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Ask friends what kind of tech gift you should get for your parent, grandparent, or another older person in your life, and chances are you’ll get the same generic suggestions, like a digital picture frame or a portable Bluetooth speaker. But these gifts will almost certainly remain little used throughout the year. (I mean, how many digital picture frames would you like?) Instead, this holiday season, why not get an older loved one a tech gift they’ll actually use (and that might put your mind at ease, too)? Here are five types of gifts that older people may truly find beneficial. Smartwatches with fall detection Talk to any older person about health concerns, and they will likely mention that one of their main fears is falling. And for good reason. While a younger person can often brush off a fall, such an event can be deadly for an older individual. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 14 million older adults fall each year, and these falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among people over 65. The severity of a fall’s repercussions often depends on how quickly the person can get help, which is a problem if they live alone. That’s where modern smartwatches come in. Many flagship smartwatches have built-in fall detection, ensuring that the wearer’s contacts are notified immediately if they fall. In this way, a smartwatch is a great gift for an older person, one that can provide peace of mind year-round. Some good options are: Apple Watch SE 3 Samsung Galaxy Watch7 Google Pixel Watch 4 Item trackers to help find belongings As we get older, we naturally become more forgetful—unable to remember where we left, say, our wallet or keys. A subtle reminder of where things are can go a long way toward making life much less frustrating. If your older loved one often forgets where they placed their belongings, item trackers might be helpful. They can usually be bought individually or in multipacks. Just attach the tracker to a keychain or slip it into a wallet or purse, and your loved one will always be able to quickly find where they last left their item. Reliable item trackers include: Apple AirTag Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 Tile Mate Robotic vacuum cleaners to ease the housework The older we get, the more effort it seems to take to do the same household chores we’ve done throughout our lives. Who wouldn’t want a helping hand with the house cleaning? A robotic vacuum cleaner under the tree could really put a smile on your loved one’s face. Robotic vacuums can save your loved ones time and effort by keeping floors clean without the arduous manual labor. Several companies make a wide range of robotic vacuum models. Some great choices include: Roomba 105 Vac Robot eufy 11S MAX Roborock Q7 L5 Tablets, for easy email and web browsing While age is never a determining factor in someone’s technical ability, an older person once told me that one of the best tech gifts they ever received was a tablet. They found its large touch interface easier to use than a mouse, the user interface was less confusing than on a desktop, and the ability to zoom in on on-screen items made even small text easy to read. Tablets can be a lifeline for seniors who find computers too confusing or their smartphone’s screen too small, helping them stay connected to our broader digital world through email, the web, and video calls. Some excellent tablets for older adults include: GrandPad Tablet Apple iPad 11 Amazon Fire HD 10 E-readers to make reading more convenient The retirement years offer lots of time for reading. And that’s a good thing, as studies have shown that reading can help keep our minds sharp as we age. Unfortunately, aging often causes vision issues, which can make it harder to keep up a reading habit. Standard-size fonts in most books can be too small for some older people. That’s where e-readers come in. They are lightweight and easier to hold for long periods than a physical book, and their software allows users to adjust the text size to fit their vision needs. Some of the best e-readers include: Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Amazon Kindle Colorsoft View the full article

While digital live shopping has been popular for years in Asia, the phenomenon has only recently begun to take off in the U.S., thanks in large part to the rise of retail disruptor Whatnot. The platform’s cofounder and CEO, Grant LaFontaine, shares how his team has managed to evoke the feel of in-person shopping inside an online experience, and how Whatnot’s breakthrough is influencing other retailers and brands. LaFontaine also digs into the startup’s response to deep-pocketed rivals like eBay, and why he believes the viral Labubu trend is here to stay. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. Whatnot has seen some real dramatic growth this year in the top 15 among free apps in the App Store, and No. 2 in shopping apps. For listeners who haven’t spent time on Whatnot or taken part in live shopping, can you explain a little bit about what the experience is like? People often make the comparison to a digital QVC. Yeah, I started thinking about it a little bit differently. To me, live shopping is the best in-store shopping experience, but online. So, a lot of the people who are on Whatnot have either had their own brick-and-mortar shops or they’re streaming all the time. It’s like welcoming you into their store. So, you tap into their livestream. You’ll see a bunch of the inventory they have. You’ll see people in there. You can chat with the person, ask them questions about the product. I sort of view it as the shift of experiential commerce—not just in a brick-and-mortar world, but bringing it online. Part of the Whatnot experience is … it’s almost like it’s entertainment on your phone too, right? I mean, the best sellers have to be engaging hosts. Do you train new sellers about how to be effective in live selling? You don’t have to be the world’s best entertainer to put on a good show, because what people value can be really different. The shopping experience itself is entertaining. The people that you can talk to are entertaining. It is a format that I think any seller or anyone who has a business can get advantage from. You’ll see a lot of the same people. You can chat with them. It’s like, maybe you go to your local bakery or your local pub, and you sort of know the people who frequent it. And you know the host, and you have a relationship with them. It even carries over to extremes. There’s a trend on Whatnot called Bless the Chat, and people will buy gifts and giveaways to have people who are just hanging out in the shows win. And it’s completely funded by the audience. And if you go into any of the big shows, it’s actually very, very common. Your team told me that while you use AI in the back-end for efficiency and other things, that you only consider deeper AI in the customer experience if it really solves customer issues. As a CEO today, do you feel pressure to be using AI maybe more than you need to be? Yeah, I think absolutely. I think one of the most inherent human characteristics is that there’s always some pressure by looking at other people and feeling like you need to do what they’re doing. If you’re in tech these days, you probably can’t go more than a one-hour-long period of time without hearing about something in AI. And so I think it makes you constantly question whether you’re doing the right things. Now, the truth with every new technology is, it either solves a problem or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t solve a problem, no one’s going to use it, so it doesn’t matter. So I think, despite all of the noise, we try and stay relatively grounded. We’re not doing AI for AI’s sake. I’m curious whether there are any trends that you see on the platform about where collectibles are going. Are there any predictions about what might be hot next? I think people have always viewed collectibles as niche markets, but what we’re seeing is that those markets are getting much bigger. Historically, when you look at collectibles markets and you think about the Beanie Baby that had this meteoric rise and meteoric fall. That’s what happens in collectibles. If you look across our collectibles business, we’re 6 years old now, and I don’t think it’s ever grown under 100% a year. I think in a world where everything’s sort of mass-produced, very digital, I think having unique things and being able to resonate with folks on those things is just providing more value. And so I think these markets are going to be more enduring. The Beanie Baby of the day is what they call the Labubu. My prediction is that that market keeps growing for a really long time. The Labubu is not going the way of the Beanie Baby? I think people want more unique experiences today. I think social media amplifies them. And so I think the Labubu is going to stay strong. EBay launched a live shopping feature two or three years ago, right? Did you look at that as, like, “Oh, here’s a competitive threat.” Or as a validation of your model? Or maybe a little bit of both? The way I look at a lot of these things is, I try and understand the historical context on incumbents versus startups. As a business, running a business that’s growing very fast, there are so many different things that you have to worry about at any given point in time. And so if you’re not really clear on what matters, you can get really distracted. And if you look at consumer markets in the U.S. over, I don’t know, 20, 30 years, it is pretty rare the incumbent wins when you have a fast-growing consumer company, as long as you execute really well. Have I, at times, worried about competitors? Yeah, absolutely. It’s a very human emotion. Like, “Oh, here’s this company that has a gajillion dollars and they’re coming at something that we’ve spent a huge quantity of our life building.” But ultimately, I tell this to the team now, and it’s true: Every second I’ve spent worrying about a competitor has been a second wasted. And so I think now we just try and stay really, really, really focused on delivering. We are the largest in the market by a significant quantity, and we don’t want to get complacent. Sometimes the competition is doing things better than you. And if they are and it’s an area where you are competing for customers, you’d better deliver better than them. Or at least as good as them—otherwise there are risks. Are there things that you’ve learned about today’s consumer that traditional retailers or e-commerce players are missing? In many ways, Whatnot is like the polar opposite of the e-commerce players of the past 30 years. It’s not an efficient form of purchasing. You’re going to sit around and watch things for hours. I think the fundamental truth is that shopping’s always been an activity that people have enjoyed doing. A lot of shopping is experiential. I used to hang out with my friends in the mall. People are craving an experiential online e-commerce experience. That’s definitely going to be a thing that over the next five or 10 years, every brand, every retailer is going to end up investing in. I read that you and the Whatnot team have this feeling of being perennially underestimated. I’m sure some of that is motivating. Is there a downside? Or would the downside be like losing the underdog feeling? I think we like to be underestimated. The first time we tried to raise money … I have a spreadsheet with all of the investors who I talked to, and it got to 100 no’s, and I stopped keeping track of it. And I still have the spreadsheet and all of the reasons why. So I’m not going to lie, that’s motivating. At least for me, there’s nothing more motivating than someone saying, “Oh, you can’t do the thing.” I’ll always carry a little bit of chip. And I think a little bit of chip is helpful because it keeps you going, keeps you motivated. Now, it’s helpful to remain underestimated so that we’re not distracted and can just build. And then when the thing’s great, it will speak for itself. View the full article

Most entrepreneurs are familiar with diminishing returns: how, when other variables stay constant, at some point putting in additional time and effort results in increasingly smaller results. Since resources are always limited, figuring out where to spend your entrepreneurial time so it delivers the best bang per hour is critical. That same premise extends to health and fitness. If you’re like many entrepreneurs, you try to stay reasonably fit not just because it’s good for you, but because exercise helps you perform better under stress. Can elevate your mood for up to 12 hours. Can even make you a little smarter. Still: how healthy and fit . . . is healthy and fit enough? If you want to run a marathon, your definition of “fit” will differ from most. But if you want to compare yourself with other people and see where you currently stand—and, more important, get a sense of where you would like to stand—here are three simple tests you can do at home. If you fall in the “average” range, that’s good. If you fall closer to the “excellent” range, that’s great—and may be a sign that doing more in an attempt to increase your score might push you into the land of diminishing returns. So with all that said, here are the three tests. Lower Body Strength To conduct this test, find a chair that, when you sit on it, puts your thighs at a 90-degree angle to your lower legs. Then put your hands on your hips, lower yourself until your bottom grazes the chair, and then straighten back up. Then do as many reps as you can, without resting, until you run out of (leg) gas. Here’s a graph so you can see where you stand. (All images are courtesy of research scientist Schalk Cloete; for more, check out his deep dive into the subject.) Want to be able to do more? Like many things, increasing the number of squats you can do is just a matter of time and effort: do four or five sets of squats to failure three times a week, and in three weeks you’ll definitely be stronger. And with a great outcome: squats can strengthen your lower body and core, improve your flexibility, and reduce your risk of injury. Upper Body Strength The American College of Sports Medicine recommends using a pushup test to assess upper body strength and endurance. To do pushups their way, start at the top, go down to the 90-degree