Articles - Page 53

What I Mean to Say: A Practitioner Perspective on AI, Semantics, and Content Evolution

msalvatierra

The winners for the 2018 CMS Critic Awards have been announced and are posted on the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/awards/">awards page</a>.
Congratulations to those who won. We'll be doing some heavy revamping of the awards next year. If you have input on how we can improve, suggestions for categories, etc, please drop us a line <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contact/">here</a>.
Thanks to all who participated in this years' awards. We had thousands of nominations and votes and it was a great success!

2018 Winners Announced

mike-johnston

<a href="https://www.sap.com/index.html">SAP SE</a>(NYSE: SAP) and Qualtrics International Inc. (Qualtrics) today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which SAP SE intends to acquire Qualtrics, the global pioneer of the experience management (XM) software category that enables organizations to thrive in today’s experience economy.
<hr />
<ul>
<li>
<h2>Together, SAP and Qualtrics to accelerate the new XM category by combining experience data and operational data to power the experience economy</h2>
</li>
<li>
<h2>Creates a highly differentiated offering for businesses to deliver superior customer, employee, product, and brand experiences</h2>
</li>
<li>
<h2>Ryan Smith to continue to lead Qualtrics; Qualtrics to maintain dual headquarters in Provo, Utah, and Seattle, Wash.</h2>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
Under the terms of the agreement, SAP will acquire all outstanding shares of Qualtrics for US$8 billion in cash. SAP has secured financing in the amount of €7 billion to cover purchase price and acquisition-related costs. The purchase price includes unvested employee incentive compensation and cash on the balance sheet at close. Subject to customary closing conditions and attainment of regulatory clearances, the acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2019. The Boards of Directors of SAP and Qualtrics have approved the transaction. Qualtrics’ shareholders have also approved the transaction.
SAP CEO Bill McDermott said: “We continually seek out transformational opportunities – today’s announcement is exactly that. Together, SAP and Qualtrics represent a new paradigm, similar to market-making shifts in personal operating systems, smart devices and social networks. SAP already touches 77 percent of the world’s transactions. When you combine our operational data with Qualtrics’ experience data, we will accelerate the XM category with an end-to-end solution with immediate global scale. For Qualtrics, this introduces a dynamic new partner with the belief, passion and scale to bring experience management to millions of customers around the world.”
McDermott added: “The combination of Qualtrics and SAP reaffirms experience management as the groundbreaking new frontier for the technology industry. SAP and Qualtrics are seizing this opportunity as like-minded innovators, united in mission, strategy and culture. We share the belief that every human voice holds value, every experience matters and that the best-run businesses can make the world run better. We can’t wait to stand beside Ryan and his amazing colleagues for the next chapters in the experience management story. The best for Qualtrics and SAP is yet to come!”
Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics, said: “Our mission is to help organizations deliver the experiences that turn their customers into fanatics, employees into ambassadors, products into obsessions and brands into religions. Supported by a global team of over 95,000, SAP will help us scale faster and achieve our mission on a broader stage. This will put the XM Platform everywhere overnight. We could not be more excited to join forces with Bill and the SAP team in this once-in-a-generation opportunity to power the experience economy.”
<h2>SAP and Qualtrics Will Together Deliver the Transformative Potential of Experience Data (X-Data) Combined with Operational Data (O-Data)</h2>
XM focuses on obtaining and tapping the value of outside-in customer, employee, product and brand feedback. Combining Qualtrics’ experience data and insights with SAP’s unparalleled operational data will enable customers to better manage supply chains, networks, employees and core processes. Together, SAP and Qualtrics will deliver a unique end-to-end experience and operational management system to power organizations.
<h2>SAP Will Accelerate Qualtrics’ Growth and Further Its Mission by Offering Global Scale, Reach and Resources</h2>
Leveraging SAP’s more than 413,000 customers and global salesforce of around 15,000, Qualtrics will be able to scale rapidly around the world. SAP has a strong track record of accelerating growth for the innovative companies it acquires, as exemplified by the rapid success of SAP’s recent acquisitions.
Qualtrics expects full-year 2018 revenue to exceed US$400 million and projects a forward growth rate of greater than 40 percent, not including potential synergies of being part of SAP.
Following the closing of the transaction, Qualtrics is expected to maintain its leadership, personnel, branding and culture, operating as an entity within SAP’s Cloud Business Group. Ryan Smith will continue to lead Qualtrics, and Qualtrics is expected to continue to maintain dual headquarters in Provo, Utah, and Seattle, Washington.

SAP drops $8 billion to buy Qualtrics

The latest beta for the upcoming WordPress 5.0 release is now available for testing. Note that this is a DEVELOPMENT release and not something to install on a production site unless you want to invoke the power of chaos.
“There are two ways to test the WordPress 5.0 Beta: try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”), or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.0-beta3.zip">download the beta here</a> (zip).”
The actual production release of WordPress 5.0 is expected around November 19th, pending of course any major issues.
Here are some of the changes in beta 3:
<ul>
<li>The block editor has been updated to include all of the features and bug fixes from the upcoming <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/10/31/whats-new-in-gutenberg-31st-october-2/">Gutenberg 4.2 release</a>.</li>
<li>The Twenty Nineteen theme has been updated from GitHub</li>
</ul>
For more info on the upcoming WordPress 5.0 release which brings the dreaded Gutenberg editor into the mix, check out https://wordpress.org/news/

WordPress 5.0 Beta 3 Available

Recently, the founder of the popular Solus distribution of Linux, decided to take some time away from the project for personal reasons. Sadly, it appears as though he has also stopped replying to the members of the development team he helped form and has basically disappeared.
As a result, the <a href="https://www.patreon.com/solus">Patreon account</a> which numerous people have contributed to and that was, at one point, over $2000 monthly in contributions, has been unusable and inaccessible to the development team. The issue in question here is where has the money been going then?
The team recently <a href="https://getsol.us/2018/10/27/in-full-sail/">posted a call</a> to have those who are donating on Patreon revoke their donations in order to prevent the funds from being locked into an account they have no access to.
<blockquote>
Which brings me to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/solus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Patreon</a>, arguably the most difficult for me to talk about. After multiple support tickets, they have repeatedly refused to provide access to the Solus account. At this moment, we have no way of accessing the funds many of you have graciously donated, nor are we fully aware of what funds are available via Patreon. I absolutely understand if you are frustrated with having financially contributed to the Patreon, with no way for us to utilize these funds for hardware purchases and paying for services, it’s frustrating for us too. Unfortunately, with Patreon’s refusal to assist us, our only option is to kindly request that you immediately cease your donations to it. My personal advice would be to additionally contact Patreon for refunds and express your frustration to them for their unwillingness to assist us. We can only hope that they decide to grant us access to the funds or account.
</blockquote>
Following this, we have several questions:
What happened to Ikey? Why have funds been locked into an inaccessible account and where has the money been going if not to the project that it's intended for?
We strongly recommend reaching out and revoking your contributions for now until these answers become clear. You can learn more about the team's struggle here: <a href="https://getsol.us/2018/10/27/in-full-sail/">https://getsol.us/2018/10/27/in-full-sail/</a>

