Have you pondered moving to Europe? It can be a blessing and a curse that the continent has so many diverse cultures so close to one another. After all, with so many amazing places to choose from, how does anyone decide where to settle? This list of the best places to live in Europe will hopefully help you narrow your search and choose the ideal place for you:
As Portugal’s third-largest city, Braga has everything that makes the country special, with a vibe that isn’t overwhelming. It’s actually considered to be Portugal’s happiest city, which you’ll likely be able to feel as soon as you arrive. Generally, Braga’s residents are warm and welcoming to foreigners, so don’t be surprised if you’re invited over for a coffee and pastel de nata by a neighbor.
Braga is bursting with culture, including historic sites, museums, and restaurants galore. Due to the city’s ample green spaces, rich gastronomy, and warm hospitality, it’s no wonder why the quality of life here is higher than any other city in Portugal. If that doesn’t make Braga one of the best places to live in Europe, I don’t know what does!
Best European Countries for Expats to Live In
Known as the land of “Poets and Thinkers” and with its high standard of life, Germany is home to the most expats in Europe. Having one of the best economies and several routes for immigration, moving to Germany is more accessible than other EU states. Its capital, Berlin, is a social hub for those who enjoy going out and meeting new people, so adapting to the culture is no issue.
To move to Germany, you can apply for an employment visa if you have a skill in demand there. If your partner has German citizenship, you can move for family reunification. Additionally, Germany also offers an artist visa for those who wish to pursue a career in the arts.
Basel, Switzerland
As European Best Destinations writes, Switzerland is a perfect destination for qualified expats looking for peace, security, and a well-paid job. The country’s job market is booming, offering plenty of opportunities in the technology, banking, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors. But there’s more to the country than the 9-5. Take Basel as an example. Famed for its historic center, its gorgeous Christmas markets, and its legion of cultural events, the city has become a hugely popular tourist destination. Thanks to its many green spaces and the varied, picturesque countryside that surrounds the city, it’s also a popular choice for people who want to combine the perks of city living with the adventure of the great outdoors. Property prices are high, but the salaries are even higher, meaning you shouldn’t have too many problems in keeping up with your mortgage payments.
Brighton, UK
As Really Moving writes, if you’re an eco-warrior, Brighton could be the place for you. This seaside town boasts the only Green Party MP in the House of Commons, and regularly plays host to eco-positive events that aim to raise awareness of the many local nature reserves that surround the area. Ultimately, this is a place that prioritizes the connection between people and nature, making it the ideal destination for outdoor lovers and their families. The city’s famous beach and pier are perfect for whittling away sunny summer evenings, while the expansive shoreline is packed with trails, fishing spots, and wildlife spotting opportunities. Once you’re done enjoying the natural delights of the area, you’ll find plenty to do in the city, which is known for its cultural life, progressiveness, and vibrant nightlife. Housing is a touch expensive, but you certainly get a lot in return for your investment.
About The Author
Liz Flynn
Liz Flynn has worked as a full-time writer since 2010 after leaving a career in education. She finds almost all topics she writes about interesting, but her favorite subjects are entertainment, travel, health, food, celebrities, and pets. Liz loves the process of researching information, learning new things, and putting into words what others who share her interests might like to read. Although she spends most of her time writing, she also enjoys spending time with her husband and four children, watching films, cooking, dining out, reading, motorsports, gaming, and walking along the beach next to her house with her dog.
What Kind of Leader Are You? 9 Leadership Types and Their Strengths
Whether you are leading a small group or a large organization, your leadership style can greatly impact the effectiveness of your efforts. Although there are several types of leadership, the most appropriate one to use depends on you and your team. Christie Lindor, founder and CEO of Tessi Consulting, described some common traits of an effective leader to us.
“Effective leaders demonstrate the political will to make tough decisions and are accountable enough to follow through on promises,” she said. “Transparent communication styles also make leaders effective.”
In addition to making tough decisions and exhibiting clear communication, productive leaders should periodically examine their style and evaluate how their subordinates perceive it. Sometimes it is necessary to alternate leadership styles to accommodate a team’s changing needs. [Related article:7 Common Leadership Mistakes You’re Probably Making]
What Kind of Leader Are You? These are the 8 Most Common Leadership Styles
Every leader has a distinct style of leadership that helps to differentiate that person from other leaders. In a recent article on HubSpot by Braden Becker, he discusses 8 unique leadership styles, what they are, how they differ and their relative effectiveness. Leaders would be keen to figure out where you fall on this list, and is it where you truly want to be?
This type of leader gives everyone an equal say on a project and lets the group come to consensus about how to proceed. While the leader may still be ultimately accountable, everyone gets equal input, regardless of title or rank. Decisions are made as a group and the leader acts as a guide to ensure everything stays on track.
Autocratic leadership can be considered the antithesis to the democratic leadership. The leader maintains and exerts all the power, having complete control and asking for no input. The autocratic leader will create the idea, the strategy, the timeframe and expect direct reports to execute these orders. There is no room for collaboration or opinion. Because of that, it’s a very unpopular leadership style that can likely lead to high turnover and increased employee disengagement.
This type of leader allows workers to call the shots. Imagine how a brand new tech company may operate. Let’s say the work is all computer-based, so can be done from anywhere, at any time. Perhaps this type of leader lets workers do their jobs when and how they want, as to not stifle creativity, allowing workers to do their jobs when they are most effective.
This type of leadership can certainly be appreciated by employees who don’t need a lot of supervision or clarification on job duties, but it can be difficult for those who prefer to be very interactive and involved with their leaders. This leadership style also has the potential to leave a lot of potential on the table if employees aren’t pushed to achieve more.
A strategic leader is at the intersection of upper management and the workforce. They have a key role in shaping the future of the company while still providing support for members of the staff. This leader is charged with moving the company forward while trying to meet the needs and wants of the workforce.
Having a strategic leader can be valuable to the company as long as the leader does not get spread too thin. The leader needs to find a balance between creating and moving their vision forward while ensuring direct reports have what they need to succeed.
Often found within growth-minded companies, the transformational leader is always trying to move things forward and change things up. This leader is looking to get the most out of the workforce, pushing their limits and helping them to learn and excel at new skills with regularity.
Naturally, if a worker doesn’t respond well to this form of leadership, they can feel under pressure and full of stress throughout their workday. This type of leadership can only be successful with workers that respond positively to this type of aggressive and ever-changing leadership.
Transactional leadership focuses on the specific work accomplished by the employee. Think about a sales organization. A transactional leader may set up a bonus program for salespeople that make 100 calls in a week. The job description is clearly spelled out and the workers either meet, or fail to meet, the tasks prescribed for them.
This type of management does not include much input from workers; it’s more beneficial for operations where having a team of “worker bees” suits the company’s purpose. Roles and responsibilities are more clearly determined through this type of leadership. Creative types and those seeking to play a role in company strategy will likely not thrive in this setting.
The leader who coaches tends to put emphasis on the growth and development of the employee. This leader looks for strengths of each team member and finds ways to maximize those strengths for the company’s benefit.
This leadership style allows certain talents within the team to flourish; it’s anything but cookie-cutter. Each staff member may have unique roles that are built around their individual strengths. Think of a football coach; he will have different expectations from his quarterback than from his kicker or offensive tackle. It works the same way in business. Someone may be a great writer while someone else may excel at data analysis, but chances are, the same person will not excel at both skills.
An innovation killer, bureaucratic leaders operate strictly by the book. They allow little to no flexibility for ideas that stray from the company line. While this leader may at least be receptive to hearing ideas, unlike the autocratic leader, they will dismiss the idea once it conflicts with the company’s way of operating.
The Delegating, “Laissez Faire” Leader
“Laissez faire” is a French phrase adopted into English that means, “Let (people) do (as they choose).” It describes a policy of leaving situations to run their own course, without interfering.
By adopting this style of leadership, you empower your team to make decisions and to organize its own processes, with little or no guidance. The danger of this approach is that situations can collapse into chaos if your people have low motivation or poor skills. It can work, however, if they are experienced, knowledgeable, confident, creative, and driven, or if deadlines are flexible and processes are simple.
Be in no doubt, though, that as the leader you will still be held accountable for the outcome! So you might want to organize team decision making processes to support your people while you take a “hands off” approach. Just be sure to delegate the right task to the right person, as a mismatch could mean that the whole team fails.
Avoid becoming too remote, even with a high-performing, highly autonomous team. Change can occur at any time in business, so your organization’s requirements for your team might shift after your initial brief. If this happens, stay in touch with your people, and communicate clearly and promptly. Remember, you can offer your support without becoming a micromanager !
