Have you ever looked through your Instagram feed and wondered how some people make their photos look so darn good?

Whether I’m looking at drool-worthy photos posted by food brands or crisp, gorgeous shots of full-time Instagrammers (yes, that’s a real job), I’ve had my fair share of photo envy.

When it comes to posting on Instagram, photo quality is everything. How good your photos are will make or break your presence. If you take great photos and edit them exquisitely, I promise you will be much closer to amassing the thousands of followers you’re hoping for.

Download the complete guide to using Instagram for business and marketing here.

But don’t be intimidated — in fact, we have good news for you: Editing photos well on Instagram doesn’t take a whole lot of time. It’s all about taking great photos, using the right photo editing apps, learning which filters work for which types of photos, and getting the routine down.

Let’s learn how to edit photos for Instagram so you can garner more followers and more engagement on your Instagram page. In this post, I’ll help you turn unedited photos — like the one on the left of Fenway Park at dawn — into ones that are much more compelling, like the one on the right.

 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Editing Your Instagram Photos

Step 1: Start with a great photo.

No amount of editing is going to fix a photo that was poorly taken in the first place. When it comes to posting something awesome on Instagram, it’s all about photo quality — and that starts with a photo that’s great even before you tweak it.

You don’t need to be a photographer or take classes to take great photos for Instagram. All you really need is a smartphone and the willingness to learn some key tips for how to use it to take great photos. Start by reading through these 17 tips for taking great photos with your smartphone. This post will teach you how to line up your shots, find interesting perspectives, and take advantage of symmetry, patterns, “leading lines,” and more.

Step 2: Edit it using apps other than Instagram.

This step is optional but highly recommended. Before I even start editing a photo on Instagram, I edit it using one or two of the other great photo editing apps out there. Click here for a list of 11 of the best photo and video editing apps for mobile. Each of the apps on the list have different strengths, so it’s beneficial to use more than one on each photo.

For this particular photo, I used two apps: Afterlight and Snapseed.

Afterlight is available for $0.99 on both iOS and Android — and in my opinion, it’s well worth the dollar. I use it on almost every photo I post to Instagram. It’s not the fanciest app in the world, but it has all the features you need to do a basic photo edit — from controlling the color tones and adjusting exposure and brightness, to rotating and straightening the photo. While the Instagram app itself has some of these capabilities, Afterlight does have a few important features that Instagram doesn’t, like its Highlight Tool that brings the blue hues up. I find this gives photos a cleaner, fresher look.

For this particular photo, I did some basic editing tweaks on things like brightness, contrast, and highlights.

Next, I uploaded the photo into Snapseed, a free app on both iOS and Android that’s also great for basic image enhancements.

While Snapseed has all the classic adjustment tools, such as tuning, cropping, and straightening, its main selling point is its “selective” editing tool. This lets you pinpoint an area in a photo and adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation of that single point in the photo. So if you want viewers to focus on a certain part of your photo — say, the clouds reflecting the beautiful colors of sunrise — then you can make those clouds more vivid.

Snapseed also has a plethora of cool filters, like the “Drama” one below. Although I didn’t use any filters for this particular photo, there are some cool ones in there you can play around with.

Once you’re done editing a photo in Snapseed, you can click “Save” and then “Export” to save it to your phone’s photo album.

Boom. With a few tweaks using apps outside of Instagram, I’ve adjusted the original photo (left) to make it a little more striking (right).

 

Step 3: Upload your photo to Instagram.

Now that we have a photo we’re ready to work with in Instagram, it’s time to upload your photo to the Instagram app. To do this, open the Instagram app and click the camera icon at the bottom center of your screen.

From there, select the photo you’d like to edit from your photo album. By default, it’ll go into “All Photos,” but you can click the downward arrow next to “All Photos” at the top of your screen to open a particular album if your photo is located somewhere specific.

Pro Tip: Instagram will crop your photo as a square by default, but if you want to change it to its original width, simply press the “Expand” icon (two outward facing arrows) in the bottom left-hand corner of the photo once you’ve selected it.

Click “Next” to begin editing the photo.

Step 4: Pick a filter.

Here’s where it gets fun. Now that you’re in editing mode in the Instagram app, the first thing you should do is pick a filter. Usually, I click through onto each and every filter, in order, and take note of which ones I like. Then, I’ll go back and forth between the ones I like until I settle on one of them. How’s that for scientific?

