Thursday, November 28, 2019

How to Advertise on Facebook

How to Advertise on FacebookHow to Advertise on FacebookIf you want to advertise your business on Facebook, there are a few things you need to figure out, including what your objective for advertising on the website is, what your budget will be, and which format of advertising you want to use. The very first thing you must do, however, if you havent already done so, is create a Facebook page for your business. Provide lots of helpful information in your About section, and add photos and videos to make visual connections with customers. Post frequently to your nachrichten Feed to share new developments and entice customers to return to your business. You can also add a button that enables people to shop, contact you, or a number of other options. Ad Objective The first step in creating and placing your ad is to determine your primary goal in advertising on Facebook. There are 11 objectives to choose from. Brand awareness Increase awareness of your brand by targeting people who are more likely to be interested in it. Reach Get your ad in front of as many people as possible. Traffic Send potential customers to a destination on or off Facebook, such as a website or app. Engagement Maximize engagement with a post or page, including comments, shares, likes, event responses, and offer claims. App installs Make it easy for customers to download your app. Video views Maximize promotion of your businesss videos. Lead generation Collect information from people who are interested in your business and could become customers. Messages Get more people to contact your business using Messenger or WhatsApp. Conversions Maximize the number of people taking actions that are valuable to your business, including adding payment information or making a purchase. Catalog sale Show items available for sale that are selected based on your target audience. Store traffic Increase the number of customers going to your physical store location by showing targeted ads to people who are nea rby. The remainder of the steps in creating this ad will be based on having chosen Conversions as the objective. The steps you go through will differ somewhat depending on your objective. Ad Account You next have to platzset up your ad account, which isnt terribly complicated. You must select a country, currency, time zone, and, if you like, an ad account name. Only the name can be easily changed later if you want to change the other information, you will have to create a new account. Ad Set The next step, Ad Set, involves further defining what you want your ad to do and how. You will also establish the budget and schedule for your ad. Conversion You can choose to send traffic to your website, app, app event, or Messenger or WhatsApp account. If you choose the app event option, you will have to create an event. For the other options, you will have to use or create a Facebook Pixel for measuring and optimizing the effectiveness of your ads. Dynamic Creative Upload creative as sets, such as images and headlines, and automatically generate combinations of them for use in ads. Offer You can create a special offer for your business and send people reminders about it. Audience Target people in a certain location and in a selected age range. You can choose to target only men, only women, or both as well as those who speak particular languages. You can select for people by demographics, interests, and behaviors and include or exclude those who have an existing connection to you. Placements Choose whether to have Facebook place ads automatically or to manually determine placement yourself. Budget Schedule Set a daily or lifetime budget and an end date for advertising, if you would like. Ad Creation Now its time to create the ad. First, choose your businesss Facebook page to represent your business in the ad. Ad Format Next, youll choose an ad format. Facebook offers eight advertising formats. You might want to start out simpler and go for more-dynamic and m ore-expensive options once youve been advertising a while. Not all formats may be selectable depending on the objective you chose. Photo ad This kind of ad is simply a photo with a small space for a headline, a caption, and a link to your website. Video ad This is another simple type of ad that utilizes a video instead of a still photo. Stories ad This kind of ad is incorporated into- and uses the format of- Facebook Stories, as opposed to users News Feeds. Messenger ad This ad is placed in users Facebook Messenger inbox. Carousel ad This kind of ad lets you use as many as 10 photos or videos to get your message across. You can highlight several different products or services or different benefits of a single product or service. Slideshow ad An ad of this type features a video-like presentation made up of still photos and sound. It uses far less data than a video ad so it works better for people with slower internet connections and older smartphones. Collection ad Available only for mobile devices, a collection ad lets you highlight different offerings that can be purchased using Instant Experience (formerly Canvas) without leaving the Facebook app. An ad in Instant Experience loads instantly and fills the entire screen. You can choose to include an Instant Experience in other types of ads as well. Playable ad The purpose of this format is to enable game developers to let potential customers try the game before purchasing. Media, Text, Links, and Buttons Add media elements, write the ad copy, add links, and maybe create a call-to-action button, such as Learn More, Send Message, or Shop Now. Because this example ads objective was conversions, you would also set up your options for tracking conversions Facebook Pixel, App Events, and/or Offline Events. Preview and Placements Preview your ad to make sure it looks the way youd like. Then select among placement options including Mobile News Feed, Desktop News Feed, Facebook Messenger, In-Stream Video, and Stories. Review and Confirm The final steps in ad creation are to review and then confirm all the details of your ad buy. Ad Performance Once you have begun advertising on Facebook, you should gauge the ads performance in Ads Manager. Track how many conversions you are getting and decide whether they are worth the cost per action (CPA) you spent on them. If you dont like how the ad performed, create a new one or, better yet, several new ones. Because now that you have successfully created one ad, a good next-step strategy is to create several ads for a particular objective, divide your Facebook budget among them, and binnensee which one is the most effective. You can then drop the other ads and use only the best-performing, tried-and-tested version.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Battling the Blaze

