Social Media - Express Writers

Cracking the Strategy Code: What is a Content Calendar?

June 6, 2023 by Adam Oakley

Whether you are a small business just getting started or have been dabbling in SEO for a while, one term you might have come across is “content strategy.” Still, the content calendar is the more important and often unspoken strategy you need to know. What is a content calendar, and what makes it the key to unlocking your best strategy results? Is it just adding blog titles to a calendar on Google and remembering to post them on time? Well, yes, but also no. A content calendar is a key that unlocks that door to limitless possibilities for your content. From boosting social media interaction to improving your blog’s readability and call-to-action performance, you need to know how to build a content calendar that takes you to the top. Top of your industry, niche, and most importantly, the SERPs. Yes, a content calendar can help you get there – if you are creating the right type of content calendar. How to Create a Content Calendar No No’s – Hint, You Don’t Add Titles to Google Calendar While titles and a strategic plan for posting your content are part of the secret sauce that goes into a content calendar, it is far from the final ingredient. A content calendar builds out a title, but also sprinkles in focus keywords, information to include, links to use, and photo ideas, and then picks strategic dates to post. Most importantly, a content calendar is not limited to blogs. More companies are using content calendars for social media too – after all, aren’t social media posts essential pieces of content? A content calendar can also help you plan out your website content. You don’t have to write it all at once, and you can strategically release web page content while you release blogs or corresponding social media posts to help bring it all together. According to one survey, 64% of successful companies have a content strategy with a content calendar. That’s a big piece of the pie that you’re missing out on if you are not also utilizing similar tools in your strategy. What are the Benefits of a Content Calendar? Content calendars make planning your content and writing content more manageable. You can improve team collaboration, boost productivity, and organize yourself for a more competitive edge. Calendars Help You Visualize the Strategy as a Whole It does not matter how big your content creation team is, whether it is just you or you have a few members helping, it is easy to get lost in the creation process if you don’t know what a priority is and have an accurate bird’s eye view of your content coming up. With a content calendar, you can plan out your blog posts, social media posts, and even YouTube community posts, all ahead of time – whether monthly or weekly, depending on the demands of your niche. For example, you run a YouTube channel with a blog. You typically post a single video per week, then a corresponding blog post with it to summarize for the audience. Producing a single YouTube video with a blog, then promoting both, requires a few steps. You not only need to write a script for your video, but line up editing (or secure time in your calendar to edit), create a thumbnail, prepare the description, write up the blog post, capture still images for your blog from the video recording, and publish social media posts to promote your latest video and blog release. Those are a lot of steps to get done, and nothing you want to rush. By knowing what content is coming up for the next week, you can work on outsourcing what you need while staying ahead of the calendar. You Become More Predictable for Your Readers and Consistent in Quality When organized, your content no longer appears scrambled or haphazardly put together. You are posting regularly, on schedule, which also gives your readers, followers, or viewers more predictability. If they know that you release a new podcast every Friday or a new blog upload on Mondays, they will wait for an alert to catch it. Saves You Time and Energy When your content creation is moving along like a well-oiled machine, you save time and energy that you can spend elsewhere on your business. Think about it – if you are working a week ahead, having next week’s blog already in production and a team working on next month’s social media posts, you can focus your time on growth, look for new opportunities, and not worry about finding time to squeeze in your content creation. Even if you are trying to do the creation yourself, you now have a plan laid out. You know when the final product is due, and what steps you need to complete to finish it, and you can plan ahead. How to Create a Content Calendar A content calendar or editorial calendar is unique to each business or brand. However, there are some elements you can use to create a content calendar regardless of your niche. Keyword Research – You should always center your ideas around keyword opportunities. Today, the SERPs are incredibly competitive, so you need to look for high-volume keywords, but low-competition and still worthwhile to use in your content to grab the attention of potential searchers. Doing keyword research around your niche will help you generate ideas for your content calendar. Research What’s Trending – Following trends in your niche is critical. It doesn’t matter if you are a local dog groomer or big SaaS corporation, you need to know what is trending in your industry and follow along. Tools such as BuzzSumo can help you see what is trending in your niche. Come Up with Content Titles/Topics/Ideas – After creating a list of keyword opportunities for your business, now comes the time to generate your ideas. Whether it is creating a web page to fulfill a keyword opportunity, adding some blogs, or even creating videos that will rank … Read more

Steps for Creating Content that Connects with Your Audience

May 16, 2023 by Korilynn V.