Consistently excellent and long-lasting teams tend to have transformational leaders . These leaders have high expectations for, and set a fine example to, their people. And they inspire them to reach for the seemingly impossible.
Further Reading:
Key Points
But one approach doesn’t fit all scenarios: some situations and people call for a fast, firm, top-down approach, while others flourish with shared responsibilities and the freedom to plan, decide and act.
Kurt Lewin’s model expresses this range of styles in relatively simple terms, from Authoritarian or Autocratic, through Democratic or Participative, to Delegating or “Laissez Faire.”
This assessment has not been validated and is intended for illustrative purposes only. It is just one of many that help you evaluate your abilities in a wide range of important career skills. Click here for other self-tests.
This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you’ll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter, or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!
For months, during the main pandemic stretch, I’d get inexplicably tired in the afternoon, as though vital organs and muscles had turned to Styrofoam. Just sitting in front of a computer screen, in sweatpants and socks, left me drained. It seemed ridiculous to be grumbling about fatigue when so many people were suffering through so much more. But we feel how we feel.
Nuke a cup of cold coffee, take a walk around the block: the standard tactics usually did the trick. But one advantage, or disadvantage, of working from home is the proximity of a bed. Now and then, you surrender. These midafternoon doldrums weren’t entirely unfamiliar. Even back in the office years, with editors on the prowl, I learned to sneak the occasional catnap under my desk, alert as a zebra to the telltale footfall of a consequential approach. At home, though, you could power all the way down.
Still, the ebb, lately, had become acute, and hard to account for. By the standards of my younger years, I was burning the candle at neither end. Could one attribute it to the wine the night before, the cookies, the fitful and abbreviated sleep, the boomerang effect of the morning’s caffeine and carbs, a sedentary profession, middle age? That will be a yes. And yet the mind roamed: Covid? Lyme? Diabetes? Cancer? It’s no HIPAA violation to reveal that, as various checkups determined, none of those pertained. So, embrace it. A recent headline in the Guardian: “Extravagant eye bags: How extreme exhaustion became this year’s hottest look.”
It was just a question of energy. The endurance athlete, running perilously low on fuel, is said to hit the wall, or bonk. Cyclists call this feeling “the man with the hammer.” Applying the parlance to the Sitzfleisch life, I told myself that I was bonking. At hour five in the desk chair, the document onscreen looked like a winding road toward a mountain pass. The man in the sweatpants had met the man with the mattress.
All of us, except for the superheroes and the ultra-sloths, know people who have more energy than we do, and plenty who have less. We may admire or envy or even pity the tireless project jugglers, the ravenous multidisciplinarians, the serial circulators of rooms, the conference hoppers, the calendar maximizers, the predawn cross-trainers and kickboxers. How does she do it? On the flip side, there are the oversleepers, the homebodies, the spurners of invitations and opportunities, the dispensers of excuses. Come on, man! It’s hard to measure success, if you want to avoid making it about money or power or credentials, but, as one stumbles through the landscape of careers and outputs and reputations, one sees, again and again, that the standouts tend to be the people who possess seemingly boundless reserves of mental and physical fuel. Entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, politicians: it can seem that energy, more than talent or luck, results in extraordinary outcomes. Why do some people have it and others not? What does one have to do to get more?
Energy is both biochemical and psychophysical, vaguely delineated, widely misunderstood, elusive as grace. You know it when you got it, and even more when you don’t. This is the enthusiasm and vigor you feel inside yourself, the kind you might call chi, after the ancient Chinese life force or the pronouncements of the storefront acupuncturist. The kind you seek to instill by drinking Red Bull or Monster, plunging into an ice bath, or taking psychostimulants, like Ritalin or Adderall or Provigil. Nootropics. Smart pills. CDP-choline, L-theanine, creatine monohydrate, Bacopa monnieri, huperzine A, vinpocetine. Acetyl-CoA, lipoic acid, arginine, ashwagandha, B complex, carnitine, CoQ10, iodine, iron, magnesium, niacin, riboflavin, ribose, thiamin, Vitamins C, E, and K. Biohackers microdose psychedelics, stick ozone tubes up their butts, or pay fifteen hundred dollars for a seven-hundred-and-fifty-milligram dose of NAD IV. Energy is why we’ve made a virtual religion of 1, 3, 7-trimethylxanthine, otherwise known as caffeine.
“Society has progressively increased its demands on us, and with that, therefore, our expectations of what we can or should do,” Maurizio Fava, the chief of the department of psychiatry at Mass General, told me. “This has led to a quest for greater ‘energy.’ ‘How can I do more? Doctor, what can you give me?’ ”
“Energy,” though, is a misnomer, or at least an elision. What we commonly call energy is actually our perception of the body metabolizing carbohydrates or fat as energy. Energy isn’t energy. It’s our experience of burning energy, converting it to work. It’s a metabolic mood. As Richard Maurer, a doctor in Maine who specializes in metabolic recovery, and who encountered me one day last summer as I mumbled about a shortage of it, told me, “ ‘Energy’ is a useless term. It is not the perception of stimulation. It is just the capacity to generate work. I think of it as only relating to potential. If a patient says, ‘I want more energy,’ maybe the doctor should just write a scrip for methamphetamine. But that’s false chi.”
The Fatigue Solution: How To Increase Your Energy In Eight Easy Steps
“Fatigue is the No. 1 complaint I hear from my patients and from the general public,” says Beverly Hills, Calif.-based endocrinologist and metabolic specialist Eva Cwynar, M.D., author of just released The Fatigue Solution: Increase Your Energy in Eight Easy Steps. “Women are told it’s either in their head or it’s because they’re having kids, raising kids, managing the household, working too hard or getting old. Fatigue is an illness. There are things we can do to get our energy back.”
According to Cwynar, millions of women around the world grapple with weight gain, chronic stress, poor sleep, forgetfulness, low sex drive, mood swings, hormone imbalances and constant fatigue. More often than not, they’re told: “That’s normal. You’re getting older.” It doesn’t have to be, she says.
Cwynar, who herself experienced a total lack of energy, low sex drive and poor sleep after the birth of her second child, developed a simple guide to help you figure out why you’re tired and how to get your energy back. From easy lifestyle changes to knowing what to ask your doctor, she offers these eight steps to kick fatigue for good.
“People think they are eating right, but there’s a difference between watching calories and eating for energy,” says Cwynar. Eating lots of protein is essential for staving off fatigue, especially early in the day when your cortisol levels are high. At breakfast she suggests eating eggs, having a slice of ham on the side or adding protein powder to your oatmeal. Otherwise, if you eat only carbohydrates, you’ll crash early and hard.
Cwynar also recommends eating small amounts every three to four hours to avoid over-eating at meal-time and to keep your blood sugars up in between meals. Snacks like fruit and nuts, string cheese, a couple scoops of cottage cheese or even beef jerky will satiate your hunger and boost energy levels. She recommends avoiding soy products, which act like estrogen in the body, using smaller plates, making meals beautiful with color and plating, and to try replacing grain with quinoa, a plant protein.
Cwynar says energy levels are tied to the health of your gastrointestinal tract, and if you’re frequently tired or feel bloated, you may want to get your gut in shape. A common problem she sees is “leaky gut syndrome,” which occurs when the lining of the intestines weakens so much that its contents escape to the bloodstream, causing fatigue, headaches and food sensitivities.
Luckily, there are some easy all-natural fixes. To get the body’s pH balance to equilibrium, Cwynar advises avoiding the use of aspirin, cutting out alcohol for two to four weeks, and drinking about eight glasses of water each day (0.6 ounces multiplied by your weight). Also, although diet soda doesn’t have any calories, the aspartame in it acts like “a film inside your colon,” she says. Because artificial sweetener is a pro-inflammatory, you’ll end up putting on weight. She notes that one patient lost 20 pounds in two months after cutting it from her diet.
An estimated 50 million to 70 million Americans suffer from a chronic sleep disorder. Cwynar says to get better sleep “you need to improve your bedroom hygiene.” First, get the television out of the bedroom. Studies show that even if you don’t turn it on, your brain associates the TV with stimulation. Also, forming habits is important. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
Some tricks: Keep the bedroom cool to help you fall asleep. Studies have found a correlation between high core body temperature and insomnia. If you have trouble falling asleep, get up and leave the room until you feel tired. Finally, “never exercise after 4 pm,” she warns. While exercise will improve your sleep, it’s better to do it earlier in the day, so that your body has time to come down.
