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Archives for October 2018
A Guide for Designing a Successful Corporate Transformation
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Four building blocks that are essential to every major change effort. For more insights, visit pwc.com/transformation.
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This Entrepreneur Crashed and Burned Out from Stress. Now He’s on a Mission to Change the ‘Hustle’ Lifestyle.
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Daniel Thomas Hind believes entrepreneurs need to become leaders, not hustlers. He’s helping them do it by prioritizing health and self-mastery.
11 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Being an entrepreneur means sleepless nights, impossibly tight cash flow, and sacrificing everything for the good of your business. You’re powering through but barely surviving. Health routines, sleep, diet, and relationships fall by the wayside for the sake of success.
To many, you’re overwhelmed, overworked, exhausted, out of shape, and rapidly headed for burnout. Your business may be successful, but if health is wealth, you’re broke.
If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. Daniel Thomas Hind is the CEO of EvolutionEat, a health coaching company for entrepreneurs. He’s helped thousands of workaholics emerge from that same place — a place that’s personally familiar to him. Just a few months ago, Hind experienced entrepreneurial burnout. He was heading three companies, and the extreme stress caused his body to shut down.
Now he’s on a mission to help other entrepreneurs avoid hitting rock bottom from burnout. He believes that by focusing on their health, entrepreneurs can take control of the massive impact they have in the world.
The rise before the fall.
Hind began his entrepreneurial journey at 26 years old, offering nutrition coaching. He had grit and a sense of adventure but no idea how to run a business. Hind differentiated himself by telling clients he would “work harder than anyone you’ve ever worked with.” He outdid himself from the beginning, making good on that promise and offering clients “around-the-clock support.” His customer base grew rapidly.
After starting EvolutionEat, Hind met Daniel DiPiazza, a fellow Los Angeleno whose business Rich20Something helped millennials become entrepreneurs. DiPiazza recognized Hind’s talent and soon hired him as head of marketing. Together, they turned Rich20Something into a seven-figure business with a best-selling book.
Hind and his business partner, Daniel DiPiazza.
Image Credit: Nicole Fallek
Between EvolutionEat and Rich20Something, Hind got to know many successful, high-performing entrepreneurs. He invested six figures in coaching and leadership development, found his mentor, Rich Litvin, a high-performance coach, and traveled the world to fine-tune his craft.
“I was making serious money for the first time in my life, heading two companies, and learning what it means to lead,” Hind recalls. “I was making a difference. It was such a high and I wanted more.”
At the end of 2017, Hind and DiPiazza founded the Wilde Group, a marketing consultancy helping social influencers and authors build businesses around their influence. EvolutionEat began to scale rapidly at the same time, so Hind stepped back from Rich20Something.
When Hind and DiPiazza had an opportunity to meet with the Los Angeles alternative newspaper, LA Weekly, they came up with an idea for a standalone digital platform that would feature the city’s social celebrities and rising stars. They called it The Vanguard, got funding, and partnered with LA Weekly to build the startup.
Between EvolutionEat, the Wilde Group, and The Vanguard, everything was going well — until it became too much.
Burnout.
Hind was building two startups while growing a consulting business, all three in the early stages. He didn’t have a system that ran smoothly without him, so they all required his attention. “I didn’t have time to sleep, which is a pretty big red flag,” he laughs. “Despite coaching all my clients to do the opposite, I was operating on pure willpower. Everything looked great on paper, but every morning was excruciating.
“I wasn’t sure how I could do this much longer,” he remembers telling himself. “I was constantly on the verge of a breakdown. I knew it was ridiculous, but I felt trapped and powerless. I couldn’t quit — I was responsible for 70 people, everything would crumble.”
Hind, shortly before his body shut down from fatigue and stress.
Image Credit: Daniel Thomas Hind
Hind kept this up for six months, until their partners in The Vanguard wanted to take the company in a different direction. He and DiPiazza decided to sell their shares back to their investors in June 2018.
“We were sad to let go of the opportunity, but secretly, I was relieved,” he recalls. “I had been operating in survival mode. But there is a limit to how much you can handle before you break. I found that limit.
“My body had been running on fumes for so long, it finally shut down. Stress hormones punch holes in the immune system. I was really sick for two weeks after we sold back the company. I’d be in bed and wouldn’t be able to move my body.” Hind became incredibly lethargic and depressed, sleeping 12 hours a day.
