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8 Things You Should Never Say on Slack (Or Any Other Work Chat)

Many companies these days use Slack or another work chat application to communicate more efficiently and spend less time writing emails. Whether you currently work for a company that uses Slack in place of email, or are about to start a new job and are not sure what the company’s communication tools are, it’s always a good rule of thumb to be cautious about how you behave in front of co-workers both in person and in a digital chat room.

Though most people are used to the fast ways we communicate through texting and chats, learning what’s appropriate and inappropriate behavior in a digital workspace can be tricky to navigate.

Before you become known as the co-worker who drives everyone crazy on Slack, consider avoiding these 8 words or sayings.

8 Things You Should Never Say on Slack

1. “Bro” or “Dude”

Chatting with you co-workers on a work chat can seem harmless, but you are a professional now and, regardless of how laid-back your work office is, you should always address your co-workers by their first names. Referring to someone as “bro” or “dude” gives off major college vibes, and even if you are fresh out of college, you don’t want your co-workers to continually think of you as the unpolished graduate.

2. “That’s not my job.”

If a boss, manager, or co-worker asks you to do something on your work chat and it’s not something you typically do for them, you should either politely decline, or if you have the time to spare, help them out. It’s never a good idea to respond by saying it’s “not your job” to do something, especially on a work chat where tone can be hard to interpret.

3. “Like” and “Literally”

Most people struggle to avoid using these words when speaking and what’s worse than hearing someone say these words at the beginning and end of all their sentences? Reading it on a work chat or in an email. Avoid these filler words.

4. “I’m bored.”

The history of your chat can always come back to haunt you and the last thing you’d want to have your manager see is your chats about how boring your job is, or how not busy you are at work. Beware of leaving a digital trail of your disinterest in your job.

5. “I’m feeling …”

Using Slack to have a significant conversation is not the best course of action. Work chats should be used for action items and professional discussions, any emotional conversations you need to have with a manager or co-worker should happen in person.

6. “Maybe we can …”

Using tentative language has no place in a work chat. Lean in. The point of using Slack is to get answers quickly, so don’t leave the door open for a lot of back and forth. Instead, be assertive in what you’re asking or answering. Give a firm yes if you can do it, or a no if you can’t. Don’t waste time; Slack and other communication apps are supposed to make collaborating easier!

7. “No worries.”

Again, tone can often be hard to read in an e-mail and saying, “no worries” can be read as passive aggressive, or too short and laid-back. Instead of writing something of as “no worries,” be more direct and only apologize if you truly are sorry for something.

8. Cursing

In general, you should avoid cursing at the office. The last thing you want is to be known as the co-worker who is always dropping the f-bomb. Even if you don’t curse out loud in the office, it might be viewed as disrespectful by some co-workers, especially anyone who works above you. Moreover, cursing sets the tone for the chat and if you’re always cursing, you’re creating the volatile tone in the chat.

8 Voice-to-Text Software That'll Help You Work Faster

In marketing, efficiency is crucial for success. The faster you produce results, the longer you can focus on refining your overarching strategy and capturing more of your audience’s attention than your competitors can.

But the physical act of typing out personal notes, your own ideas, and other documents is much slower than your brain’s actual processing speed. The fact that you type slower than you can think means you’re probably wasting a good chunk of time on something that could be automated.

Fortunately, though, there’s technology that lets you type without your hands. It’s called voice-to-text software, and it lets you use your voice to create documents faster than typing, expedite your workflow, and improve your efficiency. But before we delve into the best voice-to-text or dictation software for content creation and productivity, let’s go over what it exactly is.

What is voice-to-text software?

Voice-to-text software is speech recognition technology that turns spoken words into written words. It can also identify and understand human speech to carry out a person’s commands on a computer.

Now that you know what exactly voice-to-text or dictation software is, here are some of the best available today.

The 8 Best Dictation Software to Help You Work Faster

1. Google Docs Voice Typing

Most writers rely on Google Docs everyday, so if you need a free yet powerful dictation tool, consider using Google’s Voice Typing tool. Not only does it let you type with your voice on Google Docs, but you can also leverage over 100 voice commands to edit and format your document in almost every way possible, like making bullet points, italicizing or bolding text, and moving your cursor to different parts of your document.