Content that connects with your audience is worth every penny. Having a single piece of content that speaks to your desired audience, and connecting to your audiences meaningfully, often results in a higher ROI. It is essential, whether you are a small business or large corporation, that you know how to connect with your audience emotionally, and often that requires a special type of writer to do so. Not just anyone can connect; simply putting words onto virtual paper will not do the job. Instead, you need to know what your audience needs, their pain points, their reasons for seeking out your business, and when to offer help – timing is crucial here. Today, we will review a few ways to create content that makes a genuine connection and how to implement it into your content strategy for blogs, web pages, and even social media posts. Is Written Content Relevant for Today’s Audience? The age of YouTube has certainly changed how we all interact with search engines, and often we opt for a video over a blog to learn about something, but that is not the majority. Written content, specifically blogs, is still in high demand. 77% of internet users read blogs, according to Social Media Today – so obviously, there’s a market. 7 Steps Every Company Needs to Use to Create Content that Connects with the Right Audience Creating and maintaining a connection with your audience is crucial. Whether your target audience is B2B or B2C, you have a target audience, and you need content that speaks to them. So, how do you do that when your “audience pool” masses in the thousands? Easy…by following these key steps. 1. Embrace Empathy The pandemic has certainly taught us a lot and restructured the way a lot of us communicate or even work today. However, one of the biggest lessons from the pandemic was empathy. Thinking about your audience using compassion and your emotional intelligence is critical in your content. 2. Write As You Talk You want to connect to the person reading your content. What is a better way to connect than conversation? For some reason, being conversational in blogs and even landing page content got a bad rap somewhere but shouldn’t have. Being conversational is precisely what a reader needs to feel as though you are speaking to them. The robotic, encyclopedic text has its uses but rarely is that content that is designed to create a connection. Instead, that is created to educate. Social media posts, blogs, and sales pages need to connect to the reader, or the conversions will not happen. So, as you write out your text, think of how you would talk to a friend, explain something to a colleague, and use that as your muse when crafting your “voice” within the text. 3. Use Media Words are powerful, but so too is imagery. You want to use different media types to help you connect with your reader. While the personal tone is equally important, include a picture of yourself in your bio on each blog, that way, the reader can picture who they are talking to. 4. Picture the Ideal Reader Just like you want your reader to picture you, you need to picture them. You know your target audience – if you don’t, that’s an entirely different topic – so now you can picture one member from your target audience as you create your content. Pick them from the crowd, and pretend you are conversing with them. When you picture yourself talking to a real person, rather than them reading what you have written, it helps you be more conversational. You aren’t lecturing a group of students at the university – just an intimate conversation between two individuals. 5. Put Yourself in the Reader’s Shoes – Address their Needs You can’t truly connect if you aren’t in your reader’s shoes. What are their dreams? Fears? You need to know their pain points to bring them up in the copy and almost catch them off guard. You want the reader to sit there thinking, “Yes! That is me!” and not just going through the motions. The more connected they are to the writing, the more likely they are to take action you request at the end of the page – whether it is a contact, submitting email addresses, etc. You need to show that you can relate to their problem, then strike with the solution. If you don’t build up a relationship on mutual understanding first, you cannot offer a mutually acceptable solution. Often, copywriters will come out of the gates swinging. They don’t hit that pain point and instead just start talking about the solution while touching here and there on the issue it solves. That doesn’t grab a reader and keep them hanging on for the ride. Instead, they see that you have a solution, make up their assumptions, and bounce. So, instead, build up the rapport first, then offer your solution. Take the reader through your journey, showing your understanding and relativeness, then add your solution and call to action. If you offer the goods right from the start, you will lose the chance to build a relationship with your reader first. 6. Work with the Emotions You Want to Pique in Your Reader Picture your reader’s emotions as they go through your text. If you aren’t getting a reader to laugh at a joke, ask yourself if you would have laughed. Would you cry at the same instance of emotion? Would you yearn for the same solution as profoundly as they? Allow yourself to feel something, express it, and create that connection. You may be surprised at how willing people are to reach out to you when you occasionally open yourself up in your content, whether it is sharing a personal experience, a humbling moment, etc. 7. Avoid Third Person The third-person POV does not connect with the reader. After all, if you read something in a third-person point-of-view, … Read more

Optimizing Social Media Content: Which Platforms Are the Best to Optimize and How?

July 21, 2023November 15, 2022 by Nicole Inge

There’s no denying that social media can be a powerful tool for your brand. Showing up consistently with helpful and unique content for social platforms helps you generate awareness for your brand. It also attracts leads and sales. But this can be tricky as you navigate social media algorithms to get your content noticed. That’s where optimizing social media content comes into play. By being strategic with the kind of content you’re creating, you stand a better chance of boosting visibility and engagement. If you’re concerned about catching up on social media optimization, have no fear. We’re covering all of the basics of optimizing content. You’ll learn what it means and how to optimize based on each separate platform. Let’s dive in! Optimizing Social Media Content: What Does This Mean? Since social media generates awareness for your brand through exposure to a wider audience, optimization lets you capitalize on that. You use various social platforms to spread your brand’s message and establish your online presence. You spend time analyzing and auditing your strategy, factoring in social media best practices, and what’s performing well with your audience. Meaning you develop the most effective strategy possible. But what does it mean when you’re optimizing social media content? It comes down to being strategic about the content you publish. When using social media as a brand, you don’t want to post just anything. Your content should still center the interests of your target audience. In addition to considering what your audience is into, you will also want to align your content with what performs best for each separate platform to get better results. Doing social media optimization properly can help you reap a ton of rewards. The benefits speak for themselves about the value of optimizing your content: You’ll Develop an Effective Social Media Strategy: When you know how to create strong content for each social media platform, you can effortlessly craft a strategy that will help you be more consistent with posting. You’ll always know what kind of content to share, where to share, and when. It takes all the guesswork out of managing your social media presence. Your Engagement Will Increase: When your content is optimized properly, there’s a good chance it’ll see a greater reach, therefore, increasing your visibility. This means your brand could get discovered by tons of new people. And you boost engagement (such as comments, shares, and website traffic) to attract new followers. You’ll See a Greater ROI Across Platforms: Odds are, you use social media as a tool to help you achieve some of your larger business goals. Generating sales is a common one, for instance. Another is increasing brand visibility. With successfully optimized content, you increase your chances of reaching those goals and boost your ROI. Plus, seeing those analytics is a great way to see your hard work pay off. At the end of the day, the social media accounts that end up being successful are those that understand trends, the types of people on the platform, and how to take advantage of their existing content library to optimize it across accounts. They become masters at their platforms and create content their audience can’t get enough of. As a result, they’ve built engaged, loyal followings. Which Social Media Platforms Are Best to Optimize? It’s easier than ever to find a social media platform that’s an ideal fit for your brand because there many are available. You want to ensure you invest time and energy into the platforms that showcase your strengths while putting you in front of your target audience. Otherwise, you risk your content going unnoticed or getting seen by the wrong people. Source: Gainchanger If you’re going to be creating content for several platforms, you want to make sure you enhance that content for the different goals of that platform so it stands a better chance of performing well. Once you become a master at social media best practices, this will become second nature to you. To get started, you should make sure that you have defined your business goals for social media. This means choosing strategies that align with those goals. For example, if you want to improve SEO for a B2B business, you might choose LinkedIn because over 50% of companies in the B2B arena find clients on the platform. Alternatively, if you want to increase visibility for your brand, you might go with Facebook. Their ad features make it easy to target the right segments while making sure people still see your content and posts. What are the Best Tactics for Social Media Optimization? Broadly, there are a ton of things you can do to optimize your social channels. By using some of these simple strategies, you can make a big dent in getting your business out there and noticed by the right people. But what are the best ways to optimize your social media? We’ve chosen a few general fixes and high-level improvements you can make to help your business’s pages. Never Stop Thinking About Your Audience Your audience is the most important part of your social media presence. They drive your engagement. This means their interests and pain points should always be top of mind. And the demographics for your audience could be different across your different social channels. That’s why you should regularly take the time to check out the types of followers you have in your analytics. Write Snappy Bios Your bio is one of the earliest things someone will see when they check out your profile. It sets the tone and establishes who you are. So, make sure your bio covers what you do, your industry, and nails your brand tone quickly. Having a great bio can encourage a potential client to reach out to you, so you want to ensure you make a good impression while being aware of their attention span. Consider the Time You Post Tons of hours have gone into studying the best times to post on social media … Read more

