The bilingual brain calculates arithmetic differently depending on the language


People can intuitively recognise small numbers up to four; however, when calculating, they depend on the assistance of language. This presents a fascinating research question: How do multilingual people solve arithmetical tasks in different languages of which they have fluency? The question will is important, as an increasingly globalised job market and accelerated migration means that increasing numbers of people seek work and study outside of their native linguistic areas.

In two separate test situations, the study participants solved very simple and slightly more complex addition tasks, both in German and French. It became evident that the subjects were able to solve simple addition tasks equally well in both languages. However, for complex addition in French, they required more time than with an identical task in German. Moreover, they made more errors when attempting to solve tasks in French.

During the tests, imaging (fMRI) was used to measure the activity of the subjects. This demonstrated that, depending on the used, different brain regions were activated. With additional tasks in German, a small speech region in the left temporal lobe was activated. Solving complex calculatory tasks in French activated additional parts of the subjects’ brains responsible for processing visual information. However, during the complex calculations in French, the subjects additionally fell back on figurative thinking.

The experiments do not provide any evidence that the subjects translated the tasks they were confronted with from French into German in order to solve the problem. While the test subjects were able to solve German tasks on the basis of the classic, familiar numerical-verbal brain areas, this system proved insufficiently viable in the second language of instruction, in this case, French. To solve the arithmetic tasks in French, the test subjects systematically relied on other thought processes not observed so far in monolingual persons.

The study documents for the first time, with the help of measurements and imaging techniques, the demonstrable cognitive “extra effort” required for solving arithmetic tasks in the second language of instruction. The research results clearly show that calculatory processes are directly affected by language.

Explore further: First language wires brain for later language-learning

More information: Amandine Van Rinsveld et al. Mental arithmetic in the bilingual brain: Language matters, Neuropsychologia (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.05.009

The Foolproof Guide to Build Your Personal Brand & Credibility

Personal Brand

Your personal branding is very evident by your social media and online presence. Each time someone Googles your name, what shows up in the search results is a direct reflection of your personal brand.

Your personal branding either conveys professionalism, trust and credibility…or it doesn’t.

The boom in popularity of social media sites has made it possible for businesses to reach out to their potential customers in a way that never existed before. Now, physical distance is no longer a challenge for businesses aiming to reach a wider audience, as the digital world is literally boundless.

Thus, it’s not surprising to see social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn transform into actual communication gateways between businesses and customers.

Indeed, the business landscape has changed vastly over just the past decade. Nowadays, with competition coming in droves, you must figure out a way to establish a genuine connection with your target audience. This is the only way you’ll be able to convert them into customers — and to make them see why you’re the best choice from all the other businesses out there competing for their attention.

Now more than ever, it is crucial for businesses to ensure that they are leaving the right impression on their target audience. It doesn’t matter if your business is established or a start-up, people do business with people, and they want to know who you are. What message does your current personal branding convey?

In order to build a positive and professional personal brand, you’ll need to put more effort into ensuring that everything you do on social media will only serve to make your brand stronger.

6 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand & Credibility Online

Personal Branding

Don’t be intimidated, though. It may seem like an overwhelming task at first, but the secret to effectively using social media to build powerful personal brand is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is to take note of the following tips for online brand management:

1. Make sure your social profiles speak to your ideal clients.

A lot of business owners make the mistake of jumping into social media marketing all gung-ho, without taking the time to truly understand the industry they’re moving in. For starters, make sure you know who your competitors AND potential customers are.

You must also pay attention to what existing and successful businesses in your chosen industry are doing right — why is their marketing working? What are they doing that everyone else isn’t? And what would stop your potential customers from choosing you instead?

Make it a point to study, for instance, who’s following you on social media. What are their common traits? What are their pain points? What kind of solution can you provide best? Once you have gathered all the data you need you can move on to actually creating a powerful social media presence, once that speaks to your ideal prospects and clients.

The most important first step is to create professional and client-focused profiles. Of course, your LinkedIn profile is, without a doubt, the most important one. (For more on that, read this handy guide I prepared – “How to Create an All-Star LinkedIn Profile.” What you may not realize is your LinkedIn profile is often your first online impression, as in most cases, it’s the first thing someone clicks on when they want to learn more about you.

