devopsy.kinsta.cloud

Author: Wendy Dessler

  • Social Media Marketing for Businesses

    Social Media Marketing for Businesses

    There are over 3 billion social media users worldwide, and over 70% of successful marketers are convinced that social media have, in one way or the other, contributed to their businesses’ exponential growth. Perhaps this is what makes social media a preferred marketing medium for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and corporate businesses as well.

    However, one primary concern is if it’s worth investing in social media marketing for your business. Should it top your list of marketing strategies for the New Year?

    Well, to some extent, your decision here will be influenced by the audience you’re targeting, but then marketing on social media is certainly something you shouldn’t ignore. To help you get started with marketing on social media, we’ll touch on:

    1. Social media marketing definition.
    2. The benefits of social media marketing.
    3. How to do social media marketing the right way.

    Let’s dive in.

    What’s the Meaning of Social Media Marketing?

    Social media marketing (SMM) is utilizing social media websites and platforms to promote your brand. These platforms include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, etc.

    Usually, the primary goal of utilizing these mediums is to create captivating content and infographics that users on these platforms can share on their social networks. You can post videos, texts, images and updates, etc. to drive engagement on the site and keep it active.

    This will be crucial in helping you boost brand exposure and, most importantly, increase conversions. Now, getting started with social media marketing for your business is easy, but if you wish to build a solid brand reputation, the security of your audience comes first.

    There are lots of ways you can ensure your audience’s security, for example, advising them not to share their confidential data, such as login details, with strangers. Still, you must also do your part to help them preserve these data. One of the foolproof ways of doing this is ensuring that your business website is fully encrypted with SSL certificates.

    An SSL certificate, in this case, will ensure all the data shared on the site are fully encrypted and kept out of reach of cybercriminals who might be trying to steal confidential data like credit card details that are shared on your website.

    What Are the Benefits of SMM?

    Let’s take a step back in time to two decades ago when there was no social media. Interaction with people over long distances was a nightmare–same for a business struggling to build a client base.

    Before the 1900s, you could only use letters to pass messages across long distances. It was almost impossible for startups to build a following.

    Fast forward to the late 1900s, when social media was introduced; businesses have leveraged different forms of communications, including emails, to connect to prospects. While email marketing isn’t dead yet, social media have revolutionized the entire marketing industry.

    Here are just a few benefits of SMM:

    Boost in Website Traffic

    Website traffic is the holy grail of any successful online business–and it doesn’t matter much whether it’s organic or paid traffic, so long as there’s conversion. With a proper ad targeting technique, social media will give you the dream client base of people that are solely interested in your products.

    Besides, it also boosts your overall search engine rankings. If you share captivating content that is shared by most people, you get more inbound traffic, something which is bound to improve your SEO rankings because the search engines will see your brand as a reputable one.

    Increased Brand Awareness

    The brand awareness aspect here still touches on the type of content you share online. This means that if you want to attract a large following, it’s always crucial that you focus on the content you share online, ensuring that it is one that resonates with your target audience.

    People will always share content that offers solutions to their everyday problems. They will also share content that is appealing to their eyes, and if you can produce such kind of content, you’ll surely get the word out about your business in several social circles.

    Social Media Marketing is Cheap

    Think of TV ads and billboards, etc….While it may be a bit costly and a little difficult targeting a specific audience with TV ads or billboards, social media marketing is way more direct and cost-effective.

    For example, if you wish to use a medium such as Facebook, you’ll be able to choose the audience you want to reach. Besides, the costs are affordable, and you can easily reach a wider audience with a smaller ad budget.

    Increased Conversion

    Most brands prefer the use of how-to videos, guides and real customer testimonials on these social media platforms to promote their brands. This way, the businesses do humanize not only their brands, but also offers a smart way of solving problems.

    This strategy increases conversion because it gives the target customers a desire to use a specific company’s products or services.

    It’s Flexible

    You are not restricted to connect with your audience to a time. With social media marketing, you can always tweak your schedules to get the most time with your target audience.

