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Age Doesn’t Matter: Why Age Restrictions on Your Facebook Page Won’t Hurt Your SEO

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In an effort to keep young people safe, Facebook now requires you to add an age restriction to your page if you are displaying content related to subscription services, student loan services, or dating apps.

In other words, anyone under the age of 18 will not be able to view your Facebook page.

Setting an age restriction is often necessary to comply with Facebook’s guidelines. Obviously, this will restrict how many Facebook users are able to view your content.  The question is this:

Will setting an age restriction on your Facebook page impact the organic results you get from people doing Google searches?

Believe it or not, the answer is no!

Here’s why:

  1. Google only identifies Facebook home pages in its search results, not individual posts which may have restricted content. A comparison of Facebook pages with and without age restrictions shows that the organic traffic sent over from Google follows the same pattern for both types of page.
  2. If we’re being honest, then we’ll admit that Google isn’t too interested in displaying Facebook content in their search results anyway.  In the same way, Facebook isn’t too interested in displaying Google content (including YouTube videos) in their feeds either. So restricting views in one area really doesn’t have much of an effect on the other.

Bottom Line:  When it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and online visibility, age really doesn’t matter.

Don’t waste your time going through every old post and scrubbing out every reference to guns or other 18+ content – it won’t impact your search engine activity and just isn’t worth the time or the energy you’ll spend!

Nor is it worth agonizing over how to get more Facebook organic traffic results from Google searches. This is a waste of time. It will not help you keep your marketing priorities in line, grow your business revenue, or increase your ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).  

When it comes to optimizing your search engine results, age really doesn’t matter!

Why Most Small Businesses Fail on Facebook

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Most small business owners are terrified to press the red button.

Not because it’s going to initiate some catastrophic event or set off the emergency alarm, but because they are paralyzed by the camera.

Small business owners that can’t make videos are like sprinters trying to win a race with shackles around their ankles

Facebook is a film to play platform. [Read more…]

Why You Are Calculating Your Conversion Incorrectly

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Conversion is often thought about too simply. We go from an impression, to a click, and then a conversion.

But what if that click doesn’t lead to a conversion? People are not inclined to buy after one interaction with your ad.

Finding out what is going on in between the impression and conversion is not easy. Your audience could click on an ad, email, or an organic search.

How do we quantify the value of an impression or a click that don’t lead to a conversion? These six attribution models will help you understand.

The Last Click Model

Last Click gives all the credit to the last action before a conversion. It strips credit from anything else that happened.

There is no funnel, because there is only one goal, one content, and one target. This gives a very simplistic view of Goals, Content and Targeting (GCT) because we only have the goal of driving sales.

This makes calculating your ROAS difficult. If you have a 5% click through rate, 4% conversion rate, $10 spend and $100 in revenue. Your ROAS would be 10x right?

But what if you had twice as many clicks? This means that your click value is half of what it was before. This is not very accurate.

People rarely buy after the first touch. Many times they have to see a variety of content before feeling comfortable to make a buying decision.

That is why it is important to break down the in-between process from the first impression to the final conversion.

The Overlap Model

An overlap uses multiple touches. It says that somebody will interact with multiple content before deciding to buy.

We use this model to determine how many people we can bring from one stage to the next. This is referred to as Infinity Analysis. The more data we have along the way, the more power we hold.

They could click on an ad, watch a video, sign up for an email list or talk to a friend about your product.  After seeing, hearing, and doing, your audience will be motivated to buy.

In this scenario, we could say all four touches are worth $50 combined. If we divide $50 into those 4 steps we learn that each click is worth $12.50. Where as in the last click model the data would show that the click was worth $50.

Using the overlap model lets you set your GCT as the strategy and AEC as the funnel. When combined you create the “Viral Spiral”, the first step of marketing automation.

The Viral Spiral allows you to cycle your audience through different combinations of Goals, Content and Targeting. You will feed them different content based on their position in your funnel, Audience, Engagement or Conversion.

Continually optimizing your content is vital. Calculating how many people have moved from point to point in your sequence gives you power. This will determine what your most valuable piece of content is and guide you to what you should create next.

Triggers

With enough data indicating where the overlaps are happening, you can assemble these overlaps into a particular sequence. Sequences are if/then statements that help automate your funnels.