While slapping on a filter because it looks good is one way to do it, it is helpful to play around with each filter and get an idea of its specific purpose. From Lark to Crema to Valencia to Ginza, each filter has its own personality and hues that drastically changes the photo — not only how it looks, but how it feels. Take a look at these examples to see what I mean:

  

  

Here are a few of my favorite Instagram filters and how they change the look and feel of a photo:

• Lark: A filter that desaturates reds while pulling out the blues and greens in your photos, thereby intensifying it. Great for landscapes.
• Moon: A black-and-white filter with intense shadows that’ll give your photos a vivid, vintage look.
• Crema: A desaturated filter that gives your photos a creamy, vintage look.
• Valencia: A filter that warms the colors of your photo, giving it kind of an antique look without washing out color completely.
• X Pro II: A high contrast filter that makes colors pop and adds vignette edges, giving photos sort of a dramatic affect.
• Lo-Fi: This filter adds high saturation, rich colors, and strong shadows to your photo. Great for photos of food.
• Brannan: A filter with a metallic, grey-ish feel that richens deep colors while softening neutrals. Warning: It always makes your photos look highly edited.

Everyone has their favorites, so as you use Instagram more and more, keep experimenting and learning about your own filter preferences for every type of photo you take, whether they’re landscapes, close-ups, portraits, or something else.

For this particular photo, I chose the Skyline filter because I like how it gave the whole photo a glowing, surreal look, and how it made the rich purples and pinks of the sunrise pop.

Pro Tip: As you begin learning your filter preferences, you can reorder your filters and even hide the ones you don’t use. To do either of these things, scroll to the very far right of your filters options and click “Manage.”

To reorder your filters, simply hold your finger down on the three grey lines on the far right of the filter you’d like to move, and drag it to reorder.

To hide filters you don’t use, deselect them by tapping on the white check mark to the right of the filter.

(Read this blog post for more Instagram hacks, features, and tricks like that one.)

Step 5: Adjust the lux.

The what? If you’ve ever edited a photo on Instagram, you’ve likely used the lux feature before, even if you weren’t sure what it’s called. Lux is a feature that makes your photos more vibrant and brings out the smaller details.

Once you’ve selected a filter, turn lux on by tapping the sun symbol below your photo and above your filter options.

Then, use the slider to adjust the lux, which will adjust the contrast and saturation of your photo. I usually slide it up and down until I settle on what looks best. Tap the check mark when you’re done and it’ll take you back to the filters page.

Step 6: Use the simple editing tools.

Next, open up Instagram’s simple editing tools by tapping the wrench icon below your photo on the right-hand side.

From here, you can adjust a number of settings, including alignment, brightness, contrast, structure, warmth, saturation, highlights, shadows, and sharpness. I usually go through each setting one by one until I’ve adjusted the photo to my liking.

To adjust each of these settings, click on the icon at the bottom of your screen, use the slider to find a “sweet spot,” and then tap the check mark when you’re done. If you adjust the slider and realize you don’t want to make any changes, simply tap the “X” and it’ll exit from that setting without saving any changes.

 

Once you’ve made all the changes in Instagram’s tools that you’d like, click “Next” in the top right-hand corner of your screen.

Step 7: Either post your photo immediately, or save it to post later.

Alright — at this point, you have two options.

Option 1: Post your photo immediately.

If you’re ready to post your photo now, then go ahead and post it by adding a caption, a geotag, tagging any relevant Instagram users, and clicking “Share.”

Option 2: Save it to post later.

If you’re not ready to post it now, but you wanted to get a head start on editing it so you could post it in a pinch, then you can save the photo with the edits you made in Instagram without posting it — thanks to a little hack.

Ready? To use Instagram as a photo editor without posting anything, all you need to do is publish a picture while your phone is on airplane mode.

First, you’ll have to be sure you have “Save Original Photo” turned on in your settings.

Then, turn on airplane mode. Here’s how to do that:

• To turn on airplane mode on an Android device: Swipe down from the top of the screen. Then, swipe from right to left until you see “Settings,” and then touch it. Touch “Airplane Mode” to turn it on.
• To turn on airplane mode on an iPhone/iPad: Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and click the airplane icon. Or, go to “Settings” and then “Wi-Fi,” and switch “Airplane Mode” on.

Then, go back to your editing screen and press the “Share” button at the bottom. An error message will appear saying the upload failed, but rest assured the photo will be saved automatically to your phone’s photo gallery.

(Read this blog post for more Instagram hacks, features, and tricks like that one.)

Pro tip: Want to edit a whole bunch of photos ahead of time so you can upload them later without much effort? If you have an iOS device, one way to organize your edited photos so you can find them easily later is to add them to your “Favorites” folder on your iPhone.

To add photos to “Favorites,” you’ll need to “heart” the photo. Here’s how it works: When you’re scrolling through your photos, tap the heart icon at the bottom of your screen.

The photo will be added to a photo album called “Favorites” in your iPhone’s folders, which you can access easily and at any time. Since Instagram doesn’t let you schedule posts in advance, this is a great place to store edited photos so you can upload them when you need them.

And there you have it! By now, you should be able to edit your Instagram photos on a pretty basic level.