To use Voice Typing on Google Docs, all you have to do is click on “Tools”, “Voice Typing”, and let Google access your laptop’s microphone.

Available On: The Internet

Price: Free

2. Dragon Professional Individual

As the most popular dictation software in its space, Dragon Professional Individual allows you to do the majority of your job without even touching a keyboard.

By leveraging its Deep Learning technology that adapts to your specific voice, jargon, and work environment, you can create and edit documents with 99% accuracy, quickly and accurately transcribe recordings into text, and use voice commands to control your computer's actions on programs and web browsers, like sending an email or creating a report.

Dragon also integrates with Microsoft Office, iWork, and other popular business applications, so you can do hands-free work without leaving your favorite programs.

Available On: Mac and Windows

Price: $300

3. Braina Pro

Braina Pro is more than speech recognition software -- it’s a personal virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence. Other than its ability to dictate over 100 languages, Braina Pro can automate various computer tasks, set alarms and reminders, give you updates on current events, serve as dictionary and thesaurus, play songs and videos, read eBooks out loud, search files on folders on your computer, and more.

Braina Pro also supports most laptops’ built in microphones and has a mobile app, so you can work headset free and away from your computer.

Available On: Windows

Price: $239

4. Speechnotes

Built on Google’s speech-recognition engines, Speechnotes is a simple, clean, online dictation tool that helps users transcribe their speech into text with over 90% accuracy. And since you don’t have to download, install, or register for Speechnotes, it’s one of the most accessible dictation tools out there.

Speechnotes is incredibly user-friendly too -- it automatically capitalizes the beginning of your sentences, autosave your documents, and allows you to dictate and type at the same time. When you’re finished dictating on Speechnotes, you can email or print your documents, export them to Google Drive, or download them onto your computer.

Available On: Google Chrome

Price: Free

5. e-Speaking

Picture Credit: e-Speaking

Using Microsoft’s Speech Application Program Interface and .Net Framework, e-Speaking lets you use your voice to control your computer's actions, dictate documents and emails, and make your computer read text out loud. The software has over 100 built-in commands, like “open internet” or “open excel”. You can also train words and add more commands on e-Speaking to take even more control of your computer.

Available On: Windows

Price: $14

6. Voice Finger

Picture Credit: Business.com

Engineered for people with disabilities or injuries and competitive video game players, Voice Finger is one of the fastest ways to control your mouse and keyboard without your hands. Using just your voice, you can click the left, middle, or right buttons on your mouse, drag and drop items on your computer, and repeatedly click items. You can also use commands to type, hold, and hit keys on your keyboard.

Available On: Windows

Price: $9.99

7. Apple Dictation

Picture Credit: Apple

All Apple devices have a built-in dictation software that uses Siri’s servers to dictate up to 30 seconds of speech at a time, if you’re connected to the internet. Dictate is ideal for quickly getting your thoughts down on paper, but if you want to create longer form content with just your voice and you’ve updated your Mac’s operating system to OS X 10.9 or later, Enhanced Dictation is the better option.

This voice-to-text tool can help you dictate without any internet connection or time constraints on Apple Pages. And with over 70 voice commands, you can control your Mac’s actions, allowing you to type, edit, and format almost any type of document.

To enable Enhanced Dictation on your Mac, click on the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation. Then, turn Dictation on and choose the Enhanced Dictation option.

Available On: Mac

Price: Free

8. Windows Speech Recognition

Picture Credit: Windows

Just like Apple, Windows also has a built-in dictation software. But the main advantage Windows Speech Recognition has over Apple Dictation is that it lets you dictate and control text on any browser, program, or web application.

You can also activate Microsoft’s personal assistant, Cortana, if you have a Windows 10, to streamline your day by setting reminders, managing your calendar and email, playing music, and finding quick answers to any pressing or random questions you might have.

To set up Speech Recognition on your Windows computer, click on Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access > Windows Speech Recognition. Then, click on the Speech Recognition option.

Available On: Windows

Price: Free

How to Develop a Content Strategy: A Start-to-Finish Guide

Whether you're just starting out with content marketing or you've been using the same approach for a while, it never hurts to revisit your content strategy plan -- to make sure it's up-to-date, innovative, and strong.