A sequence could be as simple as, if they watched this video, then they receive a 10% off your next purchase. If they’re a mom that bought tickets to tomorrow’s game, then recommend they buy a jersey.

Assembling complex if/then conditions is how you build a funnel over time and that’s why attribution, analytics and campaign optimization are actually one and the same thing. This can’t be understand when using the last click model.

Assigning fraction credits will help you understand that there are multiple steps through conversion. If you are only giving credit to the bottom of the funnel, you’re going to overlook engagement.

Let’s say you’ve been looking to get married and your applying the marketing principles we have been discussing. You first, start a conversion path from when you first meet your significant other.  Your first date, to the first kiss, to getting engaged, to eventually have a wedding ceremony.

You determine you are 50% of the way to marriage after certain milestones have passed. After more time passes you find yourself 75% of the way there. This progression continues to happen until you are at the wedding ceremony, reaching 100%.

Lift Testing

The more complex the sequences are, then the more you can do lift testings. Lift testing is like adding a variable a scientific experiment, to see how it affects the results.

The same tests are performed when testing for a new drug. They have a test and placebo group. Afterward the two groups are tested separately, to see what difference they can find between the two.

Let’s say you have a one click sequence from Point A to B. What would happen if you were to lead people through an intermediate Point C. Would they be more or less likely to buy?

What we have found is different people need different amounts of information before they will convert. If you know that by exposing your audience additional information you can triple the conversion rate, from 5% to 15% then that’s called lift.

Lift testing is not the same as split testing, its more than changing a headline of a landing page. It proves that by running a certain piece of content you saw a direct increase to Audience A You know this because Audience B was not exposed to that content.

The Media Mix Model

We know that any social media platform affects one another along the sequences. The Media Mix Model, determines what effect running these different platforms together has on our results.

You could be running ads across AdWords, Facebook, YouTube, Email, in-store and on TV. If you want to see what impact Facebook, YouTube and TV ads have together, segment your audience and only run ads on those platforms for that group.

Does that cause more people to search on Google where we run TV? If people are seeing YouTube videos, are they more likely to respond to our Facebook ads?

That’s the beauty of Marketing Science, it’s the same thing as sampling or polling. Every single combination doesn’t need to be ran to know what works.

If you want to know whether Donald Trump is ahead or behind in the polls, you don’t need to poll everybody, you just need to have the 5 – 10% . Then you can establish your 95% confidence interval plus or minus 2%.

We’re looking at inputs and outputs, so instead of saying, “I’m trying to take this $10 and I need $100 of revenue right away”. I’m saying, “Look, I can put in $10 and get more than $10 of value from this point to this point in my stage along the way, then I’m profitable”.

It takes more than a click

We are moving away from the last click model, focusing on the bottom of our sales funnels. Keep in mind your attention to overlaps, because conversion is no longer as simple as impression, click, convert. With our plumbing in place we can set each stage and trigger.

The more action based triggers will lead to more if/then iteration, which helps build more complex sequences. Complex sequences allows experimenting with different channels to perform more lift test. The more overlap we find between these different channels the more we will move into a full media mix model.

Attribution, analytics and optimization are all the same thing. The idea of MAA is to understand why and what can we recommend as the next step. When we can figure that out, marketing automation becomes possible.

Which of these attribution models can you implement to calculate a more accurate conversion cost?

The Art of Mentoring at Scale: Creating an Environment of Growth

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Preach What You Have Practiced

Imagine you’ve just turned 16 and are ready to get your license. You get your learner’s permit and are ready to get out on the road. You believe that because you passed the written test that you know all there is to know about driving.

But do you really?

In short, no, not until you put in the driving time and get a feel for the car and the rules of the road. That’s where your parents (Mentor) can come into play, by sitting shotgun and giving you clear directions — while also gripping onto the grab handle for dear life.

However, mentoring is becoming a lost art and it’s because people don’t properly appreciate the value of learning from a practitioner. You’ve learned the concepts, but a mentor teaches you how to execute them.

We’re constantly learning new things and it’s not always by reading a book  (which there’s no harm in doing whatsoever), but by watching other people do whatever “it” is.