Think you’re just too old and too tired to have sex like you once did? No way, says Cwynar– good, frequent sex is one of the best things you can do to increase your health and get rid of fatigue. “It stimulates brain function, burns calories, increases oxygenation, boosts immunity and relieves stress and depression.” If you feel you’re not as interested in it as you once were, she advises having your testosterone levels checked out, noting that, in women, testosterone boosts libido and energy.
Plus, it’s a good way to start the day. “I advocate for sex in the morning,” Cwynar says. “Most women will find an excuse at night. But if they start their day with it, from a hormonal perspective, they’ll be much more energetic. It invigorates people.”
Yeah, yeah, you’re too tired to exercise, right? Well studies show that the more you move, the more energy you’ll have. “No more excuses,” scolds Cwynar. Oftentimes, she finds that people don’t push their bodies hard enough. While it’s true that any exercise is good, try to really sweat. She recommends burst training, where you work at nearly 100% capacity for 45 seconds, rest for 90 seconds, and then repeat for 20 minutes. It helps burn fat for the next 36 hours and increases metabolism.
Get Moving
Not an a.m. exerciser? Rethink your idea of a workout. In a University of Georgia study, people who did a low-intensity aerobic activity (think a leisurely walk) three times a week had a greater reduction in fatigue levels than folks who did higher intensity workouts (like a faster-paced walk with hills) for the same amount of time.
If you tend to drag in the morning or you’re overall exhausted, a tough workout can be more draining than invigorating. “And if you’re not in top shape, a high-intensity workout forces you to expend major energy, leaving your body tired,” says exercise physiologist Michael Bracko, EdD.
When students are beginning to write, the writing experience itself should be an important and unforgettable learning experience in their lives. As an educator, I face the challenge of teaching my students how to write and helping them develop a keen interest in writing.
Basically, writing is one of the fundamental skills that our students need to develop. Aside from the fact, that writing is an essential skill needed in communication, it is basically needed for our learners to succeed in their academic and personal lives.
Such is my fabulous idea when I teach my young learners how to write. I possess the skill and as a dispenser of life skills, I should do whatever it takes to make my students write with the same intensity when I teach them how to read.
Hello, my dear fellow educators! I am glad that you are here with me again. For today, allow me to dish out my best practices on how to teach writing in elementary school.
How to Improve Writing Skills in Students
Grammar and Punctuation
Grammar and punctuation skills are important in both writing and as students progress into adulthood. As mentioned previously, using proper grammar and punctuation presents an excellent first impression for future employers and shows competency. Teachers can help students improve these skills by first providing practice in identifying grammatical errors and correcting them. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use grammar worksheets. Although the use of worksheets is frowned upon at times, they give students the opportunity to practice with grammar skills in a fast and efficient manner. Students may also wish to invest in a grammar dictionary to reference when in doubt.
Spelling
Another skill that is crucial for students to master for success later in life is spelling! Students must be able to spell words correctly. As with most skills, spelling can be improved with practice. Teachers may ask students to complete the “ancient” practice of the spelling test! Students must study new words (or words and vocabulary specific to new content) in order to spell them correctly on the test. Teachers may even encourage students to create flashcards to help them study. Additionally, one of the easiest ways to spell correctly in writing is to simply reference the dictionary to find a word’s proper spelling.
Vocabulary
In writing, vocabulary is highly important. Students need a large enough vocabulary to properly and adequately describe and explain their thoughts. Teachers can help improve vocabulary skills by introducing new words each week. These words can also be used to help student spelling skills as mentioned before. As each week progresses, students should keep a list of all of their vocabulary words in a notebook or journal so that they can be quickly referenced when writing. As with spelling skills, students may want to reference the dictionary to discover new words and their meanings.
Clarity
Have you ever read something and didn’t quite catch its intended meaning or what it was trying to get across? That may be because the writing lacked clarity. Writing should be logical, consistent, and coherent. In order to have clarity in writing, thoughts should be fully formed and completed with plenty of detail to aid the reader’s understanding and interpretation of the text. Teachers can help improve student clarity in writing by asking them to proofread their work.
Creativity
Plagiarism is definitely something students need to avoid! When researching a topic or idea, it is easy to get swept away in the language or thoughts of another; however, students must learn that those ideas should be used as an aid in writing instead of using it as a foundation for their writing. Teachers should encourage creativity in writing and challenge students to think “outside the box.” Each student presents unique thoughts and ideas, and those qualities should be utilized in writing.
Strategies for Improving Student Writing Skills
Grammar Race
This activity requires teachers to create 4-5 stations for students to visit. At each station, there will be examples of various grammatical errors. Each student will need a clipboard or notebook that travels with them. Students will visit each station at their own pace to find one grammatical error, notate it, and move on; however, the name of the activity is “Grammar Race” so students should be challenged to work quickly. Allow students to move from station to station for 20-30 minutes.
Class Spelling Bee
Teachers can help students improve their spelling skills by hosting a class spelling bee once a week. Teachers should provide students with a list of words on Monday. Students will be given the rest of the week to study the words and prepare for the spelling bee. On Friday, students will complete the spelling bee. The spelling bee is completed like a normal spelling bee; however, words may need to be repeated if there are more students than words. Allow the spelling bee to continue for roughly 30 minutes. When time is up, the students remaining are the winners.
Read It Aloud
In this activity, students will proofread the work of classmates in order to provide constructive feedback. The teacher should place students into small groups of 3-4 students or allow students to work with a partner. Students should trade papers so that they no longer have their own. Then, they will read each student’s writing aloud. Reading aloud helps to identify any mistakes (specifically mistakes in clarity or organization of the text) that may not otherwise be caught. Students should check for mistakes (in both grammar and spelling) and to search for any lack of clarity in writing.
Get Organized
Teachers should aid students in the writing process by teaching them to organize their thoughts on paper first. Students can complete an outline or a writing map on paper first to help them identify the main points they would like to address and so on. Planning the steps in the writing process in this manner is extremely beneficial in staying on task in writing. It also helps students write with clarity as it helps them bring their thoughts full circle.
Think Fast
One of my favorite ways of implementing and teaching creative thinking is by writing one word on the board and asking students to respond. For instance, the teacher may write the word “tiger” or “beautiful” on the board. Student responses can be anything from short personal narratives to expository texts involving the provided word. Regardless of the response, students are encouraged to think creatively and respond freely. This activity teaches students how easy it is to create their own ideas and think uniquely.
I’ve always been a lover of history. I think the past offers something beautiful and mysterious, a connection to those who came before us and their ways. I sometimes catch myself daydreaming about what things were like many years ago. And as a career coach, I inevitably drift over to wondering what it must have been like to look for a job in the past.
Many things about the job hunt haven’t actually changed much with modern technology. Networking and developing your skills have always been integral to finding the right job. Networking, after all, is just a version of cooperation or helping one another out. These types of social supports date back to ancient times to when the stakes were much higher than a salary negotiation. Many experts believe that our social structures have not changed all that much since we were living in small communities as hunter-gatherers, fighting for survival. Networking is part of that survival process, and the desire to connect is hardwired inside all of us.
But obviously new technology has afforded job seekers infinitely more potential to optimize their searches and find the perfect job. While a select number of remote jobs posted in 2020 were location-specific, 80% were available to workers in any location.
This is almost such a no-brainer that I didn’t include it. But then I had a thought: how many job seekers are really utilizing LinkedIn to its fullest? LinkedIn offers some amazing features that may not be known to most users.
Best Travel Insurance Companies
For a lot of people, LinkedIn is kind of a weekly check-in type of site. You might log on, scroll a bit, give a quick “like” to your middle school friend who got promoted, check your messages, do a casual job search, then migrate over to something more stimulating, like a Buzzfeed listicle or the latest celeb gossip.
To start, did you know that you can add media to the “Featured” section of your profile? Creators, I’m looking at you. Maybe you’ve done a killer brand video, or you want to share a reel of media appearances you have made. Or perhaps a photo from a keynote you made at a conference.
Most people who are doing job searches on LinkedIn just plug in relevant keywords and locations. But the search features on LinkedIn have much more to offer. You can save searches and set up alerts for relevant postings.
If you feel that searching for jobs on LinkedIn is turning up results that are too general, don’t match your specific skills and desires or don’t relate to your connections, you can utilize the LinkedIn advanced search features to filter for much more precise searches for listings.
Even if you treat LinkedIn as your first and last stop in your job search journey, it is worth spending a little more time on the site to really get comfortable with the ins and outs. It can truly be your most valuable online tool.
