George Washington The First American President - 2200 Words

A founding father of America, James Butler, stated during the first Presidential elections, that â€Å"many of the members cast their eyes towards General Washington, as President, and shaped their ideas of the powers to be given a President, by their opinions of his virtue† (â€Å"George Washington† 127). He meant that George Washington was a man that, in the eyes of all the chair-holders, fit all the categories that a President should have. America at the time of George Washington was a colony of England. For over 150 years, England was the dominant power that controlled the do’s and don’t of the people living there. However, with the accumulation of laws and acts passed by the British, the Colonial Americans began to revolt. George Washington was one of these rebelling Americans. He acted as a leader for the Americans and surpassed the military and political powers in Europe. George Washington became the first American President because of his popularit y, his respect as a great military leader, and also because of his early political career; after accomplishing his goal of liberating America and becoming the first President, he established the idea of a culturally unified country, improved foreign policy, and also legalized laws and acts that are still in effect to this date. To begin, popularity was a heavy part that weighed the electoral votes towards the favor of General Washington. Long before the American Revolution had begun, Captain Washington, not yet popular at that time,Show MoreRelatedEssay on Biography of George Washington the First American President711 Words   |  3 PagesGeorge Washington was the first president of the United States. I think as my opinion, George Washington being president was a major turning point in US history. Mr. Washington had an interesting early life, before he was the president. Same goes for his presidency and after his presidency. Here is a overall look at George Washington’s life. George Washington was born on February 11, 1732 in Westmoreland, Virginia, British America, in his parents Pope’s Creek Estate. George Washington was the firstRead MoreWhy Was George Washington The Greatest President827 Words   |  4 Pages On September 19, 1796, George Washington presented his famous Farewell Address to the American people. One quote from that address that truly highlights Washingtons firm belief that the American people share the same, deep love of liberty is, â€Å"Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.† (Goodreads). George Washington became the first president of the United States of America on April 30Read MoreGeorge Washington : Man, Myth, Legend Essay1193 Words   |  5 PagesFrom cutting a cherry tree at the age of six to being the first president of the United States George Washington was a very influential man throughout his c areer. The topics of discussion will be his life before, during, and after his career, his major events, and the effects of his major events on the world. There shall be three subtopics amongst each main topic. For the first section, the subtopics are the importance of his birthdate and birthplace, childhood life, and his education. The secondRead MoreGeorge Washington765 Words   |  4 Pagesfew figures as large in American history as George Washington. His powerful leadership, determination, and endless patriotism was essential for winning the Revolutionary War, the creation of the United States Constitution, and the establishment of a new government. There are three defining events that happened to George during his life in colonial America. His proper childhood upbringing, his military leadership in the revolutionary war, and his election as the First President of the United States wereRead MoreGeorge Washington Farewell Address Essay1663 Words   |  7 PagesGeorge Washin gton, a very famous man known as the first President of the United States of America, was born on the 22nd of February, 1732 in the colony of Bridges Creek, Virginia. (George Presidential Early Life sec.1 para.3) He was born into a wealthy, land-owning family and was a very political individual. Washington served as a Major in the Virginia militia and also fought in the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763. In addition, Washington became a representative of the Virginia legislatureRead MoreAnalysis of William M Thayers A Biography of George Washington: The Patriot President691 Words   |  3 Pages In his biography of Americas founding father and first president, George Washington: The Patriot President, author William M. Thayer describes the heroic acts of leadership that Washington displayed while fighting in the American Revolution and during his two terms as President. Using a personal style that appeals to young readers, Thayer provides many glimpses into the private life of George Washington that give a better impression of the man behind one of historys most legendary figures. ByRead MoreThe Farewell Address Essay1422 Words   |  6 PagesGeorge Washington, a very famous man known as the first president of The United States of America was born on the 22nd of February in 1732 in Bridges Creek, a colony in Virginia. He was born into a wealthy, land-owning family and was a very political individual. George served as a major in the Virginia militia and also fought in the French and Indian War that occurred from 1754 to 1763. In addition, Washington became a representative of the Virginia Legislature where he was titled a commissionerRead MoreAccomplishments And Failures Of George Washington1738 Words   |  7 Pages21 April 2017 Many Triumphs and Failures of George Washington. George Washington had enormous amounts of failures, but he had achieved great things as well. From being a young boy living in Pope’s Creek, Virginia to becoming the president of the United States. He has faced a lot of hardships and failures. But through all of his hardships throughout his life he has become the greatest president of the United States, George Washington. George Washington had early influences as a child. His childhoodRead MoreGeorge Washington s The War For American Independence1251 Words   |  6 Pagespeople in American history, George Washington will always remain to be one of the brightest ones. This is not only because George Washington was the first president of the United States of America, but also because of his character. George Washington was more than just a politician, he was a national leader and an example for many of his followers. Many look to George Washington for the great things he accomplished in his lifetime. Winning the War for American Independence, being the first presidentRead MoreHow Do Americans View George Washington and Christopher Columbus Today?772 Words   |  4 PagesWashington had an impact on America during the late 1700’s, and Columbus had an impact on what he hoped was the West Indies in the late 1400’s and early 1500’s. George Washington and Christopher Columbus are viewed in two complete different ways. Columbus found America and brought the early English settlements over. Washington helped found our country. However even though both men affected our country both are viewed differently than today. George Washington set a legacy that we are still following

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and the Model of Human...

Running head: COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY AND THE MODEL Abstract Human behavior can be explained by a variety of biological, psychosocial, and environmental factors interacting on a person over time. The values, beliefs, and goals that determine the behaviors one engages in are developed through cognitive processes unique to each individual as a result of the interplay between previous learning and the aforementioned factors. When considered together, the Model of Human Occupation and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy give an explanation for this view of human behavior. These frames of reference are reviewed in regards to their conceptions of behavior, dysfunction, treatment approach, and their relevance to occupational therapy.†¦show more content†¦Volition is determined by ones innate drive to master his/her environment, as well as his/her beliefs surrounding a behavior (Bruce Borg, 1993). Personal causation, values, and interests comprise volition. Personal causation is the motivation and expectations surrounding a behavior. It incorporate s past successes and failures to form images of self-efficacy. Values represent the importance of certain behaviors to an individual. Interests are determined by the pleasure one derives from engaging in a specific occupation (Kielhofner Burke, 1980). Volition is believed to govern over the lower subsystems of the hierarchy (Kielhofner Burke, 1980). The middle subsystem is defined as habituation. Habituation is responsible for organizing behavior into roles, patterns, and routines. Roles reflect a group of behaviors with which an individual may have certain expectations of performance. The individuals beliefs and society influence these expectations. Roles contribute to self-identity and influence behavior. This organization allows for certain behaviors to be performed automatically and adapted to various environments. Performance, the lowest subsystem within the hierarchy, consists of the skills necessary for producing behavior. These include perceptual-motor processing skills, cognition, and communication. The function of the performance subsystem is to produce behaviors calledShow MoreRelatedA Look at Human Behavior: Cognitive-Behavioral Frame of Reference1849 Words   |  8 PagesHuman behavior can be perceived through an in