Media training 101 for small businesses

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Great news: you just scored a big press interview to promote your business. The story will expose your brand to the perfect new audience and drive meaningful traffic to your website. So…don't blow it. Yes, just as quickly as the excitement for the opportunity arrived, the realization that you now have to do an interview sets in. I get it—press interviews can absolutely be intimidating. The resulting coverage represents a significant opportunity to acquire new customers, drive sales, or raise awareness, and you want to be sure to represent your brand well and really compel the audience to check out your company. On top of that, you have to contend with adrenaline and nerves in the moment. You may be thinking, "So many other business owners are so polished and articulate in their interviews. How am I going to pull that off?" Deep breath. A successful interview is usually the result of good media training: preparation and practice in advance of an interview. I've tr...
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How to Create Custom Emoji in Slack

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Emoji are core to every workflow—at least, they're core to any workflow worth having. But your company has its own unique culture, and that culture deserves its own emoji. Happily Slack makes it easy to add your own.

To get started click the name of your organization followed by Customize Slack.

Customize Slack

This will open a page in your browser where you'll see all currently added custom emoji.

Slack emoji custom

As you can see, we've added a few emoji here at Zapier. Some of them are inside jokes, some of them are animated delights, and a few are even core to our workflow. More on that later.

To add an emoji, click the Add Custom Emoji button. You'll be asked for a file and a name.

Slack upload emoji

First upload your image. Yes: Animated GIFs are supported. Yes: That is awesome. Next, add a name for the emoji, which you'll use to trigger it in Slack. Click Save, and you're done: You can now use your new emoji in Slack.

Slack emoji working

Enjoy your new emoji. Cherish it. Teach your co-workers to respect it.

Download These Emoji Instead of Being Creative

As a busy professional you may not have the time to express your personality by creating something unique. Good news: You don't have to! There are sites out there with personality you can download and add in just a few clicks.

First you need to head to Cult of the Party Parrot and add basically everything there to your Slack. Immediately. Your teammates will thank you.

Next head to Slackmojis.com and you'll find a bunch more options. There are a lot of great animated options here so take your time and find a few (hundred) that you like.

Emoji As Serious Business

Emoji are fun, obviously. But they're also surprisingly productive, if you use the correct tricks.

For example: We use a question block to signify when someone is asking a question. This allows anyone scrolling through Slack to see that someone is looking for an answer to a question, meaning they're more likely to stop scrolling and answer.

You can also use emoji to trigger automations using Zapier. For example, you could react to any Slack message using a particular emoji to send that message over to your to do list, or any other of the 1,000+ applications Zapier integrates with. Give it a shot and put your emoji to work.



from The Zapier Blog http://bit.ly/2DfbH0R

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