Glassdoor is another immensely valuable asset to anyone in the job search, and I absolutely loved my recent interview with their CEO right here. This tool is especially useful when researching potential jobs and employers, or when entering into the interview stage and considering offers with a certain company.
If you are unfamiliar, Glassdoor is a database for jobs listings and applications, as well as a portal where current and former employees can anonymously rate their experience in working for a certain company across many metrics, and provide information like salary and potential interview questions. Through analysis of this data, Glassdoor creates ratings and metrics on specific companies.
If you are interested in the company culture, revenue or size of a potential employer, or you are looking for an inside perspective on what it’s like to work for a certain company, Glassdoor should be your first stop.
In recent months, Glassdoor has also risen to the challenge of addressing the very pressing issue of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. With new products and features, Glassdoor has begun allowing users to share demographic information and rate a company based on its handle of issues of diversity within the workplace.
This is such an essential issue, and Glassdoor is a leader in creating greater transparency and accountability when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion in the job search and in the world of work.
If you’re reading this article, I have a feeling you’re someone who has put a lot of time into your resume. But did you know that often, when you’re applying for a job, your resume may not even make it to a real person?
This is because many recruiters and hiring managers are utilizing an application track system (or ATS). In my recent book You Turn, I actually refer to applicant tracking systems in a header called “Applicant Tracking Hell”—and there’s a reason for this! Navigating the ATS is challenging, and knowing your resume may never even encounter a human being is disheartening. As a matter of fact, data shows that up to 75% of resumes never make it to a hiring manager.
You may have done a great job of highlighting your professional experience on your resume, but you’re just using the wrong words or formatting. This is where Jobscan comes in. Jobscan uses algorithms and AI to scan your resume and compare it to a specific job listing, giving you feedback on how to best tweak your resume to work well with an ATS.
Descriptions of your work experience do not match up to the job descriptions. Even if you are super qualified, if your resume doesn’t match up with keywords in the job description, you could be preemptively disqualifying yourself. I tell job seekers in my online courses to make sure they sprinkle terminology from job descriptions as though it’s fairy dust throughout their resume. Sprinkle away!
You’re not using standard formatting. While clever and inventive ways of formatting your resume may show off your aesthetic acuity, and your creativity with design, they may also prevent your resume from making the ATS cut. Non-standard formatting can confuse the AI, and lead to your resume being processed incorrectly, or not at all.
Too much flowery language. You may think that using headings like “Selected Professional Engagements” and “Secondary School and Collegiate Alma Mater” makes you sound smart. But, I hate to break it to you, complicated and word descriptions are not working in your favor when it comes to ATS. Stick with standard headings that will ensure that the ATS processes your resume correctly. Think: “Work Experience” and “Education.”
Social media resources
Professional networking opportunities: Professional networking sites connect industry professionals to candidate-seeking employers. Create an account on one or more of these sites and include a professional bio, resume and cover letter. If the site has an “open to recruitment” option that notifies employers of your availability, make sure you activate it for the best results.
Job notifications: Companies often use their online presence to post available job openings and information about how to apply for an opportunity. If you are interested in working for a specific company, follow them on their social media platforms. You will not only learn more about the company, their values, culture and purpose, but you could also find job openings ahead of candidates who don’t follow them on social media.
Top 12 Job Search Apps for 2022
1. Indeed Job Search
You can also save jobs to your account through the app and then access them again through your computer. This can be ideal if you want to make sure your resume is tailored. Otherwise, you can submit your Indeed Resume using the app, allowing you to apply immediately.
However, it’s important to note that the job search process can be a little clunky through the app (and on Indeed’s website, to be honest). The filters may reset after you close and reopen the app, which is inconvenient. Additionally, you may see positions that aren’t highly relevant to your criteria in the results, which is a bit annoying.
2. CareerBuilder
Another job search app from a major job board, the CareerBuilder job search app has a lot to offer. Once you create an account, you can craft and update customized resumes fairly easily, allowing you to apply directly from the app.
Additionally, you get access to some job search notification options to allow you to stay on top of new openings. The app is also AI-powered, allowing it to figure out which opportunities are actually in your immediate area (or within a set distance). You can even use AR to learn about jobs. The app will give you information as you pass by area companies, which is pretty cool, or you can use a map mode to see what’s around.
Additionally, some users have received messages from “companies” that seem to be scams. While this isn’t a CareerBuilder-specific issue, as it can happen with any site where employers can message you directly even if you haven’t applied to a job with them, it puts a spotlight on how important vigilance and a bit of skepticism can be.
3. Glassdoor
It is important to note that Glassdoor’s app does fall short in a couple of areas. You can’t fill out applications using your smartphone, which is a bummer. Additionally, the app’s design takes a little time to get used to. Some users find it overwhelming and confusing at first, though it is possible to get the hang of it.
4. Snagajob
You can create a profile using information from Facebook, which can speed things up a bit, though you can also do it entirely from scratch. Once your profile is ready, you can use filters to find your ideal opportunities, including full-time, seasonal, summer-only, and part-time positions. You can narrow the results by industry or use keywords to refine the list.
Inside the Snagajob app, you’ll also find a map feature. This lets you see what’s available in your immediate area, a must for anyone who worries about their commute, needs to stay bus line adjacent, or otherwise has to take a company’s location into account.
Many of Snagajob’s listings only take a single click to apply. However, some do have a pretty lengthy application process, and it can be tricky to navigate using a smartphone. Additionally, you won’t really find high-skilled salary positions here, so it isn’t a great fit for everyone.
5. JobAware
The JobAware job search app is a bit different. It pulls listings from Indeed, so you won’t necessarily find unique openings here. However, what it does is allow you to track your activities. You can categorize opportunities into segments like “dream jobs” and “second-choice jobs.” Additionally, you can file jobs based on where you are in the process, like “applied” or “interviewing.”
6. LinkedIn
The quintessential social media site for professionals also has a handy app that can help you nail your job search. Not only can you network, read about emerging trends, and update your profile, but you can also use it to search for opportunities.
One of the benefits of using LinkedIn’s app is that you may be able to submit your profile (in lieu of a resume) when you apply for a position. Since your LinkedIn profile can hold more information than you’d usually list in a resume, it may take less time to ensure your application targets the role.
Plus, you can get push notifications, take advantage of your InMail box, and reach out to area recruiters with ease. Just keep in mind that LinkedIn isn’t always a go-to job ad source for some companies, so it may only contain a fraction of what’s available in your area. Additionally, it leans professional, so it may not work as well for all careers or entry-level opportunities in some industries.
7. Simply Hired
Simply Hired is a job search aggregator, meaning it collects information about open positions from all over the internet. It was acquired by Recruit Holdings, the company that owns Indeed, in 2016. However, Simply Hired does list more than what you find on Indeed alone.
By and large, the app is search-based, so you do have to work to find relevant positions instead of having them sent straight to you after you choose some criteria. At times, you can apply right through the app. In other situations, you may be shuttled off to the job posting’s original source website, which is a bit cumbersome. However, Simply Hired is a great information source overall.
Content strategy is a higher-level business activity than content marketing. Content strategy is the roadmap that guides your content marketing. It’s the decision making that underlies whom your content will impact, how your content will cut through all the noise, and the desired outcomes. In addition, it involves defining content success.
What are the 3 components of content strategy?
And while there’s no one-size-fits all, content strategy essentially begins by combining three key elements — brand focus, user experience, and content distribution — that will serve the requirements of a business and its customers.
A content strategy is a content creation and deployment plan to achieve business goals. It outlines the decision-making process behind whom your material will impact, how it will cut through all of the noise, and what you hope to achieve in smaller, more measurable metrics – defining content success.
A good strategy sets a roadmap to plan, create, and manage content. It guides all of your marketing assets and supports ongoing content lifecycle management to meet your critical business initiatives. Organising, scheduling, generating, publishing, and promoting content pieces all fall under the content strategy umbrella.
Additional Resources
Content strategy and SEO strategy go hand in hand. A central part of an effective strategy is identifying the questions, desires, pain points, and challenges that drive your audience to action. Then, you do strategic keyword research to determine how your audience searches for solutions to their needs. Finally, you create content around these topics that fulfill their search intent.
Terakeet recently published two organic search market share reports for the beauty industry and the financial services industry that showcase the value of full-funnel content marketing strategy. Surprisingly, the largest brands worth billions of dollars are losing significant market share to online publishers with more robust, search-focused content strategies.
