Online Reviews for Local Businesses: What Marketers Need to Know

Do you own or manage a local business? Are you leveraging the full power of online reviews? To discover how to leverage online review services, I interview Martin Shervington. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and […]

This post Online Reviews for Local Businesses: What Marketers Need to Know first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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The 3 Key Steps to Awesome Content Marketing That Works

We have been drinking the content marketing cool aid for years. We understand how content attracts traffic, engages and builds trust….and we get it.

Or do we?

There is a conversation we need to have that is often avoided. But before we have that conversation let’s take a little look over our shoulder.

In 2008 I started to notice that the web was changing.

Websites that were online static brochures were challenged by blogs that had great content, started to become visible. These included  Hubspot, Mashable and Copyblogger.

Hubspot’s term for content marketing was inbound marketing.

This content was also starting to be powered by social networks that made crowd sourced sharing global, instantaneous and viral.

This content marketing tidal wave driven by a social web was at first just a ripple.

Mobile changed the content marketing game

Content marketing was supercharged by fast growing social networks that made content flow with little friction. Bloggers now could get attention by building tribes on social networks.

That friction was reduced further by mobiles that enabled one click sharing without being in front of the desk bound computer.

Smartphones and tablets increased the immediacy and the velocity.

Content sharing took to the road.

Brands became publishers

Brands like Coca Cola changed their marketing focus from creative excellence to content excellence. Other companies like Red Bull took this revolution seriously and created a 150 person publishing company hidden somewhere in the  mountains of Austria. The drink company is becoming a media company.

The phrases and the words that are trotted out include: think like a publisher, inbound marketing, be authentic and engage. These were all trotted out in a world blinded by the latest new social network toy and multi-media delights.

We now have Snapchat, Periscope, Instagram and Meerkat. These are visual, snack size content platforms that thrive in a mobile centric world.

But content marketing also has a dark side.

It’s the challenge of standing out in an ocean of content. Three billion people are using the internet every day and that is going to double in the next few years. They are all creating content. One billion websites and counting makes cutting through the clutter a big task.

Content marketers need to grow up

But it’s time to grow up and get serious.

We have all been having fun in the sand box. We enjoy the traffic that content marketing creates and the engagement that it builds with your audience.

But its time to take off the blinkers and get to work.

It’s time to have that conversation that moves from creating online buzz and brand awarenesss for its own sake to “conversion”. At the end of the day content marketing should produce leads and sales.

Traffic is great to have and necessary, engagement is vital and social shares are powerful to amplify brand discovery.

But it is still about sales at the end of the day. Content marketers need to get over content marketing for content sake and realize it is about being commercial. It’s time to stop being fluffy and a bit more hard nosed.

So for content marketing to work you need to go beyond traffic and engagement. It’s now for content marketing that means business.

If you succeed at the first two but forget the third…you will fail.

Let’s look at how that works.

1. Discovery

This is code for traffic. It’s where the action starts.

It’s clicks to your website, blog or online store. When you are discovered then people turn up to your website. They click on the link in Facebook, that tempting headline on Twitter or that Google search result.

There are only 2 ways to get this.

1. Earn

Traffic and eyeballs can be earned.

Build a social network on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and it will bring you traffic. You can also do it on Facebook but this is heading towards being a waste of time.

Another way to earn it is to rank high in search engines. Being on the first page of Google is worth gold but it takes years to earn that authority and ranking.

But there is a problem with earned traffic. It takes time.

How do you earn traffic? Essentially there are 2 ways.

Social media

You build tribes on Facebook, Twitter  and other social media networks such as YouTube. This takes years. But crack this nut and you get free crowd sourced marketing that is global.

One of the brands that does this well is the video game franchise Minecraft. They train their fans to create YouTube videos that drives traffic and discovery like crazy.

Nearly 3 billion YouTube views per month!

Source: Technobuffalo.com

Search engines –  Building authority on Google means that being found on the first page of Google search results brings a ton of traffic. This means creating such great content that other websites and blogs link to you.

Here is a powerful earned traffic source. A page one rank on Google.

2. Pay

Buying traffic accelerates discovery.

Big brands have the budget to buy that all important attention. Smaller brands are stuck between little budget and little time as they struggle to both work in the business and market the brand.