mark, and push back up without locking out at the top. Women can do plank-version pushups or modified (from the knees) pushups. Then just count how many you can do in one set. (A few couple-second rest breaks at the top are okay.) Here’s the results graph: Comparing yourself with others provides a reasonable sense-check. But also keep this in mind: a Harvard study shows that men (unsure why they didn’t include women) who could do 40 or more pushups were 96% less likely to experience a cardiovascular event than those who could only do 10 or less. In fact, pushup capacity was more strongly associated with reduced cardiovascular disease risk than aerobic capacity. So if you want to increase the number of pushups you can do, here’s a simple process you can follow (scroll down to “How many pushups do you want to do?”). Do that routine three times a week for 10 minutes, and after three weeks you’ll definitely be stronger. Cardiovascular Fitness Since there are a variety of ways to evaluate cardiovascular fitness, this one’s a little trickier. There are stress tests. Exertion/heart rate tests. Whether you can run a mile, and if so how fast you can run it, is a valid test. Another is VO2 max, the maximal volume of oxygen that can be inhaled and absorbed by a body. Generally speaking, the higher your VO2 max, the better your cardiovascular fitness (within genetic reason, of course.) One way to estimate your VO2 max is to use a fitness calculator like this. Answer a few questions and you’ll learn your “expected” VO2 max (based largely on things like age) and your estimated VO2 max (based on activity levels, resting hear rate, and waist size.) Or you do the one-mile walk test as described here. Then see how you stack up: There are a number of ways to improve your cardiovascular fitness. Walking (briskly) is a great start. So is jogging. So is cycling, rowing, elliptical training . . . or if you want to double-dip and get some strength gains at the same time, consider doing HIIT workouts. Research shows that 11 (intense) minutes a day can make a meaningful difference. Which is where diminishing returns come into play. If you want to enjoy the benefits of reasonable—not extreme, just reasonable—fitness, you don’t have to spend hours on a treadmill. You don’t have to spend hours at the gym. You just need to do a few key things that make a big impact . . . and then do them consistently. Which is surely the same approach you take to running your business. —Jeff Haden This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. View the full article

Entrepreneurs face more stress, fear, and anxiety in a single day than most people experience in a year. When building something in a crowded market, motivation doesn’t just dip—it can disappear entirely. What is the difference between those who burn out and those who break through? They’ve mastered the three fundamentals: finding their real “why,” setting their own scorecard, and playing the long game. New competitors launch monthly in the vertical drama space where I work. At DramaShorts, we’ve maintained our position among the top 15 apps globally by refusing to play someone else’s game. While others chase viral trends, we focus on building sustainable engagement. Here’s the three-step strategy I follow when the going gets tough. 1. Find your real “why” Before sustaining motivation, you need to understand what’s driving you. Skip the generic mission statements. Go straight to honest self-examination. Take inventory: What do you want to accomplish? Why does this matter to you personally? Dig deeper if your answer feels generic or borrowed from someone else’s playbook. You can’t stay motivated working toward something you don’t genuinely care about. We can quickly turn things around when we identify goals that truly excite us. The passion that comes from knowing your why becomes fuel for everything else. Sara Blakely turned $5,000 and a simple idea about pantyhose into Spanx, now worth over a billion dollars. Blakely didn’t try to compete on price or marketing budgets. Instead, she carved out her own category by focusing on a problem other companies ignored: how uncomfortable and unflattering existing shapewear felt. While established brands pushed the exact tired solutions, she redesigned the entire experience from fabric to fit. Her why wasn’t fashion—it was solving a problem she experienced personally. That personal connection sustained her through two years of rejections before landing her first retailer. 2. Set your own scorecard In competitive industries, it’s tempting to measure yourself against every competitor. This is motivation poison. You’ll always find someone ahead in some metric; comparison kills focus. Instead, define success on your terms. Set specific, measurable goals that align with your vision and values. Track progress against your benchmarks, not your competitors’. Use the SMART framework—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. These give you clear targets and help you channel energy productively. Jeff Bezos ignored the noise about Amazon’s lack of profits for years because he was measuring different metrics—customer acquisition, long-term market position, and infrastructure building. While critics focused on quarterly earnings, he tracked progress toward his vision of becoming “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” 3. Keep the innovation pipeline flowing My motivation hack? I start each week by writing down three things our users will love that our competitors aren’t even thinking about yet. That forward focus keeps me energized when the market noise gets loud. This isn’t about generating random ideas. I maintain a systematic approach to innovation. First, I schedule weekly user feedback sessions to identify pain points our competitors miss. Second, I study adjacent industries for features that could translate to our space. Third, I track emerging technologies and cultural shifts that might create new user needs. The execution part requires discipline: each idea gets a feasibility score, a timeline, and an owner. I review progress monthly and kill projects that aren’t delivering. The key is maintaining this pipeline consistently and not waiting for inspiration to strike. The long game wins Motivation in competitive industries means building systems that help you recover quickly from inevitable dips and sustain focus on what matters. Stop watching the competition obsessively and start building something unique. Focus on your path, definition of success, and reasons for being in the game. The entrepreneurs who thrive long-term aren’t necessarily the most talented or best-funded. They’re the ones who’ve learned to stay motivated when motivation is most complex to find. The race is long. Pace yourself accordingly. The entrepreneurs who win aren’t the fastest starters—they’re the ones who continue to run when everyone else has stopped. View the full article

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. It fuels boardroom debates, guides priorities, defines access to information, and nudges consumer experiences. But while AI promises sharper insights and faster action, it also accelerates blind spots leaders already struggle with. The paradox is this: AI can widen vision, but if used without the right insight, it narrows it. And when those blind spots meet the speed of AI adoption, the consequences multiply. I’ve seen this play out across industries—through my leadership roles at Google, Maersk, and Diageo, and in advising executives shaping some of the world’s largest organizations. The pattern is clear: technology does not pause at blind spots. Instead of alerting us, it often erases traces—until the competitive edge quietly slips into commoditization. Here are three ways AI makes blind spots bigger and how to shrink them. 1. Data Without Context is a False Comfort Every AI is shaped by what it has access to. Generative AI is guided by probability. Agentic AI acts on the data it is trained on. Both are only as useful as the context they can see. This is where the first blind spot appears: leaders mistake the outputs of AI for reality itself, forgetting that the system is bounded by its inputs. A dashboard may glow green, or an AI may return precise answers—but precision without context is a false comfort. This may feel like a familiar challenge, where reliance on fixed KPIs can make internal progress look convincing but fail to connect to real shifts in the market. I have seen hardworking teams pull in opposite directions: one rewarded for growing basket size through add-ons, another penalizing customers who adjusted orders, canceling each other out and driving customers away. AI applied to those metrics would only have reinforced the misalignment. If business rules are applied at too low a level in the organization or process, sub-optimization will occur. In an AI context, this compounds at scale, locking inefficiencies into every automated decision. All cases show the same trap: when data is cut off from context, leaders optimize for what can be measured instead of what matters. Availability is mistaken for reliability. How to address the blind spot: Shift from validating what you already track to exploring what you don’t yet see. Treat data as a landscape to be tested, not a dashboard to be confirmed. Ask where contradictions appear, where signals conflict, and where the edges of the system reveal something different from the center. Blind spots shrink when leaders are curious enough to explore anomalies instead of explaining them away. 2. Outsourcing Judgment Dilutes Core Value Another growing blind spot comes when too much responsibility is placed on external systems or partners. AI is powerful, but it is not neutral. If leaders outsource judgment without feeding back their own expertise, they risk hollowing out the very value that makes their business distinctive. Think of it this way: you have personal knowledge, collective knowledge within a company or institution, and global knowledge. Businesses naturally try to connect and leverage collective intelligence—so why, when it comes to AI, do so many neglect the need to actively share, contextualize, and update knowledge to keep it valuable? I once debated a leading doctor responsible for defining a region’s use of technology. He explained that he relied on his trusted X-ray machine and the same software he had used since the late 1990s. He did not log his evolving insights as structured inputs, nor did he feed edge cases back into the system, assuming vendor updates were enough. His judgment stayed in his head, while the software—and the sector—failed to learn from real-world experience. In a field where image recognition is advancing rapidly, that gap leaves value on the table and slows the diffusion of what works. The point is not to develop all AI in-house, but to be clear about what truly differentiates you and ensure that knowledge is not given away. Cost management through outsourcing call centers may deliver quantifiable savings, but it also shifts valuable customer insights outside the business. With AI, those insights compound quickly, and what begins as efficiency can end in commoditization where your uniqueness is absorbed into someone else’s model if you are not conscious about how AI is deployed. How to address the blind spot: While AI is essential for efficiency and future operations, strategy must come first. Know your proposition—the value today and in the future—and build your AI approach on that, not the availability of pretrained software, partner rates, or the convenience of what others have packaged. Ask who gains value from the data you hold, and who has access to the data that could help you grow. In many industries, this will become the foundation for new revenue models and deeper partnerships—or the path to eliminate those without strategic clarity. 3. The Cognitive Trap Behind Algorithmic Comfort Even with broad and evolving data and strong strategic clarity, AI can still trap leaders in confirmation loops. Algorithms are designed to learn from patterns, but patterns are not the same as insights. By default they reinforce what is most represented, not what is most revealing. Some models can be tuned to flag anomalies, but in most business settings the gravitational pull is toward the familiar. Of course it is—because so do we. The danger is that this collides with human blind spots. Neuroscience shows how the brain conserves energy by filtering out complexity, anchoring on what feels certain, and avoiding ambiguity. True neurogenesis—the creation of new thinking—requires new contexts, yet most leaders default back to the familiar. Behavioral science confirms how leaders—especially experienced ones—are prone to confirmation bias, mistaking familiarity for foresight. And the more changeable and unpredictable the world becomes, the harder it is to resist this pull. AI does not correct these tendencies; it magnifies them. It reflects back the certainty leaders crave, accelerating the speed at which untested assumptions harden into strategy. The result is a narrowing of vision—more convincing, faster moving, and harder to detect. Left unchecked, this is how organizations find themselves trapped in the comfort of familiar patterns while competitors redefine the market around them. How to address the blind spot: The way through is to stay grounded enough to notice when certainty becomes comfort rather than truth. That means questioning and stripping out assumptions that no longer serve and allowing the narrative to be retested against today’s and tomorrow’s reality. Vulnerability is the entry point—not weakness, but a signal of where assumptions have not been updated. Let these surface, acknowledge what it would take for you to change your mind, be curious about what could fit in, and explore new emerging directions to shape a new frame. Leaders who embody this stance expand their field of vision and prevent AI from hardening blind spots into strategy. AI Tests Leadership The thread across all three blind spots is the same: AI does not remove the limits of human judgment, it magnifies them. It amplifies whether a company is aligned or fragmented, insular or in tune, whether leaders are curious or complacent, whether strategy is active or passive. The real test is not in the speed of adoption but in the awareness leaders bring—whether they can stay open enough to challenge what feels certain, while holding clear to what truly defines their value. That requires building a platform to connect, where diverse perspectives can feed into the system—connecting both people and data—and ensuring a data access culture where exploration toward a common ambition is not just welcomed but expected. This paves the way not only for using AI, but for growing with it. View the full article

