Mediaboss Marketing

At least four basic responses from our leaders are needed, according to the polling making visible the work of career civil servants, distinguished from the political leadership; emphasizing the ways government works on behalf of all; continuing to reform government so it is most effective and efficient; and then telling those stories to break the negative cycle.

When people dont trust their government, they are more likely to opt out of voting and other types of civic participation. With less engagement, the public feels less empowered to influence government and, in turn, government hears their needs and preferences less. This creates a mistrust loop: Diminished trust in government leads to a disengaged public, resulting in inefficient, unresponsive or unaccountable institutions, and that leads to further deterioration of trust and national progress.

This dynamic can have life and death consequences. Almost half (46 percent) of the people in our poll who said they were vaccinated for the Covid-19 virus trusted the government compared with 29 percent of those who had not been vaccinated. A recent study published in the journal The Lancet found that countries with higher levels of government trust had lower infection and fatality rates during the pandemic.

Our recent polling shows that more than half of Americans do not believe the government helps people like them, and two-thirds believe the government is not transparent or does not listen to the public. These are issues that should be acknowledged by the president and dealt with by his administration in substantial ways to restore faith in our democracy.

For Biden, rebuilding public trust in government is a necessity for his presidency. Put trust and faith in our government to fulfill its most important function, which is protecting the American people no function more important, he said in a speech last year about combating the pandemic. We need to remember the government isnt some foreign force in a distant capital. No, its us. All of us.

Some of the public distrust over the years has been driven by controversial wars, policy blunders, mismanagement and political malfeasance, but a good deal is the result of a lack of information or an inability to differentiate the activities of elected political leaders from the critical services provided by federal agencies and the two million civil servants located across the country.

The publics expectations and trust are often shaped by personal experiences. People applying for financial aid for college, visiting a national park, seeking assistance after a hurricane or going through airport security may be the only lenses through which they may see our government in action.

The new polling shows that positive experiences build goodwill and trust, but even a single negative interaction can have a lasting impact on peoples faith in government and democratic institutions.

The data also tells us that the public either does not know about or overlooks significant work by our countrys civil servants the individuals who care for veterans and assist Americans in need, keep us safe, engage in cutting-edge scientific and medical research, and advance our national interest. Finding ways to communicate these stories can have a big impact on public perceptions.

There is no doubt that regaining trust is a long-term endeavor that will require across-the-board improvements not only in how government serves its people, but how it listens, communicates and effectively deals with big issues of consequence as well as everyday matters.

This is a tall order often complicated by political discord and major disruptions like the pandemic and foreign policy crises. But the bottom line is that a healthy democracy requires our government to be effective and also requires it to be worthy of trust and be trusted. Biden should make that clear in his State of the Union address and in his actions in the years ahead.

Read more from the original source:
Opinion | Why Democracy's in Such Trouble: A Crisis in Public Trust of Government - POLITICO

In 2010 I was approached on behalf of a Russian multimillionaire offering 30m. Id recently launched a philanthropic foundation to help grassroots charities cope with the aftermath of the financial crisis.

We attracted a lot of support from individuals with genuine motives, but soon we were being approached by professional philanthropy advisers a recently established money-making trade created by wealth managers and private offices. But on this occasion an adviser from a luxury concierge firm told us it had a Russian client willing to give us a huge sum to help us start up.

But there were strings attached. The client and his wife had to be invited to charity events attended by royalty, politicians, celebs and opinion formers. We would have to seek out big-brand arts and culture organisations, high-profile sports such as polo, and several named military charities, taking them on as trustees or board members. And they would have to have a say on the charities we funded, including charities in Belarus and Romania.

These demands rang alarm bells. The adviser boasted that he had helped this family to set up a charitable trust and other lucrative services that were earning his firm fat fees.

Even back then, questions were raised about the ability to move large sums of money out of Russia without permission from Vladimir Putin. There was a lot of good we could have done with such a vast sum, but it would have compromised all my principles.

The Conservative party and some of its MPs Boris Johnson and David Cameron among them have, of course, been less choosy. This is what makes it very difficult for the prime minister to talk with any credibility about making life tough for rich Russians: he has defended donations made to his party by close Putin associates. On this issue, he is only now keen to talk the talk but he still wont walk the walk: there are no timelines or details about enacting laws to clean up Londongrad, or indeed dirty money flowing in from numerous dubious sources around the world.

It is generally assumed that Russians often pump their roubles into our society because they crave social respectability. On the contrary, it has long been part of a systematic attempt to destabilise our institutions, most notably our parliament, press and democracy.

Johnson and consecutive Conservative governments have been well aware that the lack of transparency over this cash was a scandal waiting to be exposed. But they have been willing to turn a blind eye for as long as they could benefit.