But the emerging truth is that paying for traffic on social networks is now almost essential. The free social media lunch is slowly slipping away.

What content do you need for discovery?

It’s varied and an inexact science.

• The catchy and tempting headline that gets shared on social networks that get’s clicked
• On Twitter its that visual content. It could be that mini-infographic that captures the eye as it streams past in theTwitter stream that gets shared
• On Facebook it’s the quote turned into a visual image
• That short vine video embedded on Twitter
•  A visual banner and headline that turns up on your Facebook profile that is a re-targeted
• An entertaining or educational video on Youtube

The list goes on.

Its all about capturing attention at the top of the marketing funnel. Social media excels at the brand awareness task.

2. Engagement

Engagement is code for content in a digital world.

Engagement doesn’t pay the bills but building trust and credibility with your prospects is essential. A blog post at first glance doesn’t produce sales. But this is where they start to see that you know your stuff.

You can be trusted to deliver value.

Content needs to catch attention at the first stage which is the fun part. But if you really want the prospect to believe and trust you then it needs something more. Long slow burning content that moves the engagement from flirting to a meaningful conversation.

What content do you need for deeper engagement?

You got their initial glance and now the challenge is holding their attention for a little longer. The content needs to move from maybe what could be called superficial to that all important deeper conversation.

What does that look like?

• Ebooks
• Instructional videos
• Case studies
• How to’s
• White papers
• Podcasts

 Want deeper engagement… then produce some long form content.

Here is a great example from a leading PR communications company Bluechip communications with their e-books that add great value to their industry niche.

3. Conversion

This is code for leads and sales.

If you don’t execute this step then the first two are just a waste of time. Fun for sure, and even exciting. We all enjoy watching out traffic metrics but now it’s time to fall in love with what matters.

Conversion.

You can get discovered. You can engage. But if you don’t convert that into leads and sales then you are just spinning your wheels. Many content and social media marketers don’t walk this talk.

Don’t underestimate the challenge

This step is requires experimenting, measuring and hard nosed analytics to succeed long term. It’s hard.

Conversion is a multi-step process. The more expensive the product the longer the journey. It starts with discovery, then moves to engaging the prospect and then the final link is conversion. The sale can happen on-line or off-line.

Without doing this the rest is just noise and busyness.

In its simplest form online conversion is a 2 step process that involves 2 landing pages.

Lead capture landing page.

Webinars are one of the best ways to capture those all important leads and add great value for your readers.

Product sale landing page

Once you have the lead you job is then to convert it into a sale whether that is a an entry level product or something more complex.

Want to see some bad ass conversion tactics?

Here is Leadpages conversion tactics in action. There are 8 “Call to action’s” on one page!

What content do you need for conversion

Content needs to be woven into the the whole journey from discovery to conversion. But hard nosed conversion requires a bunch of content.

• Well designed landing pages that have high converting “calls to action”
• Webinars that educate
• Copywriting that convinces
• Educational videos embedded in landing pages in the conversion sequence that build connection and credibility.
• Testimonials from happy customers
• Bonus PDF’s
• Books and ebooks

It’s complex

Are you overwhelmed yet?

Creating this takes time, resources and help. To connect all the dots will need creative content and technology. You can run but you can’t hide from that reality.

In a digital world you will need digital marketing automation software to scale your efforts.

This means using platforms like Infusionsoft, Hubspot and Marketo.

Content is the glue

Content is the glue in all the steps. It needs to be strategic.

What content will you use to be discovered, drive engagement and convert traffic to leads and sales?

The post The 3 Key Steps to Awesome Content Marketing That Works appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

3 Branding Mistakes You Absolutely Must Avoid for Ultimate Success

There’s so much consideration that needs to go into effectively branding and marketing your business.

A lot of mistakes can be made along the way, including not capitalizing on sales opportunities, or failing to provide a valuable — potentially life long customer with the best experience possible. These types of mistakes can lead to bad reviews or a missed opportunity to have a client generate some positive word of mouth for you, but you can recover from these types of issues.

Below are some big branding mistakes to avoid. If you don’t get them right from the start, or slip up along the way, these mistakes will mar your business’s reputation forever.