5 Ideal Examples of Social Media Optimization You Need to See

January 13, 2024November 16, 2021 by Adam Oakley

You’re awesome at social media marketing. You’ve focused on creating timely and engaging posts with great content, so you stand out whenever you post. In this scenario, you’re doing everything right – except for one thing. What did you forget? Still scratching your head? Set aside the content aspect for a second – yes, we know this is difficult, especially if you prioritize quality content like we do – and go back to basics. ….Are your social media profiles optimized? If you don’t know what this means, you need to. To put it bluntly, your content can’t be “king” if your profiles — your social home bases — are a hot mess. These two things – content and presentation – need to support each other. Don’t worry, though – we’re going to dig deeper into why you need to get your profiles on social media optimized. Then we’ll look at five great examples of social media profiles from businesses who are doing it the right way. Why Do You Need to Optimize Your Profiles on Social Media? Profile optimization is how you make your social profiles appear to best advantage to curious and interested users, a.k.a. potential leads. Without optimization on all your accounts, your web presence will look disjointed and choppy, not to mention people won’t be able to find your profiles through search engines. You already know how important it is to be discoverable online, especially if you’re a local business. Applying this to your social media accounts will ensure all of your channels are ripe for the picking for whoever needs to find them. PLUS, you’ll scoop up leads who may be digging deeper into your online presence to find out about your brand and what you stand for. The cherry on top? 🍒 You’ll cultivate a unified look across your web presence that’s professional, recognizable, and consistent. The Easy Guide to Overhauling your Social Media Profiles for Great Optimization Now that you know how important optimization is, we can get down to business. We’ll start at the shallow end of the pool with something very simple: your profile pictures. [bctt tweet=”Overhaul your social media profile in three easy steps? Yep, that’s it. Learn how at @ExpWriters ✨” via=”no”] 1. Unify All of Your Profile Pictures Your profile picture is your online face. People will come to associate your presence with your picture, so make sure it’s relevant to your business as well as eye-catching. A good rule of thumb is to use your brand logo, but you can always buck tradition for your social presence if you have an equally good photo that sums up your brand. (This could be a great headshot of you [or whoever stands in as your brand’s “face”] a variation of your logo, etc.) Whatever you do, employ the same profile picture across all the major platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Remember this picture will appear beside all of your social activity, like comments. As such, don’t choose a picture that’s hard to see when it’s scaled down to a tiny icon (like a detailed landscape picture, for instance). 2. Create an Informative Profile Bio According to Forbes, lots of companies make the mistake of not explaining what they do clearly in their bio. When users visit your social media pages, they’re probably trying to figure out who you are and/or if they should follow you. They can’t make that decision if you don’t provide them with the necessary information. The key is to be specific. If you make birthday cakes for dogs, don’t say your company “specializes in dog treats.” If you’re a tech company peddling coding software, don’t be vague and say you offer “solutions for web developers.” State what you do in terms your readers will glom onto. E.g., “Making Fido’s dreams come true on all of his special days with elaborate, canine-friendly cakes.” Don’t forget to include your location and hours if you’re local. Plenty of people use their smartphones to find out this information about a business on the fly, and it’s frustrating when it’s M.I.A. You may even lose business if someone is checking you out and considering stopping by – but they can’t find your address or hours, so they choose to go elsewhere. Sprout Social summarizes all of the above keys to visual optimization with this helpful infographic: Don’t neglect the next point, however. 3. Sneak in Keywords You can also use keywords in your profile name and description to show up in searches. Choose the most relevant ones and use them wisely to get discovered this way. Other places to sneak in keywords: your headline, photo descriptions, hashtags, the “about” section, and even in your status updates. Try using a variety of keywords in these various areas and see what happens. 5 Examples of Social Media Pages with Optimal Optimization With perfectly optimized pages that are consistent, audience-specific, informative, and engaging, these five different companies and organizations are examples of social media presences that hit the nail on the head. 1. NASA NASA does a lot of things right with their social media profiles. Their Facebook page, for instance, has an eye-catching profile picture and all of the right information to help visitors who want to learn more. Take a look at their Intro section: Not only have they provided a succinct bio that states their mission and purpose, they have also included useful information, keywords, and important contact details. Plus, their Twitter page mirrors their Facebook: They use a similar profile picture and the same header image. This equals perfect continuity and optimization across their brand outlets, creating a seamless experience. 2. Out of Print There’s no question about what Out of Print sells when you land on their Twitter page: “Shop bookish t-shirts, totes, socks, mugs, pins, and more!” This is a straightforward bio that gets the job done while inserting a few keywords and a great hashtag. It also nods to the charitable side of their … Read more