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If you’re looking to edit MP4 videos without spending a dime, you’ve got several excellent options. Tools like Clipchamp and Adobe Express offer user-friendly interfaces and customizable features that make editing straightforward. Meanwhile, Kapwing and Veed excel in collaboration and design versatility. FlexClip caters to various skill levels, enhancing the editing experience with AI tools. Each option has its strengths, so comprehending their capabilities can help you choose the right one for your needs. Key Takeaways Clipchamp offers a user-friendly interface with multi-track editing and free 1080p exports, making it ideal for quick video projects. Adobe Express provides customizable templates and high-quality 4K downloads without watermarks, suitable for users of all skill levels. Kapwing features robust editing tools, including subtitle addition and keyframe animations, enhancing creative video flexibility. Veed has a multitrack timeline and automatic subtitles, with free exports in 720p, perfect for creating engaging videos. FlexClip combines intuitive editing modes and AI tools, allowing for fast project creation and a variety of templates for beginners. Clipchamp Clipchamp offers a user-friendly, web-based platform for editing MP4 videos directly in your browser, eliminating the need for software installation. With Clipchamp, you can easily trim video online using its intuitive video cutter, making quick adjustments to your projects. This platform supports multi-track editing, providing you with the flexibility to create dynamic videos, perfect for social media content creators. You can edit MP4 video online free, allowing you to export in 1080p without any cost. For those seeking more features, paid plans offer 4K exports and a wider selection of stock assets. Moreover, Clipchamp’s AI tools, like speech-to-text, streamline your editing process, enhancing accessibility and efficiency in your video projects. Adobe Express Adobe Express stands out as a versatile tool for editing MP4 videos, thanks to its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that caters to users of all skill levels. You can easily access a wide range of customizable templates and stock assets, enhancing your creative possibilities for various video projects. The platform allows for high-quality 4K video downloads without watermarks on its generous free plan, making it suitable for both personal and professional use. With features like audio narration, background music options, and file conversion capabilities, Adobe Express offers a thorough editing experience. In addition, it’s compatible with all major browsers, so you can edit videos directly online without needing to install any software, streamlining your workflow effectively. Kapwing Kapwing is another robust online video editor that simplifies the process of editing MP4 videos without requiring any software installation. Accessible from any internet-connected device, it offers various features to improve your editing experience. Here’s what you can do with Kapwing: Crop and trim your videos to focus on the crucial parts. Add subtitles easily, making your content more accessible. Apply keyframe animations for creative video flexibility. Collaborate with others by allowing multiple users to work on the same project simultaneously. You can export videos in HD quality without watermarks on the free plan, even though file size and project length have limitations. Kapwing likewise integrates tools for creating memes and social media content, ideal for quick, engaging video production. Veed If you’re looking for a versatile online video editing platform, Veed stands out due to its user-friendly design and sturdy features. It offers a multitrack timeline, making it comparable to traditional desktop video editing software. You’ll find strong tools like pre-designed templates, automatic subtitles, and AI audio cleanup features that greatly improve your editing experience. As free users can export videos in 720p resolution, note that these exports will include a watermark. Paid plans allow higher quality exports without watermarks. Furthermore, Veed supports various effect filters, enabling you to add creative touches to your videos easily. With its optimized design, both novice and experienced editors can edit seamlessly in a web browser without needing to install software locally. FlexClip When you need an online video editing tool that balances usability and functionality, FlexClip is worth considering. It offers a user-friendly interface that’s perfect for both beginners and experienced editors. Here are some key features you’ll appreciate: Intuitive Modes: Use timeline and storyboard modes for easy project creation. AI Tools: Improve your videos with text-to-speech and image stylization features. Templates and Assets: Access a wide variety of templates and stock assets to speed up the editing process. Basic Editing Features: Trim, split, and merge clips without needing complex software installations. Although the free account limits video length to 10 minutes and resolution to 720p, it’s ideal for quick edits and small projects. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Free MP4 Editor? The best free MP4 editor can depend on your needs, but several options stand out. Clipchamp offers unlimited 1080p exports, perfect for social media. Veed provides user-friendly tools with automatic subtitles, even though it delivers watermarked outputs. Adobe Express stands out with its templates and 100GB cloud storage. Canva is great for promotional videos, whereas FlexClip focuses on marketing, though with limitations on resolution and length. Evaluate these to find what suits you best. How to Edit MP4 Video Online for Free? To edit MP4 videos online for free, start by choosing a reliable platform, like Clipchamp or Veed. After uploading your video, you can trim, join clips, and add changes easily. Explore additional features like effects and stock footage to improve your project. Most editors allow exporting in 720p or 1080p, ensuring good quality. Don’t forget to check out tutorials on these sites to help you navigate their tools effectively. What Is the Best Free Video Editing Tool Online? The best free online video editing tool depends on your specific needs. If you want user-friendly features and templates, Adobe Express is outstanding. For advanced capabilities, consider Veed, though it has watermark restrictions. Clipchamp offers AI tools for improved editing, whereas Canva shines at promotional videos. If you need quick edits without software installation, Kapwing is a solid choice. Evaluate these options based on your editing requirements to find the best fit for you. How Do I Edit an MP4 Video? To edit an MP4 video, start by selecting a free online editing tool that supports MP4 format. You’ll typically upload your video, then use features like trimming, splitting, or adding text and changes. Many tools allow you to improve your video with stock footage or effects. Once you’re satisfied with your edits, you can export the final product, keeping in mind that free versions may have limitations on quality or duration. Conclusion In conclusion, each of these five free online tools—Clipchamp, Adobe Express, Kapwing, Veed, and FlexClip—offers unique features customized to different editing needs. Whether you prioritize user-friendliness, collaboration, or advanced editing capabilities, there’s an option for you. By exploring these platforms, you can efficiently edit MP4 videos without the need for costly software. Choose the tool that best fits your requirements and start creating high-quality videos easily and effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Top 5 Free Online Tools to Edit MP4 Videos" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you’re looking to edit MP4 videos without spending a dime, you’ve got several excellent options. Tools like Clipchamp and Adobe Express offer user-friendly interfaces and customizable features that make editing straightforward. Meanwhile, Kapwing and Veed excel in collaboration and design versatility. FlexClip caters to various skill levels, enhancing the editing experience with AI tools. Each option has its strengths, so comprehending their capabilities can help you choose the right one for your needs. Key Takeaways Clipchamp offers a user-friendly interface with multi-track editing and free 1080p exports, making it ideal for quick video projects. Adobe Express provides customizable templates and high-quality 4K downloads without watermarks, suitable for users of all skill levels. Kapwing features robust editing tools, including subtitle addition and keyframe animations, enhancing creative video flexibility. Veed has a multitrack timeline and automatic subtitles, with free exports in 720p, perfect for creating engaging videos. FlexClip combines intuitive editing modes and AI tools, allowing for fast project creation and a variety of templates for beginners. Clipchamp Clipchamp offers a user-friendly, web-based platform for editing MP4 videos directly in your browser, eliminating the need for software installation. With Clipchamp, you can easily trim video online using its intuitive video cutter, making quick adjustments to your projects. This platform supports multi-track editing, providing you with the flexibility to create dynamic videos, perfect for social media content creators. You can edit MP4 video online free, allowing you to export in 1080p without any cost. For those seeking more features, paid plans offer 4K exports and a wider selection of stock assets. Moreover, Clipchamp’s AI tools, like speech-to-text, streamline your editing process, enhancing accessibility and efficiency in your video projects. Adobe Express Adobe Express stands out as a versatile tool for editing MP4 videos, thanks to its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that caters to users of all skill levels. You can easily access a wide range of customizable templates and stock assets, enhancing your creative possibilities for various video projects. The platform allows for high-quality 4K video downloads without watermarks on its generous free plan, making it suitable for both personal and professional use. With features like audio narration, background music options, and file conversion capabilities, Adobe Express offers a thorough editing experience. In addition, it’s compatible with all major browsers, so you can edit videos directly online without needing to install any software, streamlining your workflow effectively. Kapwing Kapwing is another robust online video editor that simplifies the process of editing MP4 videos without requiring any software installation. Accessible from any internet-connected device, it offers various features to improve your editing experience. Here’s what you can do with Kapwing: Crop and trim your videos to focus on the crucial parts. Add subtitles easily, making your content more accessible. Apply keyframe animations for creative video flexibility. Collaborate with others by allowing multiple users to work on the same project simultaneously. You can export videos in HD quality without watermarks on the free plan, even though file size and project length have limitations. Kapwing likewise integrates tools for creating memes and social media content, ideal for quick, engaging video production. Veed If you’re looking for a versatile online video editing platform, Veed stands out due to its user-friendly design and sturdy features. It offers a multitrack timeline, making it comparable to traditional desktop video editing software. You’ll find strong tools like pre-designed templates, automatic subtitles, and AI audio cleanup features that greatly improve your editing experience. As free users can export videos in 720p resolution, note that these exports will include a watermark. Paid plans allow higher quality exports without watermarks. Furthermore, Veed supports various effect filters, enabling you to add creative touches to your videos easily. With its optimized design, both novice and experienced editors can edit seamlessly in a web browser without needing to install software locally. FlexClip When you need an online video editing tool that balances usability and functionality, FlexClip is worth considering. It offers a user-friendly interface that’s perfect for both beginners and experienced editors. Here are some key features you’ll appreciate: Intuitive Modes: Use timeline and storyboard modes for easy project creation. AI Tools: Improve your videos with text-to-speech and image stylization features. Templates and Assets: Access a wide variety of templates and stock assets to speed up the editing process. Basic Editing Features: Trim, split, and merge clips without needing complex software installations. Although the free account limits video length to 10 minutes and resolution to 720p, it’s ideal for quick edits and small projects. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Free MP4 Editor? The best free MP4 editor can depend on your needs, but several options stand out. Clipchamp offers unlimited 1080p exports, perfect for social media. Veed provides user-friendly tools with automatic subtitles, even though it delivers watermarked outputs. Adobe Express stands out with its templates and 100GB cloud storage. Canva is great for promotional videos, whereas FlexClip focuses on marketing, though with limitations on resolution and length. Evaluate these to find what suits you best. How to Edit MP4 Video Online for Free? To edit MP4 videos online for free, start by choosing a reliable platform, like Clipchamp or Veed. After uploading your video, you can trim, join clips, and add changes easily. Explore additional features like effects and stock footage to improve your project. Most editors allow exporting in 720p or 1080p, ensuring good quality. Don’t forget to check out tutorials on these sites to help you navigate their tools effectively. What Is the Best Free Video Editing Tool Online? The best free online video editing tool depends on your specific needs. If you want user-friendly features and templates, Adobe Express is outstanding. For advanced capabilities, consider Veed, though it has watermark restrictions. Clipchamp offers AI tools for improved editing, whereas Canva shines at promotional videos. If you need quick edits without software installation, Kapwing is a solid choice. Evaluate these options based on your editing requirements to find the best fit for you. How Do I Edit an MP4 Video? To edit an MP4 video, start by selecting a free online editing tool that supports MP4 format. You’ll typically upload your video, then use features like trimming, splitting, or adding text and changes. Many tools allow you to improve your video with stock footage or effects. Once you’re satisfied with your edits, you can export the final product, keeping in mind that free versions may have limitations on quality or duration. Conclusion In conclusion, each of these five free online tools—Clipchamp, Adobe Express, Kapwing, Veed, and FlexClip—offers unique features customized to different editing needs. Whether you prioritize user-friendliness, collaboration, or advanced editing capabilities, there’s an option for you. By exploring these platforms, you can efficiently edit MP4 videos without the need for costly software. Choose the tool that best fits your requirements and start creating high-quality videos easily and effectively. Image via Google Gemini This article, "Top 5 Free Online Tools to Edit MP4 Videos" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you’re looking to improve your social media presence, Canva offers several tools that can help you achieve that goal effectively. Its user-friendly design process simplifies creating eye-catching visuals, as well as an extensive template library allows for quick customization designed for different platforms. By maintaining consistent branding across your posts, you can guarantee better recognition. In addition, features like content scheduling and analytics provide valuable insights into audience engagement. Let’s explore how these elements can work together to boost your social media strategy. Key Takeaways Utilize Canva’s extensive template library to create visually appealing posts that engage your audience across multiple social media platforms. Maintain consistent branding with customizable templates and brand kits, ensuring your visuals align with your brand identity. Schedule posts in advance using the Content Planner, enhancing timely audience engagement and improving brand visibility. Collaborate in real-time with team members, streamlining design processes and ensuring effective communication for high-quality content. Leverage analytics features to track engagement metrics, allowing you to refine your strategies and better understand your audience’s preferences. Simplified Design Process for Eye-Catching Visuals Creating eye-catching visuals for social media can feel overwhelming, especially if you lack advanced design skills; nevertheless, Canva streamlines this process, making it accessible to everyone. This online graphic design software offers a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, allowing you to design your own design effortlessly. With a wide range of social media design templates and graphic art software features, you can quickly create templates that suit your brand. Canva’s graphic design tools free include various fonts, images, and editing and graphics options to improve your visuals. You can likewise utilize built-in filters for a cohesive look across platforms. Plus, collaborating in real-time with team members guarantees efficient content delivery, making it easier than ever to produce stunning Instagram post templates. Extensive Template Library for Quick Customization Canva’s extensive template library simplifies the design process, allowing you to create customized visuals in no time. With over 250,000 customizable templates designed for various social media platforms, you can easily adjust colors, fonts, and images to align with your brand identity. These templates are optimized for different formats, ensuring your visual content fits perfectly on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, which improves your engagement strategies. Canva regularly updates its template collections, providing fresh, relevant options that resonate with your audience. The user-friendly interface allows for quick edits and downloads, making it easy to maintain a consistent posting schedule. This capability not only helps in producing high-quality visuals but also streamlines your social media management efforts effectively. Consistent Branding Across Social Platforms Establishing consistent branding across social media platforms is crucial for building brand recognition and trust. With Canva’s brand kits, you can maintain key branding elements like logos, colors, and fonts, ensuring that your visuals are instantly recognizable. Utilizing customizable templates from Canva’s extensive library allows you to create posts that reflect your unique identity as you ensure visual cohesion. Consistent imagery and design styles promote a unified brand presence, and Canva’s design tools make it easy to apply signature filters and styles across all content. Regularly using branded templates saves time and reinforces brand consistency, leading to increased engagement. Furthermore, Canva’s collaborative features enable your team to work together effectively, ensuring all content aligns with established brand guidelines. Streamlined Content Scheduling for Regular Engagement Managing your social media posts efficiently is essential for keeping your audience engaged. With Canva’s Content Planner, you can schedule posts in advance, ensuring consistent interaction that improves your brand visibility. This tool helps you streamline your content strategy, allowing for a varied mix of posts and timely engagement that keeps your audience interested. Efficient Post Management How can you guarantee your social media presence remains consistent and effective? Efficient post management is key. With Canva’s Content Planner, you can schedule posts across various platforms, ensuring timely engagement with your audience. Utilizing a content calendar helps you organize and visualize your posting schedule, making it easier to maintain regularity. By designing posts with customizable templates and scheduling them directly, you save valuable time during content creation. This allows you to focus on strategic content rather than scrambling last minute. Regular scheduling improves brand visibility and boosts audience engagement, as consistent posting keeps your audience interested. Overall, these time-saving features streamline your content management and raise your social media strategy. Consistent Audience Interaction Even though you may have great content ideas, consistent audience interaction hinges on effective scheduling. Canva’s social media calendar allows you to plan and allocate themes and content types for each day, ensuring a clear content strategy. By scheduling posts at ideal times based on audience analytics, you can greatly improve engagement rates, as studies show that posts during peak activity receive 30% more interaction. Moreover, Canva’s templates help you create visually appealing content quickly, maintaining a steady flow of fresh posts without sacrificing quality. Regularly scheduling posts boosts brand loyalty and follower retention, as brands that post consistently are 60% more likely to develop a committed audience. This method streamlines your efforts and strengthens your connection with followers. High-Quality Graphics to Enhance User Interaction Creating high-quality graphics is vital for improving user interaction on social media, as visually appealing content naturally draws viewers in. Canva’s extensive library of Instagram post templates and customizable design tools allows you to create design graphics that resonate with your target audience. Utilizing a graphic design maker like Canva guarantees brand consistency across your posts, increasing engagement. Additionally, incorporating user-generated content into your custom templates nurtures community interaction and brand loyalty. Data shows that posts with high-quality visuals receive 94% more views, emphasizing the necessity of using Canva’s free graphic design options. Feature Benefit Example Graphic Design Maker Easy customization Create design effortlessly Free Template Maker Cost-effective solutions Access free graphic design Graphic Design Editor Professional-quality edits Improve visual appeal Tools for Collaboration and Feedback Effective collaboration and feedback tools play a crucial role in streamlining the design process within teams. Canva’s collaborative features allow multiple users to work on designs in real-time, enhancing teamwork. You can utilize comment and feedback tools to leave suggestions directly on designs, simplifying communication and revisions. The brand kit feature helps maintain visual consistency by storing brand colors, logos, and fonts, ensuring that all collaborators stay on-brand. Moreover, you can create and share templates to efficiently produce on-brand content, minimizing the time spent on design. Finally, the Content Planner tool enables you to schedule and manage social media posts collaboratively, ensuring timely and coordinated content distribution across platforms, further enhancing your social media success. Analytics Features to Measure Social Media Performance Once you’ve streamlined your design process, measuring the effectiveness of your social media efforts becomes the next step. Canva’s analytics features provide crucial insights to improve your social media strategies. You can track interactions and understand your audience better by focusing on: Engagement metrics, like likes and shares Audience demographics and behaviors Conversion rates from social media traffic Performance data for ongoing content performance Frequently Asked Questions How Does Canva Impact Social Media? Canva greatly impacts social media by enabling you to create visually appealing graphics quickly and efficiently. Its extensive library of templates helps maintain a consistent visual identity across platforms, which boosts brand recognition. Furthermore, Canva provides educational resources like tutorials to improve your design skills. Is Canva Good for Social Media Management? Yes, Canva is effective for social media management. It provides a user-friendly interface and a variety of templates, enabling you to create visually appealing content quickly. The Content Planner tool helps you schedule and manage posts, ensuring consistent output. Furthermore, Canva’s collaborative features allow team members to work together, facilitating real-time feedback. With access to stock images and customizable elements, you can maintain a cohesive brand identity across platforms, enhancing your online presence. Can Canva Manage Social Media? Yes, Canva can manage social media effectively. You can use its Content Planner to schedule and post content automatically across multiple platforms, simplifying your workflow. The platform offers a wide range of customizable templates, making it easy to create engaging visuals that reflect your brand. Furthermore, Canva provides analytics tools to track engagement and performance, helping you refine your strategies based on audience response. This combination improves your overall social media management experience. What Are Some Benefits of Canva? Canva offers several benefits that improve your design experience. Its vast library of templates allows you to create visually appealing graphics quickly. The user-friendly tools make it easy for anyone, regardless of skill level, to produce professional-quality content. Furthermore, its collaboration features enable teamwork, letting multiple users work on designs simultaneously. With customizable templates, you can maintain brand consistency across platforms, ensuring effective communication of your identity in every post. Conclusion Incorporating Canva into your social media strategy can boost your online presence considerably. By simplifying design, offering extensive templates, and ensuring consistent branding, it helps maintain your identity across platforms. Furthermore, its scheduling tools keep your audience engaged, as high-quality graphics improve interaction. Collaboration features facilitate teamwork, and analytics allow you to track performance effectively. Overall, leveraging Canva can lead to improved engagement and a stronger connection with your target audience, driving your social media success. Image via Google Gemini This article, "7 Ways Canva Can Boost Your Social Media Success" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you’re looking to improve your social media presence, Canva offers several tools that can help you achieve that goal effectively. Its user-friendly design process simplifies creating eye-catching visuals, as well as an extensive template library allows for quick customization designed for different platforms. By maintaining consistent branding across your posts, you can guarantee better recognition. In addition, features like content scheduling and analytics provide valuable insights into audience engagement. Let’s explore how these elements can work together to boost your social media strategy. Key Takeaways Utilize Canva’s extensive template library to create visually appealing posts that engage your audience across multiple social media platforms. Maintain consistent branding with customizable templates and brand kits, ensuring your visuals align with your brand identity. Schedule posts in advance using the Content Planner, enhancing timely audience engagement and improving brand visibility. Collaborate in real-time with team members, streamlining design processes and ensuring effective communication for high-quality content. Leverage analytics features to track engagement metrics, allowing you to refine your strategies and better understand your audience’s preferences. Simplified Design Process for Eye-Catching Visuals Creating eye-catching visuals for social media can feel overwhelming, especially if you lack advanced design