14 PowerPoint Presentation Tips to Make More Creative Slideshows [+ Templates]

I like to think of Microsoft PowerPoint as a test of basic marketing skills. To create a passing presentation, I need to demonstrate design skills, technical literacy, and a sense of personal style.

If the presentation has a problem (like an unintended font, a broken link, or unreadable text), then I’ve probably failed the test. Even if my spoken presentation is well rehearsed, a bad visual experience can ruin it for the audience.

Expertise means nothing without a good presentation to back it up. For starters, grab your collection of free PowerPoint templates below, and use the tips that follow to perfect your next presentation.

No matter your topic, successful PowerPoints depend on three main factors: your command of PowerPoint's design tools, your attention to presentation processes, and your devotion to consistent style. Here are some simple tips to help you start mastering each of those factors, and don't forget to check out the additional resources at the bottom of this post.

PowerPoint Presentation Tips

1. Don't let PowerPoint decide how you use PowerPoint.
2. Create custom slide sizes.
3. Edit your slide template design.
4. Make sure all of your objects are properly aligned.
5. Use "Format Menus" to better control your objects' designs.
6. Take advantage of PowerPoint's shapes.
7. Create custom shapes.
8. Crop images into custom shapes.
9. Present websites within PowerPoint.
10. Embed your font files.
11. Save your slides as JPEGs.
12. Embed multimedia. 
13. Bring your own hardware.
14. Use "Presenter View."

PowerPoint Style

1. Don’t let PowerPoint decide how you use PowerPoint.

Microsoft wanted to provide PowerPoint users with a lot of tools. But this does not mean you should use them all. Here are some key things to look out for:

• Make sure that preset PPT themes complement your needs before you adopt them.
• Try to get away from using Microsoft Office’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria. Using these two typefaces can make the presentation seem underwhelming.
• Professionals should never use PPT’s action sounds. (Please consider your audience above personal preference).
• PowerPoint makes bulleting automatic, but ask yourself: Are bullets actually appropriate for what you need to do? Sometimes they are, but not always.
• Recent PPT defaults include a small shadow on all shapes. Remove this shadow if it's not actually needed. Also, don’t leave shapes in their default blue.

2. Create custom slide sizes.

While you usually can get away with the default slide size for most presentations, you may need to adjust it for larger presentations on weirdly sized displays. If you need to do that, here's how.

1. In the top-left corner, choose "File."
2. Select "Page Setup."
3. Type the height and width of the background you'd like, and click "OK."
4. A dialogue box will appear. Click "OK" again.
5. Your background is resized!

Tip: Resize your slides before you add any objects to them or the dimensions of your objects will become skewed.

3. Edit your slide template design.

Often, it's much easier to edit your PowerPoint template before you start -- this way, you don't have design each slide by hand. Here's how you do that.

1. Select "Themes" in the top navigation.
2. In the far right, click "Edit Master," then "Slide Master."
3. Make any changes you like, then click "Close Master." All current and future slides in that presentation will use that template.

4. Make sure all of your objects are properly aligned.

Having properly aligned objects on your slide is the key to making it look polished and professional. You can manually try to line up your images ... but we all know how that typically works out. You're trying to make sure all of your objects hang out in the middle of your slide, but when you drag them there, it still doesn't look quite right. Get rid of your guessing game and let PowerPoint work its magic with this trick.

How to align multiple objects:

1. Select all objects by holding down "Shift" and clicking on all of them.
2. Select "Arrange" in the top options bar, then choose "Align or Distribute."
3. Choose the type of alignment you'd like.

How to align objects to the slide:

1. Select all objects by holding down "Shift" and clicking on all of them.
2. Select "Arrange" in the top options bar, then choose "Align or Distribute."
3. Select "Align to Slide."
4. Select "Arrange" in the top options bar again, then choose "Align or Distribute."
5. Choose the type of alignment you'd like.

PowerPoint Design

5. Use "Format Menus" to better control your objects' designs.

Format menus allow you to do fine adjustments that otherwise seem impossible. To do this, right click on an object and select the "Format" option. Here, you can fine-tune shadows, adjust shape measurements, create reflections, and much more. The menu that will pop up looks like this:

Although the main options can be found on PowerPoint’s format toolbars, look for complete control in the format window menu. Other examples of options available include:

• Adjusting text inside a shape.
• Creating a natural perspective shadow behind an object.
• Recoloring photos manually and with automatic options.

6. Take advantage of PowerPoint's shapes.

Many users don’t realize how flexible PowerPoint’s shape tools have become. In combination with the expanded format options released by Microsoft in 2010, the potential for good design with shapes is readily available. PowerPoint provides the user with a bunch of great shape options beyond the traditional rectangle, oval, and rounded rectangle patterns, unlike even professional design programs like Adobe Creative Suite or Quark.

Today’s shapes include a highly functional Smart Shapes function, which enables you to create diagrams and flow charts in no time. These tools are especially valuable when you consider that PowerPoint is a visual medium. Paragraphing and bullet lists are boring -- you can use shapes to help express your message more clearly.

7. Create custom shapes.

When you create a shape, right click and press "Edit Points." By editing points, you can create custom shapes that fit your specific need. For instance, you can reshape arrows to fit the dimensions you like.

Another option is to combine two shapes together. When selecting two shapes, right-click and go to the "Grouping" sub-menu to see a variety of options.

• Combine creates a custom shape that has overlapping portions of the two previous shapes cut out.
• Union makes one completely merged shape.
• Intersect builds a shape of only the overlapping sections of the two previous shapes.
• Subtract cuts out the overlapping portion of one shape from the other.

By using these tools rather than trying to edit points precisely, you can create accurately measured custom shapes.

8. Crop images into custom shapes.

Besides creating custom shapes in your presentation, you can also use PowerPoint to crop existing images into new shapes. Here's how you do that:

1. Click on the image and select "Format" in the options bar.
2. Choose "Crop," then "Mask to Shape," and then choose your desired shape. Ta-da! Custom-shaped photos.

Learn more about creating images for your marketing channels in the video below.

9. Present websites within PowerPoint.

Tradition says that if you want to show a website in a PowerPoint, you should just create link to the page and prompt a browser to open. For PC users, there’s a better option.

Third party software that integrates fully into PowerPoint’s developer tab can be used to embed a website directly into your PowerPoint using a normal HTML iframe. One of the best tools is LiveWeb, a third-party software developed independently.

By using LiveWeb, you don’t have to interrupt your PowerPoint, and your presentation will remain fluid and natural. Whether you embed a whole webpage or just a YouTube video, this can be a high-quality third party improvement.