How to Write the Most Engaging Social Media Posts

January 13, 2024September 7, 2021 by Adam Oakley

Writing a social media post doesn’t seem overly complicated. Should be pretty straightforward and simple to do, right? Actually, copywriting to attract the right audience from a business standpoint is a little more methodical than you might expect compared to writing social media posts as an individual. There’s a lot more at stake for the business, including a meaningful impact on the brand’s perceived authority, its reach to potential new consumers, engagement rates, and more. Globally, as of July 2021, there are an estimated 4.48 billion social media users (almost 57% of the world’s population). Facebook still reigns supreme with an estimated 2.853 million users, followed by YouTube in second place. Here’s where it gets tricky – each social media platform has its own tips, tricks, algorithms, and best practices. Content that performs well on LinkedIn isn’t likely to see that same success on Twitter or Pinterest if posts are simply copied and pasted uniformly across every channel. Not to worry… we’re here to share the best advice for each social outlet so your content performs no matter where it’s posted. When done correctly, a marketing strategy on social media can reach a lot of people to bring in leads, raise brand awareness, and create conversion opportunities. Need some help writing content for social media? Our experienced, social-media-savvy writers are just a few clicks away with social media content packages. [bctt tweet=”Copywriting to attract the right audience from a business standpoint is a little more methodical than writing social media posts as an individual. (There’s a lot more at stake! ?) Learn how to write posts that won’t fail ?” username=”ExpWriters”] How to Write Social Media Posts That Won’t Fail The good news is, you don’t have to rely on too much trial and error to nail down the best methods for the various social media channels. Why? Because a lot of other people have already done it for you! You can (and should) still monitor your social media analytics to see which posts engage with your unique audience the most, but as far as coming up with a tried-and-true formula, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. Follow these tips to rule your social media campaigns. 1. How to Write Facebook Posts That Get Liked and Shared The #1 social media platform isn’t exactly a one-and-done content formula because it handles multiple types of media, and different posting techniques can work well depending on the goal you’re hoping to accomplish. To find success on Facebook, you need to “read the room” and respond to your audience. These guidelines with help you do just that: Video is the best performing content. However, Facebook campaigns are most effective when you vary your types of posts, so mix it up with photos, infographics, text, gifs, memes, blog posts, press releases, links, et cetera. The ideal length for a post is around 40-80 characters. As a general rule, short posts on social media perform better than long ones. End with a question. People are more likely to engage when you reach out to them for their opinions or feedback. Post interesting content, even if it doesn’t pertain directly to your brand. Facebook’s audience has a limited tolerance for self-promotion, which means if you want to keep your followers engaged, it doesn’t hurt to post about more than just your business. Be sure to keep your topics related to your niche, though. Make it visual. Text is easy to scroll past, but graphics help to make people pause while they’re skimming through their newsfeed. Even if you’re publishing a post that’s strictly text, Facebook makes it easy to transform it into a visual graphic. 2. How to Write Effective Tweets on Twitter Posting on Twitter requires smart, concise word choices to convey your message within a limited space. It can take a little extra practice, but once you get the hang of it, your tweets will take off. When posting on Twitter, take this advice into account: Front-load your tweet. Most people on Twitter are skimming through a massive amount of content. Put the most important information at the beginning of your tweet to catch their attention. The ideal length for a tweet is 240+ characters. Twitter increased its character limit from 140 to 280 in 2017, and users seem to appreciate the extra room to express themselves. If you need more than 280 characters, create a thread or add a link to a blog post. Tip: Use a free tool like Bitly to shorten your url and maximize your space. Don’t go overboard with hashtags. Real estate for your tweet is limited – you can’t afford to spend it all on hashtags rather than your actual message. Limit yourself to 1-3 relevant hashtags. Tweet shareable content. Twitter’s audience loves to retweet breaking news, statistics, quotes, jokes, and gifs. Timing is important on Twitter – you don’t want to be the last one to share yesterday’s news. 3. How to Write Engaging Instagram Captions Instagram is all about visual content, but that doesn’t mean you can skate by with insufficient captions. If you want your audience to interact with your content, your words do matter. Start with a bang. Instagram allows up to 2,200 characters. However, it’s important to keep in mind that no more than 125 characters will show beneath your photo. If you want your audience to read your full post, you need to entice them to click “more.” Use emojis. Instagram + emojis = ? For real, though, emojis have proven to be incredibly effective on Instagram. Use relevant hashtags. You’re allowed up to 30 hashtags, but don’t just pick the ones that are currently trending (especially if they don’t really pertain to your media). Instead, try to vary your hashtag use. Select a few broad, popular ones but also mix in some niche-specific hashtags, plus one or two branded ones. For example, Coca-Cola created the branded hashtag #ShareACoke for an Instagram campaign. Break up long text into paragraphs. Instagram … Read more

Views Don’t Pay the Bills: What Happened After I Hit 85,000 Views and Went Viral on LinkedIn