Map content to the customer journey
Then, develop content that amplifies brand awareness, solves problems, and influences decisions. This might include blog posts, articles, and videos that answer your customer’s questions. It could also include MOFU content to help them take the next step in their journey, such as webinars and case studies. And finally, you might create content like interactive tools and calculators, product comparison charts, etc. to push them over the finish line at the bottom of the funnel.
Align with search intent
No matter the content you generate, be sure that you’re aligning with search intent. In other words, make sure that you’re providing the type of content, information, and answers that someone searching on a given keyword is actually seeking.
Intent really matters. If someone is searching for educational information and all you have to offer is a product, Google will likely identify the disconnect and display other content at the top of the SERPs instead of yours. Similarly, if they are looking for a checklist and you’re not serving that up in your content, you’ll likely miss the mark again.
Launch SEO topic clusters
Along with full-funnel content and aligning with intent, your content ecosystem should be mindfully structured. To that end, SEO topic clusters are a particularly effective way to increase organic traffic for relevant keywords.
A topic cluster is a hub-and-spoke model of content production. It contains a central pillar page (the hub) that thoroughly addresses a broad topic at a high level. The pillar page is supported by a number of related, longer-tail cluster pages (the spokes) that address specific subtopics in a much more in-depth fashion than the pillar pages. The pillar page connects to all of the cluster pages and vice-versa through internal links.
So, topic clusters are like concentrated buckets of relevance. They help search engines understand the context, relationships, and hierarchy of each page within a family of content. At the same time, they help your audience find answers and related information easily.
Step #5: Listen to Your Customers to Improve Your Content Strategy
While data analysis can be an immensely useful tool, it gives you only black and white figures on a spectrum that encompasses a lot of subtleties. Access the rest of that spectrum by really listening to your customers. Your customers need to know they are being heard on social media, so ask them for feedback and suggestions and engage with them regularly.
Also, speak to other members of your staff to get a better understanding of the needs of your customers. Sales teams and help staff who are speaking to your customers on a regular basis are better positioned to have thoughtful insight into how customers perceive your business. Then, reaching out to your customers and responding to their feedback enables you to gather valuable data, whilst also showing them that their opinion matters.
Virgin provided an excellent case study by showing how they utilized big data. They incorporated search terms used on the web, people being followed on social media platforms, and views and interests expressed online.
What’s the first step of creating a content strategy?
The first step to creating a content strategy should be to define your goals. From there, you can make decisions about what your processes should look like, who your target audience is, what your publishing schedule should be, etc.
Using our step-by-step guide will push you in the right direction to creating a great content strategy, whilst also making sure you are paying attention to key metrics that can make or break the success of your content. Remember: starting your content strategy on the wrong foot is guaranteed to waste your time, and publishing your content on the wrong platforms for your audience means you won’t generate the leads you desire.
Share
He is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.
After you determine what your biggest content needs are, then you can assign relevant metrics. For example, if you need to focus on awareness content, relevant metrics could be social shares and newsletter signups; whereas for content at the bottom of the funnel, you might, for example, focus on lead form completions.
Content Strategy
With the emergence of the axiom “content is king” within the SEO world, the definition of what exactly content strategy is has been debated. We’re not going to try to throw our hat in the ring about what the end-all, be-all definition should be since lots of smart people have done so; however, we’ll define content strategy and marketing as it relates to this guide.
What is content strategy?
Content strategy is the ongoing process of developing a comprehensive plan to ideate, design, create, share, and promote content that aligns with your brand, speaks to your target audience, and is measured against specific goals.
Content strategy acts as a glue, tying together numerous elements important for SEO, from your overarching brand vision to promotional campaigns, all of which we will be addressing within the following chapters of this resource. As SEO has moved past manipulative tactics such as keyword stuffing and link buying, what’s important is creating content that’s relevant and engaging to your customers, which in turn strengthens Google’s understanding of your website and its topical authority.
If you have a dedicated content team, great! See what strategic plans they already have, and collaborate with them moving forward. If not, no problem. Many SEO teams may act as hybrid content/SEO/PR teams, and the following steps are still well within your wheelhouse.
Boost your content with SEO
What’s the difference between content strategy and content marketing?
While many, many people use the terms "content strategy" and "content marketing" interchangeably, they are not the same thing, because you can strategize about non-marketing content. For our purposes, though, when we talk about "content strategy," you can assume we’re talking about "content marketing strategy."
Content strategy concerns itself with the vision — the ins and outs of how and why your content will be created, managed, and eventually archived or updated. It looks at all of the content your customers ever encounter. It overlaps with content marketing, which is why you’ll see a lot of things in this guide that look like content strategy, but they are not the same thing (did we say that already?).
Content marketing focuses on the tactics and execution — the actual creation, curation, and editing of content that’s specifically created for the purposes of marketing. This could be anything from blog posts to the confirmation page, and is aimed at building a trusted connection between a company’s products or services and the market that might end up purchasing them. It’s about creating content that people not only want to consume, but that will also help them through the sales funnel.
For example, a content strategist might find that there’s a lack of trust between their company and their customers, suggesting a number of ways that trust might be built. A content marketer might do the work to gain that trust by featuring an interview with the company’s founder. See how these disciplines complement each other?
What Is a Content Strategy?
That’s pretty simple too. Without a content strategy, you’re basically taking shots in the dark, creating piecemeal content that isn’t as effective as it should be, and working off of hunches instead of solid data. At the end of your campaign, quarter, and annual cycles, you can’t even evaluate your success because you never had a strategy to begin with.
Make better decisions. Being able to actually “see” your strategy lets you spot potential issues, trim the fat, and visualize your entire content ecosystem. It also allows you to record hypotheses and assess them once you have your results.
Keep everyone on the same page. Communication is more efficient with a documented content strategy. It helps everyone working on your content—both internally and externally—know exactly what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, how they’re doing it, and why it matters. This empowers your team to take more ownership, contribute better ideas, hesitate less, and produce better work.
Stay accountable. With a content strategy, you can test your ideas, plan and schedule deliverables, measure and monitor results, and maintain momentum in a tangible way.
Improve your resource and budget allocation. This is one of the biggest benefits of a documented content strategy. You can plan well ahead of time and determine the best way to get the most value from your resources. It can also help you keep a handle on your budget—or justify the need for more budget.
7 Steps to Creating a Complete Content Strategy
Long-term planning allows you to anticipate challenges and allocate resources effectively. Laying out these seven steps will help you develop and implement a content strategy aligned with your marketing and business goals.
As mentioned earlier, you must document your plan. This could be a slide deck, a Google document, a spreadsheet, or another format that works well for your business model and can be easily shared with all essential stakeholders.
Step 1: Determine Your Audience and the Story You Want to Tell with Your Content
While your buyer personas will form the base for your content strategy, your audience isn’t solely made up of buyers. Audiences include people who begin interacting with your brand long before they intend to make a purchase.
Besides, becoming a valuable source of information can help you build a community of brand advocates who will spread the word and strengthen your thought leadership. We sometimes call these people “reader personas", highlighting that it’s all about delivering value to your audiences vs. pushing your products or services.
Red Bull is an excellent example of a brand that creates content for audiences, not buyers. Red Bull’s owned media doesn’t focus on its product; it covers topics the audience is interested in, like extreme sports and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. You can easily identify the target audience—young and adventurous people, passionate about sport and an active lifestyle.
Red Bull showcases the importance of integrating your brand story into every content piece and every message sent to your audience. Remember about your mission, where you stand, and why you are sharing content in the first place. Creating this unique voice and character can help you stand out in the age of “content shock.”
The Empathy Map
The “Jobs to Be Done” Framework
For example: When I work, I spend too much time completing all my tasks, that’s why I want to find a tool to improve my time management, so I can spend more time with my family.
Once you have an understanding of the prospect’s current problem, the solution they need, and the result they envision, you can create compelling content that can transform them from newcomers into your brand advocates.
Step 2: Analyze Historical Content Performance and Establish Your Content Marketing Goals
Such metrics might be primary: e.g., revenue generated by content marketing or organic traffic and the number of leads. Others might be secondary: e.g., organic traffic, ranking, and shares.
Remember that we all live in a world of limited resources. Your goals and plans are closely tied to the available budget and capacity of your team. So, make sure to take this into account when setting your targets.
But we encourage you to always look at the bigger picture and see content marketing as an integral part of your overall marketing strategy. An example of an overarching goal could be: “In 2022, we want to achieve a 20% increase in revenue created by organic content and generate 15,000 MQLs with a budget of $30,000.”