Unfortunately, Mac users don’t have a similar option. Agood second choice is to take screen shots of the website, link in through a browser, or embed media (such as a YouTube video) by downloading it directly to your computer.

PowerPoint Process

10. Embed your font files.

One constant problem presenters have with PowerPoint is that fonts seem to change when presenters move from one computer to another. In reality, the fonts are not changing -- the presentation computer just doesn’t have the same font files installed. If you’re using a PC and presenting on a PC, then there is a smooth work around for this issue. (When you involve Mac systems, the solution is a bit rougher. See Tip #11.)

Here’s the trick: When you save your PowerPoint file (only on a PC), you should click Save Options in the "Save As …" dialog window. Then, select the "Embed TrueType fonts" check box and press "OK." Now, your presentation will keep the font file and your fonts will not change when you move computers (unless you give your presentation on a Mac).

11. Save your slides as JPEGs.

In PowerPoint for Mac 2011, there is no option to embed fonts within the presentation. So unless you use ubiquitous typefaces like Arial or Tahoma, your PPT is likely going to encounter font changeson different computers.

The most certain way of avoiding this is by saving your final presentation as JPEGs, and then inserting these JPEGs onto your slides. On a Mac, users can easily drag and drop the JPEGs into PPT with fast load time. If you do not use actions in your presentation, then this option works especially well.

If you want your presentation to appear "animated," you'll need to do a little tinkering. All you need to do is save JPEGs of each "frame" of the animation. Then, in your final presentation, you'll just display those JPEGs in the order you'd like the animation to appear. While you'll technically have several new slides in place of one original one, your audience won't know the difference.

An important consideration: If your PPT includes a lot of JPEGs, then the file size will increase.

12. Embed multimedia.

PowerPoint allows you to either link to video/audio files externally or to embed the media directly in your presentation. You should embed these files if you can, but if you use a Mac, you cannot actually embed the video (see note below). For PCs, two great reasons for embedding are:

1. Embedding allows you to play media directly in your presentation. It will look much more professional than switching between windows.
2. Embedding also means that the file stays within the PowerPoint presentation, so it should play normally without extra work (except on a Mac).

Note: Mac OS users of PowerPoint should be extra careful about using multimedia files.

If you use PowerPoint for Mac, then you will always need to bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation. It’s best to only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder. Also, if the presentation will be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format. This tip gets a bit complicated, so if you want to use PowerPoint effectively, consider using the same operating system for designing andpresenting, no matter what.

13. Bring your own hardware.

Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. One way to fix these problems is to make sure that you have the right hardware -- so just bring along your own laptop when you're presenting.

14. Use "Presenter View."

In most presentation situations, there will be both a presenter’s screen and the main projected display for your presentation. PowerPoint has a great tool called Presenter View, which can be found in the "Slide Show" tab of PowerPoint 2010 (or 2011 for Mac). Included in the Presenter View is an area for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.

For many presenters, this tool can help unify their spoken presentation and their visual aid. You never want to make the PowerPoint seem like a stack of notes that you use a crutch. Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation.

Pro Tip: At the start of the presentation, you should also hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the "A" key will bring it back if you need it!

With style, design, and presentation processes under your belt, you can do a lot more with PowerPoint than just presentations for your clients. PowerPoint and similar slide applications are flexible tools that should not be forgotten. 

Want more? Read 20 Great Examples of PowerPoint Presentation Design.

[Read More ...]

Looking Back on Facebook's Murky 2018: Here's Why Users Are Sticking Around [New Data]

It’s fair to say that Facebook has experienced some turbulence in 2018.

As the year draws to a close, looking back at the bumps in the road for Facebook over the past 11 months makes it difficult to believe that, well, it's only been 11 months -- to the point where It's difficult to encapsulate the 2018 ups and downs experienced by Facebook in a single paragraph.

But here goes.

The year kicked off with a major News Feed algorithm change in January to prioritize posts from users' friends and family over those from Business Pages. By August, engagement with these Pages had dropped by up to 50%. In the spring, details emerged on the improper harvesting of private user data by a voter profiling firm -- leading Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before Congress in two high-profile hearings. In November, the New York Times published a report that the company's leadership had not only actively worked to hide these issues (instead of fixing them), but also hired a PR firm to portray Facebook's critics in a negative light.

And that's only a selection of some of the bigger stories about Facebook from 2018.

Think you’re having a bad year? It’s probably not as bad as Facebook’shttps://t.co/unNh2GldHl

— Barron's (@barronsonline) October 2, 2018

But with every new announcement and report, it seems that it isn't quite enough for people to part ways with the social network for good. After many of these events, we ran surveys to determine if it they were enough for users to delete or deactivate their accounts, and every time, there was a consensus: "No, I'll stay."

To find out why, we decided to go directly to users themselves and ask, "Look at the year this company has had. What's keeping you around?"

Here's what we found.

Friends and Family First

In our most recent survey to measure user sentiment toward Facebook, we provided a short summary of the company's alleged scandals over the past two years for 643 people across the U.S., UK, and Canada, followed by a key question. It read:

"Over the past two years, Facebook has been plagued by a number of scandals. These include foreign actors using the site to spread misinformation and influence major elections, voter profiling firms improperly obtaining private user data, and a major data breach. There have also been reports of company leaders actively trying to hide these issues instead of fixing them, as well as hiring a PR firm to help make critics of the company look bad. However, our research has shown that despite all these issues, very few people have deactivated or deleted their Facebook accounts. What are your reasons for continuing to use Facebook, despite these issues?"

Data collected with Lucid

In previous instances this year, we've speculated that, for most users, the cost of losing the connection to friends and family provided by Facebook is too high when compared to the cost of the company's issues.

That was confirmed by the responses we received to this survey.

Data collected with Lucid

The highest number of users -- about 45% -- indicated that they haven't left Facebook due to their personal lives being too intertwined with it.

When we ran one of our earlier sentiment surveys in October, Likeable Media CEO Carrie Kerpen pointed to Facebook growing as a source of connections to relatives, for instance, who may not have previously considered using social media at all.

"Your Grandma is likely not on Twitter, but she's on Facebook now," Kerpen said at the time. "It's easy to use Facebook, every one is on it, and it's widely adopted."

Some People Have Given up on Privacy

At the same time, some users say they have simply accepted that using social media comes with the cost of their privacy being protected.

Data collected with Lucid

That was the second-highest response we received, with over a quarter of participants selecting the answer: "I have accepted that my privacy and personal information may never be completely protected if I use social media."

