A feedback sandwich is a method of feedback where positive feedback serves as a cushion to negative feedback. Generally, a manager or superior delivers positive feedback. Then, they deliver critical or constructive feedback and close with positive feedback.
There are three components — or ingredients — to a feedback sandwich:
<ul>
<li>Praise</li>
<li>Negative feedback</li>
<li>Praise.</li>
</ul>
But here’s the problem with feedback sandwiches: they’re confusing and possibly not effective.

Giving constructive criticism: What is a feedback sandwich?

<ul><li>In some situations, it can soften the impact of negative feedback. But it’s important to note that this really only works if the two parties are clearly communicating.</li><li>For the person giving feedback, it can make it easier to give negative feedback.   Basically, it can help the feedback giver feel better about giving negative feedback.</li><li>It helps to end the meeting or conversation on a positive note.  It focuses the closing of the conversation on what the person is doing well in this particular role or situation. </li></ul>

Pros of the feedback sandwich

<ul><li>It can build more tension and confusion between managers and direct reports. The feedback sandwich lends itself to a reactive approach as opposed to proactive coaching. If you’re receiving a feedback sandwich, it’s likely that you haven’t asked for it.</li><li>It isn’t culturally inclusive. The feedback sandwich operates on a very Western and, arguably, American -style of communication.</li><li>It can create more anxiety for your employees. They know when there’s a little dance around the elephant in the room.</li><li>It can encourage bad listening habits. An employee can choose to only focus on the positive (even if th<warningtag>ey did hear the negative).</warningtag></li></ul>

Cons of the feedback sandwich

Should you use the feedback sandwich method to give constructive criticism? Here’s everything you need to know.

There’s a heated debate about feedback sandwiches: do they actually work? Find out how you can give effective feedback today.

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Career

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Communication

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Leadership & Management

Feedback Sandwich: 7 Pros and Cons to Consider

Constructive Criticism: Is The  Feedback Sandwich Really Working?

Marketing journeys are long, complicated, multi-channel paths. Tracking them is always imperfect, but if you employ an extensive, expensive, difficult-to-configure combination of tools, tracking systems, and deeply talented statistics professionals, you can build a high-quality, predictive attribution modelling structure that approximates reality with relatively minor gaps.Don’t bother. Just trust your gut.

Tracking The Marketing Journey

<ul><li>Non-attributable sources of marketing are lower in competition and more powerful in impact.</li><li>Channels with "provable" ROI are almost always claiming credit for channels whose attribution can't be shown.</li><li>Marketers who flip the script and shut down “provable” channels often see an attribution shift but no loss in conversion.</li></ul>

Trust Your Gut: The Argument

<ul><li>Have a list of channels and tactics that seem to be working, and that you continually invest in</li><li>Have a secondary list of experimental channels/tactics where you're investing until you prove a hypothesis</li><li>Fundamentally understand your customers' top of funnel behaviour.</li><li>Keep track of enough analytics to be able to spot a disaster.</li><li>Trust your gut instincts.</li><li>You can get better results by trusting your gut and doing the work.</li></ul>

The Only Catch: You Need a Trustworthy Gut

You've heard the marketing analytics spiel before. It goes something like: Marketing journeys are long, complicated, multi-channel paths. Tracking them is

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Economics

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Marketing & Sales

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Business

Provable Marketing Attribution is a Boondoggle; Trust Your Gut Instead - SparkToro

There is a paradox around vacations. We all know that it is important to get away from the office periodically. Time away from work gives you a chance to relax, reduce stress, renew your ties with your family, and get away from problems you have struggled with so that you can think about them differently on your return to the office.But as a vacation approaches, we generally look at it with dread. There is too much work to be done! There are new projects starting and others that need to be completed.

The Paradox Of Going On A Vacation

The idea of this theory is that the more distant some object or event is for you, the more abstractly you think about it.Distance can refer to physical distance, but it can also mean distance in other dimensions like time or social structure. So, an event that won’t happen for six months is distant, while an event that is happening later this week is near.Abstractness refers to the level of detail that is captured in your thoughts about the object or event.

Construal Level Theory

As the vacation gets closer, your thoughts become more specific. All of the details that are required for you to go on the trip come into view. You think about getting your passport renewed or reserving space on an excursion. You also start thinking about how to structure your work so that you can get away. You consider meetings you will miss, events that need to be rescheduled, and responsibilities that need to be shifted to someone else.