What other tips do you have for editing Instagram photos? Share with us in the comments. 

A brand gives a business its unique identity — from the way content looks and feels to how it sounds and resonates. Think about some of the most iconic brands out there, and then picture their branding. I bet you can come up with it right away.

GoPro? Excitement. Prada? Sophistication. Band-Aid? Sincerity. 

When establishing your own company’s brand, you have to dig deep into its roots and determine what your product really means to your customers. From here, you will be able to shape your brand’s values, personality, story, and style.

It’s not magic … it’s insight. And that’s why we teamed up with online print and design company MOO to bring you The Essential Guide to Branding Your Company. In this kit, we’ll explain the key elements you’ll need to create a sharp, authentic brand that will stand out from your competitors and resonate with your customers.

What’s inside?

• Helpful advice on how to brand your business
• Customer persona templates to get to know your customers
• A brand checklist designed to keep you and your brand on track
• Exclusive business card designs to compliment your brand
• Much more about how to get your brand up and running with a competitive edge

Download the free guide here to learn the key elements you need to create a strong brand.

Today, internet users have more control over what they look at online than ever before. To earn their attention, marketers like us have to create content that’s worthy of our audience’s time and emotional investment.But what’s the best way to cut through the clutter to make sure our content gets seen?

Well, it helps to create content that’s poised to go viral, of course. For a piece of content to go viral, each viewer has to generate at least one more viewer, on average. The “super-sharers,” though, are actually responsible for over 80% of shares that make content go viral — so the trick is to find and reach those people.

But for those super-sharers to even think about sharing your stuff, it has to have “viral potential.” After all, there are reasons why some content takes off and other content doesn’t.

To learn more about the two powerful drivers of viral success and the emotions that make us want to share, check out the video below from Harvard Business Review.

This post originally appeared on HubSpot’s Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.

Here’s something disturbing: According to data gathered by marketing agency Deep Focus, four out of every 10 millennials would rather engage with pictures than read. Yes, you read that right. Nearly half of history’s most educated generation would prefer to revert back to some sort of cave painting-esque proto-language than bother to parse through a couple of sentences.

Of course, most prominent among this shift to pictorial communication is the emoji. We detailed its rise to prominence last year, but in short, the emoji as we know it started in 2011 and reached near-ubiquity in the past year or so. Now, in 2016, seemingly every millennial peppers their texts or tweets or Facebook messages or Instagram posts or college essays with yellow faces of varying temperaments.

And because millennials are such an important demographic to reach, brands have been trying to capitalize on the emoji craze. It has gotten so pervasive that an entire industry has cropped up dedicated to measuring the ROI of these type of visual images on campaigns.

However, we’re taking a decidedly less scientific approach to judging brands’ emoji usage. Below we’ve recounted our picks based on such subjective criteria like cleverness or memorability.

But before we begin our countdown, we must include a quick disclosure. These below examples are of brands using the standard emojis found on most smartphones, not instances of companies such as Coca-Cola or Disney creating and using their own custom emojis. That’s too easy.

The 7 Best Examples of Emoji Marketing

7) Baskin-Robbins

One of the biggest problems arising from a brand’s use of emojis is the tendency to get overcomplicated. Try to do too much and risk creating a string of would-be clever emojis that take longer to decipher than to read a Tweet or a tagline. (We’re looking at you Chevy.) That’s what makes this Baskin-Robbins tweet so perfect. It’s an ice cream cone. Nothing fancy, but it helps break up a wall of text.

6) Bud Light

On the Fourth of the July, Bud Light tweeted an emoji American flag composed of fireworks in place of Old Glory’s stars and American flags and beers for the red and white stripes, respectively. It was clever, original, and took advantage of the existing emoji language.

5) NASCAR

On World Emoji Day (yes, it’s a thing), NASCAR Tweeted a photographic (emoji-graphic?) mosaic of some of the sport’s most famous drivers. Art? Maybe. Cool to look at? Certainly.

4) General Electric

Hosted on the website emojiscience.com and modeled after the periodic table of elements, General Electric’s “Emoji Table of Experiments” invites users to click on individual emojis to explore “DIY science, videos with special guests, and everything else emoji science.” For example, clicking on a smiley face will bring visitors to a video of Bill Nye the Science Guy explaining evolution through the use of emojis, while clicking on a rocket ship pulls up information about NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Emojis as a teaching tool? Who knew!

3) DeadPool

Sure, this example may be a little crass, but so too is the character the movie is promoting, and that type of on-brand messaging works. Besides, when you have famous comedians tweeting about how brilliant your emoji usage is, you must be doing something right.

2) Smithsonian Institution

Here’s another example of emojis as education: On World Emoji Day, the Smithsonian tweeted an emoji that corresponded to a particular piece in their museum along with a link to more information. An emoji trumpet, for instance, brought visitors to facts about Louis Armstrong’s trumpet. No word on if any of the millennials actually read the content.

