Social Media - Express Writers

How to Ask Your Audience for a Share: 7 Methods to Earning More Social Shares

January 1, 2021July 12, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Asking for shares on your content, especially if you’re starting out, might feel an awful lot like asking a friend or family member for money: uncomfortable, and somewhat embarrassing. Luckily, you don’t have to be stuck in this share-free zone forever. By knowing the best practices that will make your content delightfully share-worthy, you can boost its impact across the web and succeed in making your content as popular as you’re dreaming of. Keep reading to find out our best tips to earning your maximum mileage on social media with every post you create. Let’s delve in! The Secret Sauce to Social Shares: Simpler Than You Think (or Is it?) Social shares, via platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc, are essential to the success of your online content (blogs, etc). It can do everything, from helping you build your brand to extending your reach – and allowing you to boost your online content marketing efforts to the next level. But how do you start to tap into the immense power of social content sharing? The answer is by connecting with people that can spread the word about your content, find your content truly useful to them, and boost your reputation online – your audience. Once you’ve connected with the right audience, did you know that simply and honestly asking for social shares is one of the most effective ways to get them? It sounds way too simple, but Wordstream lists it as the #1 way to earn a share. ASK your readers! Bloggers that don’t ask will likely never experience the level of popularity they want from their online content. Keep in mind that to earn the recognition of both customers, readers and peers, you’ll need to craft content that earns a high number of shares across the web. We’ll share tips below with more on that. And by asking for social shares and having content that has the potential to get somewhere (it’s level of usefulness, interest, etc.) you can expand your reach and become an authority in your given industry. 7 Best Practices for Earning Your Most Social Shares (Ever) I’ve divided my 7 key points into two lists: #1-4 in my list below are mandatory prerequisites you should be checking off your list before you even ask for a share. Next, #5-8 will detail what to do to physically see shares happen. Learn and enjoy! Pre-publish List: Practices 1-4 These four points are essential to make sure you get the most potential social juice out of every single post. Keep in mind the first one is optional, but absolutely worthwhile. Enjoy! 1. Optional but powerful: influencer love (mention other people in your content) Ready to learn how to create what I call an influencer love post? First, why is this optional? These are intensive, time-taking pieces, and they’re evergreen: you’ll only need a few if you do them right. It would be a great idea to do them periodically (for us, once/twice a year is enough). So, you don’t have to start here, or even create this type of content right away: but it’s worth it to know how to create these, and put one on your to-do list. Second: mentioning your influencers might sound simple, but you have to do it the right way. If you do, it’s a HUGE key to getting somewhere – not just with social shares in numbers, but all-around online connections and relationships (what’s more, you hone in on talking to the right people, too). Your key here is to mention your influencers in your content. These are defined as the people who are top-notch and well-respected in your industry. You can easily find them in BuzzSumo – once you’re logged in, it’s as simple as clicking on Influencers. From there, the Twitter influencers tab displays, and you can type in any topic to instantly see your influencers. Here’s what it looks like when I look up my industry (Joe Pulizzi is the man!): When you mention an influencer in your content and let him or her know about your post via social media, that influencer is likely to share your content for you, leading to increased visibility and more social shares with their audience and yours. We’ve done this – several times. We did exceptionally well on social with a blog on the Top 60 Content Marketers on Twitter. After writing and publishing it (which took a while – several weeks to compile and check the list), we tweeted to everyone we mentioned in the post that they’d been featured. Look at the stats – over 500 shares to date. A large part of the influencers retweeted our mention to their followers, which made for even more exposure. And, we had 17 comments on the piece – many from the influencers themselves. Another similar post we did where we talked about others was a roundup of the top content marketing predictions for 2016, interviewing 16 experts to get the predictions. We even took the finished copy and designed an infographic out of it. In total, it was shared over 300 times, and we saw retweets and social shares from the influencers as well. Even better, an interesting opportunity came my way from the relationships built. One of the influencers stayed connected with me, and reached out just this month randomly asking if I would like to help co-moderate a G+ group. The group has over 150,000 members. He’s even going to allow me to promote my book a bit in the group. How’s that for connections? Yeah! 2. Build reader trust before asking for social shares Fact: content is a give-take relationship. You can’t expect to take something (shares) from readers if you don’t give them something (i.e. expert content) first. With this in mind, it’s essential to ensure that your readers trust you before you start asking them to spread your content around. This is important for a few reasons. First, 78% of readers share content largely to build their own relationships. If you’re providing them with content that is not authoritative or trustworthy, you stand to damage those relationships for them, … Read more

