It is no secret that user reviews greatly influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. According to a study from Harvard Business School, a one-star increase on Yelp, a popular rating website, led to a 5 to 9 percent increase in revenue for businesses. How do you know when a review is fake? Many of the largest user…
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In last week’s blog post, we revealed whether positive or negative user reviews matter more to potential customers. This week, we turn our attention to deceptive reviews.
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How important are user reviews? Do positive or negative reviews matter more? And which reviews are more influential – rants or raves? Web-savvy consumers are increasingly looking to ratings from fellow buyers and fellow travelers before making purchasing decisions, which gives businesses an incentive to try to influence the ratings. So we decided to put…
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We’ve discussed how Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are in a previous blog post, presenting research from Harvard’s Amy Cuddy showing how using a “power pose”– a confident, expansive posture – for two minutes increases testosterone levels by 20% and decreases cortisol levels by about 25% in our brains. These changes in hormone levels…
Read MoreThe following is an article from the Wall Street Journal, covering how to use body language to convey confidence, including insights and research from Quantified Communications. Mastering Art of Conveying Confidence By Sue Shellenbarger Most people work hard pulling down degrees and polishing resumes in hopes of impressing hiring managers. But many neglect to master…
Read MoreDo you know that feeling you get when you’re watching a speaker and you’re not convinced they really believe what they’re saying? They just seem too polished, too prepared, too smooth, too “inhuman”. They seem, candidly, inauthentic. As technology has enabled rapid growth in methods of communication, authenticity is more important today than it ever…
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In the branding world, color psychology is frequently fussed over, but seldom understood in a concrete way. That’s because, like so many facets of marketing and communication, the impacts colors have on audiences are often contingent on the personal preferences, experiences, cultural differences, and context each audience member brings to the table.
Read MoreAudiences are selfish. Listeners care about themselves. Viewers want to be entertained. Meeting attendees care about what the content means for them. As a speaker, this means that one of the most critical components of communicating is satisfying your audience’s needs. A great way to do this is through empathy. Empathy in the context of…
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Glossophobia—the fear of public speaking—affects three out of four people, with 5–10% of the population facing severe glossophobia that can significantly impact their day-to-day lives. Few people immediately and innately enjoy public speaking, but unlike with clinical phobias, most discomfort with public speaking can be addressed with training exercises, practice, and a gradual, self-led increase…
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Traditionally, training has always been a one-directional process. A coach or instructor relays information to students and then tests them on how well they retain the material. With the recent innovations in online learning such as MOOCs (massive open online courses) and Quantified Self learning tools such as Lumosity, many experts are asking if the…
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