finite amount of perspectives; each individual has their own philosophy regarding the topic. The question of why do people do what they do has been around for ages, and when occupational therapist are asked the question often they turn to theories and frames of references for answers. A frame of reference is a â€Å"set of internally consistent and related concepts, postulates and principles that could be used to guide practice† (Bruce Borg, 2007). TheseRead MorePerformance Environment Occupation Performance Model1007 Words   |  5 PagesPerformance-Environment-Occupation-Performance Model Occupational Therapy, along with many other professions, have models that guide the profession. These models, known as the Occupational-based Models of Practice, guide Occupational Therapists in the care of clients (Cole Tufano, 2008, p. 87). Although there are many models, each model has its own distinct features and focuses. Similar in many forms, they also have unique characteristics, and each have a different emphasis. These models have the guidingRead MorePsychology : Counseling And Therapy Professions Essay1489 Words   |  6 PagesImmediately after the encounter with the man at the hospital, I started researching counseling and therapy professions. I had most of the prerequisites to apply to the programs, minus an abnormal psychology class. The following semester, I enrolled in Abnormal Psychology and found it to be one of the most interesting classes I had ever taken. One day I was walking on campus and ran into a past classmate from high school. As we exchanged conversati on and talked about our future plans, she informedRead MoreOccupational Therapy : A Diverse Field1395 Words   |  6 PagesOccupational Therapy focuses primarily on helping people in the things they want and need to do for everyday life through therapy. Occupational therapy is a diverse field that is a powerful, science-driven, and evidence-based profession. This career field requires friendliness, empathy, no judgement, knowledge, and assertiveness. Occupational therapists must also have good written, verbal, and nonverbal communication skills and critical thinking skills. It is a physically, mentally, and emotionallyRead MoreFamily Therapy Approaches For The Client s Diverse Needs2102 Words   |  9 Pages Family Therapy Approaches Maryam Salimpour MFCC/556 June 2, 2015 Megan Crouse, MFT Family Therapy Approaches Therapists work different theoretical perspectives to meet the client’s diverse needs. The object is to offer verbal and nonverbal, expressive therapies, such as Narrative, Solution-Focused and Brief Therapy, Behavioral Therapy, and Cognitive Therapy. The concept is to take into account the therapist preferences and the issues that the therapist would like to approach for the client’sRead MoreThe Underlying Cause Of Veteran Suicide1953 Words   |  8 Pagesthe Armed Forces and How to Prevent It I will use two different disciplines the first being Psychology. Psychology has long been used to study suicide and why it happens. Journals in the manner of Clinical Psychology have developed a theoretical model that hypothesizes that depression and self-derogation may lead to a lack of purpose in life, which, in turn, may lead to suicide ideation. (Lisa L. Harlow, 2006) Others research has focused on physical pain, social suffering and fear. It’s noted thatRead MoreThe Movie The Rain Man With Having Autism 866 Words   |  4 Pageshaving autism. The autism symptoms disorder had several of Raymond’s characteristics, such impairment in social interaction, and multiple nonverbal behaviors. In this moment the Medical Model applies in Raymond case, when Raymond as a patient and needed a specialist for his psychological, behavioral, or cognitive disabilities. (Cole). Raymond could not look at people eyes, and most of the times slouched down spoken to keeping on a conve rsation. He refuse any kind the touch or even any fast anticipationRead MoreCase of Ruth1478 Words   |  6 Pagesof Personality In reality, Ruth appears to have superficially avoided normal rebellion and have suppressed her sexuality except for adopting a wifely role with the first man she dated. Although she followed the format of using her mother as a role model and having children by an acceptable husband, she apparently abdicated in the struggles of sexuality, rebellion, and identification, leaving these conflicts unresolved. Her conscious recollection of her parents’ are of a rigid, fundamentalist fatherRead MoreA Brief Comparison of Historical Paths for the Clinical and Counselling Streams of Psychology2301 Words   |  10 PagesClinical psychology is primarily concerned with the assessment, treatment, and study of populations who experience severe mental illness (Bechtoldt, Campbell, Norcross, Wyckoff, Pokrywa, 2000; Norcross, 2000) clinical psychologists mostly employ behavioral and psychoanalytic theoretical orientations when treating clients (Norcross, 2000). In contrast, counselling psychologists generally aim to support people who, while not typically suffering from severe mental illness, need assistance in overcomingRead MoreEtiology of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cbt)7923 Words   |  32 PagesCognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) of depression is a psychotherapeutic treatment approach that involves the application of specific, empirically supported strategies focused on changing nega tive thinking patterns and altering behavior. In order to alleviate the symptoms of depression, treatment is directed at the following three domains: cognition, behavioral and physiological. In the cognitive domain, patients learn to apply cognitive restructuring techniques so that negatively distorted thoughts

Analysis Of `` Leaves Of Grass `` By Walt Whitman

During the 19th-century people were deterred from the idea that through Christ you found your righteousness and the ability to be reliant not only Him, but upon yourself as well. Ralph Waldo Emerson dug deeper into this theory of being a self-reliant person in his writing, â€Å"Self-Reliance†. His rhetorical language throughout the speech, turned book, he explains exactly how an individual of the 19th century, becomes self-reliant. Although he was writing to a specific audience, the core values and - for his time- wildly unorthodox theories of this speech are relatable still to this day. Not long after this book was published, Emerson’s acquaintance and fellow writer, Walt Whitman, countered his theories in â€Å"Leaves of Grass†, later called†¦show more content†¦It’s like writing your own rules on life and actually living up to them. Much like Emerson also said shortly after that, â€Å"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected tho ughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.† (Emerson pg. 642). Here Emerson clearly states what everyone thinks and feels when reading powerful works of art, this could easily include the bible. Whenever we read the words we’ve so longed to say but forgotten how it releases a mystical feeling where for once we understand the words we so long to speak. This exhibits self-reliance because it boosts your trust in your own abilities; the reinforcement of the feelings or words you’ve forgotten along the way are a steady reminder of what you believe in and live by day-to-day. Another way Emerson establishes what it is like to be self-reliant is by stating, â€Å"The virtue in most request is conformity...† (Emerson pg. 643). Conformity is the act of being socially accepted by the world’s conventions or standards. Emmerson wrote against this, he strongly argued that anyone who conformed to societal standards. He made this very clear when he said, â€Å"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.† (Emerson pg. 643). The most profound thing that Emerson would have us take away from this reading would be to Trust thyself, a motto that ties together his whole intent behind writing self-reliance. (Emerson pg. 642). To depend on another sShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Walt Whitman s Leaves Of Grass 945 Words   |  4 PagesTyler Petry Walt Whitman Mar 20 2017 Walt Whitman was one of the greatest poets of the eighteen hundreds. Most of his poems can be found in his short book Leaves of Grass. He is one of the best known America s poets and set the standard for intellectual patriotic poems. Walt was born on May 31, 1819 in Long Island, New York. His father was an English carpenter and house builder whom was very strict. While hisRead MoreAn Inexplicable Nature of the American Identity Essay1242 Words   |  5 PagesBut as time progressed, the feeling of unlimited strength, time and space transformed into something that, for better or worse, was no longer shared by later poets. Those of the â€Å"New World† came to realize that their world never really managed to leave behind the faults of the â€Å"Old.† Societal tension rose as different poets and authors struggled to pin down the direction of American culture and its ideals. When no solid idea was able to capture American culture adequately, the concept of an ever-evolvingRead MoreSong of Myself by Walt Whitman Essay1343 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Song of Myself†, Walt Whitman reveals some of his views on democracy through the use of symbolism and free verse poetry. His use of symbolism and fre e verse poetry creates indeterminacy, giving the reader hints rather than answers about the nature of the poem. In the sixth part of â€Å"Song of Myself†, a child asks the narrator of the poem, â€Å"What is the grass?