March 24, 2022February 5, 2019 by Adam Oakley

Saturday, January 26. I was browsing LinkedIn while wrapping up some work. Now, I try not to open my laptop much on weekends, but I’m an entrepreneur. You know what that means — sometimes, we work on weekends. That particular week had been quite the doozy. Our team director had resigned the weekend before, suddenly and without warning. So, I had no choice but to pull an 80-hour work week re-assembling everything, jumping in and doing extra tasks to get my business back up and strong. I helped our clients get their content on time, wrote and edited, alongside training my new team managers and still staying on top of all my marketing campaigns and day-to-day tasks. Plus, I had just been invited for no less than four speaking engagements in the next two months. To say I was busy would be an understatement! So there I was on a Saturday, browsing LinkedIn and using the Recruiter platform to talk to candidates I was interviewing, with my four-year-old cuddled beside me on the couch watching Netflix. I decided to hop on over and check out my inbox for messages. I scrolled down and started to read the dozens of messages I’d been sent the week prior from all kinds of people. Guess what was in my inbox? Pitches. Ugly, cold, sales pitches. Dozens by the handful, coming from new connections I’d recently accepted. One was from a guy with an agency of offshore writers pitching me on using his team. (I thought to myself: “Did you not look for two seconds at the company I lead?”) Another was from a lady, following up the fourth time in three days to see “where I was at” on booking a call with her about PR services. I scrolled, deleted, and blocked as I went. All these pitches had one thing in common. The people sending them were seeking my wallet, and not a relationship first. So, I decided then and there to create some “content on the fly.” (I’ve been doing that quite a lot. For example, I’ve completely stopped scheduling anything to my Twitter feed except some basic promos — I go in and tweet whatever I want to, whenever. And it’s worked surprisingly well. It helps that I enjoy Twitter.) I wrote a short “rant” about the problem that all those cold pitches had in common. My brow furrowed as I thought and thought of what kind of media I could attach. A meme was not sufficient. A GIF wouldn’t work. An image wouldn’t cut it. And then it hit me — why not make a fun Boomerang video from Instagram of me “facepalming”, and make that the media? It was PERFECT! It was 100% relatable, fun, and exactly described how I felt at that moment, reading those sales pitches. (I have to give some credit here to my friend Jessica Campos. She had a course student enroll from an Instagram Story clip of her shaking her head and being silly!) So, I wrote a short message and posted it. It was 100% authentic to how I felt in that moment. It looked like this, and if you pressed play, it was a 4-second Boomerang-produced video of me facepalming myself: See the status I posted here (you have to be logged into LinkedIn). I was not prepared for what happened next. Here is the story. Learn what happened, what came from it, and the four lessons from my “viral stint” on LinkedIn. [bctt tweet=”The problem that all cold pitches have in common: Seeking my wallet, and not a relationship with me as a person first. Read @JuliaEMcCoy’s story & lessons from a #LinkedIn post gone viral ” username=”ExpWriters”] The LinkedIn Viral Story: The First 24 Hours After I posted the LinkedIn status on Saturday, I logged out and pretty much focused on resting, relaxing, and having an enjoyable family day. We had a friend’s birthday party to attend, so my husband, little one and I went out for lunch at Panera, headed to our friend’s birthday, and didn’t come back till late in the evening. That Saturday evening I logged in to work on some Write Blog tasks, and LinkedIn was up in my browser. I went over to it, briefly, saw a lot of red in the notification area, and flipped back to my tasks. I typically do a million tasks at once, just because I can be in the middle of hiring, training, communications, marketing tasks, scheduling, and more, all at once. So, LinkedIn wasn’t high up in my priority list. I had a lot to do. But after working on my tasks for a while, I subconsciously recalled how “red” the LinkedIn notifications were. It was around midnight when I finally went back and checked on the LinkedIn post. I had 99+ on the “Notifications” tab, which was strange. I knew something was up. I clicked on the post that had all the notifications, and that’s when I saw the status on the video I’d posted that morning. 398 likes, over 100 comments, and 22,000 views! I’d never had that kind of results with any LinkedIn post, so my jaw dropped a bit. But, it was late on a Saturday night, nearing midnight: so, after scrolling through it and experiencing a small “YAY!” moment, I closed the computer and fell asleep not too long after. I woke up Sunday, went to church, and pretty much forgot entirely about the post. I Slept, I Woke Up, Had a Relaxing Sunday Morning, and Then Logged Into Crazy Town After church, I had a couple hours before heading to a friend’s house. I opened my computer (again, something I try not to do on the weekend, but unavoidable given the business issues at hand to fix). I worked on recruiting tasks for a while. Then, I saw the LinkedIn tab still open, and I leisurely clicked over to check on it. 425 likes, 133 comments, 24,000+ views! Whoa! I scrolled through the comments, and … Read more

What Facebook’s Social Media Algorithm Changes in January 2018 Mean for Content Marketers

June 19, 2024January 18, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Facebook's Social Media Algorithm For Content Marketers