Remember shifting gears without stalling the car for the first time? It gave you a feeling of a accomplishment. You got successful results by learning from your parents (Mentor) and going through the motions. That’s what you get from an apprenticeship, knowledge, experience, and results — proof that you know how to drive a car.

Hundreds of years ago, people would line up to be da Vinci’s apprentice or an apprentice to a tailor or a blacksmith. They put in the work while simultaneously learning their trade. Apprentices understood the concept of Learn-Do-Teach (LDT). They LEARNED their trade, then got an apprenticeship to DO what they had learned so later on in life — when they become the mentor — they could TEACH it.

They say, “practice what you preach,” and to an extent, that’s sound advice, but you should have already practiced.

You should practice and practice and practice before you think about teaching.

Again, anyone can learn something. You can have all of the recipes memorized and ingredients gathered, but they won’t be useful until you go into the kitchen and do something with them.

The Two Sides to Mentoring

A good mentor is committed to their craft and invested in their apprentice. They spend time day-in and day-out practicing and learning about their craft to keep their skills sharp, so they can break their knowledge down and simplify it so others can understand.

A mentor is more than a teacher.

A mentor is wholly invested in guiding an apprentice through the steps, making sure they don’t just understand what to do, but how to do it.

A good apprentice is invested in learning everything there is to know about the “art” or trade. This means learning the lessons that only experience can teach as well. The best blacksmith can teach you how to properly swing the hammer and where to strike the iron, but you won’t learn the weight of the hammer or how the iron feels without doing it yourself.

No amount of books or lessons can substitute for a raw, hard-earned experience.

A mentor is an opportunity for both the apprentice and them, but unless both parties come together and carry out their respective parts it won’t work.

Making Things Simple and Effective

So, you’ve put your hours in and mastered the forge and you’ve got the scars to prove it. You’re hands are calloused, your fingers are burned, and your arms are scraped. You’ve learned from your mentor and your own mistakes and are — at long last — ready to teach your own apprentice. But as you’ll soon discover, teaching has its own challenges, especially if you want to do it at scale.

So, can you do it?

Well, there’s a number of ways it can be said: “Dumb it down,” “Explain like I’m 5,” “Put it in English.”

Basically… systemize it.

Break your tasks down into easy-to-understand parts. A simple and effective way of systemizing is to put everything in a checklist format.

Let’s say you have one ultimate goal for your apprentice to complete: Clean the House.

Where do you start?

Your House (H) is the main goal. The first step is to create a checklist of everything that must happen in order for your apprentice to complete the goal.

In order to complete H, they need to:

  • Vacuum the front room
  • Make the beds
  • Clean the kitchen

Oh no, the kitchen.

How do you clean it, where do you start?

Well to make it easier… you can make a checklist for it. What does your apprentice need to do in order to get the kitchen clean?

  • Put dishes in the dishwasher
  • Clean up spilt milk
  • Mop the floor

And that’s it — that’s all you have to do. Create a checklist and if necessary make a checklist for an item on that checklist and a checklist for an item on that.

It’s simple and effective.

Wax On, Wax Off

It’s easy to spot seasoned professionals and amateurs in the marketing world. The amateurs will usually throw out big promises and use big words. “Your emolument will be exponential with what you’ll learn at our clandestine workshops!” They offer things that they don’t fully understand.

A pro won’t provide false promises and will only use big words if necessary.

As, Albert Einstein said, “The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.”

In order to make a complex concept simple, you need to master and teach the basic fundamentals of that concept.

Take, Mr. Miyagi (Mentor) for example, a karate master who has agreed to train Daniel LaRusso (Apprentice). The first lesson is to Wax On, Wax Off. While at first glance it seems Mr. Miyagi has tricked Daniel into cleaning his car, later on we find out that Daniel has been developing muscle memory for defensive moves. Because Daniel practiced the motions and did the training, he learned to stop the attacks of a karate master. He mastered the basics — the fundamentals that built the foundation for his defense.

So don’t tell people what your concept will do for them… show them, and start with basics because once a trainee has picked up all the parts and put them together, you have a well oiled, complex system that will turn amateurs into pros.

How to Tie Your KILLER Content with a KILLER Strategy to Give You the Best Results

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Most marketers are still infatuated with the idea of the content calendar.