This response could indicate that many users have simply come to terms with a potential lack of privacy as a result of having a presence on any social apps. That was one thought that HubSpot VP of Marketing, Jon Dick, had about the seemingly lack of shock among respondents earlier this year when we surveyed them about a Facebook data breach.

"People just assume that their data is constantly breached," Dick told me a few days after news of the breach first broke. That's why it's possible that "the Facebook news didn't even alarm people."

Benefits Beyond Friends and Family

If that's true -- that social media users simply assume and acquiesce that their personal data will always be compromised as a result of using it -- that impression could lend itself to other reasons respondents indicated for maintaining a presence on Facebook.

For example, the third-highest number of responses we received were from users who said that the other benefits provided by Facebook -- such as getting news or discovering other new content -- outweighed any problems the company might have.

Data collected with Lucid

Just over a fifth of respondents answered, "The overall value Facebook provides me -- like being able to discover news stories, watch videos, or follow brands -- is greater than any concerns I have about the company itself." 

That aligns with a point made by HubSpot VP of Marketing Meghan Keaney Anderson regarding user alliance to Facebook, when we discovered that many still didn't plan to delete their accounts upon learning of the aforementioned data breach. 

And as per Kerpen's point, Facebook in particular serves as "a primary connection point to family members, to news, to society at large," Keaney Anderson said at the time. "And for now, there is no viable replacement to that."

But Facebook's seemingly irreplaceable nature wasn't one of the more popular responses we received, with only 9% of people answering, "I don't think there are suitable alternatives to Facebook that could do a better job at protecting my privacy and personal information."

Data collected with Lucid

Looking Ahead

As 2018 draws to a close and the roller-coaster it's provided for the tech industry at large (Facebook hasn't been isolated in its controversy), we find ourselves looking ahead at its potential ripple effect.

Although users mostly say they're not leaving Facebook, the company's growth has all but come to a screeching halt in some regions -- namely, in the U.S. and Canada, which are its largest markets for (advertising) revenue.

Source: Facebook

With new users plateauing in its most lucrative markets, some speculate that Facebook is on something of a warpath to find new revenue streams, such as introducing ads to WhatsApp: the encrypted messaging app it acquired in 2014. Instagram, too -- which Facebook acquired in 2012 -- is viewed by many as a social plethora of ads, and has been identified by some as something the company will heavily rely on for revenue in the near future.

So, what does all of this mean for marketers and small-to-midsize businesses? 

While active user growth in certain regions may have slowed, the fact that most of Facebook's core users have yet to leave the network likely means that it's still one of the best places for marketers to reach audiences.

That hasn't stopped other companies from building out tools and resources for businesses that are similar to those provided by Facebook. For example, Google recently introduced new features to its Google My Business app that emulates some of those provided on Facebook Business Pages, such as the ability communicate with customers via in-app messaging.

Image source: Apple

But when all is said and done, Kerpen says, it could be quite some time -- if ever -- that business tools provided by other platforms begin to rival Facebook's.

"Google My Business seems interesting, but even in a best-case scenario, it’s years away from even being a blip on Facebook’s radar," Kerpen explains. "If advertisers ever flee Facebook -- which won’t actually happen until results decline -- it’s going to be for ad platforms like Instagram [which is owned by Facebook], Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube."

And as we look ahead to 2019, it seems that Facebook continues to serve as a resource valued by users and businesses alike -- one that, despite its issues, upholds a high barrier to being replicated or replaced. 

[Read More ...]

Vers une meilleure gestion des déchets en milieu scolaire?

Bio Instagram : 7 conseils pour rédiger une biographie parfaite

La biographie Instagram est trop souvent négligée, à tort. Une ligne ou deux sur l’entreprise, rédigées à la hâte lors de la création du compte Instagram, c’est généralement la norme. 

En réalité, votre bio constitue un environnement digital de grande valeur qui accueille les utilisateurs qui découvrent souvent pour la première fois votre profil ; qui transmet des informations clés sur votre marque ; et qui a le potentiel de convertir les visiteurs de profil en followers, et les followers en clients.

Mais outre la rédaction d’une description d’entreprise accrocheuse, que pouvez-vous faire d’autre pour optimiser la bio de votre profil, et tirer pleinement profit de vos efforts marketing sur Instagram ?

Ce que votre bio Instagram doit accomplir

Votre bio Instagram, c’est un maximum de 150 caractères, et un seul lien externe. Votre nom d’utilisateur, que vous pouvez personnaliser séparément de votre pseudo (@utilisateur), vous fournit 30 caractères supplémentaires.

Cela peut sembler très peu si l’on considère tout ce que votre biographie de compte doit accomplir :

• Présenter des informations clés sur votre entreprise (votre nom de marque, votre niche, etc.) — qu’il vous est possible de modifier en accédant aux paramètres de votre profil.
• Fournir aux utilisateurs un moyen d’entrer en contact avec votre marque.
• Mettre en avant le caractère et l’image de votre marque, à travers un style et un ton qui s’alignent avec la personnalité de votre site e-commerce et de vos autres profils sociaux.
• Établir votre proposition unique de valeur, afin de permettre à vos clients cibles de comprendre la valeur ajoutée que leur apporte votre marque.
• Encourager ou permettre des actions à forte valeur, comme le partage ou la visualisation de contenu, l’inscription à un évènement, ou la redirection vers votre site à des fins de conversion.

Fort heureusement, il existe plusieurs fonctionnalités Instagram que vous pouvez utiliser pour optimiser votre bio en prenant en compte ces considérations — et finalement créer un profil qui permette rapidement aux utilisateurs de cerner votre entreprise, ce que vous vendez, et la façon d’interagir davantage avec votre marque.

Comment créer une bio Instagram optimisée

1. Expliquez aux visiteurs qui vous êtes et la raison pour laquelle ils devraient vous accorder de l’importance

Peu importe comment vous vous y prenez, l’objectif principal de votre bio est d’expliquer ce que votre entreprise offre, et qui vous servez.

Quand de nouveaux utilisateurs vous découvrent sur Instagram pour la première fois, vous devez leur fournir les informations dont ils ont besoin pour les maintenir engagés. Mais leur attention étant très éphémère, vous devez préférer un message concis qui transmettra votre argumentaire très rapidement.

Pour plusieurs marques, cela revient à communiquer le message avec une terminologie particulièrement simple et claire.

Votre bio ne doit pas forcément contenir que du texte. Vous pouvez la rendre plus engageante en utilisant :

• LingoJam pour personnaliser votre police de caractères (il vous suffit de copier-coller le texte dans votre bio).
• ☕️ Des émoticônes et des émojis amusants pour divertir.
• ↴👇 Des icônes, des émoticônes et des émojis de signalétique (flèches, doigt pointé, etc.) censés attirer l’attention sur des parties déterminées de votre bio, comme un lien vers votre site web.

