, since you cannot assemble a predictable readershipâ if your site isnt dependably accessible. At long last, youll need a lot of server space, so you arent constrained in the measure of substance and assets you can impart to your sites audience.With such huge numbers of elements to consider, picking the correct assistance can be troublesome. There areâ a part of expected decisions to figure out. Lets talk about a portion of the highlights that different nice web has from incredible ones:Excellent execution. Now and then, your blog may feel drowsy because of poor streamlining on your end. Notwithstanding, the issue may rather beâ that your web has execution isnt satisfactory. Having a quick site is basic in the event that you need to develop i ts crowd, so look out at this metric.Competitive costs. As you would expect, a portion of the top WordPress facilitating administrations arent modest. In any case, there are a lot of starter designs that can deal with little to medium-sized online journals gracefully. On the off chance that youre simply beginning, you dont need to need to use up every last cent to manage the cost of hosting.Targeted WordPress contributions. What isolates fantastic WordPress has from the various administrations out there are the specific highlights they offer. For instance, a few hosts staff their help group with WordPress specialists, while others offer dedicatedâ managed facilitating administrations for the platform.These arent the main measures to remember when searching for a web have, however they all make them thing in like manner †theyre quantifiable. You can discover hard information concerning each of them three, and use it to settle on an educated choice about which WordPress blog fac ilitating administration to choose.Three of the best facilitating suppliers for WordPress blogsThe following are three well known facilitating suppliers for WordPress sites (offering both shared and oversaw facilitating plans). Well be assessing every host execution with two unique measurements: a basic speed test utilizing Pingdom Tools, and a pressure test via Load Impact. Besides, well give you what evaluations they got (utilizing a 1â€5 scale) during our gigantic WordPress facilitating survey,â and on famous audit site WhoIsHostingThis where material. Finally,â well feature aâ quote from a genuine client about each facilitating stage, and examine estimating options.Before we hop in, its value referencing that you shouldnt just utilize one source to research WordPress facilitating. This is a significant decision, so we urge you to peruseâ multiple audits for any stage youre truly considering. In light of that, letsâ take a look!TOC: Flywheel | SiteGround | A2 Hostin g Go to top1. FlywheelFlywheel is outstanding amongst other known names with regards to oversaw WordPress facilitating, and with goodâ reason. The stage offers plans custom fitted both to WordPress devotees and offices, a lot of helpful highlights, and excellent performance.Key features:Easy-to-set up arranging sitesNightly backupsâ for your siteHands-on security optionsPage speed test with Pingdom:Melbourne: 2.20 secondsNew York: 0.59 secondsStockholm: 1.36 secondsBasic load testing with Load Impact:Load generator: Ashburn, USATest server: Ashburn, USAMinimum reaction time: 0.15 seconds.Maximum reaction time: 1.19 seconds.The numbers represent themselves, yet on the off chance that you need to peruse increasingly about Flywheels execution, look at our full audit for the platform.Load Impact chart:User ratings:Overall rating: 4.7Support assistance rating: 4.9WhoIsHostingThis? client rating: N/AWhat clients consider Flywheel:The unwavering quality, speed, and backing are generally astonishing †yet where Flywheel truly sparkles is their profound comprehension of the requirements of organizations and structure firms.Price:Flywheels oversaw facilitating plans start at $14 every month for a solitary site. That is somewhat more extreme than other web has, however you get a lot of additional highlights and astounding execution for that price.Go to top2. SiteGroundSiteGround is a famous choice with regards to WordPress facilitating, and its an extraordinary counterpart for both little and huge sites. Beside its phenomenal presentation and backing, it by one way or another figures out how to offer the absolute best costs on the market.Key features:Access to the WordPress Supercacher pluginOne-click WordPress arranging sitesFree establishment of GIT for WordPressPage speed test with Pingdom:Melbourne: 1.563 secondsNew York: 0.645 secondsStockholm: 1.390 secondsBasic load testing with Load Impact:Load Generator: Portland, USTest Server: Portland, USMinimum Response Time:â 0.738 secondsMaximum Response Time:â 1.480 secondsOur second passage in this web have correlation doesnt frustrate with regards to execution. Look at our full contemplations on SiteGrounds speed inâ our complete audit for the service.Load Impact chart:User ratings:Overall rating: 4.6Support assistance rating: 4.5WhoIsHostingThis? client rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (1,205 reviews)What clients consider SiteGround:I simply needed to state how satisfied I am with SiteGround facilitating. I have worked with various facilitating organizations throughout the years, and you reliably give quality facilitating, however far better client support.Price:As far as costs go, its difficult to beat SiteGround. In addition to the fact that they offer oversaw facilitating administrations beginning at $3.95 every month, except their help and execution are best in class. The main drawback is that they dont acknowledge month-to-month installments, so in the event th at you need to see those reserve funds youll need to dish out for a year upfront.Go to top3. A2 HostingA2 Hosting has gained notoriety for astounding execution, and they positively convey in that regard. In contrast to different sections on this rundown, they dont offer oversaw WordPress blog facilitating administrations however that shouldnt prevent you from giving them a shot.Key features:Optimized WordPress installationsConfigured for top performancePage speed test with Pingdom:Melbourne: 2.24 secondsNew York: 480 millisecondsStockholm: 911 millisecondsBasic load testing with Load Impact:Load generator: Ashburn, USTest server: Chicago, USMinimum reaction time: 230.83 millisecondsMaximum reaction time: 289.49 millisecondsThese results are noteworthy all alone †significantly more so when you consider we got them from a common facilitating plan. To peruse increasingly about the host in general, look at our full A2 Hosting review.Load Impact chart:User ratings:Overall rating : N/ASupport administration rating: N/AWhoIsHostingThis client rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 (199 reviews)What clients consider A2 Hosting:I wish I could send your whole care staff a frozen custard. Or then again another vehicle. You could without much of a stretch have passed over this specialized inquiry †numerous different hosts would have †yet you took a couple of moments to find it for me.Unfortunately, we werent ready to cover A2 Hosting inâ our broad WordPress facilitating audit. Notwithstanding, their costs and execution results ought to represent themselves.Price:A2 Hostings WordPress plans start at $3.92 every month, which places them in a similar neighborhood as SiteGround. Be that as it may, they do empower you to pay for your administration month to month, so theyre an incredible other option on the off chance that you dont need to focus on an entire year very yet.Go to topConclusionYour decision of host has a colossal effect on your destinations execution . Since your blog has the right to be facilitated on a vigorous stage, doing some examination at this stage is pivotal. Furthermore, it can spare you cerebral pains †and a potential future movement †down the line. There are a lot of seriously valued administrations with first class includes out there, so theres no motivation to select a host that doesnt satisfy your needs.Lets survey the aftereffects of our WordPress blog facilitating examination before wrapping up:WordPress blog facilitating correlation summaryFlywheelSiteGroundA2 HostingOverall client rating4.74.6Support administration rating4.94.5WhoIsHostingThis? client rating4.54.5Average stacking time (in seconds)1.381.191.21Minimum reaction time under worry (in seconds)0.150.730.23Maximum reaction time under worry (in seconds)1.191.480.28Starter plan cost (per month)$15$3.95$3.92

Color Matters Essay Example for Free

Shading Matters Essay In the showcasing field, shading assumes a huge job in a company’s ad and bundling. As per inquire about, the correct shading merits a thousand words just as it can expand deals and a company’s benefit (Morton, 2010). Above all, a company’s shading is firmly identified with the sort of judgment and choices shoppers make in regards to a particular item. Research additionally uncovers that shading builds brand acknowledgment, memory, draws in and expands support, and pulls in shoppers consideration (Morton, 2010). In general, shading is amazing in promoting. In this way, this paper will talk about the significance of shading with Coca-Cola Company’s promoting as it identifies with the various implications, societies, and fragment markets. The Importance Of Color With Coca-Cola Company’s Advertising Coca-Cola is one of the world’s generally mainstream and perceived brand. Let’s talk about the company’s reason for being good to go. The strategic the Coca-Cola Company is â€Å"to invigorate the world, move snapshots of hopefulness and bliss, make worth, and make a difference† (The Coca-Cola Company, 2013). All things considered, the shades of the Coca-Cola Company in their promoting, which is red and white, are critical for various reasons. To begin with, the organization needs to send the correct message to purchasers. Second, the hues help recognize the various brands (Kolter Keller, 2012). Third, the various hues additionally help the organization to separate themselves from their rivals. The majority of all, Coca-Cola’s unmistakable hues passes on data or potentially gives buyers some other operational advantages (Morton, 2012). By and large, the hues primary objective is to get consumers’ consideration while settling on an effect on their purchasing choice. The Different Meanings According to the shading wheel of marking and bundling, the Coca-Cola Company’s hues for their notice guarantees various implications. As expressed before, the shades of the company’s promotion are red and white. These hues have been utilized for in excess of a hundred years. Red advances Coca-Cola neighborly characteristics, for example, vitality, amazing, fearlessness, energy, and quality (Kolter Keller, 2012). Though white demonstrates that the organization is tied in with making items that are inventive and current. As result, these hues have been an effective shading methodology and have helped the organization become the world’s top organizations in their industry (Pigford, 2013). Notwithstanding, the incredible difference of the hues likewise guarantee comprehensibility, which is one of the significant components of item procedure in showcasing (Pigford, 2013). The Culture The Coca-Cola Company has a triumphant culture, which characterizes the perspectives and practices of their representatives (The Coca-Cola Company, 2013). For this situation, the decisions of the hues additionally educate buyers that the representatives likewise have similar properties in regards to their work execution. Coca-Cola’s hues identifies with their way of life in light of the fact that the organization and its representatives illustrates: (1) coordinated effort; (2) how they have fearlessness to shape a superior future; (3) honesty; (4) responsibility; (5) enthusiasm; (6) decent variety; and (7) quality. The Market Segments A promoting fragment is alluded to as accumulating imminent purchasers into bunches that have basic needs and their reaction to a showcasing activity will be comparable. Market division stresses two things: (1) gathering people or associations as indicated by likeness of necessities and the advantages wanted; and (2) needs and advantages must be related to explicit unmistakable advertising activities (Identifying Market Segments Target, 2011). Coca-Cola’s advertise fragment comprises of purchasers who are looking for changed and extraordinary items that are. The company’s hues likewise target people who additionally need to make contrasts in the networks, which expect them to exhibit responsibility, vitality, quality, and fervor. In conclusion,it is basic that organizations consider their decision of shading when publicizing or finishing bundling. Hues and advertising are associated with each other from multiple points of view. Hues can impact an individual’s thinking, activities, cause responses (Morton, 2012). Indeed, hues can't be supplanted in light of the fact that they are known as the most remarkable types of correspondence. More than so ever, hues are the visual part that shoppers recollect the most about a brand (Morton, 2012). Numerous organizations who produce extraordinary brands depend on shading as their key factor in prompt acknowledgment. Along these lines, organizations ought to use the shading wheel of marking and bundling before propelling their item. Reference Mortan, J. (2012). Shading Matters. Recovered fromâ http://www.colormatters.com/

Word of the Week! Susurrus Richmond Writing

Word of the Week! Susurrus Richmond Writing This week, UR and VCU hosted writer Fran Wilde for a   workshop on voice. Fran is giving a reading at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, to celebrate the release of   the anthology  His Hideous Heart, where modern authors reinterpret tales by Poe. During our workshop on campus, I asked her the first word of Poes that came to mind, a word she associates with this unique voice. Susurrus is a fine choice! The OED entry calls it a whispering, a rustling. Think about how the sense of the word fits its sound. Thats called onomatopoeia, a word I had to memorize in high school, and spell correctly lest the yardstick in Father Raymonds hands came down on me: From a remote distance, half-sensed in that gloomy place called a school yet more like a Romanesque prison-house beneath a mossy tile roof, I can to this day, in a moment of dread that darkens the sun, almost hear a susurrus of priestly robes, as the phantasmal figure glided toward me, a rod of malice raised high over the rage-knotted face I think you get the idea of why Poe enjoyed the word. If you can imagine the half-heard noises in The House of Usher, you have our onomatopoeic word of the week, as autumnal a term as any that Poe uttered. Though of Latin derivation, the term only dates to 1826. Why it came into being, save as an artistic coinage, remains a mystery. But thats just so for this season of the year and for Poes work. He did give us the detective story, after all. Lets get busy solving this one, if we can. I look forward to a susurrus of whispered half-answers. Special thanks to Fran Wilde for an excellent workshop and a fine Word of the Week! She also provided advice about pronunciation. Accent that second syllabus, sus-SUR-us. Ive been saying SU-surrus for decades, incorrectly. Its a fine term never encountered in everyday or even academic speech, yet in writing, it conveys enormous power. Please send us words and metaphors useful in academic writing by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below. See all of our Metaphors of the Month  here  and Words of the Week  here. Image of Fran Wilde by permission of Ms. Wilde; image of Poe and the author by permission of The Great Beyond.