They spend long, tedious hours researching, planning, and writing their seasonal content that is quickly outdated and that they will have to redo the following year.

At Blitz, we ditched the content calendar years ago and now create content based on what valuable and relevant to our audience. We then sequence our content into different customer journeys so that people naturally find what they are looking for whether it be a course, full-service package, or a useful guide.

We believe it’s time to invest in an EVERGREEN funnel that will drive you reliable business for years to come instead of seasonal content that dries up.

Here’s how you can combine two of our favorite and most effective concepts, the 3×3 video grid and the Dollar a Day strategy, to get more leverage out of your content.

[Read more…]

Dennis Yu’s Advice for Digital Marketing Rookies

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I am new to the digital marketing scene and know there are many hurdles to grasping the concepts, strategies, and tactics involved. Dennis Yu is the Co-Founder and CTO of BlitzMetrics and a leading expert in digital marketing. He was welcome enough to share with us his thoughts on changes in the fickle digital landscape.

Jimmy: Hey, Dennis. Again, thank you so much for doing this Interview with me. First, tell a little about yourself in your own words.

Dennis Yu: I’m just a data geek that builds tools to optimize campaigns. Another prime aspect of myself is in our mission at BlitzMetrics to create jobs for students, so they can help companies drive leads via Facebook. We partner with universities to provide training and the projects, while students get paid and certified.

Jimmy: What is your opinion about the digital marketing world today?

Dennis Yu: Marketers are confused by a growing number of channels and technologies. Their audiences are living in more places and they need to manage a fractured set of communities with no increase in budget or people, but an expected increase in performance.

The solution is not more software but helping digital marketers get trained up on how to manage multiple channels with less time. There is no single channel marketer anymore.

Jimmy: What are your thoughts on the digital consumer?

Dennis Yu: The idea of a “digital consumer” is not valid anymore.  Consider that nearly everyone has one type of primary device and often multiple other devices they use for different things. The car and TV are now computers, so is that digital? Consumers expect their devices, apps, and brands to be smart enough to know what to say to them when. The personalization burden is on you!

Jimmy: Now let’s acknowledge some of the many tools available in digital marketing. What tools do you think digital marketers are missing out on?

Dennis Yu: There are standard tools from Google, Facebook, and other networks you should start with. We rarely recommend 3rd party tools, though we build such tools ourselves. Understand the basics before you increase complexity.

Jimmy: What tools do you think are being overused or abused?

Dennis Yu: There is a special place in the underworld for social media tools and anything in the realm of “analytics”. Generating charts is not the same thing as understanding what’s going on and taking action!

Jimmy: What is a favorite tool you use? And do you have a preferred social network?

Dennis Yu: I don’t have a preference since it depends on the client and where their customers are. In general, Facebook has the biggest audience in developed markets with the greatest targeting capabilities.

Jimmy: What inspires you when you build a campaign?

Dennis Yu: You can’t fake passion, so work only on campaigns for companies that you actually love yourself. Inspiration comes from that brand’s mission, not my love of various technologies.

Jimmy: Looking back, what for you is the best digital campaign of 2017?

Dennis Yu: Hard to narrow it down to just one. But off the top, I’d recommend Jack Daniel’s launching Tennessee Fire against Fireball. They leveraged the great strength of the Jack Daniel’s brand while being highly attuned to their market. Brown-Forman, their parent company, is in my opinion, the best storytelling company on the planet– more than Coke, Old Spice, or Nike.

Jimmy: We have seen a lot of scary headlines about the recent Facebook data controversy. Could you shed some light for us on the issue?

Dennis Yu: Cambridge Analytica bought data from 80 plus million Facebook profiles from a quiz app. While that sounds scary, the reality is there’s little they could have done with that data. A few years ago, Facebook prevented advertisers from loading up user data from apps that aren’t yours.

Jimmy: How do you think the digital marketing will evolve in 2018?

Dennis Yu: Marketing automation and social media will merge– the intersection is mobile.

And while a lot of people are saying “mobile first” and cloud out of fashion, or even building mobile apps for no good purpose, what underlies this is having a single view of the customer across all channels, devices, and experiences. No company does this, so expect the merging of analytics, app, and advertising companies. Expect that most companies will fire their agency to take this in-house since agencies can’t produce content that enthralls the top customers. Only actual customers and zealous employees can do that.