Veillez à bien travailler votre proposition unique de valeur pour la mettre en avant dans vote bio Instagram et permettre aux visiteurs de cerner votre marque du premier coup.

2. Utilisez les tags cliquables pour promouvoir des hashtags personnalisés et vos comptes associés

Le lien externe dans votre bio n’est pas le seul élément sur lequel les visiteurs peuvent cliquer pour en savoir davantage sur votre activité.

Si vous avez créé un hashtag personnalisé, propre à votre marque, incluez-le dans votre bio pour générer des clics et rediriger les visiteurs vers un flux de contenu généré par les utilisateurs, ou un flux de contenu de marque. Il vous suffira d’insérer le hashtag dans votre bio comme vous le feriez dans n’importe quelle autre publication.

Plusieurs marques, comme Le Koala, une marque de sacs à dos et vêtements pour femmes, utilisent des hashtags associés dans leur bio pour promouvoir des facettes déterminées de leur branding. L’initiative encourage activement les clientes à créer et à partager des photos d’elles-mêmes portant les sacs et d’autres articles de la marque.

Les hashtags personnalisés peuvent également être recherchés par les utilisateurs, ce qui procure plusieurs avantages :

• Cela permet à la marque de conserver ce contenu pour le repartager ultérieurement.
• Lorsque les visiteurs cliquent sur un hashtag personnalisé, ils sont redirigés vers un nouveau flux de contenu généré par les utilisateurs, ce qui constitue une belle preuve sociale qui facilite la prise de décision d’achat.
• La marque parvient à créer une communauté et un style autour de ses produits.

Vous devriez donc vous aussi créer des hashtags personnalisés et inclure des mentions de comptes associés dans votre bio pour redigirer les visiteurs vers d’autres propriétés (comptes et flux). Si vous souhaitez, par exemple, mettre en avant une marque associée qui vous appartient, ou un partenaire avec qui vous collaborez, vous pouvez en faire mention dans votre bio comme @utilisateur afin de générer le lien cliquable connexe.

Plusieurs marques ne manquent pas de profiter de la fonctionnalité des mentions cliquables dans leur bio. Cela se révèle particulièrement utile pour les marques qui ciblent différents publics cibles avec des gammes de produits différentes — p.ex. gamme de produits pour hommes, gamme de produits pour femmes, etc. Cela permet de rediriger les visiteurs vers le contenu et les produits appropriés, et d’optimiser dès le départ l’expérience vécue par le prospect.

3. Insérez des appels à l’action

L’ajout d’un appel à l’action (AAC) à votre description de biographie peut se révéler très utile. Les AAC rendent les utilisateurs beaucoup plus enclins à répondre aux instructions décrites, puisqu’ils expliquent avec précision ce qu’il faut faire et la façon de s’y prendre.

Vous pouvez mettre en avant plusieurs appels à l’action dans votre bio. Vous pouvez en partager plusieurs à la fois, si vous êtes assez concis. Assurez-vous donc de considérer en priorité les actions susceptibles d’apporter le plus de valeur à votre activité.

Voici certaines approches à considérer au moment d’inclure vos appels à l’action :

• Soyez direct : « Cliquez sur notre lien de bio pour acheter nos nouveaux produits »
• Encouragez les utilisateurs à partager : « Taguez #votrehashtag pour être mis en avant »
• Faites la promotion d’une offre limitée dans le temps : « Consultez nos promotions pour les Fêtes »
• Faites la promotion d’un concours : « Partagez votre saveur préférée pour avoir une chance de gagner ! »

Quel que soit l’appel à l’action utilisé, voici certaines bonnes pratiques à garder continuellement à l’esprit :

• Mettez en avant l’appel à l’action le plus important à la fin de votre bio. Les visiteurs seront plus susceptibles de répondre à votre appel à l’action une fois que vous vous serez présenté et qu’ils connaitront mieux votre marque. En outre, cela placera votre AAC près de votre lien externe.
• Donnez des instructions claires si nécessaire. Si vous souhaitez encourager les utilisateurs à promouvoir votre hashtag personnalisé, partagez des instructions claires, comme « Partage ton expérience de déballage avec #hashtagpersonnalisé », en veillant à ce que le hashtag soit cliquable à la fin de l’instruction.
• Commencez par la prise d’action souhaitée. Commencez votre AAC par un verbe (Achetez, Taguez, Partagez, etc.) pour aller droit au but, et éliminez tous les mots inutiles.

Rappelez-vous que votre biographie peut être adaptée de façon à promouvoir un évènement spécial comme des périodes de soldes, un concours, ou un salon commercial auquel vous comptez participer. Vous pouvez changer les AAC et les liens à votre guise pour prioriser les évènements d’intérêt et les offres à durée limitée.

4. Utilisez au mieux votre lien externe de bio

Avec les liens des Stories et le canal Instagram Shopping, il existe maintenant de nombreuses nouvelles options pour générer du trafic vers votre site à partir d’Instagram. Mais le lien externe de votre bio reste un lien de grande importance, étant donné qu’il vous permet de rediriger les utilisateurs vers la page de votre choix — qu’il s’agisse d’une campagne Kickstarter, ou d’une vidéo YouTube.

Plusieurs marques redirigent par défaut vers la page d’accueil de leur boutique en ligne en attendant d’avoir un élément particulier à promouvoir.

Cela dit, vous pouvez aussi pointer votre lien vers :

• La page de lancement de votre dernier produit pour générer plus d’engouement, ou une page Instagram qui accueille les efforts de marketing censés le mettre en avant.
• Une page de curation de liens (propulsée par un outil comme LinkTree), pour promouvoir une panoplie de liens qui redirigent vers d’autres propriétés.
• Une page d’inscription à une formation, une liste e-mail, un concours, etc.
• Votre élément de contenu (vidéo, article de blog) le plus récemment publié, si le contenu est au cœur de votre stratégie de marque.
• Une page d’inscription à un évènement, comme un Meetup ou un salon commercial.

Assurez-vous cependant d’adapter le message de votre bio lorsque vous intégrez un nouveau lien pour plus de cohérence.

Pour suivre l’efficacité de votre lien externe de biographie en matière de génération de trafic et comparer sa performance aux autres liens internes de votre compte, vous pouvez utiliser un raccourcisseur d’URL comme Bit.ly, ainsi que les paramètres UTM. Cela vous permettra de connaitre le nombre de clics générés.

