KX and the Centre for Business & Economics (CEBR) have published ‘The Speed to Business Value’ an industry report showing the commercial and operational benefits to be gained by businesses adopting real-time data analytics technologies.
KX and the Centre for Business & Economics (CEBR) have published ‘The Speed to Business Value’ an industry report showing the commercial and operational benefits to be gained by businesses adopting real-time data analytics technologies.
Creators are always looking for ways to connect with their audiences, starting with producing and sharing content that resonates with them. But how do you take these interactions to the next level and build a stronger sense of connection with your followers? We asked creators who cover a wide range of topics how they turned their followings into active, engaged communities.Use multiple platforms to build your audienceMost creators have a favorite platform they post on, but there are benefits to being active on more than one. For example, posting on multiple platforms can help with discovery, boost engagement and drive traffic to your website. Lindsey Bomgren, a fitness trainer and blogger who posts at Nourish Move Love, says, “I use Instagram for building audience engagement, Pinterest for driving traffic to my website and YouTube for sharing full-length workout videos. No matter where you post, you can always link back to a common destination, like your website. Our most loyal readers are our email subscribers, but we love YouTube and Pinterest for their discoverability!”Lindsey Bomgren posts content for her brand, Nourish Move Love, on multiple platforms to boost discoverability and engagement.Choose how you want to measure and define successAs a creator, how do you know whether you’re building community among your target audience? Should you focus on how big your audience is, how well your topics resonate with them or both? Two important tools to measure success are analytics and direct feedback, including using direct messaging through platforms, comments or emails.Lindsey uses analytics to understand “which posts are driving the most traffic, and where that traffic is coming from.” She adds, “We create content for different audiences. Some of our content is designed for search engine optimization; whereas other content, like full body high intensity interval training (HITT) and pyramid workouts, is geared toward our Instagram followers.”Other creators rely more on community feedback to find out what content is resonating. Payton Cavin, who built the media brand Mellow Yellow Media to inspire women to explore the world and their passions while working remotely, shares, “Analytics help us understand what our audience is craving more of. That being said, direct feedback is always more beneficial. There’s nothing like having a conversation with a follower who found value in what you shared.”Mellow Yellow Media founder Payton Cavin values direct feedback from her fans and followers.Find ways to engageInteracting directly with your audience can not only help you figure out what’s working, it can build community and bring your brand to life. Many creators shared that they interact with followers in comments or direct messages on social platforms, or via email. Beauty blogger Kendall Alfred says, “I try to respond to as many YouTube comments as I can, and my direct messages are always open on Instagram. I go live on my platforms and answer questions in real time. I also try to do giveaways and donations as often as possible.”And Lindsey hosts “live workouts on YouTube and Instagram, sharing weekly seven-day workout plans and daily #WOD’s [workouts of the day] that we follow together as a community.”Beauty blogger Kendall Alfred engages with her community through live sessions, giveaways and donations to promote her YouTube channel.Partner upEager to grow your brand’s reputation and think outside the box? Partnering with other creators can be an effective way to mix things up while bringing your communities together. It can also help you get creative by exploring more topics related to your brand.Shylah May, a lifestyle and wellness blogger, says, “I’ve made friends with a lot of other creators throughout the years. We travel, take photos and attend events together, and they even help promote my clothing line, Shop Shylah May. Teaming up with other creators helps your brand so much — it creates awareness, better defines your brand and allows you to grow your audience.”Shylah May loves partnering with other creators.
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As world tensions increase and the stock market faces volatility, business leaders indicate that intelligent automation has become a pivotal strategy to navigate current market challenges and sustain business performance. Of the 1,000 global organizations surveyed, more than 90 percent say automation addresses the impact of supply chain and economic uncertainty, according to the third edition of the Automation Now & Next report from Automation Anywhere.
Editor’s note: Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. We’re also sharing how we’re partnering with people with disabilitiesto build products and a newAndroid accessibility feature.I often think about what Laura Allen, a Googler who leads our accessibility and disability inclusion work and is low vision, shared with me about her experience growing up using assistive technology in school. She said: “Technology should help children learn the way they need to learn, it shouldn’t be a thing that makes them feel different in the classroom.”As someone who has spent years building technology at Google, I’ve thought a lot about how we can create the best possible experience for everyone. A big part of getting that right is building accessibility right into our products — which is especially important when it comes to technology that helps students learn. Ninety-five percent of students who have disabilities attend traditional schools, but the majority of those classrooms lack resources to support their needs. The need for accessible learning experiences only intensifies with the recent rise of blended learning environments.Teacher working with a student on a ChromebookAn educator works 1:1 with a studentA teacher sitting with a student with intellectual disabilities. The teacher’s cane is leaning on the table nearby.An educator sits with a student working on a Chromebook.One autistic student and one student with Downs Syndrome working together in classroom on a ChromebookStudents in their special education class working together in their classroomWe want students to have the tools they need to express themselves and access information in a way that works best for them. Here are a few recent ways we’ve built accessibility features directly into our education tools.You can now add alt-text in Gmail. This allows people to add context for an image, making it accessible for people using screen readers and helping them better understand exactly what is being shared.We’ve improved our Google Docs experience with braille support. With comments and highlights in braille, students reading a Google Doc will now hear start and end indications for comments and highlights alongside the rest of the text. This change makes it easier for people using screen readers and refreshable braille displays to interact with comments in documents and identify text with background colors.Video format not supportedWe added new features to dictation on Chrome OS. Now you canspeak into any text field on the Chromebook simply by clicking on the mic icon in the status area or pressing Search + d to dictate. The dictation feature can be helpful for students who have trouble writing — whether that’s because of dysgraphia, having a motor disability or something else. You can also edit using just your voice. Simply say “new line” to move the cursor to another line, “help” to see the full list of commands, or “undo” to fix any typos or mistakes.Video format not supportedAccessibility in actionWe see the helpfulness of these features when they’re in the hands of teachers and students. My team recently spoke with Tracey Green, a teacher of the Deaf and an Itinerant Educational Specialist from the Montreal Oral School for the Deaf (MOSD) in Quebec. Her job is to work with students with hearing loss who attend local schools.She and Chris Webb, who is a teacher at John Rennie High School and also a Google for Education Certified Innovator and Trainer, have been using Google Classroom to support students throughout distance learning and those who have returned to the classroom. For example, they integrate YouTube videos with automatic captioning and rely on captions in Google Meet. Their efforts to improve access to information during school assemblies kicked off a school-wide, student-led accessibility initiative to raise awareness about hearing loss and related accessibility issues.Benefiting everyoneOne phenomenon that underscores how disability-first features benefit everyone is called the “Curb-cut Effect.” When curbs were flattened to allow access for people with disabilities, it also meant greater access for bikers, skateboarders, and people pushing strollers or shopping carts. Everyone benefitted. Similarly, accessibility improvements like these recent updates to our education tools mean a better experience for everyone.We see this similar effect time and time again among our own products. Take Live Caption in the Chrome browser for example. Similar to Google Meet captions, Live Caption in Chrome captions any video and audio content on your browser, which can be especially helpful for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. It can also be helpful when people want to read content without noise so they don’t disrupt the people around them.When we build accessible products, we build for everyone. It’s one of the things I love about working for Google — that we serve the world. There’s a lot of work ahead of us to make sure our products delight all people, with and without disabilities. I’m excited and humbled by technology’s potential to help get us closer to this future.Stay up-to-date on the latest accessibility features from Google for Education.