Getting Closer To The D-Day

Because it really is important to get away, you should not add stress to your vacation by questioning your decision to go away. When you book your next trip, remind yourself of what you are going to feel like as the trip nears by imagining that you actually had to go on the trip next week. Look at your schedule and recognize that you will be busy no matter when you decide to go away. If it’s really a problem, start planning earlier – get your passport renewed well ahead of time, and book that excursion sooner too.

Plan Well

Look back at your life over the last five years. How many specific weeks of your life can you remember? Chances are, most of the things you remember involve changes to your routine rather than business as usual. Your trips, family events, and new experiences are the ones that stick out in memory. Don’t let the mad rush the last week before you go away dissuade you from taking more trips in the future.

The Stuff We Remember

We can blame something called construal level theory.

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Time Management

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Travel

Why Some of Us Dread Going on Vacation

A meeting cadence is how often a meeting is held. For example, if you and a direct report check in every Friday morning, that’s a weekly cadence. If you have a request to meet every other month, that’s a bimonthly cadence.
The challenge for every company is how frequently meetings should take place. In an increasingly distributed workforce where a face-to-face Zoom is sometimes the only interactions you’ll have with your team, these are often overscheduled in the hopes that these “in person” meetings will be beneficial to building relationships and team morale.

Meeting Cadence

You want your team to know what everyone is working on, but you also want to allow for enough freedom for everyone to work autonomously.  Here are a few examples of some common meetings and how frequently they might meet. <ul><li>One-on-One Meetings: Weekly meeting cadence</li><li>All Hands: Quarterly meeting cadence</li><li>Daily standup meeting: Every day</li><li>Leadership Teams: Monthly meeting cadence</li></ul>

Different Companies, Different Needs

<ol><li>What is the goal of this meeting?</li><li>Can this meeting happen asynchronously?</li><li>Is this a high-priority or urgent task?</li><li>Do these types of meetings regularly run over the allotted time?</li><li>Do we run out of items to discuss in these types of meetings?</li></ol>

Five Questions To Ask Before Making a New Meeting Request

Once you’ve determined that you’ve got a weekly cadence for one project and another weekly cadence for an all-staff check-in, that doesn’t mean these have to be formatted in the same way. You have to decide if the meeting is information seeking or information giving, which we alluded to earlier. This matters a lot when you’re determining how to best check-in.

Change Your Cadence: Asynchronous vs Synchronous Meetings

These meetings fall into any of the following categories:Seeking Information<ul><li>A kickoff meeting for a new project</li><li>A project team meeting to discuss next steps</li><li>Management meeting to check in on how teams are running</li><li>A one-on-one with a direct report to check in on goals and tasks</li></ul> For information giving meetings, those might be: <ul><li>A daily standup</li><li>A project update</li><li>A company’s annual report</li></ul>

Information Seeking And Giving

Research shows that 15% of an organization's time is spent in meetings. Imagine moving that 15% towards actionable tasks that can increase revenue in your business? Less meetings and more money? An easy win. A whopping 73% of people admit to multitasking during meetings. Let your employees spend more time doing their work and less time passively listening in.

Fewer Meetings = Better Meetings

<ol><li>Do create an agenda. Make sure everyone knows what will be covered in advance so they can attend better prepared.</li><li>Don’t leave room for questions at the end. Instead, use Slack or email for any follow-ups since there’s never enough time at the end of the meeting to get to everyone’s questions.</li><li>Do invite-only key players to a meeting. It’s much easier to communicate in smaller groups.</li><li>Don’t go over the allocated meeting time.</li></ol>

Four Do’s and Don’ts For Your Meetings

How often should you meet with your remote team? What can be an asynchronous update vs a synchronous meeting?  Here's how to decide how many meetings you need.

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Remote Work

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Corporate Culture

Meeting Cadence: What’s Right For Your Remote Team?

If Tiktok is the Disney+ of social media — the new and exciting platform — Triller can be seen as apple Tv+ — another competitor in an increasingly crowded industry. They’re similar products, yet go about their strategy in distinct ways. They’re similar in many regards, but share a Commonality in, perhaps, giving a glimpse as to where social media is heading — a strive towards more authenticity.

Triller vs. TikTok: Differences, Similarities, and Why You Need to Know About Both

<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/introducing-triller-a-mobile-music-video-app-that-enables-anyone-to-make-celebrity-quality-videos-300117491.html%20-Launched%20in%202015" target="_self">Triller was released in 2015</a> as an “AI-powered” video-editing app, started by app developers David Leiberman and Sammy Rubin (creators of Disney Frozen: Karaoke, among other apps), who later brought on award-winning music video director Colin Tilley (Kendrick Lamar, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, and more).&nbsp;Users can film multiple takes of themselves and using artificial intelligence, the app will automatically compile together the best clips to create a music video.