skills; nevertheless, Canva streamlines this process, making it accessible to everyone. This online graphic design software offers a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, allowing you to design your own design effortlessly. With a wide range of social media design templates and graphic art software features, you can quickly create templates that suit your brand. Canva’s graphic design tools free include various fonts, images, and editing and graphics options to improve your visuals. You can likewise utilize built-in filters for a cohesive look across platforms. Plus, collaborating in real-time with team members guarantees efficient content delivery, making it easier than ever to produce stunning Instagram post templates. Extensive Template Library for Quick Customization Canva’s extensive template library simplifies the design process, allowing you to create customized visuals in no time. With over 250,000 customizable templates designed for various social media platforms, you can easily adjust colors, fonts, and images to align with your brand identity. These templates are optimized for different formats, ensuring your visual content fits perfectly on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, which improves your engagement strategies. Canva regularly updates its template collections, providing fresh, relevant options that resonate with your audience. The user-friendly interface allows for quick edits and downloads, making it easy to maintain a consistent posting schedule. This capability not only helps in producing high-quality visuals but also streamlines your social media management efforts effectively. Consistent Branding Across Social Platforms Establishing consistent branding across social media platforms is crucial for building brand recognition and trust. With Canva’s brand kits, you can maintain key branding elements like logos, colors, and fonts, ensuring that your visuals are instantly recognizable. Utilizing customizable templates from Canva’s extensive library allows you to create posts that reflect your unique identity as you ensure visual cohesion. Consistent imagery and design styles promote a unified brand presence, and Canva’s design tools make it easy to apply signature filters and styles across all content. Regularly using branded templates saves time and reinforces brand consistency, leading to increased engagement. Furthermore, Canva’s collaborative features enable your team to work together effectively, ensuring all content aligns with established brand guidelines. Streamlined Content Scheduling for Regular Engagement Managing your social media posts efficiently is essential for keeping your audience engaged. With Canva’s Content Planner, you can schedule posts in advance, ensuring consistent interaction that improves your brand visibility. This tool helps you streamline your content strategy, allowing for a varied mix of posts and timely engagement that keeps your audience interested. Efficient Post Management How can you guarantee your social media presence remains consistent and effective? Efficient post management is key. With Canva’s Content Planner, you can schedule posts across various platforms, ensuring timely engagement with your audience. Utilizing a content calendar helps you organize and visualize your posting schedule, making it easier to maintain regularity. By designing posts with customizable templates and scheduling them directly, you save valuable time during content creation. This allows you to focus on strategic content rather than scrambling last minute. Regular scheduling improves brand visibility and boosts audience engagement, as consistent posting keeps your audience interested. Overall, these time-saving features streamline your content management and raise your social media strategy. Consistent Audience Interaction Even though you may have great content ideas, consistent audience interaction hinges on effective scheduling. Canva’s social media calendar allows you to plan and allocate themes and content types for each day, ensuring a clear content strategy. By scheduling posts at ideal times based on audience analytics, you can greatly improve engagement rates, as studies show that posts during peak activity receive 30% more interaction. Moreover, Canva’s templates help you create visually appealing content quickly, maintaining a steady flow of fresh posts without sacrificing quality. Regularly scheduling posts boosts brand loyalty and follower retention, as brands that post consistently are 60% more likely to develop a committed audience. This method streamlines your efforts and strengthens your connection with followers. High-Quality Graphics to Enhance User Interaction Creating high-quality graphics is vital for improving user interaction on social media, as visually appealing content naturally draws viewers in. Canva’s extensive library of Instagram post templates and customizable design tools allows you to create design graphics that resonate with your target audience. Utilizing a graphic design maker like Canva guarantees brand consistency across your posts, increasing engagement. Additionally, incorporating user-generated content into your custom templates nurtures community interaction and brand loyalty. Data shows that posts with high-quality visuals receive 94% more views, emphasizing the necessity of using Canva’s free graphic design options. Feature Benefit Example Graphic Design Maker Easy customization Create design effortlessly Free Template Maker Cost-effective solutions Access free graphic design Graphic Design Editor Professional-quality edits Improve visual appeal Tools for Collaboration and Feedback Effective collaboration and feedback tools play a crucial role in streamlining the design process within teams. Canva’s collaborative features allow multiple users to work on designs in real-time, enhancing teamwork. You can utilize comment and feedback tools to leave suggestions directly on designs, simplifying communication and revisions. The brand kit feature helps maintain visual consistency by storing brand colors, logos, and fonts, ensuring that all collaborators stay on-brand. Moreover, you can create and share templates to efficiently produce on-brand content, minimizing the time spent on design. Finally, the Content Planner tool enables you to schedule and manage social media posts collaboratively, ensuring timely and coordinated content distribution across platforms, further enhancing your social media success. Analytics Features to Measure Social Media Performance Once you’ve streamlined your design process, measuring the effectiveness of your social media efforts becomes the next step. Canva’s analytics features provide crucial insights to improve your social media strategies. You can track interactions and understand your audience better by focusing on: Engagement metrics, like likes and shares Audience demographics and behaviors Conversion rates from social media traffic Performance data for ongoing content performance Frequently Asked Questions How Does Canva Impact Social Media? Canva greatly impacts social media by enabling you to create visually appealing graphics quickly and efficiently. Its extensive library of templates helps maintain a consistent visual identity across platforms, which boosts brand recognition. Furthermore, Canva provides educational resources like tutorials to improve your design skills. Is Canva Good for Social Media Management? Yes, Canva is effective for social media management. It provides a user-friendly interface and a variety of templates, enabling you to create visually appealing content quickly. The Content Planner tool helps you schedule and manage posts, ensuring consistent output. Furthermore, Canva’s collaborative features allow team members to work together, facilitating real-time feedback. With access to stock images and customizable elements, you can maintain a cohesive brand identity across platforms, enhancing your online presence. Can Canva Manage Social Media? Yes, Canva can manage social media effectively. You can use its Content Planner to schedule and post content automatically across multiple platforms, simplifying your workflow. The platform offers a wide range of customizable templates, making it easy to create engaging visuals that reflect your brand. Furthermore, Canva provides analytics tools to track engagement and performance, helping you refine your strategies based on audience response. This combination improves your overall social media management experience. What Are Some Benefits of Canva? Canva offers several benefits that improve your design experience. Its vast library of templates allows you to create visually appealing graphics quickly. The user-friendly tools make it easy for anyone, regardless of skill level, to produce professional-quality content. Furthermore, its collaboration features enable teamwork, letting multiple users work on designs simultaneously. With customizable templates, you can maintain brand consistency across platforms, ensuring effective communication of your identity in every post. Conclusion Incorporating Canva into your social media strategy can boost your online presence considerably. By simplifying design, offering extensive templates, and ensuring consistent branding, it helps maintain your identity across platforms. Furthermore, its scheduling tools keep your audience engaged, as high-quality graphics improve interaction. Collaboration features facilitate teamwork, and analytics allow you to track performance effectively. Overall, leveraging Canva can lead to improved engagement and a stronger connection with your target audience, driving your social media success. Image via Google Gemini This article, "7 Ways Canva Can Boost Your Social Media Success" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A side-by-side review of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude based on real-world testing and the quality of their answers, recommendations, and usability. The post ChatGPT Vs. Gemini Vs. Claude: What Are The Differences? appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Wells Fargo leads one of the largest financings of its kind as it looks to muscle in on investment banking rivalsView the full article

This comment section is open for any non-work-related discussion you’d like to have with other readers, by popular demand. Here are the rules for the weekend posts. Book recommendation of the week: Buckeye, by Patrick Ryan. A short-lived affair in a small town in 1945 has long-lasting consequences for two families. I loved this! It ended up being my favorite book of everything I read this year. (Amazon, Bookshop) * I earn a commission if you use those links. The post weekend open thread – December 6-7, 2025 appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

On episode 333 of PPC Live The Podcast, I speak to Nils Rooijmans, a renowned Google Ads script expert and top 10 PPC influencer, where she shares the experience of a costly error that serves as a valuable lesson for anyone managing paid search campaigns. The Setup: A quick account onboarding gone wrong The trouble began when one of Rooijmans’ existing clients acquired another company in the airport parking services industry. The acquired company was already running a small Google Ads account, and the client wanted Rooijmans to manage it without paying additional fees for proper onboarding. Against his better judgment, Rooijmans agreed to a compromise: they would slowly migrate the new account to their existing setup over time. The new account would be left largely unmonitored during this transition period. The fatal mistake: Ignoring Google’s warnings After six weeks of minimal attention, disaster struck. Clicks and conversions dropped dramatically, eventually falling to zero. When investigating, Rooijmans discovered that Google had sent multiple emails warning that the consent management platform wasn’t implemented correctly. The emails threatened to stop allowing conversion tracking if the issue wasn’t resolved. “We were very ignorant. We didn’t read the emails from Google, and we were relatively slow in responding to the issue,” Rooijmans admitted. The result? Google stopped processing conversion tracking data for that specific domain entirely. The cascading effect of lost conversion data Without conversion data, Google’s smart bidding algorithm made a logical but devastating decision: if clicks aren’t converting, reduce CPC bids to avoid wasting budget. Traffic gradually decreased, actual conversions were still happening but going unrecorded, and the campaigns scaled down to nearly nothing. The website continued to receive bookings from other sources, which initially masked the severity of the problem. By the time the issue was fully identified, significant revenue opportunities had been lost. The root cause: skipping proper onboarding Through a detailed root cause analysis, Rooijmans identified the fundamental problem: allowing a client to bypass the standard onboarding process. Without proper setup, several critical safeguards were missing, including monitoring scripts for conversion tracking, assigned team members to check account emails, and standard processes for account health checks. “During this root cause analysis, I always ask myself the why question five times,” Rooijmans explained. This technique, borrowed from quality management practices, helps identify the underlying cause rather than just treating symptoms. The client conversation: managing expectations Breaking the news to the client proved complicated. The business owner, Rooijmans’ primary contact, was relatively understanding since ad spend had also decreased. However, a meeting with the company’s CFO took a different turn. The financial executive expected compensation for the lost revenue opportunity, even though actual bookings were still occurring and not all revenue was truly lost. To maintain the relationship, Rooijmans reduced his invoice, though he noted that the client had agreed to a slower migration process with limited oversight. The technical fix: Working around Google’s limitations Fixing the conversion tracking proved surprisingly challenging. Google support couldn’t resolve the issue despite multiple contacts with different departments. The problem was technical: Google had flagged the specific domain name, returning HTTP 400 errors for all conversion