1. Names (i.e. Bad Ones!)

If you want to start a residential electric service company, titling your business as “Your Name’s Electric” may be the best choice. However, there’s a lot to be said about catchy, brand-able names, and not everyone wants their own name to headline their business, particularly in the tech sector.

I’m going to have to get a little down and dirty in order to really drive this message about name choice home to you. How would you feel about taking a trip to the “STD Flea Market”? While it is an established business, I can’t imagine what their founders could have possibly been thinking!

And those are just two relatively “PG” names chosen from the following list of businesses that have extremely inappropriate names.

Once you’ve nailed down what you feel is the right name, consider how it will look in a browser, where you can’t use capital letters and spacing to differentiate between separate words.

Always get several opinions from other people around you regarding their opinions about the name you’ve chosen. Use a name incubator site (just Google it!) if you want a wealth of ideas to choose from. You have to pay at least $100 for the privilege, some of which is the site’s fees. The rest goes to the person whose name idea you choose.

2. Inappropriate Graphics

This is all encompassing, ranging from the all-important logo design, to the header on your company website. Don’t do the graphics yourself, unless you’re a top-notch designer. And don’t rely on the services of your graphic designer nephew, just because your wife’s sister says “he’s absolutely the best.”

The graphics that represent your brand set an immediate tone, evoking an image and feeling in potential clients. The wrong images, colors, and taglines can quickly and permanently curb your branding efforts.

Crowdspring is one of the best resources for startups looking for the absolute best designs possible for their business. You post your budget and essential design requirements and some of the best designers out there compete to get paid by you, actually posting the best of what they have to offer on spec and leaving you to choose which one you want buy from the from the bunch.

If you need to save some money, try a few freelancer sites like Freelancer and Upwork and hire a few different designers for the core graphics to be used for your logo, stationary and website elements.

There are some good designers to be found on the cheap, but you may have to pay for a few designs that you’ll never use in order to find those that are best for branding your business.

Don’t rely on just your judgment when selecting the best graphics to represent your brand. Get other feedback.

Don’t make the same mistake that the “Arlington Pediatric Center” (again, just Google for the image and you’ll see what I mean … ) did with their signage, which is wholly inappropriate, bordering on outrageous.

3. SEO and Social Faux-Pas

There are so many mistakes you can make in the SEO game when it comes to ranking your website. You can read a thousand and one ways to make your website rank better, some of which means doing the fishy grey/black hat stuff that can get your site de-indexed from Google in a heart beat.

I’m not going to get into too much detail here, as I believe the SEO landscape is shifting more into the social sharing realm. Link-building, etc., may not mean much in the coming months, let alone the coming years. Learn from the following mistakes, made by several of the world’s biggest brands when it comes to SEO and on-site optimization mistakes.

My advice? Keep everything you do SEO-wise on the up-and-up. Don’t mess with Google!

Now on to the social side of things …

Everyone knows that headlines can mean the difference between social shares and having your posts buried in the social graveyard; a list which grows by the hundreds of thousands per hour on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Link bait-style headlines can be effective if you keep your morality in check. Kenneth Cole, a popular shoe company, used riots that were happening in Cairo back in 2011 as an opportunity to plug shoes on Twitter:

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC”.

Epicurious, a health food company committed near-social suicide back in 2013, using the carnage at the Boston Marathon bombings to plug their cranberry scones and breakfast cereal:

If you start making stupid posts, your social followers can easily revolt and start talking trash about your brand. Remember that their reach is longer than yours.

Last, keep your posts in line with the brand’s values. If you’re a trash talking podcaster who uses witty humor and profanity to market yourself (yes, I’m talking to your Gary V!), then swearing and poking fun at other businesses and celebrities will likely help further your brand and encourage shares among your users.

If you’re a health food supplier, posting a picture of a disgusting hangnail or pile of animal poop is going to create an unpleasant image in your followers’ heads about your brand — obviously counter-intuitive to getting new customers and making more sales.

Share Your Own Branding Blunders

I’ve only touched the surface of branding mistakes here. There are so many more that a fledgling brand can make. Feel free to share your own personal mistakes in the comment section. Please tell everyone how, or if you were able to fix the mistake and turn things around.