“I decided I wouldn’t continue living the way I had been. I couldn’t continue living this way.”
An evolution.
Since recovering, Hind says that experience was the best thing that’s ever happened to him. “I was talking the talk and didn’t realize I wasn’t walking the walk.
“I was addicted to stress. It was my validation for being enough — it always had been. I felt like I wasn’t working hard enough unless I was stressed to the point of overwhelm. That experience taught me that I didn’t need to look outside myself to prove I was significant.”
He notes that it’s not necessarily in an entrepreneur’s DNA to slow down. Like most entrepreneurs he knows and works with, Hind has always been a hard worker.
Since he was a kid, sleep wasn’t exactly his friend. Hind went to an all-scholarship high school for the gifted, was an all-state soccer player, and played in a band. “I remember getting the 5:31 a.m. train to Manhattan from Long Island every day to school. There I was, a 15-year-old drinking coffee among the bankers and lawyers.”
In fact, Hind’s burnout isn’t the only reason he can relate to his clients. Food was his drug of choice to get by. “I grew up an emotional eater and addicted to food. It was a coping mechanism.”
Hind’s weight caused him to struggle with depression, which he says started around first grade, when a teacher called him “husky” in front of the class. After high school, he got into Georgetown University where he continued to struggle. He exercised daily, sometimes twice, but was still 35 pounds overweight.
Then Hind discovered the Paleo Diet after college. “For the first time in my life, I finally had control over how I looked and felt. My mood improved, which is a big deal for someone who grew up with depression and highly anxious.”
Hind was young and became obsessed with his appearance until he started coaching others and focusing on the health benefits of his new lifestyle. That was the foundation of EvolutionEat, which has always been closely tied to his own journey.
Hind says he became “self-obsessed” after discovering the Paleo Diet at age 22.
Image Credit: Daniel Thomas Hind
“So many people struggle with their health and diet because of deeply entrenched coping mechanisms that make it hard to follow through with our intentions,” he says. “Of course, I understood this intellectually before, but because I’ve been there in more ways than one, I understand it on a deeper level now. I’m also proof that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
The entrepreneur’s problem—and solution.
“When you’re starting out, all you can do is survive. You work harder than you ever thought possible. That survival mechanism is an advantage at first. But as you work harder and sacrifice more to reach each new milestone, that becomes all you know — it becomes wrapped up in your identity,” says Hind.
“But it’s not sustainable. We cannot reach our full potential if we aren’t healthy. You eventually become a cost to your business.”
Hind believes that there’s a bigger issue at play. “Our culture has glorified the hustle, so we feel like something is missing unless we’re working ourselves to death. We think this is the cost of admission to be successful, but that’s false.”
After working himself into the ground, Hind is now proof it doesn’t have to be that way.
Image Credit: Nicole Fallek
“Success does not equal stress. Successful people actually aren’t busy, they’re purposeful. They have systems and teams to execute their vision. True leaders know their zone of genius and that you have the most impact when you cultivate deep, creative work. That’s how you put a dent in the universe.”
Hind admits it’s difficult to change. “I know what it’s like to feel like you’re in too deep. Unless you have a physical reaction like mine, leaving you with no other choice, getting out of survival mode is not a flip of the switch. It takes effort, which feels easier to allocate to your business. But that will come back to bite you.”
The evolved entrepreneur.
That’s why Hind is dedicated to building the best health and performance coaching company for entrepreneurs. The purpose of EvolutionEat is to help other entrepreneurs who are profitable but living in survival mode like he was.
“Being the hyper-motivated person I am, I was on a mission as soon as I recovered from my burnout,” says Hind. He recently developed the Evolved Entrepreneur’s Operating System (EE/OS, for short) to help successful entrepreneurs design their lives like leaders. The programmatic methodology helps them create business results by optimizing their energy, health, and performance.
“First and foremost, being a leader means being a leader for yourself. This isn’t about your ‘lifestyle’ — it’s about your life. Mastering your energy flow, incorporating discipline into your decision-making, and improving your health is fundamental to living a meaningful and explosive life. And it’s good for business!”
