Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention. What’s New This Week Instagram Now Supports Portrait and Landscape Images: Instagram announces that “—in addition to square posts—you can now share […]
Having your content stolen is only a good thing if it’s stolen correctly. In other words, it has to somehow benefit you, the owner of the content. For this reason, the word “stolen” is really not the right word because you’re actually letting people steal, and by definition stealing isn’t usually someone that’s encouraged. Nonetheless, in the digital marketing world the idea of republishing content can be either negative or positive depending on how and when it’s done.
Stealing content correctly means that the owner of the content is allowing you to republish it, with his/her permission. In other words, if the publisher makes it known that the content can be republished by posting, for example, an embed code (or all of the options listed in the next section); you’re in the right. If he/she does not make it known and you ask for permission and are then given that permission, you’re in the right. Any other “stealing” of content is wrong.
So how can you make this clear, when should you use this tactic, and are there any downsides?
The Pros and Cons of Stolen Content
The Pros
You Get More Eyes On Your Content
This is definitely the number one reason businesses like allowing others to republish their content. The more times the content is published, the more eyes that get to see that content and see that you wrote it. This could help bring more visibility and recognition to your brand.
It Could Help Bring in More Traffic
On that same note, if you have more people viewing your content that maybe have never heard of you before, they may like what they see and then navigate to your page to see more about you.
SEO Can Benefit From a Natural Link
Whenever someone republishes your content, it is understood that they need to link back to the original. This will be a link back to your website, which will help improve your SEO.
It’s an Easy Way to Promote Your Content
Going along with the last three points, this is a great way to earn exposure without having to do much at all.
The Cons
The Republished Content May Outrank You
This is the number one negative to this approach. If a great site republishes your content then there is a chance that in the SERPs the republished content will outrank your content. Even if it’s just by one space, all of the traffic will be headed to the result that shows up first.
A Spammy Site Might Ruin Your SEO
Your SEO wouldn’t be ruined completely, but you don’t want a link back to a spammy site because that will hurt your SEO slightly if it happens to often. You can always disavow these links in the future, but it’s easy to miss!
How to Allow Stolen Content Correctly
The default setting for most people on the web is “don’t steal content because of duplicate content issues.” If you do want people to steal your content correctly, though, t you can make sure your readers know it’s OK by:
Including an embed Code and making It very obvious.
Making an announcement about republishing
Putting a note about republishing In your “About Us” section
The tricky thing about stealing content is sometimes people automatically assume that they can steal your content so long as there is a backlink. The truth is that while a backlink is nice (and necessary), that doesn’t mean it’s OK with every publisher.
As a publisher, I highly recommend using CopyScape so that you can keep tabs on anyone and everyone who is stealing your content. If you are okay with certain pieces of content being republished (maybe you used one of the tactics above) then great, but if not then it’s up to you to say something.
According to an Outbrain article, using CopyScape is also a great way to find new opportunities. If you know who is stealing your content, you know who is interested in what you do. It may be worth it to reach out and see if they’re interested in working together or publishing something else you’ve created.
How do You Know Which Content Can be Stolen?
It’s completely up to you to decide which content you want to make available to be republished and which content you don’t. In general, infographics are a great option for republishing because everyone knows where they need to look to see the credit for the infographic (the bottom).
Infographics also don’t have as much content as a traditional article, so they’re easier to “steal.” Aside from that, it’s up to you to look at the pros and cons mentioned above and see which content is worth the risk.
Do you want to bring more attention to your business or product? Want to find out what inspires people to take notice? To discover how to get people’s attention online, I interview Ben Parr. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed […]
If you’re looking for a study that nicely sums up why business writing is distant, pretentious and ruthlessly disengaging, look no further than 5 Monkeys and a Ladder. This famous urban legend, based on two real sociological experiments, explains the close-minded and anti-growth attitudes that result in the inflated, artless tone content and copywriters so easily slip into.
The Study
Five monkeys live in a room with a ladder, a bunch of bananas and a cold water sprinkler. When a monkey goes to the top of the ladder to reach for the bananas, the sprinkler turns on and splashes the others with cold water. The other angry monkeys beat it up, and it eventually learns to stop trying.
The monkeys are replaced one by one, and each new monkey tries to climb the ladder for the bananas but is pulled down and beaten up by the rest of the group. After some time, the last original monkey is replaced with a new one, and tries to climb the ladder. Guess what happens… they all try to stop it, without even knowing they’ll get sprayed with water, just because that’s the way things are.
“The most damaging phrase in the language is: ‘It’s always been done that way.’” – Grace Hopper
The Way Boring People Write
Something we should remind ourselves of in times like these is an essay by George Orwell called “Politics and the English Language.” Unlike his other informative essays such as “A Nice Cup of Tea,” this was directed at politicians, those timeless masters of verbal trickery. Orwell was sick of being given watered-down truth cloaked in fancy, meaningless language. In this post I’ll go through some of what he said and how it can be applied today.
When it comes to business writing, the problem is that it’s always been done that way. For years leaders (and later, advertisers) have confused people with corporate language and business jargon. The problem in businesses has gone so far that it’s totally normal today to ‘leverage a robust solution for a bleeding edge vertical.’ But please – everyone would rather you didn’t. It’s a damaging content writing mistake that’s about as helpful as saying you’re going to ‘do a thing for a place.’
4 Tips to Avoid Content Writing Mistakes
Let’s take a look at what advice Orwell can offer content and copywriters to avoid these content writing mistakes:
1. Never use Clichés or Metaphors
If you’ve heard a phrase before, avoid it. Our brains are skilled at ignoring old information, so when you say things like “the best of both worlds”, readers blank it out and get tired of reading eye-rolling text.
Cutting useless words from your content is also a way to keep readers engaged throughout the post, doing wonders for your search rankings.