    Besides, there are lots of free and paid SMM tools you can use to schedule posts, so they go live when your audience is most likely to interact with them.

    How to Do SMM the Right Way

    Just like any other technique, SMM also has its fair share of challenges. Before getting conversions, improved brand awareness and web traffic are things that will be hard to come by for you and you need to mull over below three pillars for running a successful SMM campaign.

    Set Your SMM Goals

    Setting your goals will make it easy focusing on your strategies. Your goals should be tailored on a mission to post content on your site not just for promotional purposes, but to drive awareness about the business.

    Most importantly, you should focus on connecting with prospects and building a relationship with them. If you don’t know where to start, check your peers and feel free to copy and try something that works from them.

    Choose a Target Social Audience

    SMM was designed to be used as a targeted marketing strategy. This is not the time to try the old spray and pray techniques.

    Identify your audience and post content that resonates with them. You can use social media tools to help you understand your audience’s behavior and trends, so you’re always up to date with current events.

    Plan Your Posts 

    It’s not all about scattering content at any time on social media. Veteran marketers believe that planning your posts will help you come up with insightful content that will offer a solution to the audience and spur up engagement.

    You can also schedule your posts and only post them at times when your prospects are active on social media. It’s also recommendable that you check analytics to understand your audience’s behavior and come up with something that will put you on the same page with them right away.

    Bottom Line

    Building a following and increasing conversion with social media shouldn’t be a tough job. If your strategies aren’t delivering 100%, consider tracking your competitors and use A/B tests to find out the plan which works best for you.

    — Wendy Dessler

  • Demystifying Crucial Phases of Project Management

    Demystifying Crucial Phases of Project Management

    With competition becoming more intense for development companies, project management is becoming a more integral part of every project. It’s no longer limited to the actual creation of a new project. Now, it’s about planning, communicating, collaborating and analyzing. With so many moving parts, it’s difficult to understand all of the important phases of project management.

    This guide will cover all the phases of project management so you can understand how they apply to your projects in DevOps. Even if you don’t have a background in project management, you’ll be a pro in no time.

    Defining Project Management

    First, we need to articulate exactly what project management is. It’s the discipline of initiating, planning and executing the work of a team to achieve specific goals within a time frame. It involves a lot of interteam collaboration, and it isn’t any single activity.

    Project management experts draw knowledge from areas including human resources, communications, risk management and even accounting. That being said, there are a lot of moving parts that can make project management tricky, particularly with large projects or growing teams. Knowing all of the phases of a project process makes it possible to navigate these areas effectively.

    A project process is any unique action that represents the entire project internal process within DevOps. This is usually decided by the project manager. It might include instructions, procedures, plans or organizational software.

    Understanding the Phases of Project Management

    When you’re talking about the project life cycle, you need to understand the project management phases. Throughout the project life cycle, you should be able to define clear goals. These will include a combination of the following:

    • What will be accomplished?
    • How will you measure what has been accomplished?
    • Who will work on the project?
    • How will you monitor progress?

    Having these questions above in mind will direct the project along its life cycle. Without any clear initiative or direction, you can’t expect team members to know where to go with their tasks. That’s why clear goals are key in the world of DevOps, where every task matters.

    Now that you know the importance of clear goal setting, it’s time to finally define the phases of project management. There are five in total, and they are:

    1. Initiation
    2. Planning
    3. Execution
    4. Performance monitoring
    5. Closure

    Phase 1: Initiation

    This is the beginning of the project. In this phase, you’ll want to define your goals, what the project is exactly, and how it fits into your company goals. One of the biggest pitfalls in the world of development is choosing to start a new project for technology’s sake. While there’s always something to be gained in innovation, avoid falling for shiny-object syndrome. Just because you have new technology doesn’t mean it makes sense as part of your bigger business strategy.

    To make sure you’re choosing the right project for your team, ask the following questions in this phase:

    • Why are you choosing this project now?
    • Is this project realistic?
    • What does the end result look like?