Frustrated Image via Shutterstock

This article, "3 Branding Mistakes You Absolutely Must Avoid for Ultimate Success" was first published on Small Business Trends

Visual Content Marketing: A Resource Guide for Marketers

Do you want to discover how to better market yourself and your business with visual content? Are you looking for a resource guide for your visual content marketing efforts? This article will help you find tools to create the perfect image, drive traffic and engagement with your images and use visual content to improve your […]

This post Visual Content Marketing: A Resource Guide for Marketers first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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How to Create a Promoted Pin Campaign on a Budget

Do you want to add Promoted Pins to your marketing mix? Are you wondering how to budget for a Promoted Pin campaign? You don’t have to spend a lot of money on Promoted Pins for them to be effective. Because they have long-term visibility, they’re a sound addition to your Pinterest marketing. In this article, […]

This post How to Create a Promoted Pin Campaign on a Budget first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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20 Amazing Sites That Will Pay You $100+ Per Article

Content is more important than ever.

Research from the Content Marketing Institute reveals that at least 55% of companies will  increase their content marketing budget this year.

Whether you’re a writer looking for established outlets to spread the word, or you’re a guest blogger looking to promote your brand and get traffic, you can get paid to do so.

Many sites will pay you to contribute content, while still allowing you to have a bio and retain a link to your site – but very few sites will pay you really well.

Listed below are 20 sites that will pay you at least $100 per article, upon acceptance or publication, and most will allow a bio with a link back to your site.

I also have a bonus for you at the end of this article, so look out for that!

Here we go.

1. A Fine Parent

Niche: Parenting

Amount: $100 (potential $200 bonus)

Payment Method: Paypal

A Fine Parent is a leading parenting blog that focuses on helping people become better parents.

They are looking for in-depth parenting articles about your own experience, or about other parent’s struggles that you can empathize and connect with.

Every month, they list a topic for articles that you have to write on, and they’ll pay you once your article is accepted.

They expect articles to be around 1,500 – 3,000 words, and they pay $100 per article. You’ll also be awarded a bonus of $200 if your article becomes the most popular article at the end of the year.

2. eCommerce Insiders

Niche: Online retail/commerce

Amount: $75 – $125

Payment Method: Unspecified

eCommerce Insiders is an authority  about online retail, and they are looking for content that is retailed-focused or commentary on retail industry news and trends.

They pay $75 per article for accepted articles in the 400 – 600 words range, and $125 per article for articles above 600 words.

3. Listverse

Niche: General

Amount: $100

Payment Method: Paypal/Bitcoin

Listverse is possibly the foremost authority when it comes to lists online, and they boast an audience of over 15 million readers a month.

They are looking for unique lists of 10 items, usually at least 1,500 words, and they pay $100 upon acceptance of your list.

4. The Penny Hoarder

Niche: Finance

Amount: Up to $800

Payment Method: Paypal

The Penny Hoarder is a leading personal finance publication, and they are looking for articles mostly based on personal experience. Especially ones containing detailed numbers, strategies and advice about saving or earning money.

They prefer articles to be 700 – 900 words, and they pay up to $800 per article depending on a lot of factors; you might need to reach out to their editor first to discuss payment.

5. Photoshop Tutorials

Niche: Photoshop/Design

Amount: $25 – $300

Payment Method: Paypal

They are looking for tutorials related to Photoshop, and they pay anything from $50 to $300 per accepted article depending on whether you submit a “quick tip” or a full tutorial.

6. Treehouse

Niche: Design/Freelance

Amount: $100 – $200

Payment Method: Unspecified

They accept articles on a range of topics including anything design related, freelancing or productivity.

They pay $100 – $200 for every article published.

7. The Travel Writer’s Life

Niche: Travel

Amount: $50 – $200

Payment Method: Unspecified

They are looking for articles about the business of getting paid to travel, whether this is through writing, photography, tours or other means.

They pay $50 – $200 per article depending on the type of article.

8. Viator Travel Blog

Niche: Travel

Amount: $40 – $150

Payment Method: Unspecified

They are looking for articles that share an insider’s view of travel, and they typically prefer submissions to be around 1,000 – 2,000 words.

They pay $40 – $150 depending on the type of article.

9. UX Booth

Niche: User Experience

Amount: $100

Payment Method: Unspecified

UX Booth is an authority when it comes to User Experience, and they are looking for research-backed articles on how to create better user experience.