Pro tip: Take the buyer’s journey into account when setting your content strategy goals. For example, in B2B, the sales cycle tends to be much longer than in B2C. So, multitouch attribution would be more optimal when analyzing your content performance and defining your KPIs (key performance indicators).
Goal-Setting Frameworks
Let’s look at some progressive goal-setting frameworks that can help you at this step. While you may be more comfortable with traditional goal-setting frameworks like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals, flexibility is key to setting realistic benchmarks. Consider using the framework CLEAR, which can help you become more agile in a fast-changing environment.
With this approach, you can target an ambitious result, but set a minimum threshold for reaching the goal. Progress indicators (0–100%) allow each team member to see how attainable each goal is and understand what remains to be accomplished.
Irrespective of your product and niche, your potential customers likely already use one or more social media platforms. Ensure you identify the right content formats into your content creation strategy and publishing times of each social media channel for maximum traction.
Set a mission, goals, and KPIs
A few years ago, athenahealth debuted athenaInsight, its data-driven news publication, to make a serious investment in content marketing. According to executive director of content and communications John Fox, the marketing team made a choice to adjust the brand’s point of view as they prepped for the launch.
“At various points in our history, we’ve talked a lot about what’s wrong with healthcare, what’s broken. We’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that in terms of thought leadership,” Fox said. But we’ve made a conscious move to point the way toward a solution, being that voice of hope and optimism to help doctors and others.”
Since athenahealth’s initial goal was building an audience, the team was “obsessed over growth metrics like unique visitors.” But they also operated with a long-term view of business metrics, so their plan also accounted for pageviews per visit and visits per reader—data points tied to loyalty.
Let athenahealth’s early steps serve as a framework for getting your content program off to a clear start. “You can’t stand for ten things,” Fox said. “You need to stand for one thing and have a clear message for what you’re putting out in marketing. Align everything behind that as much as possible.”
Tips to Develop Your Content Creation Strategy
8. Brainstorm Content Ideas
Gather your team and start jotting down all ideas, themes, and subjects you think will resonate with your audience. You can also use a tool like AnswerThePublic to find the questions your audience is most likely to about a particular topic. When you’ve got many ideas, list them in an Excel spreadsheet and start researching each topic.
9. Audit Your Existing Content
Inside of StoryChief, you can use various filters and searches to find content that needs to be updated. One easy way to find opportunities is to look for posts with low SEO and readability scores. Our SEO and readability optimizer gives you a score for each and tips on how to improve it.
10. Outline a Content Calendar
A content calendar outlines your content creation strategy and distribution schedule, so you’ll stay on task and consistent. You’ll find a plethora of content calendar templates online to help with your content creation strategy.
11. Create a Content Marketing Playbook
A content marketing playbook (CMP) acts as a quick-reference guide that outlines your organization’s content marketing best practices. It facilitates collaboration and coordination within your team and makes it easier to train new employees.
12. Leverage a Content Marketing Platform
If you have an adequate budget, getting an easy-to-use and reliable content marketing platform like StoryChief is a great idea. It’ll provide you with an all-in-one platform to develop, publish, monitor, and manage various content assets. Make sure you evaluate the available options and select a CMP that best suits your needs.
Content Creation Tactics for the Best Strategy
13. Set Up Your Blog
If you haven’t set up your blog yet, it’s high time you get started. You can use a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress or HubSpot to build a lovely blog in a few simple steps. You can also leverage StoryChief on WordPress.
14. Publish Keyword-Rich Content
15. Optimize Your Content Structure
No one likes to read a long wall of text. While long-form content performs better, you need to make it readable and scannable. Use short sentences and paragraphs. Also, divide your content into individual sections using meaningful subheadings.
16. Write Compelling Headlines
17. Use New Content Formats
The final selection of content formats depends on your target audience, marketing objectives, and budget. Also, it depends on the distribution channels you plan to use to reach your audience. You can create blog posts for different types of content, such as podcasts and videos, and promote them from your blog, so you drive traffic to your main website.
18. Use Awesome Images
Make your blog posts more valuable and enriching by including relevant, high-quality images, illustrations, and infographics. We have a media library, full of all of your previously used content (so you can add images from old blog posts). Plus, we integrate directly with Unsplash for free access to high quality stock images.
19. Include a CTA
20. Publish Case Studies and Checklists
Publishing case studies is an excellent way part of a content creation strategy to build credibility, authority, and trust. List your client’s problems and highlight how your products/services helped resolve their issues.
21. Repurpose and Optimize Existing Content
It’s a good time to repurpose your blog posts into more engaging formats such as infographics and SlideShare presentations. You can even turn a podcast episode into an insightful blog post and further repurpose it as an animation.
22. Curate Relevant Content
23. Host Interviews & Webinars
24. Leverage Guest Posting
25. Try Newsjacking
26. Harness the Power of User-Generated Content
Publish client testimonials and user reviews on your website and social media profiles to build reputation and trust. You can even reward customers for uploading pictures or videos featuring your products on their social media profiles.
27. Use a Project Management Tool
A project management tool is instrumental in helping your team monitor the progress of each content asset. That, in turn, ensures that every content piece has been revised and edited before the scheduled date of publishing.
The Plan
Now you have documented who you’re targeting, what you’re publishing, how it will be promoted. You should also have some idea for which influencers you are collaborating with, which formats you’ll be using and also how often you’re going to publish.
Like any plan to reach any goal, you’ll need to measure your progress to keep yourself on track. Content marketing is a marathon. It’s a long-term process. Unless you track your progress, you’re likely to get discouraged and give up.
Track your activity
Track your progress
After the first year of content development and promotion, driving your editorial calendar and running content marketing campaigns, you’ll be ready to run a content marketing audit. Follow this process to see which of your content marketing efforts are getting 10x results, and which blog posts have the best opportunities for updates in their content lifecycle.
This applies to the experience of so many content marketers. Results are slow at first, but the benefits are durable. It’s like a flywheel. It gets easier. Eventually, you’ll create cumulative advantages that will make your business very very hard to compete with.
Content Strategy vs. Content Marketing Strategy
I have no specific expertise in the broader, content strategy topic. But Hilary Marsh does. Hilary has done content strategy work (both for marketing and non-marketing content) since the 1990s. She is an expert on the topic and the Chief Strategist at Content Company, LLC.
Content strategy – more than content marketing strategy
The terminology is confusing, isn’t it! I don’t think we do ourselves or our clients/colleagues any favors when we use “content strategy,” “content marketing,” and “content marketing strategy” interchangeably. Even the read-aloud video on this page mixes up the terms: The text inside the video says “content strategy,” but the title slide and the YouTube title both say “content marketing explained.”
The definitions differ too. This article says content strategy is the practice of planning the creation, promotion, and measurement of content, and that it’s really a plan for content marketing. But that’s not actually all there is to content strategy.
The disconnect and confusion arise because “content” itself has so many meanings. For content marketers, content is what they create. It’s marketing-focused content – campaigns, testimonials, lead-focused landing pages, and the like. Since the goal of marketing content is drawing prospective customers, or leads, there’s no need to include that in the definition. And since the content is forward-looking, governance is pretty straightforward:
Every organization creates much, much more than marketing content. As I like to say, content is the way an organization’s work manifests itself in the world. Every product, service, or resource ends up in the world as words, pictures, audio, and/or video – aka, content.
That’s where content tends to get complicated, and where content strategy can make a huge positive difference for a company. At its heart, content strategy helps an organization answer three basic questions for every piece of content:
Content strategists roll up their sleeves and, armed with an understanding of the organization’s goals and challenges, as well as the top-priority audiences and their needs, help the organization create the necessary roles, processes, and standards so that ALL of its content works.
The good news for all of us is that the better the organization’s content strategy, the easier the content marketer’s job is, because after the compelling testimonial or landing page, the prospective customer who explores the rest of the organization’s content will have a better, more holistic experience. Then the marketing content can do its job more effectively.
5G is one of the mobile app trends 2021-22 that would change every mobile application development strategy . With the power of extremely fast internet speed in users’ hands , they will be expecting zero lags and loading time. This will translate into the fact that businesses will have to plan for high concurrency. In a proactive response to what is to come, businesses like Verizon and Samsung are already gearing for the launch of dedicated 5G-capable chips.
Although IoT is there in our list of mobile app trends 2021-22 , we want to give a separate focus on wearable as one of the major app market trends . What got famous with Fitbit, wearables are continuing towards popularity with the passing time. Today, with the help of cross-platform mobile app development , wearables are finding themselves to be a part of a number of industries and across a wide variety of use cases.