2. Cut Out Verb Phrases
No one’s going to be looking for legal loopholes in your content, so don’t speak like a lawyer. An example of a terribly written sentence using verb phrases is:
“We have initiated the rolling out process of several systems which are designed to be in charge of the formatting of data that is distributed via email”
When you could just say:
“We’re implementing a system to format email data”
A quick way to find offending sentences is to do a Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) for ‘of’, ‘that’ and ‘which’.
3. Needlessly Complicated Words
Striving to articulate one’s argument with pompous diction is a most effective way to ensure one remains detached from one’s audience.
Need I give an example after that sentence? As Orwell says, a bad writer tries to “dress up a simple statement and give an air of scientific impartiality” where a good writer sounds like a human being. Words to avoid:
Exacerbate, utilize, plethora, myriad, juncture, ascertain, per se
4. Words with Private Meaning
When you make a claim without supporting it, you’re using words with private meaning. When you talk about “the most talked-about social media management tool” or “the most efficient document editor” without actually giving a good reason, you’re clouding the meaning of your words to the point where your claims are meaningless.
While calling something “the most efficient X” seems impressive at first, an unsupported claim doesn’t go unnoticed — meaning comes from terms with concrete definitions, not debatable ones.
How to Catch Bad Writing
As boring as it might be, drafting your work is the best way to make sure it doesn’t suck. Accept that your first draft is almost always going to be awful, and prepare to sit down and rewrite most of it when you come back to proofread. My first drafts are almost 100% cliches, verb phrases and needlessly complicated words with private meanings, but it’s easy to catch your mistakes if you know what to look for.
The traffic light method is a great way to proofread and your content because it gives a visual representation of quality.
To do it, read through your draft and:
Highlight red for a sentence so bad it needs removing or rewriting completely
Highlight yellow for a sentence that needs a little work
Highlight green for perfection.
Be ruthless with yourself, and your readers will thank you.
From Content to Processes
Chances are, good writers are not just good at one thing. While you do get specialized copywriters, content writers, technical writers and sci-fi novelists, it’s likely that they could all manage to do each other’s jobs for a day because the skill set overlaps.
Running your business efficiently depends on clearly written processes just as much as a great content marketing strategy depends on epic content.
Not only do processes written inside workflow management software help you scale the content writing process and catch errors, they are also a great time saving strategy. Small businesses are at risk of wasting time through lost emails, communication errors or poor coordination, but with collaborative processes, it’s easy to make sure nothing slips through the net.
Take some advice from the grandfather of checklists and the man who wrote a process for pilots to fly notoriously difficult Boeing airplanes — Daniel Boorman. According to Boorman:
“There are good checklists and bad… bad checklists are vague and imprecise. They are too long; they are hard to use, and they are impractical. They are made by desk jockeys with no awareness of the situations in which they are to be deployed. They treat the people using the tools as dumb and try to spell out every single step. They turn people’s brains off rather than turn them on.”
What about good checklists?
“Good checklists, on the other hand, are precise. They are efficient, to the point and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything. – a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps – the ones that even the highly skilled professionals could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical.” — The Checklist Manifesto
As you can see, there are parallels between content and processes — and even between copywriting and how an author from the early 20th century wants politicians to speak.
Clear writing is an eternally relevant skill, so the next time you think about calling your small business an ‘end-to-end solution for the planning, implementation and execution of robust, scalable marketing strategies and 100 percent proven SEO tactics’ — think again.
Do you use Google+ Hangouts? Interested in ways to use them for your business? Google+ Hangouts are a great way to hold group meetings, interact with customers, interview people and share your expertise. In this article you’ll discover eight ways to use Google+ Hangouts for your business. A Quick Introduction to Google+ Hangouts Before getting […]
There are plenty of ways to display your branding to customers. In fact, wearable branding is a whole category on its own.
But while some entrepreneurs wear or sell simple sweatshirts or hats with their logo or company name, Allyn Reid chose a more unconventional route.
The founder of Sherpa Press instead wore a cape to promote her brand. Cheryl Conner explains in a Forbes article after hearing Reid speak at the Secret Knock event in San Diego earlier this year:
“We’re all familiar with the idea of wearing your brand. Shirts, hats, pens, notebooks, tees and even car wraps declare the affiliation of thousands of entrepreneurs. But Allyn Reid, founder of Sherpa Press publishing (and cofounder of Secret Knock with husband Greg), took her brand to another level in 2014. Committed to the concept of tailoring your own happiness and of showing the courage to be all you can be she made the commitment in 2014 to wear a cape, every day, for an entire year, ensuring that her personal and professional brand made a memorable impression.”
Reid’s take on wearable branding likely isn’t one that a lot of other entrepreneurs can see themselves trying. But it is one that uniquely fits with her brand’s image.
Sherpa Press is a publishing company that works with passionate writers looking to share their profound stories. For a company that wants to create products and content that really stand out in the marketplace, Reid’s cape idea communicates that message of unique and brave storytelling.
So, while wearing a cape every day for a year might not be the right choice for your brand, you can still learn something from Reid’s experience. She came up with a strategy that not only fit with her brand’s message, but also was unique enough to really grab people’s attention.
Want to make sure your ads stand out on Facebook and Instagram? Have you tried Carousel Ads? While many businesses use Carousel Ads solely to promote products, the ads also provide an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand’s unique narrative. In this article, I’ll share how to use storytelling in carousel ads to promote your […]
There are times when you want to update your status, send out a tweet or reply to a fan while on-the-go. This is when you rely on social media mobile apps to make it all possible.
Social media mobile apps give you the flexibility to work from anywhere and they let you get things done with a simple touch on your phone.
They also eliminate the need to return to your desk every time you want to post something to your social media accounts.
Here are 5 social media mobile apps that can make on-the-go social media marketing a breeze for you.
1. DrumUp
DrumUp is very different from other social media management tools. It searches for content that relates to your business and gives you a fresh stream of recommendations everyday. It also allows you to schedule the content on your social media pages like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
For businesses that require a constant stream of good quality content, DrumUp can work wonders.