How to Balance Automation with Creation The Right Way In Your Social Media

June 19, 2024May 5, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Today, one of the greatest challenges facing the content marketer is the balance between automation and creation. With all of the fantastic automated platforms available for use today, it can be tough to determine where, exactly, the line needs to be drawn. Too much automation kills conversation. But too little automation means a lot of monkey work, lost time and excess stress for the busy marketer. So, where’s the happy medium? Your Guide to Effectively Balancing Automation With Creation In A Social Media Strategy Let’s delve in. Why a Mix of Creation with Automation? Create: While automation may make life easier, creation makes life much more fun. Creating content for your social media platforms is a deeply creative, interactive experience; it’s here that brands and individuals alike get to exercise their voices and styles. It’s also here that relationships are built and authority is made. People who take an active role in the creation of their social media content often enjoy closer relationships with followers and fans as well as a more intimate grasp about the state of their social media presence overall. Unfortunately, full creation zaps your time and creates distractions. Push notifications, pings, comments, messages, and re-tweets all demand our attention… if we’re not careful, it’s easy to get pulled away from the important tasks at hand to go engage on Facebook or Twitter. While this may help strengthen relationships in the long run, it’s not ultimately awesome for productivity. Automate: There are dozens of great reasons to automate your social media posting, like this Buffer resource. In addition to increased traffic and more consistent interaction, automating social media can also help you get more done with less stress. Because social media requires a large time and energy commitment, automating things like posts and promotions can give you a break from the Internet and free up some space for you to worry about other things, which is a huge draw for busy people that need social media-free space to focus. Additionally, automation is often a more efficient way to interact with social media. While it’s possible to lose some of the “human factor” behind social media when you begin to automate, it also makes all of your social media interactions much more deliberate and saves you from getting tied up with trolls or comment chains, which is yet another way to save your precious time. Striking a Balance: 5 Tips for Using Creation and Automation Together As is true with most things, the sweet spot between creation and automation is somewhere in the middle. To lean too much to either side is to sacrifice the benefits of one or both things, so it’s important to walk that middle line. Here are some tips to help you do that: 1. Keep a human eye involved Some marketers would love to turn all of their social media dealings over to automated platforms and never look at them again. Unfortunately, this will only spell trouble for your brand eventually. The reason for this is that, while a large portion of your social media interaction can be automated, it’s pivotal to keep the human touch intact. This keeps social media personal and helps you avoid automated disasters like the one the New England Patriots endured when their automated platform retweeted a racial slur. The takeaway? Feel free to automate, but keep the human oversight intact. 2. If you’re going to reach out, do it personally Some brands do things like send auto-generated messages to people who follow them. While this may seem like an efficient and personalized way to reach out to fans, it’s not. More often than not, this comes off as vacuous and more than a bit creepy, and it may actually turn fans off more than it helps to engage them. Instead of sending out auto-messages for the purpose of building relationships, dedicate some time each week to batch-checking and responding to social media messages. This can help keep your social relationships intact without derailing you on a daily basis. 3. Use automation to distribute content evenly If you don’t use an automation service, you’re limited to posting content only when you’re awake, working, and free. This often leads to “blasts” that overwhelm your followers’ feeds and lead to much of your content being skipped over. Avoid this by using automation to distribute your hard-won content evenly throughout the day and night. In addition to avoiding content traffic jams, this also increases the likelihood that your readers will fully engage with your content and keeps you from becoming a spammy social media presence. 4. Keep an eye on current events Social media moves quickly, and is one of the main news sources for people around the world. In light of this, I can promise you that you’re going to do your brand some serious damage if your automation platform is buzzing away while a national or global disaster unfolds. While it can be tough to stay on top of daily news and disasters all of the time, the best practice here is to cut off automation when there’s a known disaster at work. The exception is if you can use your automation to dispense content that is sensitive and directly related to the disaster in an intelligent and sophisticated way. 5. Keep testing your automation Automation is the way of the future, but you need to be sure it’s working well in order to keep using it. Test your automation times, days, headlines, and activity levels often in order to ensure that you’re still in that sweet spot between automation and creation. Adjust anything that’s not working and move forward. Conclusion Automation and creation. They’re like two peas in a pod when they’re used correctly: essential to each other, but not as effective or even as good-looking without each other. These five tips can help you ensure that your social media displays the best of both worlds, and that you’re using automation and creation to the full extent and advantage of … Read more