† (Whitman). Instead of simply giving an answer, the narrator cannot make up his mind, and stumbles on how to explain the grass to the child. ThroughRead More Whitman and Neruda as Grassroots Poets Essays1812 Words   |  8 PagesWhitman and Neruda as Grassroots Poets â€Å"The familial bond between the two poets [Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda] points not only to a much-needed reckoning of the affinity between the two hemispheres, but to a deeper need to establish a basis for an American identity: ‘roots,’ as Neruda referred to his fundamental link with Whitman† (Nolan 33). Both Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda have been referred to as poets of the people, although it is argued that Neruda with his city and country houseRead MoreWalts Whitmans Vision of America in Leaves of Grass17685 Words   |  71 PagesWalt Whitman’s vision of America in Leaves of Grass Valentine†©Abbet†© TRAVAIL†©DE†©MATURITE†© †© Sous†©la†©direction†©d’Anne†©Roland†Wurzburger†© Gymnase†©du†©Bugnon,†©Lausanne†© 2012†©  «I have sung the body and the soul, war and peace have I sung, and the songs of life and death, And the songs of birth, and shown that there are many births. I have offerd my style to every one, I have journeyd with confident step; While my pleasure is yet at the full I whisper So long! » Walt Whitman, So Long !, Deathbed editionRead MoreEssay on Walt Whitman1376 Words   |  6 PagesWalt Whitman In parting with traditional poetic formalities, Walt Whitman alleviated a burden that impeded his ability to achieve full poetic expression. To Whitman, the strict boundaries that formal meter, structure, and rhyme imposed set limits on his stylistic freedom. This is not to say that these limits prevented Whitman from conveying his themes. Rather, they presented a contradiction to which Whitman refused to conform. In Whitman’s eyes, to meet these formal guidelines one wouldRead More The Democratic Value of Whitmans Leaves of Grass Essay3334 Words   |  14 Pagesof Walt Whitmans Leaves of Grass evince an incipient awareness of the unifying and acutely democratic aspects of the poetry. An article in the November 13th, 1856, issue of the New York Daily Times describes the modest, self-published book of twelve seemingly formless poems: As we read it again and again, and we will confess that we have returned to it often, a singular order seems to arise out of its chaotic ver ses (2). The Daily Timess identification of order out of chaos in Leaves of GrassRead MoreAllen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California Literary Analysis1669 Words   |  7 PagesJasamyn Wimmer English 1B Professor Kleinman 5 March 2013 Brief Literary Analysis Lost America: An analysis of â€Å"A Supermarket in California† Allen Ginsberg; philosopher, activist, poet, a man highly revered as a groundbreaking figure between the 1950’s Beat Poetry Generation and the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960’s (poetryarchive.org). Ginsberg’s first book â€Å"Howl and Other Poems,† was published in 1955, his work was involved in an illustrious obscenity trial because of the use ofRead More Essay on Whitman’s Bivouac on a Mountain Side1156 Words   |  5 Pages Analysis of Whitman’s Bivouac on a Mountain Sidenbsp;nbsp; nbsp; First published after the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, Walt Whitman’s poem â€Å"Bivouac on a Mountain Side† portrays more than just the tangible picture of a transcendentalist’s vision. The mood of the poem reflects the author’s observations and visions of the Civil War while stationed in Washington and Virginia as well as his beliefs about the war by use of imagery and symbolism. nbsp; The use of imagery in â€Å"BivouacRead MoreEssay on Whitmans Music as a Means of Expression2414 Words   |  10 PagesWhitmans Music as a Means of Expression In his verses, Walt Whitman eradicates divisions of individual entities while simultaneously celebrating their unique characteristics. All components of the universe are united in a metaphysical intercourse, and yet, are assigned very distinct qualities so as to keep their identities intact. Often times, Whitman demonstrates these conceptions through elements of song. â€Å"Walt Whitman caroled throughout his verse. For the Bard of Democracy, as America came

Adrenalin free essay sample

A rock band needs more than just pretty album covers, cute flowery logos, ecstasy, and a memorable name to be successful; an innovative record company could help. Joining the family of the independent British record label, Creation Records (which includes such bands as Ride, Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, and Swervedriver), is former Rough Trade artists, The Boo Radleys. Their latest release, Adrenalin, is a worthy follow-up to one of my favorite records of all time, Boo Up! Before this was released, I asked their talented lead singer to explain what I should expect from their new material, and he confidently replied, Were a lot more directed toward what we want to do this time, since we know what works for us. Our new songs will be really different from each other, and much more intense. This new-found intensity is definitely the case with the Adrenalin EP. The opening song, Lazy Days, is deceivingly titled, since the music starts off loud and fast. We will write a custom essay sample on Adrenalin or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But the vocals are quite smooth and calming, and the entire song is less than two minutes long. Vegas is the second track and the guitars and vocals work well together for a nice relaxing, yet profound, effect. Its really a beautiful piece, which even your parents probably would not mind listening to. The third song, Feels Like Tomorrow, kicks off with fierce drum beats and harsh, rigorous, guitar-driven energy. In other words, it has hit written all over it. Although this could be the heaviest song theyve ever done, the lyrics, which are quite meaningful, remain clear and easy to understand. When I first heard the closing song, Whiplashed, the words magical, mystical and celestial immediately came to mind. The somber, eerie guitars induce an enveloping, dreamlike atmosphere. I highly recommend this EP to anyone whos willing to explore other types of music. This band, whose members are originally from Liverpool, particularly enjoys listening to groups like Mercury Rev, Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland, and Dinosaur Jr. However, they cite their major influences as My Bloody Valentine and another Liverpool band The reason why were in a band is because of the Beatles, explained their songwriter/guitarist. And since they keep getting better, there is no doubt they could be very popular in America. And even if they dont achieve fame here, the oldest member of the band is a mere 23, so The Boo Radleys will hopefully at least be putting out great records in England for a long, long time. n

My Left Foot, The Elephant Man, And Mask Essays - The Mask

My Left Foot, The Elephant Man, And Mask My Left Foot, The Elephant Man, and Mask The Movies My Left Foot, The Elephant Man, and Mask are all movies about people with disabilities. These three movies depict the lives of three men and the way society treats them and their disabilities. My Left Foot is about a man who can only use his left foot because of cerebral palsy and alcoholism. The Elephant Man is about a man who has very large, severe tumors on his whole body. Mask is about a young man who has a very large face that looks almost like he's wearing a mask. Society doesn't realize how important the little things are to people with disabilities. The Elephant Man, John Merrick, was displayed in a freak show as a beast. He was really a very gentle man who loved everyone, the only thing wrong with him, was he wasn't as healthy or pretty as everyone else in society. Society basically avoided him, and when they did see him, they ran, screamed, pointed, or stared. John dealt with his disability by locking himself out from the world. One day, he went to the opera, and that was the most important thing in his life. Many people take things like going to the opera for granted, but to John, there couldn't have been a greater pleasure. In the movie Mask, Rocky was a boy with a disfigured face. Doctor's told him that he was going to die, since he was three, but he lived for much longer than three years. Rocky was a very nice boy, and a lot of people liked him. Society looked at him as a funny creature because of his large face, but because of his strength, he made most people get past that and see the real him. Rocky had a great attitude and was very big on joking around, so he used comedy as his defense in tough situations. I think to Rocky one of the most important things he got to do was go to a school with normal children. Most people don't realize how important being with normal people is when you're disadvantaged. In the movie My Left Foot, Christy Brown was forced to overcome cerebral palsy and alcoholism. Society was very rude to Christy and many people looked down upon him in the beginning. He became a world-renowned author and artist. The most important thing to Christy was being able to write and draw due to his disability of only using his left foot. Many people can write, but few are forced to do it with only their left foot. Society doesn't realize how important the little things are to people with disabilities. All three of these movies were very good. I think they depicted the disabilities of the characters well. I believed that every one of these actors had the disabilities that they were acting the part of. Movies like this kind of make you think about how good you have things and how lucky you are. Many of us take too many things for granted and these movies make you step back and look at life and how good you have things.