UNC Chapel Hill or Wake Forest University - 500 Words

UNC Chapel Hill or Wake Forest University I would like to get a teaching degree from a university. The two universities that I really love are UNC Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University. When comparing UNC Chapel Hill to Wake Forest I find they are both similar, yet different. Looking at cost of tuition, the number of students, graduation rate, location, admission rate, room and board, financial aid, and flexibility for both universities it will help me decide which college I would most likely attend. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to attend UNC Chapel Hill. The only problem with going to a big university is the money and maintaining a certain grade point average. Chapel Hill is located near Raleigh, Durham which†¦show more content†¦Located in Winston Salem which takes approximately 3 hours to get there from my house. Being a private university makes Wake Forest more expensive than most public universities. According to Snider, â€Å"The average total c ost of a private college or university is about $40,000 a year, but private institutions’ abundant need-and merit-based aid means that most families pay about half the advertised price.† This could potentially save students thousands of dollars. Tuition is a big part of Wake Forest with in-state and out-of-state tuition both being around $34,330. According to college stats, there are 6,788 students, 6,633 being full-time and the remaining 155 students are part-time. Wake Forest has an 89% graduation rate which is 6% higher than Chapel Hill. I also discovered that room and board is about $11,660 and is also not included with tuition. Once again, if I were to attend Wake Forest I would have to pay out of pocket for a place to live and food. The admission’s rate at Wake Forest is 34%. I think Wake Forest is pretty flexible as well. There are payment plans they can set up with the students to help each one pay off their loans and other debts they have. While comparin g and contrasting both UNC Chapel Hill and Wake Forest I discovered very helpful information to help me choose which college may be best for me to attend. Based on what I researched I would preferShow MoreRelatedPersonal Narrative : My Love For Nutrition1621 Words   |  7 Pagesmilestone in my life, a desire was birthed in me to help others become healthy as well. This epiphany led me to continue my education by embarking on a second bachelor’s degree in nutrition. However, when I began my didactic program in dietetics program at UNC Greensboro two years ago, I never realized I would move to the number one county in the nation for food insecurity. Over the past two years, I have had a plethora of opportunities to help eradicate this issue in the greater Greensboro area. This hasRead MoreMarketing Project Essay3246 Words   |  13 Pagesï » ¿ North Carolina State University College Basketball Date Submitted April 12 2014 Prepared By Logan Blankenship BUS 360 SECTION 001 Table of Contents Company Offering Product/Service ..3 Company Description 3 Company Location(s) 3 Other Products/Services Offered 3 Market Areas Sells To 4 PRODUCT/SERVICE BEING MARKETED......................................................................5 Description of Product/service 5 Features and Capabilities 5 Product/Service Life CycleRead MoreDarden Mba Resumes16768 Words   |  68 Pages249-7645 ï‚ · AgrawalA11@darden.virginia.edu EDUCATION Darden Graduate School of Business Administration University of Virginia Candidate for Master of Business Administration, May 2011 ï‚ · Awarded Batten Innovation Scholarship (merit-based full tuition scholarship); ï‚ · GMAT: 730; AWA: 5.5 ï‚ · Member of Finance Club, Energy Club and Darden Capital Management Club Charlottesville, VA Nanyang Technological University Singapore Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering) and Minor in Business, June 2006 ï‚ · AwardedRead More65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays 2nd Edition 147256 Words   |  190 Pagesdormant volunteers would be more effective. To that end, we contacted our inactive volunteers to understand their circumstances and discovered that many lacked ideas to engage their little siblings or felt uncomfortable interacting outside the university community.. In response to these concerns, I developed a plan to organize and advertise various on-campus group social activities. I excitedly outlined the projects various benefits and offered to coordinate the groups efforts, thereby overcoming

Essay on Comparing Death of a Salesman and Fences - 795 Words

When it comes to comparing and contrasting two different cultures and morals the differences can be night and day. In Death Of A Salesman and Fences, these stories follow two middle-class families around the same time period (late 1940-1950’s), who are both facing problems within their own household’s. From marital issues to failing father/son relationships, both of these stories paint a picture to the audience of what life in an urban family living in that time setting was like through the author’s eyes. And even yet with all the things between these two plays that make them alike, there are also many things that make them very different. In Fences we follow Troy Maxon, an ex baseball player and hard headed â€Å"family man†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦Willys son Happy constantly stands in biffs shadow while Lyons is Troys son from a different mother who never saw Troy through his childhood due to Troy being in jail, unlike Corey, so its almost as if h e stands in Coreys shadow as well though Troy nor Rose treats him any differently. Unlike Willy and Linda, who seem to put more attention towards Biff than Happy. So it seems that the boys all have similarities between them but the way they are treated by their mother and father are where the differences lay. In Death Of A Salesman Willy treats his wife Linda, as though he does not appreciate her. He talks to her disrespectfully and even ignores her on occasion, and even though he does this blatantly she still stands by his side and acts as his support. In Fences Troy treats his wife Rose with a certain amount of respect but when he does step out of line Rose is not the one to take it. A perfect example of this would be the fact that both men had found a way to have an extramarital affair, and both for validations reasons. Linda chose to ignore the fact that Willy was having an affair. By ignoring what was happening, Linda did not have to admit to herself what was going on, and saved herself some difficult choices. Linda was not strong enough to make those choices. When Rose found out that Troy had been unfaithful she chose to leave him. And even through it all she still chose to take care of the child he had with anotherShow MoreRelatedComparing Death Of A Salesman And Fences By August Wilson947 Words   |  4 Pages Romano Stewart English 1102 Friday: 9-11:45 a.m. November 30, 2017 Barry Hall In the books Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Fences by August Wilson, there are common themes that run throughout the entire stories. Among these similarities there are two, hard working men who are trying to live the American dream but instead end up becoming frustrated by life. The main character of each book, Willy Loman and Troy Maxson are similar in many ways. They both try hard to be good men and fathersRead MoreComparing Death Of A Salesman And Fences By August Wilson946 Words   |  4 PagesIn the books Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Fences by August Wilson, there are common themes and various similarities that run throughout the entire stories. Among these similarities there are two, hard working men who are trying to live the American dream but instead end up becoming frustrated by life and bitter towards the only people who really care for them. The main character of each book, Willy Loman and Troy Maxson are similar in many ways. They both try hard t o be good men andRead More Comparing Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson1267 Words   |  6 PagesComparing Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson have similar themes of conflicts between fathers and sons, conflicts between husbands and wives, and the need to focus on a small unit of space in order to achieve success. In the process of developing these themes throughout the two plays, three similar symbolic elements are used including the insecure father figure, the other woman, and the garden. Read MoreComparing Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Fences by August Wilson 1403 Words   |  6 PagesFences written by August Wilson and Death of a Salesman written by Arthur Miller are two plays that could be considered very different in terms of their plot. The plots of both plays contain two very different cultural backgrounds which affects each protagonist differently. If the reader or audience looks past the plot into the theme and symbolisms used they can see that the plays are more similar than they are different. In spite of the different cultural backgro unds of each protagonist they bothRead MoreFather and Son in Death of a Salesman, and Fences Essay966 Words   |  4 Pagesfather expects from his son. For instance in the narratives, â€Å"Death of a Salesman,† and â€Å"Fences† both Willy and Troy are fathers who have a difficult time in earning respect from their sons, and being a role model for them. Between, â€Å"Death of a Salesman,† and â€Å"Fences,† both protagonists, Willy and Troy both depict the role of a father in distinctive ways; however, in their struggle, Willy is the more sympathetic of the two. In comparing Willy and Troy, as fathers, one could feel more sympathy inRead More The Importance of Gender in Boys and Girls by Alice Munro Essay3422 Words   |  14 Pageslinoleum (113).   The girl is showing her opposition to her assigned gender role.   She does not like working in the house or preparing comparing and contrasting of the fathers world versus the mothers world.   The fathers world is composed of outdoor work, fox farming, has no emotion, expresses freedom and identified by light.   The fathers world is all about the death of animals.   So, there is no time for emotions.   This lack of emotions is also carried into the relationship between the girl and herRead MoreEssay about Definitions Assignment - Torts11187 Words   |  45 PagesThey are re-entry upon land, recapture of chattel, and the â€Å"Shopkeeper’s Rule†. Example: The squatters who were arrested for dealing and using drugs in the Smith’s vacant home were there again last night. Mr. Smith happened to be onsite repairing a fence and he waived his hammer to the squatters to scare them away. One of the squatters was hit on his way out. Re-entry Upon Land Aspect – The re-entry upon land aspect relates to one’s privilege to use force to re-enter land only if the taking ofRead MoreEthical Decision Making and Behavior13474 Words   |  54 Pages____________________________________________________________________ Vignette 3 Earlier today, a salesman who works in Iowa called you and told you about an experience he had last week. One of his customers placed a small order of about $1,500 worth of product from corporate headquarters. The home office immediately shipped the package through a freight company, and it arrived the next day at the freight company’s warehouse in Iowa. The salesman went to the warehouse just as it was closing and talked to one of the managersRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesdecision, too. He wants to stay, but not by himself. Still, he isnt convinced by Juanitas reasons. Look, he says, if the stream were poisonous, everything in it would look dead. There are water spiders and plants living in the stream. Its no death trap. At this point you are faced with one of lifes little decisions: What do you do about the water situation? Go or stay? Someone else might make this decision by flipping a coin. A logical reasoner is more rational. 4 A first step inRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesConflict 375 SKILL LEARNING 376 Interpersonal Conflict Management 376 Mixed Feelings About Conflict 376 Diagnosing the Type of Interpersonal Conflict 378 Conflict Focus 378 Conflict Source 380 Selecting the Appropriate Conflict Management Approach 383 Comparing Conflict Management and Negotiation Strategies 386 Selection Factors 386 Resolving Interpersonal Confrontations Using the Collaborative Approach A General Framework for Collaborative Problem Solving 391 The Four Phases of Collaborative Problem Solving

Night Creature Blue Moon Chapter 4 Free Essays