Quelle que soit l’option que vous choisissez, gardez vos objectifs à l’esprit et prenez en considération les endroits où vous partagez vos appels à l’action dans votre profil et votre contenu. Il vous est possible de changer votre lien de bio à votre guise, et vous devriez augmenter son efficacité en ajoutant dans chaque publication ou chaque Story publiée l’appel à l’action suivant : « Consultez notre lien de bio pour plus d’informations ».

5. Ajoutez des boutons de contact pour aider les utilisateurs à vous contacter

Il est très courant que des utilisateurs tentent de vous contacter après vous avoir découvert sur Instagram.

Parfois, ils vous enverront directement un message sur Instagram — et s’il s’agit de la seule option à leur disposition, vous aurez du mal à gérer toutes les demandes. C’est pourquoi il est important d’orienter les clients vers les canaux appropriés de votre choix, qu’il s’agisse d’un numéro de téléphone, d’un e-mail, ou même d’un itinéraire si vous gérez un point de vente physique.

En renseignant vos informations de contact professionnelles sur Instagram, vous transférez la majeure partie de cette responsabilité de la bio Instagram, vers des boutons de contact appropriés qui sont plus facilement repérables par les utilisateurs qui visitent votre profil.

Il vous suffit de vous rendre sur votre profil professionnel, d’appuyer sur Modifier le profil, puis de sélectionner Options de communication sous Informations sur l’entreprise.

Vous aurez la possibilité de mettre à jour :

• Le numéro de téléphone : qu’il est possible de configurer pour recevoir des appels ou des SMS.
• L’adresse e-mail professionnelle : qui va ouvrir le service de messagerie utilisé par défaut sur le téléphone de l’utilisateur (Gmail, Outlook, etc.), de façon à permettre à ce dernier de directement rédiger son message.
• L’adresse physique de votre entreprise : qui sera convertie en itinéraire, permettant ainsi aux utilisateurs d’afficher votre entreprise sur une carte et de voir l’itinéraire depuis leur emplacement actuel.

Vous aurez également la possibilité de configurer des services tiers, par exemple pour la prise de rendez-vous, l’achat de tickets, et plus encore à travers des plateformes comme Booksy et Eventbrite.

Bien que vous puissiez en douter, les gens vont bel et bien utiliser les informations de contact que vous fournissez. Vous devez donc uniquement renseigner des informations pour les canaux de service client que vous prenez en charge. Par exemple, si vous n’avez pas de ligne téléphonique dédiée au support client, n’ajoutez pas votre numéro de téléphone personnel juste pour remplir le champ.

Ces informations de contact apparaitront sous forme de boutons cliquables sur votre profil lorsque celui-ci est consulté à partir de l’application mobile d’Instagram. Si vous avez plus de deux boutons d’action, le reste sera accessible en appuyant sur l’icône des trois petits points superposés.

6. Activez l’achat sur les publications pour vendre vos produits

Il existe un onglet « Achat » qui s’affiche par défaut quand vous configurez le canal de vente Instagram à partir de votre boutique en ligne Shopify, et que vous publiez au moins 9 publications d’achat. Vous pouvez apprendre à configurer ce canal dans votre boutique en ligne en consultant cet article.

L’onglet « Achat » redirige également vers tout le contenu tagué avec des étiquettes de produits, donnant ainsi l’occasion aux utilisateurs de passer en revue votre collection à travers les photos comprenant les étiquettes de produits que vous avez publiées. Ces derniers peuvent appuyer sur n’importe laquelle de ces photos pour l’afficher et en savoir davantage sur les produits qui y sont présentés, puis appuyer sur les différentes étiquettes de produits pour visiter les pages de vente correspondantes sur votre boutique en ligne et réaliser un achat.

Veillez à étiqueter des produits uniquement sur des photos de très haute qualité, de façon à créer une galerie de photos de produits à forte valeur sous votre onglet Achat.

7. Choisissez des Stories à la une à afficher dans votre profil

Les Stories sont un composant essentiel du marketing sur Instagram. La fonctionnalité Stories à la une augmente la durée de vie des Stories sur votre profil en vous permettant de sauvegarder des Stories vedettes. Cela vous donne l’occasion de nommer et d’organiser celles-ci à votre guise.

Ces Stories à la une vivront indéfiniment juste en dessous de votre bio, au-dessus de votre flux. Lorsqu’on clique dessus, les Stories sauvegardées s’affichent successivement.

Grâce à cette fonctionnalité, même les Stories expirées peuvent rester en ligne et continuer d’être consultées. Cela vous donne l’occasion de mettre en avant le contenu qui représente au mieux votre marque, tout en haut de votre flux, là où les utilisateurs pourront l’apercevoir clairement.

Cela vous permet par ailleurs de contrôler la mise en récit, et même de créer des Stories uniquement pour les convertir en Stories à la une.

La création de Stories à la une est très simple. Accédez à votre page de profil, puis cliquez sur Stories à la une sous votre nom d’utilisateur et votre bio. Cliquez ensuite sur +. À ce stade, vous serez en mesure de sélectionner toutes les Stories à afficher en vedette.

Vous allez devoir nommer votre Story à la une. Rappelez-vous que vous disposez d’un maximum de 15 caractères, y compris les espaces. Vous devez donc être assez clair et créatif pour capter l’attention des utilisateurs.

Après avoir terminé, choisissez une photo de couverture, et le tour sera joué ! Vous pourrez aussi modifier votre Story à la une — pour ajouter par exemple plus de photos ou de vidéos — en cliquant sur Modifier l’élément à la une.

Vous pouvez alimenter vos éléments à la une de différentes façons ; y compris en affichant :

• Des détails ou le récapitulatif d’un évènement
• Du contenu généré par les utilisateurs
• Des tutoriels de produits
• Du contenu DIY
• Les coulisses
• Des fonctionnalités ou des caractéristiques de produits
• Le récapitulatif des meilleures ventes
• Des nouvelles et des mises à jour

Tirez profit de votre bio Instagram

À mesure que vous entrez en contact avec d’autres comptes Instagram et que vous publiez du nouveau contenu pour engager vos followers actuels, les utilisateurs deviennent plus enclins à visiter votre profil Instagram par curiosité, ou pour avoir une mise à jour au sujet de votre marque.

Votre biographie vous donne l’occasion de présenter votre marque sous son meilleur jour et de convaincre ces visiteurs de continuer à s’y intéresser pendant un moment, ou même de s’abonner à votre compte.

Assurez-vous de consulter ces ressources supplémentaires pour optimiser votre marketing Instagram :

• Comment avoir plus d’abonnés sur Instagram
• Comment utiliser les Stories Instagram
• Marketing d’influence sur Instagram : guide du débutant

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Créez une boutique en ligne dès aujourd'hui !

