How Perception Changes Opinions About You

It’s hard to predict what’s going on when you see people behaving the way they are. It’s easier to jump to conclusions but open-mindedness reduces what could be incorrect conclusions. I learned this valuable lesson one day when I was at work.

People Assume You Are Who You Appear To Be

I was the event coordinator, so I saw how an event is organized behind the scenes. There were a lot of moving parts, so the day before, I was running around and meeting with people responsible for all the pieces, from food catering, to presentation rooms, to signage, and so on. 

A day passed in an hour, so I forgot about a meeting with coworkers to help assemble some prizes. As they stuffed envelopes, I stared into space, thinking about how many more tasks I had to do and desperately wanting to keel over and sleep. 

The next day I received a complaint that I had taken advantage of my status as coordinator to make coworkers do my job while I sat around and watched them. My supervisor told me an important lesson about perception. My coworkers didn’t know about my hectic day and how I was in zombie mode when they showed up to help. I should have said I had another errand and left the room. The point is, I should have looked busy.

Similarly, I read about a social media manager who used her phone to post and monitor comments on the company’s social media feed. She was accused of being lazy and using her phone on company time. As a solution for transparency, someone suggested getting two phones, each with distinct phone covers so it was easy to see at a glance whether she was on her personal phone or company phone doing company work.

Key Takeaways

It’s easy to jump to conclusions about people when you don’t know the whole story. We’re all busy and we don’t have time to stop and think about what we’re observing. 

As observers, it helps to have an open mind and ask ourselves if we really are seeing the whole picture. As the person being observed, especially at work, we should be aware of how our actions can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. It’s all about how we perceive others and how we want others to perceive us.

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AI Replacing and Creating Jobs: It’s Happening with Ads

Recently people have been discussing how artificial intelligence (AI) is either enhancing our abilities to do our jobs or is threatening to replace jobs. Now there is a case of a business using AI instead of hiring humans to do the work.

The advertising agency WPP and chipmaker Nvidia are using generative artificial intelligence to make ads. For example, they can use AI to place a car in London or in Rio de Janeiro for an advertising campaign and save money on production costs because they are not shooting on location. The result of such technology will be smaller creative teams to create ads in the future. 

The impact of AI is being felt elsewhere in marketing. Copywriters have said that they have lost jobs because their agency wants to use AI such as ChatGPT instead of hiring writers. Writers have been offered less pay because the employer expects the writer to use AI to assist them to do their jobs more quickly. (Not all writers are losing jobs or being paid less because of AI; these are just some examples of writers who are impacted directly by AI.)

I’m curious to see how the job situation will continue to develop this year. As quickly as AI is replacing or modifying jobs, it is also creating jobs for those who work with AI. One of the companies I work for is creating AI to increase the efficiency of the hiring process. This technology will eventually either replace or modify jobs in human resources as the technology improves. But on the upside, our company has grown by fifty percent in just a few months.

AI can definitely help us to do our jobs faster. I use AI to edit my work. It is like having an extra set of eyes to assist as I write. Those who have an interest in or are open to using technology, or have a job in the technology field will have an advantage as advances continue to be made in AI. These people will more easily adapt to the changes instead of seeing AI as a threat to jobs.

It will be interesting to look back and see how the job situation has developed a year from today.

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Powerful Persuasive Writing Tips You Should Know

When was the last time you saw an ad or read an article that persuaded you to buy something you didn’t even need? Well-crafted words can be powerful enough to influence your decisions. This writing skill is worth developing in your professional and personal life.

Here are some powerful, persuasive writing tips you should know to write copy to convince your reader to agree with you or buy from you. Let’s dive into the topic by defining persuasive writing.

What is Persuasive Writing?

Persuasive writing gets your reader to side with your point of view. To achieve this, you need facts, statistics, and other research from credible sources. When your point of view or opinion is backed up with strong and credible evidence, your reader is more likely to agree with you.

What Makes Persuasive Writing “Persuasive”?

Persuasive writing has three key elements. First, it will include the beliefs of a group of people or a culture. If the writer seems to understand the reader’s beliefs, then the reader is more likely to agree with the piece of writing. Second, the writer must appeal to the reader’s sense of logic by providing scientific evidence and facts. Lastly, the writing must appeal to the reader’s emotions and feelings.

If the piece of writing cannot appeal to the reader’s beliefs, sense of logic, or emotions, then it will be difficult to persuade the reader to agree with the point of view presented.

How Can You Use Persuasive Writing at Work?

If your job is to influence people through the written word, then persuasive writing will be an extremely handy skill to have.

