The Revised Recommendations for Reducing the Risk of Zika Virus Transmission by Blood and Blood Components has been released by the FDA. This guidance is for immediate implementation and should be considered essential reading for any involved in the medical industry.
Share this post Google has recently announced that its Search Engine algorithms will be more heavily automated in the coming months.
What does this mean for SEO?
According to Forbes, not much. The algorithm Google uses appears to be intact, just more automated and, as this is a bit of a beta, there will be a human spot-checking everything Google’s ‘RankBrain’ does. The stated intention behind RankBrain is to recognize pre-programmed patterns at a faster rate than a human could. Google’s optimistic about making RankBrain an autonomous program that can recognize new patterns. The ultimate goal is to filter out spam websites entirely, making ‘best SEO practices’ a requirement, but that’s unlikely to happen this year.
Share this post 45% of Americans made New Year’s resolutions, only 8% will achieve them.
According to abz creative, the top 10 New Year’s resolutions are: lose weight, get organized, spend less & save more, enjoy life to the fullest, stay fit & healthy, learn something exciting, quit smoking, help others in their dreams, fall in love, and spend more time with family.
According to abz creative, a factor that determines whether someone fulfills a resolution is making it explicit. Those who make ‘explicit resolutions’ are 10 times as likely to fulfill their goals. This means that people who make overarching goals such as ‘help others in their dreams’ or ‘enjoy life to the fullest’ are less likely to achieve their goals than someone who makes specific goals, such as, ‘help my little brother complete his film project’ or ‘go to the movies once a week.’
The first step in setting a goal is making a clearly attainable one. Don’t ‘lose weight’ instead ‘drop to 130lbs.’ Don’t ‘spend less, save more’ instead set a goal for how much money you’ll put in your savings account at the end of each month. The goal to ‘spend more time with your family’ has a nice ring to it, but there’s no call to action, nothing in the sentence to make you look forward to family time. Why not plan a vacation for the family? This fulfills the same goal, but there’s an easily quantifiable way to achieve it.
I would encourage a similar practice among businesses as we turn the corner into 2016. When deciding what your corporate and marketing goals are for the year, be as specific as possible. Vague goals are unappealing.
Source: http://www.abzcreativepartners.com/top-new-years-resolutions-infographic-marketing-tips/
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Hope you all had a merry one. Here’s a Christmas play list to keep your spirits up through Epiphany.
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Microsoft decided to take a page from the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 and has released an advertisement calling for peace between itself and Apple this Christmas season. The video consists of Microsoft employees gathering on the plaza in front of an Apple store and performing Let There Be Peace On Earth.
This comes in stark contrast to last year when Microsoft compared its Surface Pro 3 to Apple’s Mac Book Air.
Microsoft and Apple are collaborating on this commercial. According to AdAge: “Microsoft had to get permission from Apple to perform the song on the store’s plaza.”[1]
Why would Apple agree to this?Continue reading
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