tracking requests instead of the normal HTTP 200 responses. The workaround involved either importing conversions from Google Analytics (GA4) or setting up new conversion tracking through the manager account. “Don’t expect any help from Google,” Rooijmans warned based on this experience. In the short term, switching from smart bidding to manual CPC bidding restored traffic levels while the conversion tracking issue was being resolved. Key lessons for PPC professionals Never skip onboarding Regardless of client pressure or budget constraints, proper account onboarding is non-negotiable. Standard processes exist for good reason and protect both the agency and the client. Monitor conversion tracking religiously Rooijmans runs automated scripts that monitor conversions and conversion values, alerting him immediately to significant changes. In the era of smart bidding, conversion tracking is the foundation of account performance. Don’t be arrogant about Google communications While many Google emails are promotional or contain unhelpful suggestions, some contain critical compliance information. The challenge is distinguishing between noise and genuine warnings. Implement the “Fail Fast, Fix Fast” culture When mistakes happen, the priority sequence should be: take a deep breath and assess the situation calmly, fix the immediate issue to restore performance, communicate transparently with the client, perform root cause analysis, and document learnings in a post-mortem. Use the five whys technique Asking “why” repeatedly helps uncover root causes rather than surface-level symptoms. This prevents the same mistake from occurring in different forms. Additional Common PPC Mistakes to Avoid Black Friday budget management During high-traffic events like Black Friday, Google may spend significantly more than usual. While the platform allows spending up to twice the daily budget, exceptional circumstances can push spending even higher. Monitor spend closely during peak periods and be prepared to adjust budgets to capture opportunities. Double-counting conversions One audit revealed a freelancer had set up both imported Google Analytics conversions and native Google Ads conversion tracking, both marked as primary. This inflated reported results by roughly 100%, creating unrealistic expectations that had to be carefully managed when corrected. Building a mistake-tolerant team culture For agencies and teams, Rooijmans recommends several practices including implementing a second pair of eyes to review all work, encouraging experimentation with clear hypotheses and measurement plans, anticipating both positive and negative outcomes before testing, and maintaining detailed documentation of lessons learned. “We learn through mistakes, and that’s part of the process,” he emphasized. The key is creating systems that catch errors quickly and turn them into learning opportunities. The bigger picture: Remote work and PPC success Interestingly, Rooijmans credits his PPC career with enabling his digital nomad lifestyle. Working from locations like Curaçao in the Caribbean or his Amsterdam houseboat, he’s built what he calls a “10-hour PPC week” through extensive automation and systematization. This lifestyle was inspired by Tim Ferriss’s “The Four Hour Work Week,” which Rooijmans discovered at a conference in 2004. The lesson? Proper systems and automation not only prevent mistakes but also create freedom. Final thoughts Even experts who have built their careers on automation and efficiency make mistakes. The difference between a career-ending error and a learning opportunity often comes down to how quickly problems are identified, how transparently they’re communicated, and how thoroughly the root causes are addressed. For PPC professionals at any level, Rooijmans’ experience offers a clear reminder that shortcuts in processes eventually become obstacles to success. Whether it’s ignoring certain types of emails, skipping onboarding steps, or failing to monitor conversion tracking, these seemingly small oversights can cascade into significant problems. The good news? With the right monitoring tools, clear processes, and a culture that treats mistakes as learning opportunities, even serious errors can be resolved while maintaining client relationships and professional growth. View the full article

When it comes to market segmentation, I don’t see truly well-documented cases often. At a more simplistic level, we think of classic matrices such as BCG or McKinsey’s. But the real exercise of segmentation is far more complex. In certain contexts, it comes close to the behavior of a tensor: multiple dimensions, cross-dependencies, distinct weights, temporality, and contextual factors that shift the meaning of data depending on the axis being analyzed. Thinking like a tensor is practicing Model Thinking, which remains, above all, an analog discipline. It requires a brain, not a machine. The challenge is necessarily multidisciplinary, and this is exactly where executives suffer, spending enormous time compensating for immature teams. Even when business operators manage to bring quantitative data from ERP, CRM, or sector reports (which are often scarce or methodologically fragile), the information set must be normalized. This process demands an additional set of competencies: statistical knowledge, data-cleaning techniques, sampling concepts, dimensional modeling, and even systems logic to avoid collinearity and redundancy. When unstructured data is added, the challenge grows further. This includes everything from more sophisticated sentiment analysis to qualitative inputs from field teams, customer recordings, or information mined from third-party sources. In these cases, the problem is not confined to normalization: It involves interpreting, validating, reducing noise, and converting natural language into structures that can interface with transactional data. It is epistemological, not just technical. SERIOUS SEGMENTATION Serious segmentation is not a mere snapshot of the market. It plots and overlays multiple layers: data on strategic human resources (both internal and competitive), asset acquisition history, technological maturity, revenues and margins, pricing elasticity, media activity, public opinion, and ecosystem maps revealing the true position of players. Good segmentation uncovers unclaimed revenue, positioning errors, pricing failures, ignored clusters, asymmetries between capability and discourse, and even subtle competitor movements that go unnoticed at the tactical level. The entire process demands other equally essential competencies: dataset modeling, command of relational tables, use of manipulation languages such as SQL, Python, or R, basic and applied statistics, visualization techniques, clustering, similarity analysis, and, above all, the ability to formulate hypotheses. Without hypotheses, there is no segmentation. There is only table sorting. THE AGENT ERA In the so-called era of agents (some already speak of the decade of agents) a complementary arsenal emerges to support these processes. Agents capable of cleaning and normalizing data, agents for web scraping and data enrichment, agents that classify and label content using LLMs as annotators, statistical automation agents able to perform clustering, PCA, or churn analysis, reconciliation agents capable of resolving deduplication and probabilistic matching, and competitive-simulation agents designed to test elasticity scenarios, pricing movements, or anticipated reactions of market players. As a last resort, and not as the first option, as leaders outside tech hubs tend to believe, RAG enters the picture. This article could list agents available in the ecosystem for immediate use, but it is fundamentally about the capabilities that precede automation. Before any automation, there is foundational knowledge: truly understanding the discipline of segmentation, knowing principles of market behavior, and having clarity about the information models that generate strategic insights for guiding portfolio, productive capacity, and competitive advantage. No GPU, no matter how powerful, replaces this conceptual clarity. And this clarity is not necessarily the exclusive responsibility of IT, the CTO, or marketing teams (understanding marketing here, according to the American Marketing Association’s definition). Segmentation belongs to multidimensional leaders capable of moving fluidly across strategy, operations, data, behavior, and finance. The provocative question remains: Do these leaders exist in the analog perspective, prior to automation? Many companies try to leap directly from subjective culture to algorithmic culture without building the intermediate methodological culture, and this is one of the silent sources of failure today. There is robust literature on segmentation and, it must be said, it requires intellectual musculature. I appreciate Malcolm McDonald and Ian Dunbar in Market Segmentation. Peter Fader, from the Wharton School, offers a more financial and pricing-oriented view in The Customer-Base Audit. Naturally, these two works only give a glimpse of the thinking underlying the structured idea. FINAL THOUGHTS Finally, two observations. First, what I have just written is not something that ChatGPT—even as a “generative” model—would spontaneously produce. LLMs do not naturally form implicit assumptions across domains, nor do they articulate disciplinary layers whose connection depends on human repertoire and has not been previously mapped. They operate on existing corpora; they do not originate new paradigms on their own. Second, most business schools today, aside from a small group of highly specialized institutions, tend not to emphasize this mode of thinking. Not by fault, but by design. Their structure was built to serve the needs of upward-moving managers, not to cultivate the broader, integrative perspective required of executive-level decision makers. This gap in knowledge for top leadership has a structural explanation: The audience is relatively small, and therefore not the core economic engine of educational institutions. As a result, many executive leaders find themselves without ongoing renewal of their knowledge matrix, even in an era that promotes “continuous learning.” A paradox of our time. Rodrigo Magnago is researcher and director at RMagnago Critical Thinking. View the full article

If you’re looking to streamline your social media strategy, utilizing the right tools can make a significant difference. Scheduling posts efficiently not just saves time but additionally improves engagement. Tools like SocialBee and Pallyy offer unique features customized to various needs, whereas Sendible and Metricool cater to scalability and affordability. Agorapulse stands out with its collaboration capabilities. Comprehending each tool’s strengths can help you choose the best fit for your goals. Let’s explore these options further. Key Takeaways SocialBee offers robust content curation and publishing, ideal for teams with its content approval workflow and AI-driven strategy generation. Pallyy simplifies visual content scheduling for Instagram and TikTok with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and aesthetic planning tools. Sendible is a scalable tool perfect for agencies, featuring multiple client dashboards and integrations with Canva for enhanced content creation. Metricool provides an affordable option with a drag-and-drop planner, competitor analysis, and a free plan for up to 50 posts monthly. Agorapulse excels in team collaboration with a unified inbox and advanced reporting tools, making it suitable for agencies and small businesses. SocialBee: The Comprehensive Scheduling Solution SocialBee stands out as a thorough scheduling solution for anyone looking to improve their social media presence. It offers a robust content curation and publishing platform that supports major networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. With SocialBee, you can easily schedule social media posts and categorize them for organized management. The unique AI copilot helps you generate effective strategies customized to your specific needs, enhancing your posting media approach. You can likewise utilize RSS feeds for content discovery and create post variants to boost engagement. Plus, the content approval workflow is ideal for teams and agencies, streamlining your processes. Plans start from $29/month, and a 14-day free trial lets you explore its extensive features risk-free. Pallyy: User-Friendly Visual Content Scheduler When you’re looking to simplify your social media scheduling, Pallyy provides a user-friendly solution that focuses on visual content, especially for platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Its drag-and-drop scheduling workflow makes planning posts straightforward, allowing you to easily arrange your content. The Feed Planner tool helps you curate your Instagram aesthetics, ensuring your profile looks visually appealing. Pallyy furthermore offers a generous free plan, allowing one social set with up to 15 scheduled posts monthly, which is perfect for individual creators and small businesses. In addition, the platform includes a unified social inbox, streamlining your interactions across different platforms. Premium plans start at $25/month per social set, offering features like templates, media storage, and comprehensive analytics capabilities to improve your experience. Sendible: Scalable Tool for Agencies and Individuals Sendible stands out as a scalable social media scheduling tool that caters to both agencies and individual users, offering features that improve user management and client organization. You can manage multiple client dashboards, making it easier to streamline your workflow. The platform integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Canva and Pexels, enhancing your content curation capabilities. With customizable posts and a smart content queue, scheduling becomes efficient and effective. Unique tools, such as Google News alerts and RSS feeds, aid in content discovery. Furthermore, Sendible provides social listening and reporting features, which are particularly beneficial for agencies handling various clients. Pricing starts at $29/month, and you can try it risk-free with a 14-day free trial. Metricool: Affordable and Versatile Social Media Management Metricool is an affordable and versatile social media management tool designed to streamline your content scheduling across various platforms. With a free plan allowing you to schedule up to 50 posts monthly (excluding LinkedIn and Twitter analytics), it’s a great starting point. The user-friendly drag-and-drop planner helps you visually manage and organize your social media content. You can additionally access a competitor analysis tool to benchmark your performance against other brands. The analytics feature tracks post performance, providing three months of historical data, even on the free plan. Premium plans start at just $22/month, offering unlimited scheduling and improved analytics, making it a cost-effective choice for businesses of all sizes. Feature Free Plan Premium Plan Post Scheduling Up to 50 posts/month Unlimited posts/month Competitor Analysis No Yes Historical Data 3 months 12 months Price Free From $22/month Analytics Basic Advanced Agorapulse: Advanced Collaboration and Reporting Features Agorapulse stands out in the social media management environment by offering advanced collaboration and reporting features that cater to teams and agencies. Its unified inbox simplifies the management of comments and messages across multiple platforms, enhancing response efficiency. You can leverage robust reporting tools to gain in-depth insights into your social media performance, allowing your team to enhance strategies effectively. Key features include: Multiple user roles and approval workflows for streamlined team collaboration. Automation for rescheduling posts, ensuring ideal content delivery. Advanced reporting that analyzes engagement metrics in detail. A basic free plan that lets you schedule up to 10 posts, making it accessible for small businesses. With Agorapulse, managing your social media presence becomes a coordinated effort. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Scheduling Tool for Social Media? The best scheduling tool for social media depends on your specific needs. If you want strong content curation, SocialBee could be ideal. For visual content on Instagram and TikTok, consider Pallyy. If you’re managing multiple clients, Sendible offers scalability. For small businesses, Metricool’s free plan is valuable. Buffer is great for simplicity but lacks advanced analytics. Evaluate these options based on your budget and features to find the best fit for you. What Is the 5 5 5 Rule on Social Media? The 5 5 5 rule on social media suggests you share five original posts, curate five from others, and engage with followers through five interactions. This strategy balances promotional, informative, and engaging content, preventing your audience from feeling overwhelmed by constant self-promotion. By following this rule, you encourage community engagement and build trust, showing you value others’ content as you actively participate with your followers. Adapt this approach to fit different platforms and audience preferences. How Can I Schedule Social Media Posts? To schedule social media posts, start by selecting a scheduling tool like Buffer or SocialBee. These platforms allow you to plan content easily. Use features like visual calendars and drag-and-drop capabilities to organize your posts. Consider integrating design tools like Canva for appealing visuals. Furthermore, explore content recycling options to keep your posts fresh. Free plans from tools like Publer can help you get started without significant costs. Which of the Following Tools Is Commonly Used for Social Media Scheduling? When considering tools for social media scheduling, several popular options stand out. SocialBee offers robust content curation and publishing features, whereas Pallyy is user-friendly and thrives with visual content. Sendible is ideal for agencies because of its scalability, and Metricool provides batch scheduling and competitor analysis. If collaboration is your focus, Agorapulse includes advanced reporting and a unified inbox. Each tool has its strengths, making them suitable for different users and needs. Conclusion In summary, utilizing the right tools can greatly improve your social media scheduling efforts. SocialBee, Pallyy, Sendible, Metricool, and Agorapulse each offer unique features customized to different needs, from content curation to robust analytics. By selecting the tool that aligns with your specific goals, you can streamline your processes, enhance collaboration, and gain valuable insights into your performance. Adopting these tools will empower you to manage your social media strategy more effectively, ensuring you’re always one step ahead. Image via Google Gemini This article, "5 Essential Tools for Scheduling Social Media Posts Like a Pro" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you’re looking to streamline your social media strategy, utilizing the right tools can make a significant difference. Scheduling posts efficiently not just saves time but additionally improves engagement. Tools like SocialBee and Pallyy offer unique features customized to various needs, whereas Sendible and Metricool cater to scalability and affordability. Agorapulse stands out with its collaboration capabilities. Comprehending each tool’s strengths can help you choose the best fit for your goals. Let’s explore these options further. Key Takeaways SocialBee offers robust content curation and publishing, ideal for teams with its content approval workflow and AI-driven strategy generation. Pallyy simplifies visual content scheduling for Instagram and TikTok with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and aesthetic planning tools. Sendible is a scalable tool perfect for agencies, featuring multiple client dashboards and integrations with Canva for enhanced content creation. Metricool provides an affordable option with a drag-and-drop planner, competitor analysis, and a free plan for up to 50 posts monthly. Agorapulse excels in team collaboration with a unified inbox and advanced reporting tools, making it suitable for agencies and small businesses. SocialBee: The Comprehensive Scheduling Solution SocialBee stands out as a thorough scheduling solution for anyone looking to improve their social media presence. It offers a robust content curation and publishing platform that supports major networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. With SocialBee, you can easily schedule social media posts and categorize them for organized management. The unique AI copilot helps you generate effective strategies customized to your specific needs, enhancing your posting media approach. You can likewise utilize RSS feeds for content discovery and create post variants to boost engagement. Plus, the content approval workflow is ideal for teams and agencies, streamlining your processes. Plans start from $29/month, and a 14-day free trial lets you explore its extensive features risk-free. Pallyy: User-Friendly Visual Content Scheduler When you’re looking to simplify your social media scheduling, Pallyy provides a user-friendly solution that focuses on visual content, especially for platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Its drag-and-drop scheduling workflow makes planning posts straightforward, allowing you to easily arrange your content. The Feed Planner tool helps you curate your Instagram aesthetics, ensuring your profile looks visually appealing. Pallyy furthermore offers a generous free plan, allowing one social set with up to 15 scheduled posts monthly, which is perfect for individual creators and small businesses. In addition, the platform includes a unified social inbox, streamlining your interactions across different platforms. Premium plans start at $25/month per social set, offering features like templates, media storage, and comprehensive analytics capabilities to improve your experience. Sendible: Scalable Tool for Agencies and Individuals Sendible stands out as a scalable social media scheduling tool that caters to both agencies and individual users, offering features that improve user management and client organization. You can manage multiple client dashboards, making it easier to streamline your workflow. The platform integrates seamlessly with popular tools like Canva and Pexels, enhancing your content curation capabilities. With customizable posts and a smart content queue, scheduling becomes efficient and effective. Unique tools, such as Google News alerts and RSS feeds, aid in content discovery. Furthermore, Sendible provides social listening and reporting features, which are particularly beneficial for agencies handling various clients. Pricing starts at $29/month, and you can try it risk-free with a 14-day free trial. Metricool: Affordable and Versatile Social Media Management Metricool is an affordable and versatile social media management tool designed to streamline your content scheduling across various platforms. With a free plan allowing you to schedule up to 50 posts monthly (excluding LinkedIn and Twitter analytics), it’s a great starting point. The user-friendly drag-and-drop planner helps you visually manage and organize your social media content. You can additionally access a competitor analysis tool to benchmark your performance against other brands. The analytics feature tracks post performance, providing three months of historical data, even on the free plan. Premium plans start at just $22/month, offering unlimited scheduling and improved analytics, making it a cost-effective choice for businesses of all sizes. Feature Free Plan Premium Plan Post Scheduling Up to 50 posts/month Unlimited posts/month Competitor Analysis No Yes Historical Data 3 months 12 months Price Free From $22/month Analytics Basic Advanced Agorapulse: Advanced Collaboration and Reporting Features Agorapulse stands out in the social media management environment by offering advanced collaboration and reporting features that cater to teams and agencies. Its unified inbox simplifies the management of comments and messages across multiple platforms, enhancing response efficiency. You can leverage robust reporting tools to gain in-depth insights into your social media performance, allowing your team to enhance strategies effectively. Key features include: Multiple user roles and approval workflows for streamlined team collaboration. Automation for rescheduling posts, ensuring ideal content delivery. Advanced reporting that analyzes engagement metrics in detail. A basic free plan that lets you schedule up to 10 posts, making it accessible for small businesses. With Agorapulse, managing your social media presence becomes a coordinated effort. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Scheduling Tool for Social Media? The best scheduling tool for social media depends on your specific needs. If you want strong content curation, SocialBee could be ideal. For visual content on Instagram and TikTok, consider Pallyy. If you’re managing multiple clients, Sendible offers scalability. For small businesses, Metricool’s free plan is valuable. Buffer is great for simplicity but lacks advanced analytics. Evaluate these options based on your budget and features to find the best fit for you. What Is the 5 5 5 Rule on Social Media? The 5 5 5 rule on social media suggests you share five original posts, curate five from others, and engage with followers through five interactions. This strategy balances promotional, informative, and engaging content, preventing your audience from feeling overwhelmed by constant self-promotion. By following this rule, you encourage community engagement and build trust, showing you value others’ content as you actively participate with your followers. Adapt this approach to fit different platforms and audience preferences. How Can I Schedule Social Media Posts? To schedule social media posts, start by selecting a scheduling tool like Buffer or SocialBee. These platforms allow you to plan content easily. Use features like visual calendars and drag-and-drop capabilities to organize your posts. Consider integrating design tools like Canva for appealing visuals. Furthermore, explore content recycling options to keep your posts fresh. Free plans from tools like Publer can help you get started without significant costs. Which of the Following Tools Is Commonly Used for Social Media Scheduling? When considering tools for social media scheduling, several popular options stand out. SocialBee offers robust content curation and publishing features, whereas Pallyy is user-friendly and thrives with visual content. Sendible is ideal for agencies because of its scalability, and Metricool provides batch scheduling and competitor analysis. If collaboration is your focus, Agorapulse includes advanced reporting and a unified inbox. Each tool has its strengths, making them suitable for different users and needs. Conclusion In summary, utilizing the right tools can greatly improve your social media scheduling efforts. SocialBee, Pallyy, Sendible, Metricool, and Agorapulse each offer unique features customized to different needs, from content curation to robust analytics. By selecting the tool that aligns with your specific goals, you can streamline your processes, enhance collaboration, and gain valuable insights into your performance. Adopting these tools will empower you to manage your social media strategy more effectively, ensuring you’re always one step ahead. Image via Google Gemini This article, "5 Essential Tools for Scheduling Social Media Posts Like a Pro" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Modern master whose sinuous, billowing forms for the Guggenheim in Bilbao gave birth to the ‘Bilbao Effect’ View the full article