Solus Founder Disappears - Team Loses Access to Patreon Funds

IBM announced today that the companies have reached a definitive agreement under which IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $34 billion.
“The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “IBM will become the world’s #1 hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses.
“Most companies today are only 20 percent along their cloud journey, renting compute power to cut costs,” she said. “The next 80 percent is about unlocking real business value and driving growth. This is the next chapter of the cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimizing every part of the business, from supply chains to sales.”
“Open source is the default choice for modern IT solutions, and I’m incredibly proud of the role Red Hat has played in making that a reality in the enterprise,” said Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO, Red Hat. “Joining forces with IBM will provide us with a greater level of scale, resources and capabilities to accelerate the impact of open source as the basis for digital transformation and bring Red Hat to an even wider audience – all while preserving our unique culture and unwavering commitment to open source innovation.”
This acquisition brings together the best-in-class hybrid cloud providers and will enable companies to securely move all business applications to the cloud. Companies today are already using multiple clouds. However, research shows that 80 percent of business workloads have yet to move to the cloud, held back by the proprietary nature of today’s cloud market. This prevents portability of data and applications across multiple clouds, data security in a multi-cloud environment and consistent cloud management.
IBM and Red Hat will be strongly positioned to address this issue and accelerate hybrid multi-cloud adoption. Together, they will help clients create cloud-native business applications faster, drive greater portability and security of data and applications across multiple public and private clouds, all with consistent cloud management. In doing so, they will draw on their shared leadership in key technologies, such as Linux, containers, Kubernetes, multi-cloud management, and cloud management and automation.
IBM’s and Red Hat’s partnership has spanned 20 years, with IBM serving as an early supporter of Linux, collaborating with Red Hat to help develop and grow enterprise-grade Linux and more recently to bring enterprise Kubernetes and hybrid cloud solutions to customers. These innovations have become core technologies within IBM’s $19 billion hybrid cloud business. Between them, IBM and Red Hat have contributed more to the open source community than any other organization.
“Today’s announcement is the evolution of our long-standing partnership,” said Rometty. “This includes our joint Hybrid Cloud collaboration announcement in May, a key precursor in our journey to this day.”
With this acquisition, IBM will remain committed to Red Hat’s open governance, open source contributions, participation in the open source community and development model, and fostering its widespread developer ecosystem. In addition, IBM and Red Hat will remain committed to the continued freedom of open source, via such efforts as Patent Promise, GPL Cooperation Commitment, the Open Invention Network and the LOT Network.
IBM and Red Hat also will continue to build and enhance Red Hat partnerships, including those with major cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba and more, in addition to the IBM Cloud. At the same time, Red Hat will benefit from IBM’s hybrid cloud and enterprise IT scale in helping expand their open source technology portfolio to businesses globally.
“IBM is committed to being an authentic multi-cloud provider, and we will prioritize the use of Red Hat technology across multiple clouds” said Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President, IBM Hybrid Cloud. “In doing so, IBM will support open source technology wherever it runs, allowing it to scale significantly within commercial settings around the world.”
Upon closing of the acquisition, Red Hat will join IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team as a distinct unit, preserving the independence and neutrality of Red Hat’s open source development heritage and commitment, current product portfolio and go-to-market strategy, and unique development culture. Red Hat will continue to be led by Jim Whitehurst and Red Hat’s current management team. Jim Whitehurst also will join IBM’s senior management team and report to Ginni Rometty. IBM intends to maintain Red Hat’s headquarters, facilities, brands and practices.
“IBM’s commitment to keeping the things that have made Red Hat successful – always thinking about the customer and the open source community first – make this a tremendous opportunity for not only Red Hat but also open source more broadly,” said Paul Cormier, President, Products and Technologies, Red Hat. “Since the day we decided to bring open source to the enterprise, our mission has remained unchanged. And now, one of the biggest enterprise technology companies on the planet has agreed to partner with us to scale and accelerate our efforts, bringing open source innovation to an even greater swath of the enterprise.”
Financial Details
The acquisition of Red Hat reinforces IBM’s high-value model. It will accelerate IBM’s revenue growth, gross margin and free cash flow within 12 months of closing. It also will support a solid and growing dividend.
The company will continue with a disciplined financial policy and is committed to maintaining strong investment grade credit ratings. The company will target a leverage profile consistent with a mid to high single A credit rating. The company intends to suspend its share repurchase program in 2020 and 2021.
At signing, the company has ample cash, credit and bridge lines to secure the transaction financing. The company intends to close the transaction through a combination of cash and debt.
The acquisition has been approved by the boards of directors of both IBM and Red Hat. It is subject to Red Hat shareholder approval. It also is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the latter half of 2019.