Is Facebook Live Streaming About to Replace Periscope?

January 1, 2021April 21, 2016 by Adam Oakley

“Live-streaming? What the heck is that?” Well, that totally changed in 2015 when everyone and their brother discovered Periscope and “live-streaming” became a sudden hit – to the tune of millions hitting record. The online marketing community was abuzz about the popularity of Periscope. 10 million users crowded in and started live-streaming the same year it came out (it grew to a million users just 10 days after launch.) Recently, however, Periscope has been the subject of a gradual downfall. There’s a lot of rumored reasons: a lack of communication on Periscope’s part, the bugs in its app that have never been fixed, or the trolls and spam that exists a-plenty in the streams? As it stands now, Periscope looks like it’s about to be surpassed in terms of popularity by a new, yet powerful live-streaming app from a long-standing social giant: Facebook Live. There’s a very good chance that this new live-stream king may well usurp Periscope off of the throne. What’s really going down in the battle between the platforms? Let’s explore. Is Facebook Live Streaming About to Push Periscope Down the Rabbit Hole? Periscope is owned by Twitter. Originally, Periscope was launched as an attempt by Twitter to gain more relevance and compete with other popular livestream apps like Meerkat. According to Hustle, Zuckerburg is going for the throat punch on Jack Dorsey. With all the tremendous power of Facebook, it’s a huge move to open up Facebook Live streaming to the public. And Facebook just did that. The Verdict on Periscope While Periscope enjoyed heavy buzz and widespread adoption in its early days (it was even named the best app by Apple in 2015), the app could be seriously deflating. Here’s just a few reasons why it’s on a downward slide: DailyMail.co.uk said that it’s a “parent’s worst nightmare” Another news site said that with Facebook Live’s launch, and Google offering their own version of live-streaming soon called YouTube Connect, Periscope could die off like Meerkat Chalene Johnson, a NYT Bestseller and Top #10 hottest iTunes podcaster with over 12 million podcast downloads and huge early Periscope fan with hundreds of thousands of followers, recently said in a podcast episode that Periscope is letting her down: it has gone too long without telling us why it was constantly freezing, not fixing a lot of issues, cutting down on the spam (trolls and fake accounts) The fact that you can watch people snort cocaine, a girl DUI’ing (don’t worry: the cops were called on her since she publicly streamed it), and that spam and trolls thrive and exist in every other live stream, well, to put it simply: that doesn’t bode well for Periscope. Spotlight was stolen: For another, Facebook stepped in and stole the spotlight. Facebook Live Stream is an app that the social media giant announced in late 2015 and which has been slowly rolling out over the last several months. Much like Periscope, Facebook Live streaming allows users to share their live videos via the Facebook platform. Just The Technical