Jimmy: Who do you follow and why?

Dennis: You should check out Logan Young! He is a visionary in digital creating jobs for young adults while selling and training Facebook Ad packages. His work on “The Standards of Excellence” is something to look out for.

J: What is your best advice for marketers?

Dennis: Stop marketing and start getting customers to do your marketing for you. This is another way to say word of mouth marketing is now measurable. Customers can do the work for you, gladly.

You just need to find them and reward them in a non-incentivized way.

J: Thank you for the advice and for your time.

Engaging with Dennis brought us some perspective that has led to my educating others about the basics of the digital marketing field. You too can reach out to the experts in your field of interest. You never know! It may bring you bits of wisdom like this!

Now we have covered some great advice from Dennis Yu:

  • Ground floor marketing tools to dive into!
  • The future in analyzing audiences across all platforms at once.
  • The reality of the most recent data controversy is that consumer data collection is designed for the safety of the consumer.
  • The value of crafting campaigns with passion! As well predictions for the future of campaigns.
  • Knowing when to Delegate tasks, Communicate, and teach others!

Now I ask you, the reader: What do you think will come next for social media marketing? Think about the user experience and the strategies of the digital marketer in the ever-changing digital realm. Follow along with the BlitzMetrics blog and social media pages for more!

How to Become World-Class at Digital Marketing in 2 Years

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To master a skill and become world-class, we all know it takes 10,000 hours, a rule popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. That gets a little bit old though doesn’t it?

Is there a way to truly master Digital Marketing in short amount of time?

For the most part, probably not.

Especially if you consider the definition of a master: someone who acquires complete knowledge or skill on a focused topic. Even world-class performers won’t consider themselves “masters” having the humility in knowing there’s an infinity of nuances to learn and hone.

But is there a way to become good?

A way to become great?

A way to become world-class?

Hell to the Yeah.

Logan Young: The King of Facebook

Take my friend Logan Young who was coined the King of Facebook by StartCon, Australia’s Largest Startup & Growth Conference.

He’s the co-founder of BlitzMetrics, a digital marketing company that implements social campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world like the Golden State Warriors, Nike, and MGM.

He’s an internationally known speaker and speaks at some of the largest stages in Marketing like Social Marketing World, VendastaCon and Growth Marketing Conference.

You know how people say they’re good? Try this one for size.

One time Mark Zuckerberg came up to Logan and asked him for a picture.

In a world of so many self-proclaimed Marketing “experts” and “gurus” out there, it’s easy to lose sight of who has real credibility. Those who get unsolicited praise yet alone get asked for pictures from guys like Mark, now that’s true authority.

Another way to see if someone’s truly an expert is to ask if they’re someone who publishes their knowledge freely and openly.

Logan has written extensively on his blog and gives world-class value on Facebook Marketing.

Did I mention he’s only 27 and he started 2 years ago?

Hard to believe but everything is true.

So how did Logan become a “master” at Digital Marketing and how can you become a master as well?

Not so long ago, Logan was a high school student working at a Subway getting paid minimum wage. One time as he was working he was even held-up at gunpoint.

Just several years later, he became a student at Brigham Young University and studied advertising.

It wasn’t until he reached out to Dennis Yu, a Marketing Pioneer, that he started his apprenticeship and quickly closed the gap to become world-class in the span of two years.

He found a true Master.

To Master Digital Marketing, Identify A True Master

Dennis Yu is an internationally renown speaker on Facebook Marketing. He’s keynoted for the Biggest Stages in the Industry such as L2E, PubCon, and Conversion Conference.

Dennis has over 50,000 hours of Digital Marketing experience and it’s taken him a lifetime to get there.

Through mentorship, Dennis quickly handed the keys of the kingdom and taught Logan everything he knew about Digital Marketing.

The only way this was able to work was Dennis systematized his decades of experience through a collection of checklists and documented processes.

Logan went through a phase of Learning, Doing and Teaching.

At the start of his Marketing Career, he was working on his foundation and drank the water hose of knowledge and technical expertise Dennis was throwing at him.

Then once Logan grasped the material, he began Doing and working with clients like the Golden State Warriors and Ashely Furniture.