Bénéficiez d'un essai gratuit de 14 jours, sans engagement.

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Article publié par Aleks Ignjatovic

Aleks est la rédactrice en chef du blog de Shopify en français. Elle est responsable du marketing de contenu et de la localisation pour les marchés francophones chez Shopify.

Article original : Ana Gotter
Traduction et adaptation : Mehdi Chakir et Aleks Ignjatovic

Vous souhaitez contribuer au blog de Shopify en français ? Lisez nos conseils !

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Vous avez des questions à propos de Shopify ?
Envoyez un e-mail à l’adresse suivante et notre équipe d’assistance technique vous répondra en français dès que possible :
assistance@shopify.com 

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15 of the Best Simple WordPress Themes

When it comes to determining what you want your WordPress website to look like, you’ll first need to consider the theme that you plan on installing — that’s because WordPress themes are how you actually design and customize the look of your entire website.

No matter what industry you’re in or which style you’re envisioning for your website, a simple theme — meaning minimalist, clean, and well-organized — is often ideal for businesses, visitors, and customers.

However, with the hundreds of simple WordPress themes available, finding one that fits your needs may seem like a daunting task. That’s why we’ve done the work for you and compiled this list of our 15 favorite simple WordPress themes for you to explore.

15 of the Best Simple WordPress Themes

We have categorized 15 of our favorite simple WordPress themes by need and industry to help you determine which option is best suited for your website. Whether you need a theme to display your photography, manage your online store, complete a variety of different tasks, showcase your writing, or share your creative work, there is a simple WordPress theme option that could work for you.

Simple Photography Themes

If you are a photographer or want to display your artwork, these simple photography themes will allow you to share your content in a way that looks nice, organized, and doesn’t detract from your work.
 

1. Fargo

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Fargo is a minimalist WordPress theme built for artists who want to share their photography. The theme offers unique transitions between photographs as well as Smart Galleries that seamlessly move visitors between types of content, such as text to photos to videos. If there are certain aspects of a photo that you want to make sure your viewers see, this theme offers zoom-in and zoom-out features that add a “cinematic experience” to your still photography.

Key Takeaways:

• Unique transitions between photos
• Smart Galleries
• Zoom-in and out features
  
  

2. Luisa

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Luisa is a simple theme preferable for photographers, graphic designers, and artists who want to include written content or blog-type content with their photographs. Each photo is displayed as a portfolio post-type, meaning your projects are beautifully formatted in categories of your choosing with the option to include text if you’d like. The theme also supports videos. Lastly, Luisa is SEO-optimized to help you organically attract more traffic and visitors.

Key Takeaways:

• Portfolio post-type
• Option to include video
• SEO-optimized
  
  

3. Shape

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Shape is a simple WordPress theme ideal for artists who want to tell stories through photography. Shape is known for their Filterable Galleries feature which offers smooth transitions between pictures and videos as well as the ability to add written descriptions of your photographs, display your content in a way that is unique to your site, and add a comments section for your visitors. The theme even has social media support so you can post and link to your social accounts (like Google+, Twitter, and Facebook) straight from your website.

Key Takeaways:

• Filterable Galleries
• Ability to add comments section
• Social media support
  
  

Simple Business and E-Commerce Themes

These simple business and e-commerce themes are ideal for a distraction-free and intuitive online shopping experience for your customers. 

4. Monochrome

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Monochrome is a simple WordPress theme created by StudioPress that works well for businesses and online stores. The theme is pre-styled for WooCommerce, an e-commerce platform for WordPress websites, making it easy to integrate your online shopping experience. The typography options and multiple areas of white space allow for a simple, focused, and straightforward experience for your visitors.

Added bonus: WP Engine hosting plan users get free access to all StudioPress themes.

Key Takeaways:

• Pre-styled for WooCommerce
• Simple typography and plenty of white space
• WP Engine plan users get free StudioPress theme access
  
  

5. Enterprise

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Enterprise is a simple, multi-purpose WordPress theme meant for businesses and corporations. The minimalist and modern-looking theme offers a variety of pages you can customize for your customers, such as FAQ, forums, support, and a knowledge base. The theme has built-in shortcodes so users without coding knowledge can still easily build their website.

Key Takeaways:

• Ideal for corporations
• Customizable pages include FAQ, forums, knowledge base, and more
• Built-in shortcodes 
  
  

6. Presence 

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Presence is a business, e-commerce, and education-focused simple WordPress theme that provides you with pre-built layouts, blog pages, and different designs. These designs are created for different industries including corporations, online stores, hotels, and real estate companies. Presence also has a drag-and-drop page builder to make website creation even easier.

Key Takeaways:

• Pre-built layouts
• Different designs based on industry
• Drag-and-drop page builder feature
  
  

Simple Multi-Purpose Themes

Whether you’re looking for a simple theme for your business, blog, photography, or creative website, these multi-purpose themes can be manipulated and designed to fit your exact needs. 

7. Salient

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Salient is a simple, multi-purpose theme that offers over 250 different templates you can use to customize your website. There are also hundreds of ways to customize your color scheme and typography to keep your site on-brand and matching your company’s aesthetic. Salient is a lightweight theme which means it’s speedy, efficient, and takes up less space on your server.

Key Takeaways:

• Over 250 different customizable templates
• Hundreds of color and typography options
• Lightweight theme
  
  

8. Infinite

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Infinite is a simple WordPress theme with WooCommerce integration and a variety of installable demos suited for different industries such as creative, corporate, e-commerce, and other niche businesses. In addition to customizable demos, the theme also offers access to the Google Fonts library which includes over 770 different fonts. Infinite is automatically responsive on all devices, meaning you don’t need to worry about creating another version of your website for mobile and tablet usage.

Key Takeaways:

• WooCommerce integration
• Customizable, installable demos
• Access to Google Fonts library 
  
  

9. Montblanc 

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Montblanc is a simple, multi-purpose WordPress theme ideal for creative and e-commerce use. Whether you’re an author, photographer, videographer, blogger, or graphic designer, this theme has a wide range of features including five different shop and homepage layouts that allow you to display your work in a unique way. Montblanc is WooCommerce integrated so you can also sell your artistic work directly from your site.

Key Takeaways:

• Creative, multi-purpose theme
• Five shop and homepage layouts
• WooCommerce integrated
  
  

Simple Writing Themes

No matter the type of writer you are, these simple themes are ideal for featuring your work — there are options for news writing, editorial writing, business writing, blogging, and more.
 