Hind believes expert coaching is the ultimate secret weapon for entrepreneurs. “It’s a mirror into the future that sees only your potential, reflects only your power, and demands complete responsibility for leading life with purpose. And who is mightier than an evolved entrepreneur on purpose?”
In less than a year, one of Hind’s clients doubled his revenue, halved his workload, lost 30 pounds, and overcame binge eating. Now he meditates twice a day, exercises five days a week, and reads a book per week. Many of Hind’s clients see similar results.
Hind has found his life’s purpose; and it doesn’t involve working 24/7.
Image Credit: Mark Clennon
As for Hind? He practices what he preaches. He starts the day at 4:45 a.m. with a run to Santa Monica beach, where he meditates and goes for a lone swim with the sunrise. He has his own cast of coaches, and he’s writing a book based on his experiences about what it means to be an “evolved entrepreneur.” He often disconnects for days to work from his cabin in the woods. Most importantly, he found his life’s purpose — and it doesn’t involve working 24/7.
“Entrepreneurs are going to change the world,” he says with conviction. “But we need healthy relationships with ourselves first.”
It’s Hind’s mission to help others develop these kinds of relationships and leave a legacy.
Connect with Daniel Thomas Hind on his website, Facebook and Instagram. Grab the free [EE/OS] peak performance guide to create absolutely absurd results in your health, life and business: just click here.
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3 Ways Management Can Prevent and Address Employee Burnout
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The future of the workforce is, unfortunately, tired and stressed.
A recent Gallup study found that about two-thirds of full-time workers experience burnout at work, with 23% of respondents reporting feeling burnt out very often or always. Another study found that millennials experience burnout at higher rates than previous generations, suggesting that burnout is both on the rise and may impact certain positions in the workplace more than others.
While burnout is certainly not exclusive to millennials and other young workers further down the corporate ladder, these team members do have less control over their careers and day-to-day work than those from other generations.
The employees who have little say over their workloads, their company cultures, and the company’s boundaries don’t have the corporate power to address their own burnout. Instead, it’s in the hands of management and leaders like yourself.
And like it or not, burnout throughout the company is management’s responsibility.
A year-long survey by Blind revealed the top sources of employee burnout at tech companies, and they all boil down to poor leadership and management. Of the answers, 22.9% directly cited poor leadership as a main source or burnout.
But other top factors, like work overload, toxic culture, and lack of career control, are all ultimately caused by poor leadership as well.
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So while it’s easy for SMB leaders to look at burnt out employees and think that they got themselves into the situation, it’s more likely that the problem is a systemic part of your company’s culture. That means it’s up to management – the leaders who drive your culture and set the example – to address.
Employee Burnout Prevention
Below are a few important culture changes to implement that will help address current employee burnout and prevent it in the future.
1. Cultivate Open Communication
First things first – employees need to feel comfortable talking about problems in that middle space between work issues and personal problems. Topics like burnout and stress feel very personal, which can make employees feel nervous about bringing them up in the workplace. They can feel isolated, leading to feelings of imposter syndrome and further burnout.
But as noted above, almost everyone in the modern workplace has experienced burnout before, and it’s not a personal problem employees will be able to overcome alone. Opening up lines of communication around mental health in the workplace will help your workers see that.
It’s crucial that they feel safe discussing these topics at work, both with other employees as well as with managers and executives.
Short-term, initiating the difficult conversation with someone exhibiting signs of burnout is an important first step. Talking to them about their stress might uncover opportunities to lessen it, and it also gives them the chance to discuss their current emotions, which is often a solution unto itself for reducing anxieties.
Long-term, shifting your company culture to address the current stigma around stress and other mental health issues will be important in fostering conversations about burnout. Openness and transparency around stress, emotions, and company culture should all be encouraged.
It requires a bigger commitment to addressing mental health in the workplace, but it will be worth it for your overall employee satisfaction, as well as efficiency. The CDC reports that patients with depression miss an average of 4.8 workdays and suffer 11.5 days of reduced productivity over a three-month period. It’s easy to see how prolonged burnout can lead to that.
2. Set Boundaries Around Workloads
Making sure employees feel comfortable talking about and addressing burnout is a first step in moving away from a burnout-fueled company culture. However, in order to prevent it in the first place, leaders need to make more drastic shifts to the way the company is run.
For example, you might want to consider creating guidelines around employee workloads to help prevent burnout caused by overwork.