Although your LinkedIn profile is the most important piece here, don’t neglect your Facebook and Twitter profiles, either! People may look there if they want to find out more about you.

2. Utilize social media to stay top of mind.

It’s not enough for you to just create an account on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and post an update from time to time. Social media can serve a multitude of purposes, from helping you stay top of mind with prospects to building your credibility and authority in your industry and/or topic. It’s also a great way for you to build an online following, a community of people who you can serve with your products or services.

Also, don’t forget that whatever you do on your social media profiles will absolutely serve as a reflection of your company as well as yourself. You’ll find that your greatest success on social media will be from engaging through your personal profiles versus any business pages you may have. Why? Because people want to deal with people, not logos.

Having said that, it’s important then for you to be cautious about the types of posts you make. Before you post, ask yourself, “would I be okay with potential prospects and clients seeing this post”, if the answer is yes, go ahead and post it.

Don’t be too shy to engage in a bit of self-promotion once in a while. Let your customers see the links to your social media profiles on your website, and add social media sharing buttons to all the different types of content you’re producing. Think of it as free marketing for you when your visitors start subscribing to you (or even convincing others to do the same).

3. Build an effective content marketing strategy.

To build your credibility online as well as being seen as an authority it’s time for you to start creating and perfecting your content strategy. When you share your well-composed, well-researched thoughts and insights on matters that are relevant to your target audience, you are essentially building up your brand credibility and showing your followers why they should trust you.

Your content marketing strategy can involve quite a number of types and formats.

Effective content marketing may include informative how-to videos, themed blog posts and infographics, news articles and opinion pieces, in-depth eBooks, and the like. You will certainly draw in more people with these than if you were to adopt a blatant, outright selling strategy for your brand.

Come up with creative and original ideas that speak to your audience and solve micro problems for them. Each day you get asked questions by leads, prospects and clients, turn the answers to each of those questions into a piece of content.

You can also curate content from all over the internet, finding and sharing articles and images that you think would be useful or relevant to your target audience. Make it a point to read key trade publications, industry blogs and content from thought leaders. You can then share what would be of interest to your target market.

4. Leverage third party credibility to enhance social proof.

The danger in crafting messages specifically designed for selling is that most people don’t respond well to them on social media. Thus, having someone with enough social clout say good things about your business (instead of relying solely on sales-ey messaging) is powerful social proof and third party credibility.

Try reaching out to influencers on your preferred social media platforms — after all, there isn’t much for you to lose, right? Establish a closer relationship between you and the influencer (or influencers) in question, so that they can get to know you. Before you ask them to do something for you, do something for them, build a relationship with them.

People are more likely to listen to your brand advocates than to hear you blatantly self promoting. So start making friends with these influencers, and figure out how you can both benefit from this arrangement.

5. Make sure your personality shines through all of your social media updates and interactions.

There’s a human being behind your business — let people get to know you via your social media updates. Until social media people didn’t really get to know who they were doing business with. Social media has humanized businesses, and rightly so. After all, at the end of the day, people buy from people.

Be engaging; let people get to know you. Share what you are passionate about. And pay attention to your prospects and clients social profiles. Watch what they share, and engage with them.

The key here, however, is to do it consistently. Develop a consistent and formidable brand identity, and you’ll seem more genuine and credible on social media.

6. Turn your employees into brand advocates.

Some businesses may not realize this, but the cornerstones of a successful business are its employees — and unhappy employees are unproductive employees. On the other hand, if you find ways to keep them happy, they can even turn into your most ardent promoters and supporters.

Any employees you have are also being seen by your prospects and clients online, so ensure they receive help and training to develop a positive and professional online presence. The social profiles of your employees (their personal brand) is a direct reflection of your business.

When your employees look good on social media, they too can be sharing information and content from your company, amplifying your message and massively expanding your reach.

If you want to take things to the next level and transform how your company, products and services are perceived, spend the time in making sure each principal and employee of a business has a great online presence.

Regardless of which stage you’re currently in when it comes to your social media journey, building up your professional and personal brand can sound like a rather daunting task at first. However, with the right mindset, a well-planned approach, and a little work you can turn your online presence into a client attraction magnet.

If you would like to learn the secret to effective personal branding that builds trust, credibility and magnetically attracts leads, prospects and clients to you, let’s talk — that’s my specialty! Book a time to speak with me 1-on-1 by clicking here.