They prefer articles to be in the 1,200 – 1,800 words range.

10. Cracked

Niche: General/Humor

Amount: $50 – $200

Payment Method: Paypal

Cracked is looking for funny and clever articles, mainly in list format, and they pay $50 – $200 per article depending on the type of article.

11. Tuts+ Code

Niche: Web Development

Amount: $100 – $250

Payment Method: Unspecified

They are looking for articles on anything related to web development; this could be PHP, HTML5, CSS3 or anything in between.

They pay $100 for a “quick tip” tutorial and $250 for a regular tutorial.

12. Smashing Magazine

Niche: Design/Coding/User Experience

Amount: $50 – $200

Payment Method: Unspecified

Smashing Magazine is looking for articles related to web design, graphic design, UX design, WordPress or mobile, and they pay $50 – $200 per article.

13. A List Apart

Niche: Internet

Amount: $200

Payment Method: Unspecified

They accept articles about coding, design, content strategy, user experience and basically anything in the internet industry/business.

They prefer articles to be between 1,500 to 2,000 words and they pay $200 per article within a month of publication.

14. Write Naked

Niche: Writing

Amount: $50 – $200

Payment Method: Unspecified

Write Naked is looking for articles related to the writing business; this includes interviews with key writing figures, publishing trends, or success stories from successful indie authors.

15. Metro Parent

Niche: Parenting

Amount: $35 – $350

Payment Method: Check

Metro Parent is a leading parenting publication looking for parenting articles. They pay $35 – $350 per article and they want features to be within 1,000 – 2,500 words.

They have a preference for articles from local freelance writers in the following communities: Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties.

They pay via check upon publication of your article, within the first week of the month of publication.

16. International Living

Niche: Living Overseas

Amount: $250 – $400

Payment Method: Unspecified

International Living is a publication focusing on living and retiring overseas, and they are looking for articles about living and retiring overseas.

They pay $250 for 840 words, and $400 for 1,400 words. They also pay $50 for one-time use of your photographs, and they pay upon publication of your article.

17. Sitepoint

Niche: Web Development

Amount: $150 – $200

Payment Method: Unspecified

Sitepoint is an authority when it comes to web development, and they are looking for in-depth articles about HTML, CSS and SASS.

They pay $150 for articles and $200 for tutorials, and they often pay more for articles that are more comprehensive and that they feel will do well traffic-wise.

18. Digital Ocean

Niche: Linux

Amount: $50 – $200

Payment Method: Paypal

Digital Ocean is looking for beautifully-written tutorials about Linux and FreeBSD cloud hosting and, besides potentially gaining exposure to their millions of readers, you can also make up to $200 per article.

Your article can come in the form of Updates, Simple Tutorials and In-Depth Tutorials, and you can earn $50, $100 or $200 respectively depending on what category it falls into.

19. Tuts+ Vector

Niche: Vector

Amount: $50 – $200

Payment Method: Unspecified

Tuts+ Vector is looking for articles related to Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, CorelDRAW and other vector-related tutorials.

They pay $50 – $200 depending on the nature of your contribution.

20. Tuts+ WP

Niche: WordPress

Amount: $60 – $500

Payment Method: Unspecified

Also a part of the Tuts+ network, Tuts+ WP is looking for articles related to WordPress; this could be WordPress 3.7+ tutorials, plugin development tutorials/tips and other WordPress related articles.

They pay $60 – $500 per article depending on the type of article.

Bonus: 110 Websites that Pay You to Write [PDF]

Do you love the above list? Awesome. There’s more where that came from.

As a bonus to Jeff Bullas’ readers, you can also get my report featuring a total of 110 sites that will pay you, most of which pay more than $50 per article, for free.

The report comes in detailed PDF format (like this article) and in spreadsheet PDF format. If you’re a writer looking to get paid for your content, this list is invaluable.

Download the PDF List

Guest Author: Bamidele Onibalusi is a world-renowned blogger and freelance writer. Huffington Post calls him an “ultimate business success story” and he’s been featured in Forbes and Digital Journal amongst others. He blogs at Writers in Charge.