Persuasive writing will persuade your audience to follow your social media channels because people value the insights they get from your blog posts or articles. 

Persuasive writing persuades customers to buy products and services. Advertising and marketing copywriters, for example, write copy for web content, email campaigns, marketing brochures, ads, and corporate brochures.

Persuasive writing skills are also needed for press releases, copy for fundraisers, and articles about government policies.

How Can Persuasive Writing Help Your Business?

Persuading your customers and clients to invest in your products and services is key to your business’s success. Dr. Robert B. Cialdini’s research on the psychology of persuasion has had a tremendous impact on marketing.

One concept he has proven is the principle of reciprocity. Humans naturally want to return favors and pay back debts. An example of this in marketing is a business that gives advice to website visitors in the form of free blogs, training courses, and PDF downloads. The informative, free content increases the likelihood that people will pay for the company’s products and services in the future.

Another principle is social proof: whatever most people do, someone joining the group will do the same, even if the behavior doesn’t make logical sense. Consider how a worker may work a little longer just because everyone else in the department works late. And think of the last time you decided whether to give a new restaurant a try because of how busy it looked. If you read about a popular trend with your age group, you’ll be more likely to try it.

Scarcity is another persuasive tactic. An ad for “the last available room,” “30% off your purchase today only,” and “offer ends at midnight tonight” will create a fear of missing out (FOMO).

Persuasive writing will give people the push they need to decide to subscribe to your email list, buy two for the price of one, sign up for a course, or invest in your consulting services.

How Is Persuasive Writing Useful to You?

Persuasive writing can help you to get a job when you’re writing to a prospective employer. It can help you to get a promotion or raise.

Persuasion is also critical when speaking during an interview or conversation for a promotion. Whether spoken or written, words can be used to appeal to others and convince them to agree with your point of view.

Key Takeaways

Persuasive writing uses psychology to give people that nudge to make a decision now. It wins you over with logic and appeals to your emotions. It may even play to your fears (FOMO) or convince you to make a purchase because of the free value you have already received. Persuasive writing creates action through the power of words.

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Online Publishing: Watch Out for Google’s Upcoming Changes

An article by Forbes announced new changes to Google that affect how the search engine presents results using artificial intelligence. This news is for you if you publish your work online, such as blogs and articles.

The new change will mean that when you provide Google with a query, it will generate an answer created from all the material that it can find online. This means Google search users don’t need to visit the original pages that contain the information, resulting in fewer eyes on the web pages of content creators.

You can read the original article here.

Best Types of Companies for Remote Work

Remote work has been around for as long as we’ve had the technology, but 2020 made work from home (WFH) a household word. Before the worldwide pandemic that forced businesses to close their doors, many startups already offered remote work. Without a physical office, expenses were reduced. Remote work also offers many other advantages to certain types of companies. Let’s take a closer look at five types of companies that offer remote work.

1 Technology Companies

Technology companies (tech) are great for remote work because they tend to have the latest technology. Tech companies include software development companies, IT companies, companies that sell electronics, artificial intelligence or computers, and website development companies. These companies have the ability for their employees to communicate through virtual meetings and communications applications such as Slack. 

During the pandemic, tech workers were more easily able to make the transition to performing work tasks from home, since the majority (if not all) of their tasks were completed using technology. 

2 Customer Service Companies

Customer services companies that offer services via online platforms such as chatbots are suitable for remote work. Customer service workers must be familiar with technology and have internet access to perform the tasks. Many businesses that hire customer service workers have customers from multiple time zones. To provide 24/7 service to these customers, they hire employees from different time zones to cover a wide range of work shifts. Similar to tech companies, customer service employees can communicate with supervisors or coworkers with communications software.

3 Education Companies

Education companies and companies that provide online education are perfect for remote work. These companies provide e-learning platforms for companies and educators. The course content is designed electronically, and IT programming is also handled online. Educators who use these platforms to design courses or offer tutoring work remotely to provide the content. The education is available at any time to anyone anywhere in the world with internet access. 

4 Creative Agencies

Creative agencies offer remote work for those interested in graphic design, advertising, marketing, and content creation. Work is completed through online collaboration and communication tools. Some agencies hire employees from the same city, while others hire freelancers from other cities in the same country or around the world.

Key Takeaways

Work from home has become possible because of the collaborative platforms and communication applications that we now have available to us. Many startups start as remote work companies, saving on the costs of having a physical office. In particular, companies that work with technology, customer service, and education, as well as creative agencies are well suited for remote work.

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