After all, you've got more competition than ever. According to the Content Marketing Institute, the most successful B2B marketers report spending 40% of their budget on content marketing as of 2018 -- up 1% from 2017.

The first step to getting a leg up on the competition is to have a solid, smart content marketing plan in place. If you're having trouble planning for the upcoming year or need some fresh ideas to include in your plan, read on.

In this post, we'll dive into:

• What content strategy is.
• Why your business needs a content marketing plan.
• The exact steps you will need to take to create your strategy, including:
  • How your content can generate leads.
  • How (and what) to publish on social media.

What Is Content Strategy?

Content strategy refers to the management of pretty much any tangible media that you create and own: written, visual, downloadable ... you name it. It is the piece of your marketing plan that continuously demonstrates who you are and the expertise you bring to your industry.

You might've heard how important content creation is to the growth of your business, but as you'll see throughout this post, it needs to have a well-planned purpose. When you develop a content strategy, there are some key things to consider:

Whom You're Creating Content For

Who's the target audience for this content? For how many audiences are you creating content? Just as your business might have more than one type of customer, your content strategy can cater to more than one type of reader or viewer. Using different content types and channels will help you deliver value to everyone your company does business with.

The Problem it's Going to Solve for that Audience

Ideally, your product or service solves a problem you know your audience has. By the same token, your content coaches and educates your audience through this problem as they begin to identify and address it.

A sound content strategy supports people on both sides of your product: those who are still figuring out what their main challenges are, and those who are already using your product to overcome these challenges. Your content reinforces the solution(s) you're offering and makes your customers more qualified users of your product.

What Makes You Unique

Your competitors likely have a similar product as yours, which means your potential customers need to know what makes yours better -- or, at least, different. This is where content comes in. In order to prove why you're worth buying from, you need to prove why you're worth listening to.

The Content Formats You'll Focus On

What forms will your content take? Infographics? Videos? Blog posts? Having identified the topics you want to take a position on, you'll need to determine which formats are best for expressing that position.

The Channels Where It'll Be Published

Just as you can create content in different formats, you'll also have different channels you can publish to. Channels can include owned properties, such as your website and blog; and social media properties, such as Facebook and Twitter. We'll talk more about social media content strategy in the step-by-step guide later in this article.

How You'll Manage Creation and Publication

Figuring out how you'll create and publish all your content can be a daunting task. It's important for a content strategy to know who's creating what, where it's being published, and when it's going live.

Today's content strategies prevent clutter by managing content from a topic standpoint. When planning a content calendar around topics, you can easily visualize your company's message and assert yourself as an authority in your market over time. Learn more about topics in content strategy in the video below.

Why Do Marketers Need to Create a Content Marketing Strategy?

Content marketing helps businesses prepare and plan for reliable and cost-effective sources of website traffic and new leads. Think about it -- if you can create just one blog post that gets a steady amount of organic traffic, an embedded link to an ebook or free tool will continue generating leads for you as time goes on.

HubSpot's Sales Blog Team found this to be key to their strategy to increasing traffic to the blog over time. Read about their blog strategy here.

The reliable source of traffic and leads from your evergreen content will give you the flexibility to experiment with other marketing tactics to generate revenue, such as sponsored content, social media advertising, and distributed content. Plus, your content will not only help attract leads -- it will also help educate your target prospects and generate awareness for your brand.

Now, let's dive in to learn the specifics of how to create a content marketing plan.

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy

1. Define your goal.

What's your aim for developing a content marketing plan? Why do you want to produce content and create a content marketing plan? Know your goals before you begin planning, and you'll have an easier time determining what's best for your strategy. (Want help figuring out the right goals? Download this goal planning template.)

2. Conduct persona research.

To develop a successful plan, you need to clearly define your content's target audience -- also known as your buyer persona.

This is especially important for those who are starting out or are new to marketing. By knowing your target audience, you can produce more relevant and valuable content that they'll want to read and convert on.

If you're an experienced marketer, your target may have changed. Do you want to target a new group of people or expand your current target market? Do you want to keep the same target audience? Revisiting your audience parameters by conducting market research each year is crucial to growing your audience.