5. AI
2019 saw Artificial Intelligence mature. The year saw Robotics and Smart Cars coming on the forefront and businesses finding use cases for the integration of AI with mobile apps offering. While the role of AI has mainly been limited to improving the customer experience till now, the time to come will see the technology impacting the future of mobile application development processes. It will also play a bigger contributory role in shaping the internal processes of a business as well, in addition to the offerings.
Instant apps are the solution that mobile app development companies offer to the users who work around the perils of low storage space. Announced back in 2016 by Google, Instant Apps have been playing a major role in the life of users who operate entry model devices.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence can make apps smarter, and ultimately improve the performance at every level. From the backend development process to the frontend user experience, AI will change the way apps are built-in 2022.
Smartphone users are slowly but surely adopting mobile payments. They’re even leveraging app functionalities for payments on connected wearable devices. In coming years, all the mobile apps out there need to account for mobile pay.
Mobile wallets must be taken into consideration for app development in 2022. Wallet integration should become a standard feature for every app that processes transactions. Currently, that’s not the case. But the mobile wallet penetration rate in apps will grow significantly in the coming years.
React Native
React Native (RN), Facebook’s open-source UI software framework, is facing stiff competition from the likes of Flutter, but is still showing that it is capable of producing first-class applications. It is a much loved framework by developers and is still growing at a rapid pace.
React Native Gesture Handler
React Native Gesture Handler version 2, released in 2022, is a native touch and gesture system that allows app developers to build the best possible touch-based experiences using React Native. The gesture handler enables gesture tracking to be smooth and dependable and can be used by developers at various levels of expertise.
Reanimated
Similarly, Reanimated, a React Native library that enables the creation of smooth animations and interactions, looks set to assist app developers for many years with layout animations and transitions. This comprehensive library provides developers with all the tools they need to create exciting and innovative apps and features.
Multi-platform functionality
Another area where React Native in 2022 may grow is in its multi-platform functionality. The support for multiplatform programming helps to reduce time spent writing the same code over and over again but it also ensures you can retain the flexibility of native programming.
For developers and creators this cross-platform functionality can be a vital money-saver as tons of time and resources don’t have to be devoted to building two completely different apps for two different platforms.
There is no limit to the growth potential of React Native in the mobile app market. The React Native framework is ideal for sophisticated multi-platform app development and with mobile app revenues expected to reach $935 billion 2023, RN is primed for growth.
Flutter
Flutter, the open-source UI software development kit created by Google, may also have some exciting new trends for 2022. Like React Native, Flutter is a supremely useful and powerful framework for building cross-platform mobile applications.
Flutter will be setting trends in mobile app development in 2022 for a number of reasons. Firstly, there are plenty of advantages of using an app created by Google, namely the powerful support, the exceptional performance and the boost of Flutter native Google ads.
Thirdly, Flutter offers a variety of built-in animations which mobile application developers can use to enhance the features of the app with ease. For this reason and many others, Flutter is also a great technology to adopt for startups looking to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). With Flutter the development costs will be low and the potential for exciting features will be high.
Flutter Web support
Flutter for the web has also developed significantly in recent years. Flutter Web support hit the stable milestone in early 2021 and looks set to deliver an array of fantastic web-specific features in the near future. Currently, the Flutter team also organizes a global hackathon about developing Flutter for the web.
One of the main benefits of Flutter for the web is that everything will look 100% as designers imagined it on all platforms in terms of UI, UX and animations. This is ideal for branded apps that have a defined style guide. Additionally, another benefit of Flutter for the web is the possibility to port all of the components used in mobile to the web at some point for consumers.
There is a potential field to scale-up platforms as the brand grows. Flutter also has support to develop apps to desktop platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux. In many ways, the accessibility and flexibility of the Flutter framework indicate that Flutter is finely poised to succeed in 2022.
Progressive Web Apps and “Instant” Apps
PWAs are a hybrid between web pages and apps. One of the best advantages of these apps is that they take less time to develop than normal apps because they are simply websites with app functionalities. On the other hand, they have expanded utility than simply being web pages as you can save them on your home screen. For example, an app loses 20% of potential users at every step between a user’s first encounter with an app and using the app. A PWA avoids this problem because once the user first sees it, they can start using it immediately.
Deemed as the next big thing in application development, PWAs deliver benefits that counter the disadvantages of native applications. Among these benefits are: PWAs have a lower degree of dependency on the Internet, require less loading time, and do not occupy much space. PWAs are also highly accessible and adaptable and updated automatically.
The significance of PWAs is highlighted during the coronavirus crisis, especially in the ecommerce industry due to the dramatic increase in online shopping activity. A number of B2B and B2C companies have reported an increase in engagement, conversion rate, and sales and revenue after building and launching their PWA platforms. Among them is AliExpress, which recorded a 104% increase in conversion rate across all browsers. Meanwhile, 50% of Flipkart’s new customers were acquired through PWA; furthermore, 60% of their PWA visitors uninstalled the native application to save space.
Progressive Web Apps Essential Statistics:
Wearables
The wearable market is maturing. According to Statista, there will be 1.1 billion connected wearables in 2022. Mobile app development trends point to the fact that the development of these devices is a heady gold rush. Not only would websites and apps work on mobile devices as well as desktops, but they should work seamlessly on wearables. This would make configuring them a challenging task, but it would soon become apparent that smartphones would be as passé as desktops are now to mobiles.
The trend, however, has suddenly shifted in 2020. In the midst of a global pandemic, wearable devices are seen as potential early detectors of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic COVID-19 cases. Activity trackers, such as FitBit, and smartwatches are equipped with features that continuously monitor physiological data in real-time, which can help in the early detection of any deviations from an individual’s normal health baseline. Among the notable studies and applications of this subject was conducted by Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In May 2020, Northwestern University unveiled the first wearable COVID-19 monitoring device. The revolutionary project earned them a 5000.4 million award from the US Department of Defense, which will fund its further development and deployment.
This is a critical step for helping struggling writers construct ideas. Using tools like brainstorms or Focus Storms, help students quickly get as many ideas as possible. The blank page can be daunting to a young writer who struggles with coming up with ideas. Brainstorming is a powerful tool to help writers flush out all the ideas and then a Focus Storm helps them to organize and fine-tune their ideas. This is also helpful because it is a visual for students to see that they have lots of ideas. If students ever get stuck for ideas, they can refer back to their brainstorm and focus storm.
Strategies to Support Struggling Writers in Elementary
Have you seen this before? A student is up from his desk (again!) going to get a drink for the third time during the writing block. Another student is sitting quietly at her desk starting a blank piece of paper (trying to fly under the radar). And then you have a student claiming to be finished with the writing assignment, yet it is clearly incomplete and disorganized. Sound familiar? Well, all these signs point to struggling writers.
Just like our students, not all struggling writers are the same. Some students struggle with writing because they are stuck for ideas. You know the kid…the one who proclaims, “I don’t know what to write,” then shrugs and stares blankly at you. Those are also often the students getting up to get another drink of water and staring at a blank page. These students struggle with getting started and knowing what to write about.
Other students struggle because their writing is disorganized and lacks structure. These students will often write, but their writing is disorganized and hard to follow. They often claim to be finished with a writing assignment before it is truely complete.
Finally, another group of students struggle with writing because they feel disconnected from the assignment. They may feel it is not relevant to them or they may not have the background knowledge or expertise to write on the topic.
Genre and content knowledge
Genre knowledge means knowing how to use different types of writing. If the assignment is to write a story, kids need to know what goes into the genre of narrative writing. It has to include setting (who, where, when) and plot (what and why).
Content knowledge means knowing something about the subject you’re writing about. If asked to write a letter to a politician about pollution, kids need to understand what pollution is. They’ll also need to know how it affects people, animals, and the environment. And they may need to know what causes pollution.
What can help: Many kids pick up knowledge about genre just by being exposed to it in school through reading. Others may need more explicit instruction. For example, they may need to be taught about the difference between biography and memoir, or fiction versus nonfiction.
To do that, find good examples of each genre. Then compare and contrast them with weak examples or examples not in that genre. You can also come up with a list of common elements that all the good examples share.
Many kids have holes in their general knowledge about the world. That can hurt their writing. You can help kids build background knowledge through reading, field trips, and family outings. Talk about what kids are learning before, during, and after the outing. Just meeting new people and trying new things improves background knowledge, too.