    From there, you’ll need to get approval for the project from higher-ups. This might take some time, so be sure to articulate your goals clearly at this stage so you don’t waste energy. Finally, you or your project manager will create a project initiation document (PID), which is a formal outline of the purpose and requirements of a new project.

    It’s smart to include developers across teams in these initial meetings to ensure they can give guidance about the technical challenges of a new project. Remember, collaboration is key at every stage.

    Phase 2: Planning

    Now that you’ve gotten the green light, it’s time to create a plan of action. This will involve goal setting and job responsibilities for all team members of all levels. Don’t forget about the S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting process to make sure you’re creating goals that are realistic. Remember, smart goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound by a deadline.

    This is the most vital stage of project management. It’s when you’ll put pen to paper and work out any kinks. Poor planning will reflect itself in every stage after, so take the time to work with teams to decide the best plan of action. Limit your deadlines for every task to 10 days or les to ensure you don’t let obstacles take away from your final product.

    Phase 3: Execution

    The time for planning is over and now it’s time to get down to business. This is exciting because you’ll see your project start to shape itself. Your programmers are busy coding, designers are building graphics and managers are creating progress reports.

    Don’t forget to update your higher-ups during this process, even with small changes. Regular updates are necessary to make sure everything is progressing according to schedule. Conduct weekly meetings to make sure everyone knows how the entire team is progressing as well as their own next steps. A project management software is valuable at this stage.

    Phase 4: Project Performance

    Now that the project is completed, it’s time to reflect on your success. Did everything align with your original goals? Did you meet your deadlines? Think about your objectives, your deliverables, your cost,and the performance of the project. How did all of these things measure up?

    You’ll base your future project plans on the success of your analysis at this stage. Even though the project is officially done, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still more to learn. Also, don’t forget about preparing maintenance for your software going forward. You might need a program like Amazon CloudWatch – monitoring and logging service to continue to learn about the success of your project into the future.

    Phase 5: Closure

    Your project is completed and your analysis is coming to a close. It’s time to follow-up on any final pieces and close the door on your project for good. This is also known as the post-mortem phase because it’s when you’ll decide your key takeaways and stop progressing.

     

    Project managers will meet together to decide key players, project performance, and deadline analysis. How can you learn from the events of the past few days or weeks to grow during your next project? Don’t overlook this stage. It’s important to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. If something didn’t work out the way it was planning, talk about it.

     

    Finally, host a team meeting to talk about how the project went as a group. You might have a different perspective than those under you, and it’s important that everyone feels heard. Take team member feedback seriously so you can learn from it for next time.

    Manage Projects Successfully

    In the world of DevOps, project management plays a lead role. Don’t overlook any stage in the process as not being necessary. It’s important to have a well-rounded, thoughtful approach to leadership. There is no perfect way to lead a group in big projects, but you can use every phrase to carefully tackle new challenges and grow your team strengths.

     

    When you practice these stages above, they’ll come naturally. You’ll notice each stage leading gently into the next, and that’s how you make a business that’s ready for anything. Every project manager will experience some level of failure, but learn how to roll with the punches and keep moving forward.

    — Wendy Dessler

  • Tips for Successfully Adjusting to Life as a Project Manager

    Tips for Successfully Adjusting to Life as a Project Manager

    When you switch to a new work environment, it takes time to adjust to the new surroundings. As a project manager, you have to be ready to lead your team on the path to success while ensuring a good system of supervision and support. At this stage of your career, if you are feeling a little tense, you are not alone: Many managers often feel anxious about adjusting to being a business manager. You need to spend more time to develop the characteristics of a good manager so that you can handle the most delicate responsibilities in the business. Here are several highlighted tips to successfully adjust in your role as a business project manager.

    Source – Pixabay

    Learn Team Management Skills

    There is no doubt that independent work has its own importance in an organization, but you cannot ignore the importance of teamwork. The idea of team management is to develop a supportive and collaborative company culture by encouraging team members to work together. Make some efforts to encourage communication within your team and provide a proper channel for feedback. In addition, take the time to organize individual meetings to build trust and a higher sense of responsibility in your team members.