3. Run a content audit.

Most people start out with blog posts, but if you want to venture out and try producing other content pieces, consider which ones you want to make. For instance, if you've been doing weekly blog posts for the past year, creating an ebook that distills all your blog posts into one ultimate guide would be a one way to offer information in a different format. We'll go over several different types of content you can use further down on the list.

If you've been in business for a while, review your content marketing efforts and the results from it in the last year. Figure out what you can do differently in the upcoming year and set new goals to reach. (Pro tip: Now is a great time to align your team's goals with the rest of your organization's goals.)

4. Choose a content management system.

Have a system in place where you can manage your content. A few vital parts of content management include content creation, content publication, and content analytics.

If you're a HubSpot customer, you can plan, produce, publish, and measure your results all in one place using HubSpot software. Other content management system options include CoSchedule and WordPress (although we can't speak to the full range of capabilities of these sites).

5. Brainstorm content ideas.

Now, it's time to start coming up with ideas for your next content project. Here are some tools to get the wheels turning:

HubSpot's Website Grader

HubSpot's Website Grader is a great tool to use when you want to see where you're at with your marketing. From your blogging efforts to your social media marketing, Website Grader grades vital areas of your marketing and sends you a detailed report to help you optimize and improve each area.

With this tool, you can figure out how to make your website more SEO-friendly and discover new content ideas.

BlogAbout

Get your mind gears going with IMPACT's unique content idea generator, BlogAbout. This tool works a bit like Mad Libs, but instead of joke sentences, it shows you common headline formats with blanks where you can fill in the subject you have in mind.

This brainstorming technique helps you put general ideas in contexts that would be appealing to your target audience. Once you have a headline you like, BlogAbout lets you add it to your "Notebook" so you can save your best ideas.

HubSpot's Blog Ideas Generator

Get blog post ideas for an entire year with HubSpot's Blog Ideas Generator. All you need to do is enter general topics or terms you'd like to write about, and this content idea generator does all the work for you.

Feedly

This popular RSS feed is a wonderful way to keep track of trendy topics in your industry and find content ideas at the same time.

BuzzSumo

Discover popular content and content ideas at BuzzSumo. This company offers a number of market research tools, one of which uses social media shares to determine if a piece of content is popular and well-liked. In turn, this information helps you see which content ideas would do well if you were to create content about them.

Blog Post Headline Analyzer

CoSchedule's tool analyzes headlines and titles and provides feedback on length, word choice, grammar, and keyword search volume. If you have an idea in mind, run a few title options through the Headline Analyzer to see how you could make it stronger, and to move your idea further along in the brainstorming process.

6. Determine which types of content you want to create.

There are a variety of options out there for content you can create. Here are some of the most popular content formats marketers are creating, and tools and templates to get you started.

Types of Content Marketing

1. Blog Posts
2. Ebooks
3. Case Studies
4. Templates
5. Infographics
6. Videos
7. Podcasts
8. Social Media

Blog posts

If you haven't already noticed, you're currently perusing a blog post. Blog posts live on a website and should be published regularly in order to attract new visitors. Posts should provide valuable content for your audience that makes them inclined to share posts on social media and across other websites. We recommend that blog posts be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, but experiment to see if your audience prefers longer or shorter reads.

Check out our free blog post templates for writing great how-to, listicle, curation, SlideShare presentation, and newsjacking posts on your own blog.

Ebooks

Ebooks are lead-generation tools that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. They're typically longer, more in-depth, and published less frequently than blog posts, which are written to attract visitors to a website.

Ebooks are the next step in the inbound marketing process: After reading a blog post (such as this one), visitors might want more information. This is where calls-to-action (CTAs) come into play, directing people to a landing page where they can submit their contact information and download an ebook to learn more valuable information for their business. In turn, the business producing the ebook has a new lead for the sales team to contact.

Case Studies

Case studies, also known as testimonials, are your opportunity to tell the story of a customer who succeeded in solving a problem by working with you. A case study is perhaps your most versatile type of content marketing because it can take many different forms -- some of which are on this list. That's right, case studies can take the form of a blog post, ebook, podcast ... even an infographic.

Your goal in a case study is to show the people who are considering your product that the proof is in the pudding. Before choosing a customer for a case study, you should determine which form the testimonial will take and the area of your business to which you're trying to drive value.