User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools - CoSchedule Blog

User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools Blog Ah, the user persona. Every marketing expert will tell you that you need one as the foundation for your content marketing strategy. But so many people just slap together some vague demographic data, give it a cute, alliterated name like â€Å"Busy Betsy† or â€Å"Hipster Henry† and call it a persona. Then they wonder why they arent seeing user engagement with their content. If you want to create meaningful content that wins fans and conversions, your user persona needs to be more than a collection of data points. To make your user persona come to life, you need to create a fully fleshed-out character with dreams, fears, challenges, and desires. You need a complex, uniquely human hero for the story youre telling with your brand. But it can’t just be a pure flight of fantasy. Each characteristic and inner motivation of your user persona should have data or real-life examples to back it up. Sound like a tall order? Worry not: this post will give you the online resources you need to make a hyper-specific user persona. I’ll show you how to use persona-building tools so you can create deeply engaging content that will draw in your target audience and make them stick with you. But first   Spark Your User Persona To Life With These 9 Important ToolsWhy Do We Need User Personas? Writing generic content to a general audience just doesn’t cut it anymore. Gone are the days of keyword stuffed, SEO-focused content, clickbait social media posts, and salesy email blasts. The average internet user can see right through these flimsy marketing ploys. If you want to stand out on search engine results, on social media and in your email marketing, you need to have robust, human-centered content that hits people right in the feels. And a User Persona helps you define just who that human is and what kind of content appeals to their needs. But maybe I should back up a few steps. Let’s take a quick look at what a User Persona is. Describing a User (or Buyer or Customer or Reader) Persona can take up an entire blog post unto itself. Thankfully, Sam Kusinitz  of HubSpot has distilled things down into less than 100 words for us: A buyer persona  is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better. So basically, a User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal to. A User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal toIn case you’re feeling a bit skeptical about the impact of a fictional character upon your bottom line, here are a few stats  from Cintell's 2016 Benchmark Study to help fire up your faith in the Power of the Persona: 71%  of companies who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented Personas 65%  of companies who exceed lead and revenue goals have updated their Personas within the last 6 months. Persona based content increased customer engagement almost six-fold  when targeting cold leads (10% versus 58%). Using Personas increases email open rate 2-5 times. It is more effective to target cold leads with Persona based content than targeting warm leads without using Persona based content (58% versus 45%) Pretty impressive, right? So just what is it about User Personas that make such a huge difference in customer engagement and conversion rates? It comes down to a potent mixture of storytelling, psychology, and sociology. Recommended Reading: How to Write Like a Journalist to Be a Better Marketing Storyteller Why Do User Personas Work? As marketers, we’ve long known that the fastest route to inspiring empathy and emotional connections in audiences is to tell a story. But recent neurological studies  have confirmed that if you really want to hook someone, tell them a story about a protagonist with a relatable goal and describe their struggle to reach that goal. So here’s what you want your User Persona to be: An individual with internal and external features similar to your audience, A person whose goals mirror your audience A character who has everyday struggles that your audience can immediately relate to. The more specific you are about what makes your User Persona an individual, the deeper an emotional connection your audience will have with your brand. And the easier it will be to convince them to take action. The more specific your personas are, the deeper emotional connection your audience will have with...Be Fearless In Your User Persona Back in 1978, two hippy guys decided to sell ice cream out of an abandoned Vermont gas station. Within five years, their chunky, flavorful ice cream packaged in colorful pint-sized containers caught the attention of grocery stores. The ice cream sold so fast from freezer sections they could barely keep it in stock. Ben Jerry’s was a tremendous hit. How did they become such a big success where other homemade ice cream shops have failed? Because Ben Jerry weren’t afraid to get specific about their user persona. And their user persona wasn’t what people had come to expect from a homemade ice cream brand. Here’s how your typical, old-school marketing team would probably have done it: using traditional market-focused research, they would have focused on the â€Å"homespun Vermont† aspect of Ben Jerry’s and featured a hand-operated ice cream maker in their logo. Instead of focusing on the buyer, they would have extolled the quality of the ingredients and the deliciousness of the flavors. Their flavors would have had Vermont-inspired names like â€Å"Backwoods Berry Blend† or â€Å"Maple Syrup Swirl.† Freelance designer Lyn Severance knew their brand had to reflect the groovy spirit of the hippy era and the fun-loving personalities of Ben Jerry and their friends. But Ben Jerry knew who their customers were, and they weren’t the rustic, antique-loving Vermonters of popular imagination. Note that their original container illustration featured a hand-cranked ice cream maker- but there’s a person  with a distinct personality doing the work: a stout, bearded dude who bears a striking resemblance to The Original Chubby Hubby himself, co-founder Ben Cohen. Also, the style of the illustration brings to mind the underground comics and concert posters of the 1960’s and 1970’s, not the vintage etchings of the 1900’s. There’s something mischievous, verging on subversive about Ben Jerry’s branding. But fun/peace-loving  subversive.  Yellow Submarine  subversive. The folks who flocked to Ben Jerry’s were real people who loved pop culture, leaned to the left politically, had an irreverent sense of humor, and got the munchies when they partook in their recreational mood-altering substance of choice. In other words, Ben Jerry’s target user was,well, Ben Jerry. So Ben Jerry created a product that spoke to THAT Persona. Even at the risk of alienating the people who don’t fit that description. Ben Jerry aren’t afraid to court controversy and voice their stances on political and social issues. A recent blog post prominently features the â€Å"Black Lives Matter† sign in their signature hand-lettered calligraphy. No doubt this wins them even more brand loyalty from their socially-conscious target buyers. (Source) In fact, not being afraid to take a stand is an essential quality of Ben Jerry’s User Persona. The ice cream brand has used content to inspire their audience to help them face down Pillsbury-owned rival Hagen Daas in the form of boycotts and protests. 'We believed that Pillsbury’s actions were illegal,' says Ben, 'but we knew that in a strictly legal fight we’d run out of time and money long before Pillsbury would. Our only option was to rely on our customers and the media to pressure Pillsbury into backing off. So we started printing the slogan â€Å"What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?† on our pint containers, along with an 800 number for the Doughboy Hotline. Everyone who called got a Doughboy Kit, with protest letters addressed to the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of the Pillsbury board, and a bumper sticker.' By publishing their Doughboy Hotline, they collected the names and addresses of their highly engaged (target) customers- customers who they could send additional marketing content like coupons or recipe booklets to. Ben Jerry created a targeted lead magnet before people were even using the world wide web. And their User Persona doesn’t only impact their marketing strategy- every aspect of Ben Jerry’s from product to operations was created with their user in mind. Because their target buyer (and their executive team) is socially conscious, Ben Jerry’s was one of the first companies to adopt an executive salary cap (although they dropped it when they hired a new CEO in 1994). The secret to Ben Jerry’s success is not in their admittedly delicious ice cream, but in their ability to understand what their target buyer ultimately wants from the world. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects The Keys to a Great User Persona So how can you make your target buyer feel like you really, truly â€Å"get† what they’re about? By asking the right questions about who they are and finding real-word answers. Some of those questions are about demographics, like: Age Gender Income Occupation Education level Geography Marital Status Those are external factors about the circumstances of your target user’s life. Things that, unless they make a major life change, they have little control over. When you dig a little deeper, you start getting into psychographic information, like: Lifestyle Hobbies Career goals Political affiliations Religious values Priorities in life Aesthetic taste Obstacles Fears Assumptions As you discover more about your target buyer, you’ll unlock the hidden desires, fears, and challenges your target user faces so your content can help them navigate along their journey toward their biggest goals in life. And the more you help your target user, the more they will trust you, and the more they will want to do business with you. The more you help your target user, the more they will trust and do business with you. After you’ve developed your user persona, here’s what you can expect: You’ll gain a clearer picture into the external and internal life of your target user You’ll have more relevant content ideas You’ll write content faster You’ll know where to find your target user You’ll know which people/publications your user sees as influencers You’ll know where to promote your content so your target reader will find it You’ll dramatically increase your conversion rates So without further ado, here are some resources you can add to your persona-building toolkit today. Here are the resources you need to start building user #personas1. Target Audience Kit has created a handy downloadable package  that includes a worksheet on how to conduct audience surveys and a quick-and-easy template for a user persona. Print them out and use them as guidelines as you hunt down demographic and psychographic information. 