Battling the Blaze Battling the Blaze Battling the BlazeFire seemingly comes from all sides in a smoky building. A figure moves forward, hose at the ready. But there isnt a human in sight.Firefighters have long been some of the most heroic members of society, but what if they didnt have to find themselves in quite as many perilous situations? A robot firefighter just might one day be able to step in and save lives. For now, the technology is being tested at sea.Trying for Ship ShapeAround 2010 we had talked with the Navy about trying to help them with dealing with the hazard of fires on ships, says Brian Lattimer, a professor in the department of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech and a member of the team. We came up with the concept of a humanoid robot onboard because they might not just help with fires but could also maybe be used for watch or assisting sailors with inspection.He says the Navy welches excited but the idea of a humanoid then welches a high-risk, high-reward pro position. There werent that many humanoids around that could do these types of actions, but, with a potential payoff in ten to twenty years, they decided it was a good investment, he says.The team began by rethinking how to make the robot, especially considering the problems in moving around on a ship. There are many things they can run into in this kind of confined space and we needed a strategy for the robot that would allow it to balance on its own, he says. We developed a whole body controller for balance and to respond to external disturbance.THOR-OP reaching for a fire nozzle. Image Virginia TechSeeing Through SmokeThe body controller was a combination of redesigning actuators used on robots and software used for locomotion, he says. It isnt rigid like some other robots you might see. The actuators have springs, allowing it to more easily control its balance. The whole body controller compensates for any sto from the fire hose.They also wanted a robot to be able to keep its ra nge-finding and perception during a fire event. When you put water into fire you have to see through steam and smoke, he says. It was desirable to have a robot autonomously locate fires and put them out with water. They looked at range finders on the market and put them in different levels of fire and smoke to see how they behaved. Ultimately, LIDAR was chosen.Testing it on the former USS Shadwell, the robot walked into a compartment containing fire and worked with a firefighter to grab a hand line. The situation was suppressed successfully.Potentially, this could have humanoid robots go into spaces to size up fires before having to put firefighters there, he says. They could also be used for other platforms ground vehicles or possibly aerial vehicles to assist in a wildland fire even.At present, they have developed two humanoid robots, both 5 foot 10 and weighing 145 lbs and 165 lbs, respectively.Eric Butterman is an independent writer. For Further Discussion When you put water int o fire you have to see through steam and smoke. It was desirable to have a robot autonomously locate fires and put them out with water.Prof. Brian Lattimer, Virginia Tech University

Thursday, November 21, 2019

5 Questions You Shouldn#8217;t Be Afraid to Ask Your Boss

5 Questions You Shouldn8217t Be Afraid to Ask Your Boss 5 Questions You Shouldn8217t Be Afraid to Ask Your Boss On the one hand, if you simply accept the status quo without questioning anything, you might skate past everyones notice.Your contributions, concerns, desires, and ambitions could go unrecognized, especially in the corporate environments that often reward demanding, assertive behavior.You need to be at least a little demanding if you want to get ahead but not too demanding, or you may come across as a high-maintenance and self-important.To strike the perfect balance between self-centerednessand passivity in the workplace, you need to know how and when to ask the right kinds of questions. Here are five such questions that a career-minded individual should never be afraid to ask their boss just dont be too aggressiveabout them1. Can I Havea Raise?You shouldntfear this question, but you should be judicious about when you ask it. You want to make sure the timing is right, fo r maximum positive effect.If you have any of the following information on hand when you ask this question, youll be umgebung yourself up for success and you wont come across as demanding or unrealisticExamples of additional responsibility youve taken on since your last raise.Evidence that you are outperforming your peers or going above and beyond the call of duty regularly.Evidence that your peers who you are performing comparably areearning more than you are.A higher salary offer from a prospective employer.This information wont guarantee you araise, but it will ensure that you appear justified in your approach. Management wont think youre totally off-base, and thats a good thing.2. Can I Have More Responsibility?You might worry that, if you ask this question, youll be given additional work that is either overwhelming or beyond your capabilities. If thats the case, just remember thatyou are the one making the advance. As a result, you have the chance to propose additional duties t hat you feel comfortable with.If your manager does offer duties outside of your comfort zone, consider askingfor additional support in terms of training and or development before taking the responsibilities on.Now, why, exactly, should you ask for more responsibility?Because doing so will show your boss that youre a team player. Demonstrate your commitment to the company, and you may earn yourself a promotion and/or a pay raise in no time.3. Can I Have Some Help?You may be the schriftart tosoldier on without help even when you feel overwhelmed, but that can be a foolish decision. If you dont ask for help and then fail to meet your targets, do you think your boss will accept I didnt want to wound my pride as an excuse?If you feel overwhelmed by your workload, take a cold, hard look at whats on your plate.Determine what sort of additional resources you may need in order to meet your targets, and then make a quantified request for help from your boss. That way, youll be bringing your b oss the solution, and not the problem and thats always the best way to get the help you need.4.What Are My Goals?Many companies are so busy fighting fires that important things like goal assignment can goneglected. Dont suffer in silence, working aimlessly without any clear goals or objectives.Doing so will only result in more pain for you and your manager down the line.It is your managers basic duty to assign you clear goals. If you dont have them, how can you be expected to meet or exceed performance expectations?If you dont have goals, ask your manager. If the goals still fail to surface, prepare your own tischset of goals and propose them to your manager.5. Can I Have Tool X to Work More Efficiently?In resource-starved, cash-strapped environments, it can seem futile or even greedy to ask for better tools to increase your efficiency. However,you should never fear asking for performance-boosting resources as long as youdo it the right way, of course.Show your boss your current pr oductivity rate, and then forecast your future productivity rate with the new tool. As long as you can demonstrate a significant ROI to your boss,you should never be afraid to ask for more resources, no matter what the environment is like.-For somepeople, asking for thingscomes quite easily for others, its a major challenge. If you want to get ahead in your career, though, you need to be ready to push for what you need whenit comes down to it. Be prepared to ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right time, and youll set yourself up for career success.