IBM Acquiring Red Hat

<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/cms-265127_1920_b1emzl.jpg" /><figcaption>Image source: <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/cms-wordpress-265127/">Pixabay</a></figcaption></figure>
Content marketing is one of the most discussed topics among marketers and for a good reason. People have noticed that blog content is more than just a bunch of words on the screen. <a href="/why-a-good-cms-is-the-backbone-of-content-marketing/">High-quality content</a> is a combination of talented writing and psychology and those who are able to produce such content have the key to success in any business.
Considering that blogs are used as a means of communication with readers in almost all industries, the question of how to write an engaging blog content is what troubles many. If you are an inspiring WordPress blog owner, the following tips will give you some direction and show you how to bring your content to perfection.
<h2>Apply Headings and Subheadings</h2>
There is no need to mention the importance of an eye-catching headline, you probably already have that figured out. What is not prioritized enough is the use of headings and subheadings.
By clearly organizing your thoughts with their use, the readers will find your content easier to grasp.
Christopher K. Mercer, digital marketer and founder of <a href="http://citatior.com/">Citatior</a> explains this in the following manner:
“People usually skim the text before they start reading. If you offer them a long continuous text without any sectioning or highlights, the content will seem too tiring and they will give up right away. To sum up, never underestimate the importance of headings and subheadings.”
You need to present a readable content and a clear structure if you want to keep the readers’ attention.
Believe it or not, but this is one of the key parts of a <a href="/formulating-content-marketing-strategy/">successful content marketing strategy</a>.
<h2>Use Short Paragraphs</h2>
There is a simple rule that all the best content writers know and that is that short paragraphs make for a readable text.
It will be easier to keep the readers engaged if you organize your thoughts into short sections. That means that you can use 3 sentences max within one paragraph.
Not to mention that having this constraint in mind will help you to be consistent throughout the text.
Syed Balkhi in his article on <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/306076">Entrepreneur</a> claims that “Most of your website visitors spend less than 15 seconds on your website, meaning people quickly skim through the content instead of reading word for word. If your content is hard to scan, meaning it contains long sentences and paragraphs, it's likely that your visitors won’t stick around.” He also adds, “Breaking down your content into short paragraphs makes it more digestible for your readers.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/blackberry-2690107_1280_m0adwg.jpg" />
Remember that you’re not writing a novel and mobile web browsing has overtaken desktop
Image source: <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/blackberry-priv-mobile-phone-qwerty-2690107/">Pixabay</a>
<h2>Aim for the Quality, not Quantity</h2>
Don’t focus on the length of the article that much, focus on what you are writing. 
James Daily, the Head of the content department at <a href="https://flashessay.com/">FlashEssay</a> explains, “Throwing a bunch of facts and information at your reader just to fill out the norm will only get them confused.”
Aside to that, your point will be easily lost.
You need to ensure that your title fulfills the promise, so use it as a guideline and keep it in the back of your mind during the whole writing process.
If you get stuck, don’t hesitate to use some online tools and here is the list of services that can work into your advantage:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://readable.io/">Readable</a> – This is one of the most useful tools to make your text clear and easy-to-read. It uses readability algorithms to assess content and make a copywriter’s job simple. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.essaysupply.com/">Essay Supply</a> – In case you’ll need a little writing assistance, this online website can provide you with customized and original content. Just send them the general idea of the section you have trouble with and the experts will take on from then.</li>
<li><a href="https://alconost.com/en/services/professional-online-translation?source=google&amp;medium=cpc&amp;campaign=Nitro_EN_new&amp;adgroupid=translation_service&amp;keyword=translation%20services&amp;matchtype=e&amp;adposition=1t3&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMInNSz5dz93QIVz7ztCh2wQgqaEAAYAyAAEgImoPD_BwE">Alconost</a> – If you found an amazing text with relevant facts you would like to cite but it is in a foreign language and you are not proficient enough to provide a valid translation, don’t give up on that. You can use this service and get any type of text translated professionally. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.marstranslation.com/promotion/professional-translation-agency?utm_medium=cpc&amp;network=google&amp;adgroup=50766652785&amp;utm_campaign=1045008447&amp;search_keyword=translation%20service&amp;matchtype=e&amp;adposition=1t1&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiMb0st793QIV4ZXtCh3hFwpZEAAYASAAEgK0TvD_BwE">Mars Translation</a> – Here is another great translation service that can be of great help. They work with native translators who guarantee to deliver quality translation.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Proofread</h2>
You can’t achieve high-quality content without <a href="https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/10/proofing-editing-content/">proofreading</a>. It is like a safety net for all the mistakes you possibly made.
“The content you post must be brought to perfection if you don’t want to jeopardize your professional credibility,” says Christine Jordan, a content editor at <a href="https://resumescentre.com/resume-writing-service">Resumescentre.com</a>.
Editing and proofreading will help you to spot all the errors that may have occurred during the writing.
Try not to proofread the content as soon as you finish it. Leaving some time in between will make you look at it more objectively and realize the problematic areas much faster.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
The issue of how to improve blog content and its performance is what <a href="/15-myths-about-content-marketing/">concerns most blog owners</a>. You won’t have to be one of them if you apply these tips.
Instead of just thinking about will this help you or not, simply apply all the methods and wait for the results. There is no better proof then experiencing it for yourself. So, make a cup of coffee, get seated, and start writing.
Author’s bio: Jessica Fender is a professional freelance writer and independent blogger. She is passionate about content marketing and leading other marketers to success in this new age of digital marketing. You can find her articles on Freelancer.com and Addicted2Success, and follow her on Twitter @fender_jess.