2. Startup Target Customer Profile Worksheet What if you don’t know who your target customer is because you’re just starting out? I’ve created an in-depth worksheet for startup founders to help you ask the right questions in your search for the perfect customer. It covers not only their demographics and psychographics, but also their digital tribes, influencers, popular hashtagsbasically all the information you need to reach your target user when they’re actively looking for stuff that relates to your service. You can download it here. 3. Xtensio User Persona Creator This intuitive web-based template by â€Å"lean design agency† Xtensio helps you create a beautifully designed persona to share with your clients or team members as you create your content marketing strategy. When you sign up for a free account, you’ll also have access to templates for pitch decks, business plans, content strategies, and press releases, among other tools. If you’re a startup founder, this could be a true life (and time) saver. Alright, you now have three blank slates for creating your user persona. But how do you find the data to fill in the blanks? Below you’ll find some essential resources to help you discover information about your target customers based on real-world data. Recommended Reading: This is How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy 4. Google Analytics First of all, are the right visitors finding you? What are the interests of the people visiting your site, and what kind of content are they engaging the most with? Is there anything you need to change about the way visitors discover your content? A peek at your Google Analytics will give you these insights and more. One Way Use Google Analytics (of Many): If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website, take a few minutes to get your tracking code and install Analytics to your website. Once you’ve created your Analytics account and installed your tracking code to your site, wait about a week for Google to collect data about your visitors. Then log into your account and browse around. You can see your average visitor’s demographics, what content they’re spending the most time looking at, even their interests based on their typical search behavior. Google Analytics helps you see whether or not the users that are coming to you are the users you actually want. For example, I noticed when I went into my Users Interests In-market Segments that the top four interests of visitors to my site were: Employment Travel/Hotel Accommodations Employment/Career Counseling Services Dating Services My site is for Copywriting and Content Strategy Services. So somewhere there’s a disconnect between the content of my site and the people who are finding it. Now the challenge is to figure out why people are coming to me looking for jobs, accommodations, or love. So I take a look at my Landing Page analytics to see which page is attracting the most traffic, and lo and behold, other than my home page, the top two pages are two blog articles: one about the TED Talk formula for sales pitches, and one about finding your target customer. The â€Å"target customer† post starts with a story about my experiences with online dating and how they parallel with a startup founder’s search for the perfect customer. Later in the post, I give an example of a travel bag company that used â€Å"Alternatives to AirBnB† as a way to capture their target leads. So, that explains why people interested in Dating Services and Travel stumble upon my site! It also tells me that I need to build up the content on my site for my target customer so more startup founders and less lonely hearts and wayward travelers find their way to my blog. Even more reason to really hone in on my User Persona and their needs There are a myriad of ways Google Analytics can give you insights about who is coming to your site and what changes you need to make so your content is getting in front of the right people. Do yourself a BIG favor and take some time to evaluate the quality of the traffic you’re already getting so you can determine what you need to tweak to improve it.   has created a quick guide to how to use Google Analytics to understand your audience. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Questions About Your Site That Google Analytics Can Answer 5. Alexa Let’s say that you haven’t launched your site yet  or you’re getting ready to do a major overhaul of your website. You may be feeling a bit in the dark as far as who your ideal customer actually is. The good news is you have plenty to learn about your target audience by getting a glimpse at who’s going to the competition. Alexa provides detailed demographic reports  on visitors to any website, as well as the most popular keywords people use to find them. Here’s the quick-and-dirty way to get the goods on who is looking for your products or services. Google your core offer and see who your top competitors are in the paid and organic results. For example, let’s say you’re a virtual assistant for small business owners. The top paid result is for TasksEveryday.com. Go to Alexa.com and type in the URL and when you scroll down you’ll see related sites (ie other competitors in your niche): And their audience demographics: By using the new Audience Overlap Tool, you can get a big-picture demographic view of who is using virtual assistant services similar to your top competitor: Just click â€Å"Audience Overlap Tool† on the main overview page: Select the competitors you wish to compare: Scroll down to Demographics and take a look at what these sites have in common and what makes them notably different. For example, I noticed that getfriday.com visitors have a much younger average age (18-24) than taskseveryday.com (35-44). When I investigated, I clicked on â€Å"getfriday.com† to open a site overview in Alexa and discovered one of the main sites that led visitors to GetFriday was YouTube: So I clicked the link and discovered that the videos that lead to getfriday.com are all about outsourcing Virtual Assistants from the Phillipines. Is that giving me a clearer picture of who is going to my competitors and why? Well, if I do a little more digging into the demographic information on Alexa, I can discover that the average income of the GetFriday user trends lower than the average income of the TasksEveryday user. So now I have a decision to make: do I want to target my Virtual Assistant service to a budget-strapped startup founder looking to outsource on the cheap or a well-to-do CEO of a small company willing to invest in a top-notch professional? Once I make that decision, I can start deep-diving into the world of my target user to fill in the gaps of their larger story. Recommended Reading: 14 Time-Tested Tactics to Get Tons of Traffic from Social Media 6. BuzzSumo You now know the â€Å"who’s† about your target customers using Google Analytics Alexa. Now it’s time to discover the â€Å"what’s† and the â€Å"why’s.† What are your customer’s goals and Why do your target customers need your help accomplishing their goals? BuzzSumo is hands-down the most popular audience discovery tool for content marketers.  After an initial free trial, you have to pay for it, but if you’re trying to build an audience and relationships with influencers, it’s well worth the $99 a month. Why? Because with one keyword search, not only will you find the most popular articles about a topic in terms of shares and clicks, but also who the most influential people are within a niche AND who their followers are. So to continue with our fictional Virtual Assistant service, let’s say we want to cater to startup founders. So I type â€Å"startups and virtual assistants† into the BuzzSumo search box and see which articles have had the most engagement over the past year: Then I click on â€Å"View Sharers† to see who has been engaging with the post. I see that Stephen Bronner, news director for Entrepreneur has been sharing the article, which tells me he thinks his followers would find value in it. So now I can take a look at his followers. After scrolling through their bios, I spot an ideal candidate for Virtual Assistant services: a PR coach for entrepreneurs and startup founders: Now I can take a look at her Twitter profiles to get insights on her life and the lives of her  followers people who are starting their own companies and need help. Like this follower, who describes herself as a serial entrepreneur: BOOM. Target achieved. This person’s Twitter account is a window into her life. She tweets about where she likes to go to eat, the big projects she’s working on, her hobbies, the religious holidays she celebrates, the brands she likes. You can fill out an entire User Persona template with this information alone! Recommended Reading: This is the Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 7. Customer Surveys Let’s say that you’re an established company looking to shift to a customer-centered content marketing strategy. Your current customers are an invaluable resource for insights. Just ask them about their lives. Pioneering content strategist Colleen Jones  says customer surveys are a great way not only to determine user behavior (what they do), but also the emotions and motivations leading to their decisions (what they’re feeling): â€Å"If you want to assess your success at producing effective content marketing, you need useful, actionable feedback about it. That means you need to know what people think about your content. Surveys are an invaluable way to find out.† Here are some customer survey tools you can try out for free: Survey Monkey- The most popular contender, Survey Monkey has a great reputation for being easy to use and having a step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the survey-building process. However, to export the survey data you collect, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Typeform- Typeform’s survey templates are slick and beautifully designed, which means your participants are less likely to abandon ship mid-survey out of boredom. Google Forms- Simple, straightforward, free, and easy to access via your Google Drive account. Need help coming up with some good questions? Michael Patterson, CEO of marketing research software Hotjar has come up with a great list of customer survey questions  that get into the minds (and hearts) of your customers. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Listening to Create Better Content for Your Audience 8. Quora If you lack a customer base or even a list to send audience surveys out to, Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in their own words.† Don’t just look at the most-upvoted answers: sometimes the replies to expert answers can provide you with deeper insights into your target user’s world than the more polished expert responses. Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs9. Twenty20 Confession time: I’ve spent more time than I should looking through Twenty20’s gorgeous curated stock photo collections, in search of The Face of the User Persona for my clients. Why Twenty20 as opposed to the kajillions of other stock photography sites out there? Because Twenty20 sources and curates photography that looks like real people’s lives instead of glossy studio sessions. Here’s what you should look for in a great User Persona profile pic: A headshot of one person- Your user persona represents an individual, not a group. Personality-  Unless you’re creating content for a modeling agency, your user persona is probably not a fashion model. Look for pictures of everyday folks. Match the data demographics-  If your research suggests that the majority of users in your niche are 50-something white-collar professional women, don’t use a headshot of a 20-something tattoo artist. In their natural environment- Try to find a picture that shows your User Persona where she’d be using your product or service. Above all, User Personas should represent and look like the real people you're creating content for. Here are some other examples of great User Personas to help give you a kickstart in creating your own. (Source: Xtensio) Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) Note how in-depth the above persona is in terms of Alyssa’s desire to balance her creativity with her business sense.   