Before you get the wrong impression, I didn’t shoot her. I spun around, coming face-to-face with my boss, Sheriff Clyde Johnston. â€Å"Were you gonna shoot that pistol or whistle Dixie?† he grumbled. We will write a custom essay sample on Night Creature: Blue Moon Chapter 4 or any similar topic only for you Order Now If Clyde wasn’t three-quarters Indian, he’d be a good old boy to rival them all. As it was, his belly stretched his sheriff’s shirt to bursting, the chew in his mouth garbled his speech, and the size of his gun made me remember old jokes about large weapons and small male equipment. His habit of parroting lines from Clint Eastwood movies in normal conversation frayed the patience of better men than me. His Clint fixation also explained why we carried .44 Magnums in Miniwa when a lot of other departments had moved into the world of semiautomatic weapons. But I agreed with Clyde that revolvers were more reliable than the newfangled automatics, which required a higher quality of ammunition and had a habit of misfiring. When dealing with guns, I vote for reliability over speed any day. My ears ringing from the volume of the blast, I ran across the room and picked up the little boy. He was still unconscious. A quick glance at the other body, principal from the cut of the suit, revealed he was as dead as Karen Larson, though not from the same cause. Her head sported a large hole. The principal’s neck did. â€Å"Guess .44 Magnum is the most powerful handgun in the world,† Clyde observed. â€Å"Nearly blew her head clean off.† This was a bit much, even for me. I headed for the door with the kid and left Clyde to clean up after himself for a change. He took one glance at my face and didn’t stop me. The EMTs were in the hall. I handed the boy to the nearest one. â€Å"This is the only known injury. The others are fatalities.† The woman gave a quick, capable nod as she checked him over. â€Å"What’s his name?† â€Å"Don’t know. He was unconscious when I got here. He might not even be hurt. That’s not his blood or – † I broke off. No need to detail what else wasn’t his. â€Å"Right,† she said. â€Å"We’ll take it from here.† They whisked him off to points unknown, and though I didn’t want to, I returned to the crime scene. Clyde had everything under control. He might look like a fool, but he wasn’t. That’s how he’d stayed sheriff of Miniwa for thirty years. The Indians trusted him, and the white folks held him up as their token native. That he was smart as a shiny new shoe and had never allowed a crime to go unpunished on his watch didn’t hurt, either. He hovered near the scene, intent on preserving it until the techs and the medical examiner arrived. Miniwa being such a small community, we shared both with Clearwater, across the lake, and several other tiny towns. As I entered the room, Clyde glanced up, then quirked a dark, bushy brow. â€Å"Tell me, Jessie, how is it I find little ol’ you in the middle of this great big mess?† Only a man the size of Clyde would consider me little. I’d be fond of him for that alone, if I were capable of it. â€Å"I was following up on a case.† He frowned. â€Å"Which case?† Since he’d just come on duty and I’d just gone off, Clyde wouldn’t have seen my report yet, even if I had filed one. â€Å"Minor traffic accident. Miss Larson hit a wolf.† â€Å"Who?† I waved my hand in the direction of body number two. â€Å"Oh. So?† Quickly I filled him in on the details. Wham, bam, down goes the wolf. Nip the hand, chase through the night, no sign of the animal. Then Miss Larson nixing the rabies shots and her subsequent need for them. I left out the naked Indian part. Clyde wouldn’t be interested. â€Å"Huh,† he muttered. â€Å"Papers are gonna have a field day.† I groaned. Small towns had little to do but gossip. The incidents of the past twelve hours were going to turn into a major media event and quite possibly a serious problem. There’d be gunmen in the woods searching for a rabid wolf – DNR orders be damned. We’d have panic-stricken citizens shooting stray dogs and maybe even stray people. â€Å"Exactly.† Clyde spit a brown stream into a nearby garbage can. Hadn’t anyone informed him of the horrors of tongue cancer? â€Å"Maybe you oughta just keep the wolf story to yourself, hmm?† â€Å"But – â€Å" â€Å"No buts. You know what’ll happen. Once we take care of the wolf, we’ll tell the truth. Where’s the harm in that?† True. However – â€Å"I’ll have to talk to Brad and Zee,† I said. â€Å"But they shouldn’t be a problem.† Clyde grunted. â€Å"Good. Do that.† â€Å"There’s also a doctor at the clinic – â€Å" â€Å"I’ll talk to him.† â€Å"Okay.† I stood there, uncertain. I wanted to ask Clyde a question, but I wasn’t sure how. â€Å"You gotta be draggin’ , Jessie. Go home. Sleep. I can handle this.† â€Å"Not much left to handle,† I muttered, eyes on the bodies. I felt his sharp glare. â€Å"You got somethin’ else to say? Say it.† He knew as well as I did that I couldn’t leave until reinforcements arrived. Clyde had just shot a civilian. There were procedures to follow, not the least of which was taking his gun and giving my statement as a witness. I really shouldn’t have left him in the room alone, but what choice did I have with an unconscious child in my arms? Clyde was a good cop. He’d already bagged his gun. The pistol lay on one of the desks, an obscene reminder of too many other guns in schools. â€Å"Jessie?† Clyde prompted. I continued to hesitate. Clyde had been sheriff since before I was born; who was I to question his methods? Still I couldn’t go home and sleep without asking. My curiosity wouldn’t let me. â€Å"Did you have to hit her in the head, Clyde? I mean – † I shrugged, spread my hands. â€Å"Wouldn’t the leg have worked just as well?† â€Å"I’ve seen perps keep comin’ with bullets in their leg, gut, chest, back. But I’ve never seen any get up after I put one between their eyes.† â€Å"But – â€Å" â€Å"She was stark ravin’ loony. She’d already killed one man and she had a kid in her hands. You wanna argue head or leg with that boy’s mama?† â€Å"No, sir.† â€Å"I didn’t think you would.† Clyde stared at me for a moment, as if taking my measure. Before he could say anything else, the crime scene techs and two of our officers arrived and got to work. I gave my statement and was released. The medical examiner had not yet arrived to pronounce the victims. Nothing new there. Dr. Prescott Bozeman was a fuckup if ever there was one. I glanced at Clyde and received a sharp nod. â€Å"We know where to find you if we need you, Jessie Mc-Quade.† All the way home I wondered why his words sounded like a threat when I knew that they weren’t. I managed to sleep a few hours, but something in my subconscious kept pricking at me. A jumble of memories tumbled through my dreams, conversations, medical jargon, a swinging golden earring, and a wolf totem. I awoke with the midafternoon sun shining hot across my bed. I’d forgotten to pull the heavy curtains I’ d purchased so I could sleep in the daytime and work all night. I had to have been exhausted to forget, equally exhausted to sleep through the brightest part of the day. But now I was awake, and a question kept pounding in my head like the ache pounding behind my eyes. What was wrong with this picture ? I crawled into the kitchen, turned on the coffeemaker, shoved my mug onto the hot plate until it was full, then slammed the carafe into place. The totem bothered me. If it had been on the road before Karen hit the wolf, it should have been dust. If she’d been wearing it, then why had I found the thing so far from the car? The only other explanation was the wolf had been wearing the necklace, and I had a hard time buying that. I yanked out the notes I’d made while I waited for the doctor to speak to me. There it was in blue and white. Karen had said the wolf was chasing†¦ something. I figured a rabbit, but they didn’t wear necklaces, either. Though I was sure the totem would turn out to be nothing important, still its presence at the crime scene disturbed me. I decided to discover what the thing meant and who might have been wearing it. I poured more coffee and took the cup into the shower with me. One of the joys of living alone – I could pretty much do anything I wanted, whenever I wanted, and no one would say a word. Not that anyone ever had. My mother disapproved of me, sure. I’d known that even before she skipped off to a real city before I turned nineteen. But she would never have been so crass as to nag or bitch, which made me wonder why my dad had skipped ahead of her. As I’d concluded on those other occasions when I’d wondered, it had to be me he’d been leaving behind. I had my hair full of shampoo when another jolt of brilliance hit me. Not only was the totem an annoying loose end, but there was something about Miss Larson’s rabies that wasn’t quite right. After rinsing my hair none too thoroughly, I wrapped myself in a towel and dripped from the bathroom into the living room, where I tapped a few commands into my computer. Rabies information poured onto the screen like water into a storm sewer. â€Å"Aha!† I exclaimed, and hit the print button. Rabies had an incubation period in humans from one to three months. If a person was bitten near the brain, or an area that contained a lot of nerve endings such as the hand – bingo – symptoms would be accelerated. But I doubted that meant from a few months to a few hours. If not rabies, then what had turned Miss Larson into a mad killer? I’m not saying that being a teacher is conducive to sanity, but eating the principal is taking things a bit too far. I needed to have a talk with the medical examiner. â€Å"He isn’t in.† I’d taken a chance and shown up at the medical examiner’s office without calling first. I should have known better. We had our share of death in Miniwa; however, the deaths were usually quite easily explained. People wandered off up here more than they did other places. If their bodies were ever recovered, an exception and not a rule, they were not in stellar condition. The last murder had been ten years past, an open-and-shut case of two men, a woman, and a gun. No mystery there. The guy with the gun had done it, leaving very little in the way of medical examination. Which was lucky, because Prescott Bozeman wasn’t much of an examiner. I stood in his outer office, scowling at his perfectly made up and exquisitely dressed secretary. â€Å"It’s three-thirty on a weekday,† I said. â€Å"Where is he?† â€Å"Not in.† I ground my teeth. Bozeman had gotten away with being lazy in Miniwa because there wasn’t a whole helluva lot to do. But you’d think that when he did have something, he’d do it. You’d think. â€Å"Did he even make it to the scene this morning?† â€Å"He was unavailable.† I resisted the urge to smack myself in the forehead. I’d only make my headache worse. â€Å"Who pronounced the victims?† â€Å"I couldn’t say.† â€Å"Could you say when Bozeman might get around to doing his job?† Her lips pursed. She didn’t like me. Fancy that. Her eyes wandered from my shorn hair, which was neither blond nor brown but somewhere in between, a color a woman like her could never leave alone, past my gray miniwa pd T-shirt, to my well-loved and much-worn jeans, which made her pert nose wrinkle. But it was my expensive running shoes that confounded her. Why would a woman like me, who obviously cared nothing for my appearance or my clothes, spend over a hundred dollars on shoes? Because happy feet made a happy person. I’d learned that the hard way in cop school. I took in her three-inch spike heels and sneered. Lucky she sat on her ass all day or she might be a cripple before she was thirty. If not from the angle of those nosebleeders, then from falling off of them one too many times. I’m tall enough not to bother with high heels, not that I would even if I were an itty-bitty woman like this one. But I could tell, even before she sneered right back at me, that she had classic short person’s complex. Being tall was a crime and she was the judge, jury, and executioner. Guess what that made me? â€Å"As you’d know if you’d bothered to check, Officer – â€Å" The way she said â€Å"Officer† was reminiscent of the way I said â€Å"scum-sucking leech,† not that I said it so often, but you get the drift. â€Å"Dr. Bozeman is not in on Tuesdays.† â€Å"But – â€Å" â€Å"Ever.† â€Å"There’s been an incident.† â€Å"I’m well aware of that.† â€Å"He couldn’t come in today and take off tomorrow?† â€Å"Unlike yours, Officer, Dr. Bozeman’s clients aren’t going to run away if he isn’t looking. They’ll still be here when he is.