What Is Triller

<ul><li>Bytedance, the Chinese company behind Tiktok, may be planning to launch its own streaming service. While a user can listen to a full track on Triller, one can only listen to 15 seconds of a track on Tiktok.</li><li>Triller focuses its AI capabilities on Video-Editing.&nbsp;</li><li>Tiktok emphasizes its AI capability on personalized search.</li></ul>

Wait, Isn’t This The Same As TikTok?

Then there are a few minor differences:&nbsp;<ul><li>Triller Edits videos for the user, while Tiktok allows the Creator to edit how they wish.</li><li>Whereas Tiktok displays Trending Hashtags, top videos, and promoted campaigns.</li><li>The challenges that are promoted on Triller’s discover page are almost always from Hip-Hop artists.</li></ul>

Minor Differences in the Apps

As with all new apps, experimentation and authenticity are key. One of the main reasons behind TikTok and Triller’s popularity is the authenticity of the content.&nbsp;Videos are full of people dancing, smiling, and having a good time. So don’t stress — get creative, smile, and have fun.

Go Give Them A Try

As previously mentioned, users can stream full-length songs, save songs to their own playlists, and access Triller playlists. This has the potential to create a social ecosystem revolved around music, where user-generated videos actually have a direct impact on streams.

Return on Investment

I have no doubt that another one will spring up in the next few years or an existing platform will create something new. But for now, I think all artists should get on the App, spend some time every day browsing videos, creating content, and engaging with others on the App. As with all new Apps, experimentation and authenticity are key. Until the next crazy Gen-Z App, Josh.

So…What Does This All Mean? How Do You Get Started?

<ul><li>Triller appears to have its sight set on working with the music industry, while TikTok seems to be gearing up to disrupt it.</li><li>Each app fundamentally deploys artificial intelligence in a different manner.</li><li>Both have different versons of editors and discover pages</li><li>Triller is focussed on the EDM and hip-hop genres of music, while TikTok taking in all kinds of music genres.</li></ul>

Triller Vs TikTok

If TikTok is the Disney+ of social media — the new and exciting platform — Triller can be seen as Apple TV+ — another competitor in an increasingly crowded industry, trying to join in on the action…

Tencent launched an instant Messaging App, Weixin, from its Guangzhou research center in early 2011. the project took off quickly, with over 100 million registered users by 2012. the App soon started to encompass more features.

The history of WeChat

Wechat is a major player in the social space, so in that sense it is a bit like Facebook. This brings it into direct competition with Weibo in China. It contains instant Messaging, so it is like Whatsapp.

FB Plus Whatsapp Is Wechat

Essentially, WeChat can be used for just about anything you want to do online. Although it does not own all of the products that reside within its walls, it does facilitate easy integration between most of China’s most popular apps.

What can the WeChat app be used for in China?

This bike-sharing program allows cyclists to pay for rides using their WeChat wallet. It is similar to bike-sharing schemes in cities worldwide aside from one difference: it does not require docking stations.

Mobike

This mini app allows users to make small donations to charity for each 10,000 steps they take on a daily basis. For each 10,000 steps, a user can donate 1 Yuan, which is equivalent to roughly 15 cents.

Donate Your Step

60% of users open the App more than 10 times a day. 21% of users open Wechat more than 50 times per day. 17% of users spend 4 hours or more per day on Wechat.

Who uses the WeChat app?

Wechat pay, also known as Wechat wallet, is a user’s ‘ Digital wallet’and it is used to pay for everything, either via a tap of the phone or a snap of a camera. It boasts over 600 million active users, compared with 450 million for its main rival Alipay, owned by Alibaba.

WeChat Pay: WeChat’s killer app

Mini programs are WeChat’s attempt to resolve a seemingly insoluble paradox on mobile devices: people spend a lot of time in apps, but they only use a very small selection of apps in total.

Mini programs: WeChat’s ‘app killer’

Consumers are expected to use a much wider variety of mini Apps within Wechat in future. It is somewhat like Google’s accelerated mobile pages initiative, or Android instant Apps.

Mini Programs: Apps In The App

'search' will compete directly with Baidu and provide something new altogether. Tencent, Wechat’s parent company, also owns Sogou (a minor competitor to Baidu) this will at least lend this new venture some engineering expertise. Wechat is uniquely positioned to do what Google and Facebook so far have not achieved.

Does WeChat contain a search engine?