This has two benefits. First, it helps leaders and managers to have set boundaries that they need to stay within when planning projects and assignments. Second, it helps send a message to your SMB’s employees that they don’t need to be as busy as possible all the time in order to impress the bosses. They’ll know that you value wellness and balance as well as work performance, reducing self-imposed pressure.
Some examples of guidelines and boundaries that can reduce workplace stress include:
- Discouraging checking work email accounts outside of work, or adding the account to mobile devices
- Limiting how many large-scale projects any employee is part of at any given time
- Creating rules for meetings to reduce excessive planning and inefficient execution
- Providing incentives for using paid time off, as 52% of Americans have unused vacation days due to reasons like workloads being too heavy
It can also be helpful to relax other guidelines that may be contributing to stress and burnout. For example, offering flexible work arrangements or remote work arrangements can lead to increased productivity, less stress, and better work-life balance.
3. Implement Clear Systems
Finally, be sure to develop clear systems for your company, both around everyday work tasks as well as burnout- and wellness-related procedures. As found in the Blind study mentioned previously, employees cite unclear direction as a major cause of stress.
This lack of organization and clarity within your company creates additional work for your employees.
For example, systems and processes for the most common tasks team members complete can reduce decision fatigue and time spent “figuring things out.” Lack of systems can also lead to conflict between employees and increased risk of mistakes, which can cause great stress regardless of how overworked someone is. And additionally, if your company’s management is not skilled in systems and project management, it becomes much easier to unknowingly overload employees due to common occurrences like scope creep.
However, creating processes and systems that team members can easily follow for their most frequent and important work reduces the amount of friction involved in the task. This both reduces the amount of time it takes, which reduces workloads, as well as the amount of confusion or questioning involved in a task, which reduces stress.
Slowly Shift Culture
Ultimately, all of these changes come down to creating a workplace more open about stress and more organized around workloads. By shifting your company culture to one that discourages overwork and encourages systems and open communication, you can slowly address the roots of employee burnout and prevent it in the future. This will always be preferable to addressing burnout itself as your team members experience it.
Photo via Shutterstock
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Choosing the Right CMS for Your Business
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WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS). As a matter of fact, some statistics suggest that it powers around half of the websites on the Internet. Moreover, its popularity is well-deserved. WordPress is a highly functional system that almost anyone can use to create just about any kind of site.
However, you might feel that you want to move on from WordPress and create your website using a different CMS. Here we look at some of the different options out there, and whether they are suitable for your business.
Sitecore
WordPress is a naturally scalable and flexible system. However, of course it does have its limitations. Perhaps you are looking to move beyond WordPress because you want to have a greater level of control. Maybe you want to work on a larger, more ambitious project. If that’s the case for you, Sitecore could be the perfect option.
Sitecore has established an excellent reputation, especially with developers. That’s because they can use it to create highly sophisticated and infinitely functional websites. Moreover, these sites are also easy for end users to control.
To get the most out of Sitecore you need to be investing in a large-scale project. Also, you need to have a good idea of what you are looking for as well as your ultimate goals for the site. You will also need to invest in development expertise, and you’ll need a custom hosting solution such as Wirehive.
Wix
Sitecore represents one end of the spectrum and Wix represents the other. That’s because Sitecore offers excellent flexibility and the opportunity to take your project wherever you imagine. Wix, on the other hand, offers something completely different: simplicity. WordPress itself is relatively simple and uncomplicated. However, Wix is designed to be perfect for absolute beginners.
So if you are starting your website from scratch and lack technical knowledge, Wix is what you need. Wix will allow you to make a smart-looking website without the need for technical know-how. What’s more, the hosting will be managed for you. Additionally, you can control your new site by way of a simple drag-and-drop interface. In short, it couldn’t be easier.
Magento
Of course, it might be that you are looking to move on from WordPress because you need a site that is more closely focused on ecommerce. If this is the case then you have many options to consider.
For example, you can use WordPress to create excellent ecommerce sites using the WooCommerce plugin. However, if you are looking for something different, Magneto is the Internet’s most popular ecommerce CMS.
Well-known brands, including Monin, Helly Hansen, and Bauhaus, all use websites that are powered by Magento. So whether you are a startup looking to get off the ground and make sales, or a well-established business interested in boosting your online presence, Magento could be the ideal solution for you.