Content Writing Tips to Improve Your WordPress Blog

<div>Enterprise leaders need cutting edge digital products and experiences faster than ever. Contentful is supplementing its best-in-class technology offerings with a new program of complimentary agency and implementation partners. These partners can help customers navigate their digital transformation journey and deliver projects faster than ever.</div>
<div></div>
<div>The new Solutions Partner Program focuses on agencies and consultancies that can enhance how modern organizations transform and deliver digital experiences. Contentful's content infrastructure is a core component of modular-based architectures, which not only help customers push products and experiences out faster, but also give them a leg up in an omni-channel world.</div>
<div></div>
<div>The purpose of Contentful's partner program is to empower a network of agencies and consultancies to deliver tailored services to our growing customer ecosystem, recognize partners that are doing the best work with Contentful, champion them to our customers, and grow the content infrastructure market.</div>
<div></div>
<div>The ultimate goal: Give all Contentful customers access to trusted experts to help them build and deliver projects on Contentful.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Responding to demand</div>
<div></div>
<div>We’re making this shift because it’s what the market demands. In recent years, our customer base has steadily expanded from smaller, innovative projects to large-scale, digital transformation initiatives in some of the largest enterprises in the world.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Contentful is recognized as a core piece of infrastructure that supports every customer or employee product and experience. This evolution has been driven by the massive market shift in the way digital products and websites are created — away from legacy CMS solutions and toward infrastructure stacks.</div>
<div></div>
<div>With our new partner program, enterprises will get all of the help they need to fulfill their digital objectives. Today, ten of the 11 leading agencies in Gartner’s 2018 Magic Quadrant for Global Digital Marketing Agencies are Contentful partners or customers, including <a href="https://www.rga.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">R/GA</a>, <a href="http://www.akqa.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AKQA</a> and <a href="https://www.sapientrazorfish.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SapientRazorfish</a>.</div>
<div></div>
<div>We solve our customers’ biggest concerns by combining partners who are industry experts with Contentful’s solutions. For example:</div>
<ul>
<li>
<div>Technology solution consulting: “How should I think about incorporating Contentful into the rest of my technology stack across my organization?”</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Content model consulting: “How should I set up and maintain my content model to take advantage of Contentful's ability to make content reusable?”</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Implementation: “How do I migrate from my old solution to Contentful in the least painful way, while avoiding the pitfalls of complex migrations and still focusing on our end customers?”</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Change management: “How do I enable my organization to adopt and utilize Contentful easily?”</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Ongoing or adhoc content and front-end services: “I just need more developers to get through this cycle, and they need to know Contentful: Do you have any partners that can help me staff up?”</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div>Speeding up digital transformation</div>
<div></div>
<div>Enterprises are adopting Contentful for one of two primary reasons. Customers just getting started with Contentful want to build amazing digital products. Others have already built projects and are looking for organizational transformation where every experience is powered by Contentful.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Legacy CMS solutions are no longer optimal. Their one-size-fits-all approach leaves enterprises struggling with bloated solutions that, while they do everything, don’t do most things very well. Instead, enterprises that need to ship products fast and meet customers where they are want an all-star stack of technology providers and partners that deliver exactly what they need.</div>
<div></div>
<div>With our top-flight partners, enterprises can access trusted advisors to help them realize their digital potential with less risk and at greater speed.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Enterprises won’t have to acquire new and hard-to-find talent, because the best talent is within our partner ecosystem. Whether enterprises are looking for a partner to help with a single project, a complete transformation or even a partner by region, we’ll have one to recommend.</div>
<div></div>
<div>By relying on Contentful and partners, enterprises can concentrate on what they do best, and leave content management to the experts.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Partners also benefit</div>
<div>Our partners, meanwhile, get streamlined partner sandbox accounts with the ability to start developing immediately. This is a huge step beyond legacy CMSes, where there is no such thing as rapid prototyping.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Partners will also be eligible to co-market with Contentful, get assistance with business planning and internal navigation, and potential access to client introductions.</div>
<div>To help customers get the most out of Contentful as quickly as possible, we typically advise customers to get started with Contentful in one of three ways: via a customer driven implementation, a customer and partner-driven implementation, or a partner-driven implementation. In any of these scenarios, Contentful’s customer success organization will be part of the team. We’re already hard at work on a certification program, and partners will be divided into five classes:</div>
<ul>
<li>
<div>Power: The highest level of Contentful's partner program, Power Partners have the most experience building and launching large digital projects with Contentful. They can be trusted with any Contentful project, no matter how large and complex.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Premier: Premier partners have done three or more full-feature implementations with Contentful and are on their way to becoming a Power Partner.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Professional: Have executed at least one full-feature implementation of Contentful.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Strategic Industry: Leaders in a specialized field, such as content modeling or custom web apps.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div>Community: Partners that are just getting started with Contentful and may specialize in smaller Contentful-related projects.</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div>Driving change</div>
<div>Contentful is modernizing the web by powering the transition from legacy CMS to content infrastructure. With our new partner program, this transition will occur faster than ever.</div>
<div>Our global network of partners is dedicated to making customers successful, accelerating speed to value and empowering customer teams through content services. We look forward to helping our customers find the right solutions and partners that enable them to unlock their organization’s full value—today and in the future.</div>

Contentful responds to market shift with new partner program

JotForm announced today a way for users to automatically generate designed, professional-looking PDFs whenever someone submits a response to an online form.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qLIXeKxWhag?start=3&amp;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The product, <a href="https://www.jotform.com/products/pdf-editor/">JotForm PDF Editor</a>, addresses a major pain point. Many JotForm users wanted the information they collected turned into a presentable, document format. But doing so typically required them to copy and paste the information into a new document manually.
JotForm PDF Editor, on the other hand, automates the process. It allows users to start by designing how they’d like the final PDF to look, with the ability to add sections, customize colors, drop in images and logos, and choose fonts.
Then, when the submissions roll in through their online form, the PDFs generated in JotForm PDF Editor are quickly sortable, with options to download, print, or share the new documents  instantly.
“Our users told us about wanting a better way to present and distribute their form data,” said Aytekin Tank, JotForm founder and CEO. “Our new PDF Editor makes the entire process significantly easier. The best part — anyone can use it, even without any technical skills.”
Another big benefit to using PDF Editor is the seamless integration into Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox. Newly-created PDFs send automatically to any of these storage services so teams can quickly view and sort through the files.
PDF Editor also simplifies e-signature collection. Any signature sent through an online JotForm form can be designed neatly on a new document automatically. And because JotForm forms are simple to fill out using any device, that means agreements, waivers, and contracts can be signed on the go.
Other features include:
<ul>
<li>Option to create fillable PDFs</li>
<li>PDF password protection</li>
<li>Over a hundred pre-made PDF templates</li>
</ul>
JotForm and its new PDF Editor are free to use. JotForm has provided a quick way for users to create and publish online forms since 2006, but PDF Editor takes a leap toward making the data collected by users more actionable and presentable.
The new product is expected to be used by a wide range of users, including medical professionals for intake, HR departments for employee evaluations, teachers for acquiring parental permission, and much more.
Learn more about JotForm PDF Editor at <a href="http://www.jotform.com/products/pdf-editor">www.jotform.com/products/pdf-editor</a>.

New JotForm PDF Editor Automates PDF Creation

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

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Looking to save time, we expect to find the solutions that can ease our pain when customizing WordPress websites. Indeed, overloaded with an abundance of advanced options and extensions, it's hard to make the best decisions. Yet, you might be happy to know that it's far simpler with plugins for Elementor page builder.
This time around we'll explore the power of JetBlog, JetElements, JetTricks, JetEngine, JetReviews, JetParallax, JetMenu, JetTabs, JetWooBuilder and JetBlocks plugins. Well, there are ten of them. The best part is that you can use them in your designs and boost its functionality big times. Need more? Don't shy away from checking other <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-elementor-plugins/?aff=cmscritics" target="_blank">Elementor plugins</a> for your project.
Created by highly skilled developers, numerous helpful plugins for Elementor page builder come in handy for a variety of purposes. If you are still new to Elementor add-on plugins, find out more useful information with tips on this video. That's easy, right?
https://youtu.be/MjEL9BX09ew
This time around, though, to help ease your work &amp; save the day, we'll go over the best 10 plugins for Elementor. Stay tuned and find the solution that fits your particular needs best.