† Small towns. Gotta love ‘ em. Or else go crazy living in ’em. When I exited the office, after leaving my name, various numbers, and a request for Bozeman’s final report, I slammed the door. Childish, I know. So slap me. The next item on my agenda was finding a Native American totem expert. This proved a bit more difficult than I’d thought, considering I lived in a county that boasted a nearly fifty-fifty ratio of Indians to everyone else. But I couldn’t exactly walk into the Coffee Pot on Center Street and ask the resident counter warmer where I could find such an expert. Zee, usually the authority on everything, knew nothing. Like most residents, she wasn’t a big supporter of the Indians. They had their lives, she had hers, and never the two should meet. This was the opinion of a lot of the old folks, on both sides of the fence, and too many young ones as well. I could drive out to the reservation and ask around, but my best bet was Miniwa University. Situated on the largest acreage at the far side of Clearwater Lake, the college had once been a boarding school back in the days when the government had taken Indian children away from their parents and tried to raise them white. Every time I saw the school, I cringed. What had they been thinking? They hadn’t been. Eventually someone had seen the idea for what it was – stupid – and all the children were sent back to where they’d come from. The buildings had slowly reverted to their original use. Learning. Miniwa was primarily a liberal arts university. However, many of the local Indian scholars, and quite a few from other tribes, became visiting lecturers for a semester or two. I was confident that someone would know someone who knew something about the totem in my pocket. I was right. Within five minutes I was directed to the office of William Cadotte, visiting professor from Minnesota and, conveniently, an expert on Native American totems. I’d heard the name. Cadotte was also an activist, a purveyor of the old ways, to many a troublemaker. Clyde had him on our handy-dandy watch list, though for what I wasn’t quite sure. I followed the directions to a corner office. William Cadotte had been scrawled on a piece of paper and taped to the wall. The door was ajar. I glanced inside. The place was the size of a storage closet, the chairs piled with books. Tiny bits of wood, metal, and stone were scattered across the surface of the desk. With no window, the room smelled stale; the lighting was murky. A shuffle from the shadows made me straighten and step back. He was inside. I tapped a knuckle against the door. I expected Dr. Cadotte to be elderly, with a lined, brown face, heavily veined hands, and a waist-length iron gray ponytail. No such luck. The door swung open. I didn’t recognize him at first. But then, he was wearing clothes. How to cite Night Creature: Blue Moon Chapter 4, Essay examples

Privacy and Twitter Essay Example

Privacy and Twitter Essay Executive Summary Twitter Inc. was established in 2006 in California, United States. It provides free services to users, which enables them to send short messages (up to 140 characters long) called â€Å"tweets† to keep their friends and followers up-to-date with what they are doing. It helps users to share information with the rest of the world. Twitter experienced rapid growth worldwide and became one of the most popular social networking and micro-blogging sites in 2010. Although the company gained substantial popularity, its main sources of revenue are still from venture capital and promoted tweets. Twitter’s long-term survival depends on its own ability to generate revenue. The founders of the company want to know how to open up more channels to generate revenue, while respecting users’ privacy concern. After viewing Facebook and Google’s privacy missteps, Twitter and its partners Google and Microsoft are more uncertain as to whether they should develop the data-mining platform to gain extra revenue. If they do, what should they mine and how should they prevent themselves from breaching privacy laws? This report will outline the issues Twitter’s founders are facing and give three options the company can undertake to achieve its goal, followed by a recommendation. This report will also evaluate Canada’s privacy law – PIPEDA and examine how Twitter’s Privacy Policy complies with the PIPEDA. Stakeholders and Preferences Founders of Twitter: Jack (Chairman), Evan (CEO) and Biz (Creative Director) want to their company to grow and succeed in the long run. We will write a custom essay sample on Privacy and Twitter specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Privacy and Twitter specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Privacy and Twitter specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer As well, they want to find a safer way to utilize the database, which contains personal information and personal messages, to generate revenue, and respect their legal and ethical obligation to their users at the same time. Users of Twitter: They use Twitter to share personal information and keep their followers up to date with new events. They want to make sure the company is protecting their privacy and their personal information is not being used in any unethical or illegal way. The two Partners: Google and Microsoft are both very interested in the data-mining project as they see the potential of generating large amount of revenue. They work with Twitter to find a way to effectively use data to generate revenue. Meanwhile, they are both concerned over privacy issues, given the sensitive information they are dealing with. Regulators: Oversee Twitter from a legal perspective. They provide guidelines on how to use personal information in a way that protects Twitter users’ privacy. They make sure Twitter follows the privacy laws and they actively make changes to the law to deal with arising issues. Government: They make sure Twitter practices its business under the laws and make sure that Twitter provides benefit to the society, instead of harm. Other Developers and Marketers: Developers, such as SalesForce. com, develop application for other organizations to take advantage of Twitter’s public tweets as a way of making profit. Marketers want to use Twitter’s information to make money as well. They depend on valuable information they obtain from Twitter to make money and would not want Twitter to take a way this right/ this market. Issues Facing the Founders of Twitter Issue 1: Company’s lack of long term revenue generating plan Twitter’s main source of capital is from venture capital and promotional tweets. In order for Twitter to survive in the long term, they should open up more channels to generate revenue so they are able to grow and provide better service to their 100+ million users. In addition, it will help them stay competitive in the social networking service industry. Company is facing difficulty in coming up with a revenue generation plan to make their business more sustainable and profitable in the long run. Issue 2: How to use the data obtained in a legal and ethical way Twitter has a database with abundant data. The issue that Twitter is facing right now is efficiently utilizing the data and turning it into revenue. After examining the failure due to misuse of users’ personal information by Google and Facebook, Twitter is more concerned about the legal and ethical issue in using user’s sensitive information to generate revenue. Issue 3: Raising concern over privacy by the governments, regulators and users The company needs to be more cautious when dealing with personal information or personal tweets in this nature. Moreover, different countries have their own privacy laws. Twitter needs to follow multiple privacy laws closely to avoid potential lawsuits. This creates additional difficulty for Twitter since they have users from all over the world. Issue 4: Lack of specific company policies to protect information ethics and information privacy if it decides to develop the platform for data-mining The company needs detailed policies to protect information ethics and information privacy when implementing a data mining platform. Lack of consideration in this area will put the company in danger, following severe consequences. Issue 5: Not fully using its own resources Many developers already developed many applications that use Twitter’s public tweets to generate profit. However, Twitter is still holding on to all of the precious data and not utilizing it. Twitter is going to lose its competitive advantage if they don’t take the necessary steps soon. Twitter will have to compete with developers in the future in terms of application development for its’ users. Issue 6: Security breaches, code cracking and hackers They bring a huge threat to Twitter’s online information safety and its reputation. As a result, many users may lose confidence to the company and eventually withdraw. Twitter will not only lose a significant amount of users, but also become less attractive to the investors. The company may face bankruptcy if the situation severs. Management needs to come up with enhanced technologies to fight against the threats from code crackers and hackers. Options for Twitter’s management Twitter’s general goal stated in the case is to â€Å"monetize their business model while concurrently respecting their legal and ethical obligations to their users†. Following are some of the options management can consider to achieve this goal. Option 1: Establish an in-house data mining division. This division will take requests from external marketers and convert related data into information through consolidation and sell the aggregated information to marketers. Twitter will disclose the purpose of collecting this data on their website and give opt-in option to users. Pros: Twitter can sell the requested information to marketers to generate a significant amount of revenue. The information can also be sold to people in other fields, such as anthropologists and sociologists. These people can use the information to better the study of human behaviour, which will benefit the society as mentioned in the case. In other words, the potential market for Twitter is very broad. The information extracted from the data will help Twitter make better corporate decisions, better customer service and perhaps open up more business opportunities for the company in the future. Another big benefit to this option is that it will not breach user’s privacy as the information is consolidated, which means the marketers will not see individual’s private information. The disclosure of the purpose of collecting the data along with the opt-in option will make Twitter further in compliance with the privacy law. Cons: There will be additional risk associated with this option because it is a new venture for the company with no prior experience. The company needs to spend more effort to establish rules and carefully oversee the entire operation to avoid risks. This option requires money. The company needs to spend money in hiring and providing training to division manager, supervisors and employees to carry out the operation. In addition, any work related to data mining will expose the company to some degree of privacy and security issues. Although this option can eliminate a big portion of these concerns, issues can still arise that will hurt the company in the long run if not handled properly. Option 2: Give users the option to opt-in of releasing some private data that are non-identifiable such as age, gender, or general location in exchange for small incentive such as extra tweet characters. Sell those non-identifiable private data in addition to the public data such as public tweets directly to external marketers, while keeping the identifiable private data such as user address or private tweets. Twitter will disclose the purpose of collecting these data on their website. Pros: This option definitely respects user’s concern over privacy issues because it provides users the option to opt-in of releasing their non-identifiable private data to third party. Although the marketers can collect the public data, it’s time consuming to develop a legal third party program that will go over all the pages and all the tweets from different individuals. The option provides marketers the convenience to collect data. Twitter can obtain revenue from this service and reduce the level of concern over privacy and legal issues. Cons: Twitter may face intense competition over this option. One reason is that some tech companies already developed applications for extracting public information to help marketers collect useful public data/ tweets. Some companies even help the marketers to monitor conversation on Twitter and bring important tweets to the attention of the company. If there are already many competitions in the market, Twitter might have to lower the price to compete with them. This will effect their revenue generation. Another concern is if the marketers misuse the data, Twitter will be held responsible. If people don’t trust Twitter and withdraw from the website, Twitter will lose revenue. Therefore, risks still exist to a certain extent. Option 3: Do not do anything with the data. Keep them for internal business development purpose. Find alternative ways to generate revenue such as adding advertisements on user’s homepage Pros: This is the safest option out of the three. This option illustrates that Twitter has good business ethics and has strong sense of protecting users’ privacy. This not only helps Twitter in building up the company’s reputation, but also establishes trust relationship with users. As for the advertisements, it’s the company’s own responsibility to target their customers, but will definitely need to get approval from Twitter. Twitter will give users the option to display advertisement on their page and share the profit with the user as an incentive. This way, Twitter shows their respect to users and it’s a win-win situation for both parties. Cons: Twitter will not be utilizing their data resources to its full potential because they will be only using it for internal business development. Also, this option may not help Twitter in generating sufficient revenue as their income depends on the users’ willingness to display advertisement on their homepage. This is an external factor that is out of management’s control. Recommendation After evaluating all the options, I would recommend option 1- which is to execute a data-mining division, analyse the data and sell out the aggregated information to the marketers. This option gives the company more opportunities to generate revenue because it allows hem to use its data resource to the full potential, also reduce the risk of breaching the privacy laws. The company needs to have a detailed and thorough implementation plan in order to get the best results out of this option. Below are the recommendations for this option. Install employee monitoring system in the new division: The company is liable for their employees’ actions and the risks they take, (especially with the user’s sensitive information t hey are handling) therefore, monitoring is necessary. The company must communicate the purpose behind this division and what actions are being monitored to its’ employees. This will prevent