    Implement a Growth-Oriented Approach

    Every project manager needs to work diligently to help employees progress on an individual level as well as on group level. Every great business needs a good leader to grow, so it is important to establish healthy personal relationships with all members of your team so that you can know more about their interests and hidden talents. Effective managers always make efforts to facilitate a growth-oriented approach for overall employee development—this, in turn, pays off in the form of greater productivity and team chemistry.

    Follow an Inclusive Process

    Although you want your team members to take risks and be proactive in pursuing project goals, it is also important to help them feel comfortable in doing so. Make efforts to motivate team members and create an inclusive work culture. Let your team raise their individual ideas, opinions, and concerns so that they can find easy ways to cope with challenging work conditions. When team members have the flexibility to start a conversation and share their feedback, they can be more innovative in tackling challenging projects.

    It is easy to feel anxious as you step into the role of a project manager for the first time. The direction of the team and how projects are completed will be based on your ability to lead. However, the primary approach to reducing these types of feelings is by focusing on building and molding your team. To paraphrase Benjamin Law, owner of Crazyleaf Design: By prioritizing your team interests, highlighting every member’s unique skills and creating an integrated work environment, you can better adjust to being a project manager. These can contribute to being a more successful manager in the long term.

    — Wendy Dessler

  • The Value of APM in Application Building and Management

    The Value of APM in Application Building and Management

    There are literally billions of smartphone users on the planet. Many of these users interact with apps on a daily basis. With all of the competition in the app market, developers have to stay on the cutting edge of technology to keep their programs both functional and popular.

    It is imperative that you adequately monitor your app after it has launched. Getting an idea of how well your app is performing can alert you to issues that may need to be addressed. Reading articles such as, “What is application performance management? 10 APM features” is an excellent way to wrap your mind around this concept.

    The following are just some of the things you need to know about app performance management and what it can do for your programs.

    Launch and Resume Times

    When trying to get a handle on how well your app is performing, be sure to focus on both the start and resume time users are experiencing. In most cases, startup will take much longer than resume time if the app is continuously running in the background.

    Both launch times affect the user experience in a significant way. If startup and resume times are getting increasingly slower, chances are your app needs a bit of retooling to keep up with your user’s needs.

    UI Response Times

    In the past, app developers would use network request times to gauge how fast users could submit and complete actions on their program. However, users only care about how fast their action completes, now how fast the network actually responds.

    When measuring UI response times, do so according to the device or OS the user is working with. This will allow you to:

    • Focus more on individual platforms and the problems they may have.
    • Respond to performance issues on a case-by-case basis.
    • Develop solutions for these problems in an easy and comprehensive way.

    When measuring UI responses times, be sure to rank the tasks by importance. By focusing on the issues that will affect user experience, you can keep your app running efficiently. Focusing first on tasks that don’t really matter will lead to the user experience suffering as a result.

    Monitoring App Crashes is Crucial

    Crashing apps are bad for both you and the user. Not only will they result in a lower user experience, app crashes also mean an increased amount and lost revenue for you. When your app crashes, you need to look at all angles to figure out why this happened and what can be done to fix it.

    Did this user’s actions cause the crash? What types of crashes are affecting UI? The answers to these questions will help you diagnose and prevent future issues. Having an adequate error logging system in place will allow you to get in-depth information when crashes occur. This information will help you fix issues in a hurry and avoid excessive app downtime.

    Helpful Tips and Tricks That Make Application Monitoring Easier

    Now that you know what types of things you need to be monitoring, you will have to figure out how to make application performance monitoring (APM) work for your company. Ideally, you want to provide users with apps that are both easy to use and reliable. If you are developing apps for your employees, you need to ensure they are able to boost productivity.

    By adequately monitoring your applications, you can find and address issues that exist with ease. Closely monitoring your apps will also give you a better understanding of how users are interfacing with them.

    Here are some of the things you should keep in mind when trying to put an app monitoring plan in place:

    Decide Which Apps Need to be Monitored First

    The first decision you have to make during this process is which apps you want to monitor. If you are monitoring the apps you provide to your employees, pick the most popular ones get metrics from. Are you unsure about what apps your employees use the most? If so, you need to get them to weigh in on this important decision.