Templates

Templates are a handy content format to try because they generate leads for you while providing tremendous value to your audience. When you provide your audience with template tools to save them time and help them succeed, they're more likely to keep engaging with your content in the future.

Infographics

Infographics can organize and visualize data in a more compelling way than words alone. These are great content formats to use if you're trying to share a lot of data in a way that is clear and easy to understand.

If you're ready to get started, get our templates for creating beautiful infographics in less than an hour.

Videos

Videos are a highly engaging content medium that are shareable across social media platforms and websites alike. Videos require a bigger investment of time and resources than written content, but as visual marketing increases in popularity -- after all, it's 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content -- it's a medium worth experimenting with.

HubSpot Research recently found that video is the most preferred form of content. Video also captures people's attention more than any other content format.

Podcasts

Starting a podcast will help audiences find your brand if they don't have time or interest in reading content every day. The number of podcast listeners is growing -- in 2018, nearly one-third of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast in the last month. If you have interesting people to interview or conversations to host, consider podcasting as another content format to experiment with.

Here's our comprehensive guide to starting a podcast.

Social Media

Once you've been regularly publishing content on your own site for a while, it might be time to start thinking about distributing your content on other sites. This could mean repurposing content into new formats and publishing them on your blog, creating original content specifically for external sites -- such as Medium -- or publishing website content on various social networks.

Considering Medium? Check out our insights from our first year of publishing original content on ThinkGrowth.org.

Posting on social media, however, is pivotal to amplifying your brand's reach and delivering your content to your customers where you know they spend their time. Social networks on which businesses often post include:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Snapchat
• YouTube (yep, this is technically a social network)

When launching a business account on any of the social networks above, it's important to post the type of content your followers expect to see. On Instagram, for example, users want photos, videos, and graphics that reflect current events, show off user-generated content, or even go behind the scenes of your organization.

On Facebook, your options for what to post open up a bit: Not only can you share your blog posts and website content, but you can also post native Facebook videos, product promotions, and original memes that resonate with your customers. You can also interact with other businesses that have a similar audience as your own.

While the goal on social media sites like Instagram or Snapchat is to connect more intimately with your audience, your goal on platforms like Facebook and Twitter is to expand that audience, drive traffic toward your website, and start conversations in your industry. Do some basic market research to discover which platforms your buyers are on, and mold your content to their expectations.

When you're ready for more ideas, there are a plethora of different content types to diversify your website. Check them out below:

7. Publish and manage your content.

Your marketing plan should go beyond the types of content you'll create -- it should also cover you'll organize your content. With the help of an editorial calendar, you'll be on the right track for publishing a well-balanced and diverse content library on your website. Then, create a social media content calendar so you can promote and manage your content on other sites.

Many of the ideas you think of will be evergreen -- they're just as relevant months from now as they are today. That being said, you shouldn't ignore timely topics either. While they may not be the bulk of your editorial calendar, they can help you generate spikes of traffic.

Most people count on incorporating popular holidays such as New Year's and Thanksgiving in their marketing efforts, but you don't have to limit yourself to these important marketing dates. If there are niche holidays that might appeal to your audience, it could be worth publishing content on your blog or on social media. HubSpot's Service Blog Editor Sophia Bernazzani compiled this ultimate list of social media holidays -- keep an eye on it when you're planning your calendar.

We know this is a lot of information, but the work has just begun. It takes time, organization, and creativity to grow a successful content marketing strategy. From building the foundation of your content marketing plan to adding tools to better manage your content, setting up your strategy for the new year won't be a hassle if you follow the steps and explore the resources here.

For additional guidance, use HubSpot's Marketing Plan Generator to create a 12-month strategy in just a few minutes.

Happy creating.

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 3, 2018

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

September 2018 Google Webmaster Report

Here is our monthly Google Webmaster report with the big ticket item being the Google Medic Update coverage, with some other updates this past month as well. Google launched a link report in the new Google Search Console, updated some reporting and launched some new search features.

Google Tests "Relevant History" In Search Results

Google is testing showing searchers a section in search called "relevant history." It seems to show your past searchers that are relevant to the search you just triggered right now. This feature brings awareness to Google storing your search history.