At this point, not building an active social media portfolio across a variety of different channels is the equivalent of pulling out a typewriter to start your day’s work as a web developer.

Without taking advantage of social, you’re living in the past and everyone’s going to look at you with a bit of a confused look on their face.

But the decision to take the plunge into social media marketing is still one that can be a little tricky for any business to reach a conclusion when first considering the pros and cons. There’s the added effort, the potential need to employ a further member of staff (or team depending on the size of the organization) and of course the backlash that can come from a badly worded response, poor taste image or overlooked caption.

But when it comes to using social media, especially in the CBD industry, the pros far outway the cons. Without a social media presence, you’re leaving the lion’s share on the table, not just a few cents here and there.

Still need convincing that social’s going to be the way forward to increase brand visibility? We’ve got 7 reasons why every CBD should brand out for unrivaled coverage on the web.

1. Social media posts drive targeted traffic

When it comes to posting new content, it’s no secret that it’ll take a sizable chunk of time for Google to start ranking it in search (90-120 days to be exact) so it pays to have an instant fanbase ready to click.

By posting links to new content across social media channels, your followers, likes and fans will be the first to see new content, gaining instant traction on posting. Worth its weight in gold for getting out a brand message, boosting informative posts and sharing new products – especially with a predicted CBD industry value of $22 billion by 2022.

2. Social media posts boost your site’s SEO

Every web-based business should have some form of SEO strategy in place, from mobile-first websites to keyword studies and optimized page speeds – but where a lot of companies fail is in the directed traffic.

There are countless benefits to talk about when it comes to CBD and by creating a single post about each one, you’ll have a seemingly unlimited collection of posts to link to from social media. By constantly linking those pages that don’t seem to be generating enough traffic you can boost the number of people visiting specific pages, letting those build in the Google rankings.

It’s just one of the many tricks that come as a part of introducing brand awareness from social media.

3. Social media helps to further understand your audience

Social media channels can make the most effective analytical tools with all kinds of data about those who have voluntarily liked your product or service.

When it comes to CBD, the audience can be broad but depending on your specific product or targeted niche, you can find out common trends about those that like your profiles and products.

Of course, there’s also the option of following these accounts back, viewing the types of people interested in the product, but this becomes a little much with growth – that’s where simple analytical tools become your best friend.

According to Digital Authority Partners, you must look hard enough through social and you’re bound to find common pain points from customers, issues with other CBD companies and brands and even feedback on your own merchandise. It might be a little hard to swallow, but it’s for the best if you’re serious about improvement.

4. Social media lets you build, maintain and interact with an audience

One of the main benefits to social media marketing is the interaction with a custom audience that can blossom into relationships.

People see social media accounts as just that – social media accounts – not marketing machines so it’s important not to give that to them. Instead of constantly promoting new CBD products, reviews and information about the business, a lighter side of things is a much better approach.

By selling the lifestyle surrounding the product rather than the product itself, you’re much more likely to build brand awareness than if you’re going down the pushy sales tactic route. Sell the lifestyle the product enables and the rest will follow.

5. Social media ads allow for targeting and retargeting

Social media channels offer highly targeted ads as standard that can be customized around your needs for your specific audience.

When looking at Facebook ads, for example, you can target everything from location and age to education level, industry of work and even the user behavior such as which pages they already like.

By targeting and retargeting ads from previous data learning experiences you can perfect the social media marketing recipe – maximizing the number of people that see the posts and the number of clicks and conversions received.

6. Strong social media presence builds brand loyalty

When it comes to CBD, focusing on brand loyalty has to be a priority due to the sheer number of alternatives out there. The best way to do that? Social media marketing.

By creating a strong social media presence, you’ll notice an increase in brand loyalty as you provide useful information, help and entertainment around CBD without asking for anything in return. It’s essentially the theory of karma, but in marketing form.

They’ll come to you with any and every single CBD specific question, whether that’s ‘how long does CBD take to work?’ or ‘the most trustworthy places to purchase CBD oil’. If you look after them, they’ll look after you. In such a competitive market, it could make all the difference.

7. Social media is key for customer service

When it comes to customer service, convenience for the consumer is key – and what’s more convenient than logging onto social accounts that we’re on every single day anyway?

Technology moves quickly and it’s no longer a case of if you’re able to be contacted on social media, but how fast you can reply. A Sprout Social study found that consumers want a response from social media-based companies with 4 hours, yet the average time delay for a reply is as along as 10 hours.

Long story short, you better be sure that you’re available for contact via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and that you’re replying in a timely manner.

Author bio: Marina Turea is a content manager at Digital Authority Partners and a CBD marketing enthusiast.

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The American With Disabilities Act is a civil law that ensures people with disabilities have the same access to life as non-disabled people.