<h2>JetBlog – Blogging Package for Elementor Page Builder WordPress Plugin</h2>

To help you enrich your website pages with stylish content widgets, JetBlog comes in handy. Better yet, JetBlog is one of the best plugins for Elementor page builder to trust. Designed to showcase your posts in a more eye-catching way, JetBlog allows you to create and customize text tickets, smart tiles and smart lists.
<ul>
<li>works with Elementor;</li>
<li>supports RTL;</li>
<li>offers multiple typography settings;</li>
<li>is totally responsive.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69506-big_v1no7y.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetblog-blogging-package-for-elementor-page-builder-wordpress-plugin-69506.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69506.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>

<h2>JetElements – Addon for Elementor Page Builder WordPress Plugin</h2>

JetElements is here to ease your worries and assure that creating content is easier than you might imagine. The thing is that it comes with multiple elements, Contact Form 7 and tons of high-class modules. The latter, besides, contain an awful lot of style options and functional settings to help you enhance your content with animation, gradient backgrounds and custom fonts.
<ul>
<li>integration with WooCommerce;</li>
<li>WPML + RTL support;</li>
<li>multiple home page templates;</li>
<li>multiple pre-designed blocks at hand.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69508-big_mr2krm.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetelements-addon-for-elementor-page-builder-wordpress-plugin-69508.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69508.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>
<h2>JetTricks – Visual Effects Addon for Elementor WordPress Plugin</h2>

Keep your visitors needs in mind when empowering your website with eye-catching visual effects. Look no further, add JetTricks plugin to your collection. No extra coding skills needed, instead, the extended functionality of the plugin can make your page look more striking.
<ul>
<li>satellite functionality;</li>
<li>tooltip effect;</li>
<li>section particles;</li>
<li>Parallax effect.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69529-big_iz1udq.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jettricks-visual-effects-addon-for-elementor-wordpress-plugin-69529.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69529.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>
<h2>JetEngine – Adding &amp; Editing Dynamic Content with Elementor WordPress Plugin</h2>

Used to work with dynamic content? With JetEngine plugin, it's easy to create custom post types, taxonomies, Elementor-built templates and showcase them. Moreover, you can easily jazz the different types of content to match your company's identity or add important information even without bothering with code.
<ul>
<li>offers 40+ easy-to-use widgets;</li>
<li>multi-layered Parallax for sections;</li>
<li>full responsiveness;</li>
<li>WPML + RTL support;</li>
<li>grid, masonry &amp; justify image layouts.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/71125-big_ej37cs.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetengine-adding-editing-dynamic-content-with-elementor-wordpress-plugin-71125.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/71125.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>
<h2>JetReviews – Reviews Widget for Elementor Page Builder WordPress Plugin</h2>

JetReviews is a go-to tool when it comes to creating review blocks and rating bars. In addition, it comes with multiple styles, layouts, and, what's more, tons of customizable elements for rating and review blocks.
<ul>
<li>responsive to the boot;</li>
<li>multiple eye-catching styles of rates &amp; rating bars;</li>
<li>compatible with WP Review;</li>
<li>immaculate typography.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69510-big_m50iip.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetreviews-reviews-widget-for-elementor-page-builder-wordpress-plugin-69510.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a>Demo</a>
<h2>JetParallax – Addon for Elementor Page Builder WordPress Plugin</h2>

Designed to help you create as many Parallax layers as you need, JetParallax plugin is second to none to make it happen. It allows you to create eye-catching pages by applying countless Parallax layers to different sections. Thus, you can enjoy a variety of behavior triggers, speed, animation effects and custom positioning.
<ul>
<li>immense Parallax layers usage;</li>
<li>animation speed;</li>
<li>mouse move and scroll behavior type;</li>
<li>custom position settings;</li>
<li>Parallax background rich functionality.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69511-big_ag1aew.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetparallax-addon-for-elementor-page-builder-wordpress-plugin-69511.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69511.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>
<h2>JetMenu – Mega Menu for Elementor Page Builder WordPress Plugin</h2>

To help you make it big in creating a Mega Menu in a drag'n'drop way, JetMenu plugin is always at hand. Being one of the best plugins for Elementor, JetMenu includes an awful lot of style settings to apply for different menu presets.
<ul>
<li>easy-to-use stylization process;</li>
<li>fully responsive design;</li>
<li>exquisite badges;</li>
<li>diverse colors;</li>
<li>customizable backgrounds;</li>
<li>Mega Menu module.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69509-big_l1kyuf.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetmenu-mega-menu-for-elementor-page-builder-wordpress-plugin-69509.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69509.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>
<h2>JetTabs – Tabs and Accordions for Elementor Page Builder WordPress Plugin</h2>

Do not shy away from creating and implementing outstanding tabs and accordion blocks to your website. Do it right &amp; enjoy creating breathtaking tabs &amp; accordion widgets in a jiff. Besides, tons of easy-to-use customize settings can help you showcase your content the best way.
<ul>
<li>multiple tabs layouts;</li>
<li>full responsiveness;</li>
<li>intuitive appearance;</li>
<li>image accordion.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69512-big_uhiqe0.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jettabs-tabs-and-accordions-for-elementor-page-builder-wordpress-plugin-69512.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69512.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>
<h2>JetWooBuilder – WooCommerce Page Builder Addon for Elementor WordPress Plugin</h2>

Help your online store stay ahead o the curve by creating WooCommerce Product pages on a go. With JetWooBuilder, it's easy to display the products and create single pages. Besides, it applies 4 WooCommerce layout widgets and can be used to any page created with Elementor.
<ul>
<li>intuitive appearance;</li>
<li>easy-to-use functionality;</li>
<li>tons of style settings;</li>
<li>versatile customization options.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69528-big_ltqpzv.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetwoobuilder-woocommerce-page-builder-addon-for-elementor-wordpress-plugin-69528.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69528.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>
<h2>JetBlocks – Elementor Header &amp; Footer Widgets WordPress Plugin</h2>

Enough bothering with code when creating headers &amp; footers. Enjoy simplicity and flexibility with one of the best plugins for Elementor JetBlocks. Thus, it comes with 9 exquisite widgets required for building and applying login forms, search boxes, WooCommerce carts or registration forms.
<ul>
<li>designed to work in perfect sync with Elementor 2.0 PRO;</li>
<li>multiple style settings;</li>
<li>the go-to tool for building headers &amp; footers;</li>
<li>simplicity &amp; no coding skills.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/69867-big_ntodrs.jpg" />
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-plugins/jetblocks-elementor-header-footer-widgets-wordpress-plugin-69867.html?aff=cmscritics">Details</a> |  <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/69867.html?aff=cmscritics">Demo</a>