1) Domino’s Pizza

The goal of any business should be to reduce friction during the purchasing process. By co-opting the pizza emoji into a food ordering mechanism, Domino’s Pizza reduced the time it takes to order to five seconds. And that’s perfect because the only thing millennials like more than emojis is instant gratification.

What are your favorites examples of emoji marketing? Let us know in the comments below!

This post originally appeared on HubSpot’s Sales Blog. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.

According to author Robert Pozen, regular exercise increases productivity. Although you might put an emphasis on going to the gym for that reason, are you putting enough energy into arguably the most important muscle affecting your productivity — your willpower?

Studies show that our willpower is similar to other muscles. If little time is spent working on your self-control, you won’t see any improvements. However, unlike your other muscles, you only have a limited surplus of self-control: As our day progresses, our willpower depletes.

If you’re struggling with diminishing willpower, below are nine ways to improve your self-control and max out your productivity.

9 Willpower Workouts to Maximize Your Productivity

1) Eat a hearty meal.

Low glucose levels are directly correlated with to weaker willpower. In fact, a study revealed that participants who were not fed prior to starting a project gave up completing it much quicker than their fully-fed counterparts.

“To keep [your willpower] high, eat regular meals that are full of protein and good carbohydrates, like a sandwich of lean meat and cheese packed between two slices of whole-wheat bread,” Stephanie Booth writes in Real Simple. “And never start a challenging task on an empty stomach.”

Starting each morning with a hearty meal kickstarts your willpower. During the day, snack on almonds, cashews, and yogurt to maintain high energy levels. If you’re unsure of what to eat, HubSpot’s Lindsay Kolowich put together an infographic detailing the ideal diet for maximum productivity.

2) Find the right balance.

Your willpower is a limited resource, meaning you run out of it during the day. Therefore, it’s important to not use all of your willpower too early.

“Because on any given day we have a finite amount of willpower, it’s important that we don’t deplete the well too soon,” Laura Entis writes in Entrepreneur. “Instead of simply writing down obligations on your calendar, rank them in terms of the energy or self-control they will require.”

If you’re struggling to determine which of your tasks requires the most attention, prioritize your to-do list with an impact versus effort analysis.

Here’s how it works: Write down your tasks and rank each one based on how much impact it will have on your productivity and how much effort it will require. Once you finish ranking your tasks, begin working on your low effort, high impact goals to build up steam, then transition to your high effort, high impact goals.

3) Commit to an outcome before starting.

Instead of allowing yourself to duck out of your commitment, make a “down payment” to ensure you’re going to follow through. In other words, give yourself a reason to complete a task before starting it.

“Make it inconvenient to give into your temptation,” Emily Co writes in PopSugar. “It won’t stop you, but it will make it harder to go against your goals. For example, schedule a session with a personal trainer, or bring a set amount of cash with you when you’re on a budget, and leave your credit cards at home.”

For example, a colleague of mine felt she was commuting to work with Uber too frequently. To counteract that, she purchased a monthly subway pass. By spending the $75 dollars for the pass, she’s committing to riding the MBTA. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of money.

4) Meditate every morning.

Although it looks simple, sitting still with perfect posture and balancing your thoughts is difficult.

But the benefits of meditating go beyond 15 minutes of quiet every morning. In fact, quite a few successful executives, including HubSpot’s Chief Technology Officer Dharmesh Shah. say meditating keeps them calm.

According to Headspace, an eight-week 2012 U.S. study found that employees who meditated experienced improved willpower and focus. After conducting three studies, the researchers discovered that “those trained in meditation stayed on tasks longer and made fewer task switches, as well as reporting less negative feedback after task performance.”

Instead of reaching for your cell phone first thing in the morning and checking email, try spending 10 minutes meditating and reap the willpower benefits. 

5) Exercise regularly.

According to author and willpower expert Kelly McGonigal, regular exercise — whether it’s light yoga or an intense physical workout — is linked to improved willpower.

In fact, a Netherlands study revealed that a quick workout correlated with better self control, among other significant benefits.

“The researchers suspect that exercise may improve self-control by increasing the flow of blood and oxygen to the part of the brain—the prefrontal cortex—that controls higher brain functions,” Shawn Radcliffe explains.

Going to the gym not only strengthens your willpower, but also improves your overall health. If you’re struggling to find time for the gym, try out these 10 tips for exercising without leaving your desk.

6) Get a good night’s rest.

A good night’s rest supplies you with both the mental and physical energy to make it through the following day. If you miss out on sleep, you’ll feel tired and your willpower is likely to drop to an all-time low. In fact, a lack of sleep can result in lower reaction speed and an inability to think clearly. One study found that this fatigue-impaired state is equivalent to being drunk.