If you’re a retail company with a physical store, you’re probably already aware of what you need to do to make your stores accessible in person.

Did you know, however, that there are also guidelines in place that dictate measures you must take to make your online website just as accessible, too?

For a long time, lots of companies got away with not being ADA compliant due to vague instructions and no clear guidelines.

With the introduction of the Standards For Accessible Design section of the ADA in 2010, and Title III in 2018, making sure your website is accessible is an absolute must.

You might think that this is more important for healthcare companies, and those who specifically market towards disabled people, but this isn’t necessarily the case.

In fact, a broken down version of the official legislation shows that ADA standards apply to all commercial and public entities, including businesses and the internet.

If you still aren’t convinced, here are some compelling reasons why you should make your retail companies website ADA compliant as soon as possible.

You Risk Being Sued If You Aren’t

In the last few years, the number of companies being sued for inaccessibility related to the ADA has greatly increased. With the introduction of Title III in the middle of 2018, it’s expected that these numbers will continue to rise over the next few years.

As these numbers do so, more and more companies who don’t make early changes will find themselves facing staggering fines, which according to Digital Authority Partners can be up to $75000 for a first expense, with the price rising for further breeches.

You might think you’re safe from this because you’re not marketing towards disabled people specifically, but this isn’t necessarily true.

A number of different companies, including Amazon and Netflix, have found themselves facing lawsuits due to inaccessible websites. Even Beyoncé isn’t excluded, with someone suing her website because it didn’t have alt text on images for visually impaired people with screen readers.

As a retail store, you’re likely to face similar problems to Beyoncé, as it’s likely you’ll be showcasing a number of photos of the items you have for sale.

Though it may not have happened yet, remember it only takes one person to step in and complain before you’re facing a whole lot of legal trouble that your company could do without.

You’ll Be Excluding Some Of Your Target Audience

Throughout this article, we’ve been talking about the belief that ADA compliance isn’t so important if you aren’t marketing specifically towards disabled people.

With over 25 million people living with a disability in the US alone, it’s almost guaranteed that they will make up some portion of your target audience.

By not catering for this section of your target audience, you could be unknowingly excluding potential returning customers with high value for changes that aren’t overly difficult to implement.

Not only will this affect your online sales, but it could potentially affect your in-store sales from those who like to see the selection online before viewing it in store.

Being Non ADA Compliant Can Ruin Your Reputation

Would you rather purchase from a business that does everything possible to accommodate its customers, or one that purposely excludes them because making things accessible seems like too much work?

I’m betting most people would rather the former, especially with the rise in awareness and making ethical choices with retail stores.

You might not think that becoming ADA compliant will have much of an impact because the average consumer probably knows nothing about it, but it only takes one person to sing your praises to receive a positive impact.

If you are ADA compliant, you could attract more disabled people to make purchases on your shop, and may have higher customer satisfaction levels than you would without it.

It’s worth noting that by not becoming ADA compliant, the opposite effect may also occur, where you lose business because of your ignorance. You may also find people talking negatively about your inability to make appropriate changes, which could make acquiring new customers harder, too.

It’s More Cost Effective

When it comes to the monetary cost of not being ADA compliant, being sued isn’t the only thing you need to worry about.

In addition to the potential $75000 fine we mentioned earlier on in the article, you also have to think about the cost of making changes after you have been caught.

This might shock you, but making changes to become ADA compliant gets a lot more expensive the longer you leave it.

The cheapest way to do it is when you’re building your website, as most web developers will do the necessary work to comply with legislation for you.

Even if your website is already established, making changes before ADA lawsuits become commonplace and web developers start charging an optimum fee to make changes can save you lots of money.

Just think, if you leave it until you are caught, you could be looking to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds between fines and making changes to your website when you could have been compliant and saved yourself lots of money by getting things right to begin with.

Conclusion

Now that we have provided you with all of the important reasons behind making your retail companies website ADA compliant, we hope we have been able to convince you to make the changes.

Not only will the initial investment save you potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds in the long run, but it also makes your services more personal to those who use them.

Put yourself in the shoes of a disabled person for a moment, and imagine how good it must feel to be able to access a website freely, without the restrictions usually placed on us by a non-understanding society.

Instead of having your reputation ruined by not catering for disabled people, be a front runner in your industry and do what’s necessary to start making changes today.

This article comes from Julian Gnatenco @ JGBilling medical billing group

To read more on topics like this, check out the technology category.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of technology as ubiquitous as the USB (universal serial bus) cables/connectors. Whether you’re a casual tech user or a career professional, this has provided a versatile, durable, and reliable option for data transfer to help connect computers to peripherals. In fact, there are over 10 billion USB products in the install base, with 3 billion USB products being shipped per year. Equally important is the role that USB plays in providing power to connected devices. A historical look at USB shows how the technology has grown to become so commonplace, as well as the pain points that power innovations like USB-C. So, from the origins of the technology to USB Type-C, here’s a walkthrough for you.