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Kentico
But Magento is not the only option when it comes to creating an ecommerce site. In fact, for those businesses that are looking to refine and improve their online store it can potentially make sense to look into sophisticated options such as Kentico. Kentico is another name that has developed over the last few years, becoming extremely popular.
If your ecommerce project wants to integrate your website with a bespoke ordering system, Kentico offers excellent functionality. Additionally, their CMS has improved dramatically with recent versions. They have simplified the interface. It is now far more usable even for end users who might not have a great deal of Kentico experience. This is a highly regarded platform that can be used to make impressive changes to your business.
Umbraco
A little different from some of the other possibilities on this list, Umbraco is an open-source CMS. Accordingly, it has a free-to-use community edition.
In many ways Umbraco combines the best of both worlds. That is, skilled developers use Umbraco to easily create powerful, unique, and highly functional websites. However, the simplicity of the platform means that there are fewer complex tools that can potentially go wrong.
One of the major benefits of Umbraco is that developers can undertake and complete advanced projects with a smaller budget than would be possible with other CMS’s. While Umbraco is open-source, you can also choose to purchase a support package. If you do, you’ll be able to get more from the system.
Choose the Right CMS for Your Business
If you’re thinking of moving on from WordPress and choosing a different CMS, be sure to do your research first. Only you can determine which CMS is right for your business.
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Four Ways Your UK Business Should Prepare for Brexit
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Brexit is looming over Britain’s businesses. No one truly understands what the outcome of the UK leaving the European Union will be. Nor can we know what kind of effect it will have on companies of all sizes. But no matter what your business does, there are some ways that you can prepare. Here are four ways that you can get your company ready for Brexit.
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1. Focus on Employee Engagement
Ultimately, no matter how and when Brexit occurs, your business will go on as normal. There will be additional challenges and uncertainties. What’s more there could even be opportunities. However, if you want your business to be successful you need to focus on the aspects of the business that will make the biggest difference.
Clearly one of the most important ways that any business can react to Brexit is to ensure that its employees are engaged. There are multiple studies that show productivity increases and absenteeism reduces with engaged teams. One of the most important ways to keep your team engaged is to constantly listen to their feedback.
Ensure that you engage with your team to establish what is working for them. Additionally, learn from them about anything that is standing in their way. When employees feel like a valued part of the team they are more likely to feel engaged with the work they are doing.
2. Be More Pessimistic with Your Forecasting as Brexit Looms
Some forecasters are optimistic about the prospect of Brexit. They reason that it could actually be an exciting time for British businesses. That’s because companies will be forced to adjust to a new marketplace. So it might seem unduly negative to suggest that all British businesses should re-evaluate their forecasts so that they are more pessimistic. However, this is just a sensible way to approach the situation.
Of course no one really knows the reality of what Brexit will bring. However, we can be relatively certain that, at least in the short term, Brexit will create a great deal of uncertainty. What’s more, uncertainty is almost always bad news for business. Less consumer confidence has the effect of making businesses more cautious.
So for the moment, revise your forecasts downwards to account for the uncertainty. With more realistic forecasts you can plan for ways to survive any potential lulls in business. Then you can push forward when there is more clarity in the market.
3. Push for Greater Productivity
As a business, you cannot control the effects of Brexit. This might seem like it is putting you in a position where there is no way to adequately prepare for the outcome. However, this is not necessarily the right way to think. You simply need to focus more on the aspects of your business that you do have control over.
For example, it has been well documented that the UK has had a problem with productivity. IT has revealed in official statistics that through 2017 the UK’s productivity was around 15 per cent lower than that of other G7 countries. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Brexit. (The UK’s productivity troubles extend back to the financial crises of 2008.) However, it is going to be a problem that remains.
With Brexit causing uncertainty and other challenging market conditions, businesses need to do everything within their power to perform at optimal levels. So it is important to take steps now to boost your company’s productivity. It is important to note that this doesn’t mean you need to hassle your staff to work harder. Productivity is not typically associated with an underperforming staff. Instead, it appears to arise from businesses that lack infrastructure, training, and investment, as found in other G7 countries.