Side: Periscope’s 5 Worst Problems Don’t forget a whole number of technical problems Periscope has (likely some of the largest reasons for the platform’s downward trend): Freezing. Anyone who remembers Twitter’s infamous “Fail Whale” episodes might not be shocked by the fact that Periscope was freezing on a regular basis. Trolls. According to Business Insider, trolls were one of the most common problems on Periscope. From sexually explicit comments on female users’ profiles to harassment on posts that reached the trending list, many users were driven from Periscope due to bona fide harassment issues. Parents started reporting Periscope to higher authorities when they found their underage kids using Periscope and receiving illicit advances from these trolls. Periscope has came across as a very transparent platform where privacy didn’t really seem like a big deal: you could hit live and broadcast to anyone with very little trouble. Fake accounts. Fake accounts went hand in hand with trolling on Periscope and it wasn’t a problem that even the owners of the platform were unfamiliar with. In fact, even CEO Dick Costolo admitted that the platform “sucks” at dealing with fake profiles and abusive users. Failed notifications. One of the main reasons to join Periscope was to participate in live broadcasts. Unfortunately, however, many Periscope users simply weren’t getting notifications when live broadcasts came on. What’s more, when these users would report the issues to Periscope itself, the platform couldn’t identify the failed notifications and often had no answers for the users. Bugs. Periscope was riddled with bugs that made it freeze, function slowly, and provide a poor user experience. While these bugs may have been simple to fix, Periscope responded slowly or not at all to user inquires. Now, it would be unfair just to blame Periscope only for the bugs or trolling issues (after all, Facebook has dealt with some of the same problems); the issue is not so much the existence of the bugs as it is Periscope’s apparent unwillingness to deal with them as proactively as they’ve needed to. While Periscope users have long since been aware of the platform’s bugs and shortcomings, Periscope itself has seemed virtually oblivious or, at the very least, has failed to reach out and talk to its users about what’s going on internally, which is something Facebook has historically done very well. Perhaps the only plus Periscope does have still going for it, is that Twitter owns it. And with that kind of backing, I suspect it’ll be a good fight before it totally goes down – Dorsey is going to fight for it. (According to Hustle, their latest move is teaming up with GoPro to offer live streaming straight from GoPro’s cameras.) Introducing Facebook Live: A Whole New Way to See the World While Facebook Live streaming and Periscope may look quite similar on the surface, it’s what’s inside that matters. While Periscope is a simple live-stream app that’s connected to Twitter, Facebook Live is a live-streaming app that makes its home on Facebook – which remains the largest social media network … Read more

