Mediaboss Marketing

What's This? Associations Now Brand Connection provides opportunities for advertisers to connect with the Associations Now audience. All content is paid for by the advertiser. The Associations Now editorial staff is not involved in creating this content.

if youre in the midst of a website refresh, dont forget to put web accessibility on your list of priorities, writes DelCors Tom Jelen. Making your website accessible means designing it in a way that makes it usable for all people, whatever their hardware, software, language, location, or ability.

Not only is accessibility strategically important, but its also the right thing to do, Jelen argues. According to the World Bank, 15 percent of the worlds population, or 1 billion people, have some form of disability, making them more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic outcomes.

Your association can help lessen those adverse outcomes by ensuring that everyone can access your associations digital experience, Jelen says.

Striving for better web accessibility will also improve your contents performance, since good SEO practices go hand in hand with accessibility.

In the same way that persons with disabilities may require alternative text descriptions of images, easy-to-follow headings, and clear link titles, search engine spiders (the computer programs that index the web) need that information, too, Jelen says.

Beyond strategy, web accessibility may even be a legal requirement for your organization.

There is a growing legal consensus that if the Title III requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) apply to your association, you may be required to make your website accessible, Jelen says.

When it comes to advertising your products or services, word-of-mouth is extremely beneficial. According to Nielsens Global Trust in Advertising report from 2015, 83 percent of consumers completely or somewhat trust recommendations from people they know, and 66 percent said the same for reviews posted online.

We are simply more likely to trust someone we knowor even a stranger, so long as they dont work for whoever would benefit from our business, writes Chelsea Brasted of Association Success.

How can organizations take advantage? Generate word-of-mouth buzz with a well-placed member testimonial that showcases the impact of your organization. In the same vein, keep an eye out for positive reviews online. When you see one, help spread the word.

Pick out the real gems, have a conversation with the member who shared it, thank them, and then ask if you can publicize their experience more broadly, Brasted says.

Nonprofits doing advocacy for controversial issues may face online harassment. There are several ways to deal with it, writes Hannah Brennan in Beths Blog.

Have an emergency remote work plan? Work strategist Cali Williams Yost breaks down the steps to put one together in the Harvard Business Review.

Does diversity and inclusion training work? A recent post in the HR People + Strategy Blog explores its benefits and potential shortcomings.

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

View post:
Daily Buzz: The Importance of Web Accessibility - Associations Now

Friday, February 28, 2020 | 11:01 PM

Courtesy Fox Chapel Area High School

The Fox Chapel Area High School Madrigal Singers will perform a free concert with the Susquehanna University Choir and Chamber Singers on March 11. The concert will be at 7 p.m. at Faith United Methodist Church and is part of the Susquehanna University Choirs annual spring break tour. Admission is free and the concert is open to all. The church is at 261 West Chapel Ridge Road.

Magazine receives national award

Fox Chapel Area High Schools 2018-2019 literary arts magazine Tapestry received a national award. It was named a first-place winner in the magazine portion of the 2019 American Scholastic Press Associations Annual Contest/Review for Scholastic Yearbooks, Magazines and Newspapers.

The 2018-2019 student editors of Tapestry were 2019 graduates Noah Fritsch, Arnav Gupta, Emma Kazmierczak, Alyssa Melani, Demi Rymer, Seo Yeon Christina Wang and Chloe Yofan (editor-in-chief); current 2019-2020 seniors Claire Cummings, Gwendolyn Davison, Emma Lusk, Navjot Pabla and Olivia Tang; and current 2019-2020 juniors Molly Dean, Nora McDougall and Xavier Perry. The advisor is Fox Chapel Area High School English teacher Jessica Green.

Place in forensic tournament

Eight Fox Chapel Area High School students placed at the annual Michael Quinn Memorial Forensic Tournament.

The Public Forum Debate team of senior Boomba Nishikawa and sophomore Ian Mackey-Piccolo won first place. Another first-place award went to sophomore Alaina Kaslewicz in commentary. In policy debate, the team of senior Rajeev Godse and junior Jackson Romero won second place. The Public Forum Debate team of seniors J. Oliver Choo and Sina Shaikh was awarded third place. In the Lincoln Douglas Debate, sophomore Siddharth Yende won fifth place.

The tournament was Feb. 15 at West Allegheny High School with more than 280 students participating.

Induction planned

Five Fox Chapel Area High School and A.W. Beattie Career Center juniors will be inducted into the National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) this year.

The Fox Chapel Area students are Isaiah Charapp and Ashton Monroe for culinary arts, Matthew Ebel and Kevin Fornaser for automotive technology, and Matthew Sheeler for computer systems technology. The students will be inducted at an invitation-only induction ceremony at A.W. Beattie on April 7.

To be considered, students must maintain a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale, have a grade of at least 93% in their career training programs, and miss no more than five days of school. Candidates also must have a clear disciplinary record and belong to a service organization or participate in an extracurricular activity.

The NTHS provides scholarships for ongoing education and works to improve the skilled workforce.