The ecosystem of enablers includes wealth managers, banks, private equity houses, accountants, lawyers and the growing army of philanthropy advisers, lobbyists, and thinktanks who have been complicit in the infiltration by those close to Putin of not just our political infrastructure, but our property market, businesses, charities, public bodies, arts, culture, and sports.

I have crossed paths with many of these during my time vocally campaigning against dodgy practices in the City, and remember that many of us were shocked that in 2018, the British government allowed Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with links to companies that produce Russian military equipment, to raise an estimated 1bn on the London stock exchange.

US security services concluded that examples like this impacted on the governments ability to tackle important national security issues.

Nor should we ignore the impact of Russian money on the Brexit campaign. In a 2017 Guardian article, I wrote:

Think of Brexit as a matryoshka, or a Russian nesting doll, with voting to leave the EU as the outer doll Pulling off the outer doll reveals another doll that represents something much more worrying.

Today, the rot has been exposed, but words are not enough to restore the reputation and integrity of our institutions. What we need is a raft of robust cleaning-up laws, including more stringent checks and due diligence before new organisations can register with Companies House or the Charity Commission, greater scrutiny of trustees, and a register of funders of thinktanks. Professional services must use their expertise and insight to protect the stability and security of our country, and the wider western world they should not be facilitators of the kind of evil we are now seeing in Ukraine.

Johnsons government is at least now making some attempts to close loopholes that have for too long allowed dark money into London, making it the money laundering capital of the world. It is time for us to remember that there are some things that money must not be allowed to buy our morals and integrity.

Read more:
Dodgy Russian money has destabilised Britains democracy. We have to crack down on it - The Guardian

March 03, 2022

(Washington, DC) U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation Chair and Ranking Member led a bipartisan group, including Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) on a resolution recognizing Bosnia and Herzegovinas 30th anniversary of independence, addressing the political situation and reaffirming U.S. support for the nations pro-democratic aspirations.

I appreciate the bipartisan support for this resolution, which not only celebrates Bosnia and Herzegovinas 30 years of independence, but reaffirms U.S. support for their pro-democratic aspirations. Bolstering democracy around the world has never been as critical as it is today as we watch the Ukrainian people in the fight of their lives for freedom and democracy, said Shaheen. This resolution sends a powerful message to our partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina that the U.S. is behind them as they work to uphold unity in their nation for the sake of a brighter and more prosperous future for their citizens.

I am happy to cosponsor this bipartisan resolution reaffirming U.S. support for Bosnia and Herzegovina on the 30th anniversary of its declaration of independence, said Johnson.

Im glad to join my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in recognizing thirty years of Bosnia and Herzegovinas independence. While Putin simultaneously wages war on Ukraine and cheers on separatists in Bosnia and Herzegovina threatening 26 years of fragile peace in the Balkans the United States is committed to supporting the countrys pro-democratic and anti-corruption reforms, said Murphy.

The Bosnian people paid a terrible price in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, said Durbin. After so much bloodshed and suffering, we must not let spoilers undermine the hard fought peace the U.S. and others helped broker. I join my colleagues in introducing a bipartisan resolution to celebrate 30 years of independence and reiterate U.S support for their democracy.

I congratulate the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the 30th anniversary of their independence, said Wicker. As we have all been reminded recently, freedom and democracy are blessings that must continually be protected. The United States stands by the security, stability, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we hope their leaders will continue to work for unity and to end corruption.

Im proud to stand with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to recognize this significant milestone in Bosnia and Herzegovinas history, said Peters. For thirty years now, Bosnians have pursued a path of freedom and democracy and its essential we remain steadfast in our support of their efforts particularly given Russian aggression in Europe. In this moment, we must reaffirm our commitment to the principles of the Dayton Accords and to working alongside pro-democracy nations that seek peace and prosperity including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and other Balkan nations.

In January, Shaheen and Johnson sent a letter to the State Department urging the Department to use all available measures to resolve the political crisis in Bosnia.

Text of the resolution is available here.

Here is the original post:
Shaheen-Johnson Lead Bipartisan Resolution Recognizing Bosnia and Herzegovina's 30 Years of Independence & Support for Pro-Democratic Aspirations...

Effective marketing demands the skills to customize, humanize and repurpose content at scale using ... [+] AI.

Today, 82% of marketers actively use content marketing. Why is content king? Because it not only helps build brands and communicate both value propositions and brand values, it cultivates trust and converts interest into sales. High-quality contentand lots of itis not only good for business, its essential.

As content marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuck (Gary Vee) predicted, this decade has become a game of volume and targeting. Brands that can generate moreand more strategically targetedcontent will disproportionately pick up market share. Instead of trying to reach 10,000 people on one channel with one piece of content, Vaynerchuck recommends that marketers create 10 different pieces of content for 10 channels, each focused on reaching a specific group of 1,000 people in a way that will actually interest and engage them. The result is both more, and more effective, content.