    Often times, employees will be able to provide you with an outside perspective. With this perspective, you can clearly define the parameters of your application performance management plan. Neglecting to get this type of guidance may lead to you monitoring apps that are rarely used, which is a waste of time and money.

    What Critical Transactions Will You Monitor?

    To figure out what type of app transactions  you will monitor, you have to put yourself in the mindset of the end user. By doing this, you should be able to create a map of user functions. Once you have this map in place, you should be able to easily see what types of transactions you need to monitor.

    If you are monitoring an app you have given to employees, you need to map out workflows. Is the app in question making them more productive? If employees or users are having to go through too much hassle to access common functions, you have to work on streamlining your app. While this will take a bit of trial and error, it is definitely worth the effort.

    Polling Frequencies and Alerting Policies

    Adequately monitoring key transactions within your app allows you to identify performance problems earlier. When things such as threshold violations occur, you need to determine who should be alerted. Not only will you need to set alerting policies, you also need to figure out how many times a certain violation needs to happen before you send out an alert.

    Setting the violation count too low can lead to false alarms, setting it too high can put the functionality of your app in jeopardy. By taking control of your app’s monitoring, you can avoid user issues and crashes.

    Custom Reports are a Good Thing

    The performance reports you provide shareholders, employees or investors should be tailored to their needs. In most cases, investors and shareholders will only be concerned with how much productivity and capital an app is generating. This is why you will need to avoid giving them app performance reports with in-depth error reports on them.

    Generating detailed reports for employees with the various error messages an app is generating is crucial. Providing your team with this information can make it much easier for them to address ongoing app issues. Failing to get help with the monitoring and maintaining of your app can lead to a number of problems in the future.

    Create a Centralized IT Response to Deal with App Performance Issues

    While closely monitoring how your app is performing is important, you will need a system in place for dealing with the problems this monitoring can discover. Oftentimes, large businesses will have multiple apps in use at any given time. This is why having the right team and response plan in place is so important.

    Even the slightest misstep can lead to an app becoming unreliable and unusable. The information you get through monitoring the performance of an app can help you nip problems in the bud before they cause any real damage. The last thing you want to do is ignore signs of app trouble due to the serious issues it can cause.

    Keeping Everyone in the Loop is Vital

    Some business owners think that app performance monitoring is a solo sport. Usually, this attitude will cause a variety of missteps that will make an app less useful and more problematic. To use the data from APM properly, a business owner will need to involve their entire team. With all hands on deck, a business owner can delegate certain parts of the app monitoring process to various team members.

    Not only will this take a lot of stress off of a business owner, it will make this process more successful. In most cases, business owners who attempt to handle the app monitoring process alone will become overwhelmed and will make crucial mistakes as a result.

    Use App Performance Data to Optimize a Program

    One of the biggest misconceptions about app performance monitoring is that it can only be used to find functionality issues. The reality is that this data can help you see how to make your app more useful to employees or consumers. Failing to constantly improve and optimize the apps you have can lead to them becoming obsolete. In the world of technology, you either roll with the changes or the changes roll over you.

    Embrace the Power of Technology

    Creating a competitive edge should be one of the main concerns you have a business owner. Utilizing the power of technology is a great way to make your company unique. By providing both employees and consumers with useful apps, you can stay on an upward trajectory.

    The time and effort you put into adequately monitoring app performance will definitely pay off. If you are unsure about how to start the app monitoring process, reach out to an IT professional for help.

    — Wendy Dessler

  • Hunting Down the Mythical High-Quality Code

    Hunting Down the Mythical High-Quality Code

    The definition of high-quality code is hard to pin down. Depending on who you talk to, there are a lot of different theories on what makes code good or bad. Sometimes, this line is blurry, and that’s why hunting down the mythical high-quality code is a complicated process. Most importantly, how can you define high-quality code? This guide will share a strong definition of what makes high-quality code, as well as valuable tips for ensuring you find it in your own work and the work of others.