There are options to market brands on Wechat, either organically or via paid promotions. Paid promotion has only been available since 2015 and ads make up only 15–20% of Tencent’s revenues. By comparison, ads make up more than 70% of Facebook’s revenue. But that number is predicted to more than triple by 2018 rising to $11 billion in annual advertising revenues.

How can brands advertise on WeChat?

Most of those international accounts are held by Chinese people who have moved abroad. But Wechat has started to gain some ground in South America and Africa. There are now over 5 million Wechat users based in South Africa alone. It has been reported that foreigners based in China have become even more addicted to the App than locals. This could help to expand Wechat’s reach to Western markets. A wide range of studies has highlighted how differently Chinese and American consumers perceive their respective environments.

Could WeChat expand beyond China?

Wechat has built its success on integrating its way into its users’daily lives and integrating all of their most popular brands and services. By first building an engaged (in some cases, addicted) user base, it is now in a Supreme position to provide them with useful advertising.

In summary

WeChat has grown from a voice messaging platform into a truly ubiquitous app experience in China. Owned by parent company Tencent Holdings, the WeChat app has over 900 million monthly active users…

WeChat: The evolution and future of China’s most popular app

There are four components of a dynamic link to keep in mind when creating a Firebase Dynamic Link: <ul><li>What to do when a user already has the app installed ? </li><li>What to do when a user clicks from Android without an app ? </li><li>What to do when a user clicks from iPhone without an app ? </li><li>Where to add UTM parameters to the URL of dynamic link? </li></ul>

Dynamic Link Components

Deep links are links that allow users to move to a specific section or piece of content. Deep links trigger when users already have an App installed. The deep link contains all the information needed to point to a particular item.

What to do when a user already has the app installed?

Custom Url lets us capture the Utms in the native code of mobile application. This can be sent to any desire Analytics platform such as Mixpanel, amplitude, or Firebase Analytics. Scroll to the bottom of the page to create a custom Url for Android. Here is an example play store Url builder to add: Https: //play.google.com/store/apps/details? Id=Com.Test.App&amp; Referrer=.

What to do when a user clicks from Android without an app?

Sending users to the App Store is similar to Android. The only change is that we don’t have to use a custom URL because as of writing this article App Store doesn’t have any API that would let us capture traffic sources within the native app similar to Android.

What to do when a user clicks from iPhone without an app?

We added Utms in the custom Url for Android, but we also need to add Utm parameters. This is because when the user clicks the dynamic link, these are the values that we get in the native code.

Where to add UTM parameters to the URL of dynamic link?

Firebase provides a way to verify the behaviour of Firebase dynamic links. To verify the link paste it in the Browser, and add? D=1 at the end, and press enter. Doing so opens a chart showing how the user would move depending upon where they interact with the link.

How to verify Dynamic Links?

Deep links are links that allow users to move to a specific section or piece of content of the app or website. For example, a deep link that when clicked takes the user directly to the product category section of the app.The deep link contains all the information needed to point to a particular item.

Deep Links

Firebase Dynamic Links help to control where a user lands depending on whether they have an app installed or not. Having such behaviour gives a richer user experience when interacting with marketing…

Firebase Dynamic Links Guide

If you listen to any Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA) guru these days, they always recommend the same old niches: gyms, restaurants, dentists, and general real estate firms. A lot of gyms are just too poor to even Shell out $1,500 a month on Facebook ads let alone $500 bucks (which would barely even cover the ad spend itself).

SM Marketing On Gyms Or Restaurants

Ideally, the company must be making over $50,000 a month to even be considered. Look for databases that include Mrr columns to sort through (monthly recurring revenue) any business that has a popular product or service that costs over $500 is a winner. The higher the transaction the better. This also makes it easier to justify the cost of your services. High-ticket items usually need more ad spend to get a customer.

SMMA Business Prospect Criteria

A. Wealthy Clients.B. High-Ticket Services.C. Recurring Services.D. Top Local Companies, Not Franchises.E. No Facebook Pixel On Their Website.F. Weak Social Media Presence.G. Local businesses interacting with local customers.H. Traditional Media Spenders.I. They Can Handle A Surge Of Business.

Medical SpasTattoo Removal Centers.Niche real estate and assisted living properties.Pest control centres.HVAC companies.Deck and landscape companies.Kitchen/Bathroom remodelling companies.Towing services.Luxury watch companies/dealers.Car modification shops.

Lucrative Underserved SMMA Niches

If you listen to any Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA) guru these days, they always recommend the same old niches: gyms, restaurants, dentists, and general real estate firms. While these are great…

10 Underserved SMMA Niches That Are Better Than Gyms Or Restaurants

In almost every video, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lalnQniI3Lw">Dan talks about launching and failing thirteen businesses </a>. Thirteen. 13. You will hear the number so often that you will get used to it. Since I’m doing my own research, I tried to find any of the thirteen ventures Dan established. Guess what did I find? NONE.