Brands now need to create content frameworks that differentiate by platform and hone messages according to ideas that may already be resonating for target audiences on those channels. Social media video platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram, compliance with the ADA, voice-search optimization and personalized content experiences are surfacing as key trends.

Happily, marketers can compete in this race for quality and quantity of content without a team of creators and an unlimited budget. The trick is to focus on creating better content and effectively repurposing it.

Optimize SEO and extend reach to new customers on a variety of platforms. Evergreen content can be expanded, updated with new data, upgraded with visuals, and translated into infographics, videos, animation, or e-book offers. Invite audiences to share their own experiences. These are not only SEO wins, they create better engagement.

The bad news is that good writing is scarce. In fact, companies waste $400 billion on bad writing each year in the U.S. alone, from ineffective social marketing and sales copy to poorly written internal communications. As a result, remedial writing training is costing over $3 billion a year.

The good news? Following a few simple rules can quickly improve the quality of written content and A.I. can handle most of the rest, from creating custom feed algorithms, predictive analytics and researching trends to effectively customizing and repurposing content.

In this episode of The Groove podcast, Kate Bradley Chernis, CEO and co-founder of Lately, shares the rules she has followed to nearly double sales conversions in her own company and to build Lately, a technology that uses A.I. to learn brand voices and turn long-form content like blogs, videos, and podcasts into dozens and even hundreds of pre-tested social posts.

A former marketing agency owner, Chernis tells me that the idea for Lately was born out of the strategic thinking (and smart approach to repurposing) that allowed her to produce an avalanche of content and achieve a 130% increase in ROI for the retailers content marketing program, year-over-year for three years.

Other inspiration for founding Lately came from Chernis experience as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. There she learned about the neuroscience of music and how the brain compares new songs to its own playlist. The brain searches for familiar touchpoints it can find in order to index that new song in the library of your brain, and its the same in writing, she explains. It's your job as the author to give your audience the familiar touchpoints that trigger nostalgia, memory, and trust.

Chernis insights into what drives emotional connection, combined with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise, has helped make Lately a game-changer. Gary Vee needs no convincing. He has created an entire Twitter channel fueled 100% by Lately thats yielded a stunning 12,000 % increased engagement.

The starting point for all the content Lately generates is Katelys Writing Rules, which Chernis followed to grow her monthly recurring revenue by 240% in 12 months with no paid ads, and no cold calls or emails. As she explains, through these rules, Lately learns from me first, and then it learns from my brand, our 98% conversion, and then it learns from you and all of our other customers, and your best practices.

First, write like a boss. Avoid using weak words like I think or I feel, or minimizing the impact and authority of messages as just a note, or checking in so as not to impose. What I found, especially in venture capital meetings, is that, the moment I say I think something, I totally kill my authority, because I should know it, she says.

Avoid inviting your audience to check out a site or podcast in favor of a more purposeful CTA. Give the reader a specific reason to read more, watch, listen, or respond.

Read what you write out loud; if it feels awkward saying it, it feels awkward reading itand its a great way to catch mistakes.

Do unto others by always having compassion for your audience. Like us, they are busy, stressed humans; they dont enjoy getting cold emails or reading material that is not useful and to the point.

Listen to the other six of Katelys Writing Rules on the podcast, where we also explore how she puts her experience as a DJ to work by applying the neuroscience of music, and how, by delighting clients who then spread the word, a great product like Lately can serve as its own new marketing.

More here:
Produce More Powerful Content With These 10 Rules And The Power Of AI - Forbes

What are the most popular websites, and how can overall usage trends help inform digital marketing strategies?

Its interesting to consider broader web consumption habits, and the team from SEMRush recently put a listing together on exactly this, showing the most visited websites in December 2021 for US users.

In general, there are no major surprises Google, YouTube, Facebook and Amazon lead the way (though interesting to note desktop versus mobile traffic share), while Wikipedia, Walmart, Instagram and ESPN were also up there.

But take a look at Reddit, which was ahead of most other social platforms in terms of traffic.

An important clarification here is that this is web traffic, not app use - which is why TikTok, for example, is lower than Pinterest. But its interesting to note how people are coming across content via web browsers, and how theyre searching for and accessing information across each site.

That could help you map out a more effective strategy to target these users. Knowing that 85% of YouTube.com traffic comes via desktop, for example, seems like a strong indicator of how users are coming to YouTube videos via Google search, which could help you plan your YouTube ads to align with this experience.

Reddits the same, with a lot of visitors accessing the platform on desktop, as well as Pinterest, which would suggest that theres a lot of desktop search activity for related products leading people to the app.

It requires more specific tailoring of your approach, but it could be another consideration, and its interesting to see how people are connecting to these sites via the web.

You can read the full December web traffic report from SEMRush here.

Read the original post:
A Look at the Most Visited Websites in the US - Social Media Today