Originally Published on Topdogsocialmedia.com

Majority of Marketers Unsatisfied with Localization But Fail to Prioritize It in Budget

Most marketers are unsatisfied with the way their teams are localizing branded content for different markets, yet fail to prioritize this need in their budgets, a new CMO Council report revealed.

According to the report, 63% of marketers feel they’re “not doing well at all,” “need improvement,” or “getting better” when asked how effectively they adapt, modify and/or localize branded content for different markets, audiences, partners, and geographies. Just 33% rated themselves high, saying their organizations are “very advanced in this area” or “doing well.”

Despite the clear need to localize – with 50% of marketers saying it’s essential to business growth and profitability – most marketing teams simply do not have the budget to execute their goals. As high as 75% said they are spending 10% or less of their budgets on localization efforts.

Partnering with HH Global, the CMO Council released its “Age of Adaptive Marketer” report where it detailed the findings of a poll conducted among 150 marketing executives in a range of industries during the second quarter of 2017. The report included comments from the top management of US-headquartered companies Pepsi, Chobani, and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

As consumers increasingly expect brands to engage with them in the most relevant ways, almost half of survey respondents cited localization demands – including language, cultural values, and other sensitivities – as the top factor “putting pressure” on marketing teams to more effectively deliver branded content at scale.

But at the same time, ensuring that content is properly localized (34%) without diluting the brand’s overall identity (43%), as well as shorter lead times and deadlines (47%) are among the biggest challenges for marketers.

“In today’s day and age, there is an expectation that customer experiences happen in total context to the consumer, yet localization – whether it’s around the globe or around the corner – is still a far-off goal for far too many organizations,” the CMO Council noted in its report.

No Formal Assessment

The lack of proper budgets has affected marketers’ ability to meet the demands of global markets and how quickly they deliver localized content.

When asked how they rate the speed, responsiveness and capability of their in-house marketing teams or agencies in supporting global and local execution requirements and demands, just 7% said they’re “very advanced” and 23% are “doing well.” Sixty-nine percent said they’re “getting better,” “need improvement,” or “not good at all.”

“There is an expectation that customer experiences happen in total context to the consumer, yet localization is still a far-off goal for far too many organizations” — CMO Council

Specifically, only 17% of marketers are able to deploy global and local content across all touchpoints simultaneously, while 6% admit that digital assets are able to launch on the same day as global campaigns, but physical touchpoints like print take much longer to deploy. While 15% are able to accelerate localized launches within days of a global deployment, 44% need weeks or even months to deploy.

Meanwhile, the study also found that many companies are utilizing only basic project management (53%) and collaboration tools (49%) to manage their creative delivery process.

In addition, while most marketers are not satisfied with their localization efforts, 58% have not undertaken a formal assessment of their creative delivery process – which is the report’s “most surprising insight,” according to HH Global VP for Marketing and Sales Operations Mark Tiedens.

Why? “My best guess is time. Meeting deadlines and following up with adapted content after initial creative goes to market both take priority over efforts to assess and improve current technologies, processes and resources,” he said.

Resonate with the Consumer

The CMO Council report included some insights from C-level executives of well-known US brands on localizing branded content.

Jennifer McCarthy, Starwood Hotels and Resorts VP of Global Brand Design and Marketing, stressed that customizing messages for individual markets guarantees that the content will be more successful. “Whether editing the imagery or the text, slight adjustments to some of the brand’s programs or marketing can increase its resonate with the consumer,” she said.

However, PepsiCo Chief Customer Officer Ram Krishnan cautioned against losing the brand’s identity in the process. He explained, “If you lose that, then you lose the soul of your brand.”

Localization does not only apply to the global context, but also domestic, said Peter McGuinness, Chief Marketing Officer of Chobani.

“The 50 states are not always the united 50 states of America, and there are different points of view, consumers, socioeconomic backgrounds, race and ethnicity ratios and histories to all of the states,” he said. “Blanketing the United States with one message may be efficient in terms of cost per 1,000 perspectives, but efficiency based on the number of eyeballs reached is not a measure of success.”

Meanwhile, McCarthy urged brands to use technology to improve efficiency and track impact. She claimed her organization decreased its spending around localized branded content by nearly USD 3m after launching a tool for this purpose.

Originally published on Slator.com