A recent New York Times headline—“Did Women Ruin the Workplace?”—sparked a firestorm across social media. Alison Moore, CEO of Chief, the prestigious network for senior women executives, is pushing back on this notion with data and nuance. Drawing from an exclusive nationwide survey of women leaders, Moore unpacks how evolving career paths are being misread, the impact of market disruption, and why women-centered spaces remain vital. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scalepodcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. The environment that you’ve come into with the The President White House is kind of heightened; discussions about diversity are heated. The term DEI has become kind of a negative. How do you frame what Chief is about in this kind of climate? There’s certainly more scrutiny on things today perhaps than there were in the past, but I think at the end of the day, there’s a desire for creating better, stronger leaders, better outcomes, better decision-making, more agile thinking. While there are different contexts being held and conversations being held around DEI and the nuances of that, the truth is when you cut through the big headlines, the realities remain the same, which is supporting leadership at a time of high velocity of change is always beneficial, and we happen to build that in a way that supports women leaders, and I think there’s a lot of support for that. Chief recently published a report in partnership with Harris surveying over a thousand senior level women, and it pointed to a sort of changing definition of maybe ambition and success, a shift away from playing it safe toward bolder career moves, which was in some ways more optimistic and more empowering than I’d expected. There had been a slew of articles that had come out focusing on changes in the workforce and finding the negative nugget in there to kind of put that on blast. And I’m not denying that there aren’t those factors at hand, but the she-cession is coming, women are being dumped out of the workforce. The return to office doesn’t work for all women in the polarity that we’re in today of big headlines being the only definition. We lose all nuance. And so for us here, I come in February and I’m looking at this incredibly energetic Chief membership and thinking, “This is what I’m seeing. I’m seeing people reacting and responding to change in ways that are innovative and curious and thought-provoking, this level of optimism that’s sitting in Chief, that they’re communicating together.” This is not just Chief telling women to be optimistic, this is the energy that you’re feeling from conversation. And so the genesis of this poll was how do we validate that? And so in the women that we surveyed, they’re citing that they’re more ambitious now than ever, and in fact they’re energized by the professional growth ahead because they feel like they can have more optionality and more of a hand on the wheel of their own career design than what they used to have. This is where that metaphor of the ladder and the stay rung to rung to rung and keep the course and stay the path and then something happens at the top. Everyone can see that’s not necessarily the case anymore. How much of the boldness do you think might be economy driven? I noticed that over 80% of the executives cited market disruption as a motivator. It’s almost like disruption is, I don’t know, forcing action? I think the economy is certainly always going to be a factor, but it’s also like, look at industry consolidation. You can look at what’s happening in the media business, you can look at what’s happening across retail. You can look at what’s happening in every vector and AI, which has a through line all the way across all of these industries, and a common thread of this duality of opportunity and threat of change. Is that rung as a metaphor again, for just career direction, not necessarily the corporate ladder as much as it is just the up a ladder? Is that the right path for me? Do I want other options? Do I want different kinds of flexibility? Do I have the sort of tools at my fingertips to actually do that? And that is what happens at Chief and that’s what’s been very interesting for me to see and come back actually from a founding membership in 2019 to where we are today. Women are building, scheming, meaning business is scheming, partnering, collaborating differently now. I think the lid’s off on a lot of that stuff for women. And so you do feel the optimism coming out in this survey, even though I think there’s a pragmatism and recognizing it is coming from disruption, but disruption does bring opportunity. So much of Chief is built around in-person connection and community, but in-person it’s so hard to scale. And I know when I was talking to your predecessor, Carolyn, she talked about the potential to have a LinkedIn-like product and a Masterclass-like product and a dating-app like product. How do you think about today’s digital tools for community versus the IRL experiences? Where do you balance those things? What I think about Chief today, and I think that was a very accurate description that Carolyn gave when that started. I think we’ve morphed into this space where there are a couple of different components. There are intimate experiences. By that, I mean small space experiences where you talk and see and share about leadership challenges that can be in a virtual experience, very rewarding, but in certain places and markets, we can make that happen in real life. It doesn’t have to be either-or, coaching, one-to-one coaching, so that happens on a virtual piece sometimes, that can be very rewarding, but if I’m going to have a cocktail party around other senior marketers, that should be at the clubhouse in real life. I’m about to go to LA this week for my eighth and then San Francisco in two weeks for the ninth. Nine ChiefXs this year, and this is where nine locations across the country, we’ve had members come, and it’s in real life, and they’re like rallies, and I get so much energy out of these things. It’s unbelievable. We have some speakers, some programming, but it’s really about this kind of connecting energy between Chiefs with other Chiefs, big corporate people talking to founders of small things, folks who are in transition, all senior leaders in various parts of their journey, and these large rallies are definitely IRL and then peppered between that are the right size virtual experiences. My next tranche of focus is really on the digital experience, the Chief app, the Chief digital experience in terms of, how do we make that as best of a member companion? The networking piece, the connections piece, whether that was the LinkedIn analogy that Carolyn meant, that’s where that really comes to life, but it comes to life in service of a lot of in real life experiences across multiple use types. Many of the things that a woman leader is interested in are things that any leader is interested in. It doesn’t have to connect to the fact that it’s a woman, and then there are a tranche of things that may be more applicable to women than to men, although you could argue they’re applicable to everyone. I always struggled with this when we mentioned you being in Fast Company. It was for a package we did on the most creative people in business and there were men and women on it, and we didn’t do a “most powerful women in business” like Fortune did. But there is something different when women get together without men there that maybe as a man I don’t quite appreciate or I want to, but I don’t really know. Listen, I think for women in leadership roles, there is a place and a time for being together and learning from each other that’s just different. It’s additive. The conversations are because a woman’s career journey is tied to that 360 view of who they are in life, it just makes those conversations different, but not necessarily better. I’ve been in multiple coworking environments where it’s male, female, that’s all great too. I’m a big believer in the both—I really am. View the full article

Party expels Ian Cooper in Staffordshire after historic racist social media posts emerge View the full article

A powerful advisory group within the CDC voted Friday to overturn a longstanding precaution designed to protect newborn babies. If the change is approved by the acting director of the agency, the government will no longer universally recommend the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. The shot, which provides protection from the leading cause of liver cancer, has been standard practice for newborns since 1991. Friday’s 8-3 vote is a milestone for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who quickly began reshaping the public health agency to reflect his personal views on vaccines after being sworn in early this year. Kennedy has long been a prominent voice among anti-vaccine activists, a position that sparked broad concern that the CDC might break with scientific consensus around vaccines under his guidance. In August, the FDA narrowed its approval for the COVID vaccine to people 65 and older or those with underlying health conditions. In spite of the FDA’s changes, many insurers said that they would follow previous guidance and cover the shots widely for anyone who wanted one In a press release following Friday’s vote, the CDC defended its decision to support “individual-based decision-making” which would encourage parents and their doctors to opt into childhood vaccines based on the risk of infection. The committee will now only recommend the vaccine at birth for newborns born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B. “The American people have benefited from the committee’s well-informed, rigorous discussion about the appropriateness of a vaccination in the first few hours of life,” CDC Acting Director Jim O’Neill said. Battle at the CDC O’Neill, an entrepreneur and investor with prior experience at HHS, was chosen for the post after the dramatic ouster of former director Susan Monarez, who was herself nominated by The President. Monarez was fired after refusing to back Kennedy’s preferred changes to the agency’s vaccine policy, prompting a wave of high profile resignations at the CDC. “They are essentially trying to undo a lot of the science that has been settled for vaccine policies,” Dr. Daniel Jernigan, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said following the flurry of resignations. Former CDC Director Susan Monarez testified in the Senate in September, issuing grave warnings about Kennedy’s influence on U.S. health policy. “Given what I have seen, if we continue down this path, we are not prepared—not just for pandemics, but for preventing chronic health disease. And we’re going to see kids dying of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Monarez said. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, also known as ACIP, has been a particular nexus of concern given Kennedy’s history of spreading vaccine misinformation. Kennedy fired all of the committee’s previous members earlier this year and installed new members friendlier to anti-vaccine policies. At the time, Kennedy stressed that the agency should “care as much about every child who could be injured by one of these products as we do every child who could be injured by an infectious disease,” referencing a talking point common in anti-vaccine misinformation. Doctors reject the CDC changes In spite of Kennedy’s claim that the remade panel would feature no “ideological anti-vaxxers,” its new members include vaccine skeptics and other members with no prior vaccine experience. The changes were consequential enough to prompt a lawsuit from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the largest professional association of pediatricians in the country. “Pediatricians have seen firsthand the harm created by the disruptive and politicized decisions to overturn decades of evidence-based federal guidance on immunizations,” AAP President Susan J. Kressly, M.D. said. “These changes have caused fear, decreased vaccine confidence, and barriers for families to access vaccines.” Friday’s vote won’t be official until the CDC’s acting director signs the new recommendations, which is very likely to happen. At least one Republican expressed his concerns about the rollback to 30 years of U.S. vaccine policy on Friday, encouraging the acting director to reject the changes. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who supported Kennedy to lead HHS, also called the ACIP “totally discredited” on X leading up to the vote. “As a liver doctor who has treated patients with hepatitis B for decades, this change to the vaccine schedule is a mistake,” Cassidy wrote on X. “… Before the birth dose was recommended, 20,000 newborns a year were infected with hepatitis B. Now, it’s fewer than 20. Ending the recommendation for newborns makes it more likely the number of cases will begin to increase again.” View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you missed out on all the best headphone deals during Black Friday, there are still some bargains to be found, including on these JBL Tune 770NC wireless headphones, currently $80 from Amazon, 47% off the usual $150 price tag. They’re a solid choice for anyone seeking over-ear headphones with decent noise cancellation and that signature JBL sound. JBL Tune 770NC Wireless Headphones $79.95 at Amazon $149.95 Save $70.00 Get Deal Get Deal $79.95 at Amazon $149.95 Save $70.00 According PCMag's review, these headphones offer a “sculpted sound signature with palpable bass,” which you can tweak using the adjustable in-app EQ. Long battery life is a major perk: They should last up to 70 hours with ANC off, letting you go at least a week of heavy use between charges. They also have Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and multipoint pairing, as well as three different ambient modes and a built-in mic for calls. The 770NCs come in three colors, and the design is lightweight and foldable, with generous cushioning and a padded headband. While control buttons are responsive, they can be tricky to distinguish by feel, and PCMag notes that controls can be sensitive to misfires. The adaptive noise cancellation likewise isn’t top-tier; while it will reduce outside sound, it doesn’t do much against low-frequency noise. Those caveats aside, if you want comfortable, long-lasting over-ear headphones with bass-y sound for a budget price (and you don’t need best-in-class noise cancellation), the JBL Tune 770NC wireless headphones land firmly in the “good enough” category, and deliver strong value at the current 47% discount. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple iPad Air 11" M3 128GB WiFi Tablet (Space Gray) — $499.99 (List Price $599.00) Dell 14 Premium DA14250 (Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, 2K Display) — $999.99 (List Price $1,549.99) Sony WH-1000XM5 — $278.00 (List Price $399.99) Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Graphite) — $149.99 (List Price $219.99) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $359.99 (List Price $429.00) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article