“Adequate rest improves our self-control and provides an optimal environment for the brain to function,” Ryan Clements writes. “Rest reduces the body’s need for glucose, and it allows the body to make better use of what we have.”

A good night’s rest normally means getting seven to eight hours of shut-eye for an adult. If you’re struggling to fall asleep, studies suggest getting away from screens and reading a paperback book. The light from device screens messes with our circadian rhythm, making our bodies believe it’s daytime when it’s really time for bed.

7) Practice what you’re trying to do.

Yep, we talkin’ about practice. If you want to run a marathon, you can’t just jog a few times to get in shape — you have to train your body for distance running. Your willpower works the same way.

“Just like lifting a barbell strengthens your arms, pushing through a problem will bolster your willpower,” Nathaniel Eliason of Zapier writes. “The cool thing is that this doesn’t have to be huge, arduous tasks: Any amount of stress on your willpower will strengthen it.”

If you’re struggling with a certain technique or skill, make sure you set aside time to practice it. Try Jerry Seinfeld’s “don’t break the chain” technique: Mark a red X on your calendar every day you practice a task, then focus on not breaking the chain of red X’s. This mentality ensures you’ll practice every day.

8) Smile often.

Studies show smiling — even faking one — improves your mood.

And this is important for willpower: The happier you are, the more likely you can resist temptation and complete your goals. Researchers had volunteers resist temptation to deplete their willpower.

Afterwards, “participants who watched a comedy video or received a surprise gift self-regulated on various tasks as well as non-depleted participants and significantly better than participants who experienced a sad mood induction, a neutral mood stimulus, or a brief rest period,” the researchers write.

In the event you become overwhelmed with stress or feel a little blue, remember to smile. It’ll boost your mood, your willpower, and likely put you on a path towards productivity.

9) Hold yourself accountable.

If you’re struggling to build up your willpower, being hard on yourself when things go wrong can be effective. For example, if author Chrisoula Andreou doesn’t exercise five times a week, she can’t eat out on Friday night.

For some people, punishing themselves for lack of willpower isn’t the best way to build up strength, but for others it can be incredibly effective. If you’re struggling to find self-control, establish a set of rules and hold yourself accountable when you break them. For example, if you commit to spending three hours prospecting each day, but only follow through on one hour, don’t let yourself indulge in your favorite leisure activity that night. Instead, spend the time searching for potential fits.

Getting through the day can be draining. For some, a lack of willpower and an overwhelming to-do list can join forces to kill productivity. While willpower is a unique “muscle,” you still can work it out and build up strength. Use these nine tips to build your willpower when you’re productivity is plateauing.

We’ve all been there. You’re working from home, when all of a sudden the WiFi cuts out. You’re about to step into the subway or take off in a plane, when you realize you forgot your book and don’t have anything to do on your trip. You’re at the office, totally on a roll working on a project and out of nowhere … EVERYTHING STOPS LOADING. 

Cue minor panic attack.

Whether we like to admit it or not, we can sometimes feel a little … lost or panicked when we don’t have access to the internet — especially if it’s unplanned. We spend a lot of time on the internet these days: 21% of Americans say they’re online “almost constantly,” according to a Pew Research Center survey.

We’re so accustomed to our hyperconnected world that being separated from the internet can stress us out. Seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it?

But believe it or not, there are ways to stay productive without internet access. Whether you’re at home, at the office, or traveling, here are a few ideas for what you can do without an internet connection. (You may want to print this one out.)

12 Ways to Stay Productive Without Internet

1) Read articles offline.

Most of the time, when we read articles, we’re browsing through them online. But there are a lot of ways you can read the articles you want without an internet connection — it just takes a little bit of preparation ahead of time.

Pocket is my favorite free app for saving all the articles I stumble on when I don’t have time to read them. This allows me to easily catch up on them later — like when I don’t have internet. The app lets you save articles, videos, and images either from your browser or from over 1,500 apps like Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse, and Zite. When you find yourself with some time to read, you can open the app and browse the articles you’ve saved at your leisure — even without an internet connection.

The Google Play Newsstand app, which is available for both iOS and Android, is another good app for downloading newspapers and magazines, which you can then go back and read even when you don’t have an internet connection. Instead of saving individual articles, it saves entire publications and downloads new content as it comes in when you do have internet. In other words, it’s a single place where you can keep all of your free and paid subscriptions. Most importantly for our purposes, the RSS feeds, magazines, and newspapers on the app can be downloaded for offline reading later.

2) Listen to podcasts offline.

When you have the luxury of a good internet connection and you want to listen to a podcast, you can always stream it so it won’t be stored on your device. But if you don’t have an internet connection, you can still listen to podcast episodes — again, it just takes a little preparation.