Eventually, he gained the competency to teach upcoming young-adults and now manages and is head-trainer for the 53-person company he co-founded with Dennis, BlitzMetrics.

All along the way, Dennis offered him the guidance and mentorship but at the end of the day, it was Logan who implemented.

Hard-work was critical to the recipe.

In fact, the first time Logan met Dennis, Logan drove 13 hours to meet Dennis and every minute along the way, he studied the marketing materials Dennis gave him.

When it comes to mentorship, Dennis was Logan’s Yoda.

It was as much as Dennis mentorship that helped Logan become a master but also Logan’s diligence and relentless work ethic. So let’s say you have the discipline and work-ethic.

How do you identify your Yoda?

How to Identify a True Master

Unfortunately, without some skin in the marketing game, it’s very difficult to identify who’s truly a pro and who’s a fake.

Amateur Marketers get away with just knowing one new feature or one new tool to stay ahead of the customer but that doesn’t mean they’re true experts.

Here are some guidelines for identifying a true master:

  1. Do they have a track record of case studies that are published for anyone to see?

    1. Look at what AdWeek had to say on how Dennis helped the Golden Warriors boost Ticket Sales.

  2. Do they publish their knowledge and expertise freely?

    1. Read the hundreds of posts Dennis has authored over the years talking about Digital Marketing at Dennis-Yu.com

Consider these two factors, and you’re well on your way.

Shortcut Your Time

Logan started off 2 years ago with minimal knowledge in digital marketing. (The guy was working at Pizza Hut 2 years ago!)

Today, he is at the forefront of Marketing Innovation and just this past weekend was asked to be on the Board of Advisory for Mobile Monkey, the top Facebook Messenger platform company, founded by Larry Kim of WordStream.

Follow Logan’s footsteps and seek out a true “master” at Digital Marketing. Do that and you’ll be able to take a shortcut your time.

You never know, you might be on CNN one day weighing in on Facebook.

This weekend I talked to Dennis and he said it took him 20 years to get to the point where he’s at and in just 6 months through his training and mentorship he can get guys like Logan and guys like me to that stage.

If you want to learn more about the processes and checklists Dennis has spent 20 years on, start by following our BlitzMetrics Facebook page and bookmarking our BlitzMetrics Blog.

I can’t promise you’ll be the King of Digital Marketing in 2 years but I can guarantee you that you’ll be taking the fast-track.

____

Kenny Hoang is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Mixed Martial Artist. He is the Manager of Optimization at BlitzMetrics and Founder of Adapt Modern, a boutique agency servicing MMA Gyms and Martial Arts Schools.  He publishes thoughtful essays and practical how-to’s on the topics of growth and impact, marketing fundamentals, and artificial intelligence at kenny.app.

Our leader was accused of exploiting third world labor — a view from one of the “exploited”

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A few months ago, the social media community had been on fire about a comment made by Mark Williams, an executive at LiveWorld, Inc., on a post of Dennis Yu, Chief Technology Officer at BlitzMetrics, saying that hiring offshore at $3/hour rate is exploitation.

Ironic isn’t it? Considering his role at Wal-Mart was managing the negative social comments about how they mistreat their employees.

This statement gained a lot of comments and reactions from different people. 

 

 

Standard wages are relative to the national economy.

John Jonas, Founder of onlinejobs.ph commented “The original trolling was actually about the ethics of paying someone a different amount than what a job was “worth”. That argument doesn’t hold up even in the USA as companies move from expensive places (San Fran) to less expensive places (Utah) to save money. Sometimes the moves are necessary just to stay in business.”

More of his comment are shown in the image.

The standard cost of living varies from country to country, and so does the standard wage. A dollar in the Philippines goes much further than a dollar in New York City. Ten dollars will pay for much less stuff in America than its equivalent in peso will buy in the Philippines.

As such, paying someone a wage based on their economy is in no way exploitation – this is what Matt Plapp, Head ROI Expert at Driven Media Solutions said in his comment; giving examples of how his friends in Kentucky, New York and L.A. have the same job but all paid different wages based on the economics of that region.

Outsourcing gives growing businesses a competitive edge.

The natural outcome is for businesses get labor from less developed countries because they can hire at a lower cost than they can locally. Thus, reducing cost but not compromising the quality of work.