Lucky Number 13

The story of the life and struggles is all made up.You will never find any extra details on locations, context when precisely any of the above took place. It’s a perfect story repeated over and over — in the same way. That, for me, was lesson one: when a story is repeated many times, in the same context using the same words, you can tell it’s been memorized; thus, it’s a lie.

A 1,000 Times Repeated Lie Is Still A Lie

The makeup of the course looks like this: <ul><li>25% is Dan Lok Bio. </li><li>25% is about mindset &amp; how to shift yours to win. </li><li>25% is motivational talk about exceeding your limits. </li><li>25% is a promotion of other Dan Lok’s courses. </li></ul>

The True Cost Of The $2,500 Course Is $0

Whenever someone asks for your money over the Internet, you need to research them thoroughly once, twice, and thrice. When they ask for your money to teach you how to earn money, you need to dig in even further, or better yet, you need to run! most likely, you’ll find a scam.

Don't Fall For Online Scams

People want money, not the hustle to get it. That is why gurus like Lok and my newly found Lopez are thirsted over: they figured out the shortcut to swimming in a “Tower Heist” like pool while sipping margaritas with sexy models. People don’t want to put the effort to hustle for what they need. We all want shortcuts to happiness, money, and success.<a href="https://news.vistaprint.com/side-hustle-study-us" target="_self">A study of 2,000 adults in full-time employment</a> found that 55% admitted they would like to turn a hobby into a side business, but are yet to take the leap for different reasons.

Getting Money, Fast And Easy

Even if the content is worth it, you should never invest in courses that sell you fish in the water. No one has reported a magnified wealth after attending one of those courses. From the many reviews of people revising such content, the value lies in getting the motivation and being directed into the right position. All extra details are rubbish that aims to sell you thin air.

Selling Fish In The Water

Two years ago, I hit rock bottom. I lost my job, couldn’t land an interview in my country, my personal life turned into a mess, and my MBA dream class witnessed ugly clashes. All in all, the year…

The Billionaire Guru Who Changed My Life Turned Out To Be A Scam!

Brand positioning is defined as the territory you occupy in your customers’ minds relative to your competitors and whether those customers believe you’re the best option to meet their needs.Effective brand positioning relies on competitive research and analysis, consumer insights, and an honest evaluation of where your business stands and fits in the marketplace. Your customers are at the center of the process.

Think like your customer

Brand positioning is product-agnostic. It aims to occupy a higher, conceptual place in the minds and eyes of customers. Brand position is about trying to establish a relationship based on shared or aspired values, belief systems, and business practices.<ul><li>When customers think of the brand, what words come to mind?</li><li>How does the brand make them feel? What emotions do they associate with it?</li></ul>

Brand positioning

<ol><li>Physique: the tactile physical characteristics or iconography of your brand. </li><li>Personality: the character (or persona) of your brand as expressed through style, color, design, tone of voice, language, and mannerisms.</li><li>Culture: the beliefs and value systems that imbue the whole of an organization. </li><li>Relationship: the connection established between a brand and its customers a</li><li>Reflection: the person most likely to purchase your products.</li><li>Self-image: how customers want to see themselves.</li></ol>

Create a brand identity prism: how consumers see your brand

The brand positioning map (or perception map) is a visual representation of a brand’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to the competition, based on consumer perception.While positioning maps are a powerful tool, they don’t account for business objectives and financial results.

Design a brand positioning map

<ul><li>Backed by science: Trials and studies support your claims. It goes without saying that the more unbiased and independent the research is, the better.</li><li>Reviews and testimonials: Nothing is more powerful than other people, who laid down their hard-earned cash for your product, validating the efficacy of your brand. </li><li>Category longevity or expertise: Sustainability, viability, and expertise can be proof points in and of themselves.</li><li>Awards, accreditations, seals of trust/excellence: People love awards and seals.</li></ul>

A few examples of potent proof points

How you position your brand relates directly to your company’s mission and purpose. If you can’t pinpoint what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for, nobody else will either.

Feedback Sandwich: 7 Pros and Cons to Consider

Provable Marketing Attribution is a Boondoggle; Trust Your Gut Instead - SparkToro

Why Some of Us Dread Going on Vacation

Meeting Cadence: What’s Right For Your Remote Team?

Triller vs. TikTok: Differences, Similarities, and Why You Need to Know About Both

Jane King