To start getting your content, all you need to do is fill in some keywords that relate to your business.
For example, if you run your own photography business, you can input keywords like photography, wedding photography, camera techniques etc. DrumUp will give you interesting, share-worthy stories that can be posted straight to your social media accounts.
These stories are then queued for publishing based on a schedule that DrumUp thinks is best. You can even set your own time for posting the content depending on your preferences. You can also review and edit the queued posts before they are published.
DrumUp has a simple user interface that is easy to use, and acts as a central dashboard where you can manage multiple social media accounts.
It uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) and machine learning algorithms to return good quality content recommendations and there are plans of improving the application such that it can generate content that is specific to a location by learning and understanding keywords.
DrumUp is being offered for free, and is a definite must-have social media mobile app because of the convenience it brings to your content discovery efforts.
You can download and use it for free on your Android devices.
2. Mention
If you have been looking for a way to monitor your brand and keep track of how it is performing on social media, Mention is the mobile app for you.
The Mention app gives you an insight into what people are saying about your brand, and whether the buzz around your brand is positive ot negative. Using the application is quite simple.
You can put in keywords that are specific to your brand, and the application will monitor the web for those keywords. It will also send across real-time alerts whenever your brand gets talked or written about.
As a business owner, you might be in need of an application that lets you tackle any kind of emergency damage control. With Mention’s real-time alerts, you get quick notifications if something requires attention and prompt action.
You can also get notified about whether your brand mentions are positive, negative or neutral – which can be quite beneficial when it comes to creating a proper social media marketing strategy.
Image Source: Google Play
If you see a brand mention, you can easily see the person it came from and respond to it from directly within the application without having to open another website or replying via email. The free application lists all your alerts in order of priority and gives you the ability to assign certain tasks to other team members – all from within the application.
Mention app is available on Android and iOS devices.
3. Facebook Pages Manager
While Facebook might get used for more personal activities, Facebook Pages Manager makes it possible to use Facebook for business with just as much ease. For Facebook page administrators, this tool brings a lot of convenience in updating business pages on-the-go.
Facebook Pages Manager is quite similar in appearance to the regular Facebook application – which makes it easier to use and navigate.
The app allows page administrators to publish updates on multiple pages without any hassle. Page administrators can also look at all the pages they are managing, and the number of administrators there are.
It also allows you to see the account and privacy settings. All these settings can be easily seen on the homepage without having to switch between tabs. The best feature this application provides is the ability to separate personal and business pages – which helps avoid any kind of accidental posting.
Using Facebook Pages Manager you can monitor the performance of your content because the app lets you see the number of people who have liked, commented or shared your published content.
You can also give other administrators access to specific pages from within the application. This mobile app is a great way to keep your Facebook pages up-to-date even when you are away from your desktop.
The app is free for download on Android and iOS devices.
Image Source: Google Play
4. News Reader by Feedly
News Reader by Feedly is an awesome mobile application if you are constantly on the look out for great content. This free app is available on both Android and iOS, and it gives you the ability to discover fresh sources for content.
You can add various RSS feeds to the app, including feeds for your favorite website and blogs, and all the content will be available for browsing in one application.
Account set up is easy and can be done through either Facebook or Google. Once you have an account set up, you just need to add your preferred feeds to the application.
News Reader classsifies all content in categories like travel, marketing, films, photography etc., which simplifies the process of browsing through the content on your smartphones.
Most of all, News Reader by Feedly works with various social accounts like Facebook, Evernote, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more – so you can share your favorite content through these social media websites. It also lets you conduct a search for trending topics in case you are looking to discover new content sources.
5. Sparksfly
Quite similar to News Reader by Feedly, this mobile application is pretty cool. The application is designed to bring up content recommendations that are based on your content preferences. This is made possible due to a specific algorith that the application uses.
The application allows you to search for content and filter it by adding keywords that are relevant to your area of interest. You can also add various social networks and other users if you like the content that a specific user is sharing.
Based on the content that you prefer to read regularly, you can create various “routines” on Sparksfly, making it easier to browse through content that you are interested in.
These “routines” give you great content recommendations which can later be shared on social media networks with friends, family and colleagues.
Image Source: Google Play
Sparkfly gives businesses an opportunity to appear in user routines and create a brand that is well known and can be easily identified. It also helps you connect with your consumers in a more personable way.
You can download Sparksfly for your Android and iOS and use it for free.
Sum up
For businesses, social media management is a necessity, and these nifty social media mobile apps help cut down on the time it takes to handle multiple accounts.
Having mobile applications for social media management also means that you can have full control of your social media accounts even when you are traveling and away from your desktop.
Tell us about some of your favorite mobile social media management applications in the comments section.
Guest Author: Jessica Davis is a Content Strategist at Godot Media, a leading content marketing firm. She works with businesses and individuals creating targeted content for various requirements. She also manages a team of article writers in Godot. Other areas of interest include technology, science and fashion.
Want to use mobile live-streaming to market your business? Have you tried Periscope? Periscope is already proving to be an incredibly powerful social tool, and savvy marketers are using it in innovative ways to grow their businesses. In this article you’ll discover six ways to use Periscope for your business. #1: Show Live Product Demos […]
Google has issued an important notice for small business owners with a Google My Business account.
The company warns that business owners may soon be receiving a message from Google asking them to take action or have their account de-verified.
The notice states that business owners who have not logged into their Google My Business accounts in over a year may receive an email asking them to sign in and confirm their business information.
There are potential consequences to ignoring this warning from Google. First, the company could turn your business’s account back into an unverified one. Second, Google could take the extra step and remove your business from Google Maps, too.
The reason behind this recent action from Google is the customer’s experience. Google explains in the notice:
“When companies don’t keep their online information up to date, it can create an unpleasant experience for people searching the Web for information, like if a customer arrives at a local business only to find that the address or operating hours have changed. We’re always trying to make it easier for customers to connect with businesses on Google.”