Outsourcing benefits not just the clients but the employees as well. John Huntinghouse, the Digital Content Manager for Epic Marketing, said, “Outsourcing a great team = better results for the clients and improved living wages for employees. This is a main driver of how countries grow, economically speaking, to allow them to thrive and have higher standards of living. Every life matters and efforts in improving the lives of families in other countries shouldn’t be constantly viewed as a negative.”

 

Let’s take a look at some of the comments made by other business owners who outsource.

John remarked on the pains of hiring locally and expressed how VAs in the Philippines helped him achieve his mission.

Julia McCoy of Express Writers shared her thoughts on hiring offshore.

Chris Ducker, also known as the the “Virtual CEO”, a serial entrepreneur who owns and operates three businesses in the Philippines, also made his comment about his incredible Filipino staff.

Jeff Hunter, an Outsourcing Tycoon  said he does not discriminate when it comes to talent.

And the accused, Dennis Yu, who actually treats his VAs like family.

There is no doubt VAs can make reliable, cost-effective employees for businesses, but how do they feel about their wages?

Here are the comments of some of BlitzMetrics VAs that are paid with a starting wage of $3/hour.

Ping agreed that the same job in New York won’t get you the same pay in another state and that $3/hour is just the right rate for new hire.

“I don’t feel exploited.” Alain said. He believes he is receiving a fair rate as the cost of living in the Philippines is lowered compared to the Western countries. And, as his skill set grows, so will the pay.

While having time to enjoy his family and hobbies because of the flexible schedule, Tom is okay with his pay as he gets to work with awesome brands. “Exert more effort if you want to rise faster,” he said.

G’Ralz explained why $3/hour is way above than the minimum wage in the Philippines. He values the relationships built and the opportunity to create impact more than a few extra dollars per hour.

Kim feels that she gets more than what she contributes right now. The training and guidance from the company helps her improve everyday. Besides, nobody said it’s going to be $3/hour forever!

Working is never about JUST the pay.

More than just receiving great pay, we, employees seek more — satisfaction, good work relationships, and training and development. We are all human beings, after all.

Being treated as family is what really counts. That’s why I am just so blessed to be part of BlitzMetrics! We are not machines, we are a team working together from different parts of the planet, coordinating online and in person.

                                                                                                                         

And, we don’t just work and learn, we also love to have fun!

   

                                                                                                        Pardon the crappy picture. ☺

So, to sum this up:

  • The value of a dollar varies from place to place, and so does the standard wage. A $3/hour rate in New York is way too low, but it can feed a family in the Philippines.
  • Outsourcing helps businesses grow as it is cost-effective, efficient, and strategic. At the same time, it gives life-changing opportunities to offshore employees.
  • $3/hour is just a STARTING rate, which means, you’ll get a raise based on your performance. Your pay depends on the effort you exert. Plus, you’re not going to do it on your own, you have mentors and teammates to help you out!
  • Working is more than just the pay that we’re getting. It’s a big check to be in a company that offers respect, provides opportunity, extends appreciation, and above all, remains open to feedback on how the company could do better to serve clients and build the team.

A $3/hour STARTING rate to work from home with a flexible schedule and a very supportive team is definitely a great catch for us here in the Philippines. You see, I’m a full time mother and a full time employee at the same time. Others may see the pay as exploitive but believe it or not, I earn more than my husband gets from working locally!

If exploiting can help build a family’s future, then I’d love to be exploited! LOL

That’s my take. How about yours?

 

P.S.

The power of the community has turned Mark Williams around to see his error. He said that it was not his intention to hurt anyone’s feelings or disparage anyone and he apologized to everyone he has offended. Now, he is studying the programs of BlitzMetrics and sees the awesomeness of the VAs —  loyal, joyful, hard-working people.

The Real Story of the Latest Facebook Scandal and Zuckerberg’s Hearing

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The media continues to contort this Cambridge Analytica-Facebook story. I was just on CNN International to shed some light on this “scandal.”

This is what you need to know about the Facebook Fiasco.

1) Facebook cannot solve this problem.

There was no data breach. It was never possible for Cambridge Analytica to use that data for personalized targeting.

This is a user education issue disguised as a security problem.

2) Almost everything you hear about this situation is horribly misinformed.