When you are on Facebook, do you ever realize that suddenly, you see a post from a page that you hadn’t seen in a really long time? In fact, you might have forgotten you’d liked that page at a certain point in near-obsolete history. That scenario probably sounds very familiar, and also sometimes frustrating as we all try to understand the latest Facebook social media algorithms that have been put in place. Businesses are worrying about losing interaction and a decrease in distribution—while on the flip side, consumers miss opportunities they don’t even know exist, because they didn’t interact with your page regularly. With the latest changes, what does that mean for businesses and content marketers? I’m diving in today. Grab a mocha, latte, or tea and come join me. What’s Up with Facebook’s Social Media Algorithm? Why Facebook is Changing for Your Benefit According to Adam Mosseri, Head of News Feed over at Facebook, the goal for these changes is to create an environment for meaningful engagement on behalf of the end user. The latest update will predict posts that end users do and don’t want to see based on individual interactions. Posts that are seen are meant to inspire discussion between friends, communities, and other pages. If you are a content marketer, this may make you say, “Well, how can I make sure that my business doesn’t tank like so many others? How does that benefit me?” These changes will encourage you to step up your game by being more interactive with your audience, and the benefits of doing so can cause your business to grow exponentially. Finding the Key that Opens the Door Recently, I discussed just how to find the key to content marketing that will keep your business growing and thriving. There are some trial and error approaches to see what works best for your audience, but you owe it to yourself to find the answer for your page. It could be an active group that focuses on you or your service or product. It could be a source outside of Facebook like Twitter or maybe a regular webinar or podcast. It could be a combination of all of the above. As long as your post is meaningful and not spammy, you are going in the right direction, but there is a bit more to it. What Not to Post on Your Page or In Your Group: Defining Engagement Bait People do not like posts that look like spam or seem like they are attempting to coerce interactions. Examples like “Like my post if you agree!” or “Like and share if you love cats!” are known in the content marketing industry as engagement bait. Other phrases like “Vote for your favorite” and “Share with your friends” also fall into the bait category. Avoid creating posts or content that include a phrase like those because that is one of the quickest ways to make people want to unfollow you. It may look like you’re getting engagement right now with posts like that, but along with the algorithms introduced in December 2017, Facebook is working on limiting anything that carries engagement bait phrasing. Keep that in mind when you post a picture or an article because Facebook strives for authenticity from people and businesses when they post an update to their pages and groups. The posts above from Parenting Hub, Wish.com, and even The Weather Channel are prime examples of engagement bait style posts, and these are well-known, established companies. As the algorithms to remove these posts are recent, everyone has a learning curve to go through. This includes larger businesses just as much as mom and pop shops that use social media as part of their content marketing strategy. Use this knowledge to your advantage and get ahead of the game by learning how to produce authentic posts that people will want to see in their News Feed. What Authenticity Means According to Facebook Facebook is forever adapting to meet the needs and wants of its consumer base that includes over two billion people up from a mere 100 million users ten years ago. According to them, their research shows that beyond seeing updates from friends and family, there are “two other strong expectations” which include posts being informative and posts being entertaining. From a content marketer’s perspective, you need to look at your posts and what they do for your audience. Is your content informative? Is your content entertaining? If you can answer yes to either of those questions, then your posts will be more meaningful, which means you are going in the right direction. Understanding How Meaningful Posts Work Meaningful posts on social media are relative to the people viewing them. When you’re developing your content marketing strategy, you need to have a handle on your target persona to be able to create posts that will be meaningful to your audience. When you have the target persona defined, you can develop content that will be relevant to your consumer base. As an example, if you are a cleaning product company aimed at the residential sector, your audience is likely going to be interested in the latest trends in cleaning items and ensuring safety for their families by using non-toxic recommendations. You can be the voice that they listen to when you post content that contains information they want to read therefore making the post meaningful in its interaction. Entertainment is Also Meaningful for Your Audience People also enjoy being entertained, so if you leverage the desire for entertainment in your content marketing strategy with your social media posts, you will have a leg up on the competition. Think about all of the funny pictures and videos that get shared by your friends. If a post, image, or funny video resonates with you like this clip posted by Good Housekeeping and its viewer audience, it will be more likely to be shared. Good Housekeeping knows their audience can relate to this particular funny video because their target audience is made … Read more

Facebook Ads for B2Bs: The Insider Guide to a Facebook Advertising Strategy Mapped to Your Buyer’s Journey

January 1, 2021November 28, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Are you turning Facebook Likes into actual dollars in your company account? Most marketers begin their Facebook advertising strategy with enthusiasm, watching as likes pour in from people active in their target niche, and waiting for the big payoff… But more often than not, the payoff never comes. Beyond some new Page Likes and a few extra clicks on the website, the ad campaign seems stalled. People aren’t buying your product. What gives? In this article, we’re going to dive into what keeps people from flocking to your web page and buying your product or subscribing to your service. We’re also going to examine successful ad campaign strategies and ask an architect of these campaigns – Dave from Magnificent Marketing – what the secret is. As you’ll soon find out, the secret is to know your customer, and to position yourself to offer them the right ad at the right time. Facebook has tools that allow you to map your ad campaign to the buyer’s journey. This isn’t as hard as it may seem at first glance – so read on to find out. Part One: What is the Buyer’s Journey and How Can a Facebook Advertising Strategy Follow it? Before we go into the actual step-by-step procedure of mapping your ad campaign to the buyer’s journey, we should cover exactly what the buyer’s journey is and why it’s important. Think about the last thing you bought. Whether it was a soft drink at a convenience store or the home of your dreams, you went through three distinct phases before purchasing that item: Awareness. You became aware of a problem. This can be any sort of obstacle preventing you from achieving a sense of perfect contentment. Maybe you were thirsty. Maybe you fought with your landlord for the last time and decided you need your own house. Consideration. You took some time to define the problem and looked for ways to solve it. You browsed the freezer section of the convenience store. You contacted a real estate agent and talked to banks about getting home loans. Decision. You chose a solution that offered the greatest value towards solving your problem. You slid your favorite lime-flavored soft drink across the counter, or signed off on your home purchase. As you can see, every purchase a person makes follows these three stages in some way. In many cases, the only part that changes is how deep the consideration stage goes. Your Facebook audience is no different, and if you advertise to them without taking these three stages into consideration, you are almost certainly losing money in the process – even if Facebook is one of the most cost-efficient ad platforms in marketing. Facebook has a special tool you can use to tell which stage a user is in based on how they’ve interacted with your website. You need to organize your advertising strategies to show people different types of sponsored content to people based on their position along the buyer’s journey. So What Does This Look Like in Practice? Actually creating ads that cater to your users in this way is simple. Pay attention to the wording and specific offer that each boosted post advertises. Here are some examples, chosen from a random selection of advertisements addressing a single topic. All of the following advertisements target Facebook users that like pages related to entrepreneurship and start-up culture. As you’ll see, each one takes a slightly different position on how much it assumes of the user. 1. Awareness This ad is directed towards any Facebook user who likes pages related to entrepreneurship and start-up culture. Notice that it starts with the words “Did you know that…” and then goes on to offer a statistic that showcases the company’s value. It makes no assumption on behalf of the user, and offers free access to a general set of resources that should be useful to anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship. 2. Consideration At this stage, Allied for Startups makes a number of assumptions about users who view this ad. The first few words specify that this ad targets data-driven startups and the people who run them. It then goes on to assign positive value to Polish tech talent, presuming that the user runs a data-driven startup and is looking to hire talent. This ad’s call-to-action is pretty vague. “Let’s fill Europe with startups” doesn’t really specify what you should do. Register your startup as a Polish company? Hire remote workers from Poland? Move to Poland entirely? You are meant to be sufficiently intrigued by this ad to click on it and find out more. 3. Decision This ad not only assumes that you’re an entrepreneur, but goes so far as to presume the exact type of business you wish to open, and offers a complete solution that meets your needs precisely. This particular type of entrepreneur is not interested in tech, not interested in hiring, and not interested in forming a network – this advertisement’s target wants to grow and sell food. The ad has gone so far as to specify that you don’t “need a green thumb” to use their solution, further narrowing down the target audience of the particular post. Mapping Sponsored Content to Your Sales Funnel Our partner, Magnificent Marketing, has cracked the code on getting the most out of sponsored content on Facebook. Not only do you need to generate content that speaks to buyers at each of these distinct phases, but you have to make sure that your audience sees that content at the right moment. There is very little benefit to showing a decision advertisement to a customer who has never heard of your brand before, and who has no particular reason to trust you above any other name in your industry. This means that you have to develop content in tiers. Think of your sponsored content as being mapped to a reverse pyramid: You should plan on generating less content for each step moving down the pyramid. Using a … Read more