On Apple’s Podcasts app (which you can download from iTunes if it’s not already on your iOS device), you can download (or “save”) individual podcast episodes to listen to later. This’ll store them directly on your device so you can listen to them whether or not you have an internet connection. So, to prepare for your commute or other times when you won’t have internet, we recommend saving a bunch of podcast episodes ahead of time.

To save an episode in the Podcast app: Find the podcast episode you’re looking for, and click the three dots to the right of the podcast’s title. Choose “Save episode” in the menu that appears. This will prompt the download to begin, which could take up to a few minutes to complete. Once the podcast is downloaded, you’ll be able to access it on or offline under the “My Podcasts” tab.

 

If you have an Android device, there are a few different ways to listen to podcasts online and offline. Our favorite is the Stitcher app. In what they call “offline mode,” you can listen to previously downloaded podcast episodes without an internet connection. You can either download these episodes individually, or you can set Stitcher to download new episodes of podcasts you’re subscribed to when you do have internet. (Read this blog post to learn more about how to subscribe to podcasts using the Podcast and Stitcher apps.)

3) Do a “brain dump” writing exercise.

It can be difficult to find time in our busy lives for creativity exercises that seem “extra” — like a brain dump. But times when the internet isn’t there to distract you can be the perfect excuse to spend some time digging in to your subconscious and letting that creativity flow freely.

What exactly is a brain dump, you ask? Here’s how it works: Open up a new document on your computer or even a good ol’ notebook, and start writing down anything that’s on your mind. You can do a focused brain dump where you pick a specific topic and run with it, or you can do a general brain dump where you literally write down anything that’s on your mind and see where it leads you. Don’t worry if your ideas are all over the place — that’s the whole point. Just let it out. No structure necessary.

Once you reach a good breaking point, take a look at what you’ve written and see if you can start to group your thoughts together by category, and pick out which ideas could be actionable. Then, you can start prioritizing them, making a to-do list, and thinking about who could execute on each item. 

4) Come up with a few weeks’ worth of blog topics.

While you won’t be able to do any keyword research without an internet connection, it’s still a great time to brainstorm and get creative with blog post topics. You can always do keyword research later.

My colleague Ginny Soskey wrote a great blog post about how to come up with a year’s worth of blog post topics in an hour. In her post, she suggests starting off with one topic, and then iterating on it by changing the topic scope, the time frame, and the audience. You can also introduce new formats to that first topic — so a title like “The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing” could easily become “The Ultimate Twitter Marketing Checklist” or “The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing [Infographic]”.

You can also come up with blog post topics by listing out questions your buyer personas might ask. If you’re at the office when your internet goes out, you could even swing by the desks of your colleagues in Sales or Services to ask them which questions customers and prospects ask them. 

5) Interact with other humans.

What a concept! One of the best things about not having internet is having the excuse to look up from your computer, your phone, or your other devices and spend quality time with the people around you.

Of course, how you interact with the people around you depends entirely on where you are when you don’t have internet. If you’re on a subway or an airplane, you may not feel comfortable striking up a conversation with a stranger. (Although I’ve actually made some great connections with people who were, at one point, strangers sitting next to me on my flight.)

But if the internet goes out at work, why not take advantage of the downtime by spending some time with your coworkers? After all, according to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report, strong social connections at the office can make you happier and more productive — and can even make you feel more passionate about your work and less likely to quit. You might also benefit from more professional development support and better feedback. (Check out this infographic from Officevibe for more statistics on why workplace friendships matter.)

Whether you use the time to grab coffee with a coworker for fun or chat with someone about your latest idea, a little human-to-human interaction can go a long way.

6) Hold an impromptu staff meeting.

Did your internet go out while everyone’s at the office? If you like the idea of interacting with other humans but want to keep things work-focused, then an internet outage could be the perfect time to get the team together to brainstorm, catch up on the status of everyone’s projects, or discuss schedules or issues that you may not normally have time to catch up on.

7) Take some time to relax.

When you don’t have internet … why not use the time to take a break and relax? It may not seem like a productive use of time now, but taking breaks has actually been proven to improve your productivity later by increasing alertness, concentration, and work speed.

Take a walk, take a nap, or grab coffee with a coworker and talk about things other than work. Meditating is also a great way to spend a break: We recommend the free app Headspace (available for iOS and Android), which will guide you through the basics of meditation in only ten minutes. (Read this blog post for more ideas on how to do your best work by unplugging.) 

8) Make some phone calls.

Think about all the calls you need to make but just haven’t been able to prioritize. Need to schedule a haircut appointment? A doctor’s appointment? A vet checkup for your dog? For goodness sake, when was the last time you called your mom? If your internet is down but you still have cell reception, take some time to check a few of these calls off the list.

9) Make a playlist.