How to Get Your Best Social Media Traction Using Private Groups

June 19, 2024February 18, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Are you a member of and active in social media groups, to further your online marketing and social media traction? If not, it’s likely that you’re missing out on huge amounts of social media results in both potential traffic and leads. There are literally millions of social media groups on sites like Google+, LinkedIn, and Facebook and if you’re not using them to your advantage, now is the perfect time to get started. I’ve experienced big benefits by joining and participating in a wide variety of social media groups the past several months—with a lot more eyeballs and engagement on my content than if I’d just shared a post on my social account. How to Get Killer Social Media Traction By Joining Social Media Groups Here’s what you need to know. How Do Private Social Media Groups Work, Exactly? A private social media group is exactly what it sounds like, a private, members-only group on a social media platform. The group is created and controlled by a moderator. These moderators control what types of content are shared as well as how people comment and interact with one another. Well-run groups are focused on sharing valuable information rather than promotional content and are generally aimed at enhancing the goals of the group members. For example, I’ve joined the Digital Marketing Questions group on Facebook, and B2B Content Marketing on Linkedin. These are just two out of maybe 40 now that I’m a member of. Just by searching writing, marketing, or content marketing in LinkedIn’s search bar, and Facebook’s search bar, sorting by the Groups category, there are literally hundreds that are good matches for me. And every time I participate inside these groups, by sharing a useful piece of content or infographic I created (for example), I get direct eyeballs on my content from the actual, real people users in that private group. It’s a good thing. 4 Key Benefits of Joining Private Social Media Groups Private social media groups are a very different platform from many other types of social media interaction. Notably, they’re on a niche-focused platform, and are private groups of like-minded individuals into one concentrated place. Because of this, when you interact in a private social media groups, you gain instant access to almost instantaneous benefits that will start rolling in: 1. Traffic to your website One of the best advantages of interacting in private social media groups is that you can use the group to direct traffic back to your website. This allows you to earn more customers and make more sales. 2. Higher conversions When you build relationships on private social media groups, you can easily produce higher conversion rates for your company. By building personal relationships, you build overall brand awareness and encourage more conversions for your site. 3. Increased brand awareness One of the main benefits of interacting in private social media groups (Especially when you start your own) is that you can easily build brand awareness for your company. This helps you reach new customers and make more sales. 4. Ease of communication Social media groups are a great place for easy communication with other like-minded individuals. When you become a member of a group, you can easily share content, offer input, ask for input from other members, and share your own personal content. The Rise of Social Media Groups As it stands now, there is a social media group for virtually every niche. From motherhood to marketing and beyond, private groups are an effective way for like-minded individuals to come together to discuss industry business and happenings. Because of this, they’ve become a popular platform for marketing. When marketers engage in social media groups correctly, it’s easy to do everything from building relationships to earning highly qualified leads, which creates a great environment for making sales, launching new products, and getting high-quality industry feedback. To Build or to Join? When it comes to social media groups you can either build one or join one. These approaches both have their strengths and their weaknesses. If you’re a new marketer who is just getting started with private social groups, you may choose to join a pre-established group until you get the hang of things enough that you feel confident starting your own group. (I started one a few weeks ago, Learn Online Writing.) This allows you to see how a private social media group is moderated, what types of content are shared, and how often other group members post: and get the most social media traction. If you’re an experienced marketer or have used private social media groups before, feel free to start your own! Starting your own group has the distinct benefit of providing you with a tailor-made community that you control, which is ideal for people who want to increase brand recognition or poll their audience for ideas on things like products, marketing, and distribution. Choosing a Social Media Platform When it comes to social media platforms for private groups, the three most popular are Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. Facebook Facebook is great for people who want to build and maintain an active social media marketing strategy. The fact that it is the largest social media platform in the world makes it ideal for people who want to reach large audiences. Additionally, its laid-back, casual tone makes it great for testing new ideas, polling users, and sharing content on a broad-scale level. Google+ Google+ allows users to share photos, videos, links, and content in the same laid-back, carefree way as Facebook. Google+ also allows for “circles,” which allow people to divide their followers into smaller group-like segments. This is perfect for targeting content, sharing information with select groups, and offering special discounts and information to certain users. LinkedIn LinkedIn is a fantastic platform for users who want to interact with other industry professionals. As a general rule, it’s a more formal platform than both Google+ and Facebook, which makes it a fantastic choice for marketers who want to distribute content to other like-minded … Read more

The Snapchat Rage- Should Your Business Be on SnapChat?