User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools - CoSchedule Blog

User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools Blog Ah, the user persona. Every marketing expert will tell you that you need one as the foundation for your content marketing strategy. But so many people just slap together some vague demographic data, give it a cute, alliterated name like â€Å"Busy Betsy† or â€Å"Hipster Henry† and call it a persona. Then they wonder why they arent seeing user engagement with their content. If you want to create meaningful content that wins fans and conversions, your user persona needs to be more than a collection of data points. To make your user persona come to life, you need to create a fully fleshed-out character with dreams, fears, challenges, and desires. You need a complex, uniquely human hero for the story youre telling with your brand. But it can’t just be a pure flight of fantasy. Each characteristic and inner motivation of your user persona should have data or real-life examples to back it up. Sound like a tall order? Worry not: this post will give you the online resources you need to make a hyper-specific user persona. I’ll show you how to use persona-building tools so you can create deeply engaging content that will draw in your target audience and make them stick with you. But first   Spark Your User Persona To Life With These 9 Important ToolsWhy Do We Need User Personas? Writing generic content to a general audience just doesn’t cut it anymore. Gone are the days of keyword stuffed, SEO-focused content, clickbait social media posts, and salesy email blasts. The average internet user can see right through these flimsy marketing ploys. If you want to stand out on search engine results, on social media and in your email marketing, you need to have robust, human-centered content that hits people right in the feels. And a User Persona helps you define just who that human is and what kind of content appeals to their needs. But maybe I should back up a few steps. Let’s take a quick look at what a User Persona is. Describing a User (or Buyer or Customer or Reader) Persona can take up an entire blog post unto itself. Thankfully, Sam Kusinitz  of HubSpot has distilled things down into less than 100 words for us: A buyer persona  is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better. So basically, a User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal to. A User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal toIn case you’re feeling a bit skeptical about the impact of a fictional character upon your bottom line, here are a few stats  from Cintell's 2016 Benchmark Study to help fire up your faith in the Power of the Persona: 71%  of companies who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented Personas 65%  of companies who exceed lead and revenue goals have updated their Personas within the last 6 months. Persona based content increased customer engagement almost six-fold  when targeting cold leads (10% versus 58%). Using Personas increases email open rate 2-5 times. It is more effective to target cold leads with Persona based content than targeting warm leads without using Persona based content (58% versus 45%) Pretty impressive, right? So just what is it about User Personas that make such a huge difference in customer engagement and conversion rates? It comes down to a potent mixture of storytelling, psychology, and sociology. Recommended Reading: How to Write Like a Journalist to Be a Better Marketing Storyteller Why Do User Personas Work? As marketers, we’ve long known that the fastest route to inspiring empathy and emotional connections in audiences is to tell a story. But recent neurological studies  have confirmed that if you really want to hook someone, tell them a story about a protagonist with a relatable goal and describe their struggle to reach that goal. So here’s what you want your User Persona to be: An individual with internal and external features similar to your audience, A person whose goals mirror your audience A character who has everyday struggles that your audience can immediately relate to. The more specific you are about what makes your User Persona an individual, the deeper an emotional connection your audience will have with your brand. And the easier it will be to convince them to take action. The more specific your personas are, the deeper emotional connection your audience will have with...Be Fearless In Your User Persona Back in 1978, two hippy guys decided to sell ice cream out of an abandoned Vermont gas station. Within five years, their chunky, flavorful ice cream packaged in colorful pint-sized containers caught the attention of grocery stores. The ice cream sold so fast from freezer sections they could barely keep it in stock. Ben Jerry’s was a tremendous hit. How did they become such a big success where other homemade ice cream shops have failed? Because Ben Jerry weren’t afraid to get specific about their user persona. And their user persona wasn’t what people had come to expect from a homemade ice cream brand. Here’s how your typical, old-school marketing team would probably have done it: using traditional market-focused research, they would have focused on the â€Å"homespun Vermont† aspect of Ben Jerry’s and featured a hand-operated ice cream maker in their logo. Instead of focusing on the buyer, they would have extolled the quality of the ingredients and the deliciousness of the flavors. Their flavors would have had Vermont-inspired names like â€Å"Backwoods Berry Blend† or â€Å"Maple Syrup Swirl.† Freelance designer Lyn Severance knew their brand had to reflect the groovy spirit of the hippy era and the fun-loving personalities of Ben Jerry and their friends. But Ben Jerry knew who their customers were, and they weren’t the rustic, antique-loving Vermonters of popular imagination. Note that their original container illustration featured a hand-cranked ice cream maker- but there’s a person  with a distinct personality doing the work: a stout, bearded dude who bears a striking resemblance to The Original Chubby Hubby himself, co-founder Ben Cohen. Also, the style of the illustration brings to mind the underground comics and concert posters of the 1960’s and 1970’s, not the vintage etchings of the 1900’s. There’s something mischievous, verging on subversive about Ben Jerry’s branding. But fun/peace-loving  subversive.  Yellow Submarine  subversive. The folks who flocked to Ben Jerry’s were real people who loved pop culture, leaned to the left politically, had an irreverent sense of humor, and got the munchies when they partook in their recreational mood-altering substance of choice. In other words, Ben Jerry’s target user was,well, Ben Jerry. So Ben Jerry created a product that spoke to THAT Persona. Even at the risk of alienating the people who don’t fit that description. Ben Jerry aren’t afraid to court controversy and voice their stances on political and social issues. A recent blog post prominently features the â€Å"Black Lives Matter† sign in their signature hand-lettered calligraphy. No doubt this wins them even more brand loyalty from their socially-conscious target buyers. (Source) In fact, not being afraid to take a stand is an essential quality of Ben Jerry’s User Persona. The ice cream brand has used content to inspire their audience to help them face down Pillsbury-owned rival Hagen Daas in the form of boycotts and protests. 'We believed that Pillsbury’s actions were illegal,' says Ben, 'but we knew that in a strictly legal fight we’d run out of time and money long before Pillsbury would. Our only option was to rely on our customers and the media to pressure Pillsbury into backing off. So we started printing the slogan â€Å"What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?† on our pint containers, along with an 800 number for the Doughboy Hotline. Everyone who called got a Doughboy Kit, with protest letters addressed to the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of the Pillsbury board, and a bumper sticker.' By publishing their Doughboy Hotline, they collected the names and addresses of their highly engaged (target) customers- customers who they could send additional marketing content like coupons or recipe booklets to. Ben Jerry created a targeted lead magnet before people were even using the world wide web. And their User Persona doesn’t only impact their marketing strategy- every aspect of Ben Jerry’s from product to operations was created with their user in mind. Because their target buyer (and their executive team) is socially conscious, Ben Jerry’s was one of the first companies to adopt an executive salary cap (although they dropped it when they hired a new CEO in 1994). The secret to Ben Jerry’s success is not in their admittedly delicious ice cream, but in their ability to understand what their target buyer ultimately wants from the world. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects The Keys to a Great User Persona So how can you make your target buyer feel like you really, truly â€Å"get† what they’re about? By asking the right questions about who they are and finding real-word answers. Some of those questions are about demographics, like: Age Gender Income Occupation Education level Geography Marital Status Those are external factors about the circumstances of your target user’s life. Things that, unless they make a major life change, they have little control over. When you dig a little deeper, you start getting into psychographic information, like: Lifestyle Hobbies Career goals Political affiliations Religious values Priorities in life Aesthetic taste Obstacles Fears Assumptions As you discover more about your target buyer, you’ll unlock the hidden desires, fears, and challenges your target user faces so your content can help them navigate along their journey toward their biggest goals in life. And the more you help your target user, the more they will trust you, and the more they will want to do business with you. The more you help your target user, the more they will trust and do business with you. After you’ve developed your user persona, here’s what you can expect: You’ll gain a clearer picture into the external and internal life of your target user You’ll have more relevant content ideas You’ll write content faster You’ll know where to find your target user You’ll know which people/publications your user sees as influencers You’ll know where to promote your content so your target reader will find it You’ll dramatically increase your conversion rates So without further ado, here are some resources you can add to your persona-building toolkit today. Here are the resources you need to start building user #personas1. Target Audience Kit has created a handy downloadable package  that includes a worksheet on how to conduct audience surveys and a quick-and-easy template for a user persona. Print them out and use them as guidelines as you hunt down demographic and psychographic information. 