10. Newspaper

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Newspaper is a simple WordPress theme ideal for writing and posting articles and blogs on your website. The theme offers a newspaper template so your pieces are formatted in a layout that’s easy to read for your visitors. Newspaper also has social media and YouTube integration so you can seamlessly share your content with your followers on all mediums.

Key Takeaways:

• Ideal for news articles and blogs
• Newspaper template
• Social media and YouTube integration
  
  

11. Writee

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If you’re a blogger of any kind, Writee is a great way to share and display all of your content. This simple WordPress theme can be translated into multiple different languages and has customizable features to fit your blog no matter what you write about — whether it’s food, lifestyle, fashion, or marketing. Writee also has a number of options to help you feature your photographs and other visual content in a way that complements your written work.

Key Takeaways:

• Ideal for bloggers
• Can be translated into other languages
• Customizable options to pair written and visual content
  
  

12. The Breaking News

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The Breaking News is a simple, minimalist WordPress theme created for news sites and online magazines. The clean design includes distraction-free styling, whitespace that keeps visitors focused on your content, and simple typography. The theme also provides you with a number of ways to feature your most relevant, popular, and important articles.

Key Takeaways:

• Ideal for news sites and magazines
• Distraction-free styling and formatting
• Options to feature your relevant and important articles
  
  

Simple Creative Themes

The following simple themes are ideal for any professional looking to share their creative works such as art, writing, photography, in a minimalist format. 

13. Kalium

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Kalium is a simple theme ideal for any type of creative professional. The theme offers installable demos that include entire website concepts so you can simply customize the content within the theme to get your site up and running as quickly as possible. Kalium is already translated into over 16 languages and includes a wide range of portfolio layouts so you can display your work in a way that makes the most sense for your specific business and industry.

Key Takeaways:

• Installable website demos
• Translated into over 16 languages
• Multiple portfolio layout options
  
  

14. Corner 

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Corner is a simple, creative WordPress theme that includes over 16,000 color variations to customize your website’s look, WooCommerce integration to allow for a simple online shopping experience, and a clean layout for a great user experience. The theme also has several custom widget options so you can include buttons on your site that direct visitors to your social media profiles and other content.

Key Takeaways:

• 16,000+ color variation options
• WooCommerce integration
• Custom widgets
  
  

15. Kleanity

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Kleanity is a simple, creative theme for anyone looking to share their portfolio. The drag-and-drop page builders allow you to easily showcase your work. There is also a Live Customizer feature that allows you to edit your pages with your content on them and view your changes instantly. The theme also auto-updates so you’ll never have to worry about downloading any new software.

Key Takeaways:

• Ideal for displaying portfolio work
• Drag-and-drop page builder
• Live Customizer feature
  
  

Back To You

Simple WordPress themes are a great way to build a minimalist, clean, and straightforward website that improves user experience while getting rid of unnecessary fluff and content. Simple themes allow you to create a focused online experience for your customers and visitors that is unique, on-brand, and appealing to the eye.

No matter your industry, there’s a simple WordPress theme option that works your website, buyer personas, and company. So, if a minimalist and clean design is what you envision for your site, try installing one of these 15 options and implementing your own content to see what a simple theme could do for your website.

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How Job Crafting Can Make Your Job More Meaningful

Welcome to The Science Behind Success-- a new blog series that explores the best ways to help our brains perform better at work. With psychological research and interviews with leaders in the field, we're showing you how psychology can help you overcome workplace obstacles and excel in your career. Because a little mindset change could go a long way.

Writer Annie Dillard once said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

Most of us will spend a huge portion of our days, and thus our lives, at work -- in fact, the average American spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime.

And yet, so many of us aren't passionate about our jobs. A Gallup poll found only 15% of the world's full-time employees are engaged at work.

 We recognize this lack of career enjoyment all around us -- in the cousin who complains over Thanksgiving break about his boring work environment, or in the friend who has been seeking out new jobs for the past year but still says, "What's the point? No one really likes to work, do they?"

Ultimately, we can all agree on the importance of enjoying our work. Doing something you don't like every day can be both exhausting and demoralizing. But finding a new job can seem equally frustrating, and sometimes even impossible.

Fortunately, there's an alternative solution to finding meaning and passion in your current role. Amy Wrzesniewski, professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management, has conducted research on something she calls "Job crafting". Here, we'll explore how you can use her research to start enjoying your job more, immediately.

Job Crafting -- Reimagining Your Job to Find Purpose

A few years ago, Amy Wrzesniewski interviewed the cleaning staff at a hospital and noticed something interesting -- even though all 28 members of the staff were doing relatively the same job, they each described it differently. And the way they described it (or "crafted it"), made a significant difference as to whether they enjoyed it.

For instance, the first group, when asked about their work, said they didn't like their jobs, that they didn't feel particularly satisfied, and that the skill-level required of the role was low. Then, when asked to describe the tasks of the work involved, they described exactly what the job description listed.

By comparison, the second group Amy spoke with found the job both meaningful and rewarding, and felt the work required a high skill-level.

So, what was it about this second group -- were they naturally happier? Were they willing to settle for less?

Actually, the answer is neither.

When Amy asked the second group to describe the tasks of the work involved, this group altered and stretched the boundaries of their job description to include additional tasks, like interacting with patients and visitors.

For instance, one cleaner regularly changed the pictures on the walls in each of the patients' rooms on a long-term rehabilitation floor where patients were unconscious or comatose, believing the change of atmosphere could potentially help revive the patients.

Another cleaner liked to double back after her shift to speak with patients who hadn't had visitors, or looked particularly lonely.

Additionally, many of the cleaners in the second group gave themselves different job titles. When asked what they did, they'd say "I'm an ambassador" or even, "I'm a healer." They were doing the same work as the first group, but cognitively, they'd reimagined their title to fit what they found meaningful. And they weren't lying to themselves -- they then sought out activities to match that new job description. For instance, the "healer" would look for tasks that she believed could help patients heal.

Apart from how they crafted their jobs, these two groups had no other differences -- they worked in the same units, interacted with the same people, and had the same shifts. The second group simply used "job crafting" to find meaning, and enjoyment, in their work.

Amy Wrzesniewski and her co-authors describe job crafting as, "the process of employees redefining and reimagining their job designs in personally meaningful ways."

There are three types of job crafting -- task crafting, relational crafting, and cognitive crafting.