The post 20 Amazing Sites That Will Pay You $100+ Per Article appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

5 Twitter Tools to Boost Your Productivity

Do you struggle to keep up with your Twitter activities? Interested in tools to improve productivity? Managing your Twitter account doesn’t have to consume all your time. There are tools that can make the work easier. In this article you’ll discover five Twitter tools to boost your productivity. #1: Schedule Content via Tweet Jukebox Tweet […]

This post 5 Twitter Tools to Boost Your Productivity first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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How to Design An Irresistible Facebook Page

11 million people use Facebook every 18 minutes…

7,246 new users are added to the social media mammoth every 15 minutes and 936 million active users login into the site on a daily basis.

Do these Facebook facts make you wonder?

“Am I missing out?”

Even large businesses are gradually distancing themselves from traditional forms of advertising and are battling for new customers on social media sites.

According to a recent study conducted by KA Social, 75% of the world’s population is on social media, and the other 25% of the population is both curious and excited to be on it.

It’s easier, quicker and cheaper to put up a Facebook page with dynamic content compared to traditional and more expensive ways of promoting your brand.

Your Facebook page is an extension or your primary website.

It showcases your business philosophy. A well-designed page isn’t just about how it looks – but also how it behaves. In the ever-competitive market, a perfect design is something that helps you stand out.

Work through the following 5-steps to build a Facebook page and fill it with ‘fans’, ‘likes’ and ‘shares’.

Step 1: Nail your cover photo

The focal point for every business on Facebook is its cover photo. It not only enhances the visual appeal of the business but also lures fans and followers, increasing the brand value.

Cover photos are the first thing that get noticed by users whenever they visit a company page. However, creating and choosing a cover photo that not only catches the attention of users but also resonates the brand value can sometimes be tedious.

Before discussing the creative aspect of your Facebook age, let’s first explore a few guidelines and policies set by Facebook for cover photos.

• Do not include generic terms or special characters. Example: Beer, #@$%
• Do not include superfluous descriptions or unnecessary qualifiers.
• Do not over exceed your text more than 20% of the image.
• Do not mislead your followers by incorrect or deceptive content.

 

As shown in the image, the dimension of the cover photos and profile pictures must be 851 x 315 and 180 x 180 pixels respectively. Cover photos take up almost a quarter of the screen on most desktops, so it is advisable to use high resolution images.

Now, let’s talk about the aesthetics of a cover photo.

Here are three points you must consider as ‘The Gospel of Facebook Cover Photos’.

1. Right focus over left focus – Since your profile pic is on the left, try keeping the text or call-to-action buttons on the right hand corner of your Facebook cover photo.
2. Sync cover photo with profile photo – In the image above, you notice a rectangular overlapping of profile picture with cover photo. Find creative ways to design a cover photo that communicates well with this profile picture.
3. Pin a post right below the cover photo – Don’t overlook the relevance of content. Try pinning down the most important post just below the cover photo to make it more relevant and interesting.

Step 2: Customize your tabs

 

Facebook’s new design puts photos, likes and apps just below your cover photo. The first spot in this layout is reserved for photos, while the other 11 can be adjusted through your admin panel.

So you have a total of 12 custom tabs at your disposal.

Use this opportunity to highlight your unique selling proposition through these tabs.

For example, if you have more ‘likes’, present them first and if you are not on Twitter or you have less followers on Twitter, keep that tab down the list.

Step 3: Pin, Star or Hide

Hovering your mouse over timeline entries shows a dropdown menu where you get an option to pin a particular post. The ‘Pin’ feature helps you show your intended post or content above all other timeline posts. In addition, you can also highlight the post you like by putting a star on it. The time limit to keep a post pinned is about 7 days.

A recently published study by Designhill, reveals that the Facebook posts with fewer than 80 characters get up to 60% more engagement, so it makes sense to ‘pin’ or ‘star’ posts that are concise yet interesting.

Step 4: Track your activity

Use Facebook Insights to keep a track of your page activity. Keeping a track of traffic and analyzing the reach and number of hits will help you choose your future posts more carefully. Besides Facebook Insights, businesses can also create ‘new ads’, define ‘page audience’, add ‘featured likes’ and update ‘publishing abilities’.

Consider yourself the King Caesar of Digital Life. Keep the audience of your Facebook’s coliseum busy and rule them – engage them – engross them by letting the gladiators of your posts fight with each other for more ‘likes’.