2. Startup Target Customer Profile Worksheet What if you don’t know who your target customer is because you’re just starting out? I’ve created an in-depth worksheet for startup founders to help you ask the right questions in your search for the perfect customer. It covers not only their demographics and psychographics, but also their digital tribes, influencers, popular hashtagsbasically all the information you need to reach your target user when they’re actively looking for stuff that relates to your service. You can download it here. 3. Xtensio User Persona Creator This intuitive web-based template by â€Å"lean design agency† Xtensio helps you create a beautifully designed persona to share with your clients or team members as you create your content marketing strategy. When you sign up for a free account, you’ll also have access to templates for pitch decks, business plans, content strategies, and press releases, among other tools. If you’re a startup founder, this could be a true life (and time) saver. Alright, you now have three blank slates for creating your user persona. But how do you find the data to fill in the blanks? Below you’ll find some essential resources to help you discover information about your target customers based on real-world data. Recommended Reading: This is How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy 4. Google Analytics First of all, are the right visitors finding you? What are the interests of the people visiting your site, and what kind of content are they engaging the most with? Is there anything you need to change about the way visitors discover your content? A peek at your Google Analytics will give you these insights and more. One Way Use Google Analytics (of Many): If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website, take a few minutes to get your tracking code and install Analytics to your website. Once you’ve created your Analytics account and installed your tracking code to your site, wait about a week for Google to collect data about your visitors. Then log into your account and browse around. You can see your average visitor’s demographics, what content they’re spending the most time looking at, even their interests based on their typical search behavior. Google Analytics helps you see whether or not the users that are coming to you are the users you actually want. For example, I noticed when I went into my Users Interests In-market Segments that the top four interests of visitors to my site were: Employment Travel/Hotel Accommodations Employment/Career Counseling Services Dating Services My site is for Copywriting and Content Strategy Services. So somewhere there’s a disconnect between the content of my site and the people who are finding it. Now the challenge is to figure out why people are coming to me looking for jobs, accommodations, or love. So I take a look at my Landing Page analytics to see which page is attracting the most traffic, and lo and behold, other than my home page, the top two pages are two blog articles: one about the TED Talk formula for sales pitches, and one about finding your target customer. The â€Å"target customer† post starts with a story about my experiences with online dating and how they parallel with a startup founder’s search for the perfect customer. Later in the post, I give an example of a travel bag company that used â€Å"Alternatives to AirBnB† as a way to capture their target leads. So, that explains why people interested in Dating Services and Travel stumble upon my site! It also tells me that I need to build up the content on my site for my target customer so more startup founders and less lonely hearts and wayward travelers find their way to my blog. Even more reason to really hone in on my User Persona and their needs There are a myriad of ways Google Analytics can give you insights about who is coming to your site and what changes you need to make so your content is getting in front of the right people. Do yourself a BIG favor and take some time to evaluate the quality of the traffic you’re already getting so you can determine what you need to tweak to improve it.   has created a quick guide to how to use Google Analytics to understand your audience. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Questions About Your Site That Google Analytics Can Answer 5. Alexa Let’s say that you haven’t launched your site yet  or you’re getting ready to do a major overhaul of your website. You may be feeling a bit in the dark as far as who your ideal customer actually is. The good news is you have plenty to learn about your target audience by getting a glimpse at who’s going to the competition. Alexa provides detailed demographic reports  on visitors to any website, as well as the most popular keywords people use to find them. Here’s the quick-and-dirty way to get the goods on who is looking for your products or services. Google your core offer and see who your top competitors are in the paid and organic results. For example, let’s say you’re a virtual assistant for small business owners. The top paid result is for TasksEveryday.com. Go to Alexa.com and type in the URL and when you scroll down you’ll see related sites (ie other competitors in your niche): And their audience demographics: By using the new Audience Overlap Tool, you can get a big-picture demographic view of who is using virtual assistant services similar to your top competitor: Just click â€Å"Audience Overlap Tool† on the main overview page: Select the competitors you wish to compare: Scroll down to Demographics and take a look at what these sites have in common and what makes them notably different. For example, I noticed that getfriday.com visitors have a much younger average age (18-24) than taskseveryday.com (35-44). When I investigated, I clicked on â€Å"getfriday.com† to open a site overview in Alexa and discovered one of the main sites that led visitors to GetFriday was YouTube: So I clicked the link and discovered that the videos that lead to getfriday.com are all about outsourcing Virtual Assistants from the Phillipines. Is that giving me a clearer picture of who is going to my competitors and why? Well, if I do a little more digging into the demographic information on Alexa, I can discover that the average income of the GetFriday user trends lower than the average income of the TasksEveryday user. So now I have a decision to make: do I want to target my Virtual Assistant service to a budget-strapped startup founder looking to outsource on the cheap or a well-to-do CEO of a small company willing to invest in a top-notch professional? Once I make that decision, I can start deep-diving into the world of my target user to fill in the gaps of their larger story. Recommended Reading: 14 Time-Tested Tactics to Get Tons of Traffic from Social Media 6. BuzzSumo You now know the â€Å"who’s† about your target customers using Google Analytics Alexa. Now it’s time to discover the â€Å"what’s† and the â€Å"why’s.† What are your customer’s goals and Why do your target customers need your help accomplishing their goals? BuzzSumo is hands-down the most popular audience discovery tool for content marketers.  After an initial free trial, you have to pay for it, but if you’re trying to build an audience and relationships with influencers, it’s well worth the $99 a month. Why? Because with one keyword search, not only will you find the most popular articles about a topic in terms of shares and clicks, but also who the most influential people are within a niche AND who their followers are. So to continue with our fictional Virtual Assistant service, let’s say we want to cater to startup founders. So I type â€Å"startups and virtual assistants† into the BuzzSumo search box and see which articles have had the most engagement over the past year: Then I click on â€Å"View Sharers† to see who has been engaging with the post. I see that Stephen Bronner, news director for Entrepreneur has been sharing the article, which tells me he thinks his followers would find value in it. So now I can take a look at his followers. After scrolling through their bios, I spot an ideal candidate for Virtual Assistant services: a PR coach for entrepreneurs and startup founders: Now I can take a look at her Twitter profiles to get insights on her life and the lives of her  followers people who are starting their own companies and need help. Like this follower, who describes herself as a serial entrepreneur: BOOM. Target achieved. This person’s Twitter account is a window into her life. She tweets about where she likes to go to eat, the big projects she’s working on, her hobbies, the religious holidays she celebrates, the brands she likes. You can fill out an entire User Persona template with this information alone! Recommended Reading: This is the Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 7. Customer Surveys Let’s say that you’re an established company looking to shift to a customer-centered content marketing strategy. Your current customers are an invaluable resource for insights. Just ask them about their lives. Pioneering content strategist Colleen Jones  says customer surveys are a great way not only to determine user behavior (what they do), but also the emotions and motivations leading to their decisions (what they’re feeling): â€Å"If you want to assess your success at producing effective content marketing, you need useful, actionable feedback about it. That means you need to know what people think about your content. Surveys are an invaluable way to find out.† Here are some customer survey tools you can try out for free: Survey Monkey- The most popular contender, Survey Monkey has a great reputation for being easy to use and having a step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the survey-building process. However, to export the survey data you collect, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Typeform- Typeform’s survey templates are slick and beautifully designed, which means your participants are less likely to abandon ship mid-survey out of boredom. Google Forms- Simple, straightforward, free, and easy to access via your Google Drive account. Need help coming up with some good questions? Michael Patterson, CEO of marketing research software Hotjar has come up with a great list of customer survey questions  that get into the minds (and hearts) of your customers. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Listening to Create Better Content for Your Audience 8. Quora If you lack a customer base or even a list to send audience surveys out to, Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in their own words.† Don’t just look at the most-upvoted answers: sometimes the replies to expert answers can provide you with deeper insights into your target user’s world than the more polished expert responses. Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs9. Twenty20 Confession time: I’ve spent more time than I should looking through Twenty20’s gorgeous curated stock photo collections, in search of The Face of the User Persona for my clients. Why Twenty20 as opposed to the kajillions of other stock photography sites out there? Because Twenty20 sources and curates photography that looks like real people’s lives instead of glossy studio sessions. Here’s what you should look for in a great User Persona profile pic: A headshot of one person- Your user persona represents an individual, not a group. Personality-  Unless you’re creating content for a modeling agency, your user persona is probably not a fashion model. Look for pictures of everyday folks. Match the data demographics-  If your research suggests that the majority of users in your niche are 50-something white-collar professional women, don’t use a headshot of a 20-something tattoo artist. In their natural environment- Try to find a picture that shows your User Persona where she’d be using your product or service. Above all, User Personas should represent and look like the real people you're creating content for. Here are some other examples of great User Personas to help give you a kickstart in creating your own. (Source: Xtensio) Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) Note how in-depth the above persona is in terms of Alyssa’s desire to balance her creativity with her business sense.   This is a great starting point for giving a â€Å"voice† to a brand’s content: that of a passionate artist who wants to be a success without being a â€Å"sell-out.† So based on the information I gathered using the tools above for my fictional Virtual Assistant service, here’s the User Persona I created using the Xtensio template tool: On the other end of the persona spectrum, we have MailChimp’s multiple User Personas. (Source: MailChimp) These visually appealing Personas aren't as specific in their narratives as Xtensio’s, but they still offer psychographic data for inspiring content. Even though these Personas lack a written story, the specificity of the look, dress, and descriptive text communicate volumes about each individual. To achieve this Portrait style persona, all you need is: A graphic design tool like Canva  or Photoshop, A great stock photo, A list of personality traits and motivators. Here’s what I made in Canva using the same Virtual Assistant target user: How to Create Your Own Persona in Canva Here’s a quick example showing how you can create one that is similar: After opening Canva, select â€Å"Create a Design† Select the â€Å"Blog Graphic† template from the Blogging eBooks section Upload your stock photo (or you can choose from Canva’s collection of stock photography and pay a $1 to download it) Drag and drop the stock photo as the background to the layout Free stock photo from Pexels.com Select the Heading text tool and start typing the personality trait keywords.  