4. Retain Key Staff
It is almost certain that one of the effects of Brexit is that there will be a smaller talent pool of staff available. With fewer migrants entering the country, the workforce will not be as buoyant as it once was. This means that it is more important than ever to hold onto key staff. Make sure that you are aware that Brexit could begin to affect your company when it comes to recruitment.
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What Is SIEM and How Can It Benefit Your Business?
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You might have heard of the acronym SIEM applied to cyber security but never really understood it. However, SIEM is extremely important. For example, it can protect your business from the latest cyber security threats. Therefore, it makes sense to learn more about this important technology and the benefits it offers your business.
Cyber threats are evolving and becoming ever more sophisticated. So now is the time to invest in technologies to keep your business secure. SIEM technology can be a great way to do this. Here we take a look at exactly what SIEM is and the ways in which it could benefit your company.
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What Is SIEM?
SIEM stands for Security Information and Event Management. It describes overarching technology that detects threats by analyzing activity across network environments. It does this by capturing, aggregating, and correlating event logs. In the process, it identifies patterns of anomalous activity that could indicate a threat or compromise.
The purpose of SIEM is to monitor your network in real time and warn you about potential threats. The software uses behavioral analytics to identify sequences of events. And when it identifies a suspicious sequence, it generates an alert for investigation.
There are many different types of SIEM software available, each with varying feature sets. For this reason, it’s always worth doing research to identify the best solution for your business’s needs.
Benefits of SIEM
To protect your business from hackers and cyber criminals you need the ability to see what is happening inside your network. Unfortunately, traditional perimeter security such as firewalls and antivirus software is no longer effective at fully protecting your business. You need to have visibility across your network. Only when you do will you be able to understand what is going on. Without network visibility it can be almost impossible to know whether your organization has been breached or is being targeted by an advanced persistent threat.
Identifying breaches early can help to save your business from severe damage to its finances and its reputation. It does this by enabling you to significantly reduce average attacker dwell time. Additionally, it allows you to respond to threats before they spread.
But SIEM actually has a wider range of benefits than simply strengthening your defenses. For example, since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was instated in the UK in May 2018, organizations that handle personal data are required to have appropriate controls in place. In other words, they must be able to detect and report breaches. This is due to the fact that if the organization suffers a data breach, they must inform anyone affected within 72 hours.
Is SIEM Right for Your Business?
With that said, SIEM software is not right for every business, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, these systems do tend to generate a high volume of alerts. Moreover, each of these alerts must be investigated to establish whether it is a real problem or a false alarm. This process can be resource-intensive. As a result, SIEM can be overwhelming for businesses that lack IT personnel and resources.
To get the most out of the software you need to have a good understanding of the best ways to deploy the system. Additionally, you need to know how you are going to manage, monitor, and investigate alerts. What’s more, SIEM systems that have not been correctly configured can lead to alert fatigue. Understanding where to deploy SIEM sensors across a network and how to tune them to identify behaviors of interest can make a big difference.
Could You Benefit from a Managed SIEM Service?
If you think that your organization would benefit from a SIEM system, but you lack the technical expertise in house to manage it effectively, you might want to consider a managed service.
A managed SIEM service, supplying a team of experienced security professionals, can help you to identify the best SIEM solution for your organization. They can also perform important yet time-consuming tasks. For instance, they will manage 24/7 system monitoring, alert investigation, triage, and incident response.
SIEM is a powerful technology that can help to significantly improve your organization’s cyber security posture. However, organizations need to ensure they have the experts in place to leverage it effectively and achieve its full potential.
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How to Go About Using AI to Improve User Experience
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Image Credit: GDJ on Pixabay
Not long ago, a company could gain the loyalty of its clientele based on product quality and little else. But with time, the difference between what a company offers and what its competitors provide has become negligible. Today, companies are increasingly seeking alternative ways to win their customers. In ecommerce business, one such way is by providing an impeccable user experience (UX).
Consumers want a seamless user experience from start to finish. Specifically, they want a user-friendly platform and outstanding customer service. Therefore, companies are increasingly investing in AI software development. They understand that this helps them improve UX and gain brand loyalty.
In this article, Iflexion AI consultants look at the ways in which artificial intelligence can enhance user experience.
Emotion AI
A relatively new field, emotion AI represents one of the most cutting-edge applications of AI. Emotion AI uses facial recognition software. Additionally, it relies on data and machine learning algorithms to sort and categorize emotional responses to a variety of stimuli. For instance, it records responses to the colors on a website, product offerings, advertising content, and others.