This is a great starting point for giving a â€Å"voice† to a brand’s content: that of a passionate artist who wants to be a success without being a â€Å"sell-out.† So based on the information I gathered using the tools above for my fictional Virtual Assistant service, here’s the User Persona I created using the Xtensio template tool: On the other end of the persona spectrum, we have MailChimp’s multiple User Personas. (Source: MailChimp) These visually appealing Personas aren't as specific in their narratives as Xtensio’s, but they still offer psychographic data for inspiring content. Even though these Personas lack a written story, the specificity of the look, dress, and descriptive text communicate volumes about each individual. To achieve this Portrait style persona, all you need is: A graphic design tool like Canva  or Photoshop, A great stock photo, A list of personality traits and motivators. Here’s what I made in Canva using the same Virtual Assistant target user: How to Create Your Own Persona in Canva Here’s a quick example showing how you can create one that is similar: After opening Canva, select â€Å"Create a Design† Select the â€Å"Blog Graphic† template from the Blogging eBooks section Upload your stock photo (or you can choose from Canva’s collection of stock photography and pay a $1 to download it) Drag and drop the stock photo as the background to the layout Free stock photo from Pexels.com Select the Heading text tool and start typing the personality trait keywords.  Choose various fonts, sizes or colors as needed. You can change the angle of the text by selecting the text box, clicking on the Rotate tool (the circular arrow at the bottom of the text box), and rotating the text box around. It's Time to Start Creating Better User Personas Alright: you've now assembled a well-stocked persona toolkit.   It's time to get to work! Have fun creating your User Persona- and if you've made one you're particularly proud of, feel free to share it with us! User Persona Spark Yours to Life With These 9 Tools Blog Ah, the user persona. Every marketing expert will tell you that you need one as the foundation for your content marketing strategy. But so many people just slap together some vague demographic data, give it a cute, alliterated name like â€Å"Busy Betsy† or â€Å"Hipster Henry† and call it a persona. Then they wonder why they arent seeing user engagement with their content. If you want to create meaningful content that wins fans and conversions, your user persona needs to be more than a collection of data points. To make your user persona come to life, you need to create a fully fleshed-out character with dreams, fears, challenges, and desires. You need a complex, uniquely human hero for the story youre telling with your brand. But it can’t just be a pure flight of fantasy. Each characteristic and inner motivation of your user persona should have data or real-life examples to back it up. Sound like a tall order? Worry not: this post will give you the online resources you need to make a hyper-specific user persona. I’ll show you how to use persona-building tools so you can create deeply engaging content that will draw in your target audience and make them stick with you. But first   Spark Your User Persona To Life With These 9 Important ToolsWhy Do We Need User Personas? Writing generic content to a general audience just doesn’t cut it anymore. Gone are the days of keyword stuffed, SEO-focused content, clickbait social media posts, and salesy email blasts. The average internet user can see right through these flimsy marketing ploys. If you want to stand out on search engine results, on social media and in your email marketing, you need to have robust, human-centered content that hits people right in the feels. And a User Persona helps you define just who that human is and what kind of content appeals to their needs. But maybe I should back up a few steps. Let’s take a quick look at what a User Persona is. Describing a User (or Buyer or Customer or Reader) Persona can take up an entire blog post unto itself. Thankfully, Sam Kusinitz  of HubSpot has distilled things down into less than 100 words for us: A buyer persona  is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better. So basically, a User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal to. A User Persona is a made-up customer who represents the very real customers you want to appeal toIn case you’re feeling a bit skeptical about the impact of a fictional character upon your bottom line, here are a few stats  from Cintell's 2016 Benchmark Study to help fire up your faith in the Power of the Persona: 71%  of companies who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented Personas 65%  of companies who exceed lead and revenue goals have updated their Personas within the last 6 months. Persona based content increased customer engagement almost six-fold  when targeting cold leads (10% versus 58%). Using Personas increases email open rate 2-5 times. It is more effective to target cold leads with Persona based content than targeting warm leads without using Persona based content (58% versus 45%) Pretty impressive, right? So just what is it about User Personas that make such a huge difference in customer engagement and conversion rates? It comes down to a potent mixture of storytelling, psychology, and sociology. Recommended Reading: How to Write Like a Journalist to Be a Better Marketing Storyteller Why Do User Personas Work? As marketers, we’ve long known that the fastest route to inspiring empathy and emotional connections in audiences is to tell a story. But recent neurological studies  have confirmed that if you really want to hook someone, tell them a story about a protagonist with a relatable goal and describe their struggle to reach that goal. So here’s what you want your User Persona to be: An individual with internal and external features similar to your audience, A person whose goals mirror your audience A character who has everyday struggles that your audience can immediately relate to. The more specific you are about what makes your User Persona an individual, the deeper an emotional connection your audience will have with your brand. And the easier it will be to convince them to take action. The more specific your personas are, the deeper emotional connection your audience will have with...Be Fearless In Your User Persona Back in 1978, two hippy guys decided to sell ice cream out of an abandoned Vermont gas station. Within five years, their chunky, flavorful ice cream packaged in colorful pint-sized containers caught the attention of grocery stores. The ice cream sold so fast from freezer sections they could barely keep it in stock. Ben Jerry’s was a tremendous hit. How did they become such a big success where other homemade ice cream shops have failed? Because Ben Jerry weren’t afraid to get specific about their user persona. And their user persona wasn’t what people had come to expect from a homemade ice cream brand. Here’s how your typical, old-school marketing team would probably have done it: using traditional market-focused research, they would have focused on the â€Å"homespun Vermont† aspect of Ben Jerry’s and featured a hand-operated ice cream maker in their logo. Instead of focusing on the buyer, they would have extolled the quality of the ingredients and the deliciousness of the flavors. Their flavors would have had Vermont-inspired names like â€Å"Backwoods Berry Blend† or â€Å"Maple Syrup Swirl.† Freelance designer Lyn Severance knew their brand had to reflect the groovy spirit of the hippy era and the fun-loving personalities of Ben Jerry and their friends. But Ben Jerry knew who their customers were, and they weren’t the rustic, antique-loving Vermonters of popular imagination. Note that their original container illustration featured a hand-cranked ice cream maker- but there’s a person  with a distinct personality doing the work: a stout, bearded dude who bears a striking resemblance to The Original Chubby Hubby himself, co-founder Ben Cohen. Also, the style of the illustration brings to mind the underground comics and concert posters of the 1960’s and 1970’s, not the vintage etchings of the 1900’s. There’s something mischievous, verging on subversive about Ben Jerry’s branding. But fun/peace-loving  subversive.  Yellow Submarine  subversive. The folks who flocked to Ben Jerry’s were real people who loved pop culture, leaned to the left politically, had an irreverent sense of humor, and got the munchies when they partook in their recreational mood-altering substance of choice. In other words, Ben Jerry’s target user was,well, Ben Jerry. So Ben Jerry created a product that spoke to THAT Persona. Even at the risk of alienating the people who don’t fit that description. Ben Jerry aren’t afraid to court controversy and voice their stances on political and social issues. A recent blog post prominently features the â€Å"Black Lives Matter† sign in their signature hand-lettered calligraphy. No doubt this wins them even more brand loyalty from their socially-conscious target buyers. (Source) In fact, not being afraid to take a stand is an essential quality of Ben Jerry’s User Persona. The ice cream brand has used content to inspire their audience to help them face down Pillsbury-owned rival Hagen Daas in the form of boycotts and protests. 'We believed that Pillsbury’s actions were illegal,' says Ben, 'but we knew that in a strictly legal fight we’d run out of time and money long before Pillsbury would. Our only option was to rely on our customers and the media to pressure Pillsbury into backing off. So we started printing the slogan â€Å"What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?† on our pint containers, along with an 800 number for the Doughboy Hotline. Everyone who called got a Doughboy Kit, with protest letters addressed to the Federal Trade Commission and the chairman of the Pillsbury board, and a bumper sticker.' By publishing their Doughboy Hotline, they collected the names and addresses of their highly engaged (target) customers- customers who they could send additional marketing content like coupons or recipe booklets to. Ben Jerry created a targeted lead magnet before people were even using the world wide web. And their User Persona doesn’t only impact their marketing strategy- every aspect of Ben Jerry’s from product to operations was created with their user in mind. Because their target buyer (and their executive team) is socially conscious, Ben Jerry’s was one of the first companies to adopt an executive salary cap (although they dropped it when they hired a new CEO in 1994). The secret to Ben Jerry’s success is not in their admittedly delicious ice cream, but in their ability to understand what their target buyer ultimately wants from the world. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects The Keys to a Great User Persona So how can you make your target buyer feel like you really, truly â€Å"get† what they’re about? By asking the right questions about who they are and finding real-word answers. Some of those questions are about demographics, like: Age Gender Income Occupation Education level Geography Marital Status Those are external factors about the circumstances of your target user’s life. Things that, unless they make a major life change, they have little control over. When you dig a little deeper, you start getting into psychographic information, like: Lifestyle Hobbies Career goals Political affiliations Religious values Priorities in life Aesthetic taste Obstacles Fears Assumptions As you discover more about your target buyer, you’ll unlock the hidden desires, fears, and challenges your target user faces so your content can help them navigate along their journey toward their biggest goals in life. And the more you help your target user, the more they will trust you, and the more they will want to do business with you. The more you help your target user, the more they will trust and do business with you. After you’ve developed your user persona, here’s what you can expect: You’ll gain a clearer picture into the external and internal life of your target user You’ll have more relevant content ideas You’ll write content faster You’ll know where to find your target user You’ll know which people/publications your user sees as influencers You’ll know where to promote your content so your target reader will find it You’ll dramatically increase your conversion rates So without further ado, here are some resources you can add to your persona-building toolkit today. Here are the resources you need to start building user #personas1. Target Audience Kit has created a handy downloadable package  that includes a worksheet on how to conduct audience surveys and a quick-and-easy template for a user persona. Print them out and use them as guidelines as you hunt down demographic and psychographic information. 2. Startup Target Customer Profile Worksheet What if you don’t know who your target customer is because you’re just starting out? I’ve created an in-depth worksheet for startup founders to help you ask the right questions in your search for the perfect customer. It covers not only their demographics and psychographics, but also their digital tribes, influencers, popular hashtagsbasically all the information you need to reach your target user when they’re actively looking for stuff that relates to your service. You can download it here. 3. Xtensio User Persona Creator This intuitive web-based template by â€Å"lean design agency† Xtensio helps you create a beautifully designed persona to share with your clients or team members as you create your content marketing strategy. When you sign up for a free account, you’ll also have access to templates for pitch decks, business plans, content strategies, and press releases, among other tools. If you’re a startup founder, this could be a true life (and time) saver. Alright, you now have three blank slates for creating your user persona. But how do you find the data to fill in the blanks? Below you’ll find some essential resources to help you discover information about your target customers based on real-world data. Recommended Reading: This is How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy 4. Google Analytics First of all, are the right visitors finding you? What are the interests of the people visiting your site, and what kind of content are they engaging the most with? Is there anything you need to change about the way visitors discover your content? A peek at your Google Analytics will give you these insights and more. One Way Use Google Analytics (of Many): If you don’t have Google Analytics set up on your website, take a few minutes to get your tracking code and install Analytics to your website. Once you’ve created your Analytics account and installed your tracking code to your site, wait about a week for Google to collect data about your visitors. Then log into your account and browse around. You can see your average visitor’s demographics, what content they’re spending the most time looking at, even their interests based on their typical search behavior. Google Analytics helps you see whether or not the users that are coming to you are the users you actually want. For example, I noticed when I went into my Users Interests In-market Segments that the top four interests of visitors to my site were: Employment Travel/Hotel Accommodations Employment/Career Counseling Services Dating Services My site is for Copywriting and Content Strategy Services. So somewhere there’s a disconnect between the content of my site and the people who are finding it. Now the challenge is to figure out why people are coming to me looking for jobs, accommodations, or love. So I take a look at my Landing Page analytics to see which page is attracting the most traffic, and lo and behold, other than my home page, the top two pages are two blog articles: one about the TED Talk formula for sales pitches, and one about finding your target customer. The â€Å"target customer† post starts with a story about my experiences with online dating and how they parallel with a startup founder’s search for the perfect customer. Later in the post, I give an example of a travel bag company that used â€Å"Alternatives to AirBnB† as a way to capture their target leads. So, that explains why people interested in Dating Services and Travel stumble upon my site! It also tells me that I need to build up the content on my site for my target customer so more startup founders and less lonely hearts and wayward travelers find their way to my blog. Even more reason to really hone in on my User Persona and their needs There are a myriad of ways Google Analytics can give you insights about who is coming to your site and what changes you need to make so your content is getting in front of the right people. Do yourself a BIG favor and take some time to evaluate the quality of the traffic you’re already getting so you can determine what you need to tweak to improve it.   has created a quick guide to how to use Google Analytics to understand your audience. Recommended Reading: 5 Big Questions About Your Site That Google Analytics Can Answer 5. Alexa Let’s say that you haven’t launched your site yet  or you’re getting ready to do a major overhaul of your website. You may be feeling a bit in the dark as far as who your ideal customer actually is. The good news is you have plenty to learn about your target audience by getting a glimpse at who’s going to the competition. Alexa provides detailed demographic reports  on visitors to any website, as well as the most popular keywords people use to find them. Here’s the quick-and-dirty way to get the goods on who is looking for your products or services. Google your core offer and see who your top competitors are in the paid and organic results. For example, let’s say you’re a virtual assistant for small business owners. The top paid result is for TasksEveryday.com. Go to Alexa.com and type in the URL and when you scroll down you’ll see related sites (ie other competitors in your niche): And their audience demographics: By using the new Audience Overlap Tool, you can get a big-picture demographic view of who is using virtual assistant services similar to your top competitor: Just click â€Å"Audience Overlap Tool† on the main overview page: Select the competitors you wish to compare: Scroll down to Demographics and take a look at what these sites have in common and what makes them notably different. For example, I noticed that getfriday.com visitors have a much younger average age (18-24) than taskseveryday.com (35-44). When I investigated, I clicked on â€Å"getfriday.com† to open a site overview in Alexa and discovered one of the main sites that led visitors to GetFriday was YouTube: So I clicked the link and discovered that the videos that lead to getfriday.com are all about outsourcing Virtual Assistants from the Phillipines. Is that giving me a clearer picture of who is going to my competitors and why? Well, if I do a little more digging into the demographic information on Alexa, I can discover that the average income of the GetFriday user trends lower than the average income of the TasksEveryday user. So now I have a decision to make: do I want to target my Virtual Assistant service to a budget-strapped startup founder looking to outsource on the cheap or a well-to-do CEO of a small company willing to invest in a top-notch professional? Once I make that decision, I can start deep-diving into the world of my target user to fill in the gaps of their larger story. Recommended Reading: 14 Time-Tested Tactics to Get Tons of Traffic from Social Media 6. BuzzSumo You now know the â€Å"who’s† about your target customers using Google Analytics Alexa. Now it’s time to discover the â€Å"what’s† and the â€Å"why’s.† What are your customer’s goals and Why do your target customers need your help accomplishing their goals? BuzzSumo is hands-down the most popular audience discovery tool for content marketers.  After an initial free trial, you have to pay for it, but if you’re trying to build an audience and relationships with influencers, it’s well worth the $99 a month. Why? Because with one keyword search, not only will you find the most popular articles about a topic in terms of shares and clicks, but also who the most influential people are within a niche AND who their followers are. So to continue with our fictional Virtual Assistant service, let’s say we want to cater to startup founders. So I type â€Å"startups and virtual assistants† into the BuzzSumo search box and see which articles have had the most engagement over the past year: Then I click on â€Å"View Sharers† to see who has been engaging with the post. I see that Stephen Bronner, news director for Entrepreneur has been sharing the article, which tells me he thinks his followers would find value in it. So now I can take a look at his followers. After scrolling through their bios, I spot an ideal candidate for Virtual Assistant services: a PR coach for entrepreneurs and startup founders: Now I can take a look at her Twitter profiles to get insights on her life and the lives of her  followers people who are starting their own companies and need help. Like this follower, who describes herself as a serial entrepreneur: BOOM. Target achieved. This person’s Twitter account is a window into her life. She tweets about where she likes to go to eat, the big projects she’s working on, her hobbies, the religious holidays she celebrates, the brands she likes. You can fill out an entire User Persona template with this information alone! Recommended Reading: This is the Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 7. Customer Surveys Let’s say that you’re an established company looking to shift to a customer-centered content marketing strategy. Your current customers are an invaluable resource for insights. Just ask them about their lives. Pioneering content strategist Colleen Jones  says customer surveys are a great way not only to determine user behavior (what they do), but also the emotions and motivations leading to their decisions (what they’re feeling): â€Å"If you want to assess your success at producing effective content marketing, you need useful, actionable feedback about it. That means you need to know what people think about your content. Surveys are an invaluable way to find out.