Google claims that if a business owner receives one of these email notices about their account, the steps for keeping their account verified are simple. Business owners will be prompted to log into their Google My Business dashboard, check if all their business information is correct, and make any changes necessary.
The company goes on to say that regardless of whether you receive an email or not, it’s a good idea to log into your Google My Business account at least every six months to make sure all business information is up to date and accurate.
This is not the first time Google has issued this warning to business owners with a Google My Business account. Back in June, the company gave a similar warning to business owners, asking them to log in and update their information before they received an email warning of de-verification.
If your small business is on Google, it is a good idea to make sure the information being displayed is correct and as current as possible. This is for both for customers looking for you business information on Google as well as an easy way to help drive potential customers your way.
You know it and we know it – being visible on YouTube has become essential to any company that wants to promote their brand through video marketing.
The problem is that being found by your potential customers on YouTube isn’t that easy – you have to beat millions of competitors with larger budgets and brighter videos.
Being visible on YouTube and ranking high in its search results requires thorough search engine optimization (SEO), a wise distribution plan and, above all, a quality marketing video.
Today you’ll learn the basics on how to rank number one on YouTube with your own video. But I’ll not just describe how to do it; I’ll explain and demonstrate each step by using a successful case study from Yum Yum Videos: their explainer video got ranked number one on YouTube under the most valuable business keywords in just 3 months, so it will serve us as a clear example on each step.
You can also get the free step-by-step eBook “How To Rank #1 on YouTube” which expands on this effective strategy.
Now let’s start this exciting video SEO journey with the first question:
Why YouTube?
You might wonder: why choose YouTube as a video hosting site? And why spend time and effort reading this piece to gain a good position in its search engine rankings?
First of all, with over 1 billion active users worldwide, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world (behind its owner Google, but above Yahoo! and Bing) so it’s not just an average hosting site.
Then, what many people don’t take into account is that YouTube is also a massive social network; it actually happens to be the world’s 3rd largest social network, behind Facebook and Twitter.
This alone makes YouTube a perfect spot on the web to promote your brand.
But the thing is, you can’t really be on YouTube without a video, and even then: you won’t rank high in the search engine without a quality marketing video, simply because yours need to stand out among the 4 billion videos that are watched on it every day… and that leads us to the next point.
The importance of having a quality video
The problem with marketing videos is that you need to make a quality one, or else YouTube will send it to the dark bottom of its page results, even if you spend your whole budget on advertising.
Why is that? Because YouTube cares a lot about complete video views, and the amount of time people spend watching a video is one of the factors YouTube cares about when setting up its SERP (search engine results pages). And, let’s face it; no one would care to watch a video all the way through if it’s not well made!
Take a look at “What is the best explainer video style for your business?”, the quality animated video that made Yum Yum Videos rank number one on YouTube:
Now check out this simple YouTube Analytics graph to see how long viewers spent watching that video:
The graph reveals that the video reached a high audience retention rate with almost 1:20 minutes per viewer on average. That doesn’t cover the entire video, but it’s a great number, considering people’s average attention span is just 8 seconds.
You should keep in mind that only a quality marketing video makes people engaged and willing to watch it completely.
When we say quality, we’re talking about storytelling, design and animation; something that only a professional video production company with qualified experts in each production area can offer.
Long story short – you need a high-quality video to make your SEO strategy work and get your marketing objectives covered.
Video SEO and keyword planning
Ok, so you have a quality marketing video and you want it to climb up the YouTube results page. What you need now is a clever video SEO strategy and some wise keyword planning in order to optimize your video’s performance on the site.
Let’s learn the best practices in this area:
1. Keywords
First of all, you should learn which words from your business niche come up frequently on YouTube and how many people usually search for a particular word by using a SEO tool such as Google’s keyword planner.
In the case of Yum Yum Videos the most relevant business keyword is “explainer video” with over 1,600 monthly search results in the US:
However, don’t fight over the most searched keyword terms because that would be really hard to rank for. I recommend using longtail keywords instead: they’re longer and contain more specific phrases, which do include your main keywords, but have less people fighting over them.
In our case study, the longtail keyword is “the best explainer videos”.
Longtail keywords drive precise views from potential customers way faster, helping your video to rank under the main keyword too. Once you find your own, don’t forget to use them everywhere in YouTube: titles, descriptions, tags, etc.
2. Titles
Titles help people get what your video is about before hitting the play button, so it’s vital to place your keywords in it.
Here’s the title from our case study:
Now don’t forget to keep your titles brief and direct. I recommend using less than 70 characters, because longer titles are cut off in the YouTube results page.
On the other hand, try to avoid writing titles that don’t represent the true content in your video. Tricky or misleading titles cause a huge drop-off that will reduce your video’s performance.
3. Thumbnails
Thumbnails are essential SEO features because they act as the only preview for your video on the YouTube results page and suggestions. Besides, it’s proven that a spot-on thumbnail will invite more people to press play on your video, but a badly-chosen one will drive them away.
Therefore, you should choose your thumbnails carefully.
Here you can get a glimpse of the early-considered thumbnails from our case study (the upper-left one became the final choice):
As with your title, don’t cheat with a misleading thumbnail. People hate tricky thumbnails.
On the other hand, use only hi-resolution images (640×360 pixels at a minimum) and make sure that the thumbnail looks good in both small and large sizes and on different devices (TV, iPad and desktop PC).
If your image is not attractive enough, people simply won’t click on it.
4. Descriptions
Descriptions explain what your marketing video is about. You need to make them short and accurate (around 2 sentences are perfect) but don’t forget to use your business keywords.
It’s also mandatory to include a link to your own site within those two sentences, and you can add links to your social media channels as well. These actions will increase your website traffic and create a great opportunity to drive potential customers to your brand.
Check out the description in our case study:
5. Call-to-action
Now, for this strategy to drive concrete marketing results apart from views and SEO purposes (for example downloading your content, subscribing to your newsletter, visiting your site, etc.) you need to encourage your viewers to take action by adding a clear call-to-action in the form of a clickable button.