After training on thousands or even millions of facial/emotional images, emotion AI can categorize responses into meaningful categories like happy, sad, or angry. Businesses and advertisers can then use this information to identify the types of content, platform designs, and marketing strategies that are most likely to elicit the responses they desire from site visitors.
A 2016 Harris poll commissioned by Lithium found that happy customers spend 78% more with brands that they love. Consumers are most likely to feel happy if they feel like they are part of a brand’s community. They like to believe that they share the same ideology as the brand. Or perhaps they actively engage with the brand on social media. For many organizations, using emotion AI to tap into consumer emotions is the smartest way to connect with customers at a deeper level.
Bespoke Advertising
It’s no secret that consumers are increasingly immune to the efforts of advertisers, online or otherwise. Between ad blocking software, shorter attention spans, and decades of being inundated by advertising since childhood, only the most inventive marketing strategies are able to get through to today’s jaded consumers. UX guides often focus on the experience once an individual has arrived at a brand’s web or social media page.
However, UX really begins the moment a brand engages with a potential customer. If the visitor sees something that relates to them, they are far more likely to take action. It might be liking a photo, sharing content, or making a purchase.
When used in combination with social media, machine learning algorithms can successfully parse key information about a consumer’s preferences. Instead of creating a broad marketing campaign that may appeal only to a small percentage of customers, companies can use AI to create a one-to-one advertising experience. In addition, with this new more inclusive data, organizations are also more likely to identify previously overlooked market segments.
For example, the outdoor product retailer North Face is using IBM’s Watson to create uniquely personalized shopping experiences for its online clients. By asking simple questions such as, “Do you like to hike in winter?” the program is able to narrow down the appropriate selection of products to show to the customer. This highly customized retail interaction significantly increases the probability that a customer will buy a product and report an enjoyable user experience.
Chatbots
Also known as virtual assistants, chatbots are everywhere. From banking to pizza delivery, chatbots are an increasingly common part of the user experience. Trained using a subfield of AI known as natural language processing, chatbots are now so sophisticated that it is often difficult to distinguish them from the real thing. According to Capgemini, 75% of organizations using AI (out of 1,000 surveyed), have increased customer satisfaction by at least 10 percent.
Immune to bad days and frustration, chatbots are a natural supplement to the user experience. However, while they may be able to provide 24/7 support, chatbots are not going to completely replace humans any time soon. That’s because more complex situations still require human intervention and expertise. Likewise, chatbots still require data from human-to-human communication in order to learn and improve.
One company putting AI-enabled chatbot technology to use as both a communication and learning tool is 1-800 Flowers. Using Facebook Messenger as a customer service platform, the organization’s chatbot is trained to use conversational clues to assist clients with purchases. If, for example, someone messages that they need flowers quickly, the chatbot will respond with a number of relevant options, complete with photos, messaging customization, and even delivery choices. The more customers the bot interacts with the smarter it becomes, allowing it to provide an even better user experience.
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Automation and the User Experience
When people hear the word “automation,” they tend to picture robots taking over human jobs. But in reality, automation is more likely to augment human tasks than to replace them. This is certainly true when it comes to improving the user experience. From self-driving cars to drones and online translation software, automation has the power to noticeably improve the quality of goods and services in a variety of industries.
Automation, which is usually applied to repetitive or predictive tasks, can aid human workers by reducing costly errors. It can improve quality standards and even detect potential problems that human eyes may miss. In short, this means better quality for everyone, consumers and companies alike. In addition, automation is also being applied to UX design. This means that customers will enjoy an improved user experience from beginning to end.
Just a few years ago, people considered AI-based technology too cutting-edge for widespread application. Today, it is shaping the way that brands interact with their customers and creating a whole new standard in UX. Moreover, this will ultimately benefit us all.
About the Author
Yaroslav Kuflinski is an AI/ML observer at Iflexion. He has profound experience in IT and keeps up to date on the latest AI/ML research. Yaroslav focuses on AI and ML as tools to solve complex business problems and maximize operations.
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Banish These Words from the Business Lexicon
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4 Simple Steps to Boost Your Seasonal SEO Traffic
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Are you adding holiday-themed phrases to your SEO? Those phrases just might bring you a merrier Christmas.