December 31, 2020February 9, 2016 by Adam Oakley

You’ve probably heard of Snapchat: the funky video messaging app that allows your friends to send you ten second clips of the action at Walmart or a dog doing something funny. But did you know that Snapchat is good for more than just hilarious and short-lived videos and photo? In fact, hundreds of companies are getting in on the Snapchat revolution and some experts are even calling it the future of social. Gary Vaynerchuk, a top marketer, entrepreneur, and someone I like to follow regularly, says that “every marketer should at least be familiar with Snapchat.” He’s also warned us: “don’t be on the wrong side of history,” and “get into Snapchat before you miss your chance entirely.” This begs the questions “Why?” and “How?” and, in the face of other popular livestream apps like Periscope and Meerkat, “Is it really worth it?” The Snapchat Rage: Worth it or Not for Businesses? Here’s what you need to know about the Snapchat revolution. Snapchat by the Numbers According to NewsCred, Snapchat might be quite a bit bigger than you thought. The service currently has more than 100 million daily users and upwards of 8,796 photos are shared every second on the Snapchat platform. What’s more, users watch an average of 6 billion videos every single day and 54% of users engage with Snapchat daily. With all that traffic, it’s no wonder that companies are beginning to flock to the app. NewsCred goes on to report that a huge 30% of agencies, brands, and media planners are planning to include Snapchat content in the advertising campaigns they run surrounding the Super Bowl. One of the reasons Snapchat is becoming popular among so many brands is the fact that it is incredibly user-friendly. For example, vertical viewing is now one of the most popular forms of mobile interaction and it accounts for 29% of the total time people spend on their screens. Because Snapchat was born in the world of vertical viewing, it’s hugely popular among people who consume video content on their phones. In fact, Snapchat users are nine times as likely to watch ads in full on the platform simply because they don’t have to rotate their phones. Snapchat and Millennial Consumers Snapchat is and has always been dominated by Millennials. The platform was founded by a 24-year old and Millennials account for upwards of 71% of the Platform’s regular users. This is important due to the fact that Millennials are currently the most powerful market group in the world, with an annual spending power of upwards of $2.45 trillion. What’s more, Millennials are the largest group of smartphone owners in the U.S., with more than 85% of the population owning smartphones and 41% of them using their smartphones to make purchases on a regular basis. Thanks to the instant-access nature of Snapchat, it’s clear that this app may be one of the best ways for marketers to gain access to the lives and pocketbooks of Millennial customers. How Companies Use Snapchat: The H&M Example Now that it’s clear why Snapchat is such an appealing way for companies to deliver content to a younger audience, let’s consider which companies have already used the platform effectively. For an example, consider H&M Poland. H&M caters to a predominantly Millennial group of customers, but they took their already effective marketing one step further when they recently partnered with an exclusive party organizer called Boiler Room. To publicize the partnership, promote engagement with their “H&M Loves Music” line, and draw customers to an upcoming event, H&M used Snapchat to launch the first ever “Urban Chase” campaign in Poland. To do this, the company hid tickets to an upcoming sold-out Boiler Room event in their stores and then used Snapchat to dispense messages and hints that would allow a few of their lucky followers to find the tickets. This simple strategy not only publicized the event, but it drew users to H&M’s Snapchat account and provided a ton of positive publicity for the event. In fact, H&M gained 943 Snapchat followers through the campaign, enticed 200 people to participate in the game, reached 3.8 million unique users, and earned 344,000 livestreams. If that’s not brand success on Snapchat, I’m not sure what is. The Verdict: Is Snapchat Worth all the Buzz? For companies who want to find a successful means of displaying ads, distributing content, and engaging with the Millennial audience, Snapchat is a fantastic platform. While social media platforms are popping up everywhere nowadays, Snapchat has exhibited its staying power: It’s currently the third most popular social app among the Millennial market and it shows no signs of phasing out anytime soon. When thinking about Snapchat, it’s also wise to consider the fact that, even though social media platforms continue to change, the rules of engagement within them do not. To put it another way: Snapchat is indicative of a trend that’s been building for years – successful content in today’s marketing environment is consumer-driven. While the technology used to deliver that message may change in the coming years, the rules of the game won’t, which means that Snapchat is a fantastic place to hone marketing skills and connect with users right now. While there are certain companies for whom Snapchat may not be a good fit (those targeting an older marketing group, for example) the H&M example goes to show that companies targeting a Millennial audience can do well to begin engaging on the platform. In today’s world, consumers want to interact with their favorite brands via social media and Snapchat is an innovative and effective way for companies to provide that. Within the next several years, it’s likely that we will see Snapchat continue to evolve. The platform will likely begin to offer new services and marketers who want to be successful in the Millennial market will need to creatively adapt their marketing strategy in order to provide quality Snapchat content their users will love. Need social media content and/or management for your … Read more

