Organizations struggle to provide the right benefits for their workers. Many leaders and managers don’t understand the basic wants and needs of rank-and-file employees, which is likely different from that of the top echelon.

Coming from different professional and personal backgrounds, companies large or small can’t rely on managers or executives to know what everyone in the organization desires.

“Your organization probably invests a lot of time, energy and money to retain top employees,” said Meghan M. Biro, analyst, brand strategist, podcaster and TalentCulture chief executive officer. “Yet, at least occasionally, you still wind up losing them to competitors.”

She wondered about how to put an end to that unproductive cycle. …

Simply put, having good credit determines whether you’ll qualify for a loan. Depending on the interest rate of the loan you qualify for, it could mean the difference between hundreds and even thousands of dollars in savings.

Those are the facts from the global information services company Experian. “Follow the money” is a catchphrase popularized almost 50 years ago. In today’s world, a credit score could decide if you have any money to follow.

Experian brought together credit expert and personal finance blogger LaToya Irby and Rod Griffin, the company’s senior director of consumer education and advocacy, to talk about credit scores and how to improve them. …

Productivity and marketing experts abide by the 80–20 Rule. Formally known as the Pareto Principle, the notion is that 80 percent of your results come from only 20 percent of your efforts. The rule has been applied for 100 years as a guide to efficiency.

Top marketers such as Rebekah Radice, Christina Nicholson, Bershan Shaw, Ben Parr and Chelsea Krost are huge fans of 80–20, or as they like to say, “Work smarter, not harder.” The entrepreneurs gathered in Krost’s #MillennialTalk Twitter chat to say how they succeed at business without trying as hard.

Mindset is important, particularly being able to reset it when needed. …

Humans having conversations with humans and the people behind companies — it’s how Chelsea Bradley describes a community. Whether in person, online or talking to the voices of businesses, communities are all about people helping people.

“A community is not a place for posting and ghosting,” said Bradley, a senior social media manager and strategist with more than 13 years’ experience growing communities. “There is a lot of life beyond marketing, places where we unexpectedly gain best friends forever.”

She and digital marketing expert Madalyn Sklar talked about managing a community on Twitter and elsewhere in the digital world.

“A community consists of people who follow you and engage with you consistently,” Sklar said. “They’re genuinely interested in what you have to offer. They have likely established a level of trust with you, knowing that you can be counted on to deliver valuable…

“For sustained growth, marketers and entrepreneurs need to be strategic about where, how, when and whom to communicate value.”

As a social media marketer, content strategist and curator, Motebang Senaoana fixates on that maxim when building inclusive content marketing strategies for brands.

“I’ve grown passionate about strategies,” he said during an Africa Tweet Chat. “Making your brand creates an inclusive and diversified content strategy for your audience that maximizes reach, engagement and awareness.

“People’s needs and backgrounds are becoming more visible on social media,” Senaoana said. “We can’t afford to create a binary strategy appealing to one content medium or one group of people. …

Different times of the year are notoriously slow for marketing. That’s when many pros take their foot off the gas and take a vacation.

This is easy pickings for Ann Smarty who leaps at the chance to catch her competition off guard.

The brand marketing manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas, Smarty has been an online marketing consultant for 10 years providing high-quality digital marketing consulting through her services and courses. She is known for her in-depth tool reviews, innovative content marketing advice and actionable digital marketing ideas.

Smarty also knows how to make her own luck, ready to jump-start her business while her competitors are sleeping. She makes some of her best investments in marketing when others have slow months. …

Whether you do business via social media or in person, by default you have a personal brand. Entrepreneurs should be online and have a good sense of how they want to present themselves to consumers and competitors.

Those who don’t think they need personal brands need not worry. Others — consumers and competitors — will jump into the vacuum and create an image for you. This is why companies and the people behind them should make creating and maintaining their personal brands a priority.

“Your personal brand is just as important as the brand you’re building for your business,” said digital marketing expert Madalyn Sklar. “After all, we do business with people. …

Spending more time at home, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Ashley Stahl understands. At the same time, the counterterrorism professional and career coach refuses to accept excuses.

She set off as an entrepreneur at age 23 and follows these principles:

• Success takes work, but it doesn’t have to be hard or painful.
• Growing a business is easy when you follow a proven step-by-step system.
• You can hit the six-figure mark within your first year if you’re focused and clear on your steps.
• You don’t need to post on social media or spend money on advertising to get clients. …