Or you can use the YouTube Cards feature instead (which is a sidebar call-to-action), in order to lead your viewers to your website, landing page or any other video of yours that’s hosted on YouTube:
Distribution and link building
In order to set up its results pages, YouTube considers all the websites where your video is embedded and played on, and also takes into account the amount of YouTube views that come from those sites.
Then, if you really want to enhance your Video SEO strategy, you need to distribute your video in the right spot for potential customers to watch it.
Let me quickly describe those spots:
1. YouTube ads
Investing some money in YouTube Ads (aimed to the right target audience) can give an initial boost to your video marketing campaign, making you clinch a first bunch of viewers and allowing YouTube to start measuring your videos’ performance.
However, after that first push, it’s better to rank organically on YouTube, because it gives your video more credibility and fairness.
2. Link building
You must drive your marketing video forward to make it rank number one on YouTube. Besides embedding your video on your blog (and other people’s blog) use it in landing pages, press releases, email marketing campaigns and social media posts, to then measure its overall performance.
Remember that your video can turn into a powerful marketing tool to suit your online campaigns.
Here you can analyze the visit rates and sources from our case study:
As you can see, views came almost exclusively from the embedded player source -in light green- during the first 3 months (that’s blogging and guest blogging playback).
But then YouTube’s organic visits -in purple and dark green- (those are direct searches and video suggestions playbacks) began to rise, because that’s when the video started to rank number one on YouTube’s search engine results page.
Eventually, YouTube’s searches and suggestions’ playbacks beat the embedded player source:
From then on, the animated video started to gain 300% more views every day, comparing it with day 1. Views keep growing by a monthly 20% on average. As today, the video has over 30,000 views and holds the number one position under Yum Yum Videos’ most valuable keywords.
Now you’re ready to build up your own videos and set up a wise video SEO strategy to start ranking high on YouTube’s search engine results page!
Remember that you can download Yum Yum Videos’ free eBook to widen this knowledge and learn how to craft a quality marketing video to compete with.
Good luck!
Guest Author: Juan Jose Mendez is the Content Editor for Yum Yum Videos production company. For more tips on explainer video production, video marketing strategies, visit Yum Yum Video’s Explainer Video Academy, where you’ll get some free educational eBooks, infographics and slides.
Are you curious about the latest Facebook ad changes? Wondering how to take your Facebook ads to the next level? Facebook has gone all in to provide businesses with tools and targeting options to connect with customers and prospects in the moments that matter. In this article I’ll share the five biggest things to happen […]
Let’s look at why visual marketing is becoming a staple in the online consumer’s diet and how you can use it to your advantage.
Consumers prefer visuals
Today’s average consumer prefers visual content compared to word-based interactions.
Communication coupled with imagery – photographs or video – is easier to process and more entertaining than words on a blank canvas. Forbes Insight reports that nearly 60% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, if both are available on the same page.
Consider the response rate of tweets coupled with images. Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets. People feel compelled to share meaningful content, and the strongest way to enhance your message is by including a visual element.
Not only are consumers sharing visual marketing – they remember it as well. An infographic in AdWeek shared that people remember 80% of what they see or do, versus 20% of what they read. Imagery in content marketing is a “must” if marketers want to make a lasting impression on consumers.
Photo courtesy of NeoMam Studios
With this in mind, marketers should focus on creating visual content over text and audio. In doing so they quadruple the likelihood that a consumer will remember messages.
How can I make sure my visual marketing is powerful?
Not all visual marketing is created equal, and it is only powerful when executed properly. Marketers shouldn’t expect to see big changes by adding a simple stock photo to tweets.
There is an art to producing strong visual marketing, and it revolves around three key factors;
Pick the right type of content
Stock photos may be an easy way to add a visual element to a blog post, but there are better ways to execute visual marketing. Adding an infographic or a short video outlining key points can make content much more meaningful to the consumer.
In larger works, like eBooks and white papers, an animated character or theme can tie the work together while keeping the reader engaged.
However, if your hands are tied and you’re at a loss for original images, using a relevant stock photo is better than completely foregoing a visual element. Reports show that 40% of people respond better to text coupled with visuals than plain text. Although stock photos may not be ideal or original, these images will garner more attention than no visuals at all.
Make a call-to-action
Visual marketing can be an asset because of its ability to inspire consumers to take action. Marketers should ensure that they are taking advantage of this capability by including a call-to-action (CTA) with their visual marketing.
Calls-to-action can range from low action (check out our website) to high action (register now, make a purchase).
Not all CTA’s have to be obvious. By drafting creative, stimulating content, consumers will feel compelled to share your work with others. By simply providing a solid piece of imagery (think: infographic), you can inspire your audience to advocate for you without actually having to ask.
It is imperative that all visual marketing encourages consumers to do something. Otherwise, your content (and hard work!) is a complete waste.
Be aware of omnichannel marketing
You can tweet the best video content with links to landing pages on your website… But if your site is not optimized for mobile, this means nothing to the consumer trying to access your site from their smartphone.
This is one example of poor omnichannel marketing steamrolling a carefully constructed piece of visual marketing. Consumers should be able to access all touch points of your company without a hitch. Encountering an incorrectly linked landing page or receiving conflicting messages across two separate platforms can be a major turnoff for consumers. Ensure that you are producing seamless content with omnichannel marketing to avoid confusing or frustrating customers.
There’s certainly a lot to think about when integrating imagery in content marketing. But, if done correctly, visual marketing can be the most powerful tool a marketer can use to generate leads and make sales.
Guest Author: Savannah is a writer for SaaS platform NectarOM, and loves discussing marketing personalisation, automation, data analytics and CRM. Connect with her on Twitter or check out more on the NectarOM.
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention. What’s New This Week Blab.im has marketers talking: Combining features of Google Hangouts with Periscope-like functions, Blab.im introduces an iPhone client and […]
Whenever small businesses see their website bounce rate, it’s always a source of panic.