Let's dive into those, now:

• Task crafting: Adding, dropping, changing, or altering the tasks required of you in your job description. Alternatively, you might put more or less time and effort into certain tasks, depending on your interests and skills. For instance, perhaps you're particularly skilled at design, but you're a customer service representative. As a freelance project, you begin designing templates for you, and your colleagues, to use in the customer service department.
• Relational crafting: Changing with whom you regularly interact when performing your job duties. For instance, maybe you are passionate about social media but you're a marketing analyst. You might form a friendship with the social media manager, and set up meetings with her to discuss future potential collaborations, even though this isn't technically in your job description.
• Cognitive crafting: Altering how you perceive your tasks and the meaning behind them. For instance, perhaps you're an administrative assistant who sees her job as an opportunity to help people and make other people's lives easier, not just to fulfill organizational duties.

If you're unsure how to craft your role to make it more meaningful, begin by thinking of something of deep value to you. Is it music? Fashion? Travel? Then, consider how you might integrate it, through tasks, relationships, or cognition, into your job.

Let's say you're a content creator with a passion for travel. Rather than wishing for a job with more travel opportunities, like a travel blogger, consider how you might use one of Amy's three crafting methods to introduce this passion into your daily life.

For instance, you might put more effort into finding opportunities to write or edit content about places around the world (task crafting).

Alternatively, maybe you seek out the Marketing Director for Latin America to discuss how you might collaborate on content in the future (relational crafting).

Lastly, maybe you recognize that many of the same things you enjoy about travel (the novelty of visiting new places, meeting new people), are similar to aspects you find in your daily interaction with clients (cognitive crafting). In other words, maybe you recognize there are parallels between the aspects of travel you enjoy, and your work's purpose.

You Might Not Need a New Job to Find Your Calling

When you aren't happy with your job, it's easy to believe it's because it's the wrong job. Oftentimes, it's tempting to peruse alternative job descriptions and think, "Huh. Maybe those are the tasks I'd enjoy doing. Maybe that's what I'm 'meant' to do."

Interestingly, Amy's research takes an alternative approach -- and it's an approach that just might save you from missing out on enjoying your life more, today.

On NPR's Hidden Brain podcast, Amy said, "I do think that there are two different schools of thought in play around callings. And one is that it's out there. You have to find it. It's a matter of moving into the right role, or the right position in the right organization, and so on. And then, suddenly, this will be unlocked, and your work will be this sort of joyful end in and of itself … Versus, how is it that I can craft the boundaries of this job, and the way that I think about its role sort of in the world in such a way that I can come to experience it, perhaps, as something that is meaningful in a way that potentially a calling could be?"

She recognizes that believing your calling is "out there", and feeling you need to magically stumble upon it, can be both anxiety-producing, and limiting.

The alternative -- that you might reshape and reimagine how you can make your current role work for you, inspire you, and excite you -- is something both unique and potentially liberating.

At the hospital, Amy asked the woman who moved pictures around on the rehabilitation floor, "Is this part of your role?"

"No that's not part of my job," the woman replied. "But that's part of me."

It's important to note, job crafting is a continuous and fluid process. You won't always have the flexibility to add or subtract tasks from your daily list. Wrzesniewski recognizes this. To combat roadblocks employees might face, she advises managers and directors to enable space for employees to customize their jobs to their individual skills and interests, whenever possible.

For instance, she says managers might help "[define] for employees how their work is interconnected with others' work … [which] may help provide them with raw materials for cultivating meaningfulness through cognitive and relational crafting".

Alternatively, she suggests offering one-on-one coaching sessions or group workshops related to job crafting, or simply working with your employees to strategize on how your employees might implement crafting into their daily routine.

For instance, if your employee, a marketing blogger, mentions she feels most motivated when she believes her writing is helping people, you might allow her to set up monthly phone calls in which she is able to hear feedback directly from customers -- even if this is not in her job description. As a result, she might work harder on the job, perform better, and even brainstorm ways to make her writing more appealing to those with whom she's speaking.

If you're wary of the benefits of job crafting, consider this -- one study found fundraising callers who were given stories about how their job could make a difference in other people's' lives more than doubled their weekly pledges earned, and the amount of donation money raised, for the entire month after they were given told stories. This suggests your employees' performance could increase with something as simple as a reminder that what they're doing is significant to the greater organization.

Ultimately, it's critical for both employees and managers to consider how they might re-align or change job descriptions to fit someone's unique skills and interests. By deliberately stretching the boundaries of your tasks, you just might find happiness and meaning in your job, today.

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What is a Metaphor? A 2-Minute Rundown

What do the lines “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time”, “Baby, you’re a firework”, and “Life is a highway, I want to ride it all night long” all have in common?

The obvious answer is that they’re lyrics from famous songs. The not so obvious answer is that they’re also metaphors.

Most of our favorite artists use metaphors to figuratively describe their thoughts and emotions, making them more vivid and easy to understand. But metaphors aren’t only commonplace in music -- they’re widespread in everyday conversation. In fact, since metaphors are so effective at clarifying abstract ideas, our brains practically think in them to grasp reality, prompting some researchers to suggest we use metaphors every 25 words.

However, metaphors are deeply seeded in our language, so we barely notice them. A lot of times, we even forget what they are and their ability to clarify things and persuade people. So to help you understand the true power of a metaphor, let’s go over what exactly it is and the impact the literary device can have on an audience.

What Is a Metaphor?

A metaphor describes something in a way that’s figuratively true, but not literally true. By stating one thing is another thing, metaphors compare abstract ideas with concrete pictures, breathing life into words and helping readers grasp broad concepts and ideas.

Since metaphors help us reference what is simple and familiar (like an adventure) to understand what is complex and distant (like love) the literary device can sculpt people’s emotions, thoughts, and opinions toward almost any subject.

For instance, in a study conducted at Purchase College, researchers tested the effect that certain metaphors have on people’s urgency to reduce carbon emissions. When they framed the campaign against climate change as a “war” instead of a “race”, researchers noticed people expressed more willingness to end global warming.

Metaphor Examples

Along with our favorite musical artists, some of the greatest minds in the world have crafted poetic and insightful metaphors that have seared themselves into our memories and given us refreshing ways to reflect on ordinary concepts and ideas. Here are a few examples:

“Conscience is a man’s compass.” - Vincent Van Gogh

“Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.” - George Orwell

“A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.” - Groucho Marx

“America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.” - John F. Kennedy

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” - Pablo Picasso

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” - Marcel Proust

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances.” - William Shakespeare

Metaphors are one of the most powerful tools in a writer’s arsenal. Not only can they clarify complex and broad concepts, but they can also influence people’s emotions and opinions. And if you learn how to effectively leverage metaphors in your writing, you could impact your readers just like our favorite artists, thinkers, and writers do.

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