5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
SEO is essential all year long, but did you know that you should be switching up your SEO for the upcoming holidays? According to a survey from UPS and Comscore, 51 percent of customers polled said they preferred shopping online. They said that they turned to search engines to find the perfect gifts, tips on how to host a rockin’ holiday party and holiday recipes.
Related: How to Improve Your Google AdWords Campaign This Holiday Season
So, consider the obvious message here: The holiday season is the perfect time to attract shoppers to your website and maximize your sales.
But consider something more: If you want festive shoppers to find your website and all the awesome products you have to offer among the glut of other businesses on the web, your SEO needs to be optimized for the season.
And the good news here is that there’s no need to completely overhaul your SEO strategy; all you need to do is make a few little tweaks to push yourself ahead of the competition. So, don’t waste another minute; the holiday season is right around the corner. Here are four simple steps to boost your seasonal SEO traffic.
Get specific with seasonal keywords.
You’ve already got a list of keywords that drive traffic to your site year-round, but for the holidays you need to incorporate some seasonal keywords. Consumers will be scouring the web for the perfect gifts and using holiday specific search terms to find them. You can use Google Trends to discover what key phrases users are searching for during this holiday season. That way, when shoppers start searching for those phrases, you can be found weeks, even months, before your competition.
Think about what your ideal customers might be searching for. For instance, if your online store sells electronics, consumers might search for “Black Friday flat screen deals” or “Cyber Monday free shipping deals.” Take advantage of the most popular search terms and lead users straight to your shop. Another trick is to add the year to your keyword, for example “Black Friday 2018,” to attract consumers looking for up-to-date deals.
Produce holiday-themed blog posts.
Consumers always turn to Google to search for holiday ideas and advice to get them through the season. So, if you want to show up in the search results for their queries, start creating holiday-themed content. Start brainstorming holiday blog post ideas early and plan out your posts on a content calendar. Make sure the topics you choose are related to your business and help consumers solve a problem.
Related: What, Exactly, Is Influencing Our Holiday Gift Choices? (Infographic)
For instance, the holiday-themed content that Crate & Barrel creates features that chain’s products but also helps holiday shoppers out with valuable tips and advice.
Image Source: Crate & Barrel
Consider specific buyer personas when crafting your holiday content; for example, you’ll want content that targets busy moms, and other content that targets dads who struggle with gift giving. Remember to always scatter those holiday specific keywords throughout your blog posts naturally, to ensure your content gets found by your ideal customers.
Optimize your landing pages.
If you want to attract big crowds of traffic this season,you need to revamp your existing landing pages for the holidays. Take some of the seasonal keywords described above and incorporate them into your landing pages. Be sure to include lots of internal links to your holiday-themed content and product pages. Change your page title and meta descriptions to speak to the holidays specifically and update your images and videos for the season as well.
Another important factor in your SEO this season is rich snippets. What are rich snippets? When you do a search in Google, most results show up with a blue title link and simple description below, but rich snippets include images, ratings, pricing details, product availability and more. Rich snippets will help you rank higher and get more sales, so you’ll want to update your website with schema markup using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.
Don’t forget that Google, Bing and other search engines have to have enough time to follow your links and find your holiday landing pages, so make these holiday-specific changes to your landing page at least 30 days before the holiday you’re preparing for.
Create a holiday gift guide.
Holiday gift guides have been around forever in physical form but if you want to attract shoppers to your online store, you need to create a digital holiday gift guide. Gift guides not only help consumers’ holiday shopping go smoothly, but they’re great for SEO because they feature different products that web users are searching for. Additionally, a well-executed gift guide will decrease the number of clicks between your home page and product pages, which is a plus for SEO bots scouring your site.
Image source: Invesp
So, create a new webpage for your gift guide and include seasonal keywords, phrases and links to give your gift guide a boost in search results. You can also try to get your gift guide featured by other websites and publications to obtain more links that lead back to your website.
Related: 5 Tips to Get Your Website Ready for the Holidays
Over to you
Don’t worry, you’ve still got enough time left to step up your SEO game for the holidays. With these simple steps to boost your SEO this season, your website will be front and center in search engine results and the minds of shoppers. What better way to celebrate the season than with a ton of new customers?
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