Maybe you’ve heard that website bounce rate doesn’t matter, or maybe you’ve heard that it matters for some things and not for others, or maybe you’ve been taught to believe that your bounce rate is one of the most important metrics for a website.
Whatever your background, chances are you’ve thought about what your website bounce rate means to you. This data is usually never where you want it to be, so it’s a natural cause for concern.
So what does bounce rate have to do with content marketing specifically? Is it really a cause for concern? In short, bounce rate the way you’re probably thinking about bounce rate doesn’t really matter when it comes to content marketing specifically. It just doesn’t. However, there are ways to make this data more meaningful for you.
How Website Bounce Rate is Defined in Google Analytics
When Google Analytics calculates bounce rate, they’re calculating how often someone visits one webpage and then does not interact with that page. Interacting with a page could mean clicking an internal link to go to another page, clicking a buy button or a coupon, commenting on that page, signing up for your newsletter or other downloads, etc.
If a visitor clicks the back button, types in a new URL into their browser, clicks an external link within your content, closes their browser entirely, or stays on your page without any interaction for at least 30 minutes, it counts toward your bounce rate metric.
Why This is a Problem for Your Content Marketing
Let’s say you’re looking at your content webpage by webpage (so article by article). You may see that some articles have a higher bounce rate than others and immediately assume that the articles with the lower bounce rate are more successful and therefore “better.” This could cause a Webmaster to try and mimic the content of the pages with the lower bounce rate, which essentially could change a content strategy completely based on data. While this analysis is usually a good thing, bounce rate data simply isn’t something that should be so influential.
Why? If someone were to read your content all the way through and spend 15 minutes on the page, but did not interact with the page, it would be counted as a high bounce rate. This isn’t fair because someone spending a lot of time on your page really reading what you wrote means you wrote great content. It may have a 100 percent bounce rate, but in reality this is the content you should be trying to mimic in the future!
As a Webmaster, you shouldn’t have to look at website bounce rates of individual pages against the time spent on pages and then try and determine which metric is more accurate all on your own. There are ways to tweak your data so that the bounce rate metric can be used in a more meaningful way.
How to Adjust Your Bounce Rate for Better Content Marketing
This is a cool tip that Outbrain recently reported on that first opened our eyes to how to make bounce rate work for us. All you need to do is add a line of code to your Google Analytics tracking script so that you can trigger an event when readers stay for a minimum amount of time (whatever time you think is appropriate). If you think a bounce should only be counted when someone stays on a page for 20 seconds or less, you can make that happen.
According to the Outbrain article, the following two codes can make it happen:
You will, of course, still have access to the “old” website bounce rate metric, but this will be a new event that you can use in place of that metric to better analyze your content marketing. Simply visit your Reporting tab and then go to Behavior > Events to see your new metrics (or event).
In the end, you have to remember that someone staying and really reading a piece of your content is meaningful. It may not be quite as exciting as if someone interacted with the page, that doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future. If you created content that captivated them enough to read the entire thing, that helps your brand visibility, reputation, credibility, and trustworthiness — all things you need for someone to return to your website (and then do their interacting later).
What do you think about website bounce rate and content marketing? Is there another way you like to look at this metric or another event you like to create?
Do you have a great idea for a business? Wondering if content marketing will help move the needle? To discover what it takes to build a content-driven business, I interview Joe Pulizzi. 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 […]
Do you want to use video for your business? Are you looking for a resource to help you combine video with social media marketing? Whether you’re using video as an individual or as part of a team, these expert articles will help you live-stream, record, publish and market video to support your marketing goals. Each […]
It may not be as exciting as social media or content marketing, but email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach an intended customer.
In fact, digital marketers have stated that email is the most effective digital marketing channel when it comes to customer retention.
Email is also effective at achieving brand awareness, customer acquisition, and conversion.
When you also consider that, by 2016, there will be approximately 4.3 billion email accounts, you quickly realize that email is a channel that marketers, business owners, and bloggers can not ignore.
But, what if you do not sell a direct product or service. Could you actually make money from your current email newsletter? That would be a sweet additional bonus for all of your hard work.
And, here are 5 ways that you can easily accomplish that.
1. Target Your Audience With Launchbit
Launchbit was launched in 2011 by childhood friends Elizabeth Yin and Jennifer Chin to modernize email advertising.
Instead of sending out the same mass email, Launchbit tailors emails to specific targets. In a way, it’s very similar to Google AdWords. You create you the ad, select your audience, and set the the cost-per-click (CPC) price budget that you want.
Not only does this assist you with bringing in qualified leads at a reasonable price, Launchbit also provides statistics for your campaigns so that you know which publishers are performing best. The platform also integrates with Mailchimp to make your life easier.
This 500 Startups alum was acquired by BuySellAds in 2014, but business has gone on as usual.
2. Work With Affiliates Using VigLink
According to a study by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of Rakuten LinkShare, it’s expected that marketers will spend almost $4.5 billion on affiliate marketing. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t it make sense to team-up with a company like VigLink?
VigLink was founded in 2009 by Oliver Roup and is basically word-of-mouth marketing, but at a larger, digital scale. The company finds mentions of commercial products within an influencer’s content, connects them to the brands, and offers to monetize these mentions through affiliate links in emails.
When someone clicks on that hyperlink in your newsletter and makes a purchase, you’ll get paid a commission. With an advertiser network of more than 40,000 brands and merchants, VigLink can be an effective way to make a little extra money.
3. Re-target Your Customers
Did you know that only 2 percent of website traffic completes a purchase?
What happens to the other 98 percent?
It’s lost. That’s why re-targeting has become a popular and efficient marketing tactic.
If you’re unfamiliar with re-targeting, it’s just a friendly of a product or website that you visited. You’ve probably noticed that when you go to a site like Amazon looking for a polo shirt. You’ll keep seeing that polo shirt as you keep surfing online.