USB Historically

The origins of USB as we know it begins in 1994. 7 tech companies, (DEC, Intel, Nortel, NEC, Microsoft, IBM, and Compaq), worked together to try and create an industry standard to connect digital devices. Hard as it is to believe, there was a point where this wasn’t the case, creating compatibility nightmares for many setups. The companies’ main focus was a combination of durability, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness.

Fast-forward to 1996, and we saw the first release of USB, USB 1.0, in January. Note that this is a lot slower than USB as we know it. The low-bandwidth version had 1.5 Mbps in terms of connections, while the faster version went at 12 Mbps. It may seem difficult to comprehend now, but in those days, they were considered fast.

Naturally, though, as technology advanced, so did the demand for more speed in terms of data transfer. This was the primary driving factor behind the advance to USB 2.0 in 2000. This new version increased the speed by around 40 times to 480 Mbps. This made USB suitable for devices like printers or webcams that transferred that higher amount of data. 2000 would also bring another major innovation for USB, with the first flash drive, having a grand total of 8 MB of storage. However, compared to floppy disks and other methods of storage, it was a huge leap.

In 2008, USB changed things up yet again, advancing to USB 3.0 for even faster data transfer speeds. This model hit speeds of 5 Gbps, roughly 10 times faster than USB 2.0. Later, in 2012, we would also see a major leap in terms of power delivery specifications, meaning that USB cables could now power complex devices like portable hard drives and notebook PCs. Combined, these technologies created another explosion of USB products and adapters, to try and bring all these different devices together.

Another side-branch of the history that would happen around this time is the advent of micro- and mini-USB. Many smartphone makers and manufacturers were trying to make smaller and smaller devices to meet demand, to the point where conventional USB connections were too large. These new items allowed smartphones to use USB technology but will be supplanted by the new USB-C connector, which has all the power and durability of conventional USB, while being small enough to fit these devices.

USB-C And The New Age

On that topic, how exactly did USB Type-C become to be? A lot of this started with talks between HP, Intel, AMD, and Microsoft when while they were developing the USB 3.1 update. In time, dozens of other tech companies would take part, making USB-C a truly collaborative effort. The hallmark of this, on top of having the USB 3.1 technology, is the fact that USB-C is completely reversible, putting an end to the days of plugging the wrong end in or plugging it upside down.

Brad Saunders, the chairman of the USB 3.0 promoter group, notes that in terms of the USB-C physical connector design, it was driving by several connector suppliers who collaborated openly on the design. He adds that there was a lot of interest in how the connector works, in particular, in regards to signal integrity and radio frequency interference/mitigation.

The type-C connector first became a concept in July of 2013 and ended up becoming a finalized spec on 2014. While it may look similar to conventional USB cables at first, there are a lot of changes that drove it. One, as we mentioned before, was the growing smaller sizes of various devices. Not only does USB-C help with compatibility, but is also future proofed for new smartphones and tablets as well.

The goal for the early stages was to try and focus on marketing USB Type-C connectors for mobile devices and laptops, where the size was the biggest concern, however, the experts knew that in time, desktop PCs would make the transmission as well. Part of this is due to ease of use, with all peripherals and devices running off the same cable. But power also plays a major role as well. For example, your average USB-A connector is limited to 10 Gbps across a single channel of data. USB-C has more wires and higher frequency, meaning that it’s a lot easier to add more functionality and speed. As a result, USB-C is already positioned to support the next wave of USB upgrades, something anyone can benefit from.

The technology doesn’t stop there, either. One major concern with the adoption of USB C is how to manage all the cables and dongles needed to take advantage of the new tech with legacy hardware. A USB C docking station is the perfect answer. By resting a laptop into a USB dock, you can emulate a desktop setting while managing to run several different peripherals and adapters through one USB-C cable.

Overall, USB’s history is a testament not just to the technology, but all the different minds that came together to create it. It’s something worth musing about the next time you find yourself connecting a flash drive or absent-mindedly charging your phone.

usb-c usb-c cable usb type-c usb c dock usb c docking station

To read more on topics like this, check out the technology category.

Our homes reflect us and our personalities. When our friends or family visit our house, what they see helps them determine our interests, conditions, and just who we are in general. For example, if you walked into someone house and saw a collection of baseball equipment, you’d assume they are passionate about baseball.

So, if you’re into technology, you may have thought about adding smart devices or other forms of technology to your room. With this article, I want to talk about devices that fit well with your living room. I mean, that is the room where many of your friends or family will visit often.