<h2>CrocoBlock – Elementor Addons</h2>
In fact, the entire site can be built based on your page builder and its extensions to make it function much better. This is how Elementor drag and drop plugin and <a href="https://crocoblock.com/?ref=93&amp;campaign=cmscritics"> CrocoBlock </a> subscription work. If you use them together, you can build new page templates, theme parts, MegaMenus, work with WooCommerce Single page templates with ease. In this case, building a website requires zero programming skills and isn't restricted to the features of your theme.
In the end, you can design your WordPress site without hiring a designer. Come rain or shine, these 10 plugins for Elementor page builder can get you through that day job with ease. The best part is that even non-tech-savvy users should not worry about a thing. Just use any of them to your benefit.
Have you already tried Elementor plugins? Well, it's a right opportunity to grab it.
<a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/elementor-marketplace/?aff=cmscritics" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elementor_980x120_eng_u9juaq.jpg" /></a>

10 Best Plugins for Elementor Page Builder

Online portfolio website builder Format.com recently launched their latest campaign, <a href="https://www.format.com/classics">Format Classics</a>. By recontextualizing classical figures like Vincent van Gogh, Hokusai, and Helen of Troy, they’re highlighting the idea that sharing work is central to the creative process. Whether work is new or old, it is imperative that creators share in order to learn, grow, inspire—and create more.
The campaign’s concept of making old work new again is echoed in the design decisions. Much of the design takes something familiar and presents it in new ways. On the landing page, the artwork is teased as a way to hint at the historical figures without showing them completely, and as you dive further into the campaign you’re rewarded with more information. 
Since much of the work is well known (everyone with a smartphone will recognize Hokusai’s wave), Format frames the work differently—even down to the way the figures are silhouetted, with shapes that enhance perception through the presentation. Van Gogh is wearing a large, wide-brimmed hat that creates horizontal lines and a square frame is used to emphasize that shape. Hokusai is known for his wave, so he’s framed by a large curve. Helen’s pulled-back hair creates a circular shape, echoed by a circular frame.
The portfolios themselves showcase each figure both visually and through the copy. Van Gogh’s vibrant work contrasts his dry wit, Hokusai takes his role as a creator very seriously, and Helen merges the worlds of high fashion and high followers as a supermodel-meets-Instamodel. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/classics-article-l_b2tn5s.jpg" />
“With van Gogh’s portfolio,” says creative lead Josiah Bilagot, “we felt it was important to showcase his worldview through his work as well as his personality. Many creators choose to show their audience who they are via captions, blogging, or an about page, and we wanted to give van Gogh the same opportunity. 
“We also wanted to show how sharing work is a key element of being a creator. We were deliberate in our selection of paintings—you won’t see Starry Night, for example—to highlight the idea that sharing can breathe new life into old work to encourage creators in any stage to look at their entire body of work through a new lens.”
Hokusai is a master of ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese art that embraces negative space, so his portfolio includes a lot of enforced negative space. “Instead of crowding everything together, there is a lot of intentional space around his work,” says Bilagot, “which is how we think he would do it himself.”
Helen’s profile tackles the question of presenting three-dimensional work in a two-dimensional space. Bilagot solved this by letting the sculptures stand alone, apart from any framing elements, leading with four different angles of her face and giving the audience a glimpse into Helen’s world—which is all about Helen.
Small details go even further to really personalize the portfolios. For van Gogh, the Iris theme is very recta-linear, so his signature is used as the wordmark—similar to the way he might sign one of his paintings. In Helen's case, her personality shines through her integrated Instagram account, while Hokusai's journal includes how he felt about himself as an artist in his own words.
The portfolios were created solely using Format as a way to showcase old work in a fresh way. Each portfolio uses a different theme, as well as highlighting Format features like Galleries, Store, Blog, and Instagram integration.
About Format
Meet Format, the online portfolio platform that empowers creatives to succeed. A website builder and so much more, beautiful themes showcase your work alongside integrated business tools. Whether you’re just getting started or you’re a full-time professional, Format has the tools and support you need at every stage of your business. Build the website you want to share, promote, and sell your work all in one spot.