Instead of losing those potential customers, use a service like AdRoll or Meteora, who happens to be a newer player since it was founded in 2014, to bring those customers back.
Not only can you follow your audience across the Web and social networks like Facebook, you can also send your target audience discounts, coupon leads, or loyalty rewards by placing a nifty conversion capture widget in your email newsletter.
4. Charge a Subscription
If you happen to be an expert in your field, which hopefully you are, then it makes sense for you to charge others for your knowledge.
In fact, many companies that offer services are creating free content like e-books to illustrate their knowledge and expertise. While that may sound a little pretentious, that’s how many authority figures make a decent living.
Here’s how it basically works; you provide your subscribers something of value, such as guides, tutorials, or video classes. You may only give them a taste of this content and offer the rest of the premium content for either a monthly or yearly fee.
For example, if you’re a fantasy football expert, you could send your subscribers your top 10 player rankings which details why they’re worthy of your draft selection. To receive the complete and exclusive list, however, your potential customer would have to purchase the paid newsletter subscription.
5. Sell Your Ad Space
If you have a large following, it may not be the difficult to sell valuable ad space in your newsletter, like directly above the header section of the email body.
You could even place a sponsored by ad underneath your newsletter title. Quartz’s Daily Brief is one example of a brand that does technique. Even though banner ads may not be the most effective — they don’t bring in a lot of money and subscribers may ignore them — advertising is a proven and longstanding method of making a couple of extra bucks.
If you don’t have a large following, or don’t want to sell your ad space, you could use your newsletters real estate to promote your own featured product or service. You could use a service like Canva to make your own banner ads if you don’t have the technical skills to do so.
Imagine if you could take 1,000 words a and help people digest that information in only a few seconds?
An infographic, put simply, is a creative way to take a “thousand words” and depict them using a picture. These days, readers are looking for quick access to brief information.
We receive 5 times more information than in 1986 and are 80% more willing to read anything with colors. Infographics are great with colors.
45% more users will click on a link if it features an infographic.
They help us get valuable inbound links - Streetcouch does a great job of explaining the importance of creating infographics and sharing them on social media in a 5-step process (as a link-building strategy).
Readers are not the only ones with time constraints and an inclination towards quick and easy ways to consume information.
What if you, the creator of an infographic, are also short on time and need a simpler, quicker way to create beautiful infographics in an instant?
Forget about Photoshop and other time-consuming image creation methods.
Let’s introduce you to a set of tools that will make creating infographics simpler than ever!
This application will let you create an infographic in just a few clicks.
First, you get to pick a template from a long list of cards, then a search bar and drop down menu on the side will allow you to filter the template results. For instance, you could search for a template that deals with geography (maps) or templates with a timeline format.
Once you’ve selected your template, you can add in more shapes, backgrounds, charts, objects and of course text to personalize the template and let it tell a story in your own way.
The basic version of this tool is offered for free.
Visualize.me focuses on letting users create “infographic resumes”. However, the template designs are not limited to that purpose alone. Once you’ve signed in with your LinkedIn or email account, you can select from a range of beautiful themes, language maps, timelines, bubble charts, tree maps, pictograms, and other formats.
Visme is another super cool tool that allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics, ad banners, animations, customer layouts, and more. It has an extensive library full of templates, shapes, icons, and objects to choose from.
It is a highly-recommended app by Coursework Spot, a service that offers academic research. If you’re not up for a bunch of changes, edits, additions, or subtractions, you may simply edit the text and hit publish. You can also directly insert data values to change the charts and graphs.
Another plus point is that it’s “specially priced” for teachers and students.
Applications like these could kick graphic designers out of business since PiktoChart markets itself as the tool that let’s “non designers create beautiful infographics in as little as 10 minutes.” This may be a shocker – or maybe even a bit offensive – but it is true. Piktochart has over 400 fully customizable themes with retina-ready images, objects, graphs, and colors you can edit and adjust according to your preference.
One of the most uniquely and brilliantly designed websites,Canva aims to train both designers and non-designers to come up with cool and creative stuff. Canva will start out with a brief tutorial to acquaint you with their program. Once you’re through with that, you can move on to creating your project whether it be a presentation, Facebook cover photo, business card, ad, poster, banner, or a retina-ready infographic.
Infogram is all about making charts and infographics “the easy way”. So far over 2 million infographics have been created using the website and some have even been used by prestigious organizations including Euronews, University of Cambridge, and the Huffington Post.
Whether you are blogger, educationalist, brand ambassador, or an organization, you can make charts/infographics in three easy steps: pick a template, visualize the data, and publish.
Venngage has everything you need to create free infographics and publish them on the spot. You can choose from hundreds of professional templates.
Infographics is not all you can make; reports, posters, promotions, and social media posts can also be created using Venngage, allowing you to tell your story “visually” with the help of charts, maps, icons, and visuals.
With Dipity you can create digital timelines. If a timeline-based infographic is what you are after, you can use Dipity to do the job. Dipity aims to organize web content by date and time.
iCharts is a cloud-based visual analytics platform that allows users to create quick and easy visualizations for complex business information, data sets, or extensive research work. You can access and update your data in real time whenever you like since it is cloud native.
Perhaps, you’re more interested in presenting maps instead of timelines. Geo Commons is perfect for geography-based infographics that must include a map of your choice.
Why not simply use Google charts? This is probably an application you are already familiar with and definitely one that requires little training or experience to learn. Google Charts is a free solution with all kinds of charts, maps, bars, and statistical goodies to choose from. Google’s gallery is rich with variety.
Infoactive is a simple and flexible platform that allows you to create interactive infographics and other “data driven” stories. InfoActive lets you connect your data to the application and let automation do the rest for you.
If your infographic is based on the number, ways, or timing you take your photos, you can use this Android application to sum it up for you. This is a very specific program with a very specific purpose, but if you’re a photographer looking forward to fulfilling that purpose, it will suit your needs.