Let your friends and family know the convenience and comfort that tech can bring to your home with these 5 upgrades!

A Crystal-Clear TV

An essential piece of tech for your living room is a TV. More specifically, a nice 4K TV.

Fortunately, we don’t live in the times where a good 1080p TV could cost you thousands of dollars. Nowadays, you can buy a good quality 4K TV for a few hundred dollars, relatively cheap compared to a couple years ago.

With a 4K TV, shows and movies will be smooth and crystal-clear, letting you and your friends become immersed in the latest season of Game of Thrones or the latest Marvel movies.

VPN Router

While not as luxurious as a 4K TV, think of employing a VPN Router as a replacement to your current router.

See, home is also a place where we should feel safe, but our networks are constantly in danger of being intercepted or our data being stolen. With a VPN router, your data is constantly being hidden from anyone who may be snooping on your network. So, if you want to feel even more secure, a VPN router seems like a no-brainer. There are routers that come with a VPN installed optimized, but you can also download one and configure it yourself. Premium VPNs are always more trustworthy than free ones but can sometimes be pricey. To get the best of both worlds, do your research and look for VPN deals and offers online before you subscribe.

Ambient Lighting

Our outside environment impacts how we feel mentally. If a color is too “aggressive”, as if it’s too bright, then we can get excited or energetic. Color also works the other way around. If you feel like your living room won’t let you relax as you should, consider investing in ambient lighting.

With ambient lighting, you can set a glow throughout the room, the color depending on how you’re feeling. Want to create a dark, horror vide? Orange and red are your friends. Want to feel at peace and relax after a hard day at work? Set it to green and take a nap. Ambient lighting is worth the investment.

Convenient TV Setup

You got that 4K TV mentioned earlier, but now what? A convenient way to get any streaming service or shows you need is by the use of a streaming device such as a Roku stick, Chromecast, or Amazon Fire Stick.

With these, you don’t need to worry about any antennas or receivers. All you need is a TV and a network the stick can connect to. Little hassle means more time to sit back and watch TV!

Gaming on the TV

On the other hand, maybe you don’t watch TV. When you get home, you immediately run to your desk and sit down to enjoy Dark Souls or the latest Battlefield title. If that’s the case, you can still use a good quality TV to your advantage.

If you don’t feel like sitting at your desk, then use a Steamlink. With the Steamlink, any game that you play on your PC can be transferred to the TV signal. While your PC is running the game, the display is moved to the TV, letting you sit back on the couch and playing on a much bigger screen than your monitor.

No matter the type and size of a business, network security is one of its most important aspects. Delivery, maintenance, and security of content and services is essential, and that just won’t be possible without network security. There are plenty of types of cyber-attacks out there, and without the necessary tools to defend yourself, your vulnerabilities can be easily exploited. There many reasons why having good network security is important and here are some of them.

Keeps your data safe

Practically every business today has an online presence. That can be in various forms, like social media, websites, and blogs. However, the more you rely on yourself and your own infrastructure, the more you are susceptible to attacks – unless you properly defend yourself. Investing in the protection of your cyber infrastructure is paramount because if you don’t, your data can be compromised. That will lead to huge losses for you and your customers, who might end up never trusting you and your services again.

Better performance

One of the things many customers dislike is trying to access a website that is unresponsive and slow. While there can be several reasons why that’s the case, no customer will be understanding enough to simply wait. Best-case scenario is they return after a while, but in some cases, they never do. If your website and services aren’t performing well, that might be due to exploits and attacks. That’s exactly what better security will protect against.

You’ll be much more reliable

Neither employees nor customers want to interact with a business that isn’t reliable. That means if their info and data isn’t secure, they’ll go to a different business where it’ll be safe and secure. That’s why it’s smart to use the help of companies like Memset when it comes to vulnerability assessment. You’ll always be up to speed on what’s happening under the hood, and you’ll be able to react to any threat accordingly. That might not be a threat coming from the outside but rather due to some misconfiguration on the inside, but it’ll be something that you can react to as soon as it happens.

There won’t be any disruptions

There’s always the possibility of some group or individual targeting your business. The hard truth is that will almost certainly lead to unnecessary disruptions in your business if you haven’t been secured properly. Those disruptions might be anything from files missing to time offline. Your clients and customers will definitely appreciate you being there whenever you’re needed, and that’s absolutely thanks to your security team. That also helps boost your reliability, and in the long run, it’ll turn out to be profitable and beneficial to your business.

Taking good care of your cyber-security has only positive sides. It’s definitely something all businesses should implement as quickly and as efficiently as possible. It’ll lead to a safer business, and in turn make your business a lot more successful.

To read more on topics like this, check out the technology category.