    Created by GraphiqaStock – Freepik.com

    Defining High-Quality Code

    While it’s impossible to find a single definition of high-quality code that every developer of all time can agree on, we can all agree on a few key things. First, the code needs to be correct to be considered quality. Next, it needs to be capable of handling error and different exceptional situations. How will the program react in an error situation? Finally, how maintainable is the code? Will it take time to change over time or is it something that has a long lifetime? These three things form the foundation for any high-quality code, so let’s break them down.

    Code Correctness

    The most common thing to look for when evaluating whether a code is high-quality is if the code is correct. Does it perform its intended function? If you’re creating a function that creates a new user account, you’ll need to have a function which creates a new entry in the account database, for instance, as well as follow-up actions. Do all of these steps work correctly?

    When reviewing code correctness, it’s important to look for correctness in terms of this particular code function. Many types of code functions can serve different purposes depending on the situation. Testing the process or application is a clear way to analyze correctness.

    Error Management

    The next code quality is error management. Error situations are inevitable, but the right error management can prevent small problems from corrupting an entire application. Will the program instance fail on its own or will it continue to corrupt other data? Also important is how the error will be logged within the system.

    To review error management, you can perform a series of actions to try to reveal any potential errors. From there, you’ll be able to find an error trace (or lack thereof) within the project’s log. What context is included within error reports? How are these messages revealed, and how will developers debug any code? How does the application or program manage current errors? Does it shut down or does it return an error report? Errors happen, but they can be embarrassing, especially when users are on the other end. Solid error management is essential to any high-quality code.

    Code Maintainability

    Finally, the more a code is able to be maintained, the easier it will be to grow as needed. Bringing new developers onto a new project is impossible is the code isn’t maintainable. How will the code be used in the future? Ask these questions when reviewing the code to ensure it’s easy to maintain in the long run.

    Consider the following elements when looking into maintainability:

    • Class and File Structure: Are things saved in the right files and the correct format?
    • Function Naming: Are functions named in the style of the source code? It’s common to follow the already established style to be consistent.
    • Use: All the classes, modules, and variables included in the code are actually in use.
    • Comments: How many comments are included in your code and do these comments follow pre-established style?

    Now that you understand the three aspects that form the foundation of quality code, you’re ready to learn how to review code! While many developers believe you’re unable to review your own code, there really is no right or wrong, as long as you have a strong system. Let’s continue to explore the best ways to review code!

    Created by Iconicbestiary – Freepik.com

    Reviewing Code

    How do you review code for the qualities above? There is a lot of disagreement among developers over whether it’s best to have a third party review your code or if you can review your code yourself. This is up to personal preference, but you should keep several tips in mind when reviewing code. Follow these tips to be efficient and effective with your review process.

    Break the Code into Chunks

    Always review small chunks at a time. Go function by function to avoid missing any small errors. Going slow helps you keep the context of each new function fresh in your mind. Don’t try to tackle more than three functions in a sitting, since you’re likely to lose focus. Take a break before reviewing another chunk of code.

    Take a Break

    Whether you’re reviewing someone else’s code or your own, take a break. Image your code like laundry. You need to hang it out on the line a bit before it can dry. When you’re actively working on it, you are too close to see any errors. Taking a break to grab a coffee, go for a walk or even just look at the sky is a great way to return with a fresh mind.

    Save Your Edits

    Avoid fixing issues while you’re reviewing. If you’re attempting to both write code and review code at the same time, mistakes are likely to happen. Instead, take accurate notes on your comments and questions while reviewing to look back with later.

    Automated Checkers

    While you shouldn’t rely completely on automated code checkers, they can be a great supplemental resource. Performance monitors can help you avoid errors and track performance over time.

    Remember, there is no single correct way to review your own code or someone else’s. Remember the criteria for high-quality code, and find a way to find it that works for you. Raising the quality of your code and others’ code takes time and practice. Adapt the tips above as needed to create a system that works for you.

    — Wendy Dessler