Is Twitter Changing Up the Web with 280 Characters?

June 19, 2024October 4, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Twitter is all about brevity. It’s been this way since… well, always. It’s kind of Twitter’s calling-card. Pretty soon, all that may be changing. If this makes you immediately confused, I don’t blame you. Twitter has only ever been about those famed (and infamous) 140-characters – no more, no less. You have to mold your words to this limit, get creative with a succession of tweets, or simply not tweet at all if you can’t be concise. Now, Twitter wants to experiment with doubling the character limit. Yes – they want to give 280-character tweets a whirl. So, what will this mean for the Twitter-verse? As NPR puts it, “…more words, less wit.” How Are People Reacting to the Twitter Change-Up Around the Web? Of course, the Twitter news has been circulating the web. There are some good points to think about in the scope of the matter. Twitter Chats Won’t Look the Same Madalyn Sklar, a top influencer on the platform, recently shared her thoughts on the doubled character limit. A great point she made is the fact that Twitter’s original limits are what made it so cool. An example she gives is Twitter chats. Often, chats accumulate hundreds of tweets in lightning-quick fashion. They’re fast-moving, but that’s part of the reason they work. You can easily blip through 140 characters and move on to the next when hundreds of tweets are flying in. Now, imagine trying to sift through tweets in a Twitter chat that are double the length. All of a sudden, we have a problem, and one of the best parts of Twitter is compromised. Instead of participating in a lightning-round talk, you’ll get bogged down in meandering posts. It will be like you’re in a bloated discussion thread with people posting novels instead of comments. (…That situation sounds familiar. Facebook, anyone?) Madalyn addresses that point, too. She says, “Twitter doesn’t need to be another Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.” She couldn’t be more on-target. The way it is now, Twitter is unique, and this is one of the reasons lots of people make it their social network of choice. I personally agree, especially since we at EW have a Twitter chat, #ContentWritingChat. What will that chat look like with 280-character tweets? Probably nothing like it does now, which is concerning. Our Community at #ContentWritingChat Says “Don’t Do It, Twitter” We asked the question as an icebreaker in yesterday’s #ContentWritingChat: ICEBREAKER: Do you want to see Twitter change from 140 to 280 characters? (See announcement: https://t.co/v8lheMRjN0) #ContentWritingChat — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) October 3, 2017 Most of the people who answered voted the change down. 280 Characters = Less Creativity? I have spent six years molding my writing to Twitter’s limitations. Guess what? It’s not a roadblock or a hurdle. It’s a creative challenge, and it’s made me a better writer. You want proof of how the 140-character limit forces you to get to the meat of what you want to say, and say it well? Look at this fantastic example. Somebody took Jack’s initial announcement and cut out all the unnecessary wording: pic.twitter.com/N4G8tgckQw — Brian Barone (@brianrbarone) September 26, 2017 The result is brilliant (AND it’s 140 characters!). It really showcases how Twitter’s brevity is an asset. Why Is Twitter Testing the Waters for Longer Tweets? All this chatter around Twitter’s announcement brings us back to the question of why. Why is Twitter doing this? Haven’t they ever heard the cliché, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Nah. As with most other things, this is about money. According to NPR, Twitter has discovered through research that people tend to tweet more when they have extra space to write. Of course, when people tweet more, the company makes more money. Meanwhile, Twitter’s stocks have been on a downward slope for quite a while. You do the math. Suddenly, this whole issue seems to be less about improving the user experience, especially since the platform has been ignoring a bigger user plea for quite some time: Let us edit tweets! Or, as this Twitter user sums it up: twitter users: let us edit tweets twitter: we made everything round users: edit button twitter: everyone is allowed to be twice as annoying — Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) September 26, 2017 The Other Side: How Are 280 Characters a Good Thing? Twitter, of course, says that the update is about helping people “more easily express themselves.” They say that English users regularly run into the problem of trying to “cram” their thoughts into a tweet. The solution is to edit it down rigorously, omit a word that’s important to the overall meaning, or abandon the effort altogether. Meanwhile, users in other countries like Japan (where they can fit more information in a tweet because of language differences), seem to have it easy-breezy. They type out their thoughts with “room to spare” and no stress. Twitter also presents this graph, which is supposed to mean something and explain why they’re excited about the change-up: Apparently, it’s better for more users not to constantly hit the character limit (I think). The Atlantic has gone on the defensive for the change, too. They say users have gone beyond Twitter’s original boundaries anyway, forcing the platform to shift (for instance, adding the ability to attach pictures to tweets). People have found ways to work around the limitations, too (posting screenshots of longer texts, numbering their tweets, etc.). Less stress is great, no question. And it’s absolutely true that increasing the 140-character limit will make a lot of users’ lives easier. (If you’re in this camp – more intrigued than dismayed – you can test the broader limits with this clever workaround.) Still, my initial objections remain. Twitter is losing a piece of its identity with this change. In the process, it’s inching closer to being like the other social media networks. For those of us who respect the current character limit for what it is and use it to say what we mean (and … Read more