Choose various fonts, sizes or colors as needed. You can change the angle of the text by selecting the text box, clicking on the Rotate tool (the circular arrow at the bottom of the text box), and rotating the text box around. It's Time to Start Creating Better User Personas Alright: you've now assembled a well-stocked persona toolkit.   It's time to get to work! Have fun creating your User Persona- and if you've made one you're particularly proud of, feel free to share it with us! User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools Blog Ah, the user persona. Every marketing expert will tell you that you need one as the foundation for your content marketing strategy. But so many people just slap together some vague demographic data, give it a cute, alliterated name like â€Å"Busy Betsy† or â€Å"Hipster Henry† and call it a persona. Then they wonder why they arent seeing user engagement with their content. If you want to create meaningful content that wins fans and conversions, your user persona needs to be more than a collection of data points. To make your user persona come to life, you need to create a fully fleshed-out character with dreams, fears, challenges, and desires. You need a complex, uniquely human hero for the story youre telling with your brand. But it can’t just be a pure flight of fantasy. Each characteristic and inner motivation of your user persona should have data or real-life examples to back it up. Sound like a tall order? Worry not: this post will give you the online resources you need to make a hyper-specific user persona. I’ll show you how to use persona-building tools so you can create deeply engaging content that will draw in your target audience and make them stick with you. But first   Spark Your User Persona To Life With These 9 Important ToolsWhy Do We Need User Personas? Writing generic content to a general audience just doesn’t cut it anymore. Gone are the days of keyword stuffed, SEO-focused content, clickbait social media posts, and salesy email blasts. The average internet user can see right through these flimsy marketing ploys. If you want to stand out on search engine results, on social media and in your email marketing, you need to have robust, human-centered content that hits people right in the feels. And a User Persona helps you define just who that human is and what kind of content appeals to their needs. But maybe I should back up a few steps. Let’s take a quick look at what a User Persona is. Describing a User (or Buyer or Customer or Reader) Persona can take up an entire blog post unto itself. Thankfully, Sam Kusinitz  of HubSpot has distilled things down into less than 100 words for us: A buyer persona  is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better. So basically, a User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal to. A User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal toIn case you’re feeling a bit skeptical about the impact of a fictional character upon your bottom line, here are a few stats  from Cintell's 2016 Benchmark Study to help fire up your faith in the Power of the Persona: 71%  of companies who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented Personas 65%  of companies who exceed lead and revenue goals have updated their Personas within the last 6 months. Persona based content increased customer engagement almost six-fold  when targeting cold leads (10% versus 58%). Using Personas increases email open rate 2-5 times. It is more effective to target cold leads with Persona based content than targeting warm leads without using Persona based content (58% versus 45%) Pretty impressive, right? So just what is it about User Personas that make such a huge difference in customer engagement and conversion rates? It comes down to a potent mixture of storytelling, psychology, and sociology. Recommended Reading: How to Write Like a Journalist to Be a Better Marketing Storyteller Why Do User Personas Work? As marketers, we’ve long known that the fastest route to inspiring empathy and emotional connections in audiences is to tell a story. But recent neurological studies  have confirmed that if you really want to hook someone, tell them a story about a protagonist with a relatable goal and describe their struggle to reach that goal. So here’s what you want your User Persona to be: An individual with internal and external features similar to your audience, A person whose goals mirror your audience A character who has everyday struggles that your audience can immediately relate to. The more specific you are about what makes your User Persona an individual, the deeper an emotional connection your audience will have with your brand. And the easier it will be to convince them to take action. The more specific your personas are, the deeper emotional connection your audience will have with...Be Fearless In Your User Persona Back in 1978, two hippy guys decided to sell ice cream out of an abandoned Vermont gas station. Within five years, their chunky, flavorful ice cream packaged in colorful pint-sized containers caught the attention of grocery stores. The ice cream sold so fast from freezer sections they could barely keep it in stock. Ben Jerry’s was a tremendous hit. How did they become such a big success where other homemade ice cream shops have failed? Because Ben Jerry weren’t afraid to get specific about their user persona. And their user persona wasn’t what people had come to expect from a homemade ice cream brand. Here’s how your typical, old-school marketing team would probably have done it: using traditional market-focused research, they would have focused on the â€Å"homespun Vermont† aspect of Ben Jerry’s and featured a hand-operated ice cream maker in their logo. Instead of focusing on the buyer, they would have extolled the quality of the ingredients and the deliciousness of the flavors. Their flavors would have had Vermont-inspired names like â€Å"Backwoods Berry Blend† or â€Å"Maple Syrup Swirl.† Freelance designer Lyn Severance knew their brand had to reflect the groovy spirit of the hippy era and the fun-loving personalities of Ben Jerry and their friends. But Ben Jerry knew who their customers were, and they weren’t the rustic, antique-loving Vermonters of popular imagination. Note that their original container illustration featured a hand-cranked ice cream maker- but there’s a person  with a distinct personality doing the work: a stout, bearded dude who bears a striking resemblance to The Original Chubby Hubby himself, co-founder Ben Cohen. Also, the style of the illustration brings to mind the underground comics and concert posters of the 1960’s and 1970’s, not the vintage etchings of the 1900’s. There’s something mischievous, verging on subversive about Ben Jerry’s branding. But fun/peace-loving  subversive.  Yellow Submarine  subversive. The folks who flocked to Ben Jerry’s were real people who loved pop culture, leaned to the left politically, had an irreverent sense of humor, and got the munchies when they partook in their recreational mood-altering substance of choice. In other words, Ben Jerry’s target user was,well, Ben Jerry. So Ben Jerry created a product that spoke to THAT Persona. Even at the risk of alienating the people who don’t fit that description. Ben Jerry aren’t afraid to court controversy and voice their stances on political and social issues. A recent blog post prominently features the â€Å"Black Lives Matter† sign in their signature hand-lettered calligraphy. No doubt this wins them even more brand loyalty from their socially-conscious target buyers. (Source) In fact, not being afraid to take a stand is an essential quality of Ben Jerry’s User Persona. The ice cream brand has used content to inspire their audience to help them face down Pillsbury-owned rival Hagen Daas in the form of boycotts and protests. 'We believed that Pillsbury’s actions were illegal,' says Ben, 'but we knew that in a strictly legal fight we’d run out of time and money long before Pillsbury would. Our only option was to rely on our customers and the media to pressure Pillsbury into backing off. So we started printing the slogan â€Å"What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?† on our pint containers, along with an 800 number for the Doughboy Hotline. Everyone who called got a Doughboy Kit, with protest letters addressed to the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of the Pillsbury board, and a bumper sticker.' By publishing their Doughboy Hotline, they collected the names and addresses of their highly engaged (target) customers- customers who they could send additional marketing content like coupons or recipe booklets to. Ben Jerry created a targeted lead magnet before people were even using the world wide web. And their User Persona doesn’t only impact their marketing strategy- every aspect of Ben Jerry’s from product to operations was created with their user in mind. Because their target buyer (and their executive team) is socially conscious, Ben Jerry’s was one of the first companies to adopt an executive salary cap (although they dropped it when they hired a new CEO in 1994). The secret to Ben Jerry’s success is not in their admittedly delicious ice cream, but in their ability to understand what their target buyer ultimately wants from the world. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects The Keys to a Great User Persona So how can you make your target buyer feel like you really, truly â€Å"get† what they’re about? By asking the right questions about who they are and finding real-word answers. Some of those questions are about demographics, like: Age Gender Income Occupation Education level Geography Marital Status Those are external factors about the circumstances of your target user’s life. Things that, unless they make a major life change, they have little control over. When you dig a little deeper, you start getting into psychographic information, like: Lifestyle Hobbies Career goals Political affiliations Religious values Priorities in life Aesthetic taste Obstacles Fears Assumptions As you discover more about your target buyer, you’ll unlock the hidden desires, fears, and challenges your target user faces so your content can help them navigate along their journey toward their biggest goals in life. And the more you help your target user, the more they will trust you, and the more they will want to do business with you. The more you help your target user, the more they will trust and do business with you. After you’ve developed your user persona, here’s what you can expect: You’ll gain a clearer picture into the external and internal life of your target user You’ll have more relevant content ideas You’ll write content faster You’ll know where to find your target user You’ll know which people/publications your user sees as influencers You’ll know where to promote your content so your target reader will find it You’ll dramatically increase your conversion rates So without further ado, here are some resources you can add to your persona-building toolkit today. Here are the resources you need to start building user #personas1. Target Audience Kit has created a handy downloadable package  that includes a worksheet on how to conduct audience surveys and a quick-and-easy template for a user persona. Print them out and use them as guidelines as you hunt down demographic and psychographic information. 