Cambridge Analytica, the self-proclaimed experts, and the media are not engineers, so they manipulate the public for whatever story sounds best to them, regardless of the facts.

3) Government regulation isn’t the answer, either.

These smart, underpaid lawyers, some who have data science backgrounds, understand that “something must be done”, but don’t have a technical solution when the masses willingly give away their data to any app, social network, manufacturer, or retailer.

4) The situation is only going to get worse.

Holding attention is the primary goal for Facebook, since more attention means more ads served. The algorithms of Facebook and Google use Relevance Score and Quality Score to seek the highest engagement rate, so incendiary content naturally wins.

5) People will gradually see Facebook as the obvious scapegoat.

Facebook will be the lightning rod, while the massive network of companies that have truly scary data powers (I’ve seen what they do first-hand and you have never heard of them) will quietly keep growing.

6) The thing that will perhaps kill Facebook is their reaction to regulation and public outcry, not the actions themselves.

In the midst of their crisis, which they have only finally admitted is a problem, they ignore advocates like us who understand the system and have 3rd party, objective authority to educate the public about how to behave online.

Here’s my take from my recent segment on CNN.

HOWELL: From an insider perspective, an industry inside or like yourself. I’d like to get your thoughts about Zuckerberg’s apology, saying that they didn’t do enough at the time.

YU: George, it wasn’t much they’d really could have done because there is no way that by sharing someone else’s data that they could have used that for targeting… the data was only available to the particular app that collected it.

They didn’t have a security or a privacy breach… Someone shared data that wasn’t even really usable, right? So, Facebook had to apologize for breach of trust, but there wasn’t a privacy issue. So, they are trying to apologize for something where there’s not a clear problem or issue to solve.

Howell and I have discussed this several times on the air now. Here’s a video of another one of our segments.

Since that broadcast, Facebook has taken drastic action by removing data from the ads interface and rolling out a timeline for the removal of third party data from the platform.

Facebook is taking preemptive measures to get ahead of the regulators in Washington, as Zuckerberg goes to Capitol Hill.

Logan was just on CNN talking about what Facebook and its users can expect in coming weeks. We already know some of what’s coming.

 

We’ve seen the specific action plan Facebook put in place to remove third-party targeting options. Here’s a note from our Facebook rep at Blitz:

“Specifically, over the next six months, we will remove the ability to use Partner Categories, a targeting solution that enables third-party data providers to offer their targeting directly on Facebook. While leveraging third-party data is a common industry practice and we’ve put good protections in place, we believe this step will help improve people’s privacy on Facebook.

  • May 10: After this date, you will no longer be able to create or edit campaign using Partner Categories built on audiences from the UK, Germany, and France; however, they will be allowed to continue running until May 24.
  • May 25: We will no longer deliver to Partner Categories built on audiences from the UK, Germany, and France, and these targeting options will no longer be available for use on our platform. You will be notified to update any targeting containing impacted Partner Categories before this date.
  • June 30: Last day for creating new or editing existing campaigns using non-EU Partner Categories; they will be allowed to run until September 30.
  • October 1: All other Partner Categories will no longer be available as targeting options on our platform and we will stop delivering against these audiences. You will be notified to update your targeting by this date.”

Things are getting harder for us advertisers.

They are banning ad accounts left and right with no appeal process—their judgment is swift, and their ruling is final.

Meanwhile, we see ads like this on LinkedIn.

If SnackNation were to try this on Facebook, they’d get shut down in a second.

While Facebook takes the heat, everyone else is quietly making ads on LinkedIn, Twitter, SnapChat, Quora, and other places that have crazy good targeting and hardly any oversight.

But the average Facebook user isn’t privy to this, and good luck trying to explain to the media with their pre-formed bias.

Unable to educate, Facebook must APPEAR compliant, so they removed most of the publicly visible targeting options, which they acknowledge weren’t used heavily anyway. It was just a few people making noise to the media on something that could happen, but in practice never did.

And all of this noise when, in reality, the data and targeting under the hood only grows more powerful.

The Facebook money-printing engine hums along just fine, with advertisers hooking up their business via the Facebook IV and pressing the vending machine style buttons for the business result they want.

Besides, it seems that everyone forgot they have to delete Instagram too.