Another application designed to cater to a specific purpose, Get About lets you create infographics that determine your social media activity. For instance, Get About will let you track your Twitter terms, hashtags, and mentions. Also you can monitor your social activity with infographics that chart out how you connect and share with your network.
Creately is not only a diagramming tool, but also a tool that works for teams requiring real time collaboration. Creately will let you create style smart shapes, diagrams, connectors, and more to gather information in one compact space.
This is an iPhone application dedicated to generating infographics on how, when and where you take photos. Similar to Photographic Gen Lite for Android, the application will reveal your photography habits in just a few clicks, and if you like, make it available to your friends.
Charts Bin is a free online solution that allows you to create interactive maps. After a sign-up, create a map of your choice by inserting values or zooming in. If you like you can copy and paste the HTML code to your blog without having to go through a bunch of tricky steps to display it on your website.
Gliffy will transform your ideas into shapes by providing you with a variety of flow charts, UML diagrams, wireframes, network diagrams, org charts, and sitemaps. Create digital visualizations by dragging and dropping shapes/lines/objects from the library and transforming words into graphs.
Sometimes word clouds are all you need to explain a concept in just a few words. Wordle will let you create unique and interactive word clouds in a variety of fonts, layouts, color schemes and more.
Smile Widgets is an extremely simple website that allows users to create “free, open source data visualizations and web widgets”. The software will let you create exhibits, timelines, time-plots, and runways of your choice.
Guest Author: An aspiring blogger, Jillian Petrova loves blogging a lot and in her leisure time she writes insightful posts on latest trends, education, marketing, etc.
Do you use Google+ for your business? Wondering which features to invest your time and effort in? While there have been recent changes to Google+, the platform has a number of features many marketers love and will continue to use. In this article you’ll discover six Google+ features you can use to promote your business. […]
Everyone loves to save a few dollars, but when businesses mishandle customer complaints, the resulting frustration and viral venting can seriously damage a brand’s credibility both with the angry customer and the customer’s wider social network.
And given the power of social media to spread angry customer rants like wildfire these days, that network can be pretty wide.
In today’s transaction-driven economy, customer service has been cut out of nearly every experience — unless something goes wrong. We order everything from clothes to groceries with just a few clicks of the mouse, never needing to interface with a customer service rep until a package fails to show up on time or an item arrives damaged.
While we expect great customer service when we need it, most folks rarely interact with a customer service rep. By default, this means that most businesses approach customer service from a ‘damage control’ standpoint: a customer is upset because something didn’t work out, so what can we do to alleviate this anger and prevent a full-scale viral meltdown?
But what if businesses approached customer service more proactively and used it as a tool to grow their businesses, rather than just fix problems after the fact?
Back in 2009, solopreneur Margarita Hakobyan was determined to adopt this personal customer service approach for her business. Her story holds an important lesson for all businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
Proactive Customer Service: One Solopreneur’s Success Story
Margarita Hakobyan is the CEO of MoversCorp.com, an online sourcing company for locating moving professionals throughout the U.S.
MoversCorp is similar to popular hotel and flight booking sites like Kayak, Expedia, and Hotels.com. The site is a virtual online marketplace for movers. Users can submit their information and compare different moving company bids all without having to contact multiple companies directly.
“I like the simplicity and practicality of comparing and booking all in one place,” says Hakobyan. “Moving can be a tremendous stress. When I founded my business, from the onset my mission was simple.
“My mission: make the process of hiring moving companies and storage units much easier and faster by providing a platform where consumers are able to compare thousands of companies and select the best available option.”
Hakobyan knew she had a winning business idea but she struggled to get customers.
“I didn’t have a big budget to advertise in Yellow Pages (they were popular back then) or on the Internet,” Hakobyan says.
As Hakobyan knew from her background in moving and shipping, great customer service doesn’t cost a lot — especially when this service is helpful to folks who are going through a stressful and overwhelming period in their lives.
Her strategy was simple: treat the customer like gold. For her first customer, that meant a personal phone call congratulating her on her booking and rewarding her with a $50 gift card — totally out of the blue.
“Our first customer was very excited when we called and told her she’d won a $50 gift card,” Hakobyan adds.
Compared with other startup costs, the $50 gift card was a minimal investment, but together with the phone call, it proved the golden touch for building customer momentum, with more customers rolling in thanks to positive word-of-mouth and online reviews.
Building Your Business with Better Customer Service
As Hakobyan’s experience attests, personalized customer service can truly be the golden ticket to building a business during those crucial early days.
She did several things right: she responded instantly to her first customer, she rewarded their business, and she encouraged positive word-of-mouth by taking what is otherwise a stressful experience and turning it into a positive one.
Here’s how you can do the same:
Proactively Thank Loyal Customers
Let your first customers know how much they mean to you by offering a discount off their next purchase or a rebate for referring other customers your way. Everyone loves to feel special!
Set Expectations Appropriately
While you can’t prevent all problems from occurring, you can help reduce conflict by setting expectations from the beginning.
For example, if you promise delivery in three business days but know, with fulfillment time, there’s no way the customer will get it until the following week, you’re only setting everyone up for frustration.
Set expectations appropriately and, whenever possible, over-deliver.
For example, upgrading a first-time customer’s shipment from two-day delivery to overnight priority may only cost your business another $25, but could net you a loyal customer for life.
Respond Instantly to Problems
Whether it’s an angry customer tweet or online service request, don’t wait 24-48 hours to get back to the customer. Even if you do not have an immediate solution, simply acknowledging the problem and stating that you’re working on a prompt resolution will help ease this frustration.
Bottom line
While some may say that personal customer service is a lost art, it’s never too late to knock your customer service out of the proverbial park.
Proactively rewarding customers for their loyalty, surprising customers with simple upgrades (like overnight shipping), responding instantly to feedback, and providing personal customer service doesn’t require a major financial investment. It’s the small touches like these that will help your business grow with loyal customers for life.