2. Startup Target Customer Profile Worksheet What if you don’t know who your target customer is because you’re just starting out? I’ve created an in-depth worksheet for startup founders to help you ask the right questions in your search for the perfect customer. It covers not only their demographics and psychographics, but also their digital tribes, influencers, popular hashtagsbasically all the information you need to reach your target user when they’re actively looking for stuff that relates to your service. You can download it here. 3. Xtensio User Persona Creator This intuitive web-based template by â€Å"lean design agency† Xtensio helps you create a beautifully designed persona to share with your clients or team members as you create your content marketing strategy. When you sign up for a free account, you’ll also have access to templates for pitch decks, business plans, content strategies, and press releases, among other tools. If you’re a startup founder, this could be a true life (and time) saver. Alright, you now have three blank slates for creating your user persona. But how do you find the data to fill in the blanks? Below you’ll find some essential resources to help you discover information about your target customers based on real-world data. Recommended Reading: This is How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy 4. Google Analytics First of all, are the right visitors finding you? What are the interests of the people visiting your site, and what kind of content are they engaging the most with? Is there anything you need to change about the way visitors discover your content? A peek at your Google Analytics will give you these insights and more. One Way Use Google Analytics (of Many): If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website, take a few minutes to get your tracking code and install Analytics to your website. Once you’ve created your Analytics account and installed your tracking code to your site, wait about a week for Google to collect data about your visitors. Then log into your account and browse around. You can see your average visitor’s demographics, what content they’re spending the most time looking at, even their interests based on their typical search behavior. Google Analytics helps you see whether or not the users that are coming to you are the users you actually want. For example, I noticed when I went into my Users Interests In-market Segments that the top four interests of visitors to my site were: Employment Travel/Hotel Accommodations Employment/Career Counseling Services Dating Services My site is for Copywriting and Content Strategy Services. So somewhere there’s a disconnect between the content of my site and the people who are finding it. Now the challenge is to figure out why people are coming to me looking for jobs, accommodations, or love. So I take a look at my Landing Page analytics to see which page is attracting the most traffic, and lo and behold, other than my home page, the top two pages are two blog articles: one about the TED Talk formula for sales pitches, and one about finding your target customer. The â€Å"target customer† post starts with a story about my experiences with online dating and how they parallel with a startup founder’s search for the perfect customer. Later in the post, I give an example of a travel bag company that used â€Å"Alternatives to AirBnB† as a way to capture their target leads. So, that explains why people interested in Dating Services and Travel stumble upon my site! It also tells me that I need to build up the content on my site for my target customer so more startup founders and less lonely hearts and wayward travelers find their way to my blog. Even more reason to really hone in on my User Persona and their needs There are a myriad of ways Google Analytics can give you insights about who is coming to your site and what changes you need to make so your content is getting in front of the right people. Do yourself a BIG favor and take some time to evaluate the quality of the traffic you’re already getting so you can determine what you need to tweak to improve it.   has created a quick guide to how to use Google Analytics to understand your audience. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Questions About Your Site That Google Analytics Can Answer 5. Alexa Let’s say that you haven’t launched your site yet  or you’re getting ready to do a major overhaul of your website. You may be feeling a bit in the dark as far as who your ideal customer actually is. The good news is you have plenty to learn about your target audience by getting a glimpse at who’s going to the competition. Alexa provides detailed demographic reports  on visitors to any website, as well as the most popular keywords people use to find them. Here’s the quick-and-dirty way to get the goods on who is looking for your products or services. Google your core offer and see who your top competitors are in the paid and organic results. For example, let’s say you’re a virtual assistant for small business owners. The top paid result is for TasksEveryday.com. Go to Alexa.com and type in the URL and when you scroll down you’ll see related sites (ie other competitors in your niche): And their audience demographics: By using the new Audience Overlap Tool, you can get a big-picture demographic view of who is using virtual assistant services similar to your top competitor: Just click â€Å"Audience Overlap Tool† on the main overview page: Select the competitors you wish to compare: Scroll down to Demographics and take a look at what these sites have in common and what makes them notably different. For example, I noticed that getfriday.com visitors have a much younger average age (18-24) than taskseveryday.com (35-44). When I investigated, I clicked on â€Å"getfriday.com† to open a site overview in Alexa and discovered one of the main sites that led visitors to GetFriday was YouTube: So I clicked the link and discovered that the videos that lead to getfriday.com are all about outsourcing Virtual Assistants from the Phillipines. Is that giving me a clearer picture of who is going to my competitors and why? Well, if I do a little more digging into the demographic information on Alexa, I can discover that the average income of the GetFriday user trends lower than the average income of the TasksEveryday user. So now I have a decision to make: do I want to target my Virtual Assistant service to a budget-strapped startup founder looking to outsource on the cheap or a well-to-do CEO of a small company willing to invest in a top-notch professional? Once I make that decision, I can start deep-diving into the world of my target user to fill in the gaps of their larger story. Recommended Reading: 14 Time-Tested Tactics to Get Tons of Traffic from Social Media 6. BuzzSumo You now know the â€Å"who’s† about your target customers using Google Analytics Alexa. Now it’s time to discover the â€Å"what’s† and the â€Å"why’s.† What are your customer’s goals and Why do your target customers need your help accomplishing their goals? BuzzSumo is hands-down the most popular audience discovery tool for content marketers.  After an initial free trial, you have to pay for it, but if you’re trying to build an audience and relationships with influencers, it’s well worth the $99 a month. Why? Because with one keyword search, not only will you find the most popular articles about a topic in terms of shares and clicks, but also who the most influential people are within a niche AND who their followers are. So to continue with our fictional Virtual Assistant service, let’s say we want to cater to startup founders. So I type â€Å"startups and virtual assistants† into the BuzzSumo search box and see which articles have had the most engagement over the past year: Then I click on â€Å"View Sharers† to see who has been engaging with the post. I see that Stephen Bronner, news director for Entrepreneur has been sharing the article, which tells me he thinks his followers would find value in it. So now I can take a look at his followers. After scrolling through their bios, I spot an ideal candidate for Virtual Assistant services: a PR coach for entrepreneurs and startup founders: Now I can take a look at her Twitter profiles to get insights on her life and the lives of her  followers people who are starting their own companies and need help. Like this follower, who describes herself as a serial entrepreneur: BOOM. Target achieved. This person’s Twitter account is a window into her life. She tweets about where she likes to go to eat, the big projects she’s working on, her hobbies, the religious holidays she celebrates, the brands she likes. You can fill out an entire User Persona template with this information alone! Recommended Reading: This is the Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 7. Customer Surveys Let’s say that you’re an established company looking to shift to a customer-centered content marketing strategy. Your current customers are an invaluable resource for insights. Just ask them about their lives. Pioneering content strategist Colleen Jones  says customer surveys are a great way not only to determine user behavior (what they do), but also the emotions and motivations leading to their decisions (what they’re feeling): â€Å"If you want to assess your success at producing effective content marketing, you need useful, actionable feedback about it. That means you need to know what people think about your content. Surveys are an invaluable way to find out.† Here are some customer survey tools you can try out for free: Survey Monkey- The most popular contender, Survey Monkey has a great reputation for being easy to use and having a step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the survey-building process. However, to export the survey data you collect, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Typeform- Typeform’s survey templates are slick and beautifully designed, which means your participants are less likely to abandon ship mid-survey out of boredom. Google Forms- Simple, straightforward, free, and easy to access via your Google Drive account. Need help coming up with some good questions? Michael Patterson, CEO of marketing research software Hotjar has come up with a great list of customer survey questions  that get into the minds (and hearts) of your customers. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Listening to Create Better Content for Your Audience 8. Quora If you lack a customer base or even a list to send audience surveys out to, Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in their own words.† Don’t just look at the most-upvoted answers: sometimes the replies to expert answers can provide you with deeper insights into your target user’s world than the more polished expert responses. Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs9. Twenty20 Confession time: I’ve spent more time than I should looking through Twenty20’s gorgeous curated stock photo collections, in search of The Face of the User Persona for my clients. Why Twenty20 as opposed to the kajillions of other stock photography sites out there? Because Twenty20 sources and curates photography that looks like real people’s lives instead of glossy studio sessions. Here’s what you should look for in a great User Persona profile pic: A headshot of one person- Your user persona represents an individual, not a group. Personality-  Unless you’re creating content for a modeling agency, your user persona is probably not a fashion model. Look for pictures of everyday folks. Match the data demographics-  If your research suggests that the majority of users in your niche are 50-something white-collar professional women, don’t use a headshot of a 20-something tattoo artist. In their natural environment- Try to find a picture that shows your User Persona where she’d be using your product or service. Above all, User Personas should represent and look like the real people you're creating content for. Here are some other examples of great User Personas to help give you a kickstart in creating your own. (Source: Xtensio) Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) Note how in-depth the above persona is in terms of Alyssa’s desire to balance her creativity with her business sense.   This is a great starting point for giving a â€Å"voice† to a brand’s content: that of a passionate artist who wants to be a success without being a â€Å"sell-out.† So based on the information I gathered using the tools above for my fictional Virtual Assistant service, here’s the User Persona I created using the Xtensio template tool: On the other end of the persona spectrum, we have MailChimp’s multiple User Personas. (Source: MailChimp) These visually appealing Personas aren't as specific in their narratives as Xtensio’s, but they still offer psychographic data for inspiring content. Even though these Personas lack a written story, the specificity of the look, dress, and descriptive text communicate volumes about each individual. To achieve this Portrait style persona, all you need is: A graphic design tool like Canva  or Photoshop, A great stock photo, A list of personality traits and motivators. Here’s what I made in Canva using the same Virtual Assistant target user: How to Create Your Own Persona in Canva Here’s a quick example showing how you can create one that is similar: After opening Canva, select â€Å"Create a Design† Select the â€Å"Blog Graphic† template from the Blogging eBooks section Upload your stock photo (or you can choose from Canva’s collection of stock photography and pay a $1 to download it) Drag and drop the stock photo as the background to the layout Free stock photo from Pexels.com Select the Heading text tool and start typing the personality trait keywords.  Choose various fonts, sizes or colors as needed. You can change the angle of the text by selecting the text box, clicking on the Rotate tool (the circular arrow at the bottom of the text box), and rotating the text box around. It's Time to Start Creating Better User Personas Alright: you've now assembled a well-stocked persona toolkit.   It's time to get to work! Have fun creating your User Persona- and if you've made one you're particularly proud of, feel free to share it with us!