† Here are some customer survey tools you can try out for free: Survey Monkey- The most popular contender, Survey Monkey has a great reputation for being easy to use and having a step-by-step tutorial to walk you through the survey-building process. However, to export the survey data you collect, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid version. Typeform- Typeform’s survey templates are slick and beautifully designed, which means your participants are less likely to abandon ship mid-survey out of boredom. Google Forms- Simple, straightforward, free, and easy to access via your Google Drive account. Need help coming up with some good questions? Michael Patterson, CEO of marketing research software Hotjar has come up with a great list of customer survey questions  that get into the minds (and hearts) of your customers. Recommended Reading: How to Use Social Media Listening to Create Better Content for Your Audience 8. Quora If you lack a customer base or even a list to send audience surveys out to, Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in their own words.† Don’t just look at the most-upvoted answers: sometimes the replies to expert answers can provide you with deeper insights into your target user’s world than the more polished expert responses. Quora can be an invaluable tool to grab information about your target customer’s needs9. Twenty20 Confession time: I’ve spent more time than I should looking through Twenty20’s gorgeous curated stock photo collections, in search of The Face of the User Persona for my clients. Why Twenty20 as opposed to the kajillions of other stock photography sites out there? Because Twenty20 sources and curates photography that looks like real people’s lives instead of glossy studio sessions. Here’s what you should look for in a great User Persona profile pic: A headshot of one person- Your user persona represents an individual, not a group. Personality-  Unless you’re creating content for a modeling agency, your user persona is probably not a fashion model. Look for pictures of everyday folks. Match the data demographics-  If your research suggests that the majority of users in your niche are 50-something white-collar professional women, don’t use a headshot of a 20-something tattoo artist. In their natural environment- Try to find a picture that shows your User Persona where she’d be using your product or service. Above all, User Personas should represent and look like the real people you're creating content for. Here are some other examples of great User Personas to help give you a kickstart in creating your own. (Source: Xtensio) Recommended Reading: How to Make the Best Social Media Images the Easy Way (+84 Free Images) Note how in-depth the above persona is in terms of Alyssa’s desire to balance her creativity with her business sense.   This is a great starting point for giving a â€Å"voice† to a brand’s content: that of a passionate artist who wants to be a success without being a â€Å"sell-out.† So based on the information I gathered using the tools above for my fictional Virtual Assistant service, here’s the User Persona I created using the Xtensio template tool: On the other end of the persona spectrum, we have MailChimp’s multiple User Personas. (Source: MailChimp) These visually appealing Personas aren't as specific in their narratives as Xtensio’s, but they still offer psychographic data for inspiring content. Even though these Personas lack a written story, the specificity of the look, dress, and descriptive text communicate volumes about each individual. To achieve this Portrait style persona, all you need is: A graphic design tool like Canva  or Photoshop, A great stock photo, A list of personality traits and motivators. Here’s what I made in Canva using the same Virtual Assistant target user: How to Create Your Own Persona in Canva Here’s a quick example showing how you can create one that is similar: After opening Canva, select â€Å"Create a Design† Select the â€Å"Blog Graphic† template from the Blogging eBooks section Upload your stock photo (or you can choose from Canva’s collection of stock photography and pay a $1 to download it) Drag and drop the stock photo as the background to the layout Free stock photo from Pexels.com Select the Heading text tool and start typing the personality trait keywords.  Choose various fonts, sizes or colors as needed. You can change the angle of the text by selecting the text box, clicking on the Rotate tool (the circular arrow at the bottom of the text box), and rotating the text box around. It's Time to Start Creating Better User Personas Alright: you've now assembled a well-stocked persona toolkit.   It's time to get to work! Have fun creating your User Persona- and if you've made one you're particularly proud of, feel free to share it with us!

Tundra Biome - The Habitat Encyclopedia

Tundra Biome - The Habitat Encyclopedia The tundra is a terrestrial biome that is characterized by extreme cold, low biological diversity, long winters, brief growing seasons, and limited drainage. The harsh climate of the tundra imposes such formidable conditions on life that only the hardiest plants and animals can survive in this environment. The vegetation that grows on the tundra is restricted to a low diversity of small, ground-hugging plants that are well-adapted to survive in nutrient-poor soils. The animals that inhabit the tundra are, in most cases, migratory- they visit the tundra during the growing season to breed but then retreat to warmer, more southern latitudes or lower elevations when temperatures drop. Tundra habitat occurs in regions of the world that are both very cold and very dry. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Arctic lies between the North Pole and the boreal forest. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Antarctic tundra occurs on the Antarctic peninsula and on the remote islands that lie off  the coast of Antarctica (such as the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands). Outside of the polar regions, there is another type of tundra- alpine tundra- which occurs at at high altitudes on mountains, above the treeline. The soils that blanket the tundra are mineral-deprived and nutrient-poor. Animal droppings and dead organic matter provide the bulk of what nourishment is present in tundra soil. The growing season is so brief that only the topmost layer of soil thaws during the warm months. Any soils below a few inches deep remain permanently frozen, creating a layer of earth known as permafrost. This permafrost layer forms a water-barrier that prevents drainage of meltwater. During the summer, any water that thaws in the upper layers of the soil is trapped, forming a patchwork of lakes and marshes across the tundra. Tundra habitats are vulnerable to the effects of climate change and scientists fear that as global temperatures rise, tundra habitats might play a role in accelerating the rise in atmospheric carbon. Tundra habitats are traditionally carbon sinks- places that store more carbon than they release. As global temperatures rise, tundra habitats  may shift from storing carbon to releasing it in massive volumes. During the summer growing season, tundra plants grow quickly and, in doing so, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The carbon remains trapped because when the growing season ends, the plant material freezes before it can decay and release the carbon back into the environment. As temperatures rise and areas of permafrost thaw, the tundra releases  the carbon it has stored for millennia back into the atmosphere. Key Characteristics The following are the key characteristics of tundra habitats: extreme coldlow biological diversitylong wintersbrief growing seasonlimited precipitationpoor drainagenutrient-poor soilspermafrost Classification The tundra biome is classified within the following habitat hierarchy: Biomes of the World Tundra Biome The tundra biome is divided into the following habitats: Arctic and Antarctic tundra - Arctic tundra is located in the Northern Hemisphere between the North Pole and the boreal forest. Antarctic tundra is located in the Southern Hemisphere on remote islands off the coast of Antarctica- such as the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands- and on the Antarctic peninsula. Arctic and Antarctic tundra supports about 1,700 species of plants including mosses, lichens, sedges, shrubs, and grasses.Alpine tundra - Alpine tundra is a high-altitude habitat that occurs on mountains around the world. Alpine tundra occurs at elevations that lie above the tree line. Alpine tundra soils differ from the tundra soils in polar regions in that they are usually well-drained. Alpine tundra supports tussock grasses, heaths, small shrubs, and dwarf trees. Animals of the Tundra Biome Some of the animals that inhabit the tundra biome include: Northern bog lemming (Synaptomys borealis) - The northern bog lemming is a small rodent that inhabits the tundra, bogs, and boreal forests of northern Canada and Alaska. Northern bog lemmings eat a variety of plants including grasses, mosses, and sedges. They also feed on some invertebrates such as snails and slugs. Northern bog lemmings are prey for owls, hawks, and mustelids.Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) - The arctic fox is a carnivore that inhabits the Arctic tundra. Arctic foxes feed on a variety of prey animals that includes lemmings, voles, birds, and fish. Arctic foxes have a number of adaptations to deal with the cold temperatures they must endure- including long, thick fur and an insulating layer of body fat.Wolverine (Gulo golo) - The wolverine is a large mustelid that lives in boreal forest, alpine tundra, and Arctic tundra habitats throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Wolverines are powerful predators that feed on many different mammal prey including rabbits, voles, lemmings , caribou, deer, moose, and elk. Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) - The polar bear inhabits the icecaps and Arctic tundra habitats in the Northern Hemisphere including areas of Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the Svalbard Archipelago. Polar bears are large carnivores that feed primarily on ringed seas and bearded seals. Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) - The muskox is large hoofed mammals that live in the Arctic tundra. Muskoxen have a sturdy, bison-like appearance, short legs and long, thick fur. Muskoxen are herbivores that feed on grasses, shrubs and woody vegetation. They also eat moss and lichens.Snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) - The snow bunting is a perching bird that breeds in the Arctic tundra and in some areas of alpine tundra such as the Cairngorms in Scotland and the Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia. Snow buntings migrate south during the winter months to escape the tundras coldest temperatures.Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) - The Arctic tern is a shorebird that breeds in the Arctic tundra and mig rates 12,000 miles to over-winter along the coast of Antarctica. Arctic terns feed on fish and invertebrates such as crabs, krill, mollusks, and marine worms.