Format is Using Portfolios for Historical Figures to Inspire Creators

<h3>Contents</h3>
<a>Introducing Monstroid2 Update</a>
<a>New Exciting Features You Get</a>
<ol>
<li><a> It’s Simpler With Elementor</a></li>
<li><a> Power Content on the Go with 500+ Sections </a></li>
<li><a> Make the Most of 20 Skins </a></li>
<li><a> Lighter &amp; Faster </a></li>
<li><a> Powerful UX with Jet Plugins </a></li>
<li><a> Get WooCommerce and Elementor Work Together </a></li>
</ol>
<a>Conclusions </a>
<h2>Introducing Monstroid2 Update</h2>
Does something like ‘Monstroid 2’ ring a bell to you? This is one of the most famous and widely recognized WordPress themes of 2017. Many developers call the theme an all-in-one toolkit to build a website. And the sweeping number of 7260 sales up to date proves <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/monstroid2.html?aff=cmscritics" target="_blank">Monstroid2</a> exclusivity.
So, what if we tell you that this August Monstroid2 gets its first large update? The team of <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com?aff=cmscritics" target="_blank">TemplateMonster</a> has worked on it for months to provide you the finest 2018 web design possibilities. Now, Monstroid2 is even more incredibly functional, rich and speedy. And, it’s even faster to build a website with this awesome multi-purpose template!
Don’t take our word for that right now? It’s time we show you all the greatness of the new updated Monstroid2.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/img1_ym54za.png" />
<h2>New Exciting Features You Get</h2>
When we first saw Monstroid2 back in 2017, we couldn’t think of how it may be better. It already had everything and that was true. However, the fruitful year of 2018 brought around higher demands, new connection points with the audience, and, of course, new technologies. To stay on the verge of web innovation, Monstroid2 gladly brings you the hottest features with its new update.
<h3>#1: It’s Simpler With Elementor</h3>
Monstroid2 has always been a WYSIWYG-friendly template. Before the update, it had PowerBuilder editor on board. It was actually a good option until the groundbreaking Elementor took visual editing to a whole different level.
These days, Elementor builder holds the palm of supremacy among visual builders in terms of flexibility and speed it provides. Moreover, this builder is considered the most comprehensive one for WordPress. Well-thought element categories, comprehensive interface, live preview, all this makes Elementor the #1 WordPress visual builder of 2018.
With the new update, Monstroid2 goes for Elementor. It plays hard and offers you the free Elementor on board, as well as tons of pre-made customization blocks and Elementor-oriented plugins. So, now, you can create a website of any degree of visual complexity faster than ever before!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/img2_b9mytd.png" />
<h3>#2: Power Content on the Go with 500+ Sections</h3>
In fact, the team behind Monstroid2 went all-in switching to Elementor. They created a huge collection of over 500 Elementor-based UI elements for different purposes. All of these UI blocks are inside your Monstroid2 admin panel and let you create exactly the interface you dream.
For example, let’s say you want to power an accordion FAQ section. With Monstroid2, you just drop by the library of pre-sets and pick you design among a bunch of highly-professional options. Then, you just have to drag the chosen preset to the right place, style with options and add content.
Moreover, if you want a neat adjustment on top of that, feel free to modify the preset further on and even save it as your own UI element.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/img3_xhpg0x.png" />
<h3>#3: Make the Most of 20 Skins</h3>
If a multipurpose theme has 20 skins, that’s pretty impressive. With 20 unique hand-crafted designs Monstroid 2 offers you, you’ll find the match for your company, personal or e-commerce website.
However, life is life, and you may like certain pages or blocks of another skin more. With the updated Monstroid2, you’re no longer limited to using just 1 skin. On top of 20 skins, Monstroid 2 adds a Magic Button to Elementor. Just click it to add any page or section of another skin to your one. Exciting, isn’t it?
By the way, new skins are released on the weekly basis. So, you’ll never fall out of customer’s grace by going for shiny and new Monstroid2 skins. They will all be available for you.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/img4_tzzhyg.png" />
<h3>#4: Lighter &amp; Faster</h3>
With the update, Monstroid2 shed a lot of its digital weight. Now, its files are sleeker and a few times lighter than before (only 250kb).
What does this mean to you? In the past, Monstroid2 required a medium or more advanced hosting. And, of course, you had to pay extra for it. Now, Monstroid2 is so lightweight and swift, you can run it on any cheap hosting without a hitch.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/img5_unfqk2.png" />
What’s more, with the weight reduced, the speed of Monstroid2 grew tremendously. Now, it takes only 1.2 second to load Monstroid2. Test the <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/demo/62222.html?aff=cmscritics" target="_blank">Live Demo</a> to experience!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/img6_latwr5.png" />
<h3>#5: Powerful UX with Jet Plugins</h3>
With the new Monstroid2 update, you get not only a myriad of pre-built Elementor blocks, but also unique set of plugins. These plugins, called Jet Plugins, let you add custom content types and power the functionality that is unavailable in Elementor by default.
Fortunately, the developers were really generous and included 9 premium Jet Plugins free. Here they go:
<ol>
<li>JetBlocks</li>
<li>JetTricks</li>
<li>JetWooBuilder</li>
<li>JetTabs</li>
<li>JetParallax</li>
<li>JetReviews</li>
<li>JetMenu</li>
<li>JetElements</li>
<li>JetBlog</li>
</ol>
If you’re interested what each plugin lets you do, please check the <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-elementor-plugins/?aff=cmscritics" target="_blank">Jet Plugins</a> page in the <a href="https://www.templatemonster.com/elementor-marketplace/?aff=cmscritics" target="_blank">Elementor Marketplace</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img8-1024x381.png" />
<h3>#6: Bring WooCommerce and Elementor Together</h3>
When many templates just claim to be WooCommerce-compatible, Monstroid2 has WooCommerce on board. Moreover, it brings you custom e-commerce skins, pages and functionality.
Most excitingly, you can work with your store pages just the same you work with the regular ones! Thanks to JetWooBuilder plugin, you get a chance to customize e-commerce pages within Elementor, tapping into a rich set of e-store-related functionality on board.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/img9_pkvm8l.png" />
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
It’s impossible not to welcome the new Monstroid2 update, with which this template gets to the forefront of web design innovation in 2018. With Monstroid2, you get a robust universal template, fully editable within a comprehensive Elementor interface. Do not hesitate to go for it when powering your website and launch one if the leading WordPress websites in your niche!
Stay tuned for more!

Sweeping Monstroid 2 Update: More Features, More Freedom

Affinity announced today the official launch of Alliances™, a relationship management solution that helps business professionals expand their networks and identify more opportunities for warm introductions. Alliances™ enables users to connect with any contact outside their organization and instantly share their relationship graph. Affinity then allows users to see the best paths to referrals within two degrees by applying a patent pending relationship strength algorithm so users truly understand who is best suited to make a referral or introduction. Alliances™ is now available for all users as an integrated part of the Affinity platform.
Alliances™ reinvents professional networking by using machine learning algorithms and Natural Language Processing to analyze a user’s relationship graph and identifying sources of warm introductions. While Affinity's relationship management platform enables an organization’s team to leverage each other’s relationship graph, Alliances™ allows Affinity users to connect with external contacts such as advisors, partners, investors or mentors to tap into their networks and access their connections. Unlike social media networks, which treat all relationships the same, Alliances™ automatically shows which connections have the strongest relationships to targeted prospects based on the tenor of their emails, frequency of their meetings, and other factors, enabling users to easily identify opportunities for referrals and introductions.
“Alliances™ unlocks the real power of business networks to help professionals source new opportunities, raise capital and close deals,” said Ray Zhou, co-founder of Affinity. “Unlike traditional networks, Alliances™ captures not only who your colleagues and peers know, but how well they know them, so you always know who’s in the best position to introduce you to a new contact or organization. With Alliances™ you can stop cross-checking social networks, your CRM system and other platforms hoping to stumble upon the right person to make an introduction.”
According to LinkedIn, 84 percent of B2B decision makers begin the buying journey by way of a referral. And yet, most sales professionals lack the insight to know which contact in their network is best suited to make that referral for them. Social networks can help identify mutual connections, but they’re insufficient for professional networking due to an overabundance of connections and an inability to determine which relationships are real or genuine. Affinity’s Alliances™ opens the doors for more warm introductions by easily and quickly surfacing the people in a user’s network that are in the best position to make a referral.
Affinity’s Alliances™ offers features such as:
<ul>
<li>Relationship Strength: Affinity’s machine learning and Natural Language Processing algorithms analyze relationship data buried in peer-to-peer communications to let you easily identify which contacts in your network, within two degrees, have the best relationship with targeted prospects or organizations.</li>
<li>Prospect Lookup: Look up any prospect to see every relevant contact your allies can provide a warm introduction to, based on real-time network data including the latest emails sent or received, the latest meetings held or scheduled and more.</li>
<li>Prospect Finder: Within Affinity’s CRM, input your targeted prospect by industry, job title, location or other criteria, and Alliances™ will display every relevant prospect who you can get connected to via your allies’ real-time networks.</li>
<li>Prospect Import: Within Affinity’s CRM, import a list of prospects by an organization or person name, in either .csv or .xlsx format, and see which of your allies can make a warm introduction.</li>
</ul>
“The real economy is comprised of relationships; it consists of people working together to deliver the products and services that run our modern world. Alliances enable professionals to better grow, leverage and manage the relationships that dictate their success,” said Joe Lonsdale, General Partner at 8VC and an Affinity co-founder.
“Alliances™ for Affinity has helped our portfolio companies supercharge connectivity within our common network; spotting new opportunities for adoption and partnerships,” said Luca Zorzino, Investment Director at Illuminate Financial.
Alliances™ is immediately available for all existing Affinity customers by selecting the “Alliances™” tab directly from the main menu within the Affinity dashboard. For more information, visit https://www.affinity.co/product/Alliances.