A lot of people out there listen to music while they work because it helps them stay “in the zone.” This works because when we listen to music we like, the part of our brains called the nucleus accumbent activates, which releases dopamine: the motivation and pleasure chemical.

Depending on how you listen to music, you may not be able to access the songs themselves when you’re offline — but in many cases, you can still make a playlist without an internet connection. If you use iTunes and have already downloaded the music you want to select from, you can make a new playlist at any time, whether or not you’re offline. If you use Spotify, the “offline mode” feature is only available to premium subscribers. If you’re a premium subscriber, you can make and listen to playlists offline — but the catch is that you do need to go onto the internet at least once every thirty days to maintain your offline music settings.

Not sure which songs to put into your new playlist? Get started by reading this blog post that lists six psychology-backed playlists for improving your productivity.

10) Play around with Photoshop.

Every marketer should have at least a base level of design knowledge. While mastering an eye for design is one thing, marketers would be wise to invest time in mastering the software applications needed to do the actual design work. But software applications like Photoshop (or Illustrator, or InDesign) can be scary. And just getting started is easier said than done.

If you don’t have internet and already have one or more of these software applications downloaded on your computer, you might as well spend some time playing around with them. Online tutorials like our Photoshop tutorial are certainly helpful when you’re learning, but there’s plenty you can teach yourself — and it’s actually pretty easy to teach yourself once you let go of the fear and intimidation you might feel in the face of learning a brand new program.

11) Write a few thank-you notes.

While you’re unplugged, why not take some time to handwrite a few thank-you notes to people who have made a difference? It’s a way to distinguish yourself in our increasingly informal, digital world.

Even if you don’t have any stationary handy, the hardest part about writing a thank-you note is that you don’t know what to write. Write a draft on a piece of paper, which you can transcribe onto a nicer piece of stationary when you get your hands on some. Here’s a thank-you note template from Hallmark to help you get started.

12) Read a book.

I couldn’t write a blog post about how to be productive without internet without including a section on reading a book. You already know that reading books is a great way to learn new things and be productive — it’s just a matter of finding the time.

And “deep reading” is different from the often superficial reading we do when we read online articles. According to TIME Magazine, “deep reading — slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity — is a distinctive experience, different in kind from the mere decoding of words. Although deep reading does not, strictly speaking, require a conventional book, the built-in limits of the printed page are uniquely conducive to the deep reading experience. A book’s lack of hyperlinks, for example, frees the reader from making decisions — Should I click on this link or not? — allowing her to remain fully immersed in the narrative.”

So whether you’re on an airplane that doesn’t have WiFi or your internet goes out unexpectedly, spend some time doing some “deep reading” if you have a book handy.

How else do you stay productive without internet? Share with us in the comments.

Some things in life are easy to turn down.

Offered a boiling cup of coffee in the middle of the summer? That’s an easy thing to pass on. 

But some decisions in life aren’t so clear-cut. That shiny new opportunity you’re offered might not be all good or all bad.

So when you’re confronted with those tough calls, what should you do?

In this episode of The Growth Show, we hear about the most difficult situations three of our past guests have been presented with in their careers — and why they walked away from them. Then, our hosts Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot’s CMO, and Meghan Keaney Anderson, HubSpot’s VP of Marketing, will unpack lessons from the stories for us all.

You’ll hear from:

• Wistia’s Co-Founder Chris Savage on turning down a deal from HBO very early on in his company’s history
• Everlane’s Founder Michael Preysman on his approach to forming partnerships
• Radical Candor‘s Author Kim Scott on building a family and a career

To listen to the episode, click “play” in the player below, or download the episode on iTunes:

Check out the latest recaps of The Growth Show episodes by clicking here.

With mobile shopping accounting for more than 50% of online purchases, it’s obvious that mobile commerce is huge—and it’s getting bigger. The use of mobile devices for online purchases is growing faster than ecommerce did. For that reason, many make mistakes or have erroneous beliefs about mobile commerce. These mistakes could lead to mcommerce failure.

Maybe you don’t even know you’re making a mistake. There is time to fix the problems, but first you have to know what those problems are. Here’s a few hints to get you on the right track.

1) You Have Plenty of Time

Okay, there’s still time to fix the problems, and that’s true. What there’s not time for is putting off mobile optimization. Maybe you don’t understand how mobile commerce fits into the overall picture, and you wouldn’t be alone. Believe it or not, 49% of companies say they’re right there with you.

Just because you don’t understand mobile commerce doesn’t mean you can keep putting it off. Just because your buyers still make purchases the traditional way—or perhaps even on your website—doesn’t mean they’re not dying for a mobile version of your site. You could be moments away from losing them to a competitor who does understand mobile commerce. So when we say you have time, we mean you have time to act right now. 