Step 5: Interact with messages

Most people don’t take the time to interact with their customers on social media.

This is the precise reason you should be interacting with your customers when they are busy browsing the content of your Facebook Page. This increases the brand value and establishes a sense of trust with your customers.

As Facebook page admin, you should send personalized messages to your target audience. You can use this feature as a part of online customer service, or at times when you need to discuss something with your audience on a more personal front.

The idea is to have as many conversations and engagements as possible with your customers. As a song titled “every siren is a symphony” by Coldplay  aptly brings forth the ideology, every query raised on your Facebook page will help you connect efficiently with your prospects.

Podcasting provided by Odovox.com

For you

Now that you know what it takes to unleash your mojo on Facebook, I would love to hear how you have been doing it for your business.

Surprise me with your views, ideas and experiences in the comment section below.

Also, before you finally cross-out this page and get set to leave, spare a few seconds and check out the following examples of some of the best designed Facebook Business Pages.

Guest Author: Ankit Roy is a visual artist and spends most of his time conceptualizing off-the-rack designs at popular crowdsourcing company, Designhill. In addition, he’s a social media enthusiast, online market analyst and blogger. When not writing, he loves spending his time playing video games and watching sci-fi movies! 

The post How to Design An Irresistible Facebook Page appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.

5 Ways to Use Snapchat for Business

Are you thinking of adding Snapchat to your social media marketing mix? Interested in ways to use Snapchat to strengthen your brand? With Snapchat, you can increase community engagement and brand awareness through innovative marketing campaigns. In this article you’ll discover five ways to use Snapchat for business. Why Snapchat? With over 100 million daily […]

This post 5 Ways to Use Snapchat for Business first appeared on Social Media Examiner.
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The Future of Google+, What New Research Reveals

Are you interested in Google+ marketing? Wondering where the platform is headed? Despite a number of detractors, Google+ has a number of fans and supporters who say Google+ has grown into a platform that wins them business. In this article you’ll discover findings from recent studies focused on the current Google+ activity as well as speculation about what […]

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15 Essential Content Creation Apps You Need Right Now

Writing is your drawcard.

It’s the number one tool you have at your fingertips for marketing an online business.

So it needs to be good.

You need to write compelling copy that engages readers, gets them to listen up and encourages them to buy.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could create content faster without giving up on quality?

Today I’m going to introduce you to 15 content creation apps that will make your job (and life) easier. From coming up with new content ideas, to writing content and eventually promoting it.

Let’s get straight into it.

Coming up with content ideas

This is often the most difficult step for a content creator.

What should I write about?

And frankly, a blank page is not helping at all.

Readers are tired of the same old topics and tips. They are always expecting something out of the ordinary, life changing and breath taking. Without these catchy topics, people won’t come back for more.

So here are some sources of inspiration.

1. Feedly

Feedly offers a daily inspiration of great content ideas.

Things happen all the time, in absolutely every field. But as a writer, you can’t afford to browse tons of websites to look for interesting news. This takes too much time.

This is why Feedly exists! This web app gathers news from different websites all in one place.

Users can select the sources and sort the news by topics. After this, you only have to log in and bam – News comes to you!

Now pick up the catchiest topic one and start writing.

2. Mindnote

Sometimes, people expect to find material solutions to the problems they read about. So a good idea for coming up with an appealing topic is to first find a new and innovative product.

Then, the rest is simple as pie – start the article with the issue, suggest the solution and introduce the product that can actually sort things out. MindNote is the best place to apply this method.

3. ContentGems

ContentGems puts together particular kinds of news in one daily e-mail. You can choose the topics of interest and a list of articles comes straight to your inbox.

This is a great method for coming up with a writing topics every day.

4. FAQ Fox

This is a great place for finding out what topics people are looking for online.

FAQ Fox gathers information from a large variety of websites.

Here is how it works – users type in a term, hit search and select the websites they want to track down. Next, the platform displays questions and answers related to that particular term.

Writers can spot the unsatisfactory answers and create a qualitative article on that topic.

This method guarantees readership!

5. Creativity Portal

Creativity Portal is famous for helping writers and other artists guide their creativity. It provides inspirational materials – e-journals, articles, posts, and so on.