Affinity Launches “Alliances™,” Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Grow Users’ Professional Networks

From product managers and marketers to UX designers and researchers to CX professionals and executives, everyone has a business need to connect with their customers and end-users. The ability to do this face-to-face, whether it is virtually — through a webcam or smartphone — or in person, there is an added benefit to seeing the user and being able to read non-verbals and observe facial expressions for sentiment. The lack of gating features in face-to-face interviews provides critical insights that enable one to better decipher reaction, emotion and empathy from the customer. 
Enter UserTesting’s <a href="https://www.usertesting.com/platform/live-conversation">Live Conversation</a>, today’s solution for companies looking to connect in real-time with their customers to gather qualitative feedback and insights on projects, designs, campaigns and more. With Live Conversation, users simply choose the demographics of the participants they are seeking insights from, enter their calendar availability, and UserTesting does the rest to connect them with their target audience. 
What’s new?
UserTesting recently released enhancements to Live Conversation to give its users greater flexibility in coordinating and conducting moderated, live interviews — with 24/7 scheduling and same-day interviews to offer faster time to insights in the moment they need it, and support for multiple time zones to make it more accessible for international companies. 
As schedules frequently change, new enhancements to Live Conversation also make it easy to add, adjust and edit availability, even after a study is created. Expanded capabilities also include deleting times previously marked as available and adding more availability if sessions do not fill. 
Companies such as Alaska Airlines, Autotrader, Constant Contact, and CoverMyMeds all use Live Conversation to make smarter business decisions based on deeper customer empathy and real-time human insights — resulting in time, cost and resources savings over traditional moderated mechanisms. 
Bradley Miller, Senior User Experience Researcher at Autotrader, said he “turned to Live Conversation to connect with recent car buyers to better understand the customer journey, and to ultimately drive empathy and customer-centric design.” With Live Conversation, Autotrader saw cost savings and an 80 percent decrease in time investment. What would normally take weeks now just takes him a few days to schedule and conduct live customer interviews.
Frank Rosile, User Experience Designer at CoverMyMeds, said that “talking to patients [via Live Conversation] builds empathy for them, and helps CoverMyMeds understand the ‘why’ behind what to build.” Using Live Conversation, CoverMyMeds has seen significant time and cost savings as they gained important information about patients to inform future product development.
When to use it? Live (or moderated) vs. unmoderated customer research
One question that we often hear from customers is which is better: live (moderated) or unmoderated customer research? The answer, as you might’ve guessed, is that it depends. Like any research strategy, there are differing benefits for each approach making them more or less suitable depending on what you’re studying and your ultimate business goals.
With live moderated studies, a real person will be there to help facilitate the test. The moderator will work directly with the participants, guiding them through the study and will be there to help facilitate and answer questions if the participant encounters any challenges while completing their tasks.
Unmoderated studies are just as they sound. It’s not monitored or guided, so there’s no one else present during the study except the participant. The participant completes any tasks and answers questions at their own pace, on their own time, at a time and location of their choosing. 
Now that we’ve established the basic differences between the two, let’s dive in to how and when to best apply each strategy based on your research needs.
Live customer research: pros and cons
It helps to think of moderated testing as an interview or a real-time conversation that you’re having with a customer. Everything that you’d do to prepare for that type of interaction is what you’ll need to consider for a moderated study.
Pros
Live moderated testing works best when you need a high level of interaction between you and your customer. For example, if you want to study a prototype with limited functionality, or a complicated process or concept, moderated testing provides you with the interaction you’d need to guide a customer through the study. They’re also an excellent way to conduct interviews, understand the customer journey, and discover pain points.
Live moderated testing is also a great way to observe body language and pick up on subtle behaviors and responses and probe participants for more information if they seem stuck or confused.
They allow you to develop a rapport and have a natural conversation with your customers which helps establish trust, and can lead to candid feedback that might not be possible with other qualitative research methods.
Cons
Because of the additional time and resources, live moderated testing does cost more than unmoderated testing; however, you can reduce some of that cost by conducting remote moderated studies, rather than in-person with Live Conversation. This will give you the opportunity to connect with participants all around the world and reduce the need to block out a dedicated time and space for onsite interviews. Who doesn’t love getting some hours back in their day? 
Unmoderated customer research: Pros and cons
This type of testing is best for validating concepts and designs quickly with a diverse group of customers. Unmoderated testing works great if you have specific questions that you need answered, you need a large sample size, you need feedback quickly, or if you want to observe a customer interacting in their natural environment. 
Pros
The beauty of remote unmoderated testing is that it can be done anytime, anywhere, and you typically have actionable feedback within a day if not sooner. Because a moderator isn’t needed, the cost is typically much lower than moderated tests, which can enable you to run more tests with a wider variety of customers.
Cons
Since unmoderated tests are completely unsupervised, it requires a fixed set of questions and tasks for customers to complete, and doesn’t allow for follow-up questions or clarification. If customers run into issues, have technical difficulties, or don’t understand the tasks or questions, you won’t have the ability to step in and guide them.
At the end of the day, the choice is up to you, but now you can choose the best qualitative test for your customer research needs.
Paige Musto is VP, Corporate Marketing at <a href="http://www.usertesting.com/">UserTesting</a>, a human insights platform company that helps businesses create better customer experiences.

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