How to Develop Elementary Students’ Writing Skills in a Fun Way
Young students, especially those in elementary school don’t benefit from long attention spans. In fact, a 2015 study found that adults have an attention span that lasts about eight seconds. Keeping your students engaged while teaching them better writing skills is no small task.
Orally share ideas in groups before having students write
Allowing your students to generate ideas in a group and brainstorm is an effective tool. If a student is stuck on an idea, hearing what others say can create inspiration. Additionally, if multiple kids are stuck on an idea, a group setting allows them to feel less alone from their lack of an idea.
Allow your students to work on an assignment in pairs, groups, or as a whole class. Similar to sharing ideas out loud, this method gets your students to better think about how to structure an essay and share their writing styles
A writing prompt or starter sentence doesn’t allow your student to claim they don’t know what to write about and forces them to begin while guiding them.
Allow your students to free write for a few minutes and encourage them to ignore structure and grammar (for now). Free writing is an excellent tactic for getting the creative juices going.
Give your students a topic choice
Either let your students choose from a list of approved topics or give them the option to pick their own for approval. Often, students who feel invested in a subject are more likely to write more and try harder.
Writing an essay for a grade isn’t always enough to get some students engaged, especially if they’re struggling already. Raise the stakes and give them a greater purpose by creating unique assignments. For example, have them write a blog post they have to share with the class or a travel brochure to their favorite destination.
Whether in small groups or one-on-one, it’s vital for teachers to pay attention to each student and identify where they are struggling. When students feel disengaged, it may be because they think they lack the skills to do well. Make sure to target different areas for each student.
Just as in the classroom, teaching your kids writing skills at home is essential because it shows your kids multiple methods and ways to write. Writing at home also keeps what your child learned in school fresher in their minds. Remember the length of that attention span? Knowing how to help kids with writing isn’t always easy, so we’ve got a few helpful tips.
Create a space in your home where your child will feel comfortable doing homework and other writing exercises. When doing exercises with them, don’t be afraid to make it fun with crayons, colored pencils, and markers.
If you enjoy reading to your child, try and write a story together. By reading and writing together, you’ll help your child develop ideas more efficiently, which will translate to their performance in the classroom.
Improving young students’ writing skills may seem like a tall challenge, but by doing a little planning yourself and identifying the individual needs and issues of each student, you’ll be able to transform your classroom into a great writers workshop.
Ninety-five percent of boarding school students reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their academic experience, compared to 86 percent of private day or public school students.
Death by Civilization
My mother died while surviving civilization. Although she outlived a traumatic childhood immersed in its teachings, she carried the pain of those lessons for her entire life. Like most Native American peoples, our family’s story is touched by the legacy of boarding schools, institutions created to destroy and vilify Native culture, language, family, and spirituality. My mother, Bernice, was a survivor of Saint Mary’s Catholic Indian Boarding School on the Ojibwe reservation in Odanah, Wisconsin. She called it the “Sister School,” a world ruled by nuns clad in long black robes.
Two hundred years ago, on March 3, 1819, the Civilization Fund Act ushered in an era of assimilationist policies, leading to the Indian boarding-school era, which lasted from 1860 to 1978. The act directly spurred the creation of the schools by putting forward the notion that Native culture and language were to blame for what was deemed the country’s “Indian problem.”
Native families were coerced by the federal government and Catholic Church officials into sending their children to live and attend classes at boarding schools. (About one-third of the 357 known Indian boarding schools were managed by various Christian denominations.) According to the Act’s text, Christian missionaries and other “persons of good moral character” were charged with introducing Native children to “the habits and arts of civilization” while encouraging them to abandon their traditional languages, cultures, and practices.
This is what achieving civilization looked like in practice: Students were stripped of all things associated with Native life. Their long hair, a source of pride for many Native peoples, was cut short, usually into identical bowl haircuts. They exchanged traditional clothing for uniforms, and embarked on a life influenced by strict military-style regimentation. Students were physically punished for speaking their Native languages. Contact with family and community members was discouraged or forbidden altogether. Survivors have described a culture of pervasive physical and sexual abuse at the schools. Food and medical attention were often scarce; many students died. Their parents sometimes learned of their death only after they had been buried in school cemeteries, some of which were unmarked.
Boarding School Tuition and Financial Assistance
Paying for boarding school tuition requires both careful financial planning and in-depth family discussion. As you view tuition and fees, keep in mind, boarding schools do offer financial assistance and they follow specific standards and guidelines for disbursements.
At first glance, they may appear expensive, but bear in mind the expenses you will no longer incur while your child is living away from home. Boarding school tuition and fees will cover everything from classes to room and board (meals), but also, transportation, clubs, activities, campus health care, and many other services. This means you won’t have to shuttle your son or daughter to sport practices, activities, or appointments. Boarding schools do it all and they do it 24/7.
While you compare schools and costs, make sure you contact the Admission Office to explore all of your financial options. Generally speaking, boarding schools offer need-based financial assistance, payment plans, loan options, and awards. They are committed to accessibility and affordability and will be sensitive to your concerns.
Teachers live in the dorms with students.
Some, like the U.K.’s Eton College, have strict dress codes. Many American boarding schools ask boys to wear jackets and ties to class, while others only require semi-formal attire on special occasions such as weekly seated dinners. Students are also usually required to take part in study hall and check in with the teachers they live with (aka "dorm parents") every night.
Carl Gorman – Boarding Schools
As a child, Carl Gorman attended the Rehoboth Mission School in New Mexico. Carl did not like the harsh rules or the way he and other children were treated, so he ran away. His father understood how he felt and did not make him return to Rehoboth. Later, Carl’s family sent him to the Albuquerque Indian School, where he thrived.
Charles Chibitty – Boarding Schools
Charles Chibitty began his schooling at the Ft. Sill Indian School in Oklahoma. There he and the other Indian children were punished if they spoke their tribal languages. For high school he attended the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas. Tribal languages were allowed there, but the education was still very strict and militaristic.
Are you worried about how to tackle your music analysis essay? You do not need to worry about how you will go about it. One thing that you need to know is that you do not need to have experience in such an assignment for you to pull it off. However, you only need some tips on how to do it. Or consult writing services reviews to get the best essay you need.
A music essay is similar to any other assignment. You need to have a plan on how you intend to write your essay and the steps that you need to follow. To help you write a quality music essay, here are some tips for you.
Understand the Piece
It will be
challenging to start analyzing a piece of music when you have no idea what it
is all about. Therefore, the first thing that you do is; listen to music. You
can listen to the music you are supposed to analyze and brainstorm anything
that you think might be necessary.
While listening, you can write down anything that you notice. For example, you can write about how the music makes you feel, rhythm changes, and instruments used, among others. However, you should pay attention to the music. Aim at having one paragraph covering the critical technical details of the music.
Check On the Lyrics
To come up with a detailed music analysis essay, you can print out the lyrics of the song. After you have printed the lyrics, start scrutinizing them well so that you can be familiar with every word in the song. Try to understand the main aim of music.
Do Research
Another thing that you need to do is research the social, historical, and political message of the song. You can check if the music you are analyzing has any life experience, knowledge of the music, world events, and any prevailing attitudes. Since this may affect your music interpretation in a big way.
Have Your Essay Written
Sometimes when I am writing a music analysis essay, I look for someone to write my essay for me on the web. They can prepare my essay for me at a small cost as I do other tasks. When you seek their help, they will ensure that they help you with your music paper.
They have
experienced writers who will work on your paper from scratch. All you have to
do is place an order with your assignment requirements and leave the rest to
them. They have enough experience in tackling even the most challenging
assignment.
Create An Outline
Once you have
done your research and understood music, you can now write the first draft. Write
your outline using what you have learned while listening as well as
researching. Ensure that you adjust the style and tone of writing to fit the
purpose.
While
writing, you should ensure that you use technical terms so that your essay can
feel better. After you are through with the outline, you are almost through.
All that is left is to polish the draft by adding more details and getting rid
of unnecessary information until you are satisfied.
Revise The Essay
Once you are
through with writing your essay, revise your work to ensure that there are no grammatical
errors. Ensure that it is flowing well, and sentence structures are correct.
You can request someone to read it for you.
Conclusion
Writing a
music analysis essay is a bit challenging. However, if you use the above tips,
you can come up with a quality essay in a short time. So, use these tips in your
next music analysis essay and score high grades.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/eat-more-breakfast-400x400-03b0f6b4ddba41319e0ac001154d52a8.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/get-moving-400x400-9d459388f8f44813ad0acad59227748a.jpg)