How can you take advantage of this platform?

Read about the topics you are interested in and use them for inspiration, information, writing style, etc.

Just remember not to plagiarize!

Creating better content

Sure, marketing is kind of on auto pilot these days. But writing still requires a human mind. And yes, I know how exhausting this can be!

Fortunately, smart IT guys have invented several content creation apps to help us research, write, edit, and design content.

Below, I have chosen some of the top picks.

6. Papersgear

Proofreading takes some time and energy. Wouldn’t it be better to start writing the next article rather than edit the already completed one?

In this case, you just need some professional editors willing to verify and improve the content. Papersgear has a great team with experienced employers who can help you publish nothing less than perfect articles.

Also, if you need help with writing something, count on this website. Writers cover all niches and deliver pretty impressive work.

7. Hemingway App

The famous writer, Ernest Hemingway, was well known for his style – simple, short sentences. As a consequence, this is exactly the purpose of this platform – to guide writers to create easy to understand phrases and texts. After all, this is the main requirement for online content.

The app is really easy to use – you just copy and paste text and see the evaluation.

At first, I was happy to learn that our articles were at college level or higher. But guess what? This is the opposite of what you should aim for!

Online readers need to grasp the meaning of an article as fast as possible. The tool also spots passive voice. This is something to be avoided, because it makes sentences long and harder to understand.

8. InboundWriter

Ok, you already have the topic of your next article. But now, it is vital to know how to write it and what to include in it.

The solution is to use InboundWriter. This tool allows you to monitor certain topics and spot the improvements you will need to make to resonate with your readers.

9. Creately

This tool is amazing when it comes to organizing and structuring a future article.

Your life becomes easier when things are clearly sitting in front of you. So use this platform to create diagrams, charts, infographics, and so on.

It works on the basic principle of drag and drop, and it even accepts photos. However, it has a major downside – every project is public, unless users pay for it.

10. Glipho

Glipho allows writers to publish their content and users from all around the world can come up with ideas for the sequel. What better method to find out what people want to read about?

Submit a part of an article, and wait for reactions. Then choose the best idea and finish the text.

Content targeting and optimization

After the content is done, it is time to check its effectiveness. Marketers bet on emotional keywords and SEO. These methods are great to ensure readership.

There are online tools that can evaluate content from this point of view. They will tell you if a title is too long, or not strong enough; if the content is redundant or it has way too many SEO terms.

In this way, you will know what exactly to do in order to improve the content and make it more “commercial”.

11. Headline Analyzer

Did you know that only 62% of readers go beyond the headline of an article?

As a direct consequence, this one is vital for attracting and keeping readership interested. Learn how to boost your headlines by using this online tool.

The Headline Analyzer, created by CoSchedule, is more than useful. It says what kind of words the title contains (common, uncommon, emotional, powerful); the headline type (if you got “generic”, keep trying); it analyzes the length; it even offers a Google search preview and an e-mail subject line preview; it shows you the keywords and the sentiment caused by the titled (you need positive emotions).

12. Zmags

The team at Zmags can create digital materials meant to capture your audiences attention and bring in more and more views. The website owns several products that help writers create and publish content.

13. PRWeb

Attract readers by letting them know you exist.

Use PRWeb to send search-engine-optimized press releases. These ones will promote the articles to everybody interested on that particular topic – subscribers, visitors of the website, and even journalists.

14. Scribe content

This is a valuable tool for every writer and marketer. Scribe analyzes the readers’ preferences and tells you if the content is optimized for sharing.

How does it do that?

Well, it collects conversations from Twitter and Google+, regarding the term introduced by the user.

Then, it also guides users towards creating content that will be better ranked by search engines. In the end, the result will be an easier and more effective marketing campaign.

15. Test My Marketing (TMM)

TMM offers a professional opinion regarding any kind of marketing and advertising materials. The team is made up of professionals in the field who can tell you from one look if the campaign is going to be successful or not.

Or course, after all this criticizing, the marketers will also offer you some guidelines for improving the content. Take advantage of these precious indications and use them for future campaigns.

What do you think…

Which one is your favorite?

What content creation apps would you add to this list?

Guest Author: Melinda Osteen is a dedicated marketing manager, social media guru and lifelong travel fanatic.

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