We have 800 students and we have 63 on that list to be inducted and they represent the best of their class, Beattie Student Ethics Coordinator and NTHS advisor Scott Scariot said. Im proud of them for how hard they work and how theyve met difficult standards to be nominated by their teachers for induction into the NTHS.

Shakespeare contest winners

Five Dorseyville Middle School students received honorable mentions as part of the 26th Annual Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest. Dorseyville Middle School eighth-graders Eric Pil, Liviya Rubin and Abraham White received honorable mentions in the Upper Division Monologue category. Seventh-graders Devon McDonald and Sophie Thorne received an honorable mention in the Lower Division Scene category.

The contest was in February at the Pittsburgh Public Theater with more than 1,000 students competing.

Students place in speech tournament

Several Fox Chapel Area High School students placed in the Pennsylvania High School Speech Leagues District 2 state championship-qualifying tournament.

The Policy Debate team of senior Rajeev Godse and junior Jackson Romero placed second; sophomore Siddharth Yende won second place in Lincoln Douglas Debate; and the team of senior Hanna Chen and junior Hannah Jahnke was awarded third place in duo interpretation.

All five of these students qualified to participate in the state tournament that will be March 13-14 at Bloomsburg University.

Six students will serveas alternates.

They are sophomore Alaina Kaslewicz, who won fifth place in commentary; seniors J. Oliver Choo and Sina Shaikh, who won sixth place in public forum debate; senior Angelique Uku, who placed sixth in prose interpretation; junior Suparna Agrawal, who won sixth place in extemporaneous speaking; and junior Anthony Nguyen, who placed sixth in Lincoln Douglas Debate.

The tournament was Feb. 22 at Pine-Richland High School with about 160 students participating.

Link:
Madrigal Singers to perform, Tapestry wins national award and more from Fox Chapel Area School District - TribLIVE

NEW DELHI, Feb. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bruce Clay, global SEO Guru and founder of Bruce Clay, Inc. will be on his annual visit to India in the month of March to conduct an exclusive three-day SEO master class. One of the year's most-awaited master classes; the event is annually attended by top Indian brands, who recognize the benefits of a solid SEO strategy.

Also known as the 'Father of SEO', Bruce also holds a Lifetime Achievement Award in Search Marketing. He has trained 5,000+ professionals across USA, Australia, Europe and Asia, and authored books such as 'Search Engine Optimization All-In-One for Dummies' and 'Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals'.

The 3 day SEO training course enables online businesses to achieve higher search rankings, boost CTR and increase traffic/sales. Bruce's SEO master class is in line with Google's latest updates, and using the same methodologies, some Indian clients were able to: Attract Organic yearly traffic valued in excess of INR 60 crores Achieve top rankings for 100s of keywords Outperform bigger competitors on lower budgets This International training is highly-rated and past attendees have raved about the program: 'Loved it, a definite must attend for anyone dealing in SEO' - Sudipto Nandy, Sr. Product Manager at Magic Bricks, Times Business Solutions About The 3-Day Master Class: Date: 17th - 19th March, 2020 Time: 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM Venue: Hotel Le Meridien, Gurgaon Past events have been sold out. Applicants can avail a 22% discount if they register by Feb 28, 2020.

For pricing information, special offers and more details about the course please visit: https://www.bruceclay.com/in/seo/training/ or contact Sanjeev Duggal on +91(124) 414-3292 About Bruce Clay India Bruce Clay India (BCI) is a leading provider of Digital Marketing Services with an emphasis on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). BCI is a part of the Bruce Clay group and provides SEO Training, SEO services, Content Marketing, Google Ads Management & Web Design services to the Indian market. In 2017, Bruce Clay India won the DMA Choice Awards for Most Trusted Marketing Partner - SEO Agency and MD Siddharth Lal has been named One of the Top 100 Digital Marketers in India two years in a row.

Bruce Clay, Inc. has been a top search engine optimization company since 1996, through contributions such as the 746-page Search Engine Optimization All-In-One for Dummies and SEO Training and Certification Programs that promote ethical SEO practices. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Bruce Clay, Inc. has global locations in Dubai, Delhi, Sydney & Tokyo.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1088193/Bruce_Clay.jpg PWR PWR

Read more:
Father of SEO, Bruce Clay Hosts Master Class in Gurgaon - Yahoo India News

Now with personalized experiences, navigation, and recommendations, as well as embedded RingLead University learning, the DataExchange makes it easier than ever for customers to discover the right data providers for their business. Nearly 90 percent of RingLead customers are using data providers from the DataExchange, with more than 1 billion contact and account records enriched and processed through RingLead's platform to date.

NEW YORK, Feb. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --RingLead, the leading provider of data management solutions for CRMs and MAPs, today announced The DataExchange, empowering companies to find 3rd party data sources that meet unique business requirements. The DataExchange is designed to bring together innovative data providers that, when combined with RingLead's open and scalable data quality platform, will enable enterprises to enrich, validate, normalize, segment, dedupe, link, and route, all within one workflow.

"We're flipping the historically painful process of buying and connecting data on its head," said John Kosturos, Chief Product Officer, RingLead.