How to Build a Valuable, Strong Social Media Presence For Your Brand that Earns Leads and Return

June 19, 2024October 3, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Social media is your ticket to a broader following, more exposure, and improved online ROI for your brand. Your content marketing strategy can really get a boost from a strong social presence, in particular. In fact, BrandWatch calls social media + content marketing “the dynamic duo.” For example, the more engaged and the bigger your social following, the more readers you can draw in with every new content piece you put out and promote. That’s exactly what you want from this powerful combo. You want social media to serve your content marketing, and your content marketing to enhance your social platform. Of course, for the partnership of social + content to work this way, you have to build up each on their own. That’s why we’re going to tackle how to build a strong social media presence today on the blog. Ready? Grab a latte, coffee or tea and join me. Let’s start with the first steps. The First Steps for Scoring on Social: Know Your Audience, Choose Platforms, Set Goals Ready to get going with a content marketing strategy that includes a strong social presence? Ask yourself key questions and begin with these steps: 1. Go Where Your People Are “Where does my audience live?” is the first question you should ask yourself when you’re ready to start building up your social media presence. Of course, to answer it, you have to know your audience. You need to understand who they are, what they do, and where they hang out online. Thus, at this point, you should be relying on your audience personas, or those imaginary human beings who are composites of your target audience. Here’s a sample persona from Hubspot:Based on what you know about them, which social network(s) do your personas use the most? Go there. Have you signed up for my FREE course, Turbocharge Your Content Marketing in 5 Days? I teach the basics of persona building in this course. 2. Choose Your Platforms Judiciously Maybe your personas are social media gurus who have accounts on nearly every channel. In this case, where should you go? Do you create accounts for your brand on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest? Do you set up an account on that new network that hasn’t gained much traction yet (these come and go, but there’s always one out there)? The answer is no, you shouldn’t. Instead, ask yourself this question: “Where can I reach my audience effectively?” If you sign up for every social media account you can, you’ll just spread yourself too thin. Instead, choose a select few, ones where you can have a demonstrable impact on your audience. According to Inc., quality is better than quantity for social media, especially if you don’t have the funds for a dedicated social media manager. So, stick to one or two platforms, and get the hang of them before you add any more. Choose platforms that will support the kind of posts you plan on doing, too. For instance, if your posts are going to be image-centric, Instagram could be better for you than Twitter. Once you figure all this out, go ahead and secure your accounts (using your brand name as your handle) on your chosen platforms. 3. Set Goals to Stand Out Here’s the final question you need to ask yourself on this quest for social media victory. How can I stand out above everyone else while reaching them? For one, plan the content you will post on each platform, and optimize that content for ultimate success. Don’t just share links to your other content on the web. Create content just for social media, too. Think video, images, interactive content, and more. Don’t just regurgitate links. Give your followers a little more reason to stay connected to your feed. Finally, plan that content with a posting calendar, and set goals for yourself. Will you try to add X number of new followers per week? Will you aim for a base level of likes on each post? Will you try to engage with others X times a day? Planning and setting goals can help push you toward success on social. It’s just that simple. 3 More Tips to Rock It Out on Social Media So, you’ve got the basics of how to grow your social media presence on lock. Now you may be wondering: How can you go the extra mile?? (like Forrest Gump?) 1. Go Live Going live means pushing “record” and rolling with it. It’s just you and your audience – no script, no text, just your face and your voice, talking to them. It sounds scary because it is. I tried it myself for the FIRST time ever recently, and I’ve been in content marketing for six years! To get myself comfortable, I went ahead and say “yes” to going live two days in a row in the middle of September. Once I got past the nerves of “going live,” I really enjoyed it. I went live on Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang’s show, Classroom Without Walls, speaking SEO content tactics. She is a social media professor that holds a FB Live every Wednesday at 5 PM. The NEXT day, I was live on Madalyn Sklar’s awesome #TwitterSmarter afterchat, sharing Twitter strategies to earn more business. Each appearance racked up over 500 views, and, my Facebook page went from 600-odd page likes to over 800 that week. Wow! It was well worth it. The fear, of course, is tied to the “live” part of the deal, and it understandably holds many people back. However, it can be HUGELY valuable for your brand’s reach on social media, because platforms serve live content first – just like I found out! Look at Facebook, for instance. They know that people are more likely to stop and watch a live video, or watch it longer, so they serve that content to you first. Crazy, right? To get a taste of the difference between live and standard video posts, think about some … Read more