2) Only Young People Shop on Mobile Devices

It makes sense to think that only young shoppers have adopted mobile commerce, but that’s a pretty harmful mistake to make. In truth, about a quarter of mobile shoppers are over the age of 55. Could you afford to refuse sales to 25% of your most loyal shoppers? You may be doing just that if you assume they don’t want a mobile commerce option. 

Regardless of the target age for your business, a mobile commerce solution is vital. Yes, younger shoppers will be more likely to make mobile purchases—so of course, if you do cater to millennials you’ll need a mobile friendly site—but they’re not the only ones. Assuming older shoppers don’t need your mobile site is a dangerous assumption indeed.

3) Mobile Commerce and Ecommerce Are the Same Thing

The only thing more dangerous than considering mcommerce and ecommerce the same is to consider mcommerce somehow less than ecommerce. If you’re not viewing mobile commerce as a viable channel for shoppers, then you haven’t considered the navigational needs for the mobile website, the functional needs of the website and payment options, or the presentation of products and information on the mobile version of your website. Worse, you probably have your “mobile guys” separate from the “ecommerce guys” when they should be working together to provide a seamless experience for buyers.

Mobile shopping should be an integral part of your business, whether you’re online, in a physical store, or both. Mobile marketing and purchasing is an important part of buyers’ decision-making, and you don’t want to interrupt that process for anything. Ready to start optimizing your website for mobile users?

Ever catch yourself making a silly excuse to get out of doing something?

I do it all the time: I can’t go to the gym because I need to do the dishes. I can’t finish that book because I’m too busy. I can’t organize my closet because I’m too tired.

Trouble is, when you’ve got an excuse for every little thing, it’s really hard to make any progress. And at the end of the day, excuses cause you to miss opportunities that could potentially change the course of your life.

But don’t just take it from me: The list of entrepreneurial folks below are living proof that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, no matter what limitations you’re faced with. Rather than looking at their lack of funds as an excuse not to go after their dreams, they just went ahead and chased their dreams.

Check out the infographic from LendingTree below to see how some of today’s most successful entrepreneurs turned credit card debt, loans, and limited funds into thriving businesses.

Many businesses find social media overwhelming – there are so many networks available, and they’re always adding new features for you to learn and integrate into your plan. If you don’t have a full-time team of social media experts at your disposal, your success depends on creating a simple and sensible strategy that fits your resources and goals.

Here are a few steps you can take to focus your energy:

1) Define your target audience

If you haven’t already identified and documented your buyer personas, start by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach – age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies and interests, etc. Think about the challenges they’re faced with, and what problems they’re trying to solve on daily basis. Try to focus on the 3-4 types of people that represent the majority of your buyers – don’t get hung up on all the exceptions, or you’ll never get started!

2) Start blogging

Fresh content is the linchpin of a successful social strategy, so you’ll need to commit to creating fresh, quality content on a consistent basis. Brainstorm a list of the most common questions you hear from your prospects, and commit to writing at least one new blog post a week focused on addressing these questions. 

3) Create educational content

Consider creating downloadable content like ebooks, checklists, videos, and infographics that address your buyer’s pains. If the content is truly helpful and educational, people will be more likely to share it on social media and extend your reach.

4) Focus on a few key social channels

Most small businesses don’t have the bandwidth to establish and sustain a great social media presence on more than a handful of channels. It can also be overwhelming to learn the rules of engagement on a bunch of different networks at one time. Start small. Research key networks to learn where your target audience is most likely to spend time, and focus your effort on building, nurturing, and sustaining a community there before moving on to another channel.

5) Develop a recipe card to guide you

Social media isn’t an exact science, so you need to establish a consistent posting and engagement schedule to start seeing results. Start by developing a reasonable recipe card you feel comfortable sticking to. Set goals for how frequently you’ll post content and engage your followers, and hold yourself accountable to following your recipe. 

6) Measure your results

There are a million things you can track related to social media, so start by looking at how much traffic is being driven to your website or blog from social media. Watch your posts to see what people are responding to, and look for trends related to particular topics or keywords that generate more interest than others. Once you have a sense of what’s possible, set goals for key metrics and start keeping a scorecard to measure your progress. Be sure to chose metrics that are easy to gather – if it’s too time-consuming to track, you’ll fall off the wagon!

• Net new fans and followers
• # of interactions
• Visits to your site from social

7) Adjust your tactics

Unless you’re a celebrity, social media doesn’t start working overnight. It takes time to build a following, establish yourself as an influencer, and start seeing results.  You’ll need to experiment a bit to find the right combination of channels, content, and messaging that works for your audience. Over time, you’ll be able to adjust your recipe card, content, and personas based on the information you’re gathering – which will help you fine tune your strategy and generate more consistent results!

Still overwhelmed? Try using the Whole Brain Group’s handy Sensible Social Media Checklist for Businesses – newly updated for 2016 – to get yourself organized.

 

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