"Paired with RingLead's data quality platform, users of The DataExchange can now take the data they need, ingest it into a batch process, a real-time import, web submission, or a manually created record."

The DataExchange allows users to pick and choose only the data they need based on a searchable catalog of data providers. Users can then continuously feed this data into their internal systems seamlessly and intelligently with RingLead's data quality platform, reducing bad data, while maximizing the value of the external data. RingLead's endpoints include web submission, list import, manual entry, and triggers. When RingLead processes a new record, it automates data normalization, segmentation, duplicate prevention, enrichment, validation, lead-to-account linking, and routing. Without RingLead, a typical user would have to string together 8 to 9 different platforms to automate these processes.

Select data vendors who meet a set of criteria may apply to become part of The DataExchange. The DataExchange offers a defined growth path for vendor success designed uniquely to support the vendor's strengths.

Features and benefits of The DataExchange include:

A free, SEO tuned page listing complete with company overview, description of capabilities and offerings, attribute catalog, integration documentation, resources, and crowd-sourced reviews.

Co-marketing opportunities including blogs, ebooks, social media, case studies and sponsorship at events like RingLead User Group (RUG) and Data Heroes Conference 2020 to expand the reach.

Sales enablement activities and events such as demo days, field office engagement, co-branded collateral, and training to facilitate direct interaction between RingLead and partner representatives.

Ongoing engagement and transparency including monthly check-ins with a dedicated RingLead support representative and usage reports with insight into traffic to your listing.

The introduction of The DataExchange reinforces RingLead's data-first approach to business and unwavering commitment to empowering businesses, not only with the leading data quality platform but now, the ability to painlessly find, connect and structure the data they need to scale. Through transparency, community, and education around data, RingLead continues to strive to be the most trusted data quality platform for every business.

To learn more about The DataExchange, please visit us at https://dataexchange.ringlead.com/

About RingLead

RingLead, Inc. is an industry-leading data management provider with over a decade of experience in solving the dirty data problems of enterprises, Fortune 500 companies and small businesses across the globe. RingLead's complete, end-to-end data quality platform integrates with leading CRMs and MAPs like Salesforce and Marketo to empower businesses to clean, protect and enhance company and contact information in a series of seamless, fully automated processes.

SOURCE RingLead

See the rest here:
RingLead Launches New DataExchange -- A Faster and Smarter Way to Tap into the Power of the World's Leading Data Providers - Yahoo Finance

Youve probably experienced massive delays, major setbacks, or sudden drops in productivity at least once in running your business. Part of preventing such problems from happening again is determining what caused them.

Did your bakerys delivery trucks run into terrible traffic? Did your clothing boutique upset its best customer? Or did your local SEO company lose its best analyst?

Although all of these cause issues with your companys productivity, the last one happens because your company relied too much on one person.

This is called talent dependency, and its a serious stumbling block for businesses of all sizes.

Talent dependency, also known as key person dependency, refers to a situation where your company or segments of your company rely too much on one person. This excessive dependency can have dire repercussions for your business, especially if this key person decides to leave your organization or becomes otherwise indisposed.

Removing this person from your company would be like removing the keystone in an archway, which is problematic at best; disastrous at worse.

There are a few simple ways to tell if your organization is dealing with talent dependency. Here are some sure-fire symptoms that someone is a key person:

If youve noticed these things happening in your organization, then you have a talent dependency problem.

Talent dependency can sprout anywhere and manifest in anyone in your company. Maybe it is a charismatic salesperson for your online store, an SEO consultant or an innovative pastry chef in your caf who can all become the source of key person dependency.

Critical knowledge refers to information about your company or its processes that is necessary for it to perform or retain an advantage over competitors. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, refers to data and information that can only be found inside someones mind.

Its the accumulation of information and instinct that someone develops over time that makes them effective in their job. So long as only one person has tacit critical knowledge, they are poised to become key persons.

When a key person departs, it could cause the following issues:

Large companies can suffer these effects just as much as smaller companies. For example, automotive and energy company Tesla has suffered from the erratic behavior of its CEO, Elon Musk. Executives are prone to becoming key persons because of their authority within the company and level of expertise.

But smaller companies cant bounce back from major setbacks as quickly as their larger counterparts. Although a single delayed shipment because of talent dependency would be a nuisance for a multinational corporation, the same problem could be ruinous to the finances of a small business.

What can you do to prevent talent dependency from ruining your company?

By taking the following advice, you may be able to mitigate the damage that talent dependency can wreak on your business. If you implement enough of these tips in advance, you may prevent talent dependency from taking root in your organization at all.

Essential personnel arent always a disadvantage for the business. A brilliant employee can be the one who discovers something new or inspires others to greater productivity. Key personnel only become a problem when they dont want or fail to share what makes them important to other employees.

Nurturing a company culture that helps employees raise each other up can go a long way in preventing your business from depending on one person. By making your organization a collaborative effort, you ensure that everyone on your roster is working together toward a better tomorrow.

See more here:
How to Stop the Negative Impacts of Talent Dependency - News & Features