Warning: Twitter Character Limits Should Be Seriously Changing Up Soon

June 19, 2024January 26, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Why does my Twitter character limits hit the max so quickly? For as long as the bird has been on the social media scene, you’ve been asking yourself that question and wishing you had more characters to tell everyone about your day. Twitter could be on the eve of granting your number one Tweet-wish. Twitter Character Limits Removal? Big Changes For The Little Bird Since its inception in 2006, Twitter has been a place for social media recluses to come and spill their feelings in 140-character spurts. The Twitter character limit has remained the same for nearly 10 years and is one social media aspect that has not been moved despite many changes from those other social media sites. In March,10 years after the first tweet was sent, things are slated to change. While many may see the character increase as a good thing, devoted Twitter users are up in arms about the change. The longstanding limit of 140 characters is rumored to be increasing to 10,000 characters right around the time the social media site celebrates the big one-zero. Twitter CEO and Tweet enthusiast, Jack Dorsey, has not officially announced the increase, but has been dropping subtle hints. pic.twitter.com/bc5RwqPcAX — Jack (@jack) January 5, 2016 With Jack spouting things about the character limit imposing restrictions and release little-known information about why we even had to deal with a limit in the first place, it’s left more than a few people sitting with the hope that tweets can become something more than the often cryptic, tiny messages fired to other users. What Increased Twitter Character Limits Mean For Twitter Despite major changes that have been seen in other social media platforms, Twitter has remained steady in the way that if functions at its core. The site has managed to keep limits and dubious amounts of pictures at a minimum. The limits have helped prevent it from becoming the corny site that your grandma (and, admit it, you) use to connect with emotional friends who can’t keep their, seemingly 10 page, sagas off their statuses. The new character limit increase would mean an increase in the way that people can share their feelings and a decrease in the number of texts-as-screenshots pictures would appear on your Twitter feed. Twitter sees the large number of texts being screenshot and shared on Twitter not as a problem, but as a call for help from Twitter users. The dozens tutorials on quickly screenshot-ing your texts for Twitter that can be found online should have been enough for Jack Dorsey and his tweet team to see that there needs to be more options for people to post everything they want to say. The short but sweet bit was a fun act for Twitter to play and a great niche for them to fall into, but it is getting old and Twitter users are demanding more ways to communicate without even knowing they are doing it. What Will Increased Twitter Characters Mean For You? Many of the 974 million Twitter users are upset over the big changes that could be coming to Twitter. The majority of these users are upset and are sending out Tweets just like this one: Just to let everyone know, if @twitter does increase their character limit to 10,000 then I’m out. — Regina (@NotSoEvilRegal) January 19, 2016 Users are upset over the change because, to them, Twitter is a place where creativity is forcibly inspired due to the character limit. Sure, you can post multiple tweets recounting the story of why you and your husband are no longer together, but the character limit really makes you think about what you really need to include in the story. When looking at the increase in character limit, it is a good idea to see all of the benefits that come with more characters on Twitter. You can tell your friends full stories that have enticing headlines, Twitter can become a place to highlight a business’s creation of content and you can easily search for conversations that people have had…without having to worry about looking for their screenshots. The new character limit increase will make Twitter an all-around better social media option. The proposed increase in character limit will likely not change the way that you send little messages to your friends, but it will give you more of an opportunity to include everything that you want to tell them. Silver Linings For Blue Birds Businesses, individuals and marketing experts will all be able to pull big benefits from the plans that are going to change Twitter forever. For years, businesses have had to settle for bite-sized URLS and quick posts about sales that they might be having. The proposed character increase will allow these businesses to tell you all about upcoming sales, events and promotions. They can cram more information into a 10,000-word Tweet than they could with only 140 characters. Remember that screenshot your best friend posted two weeks ago? Remember how she also posted 1,000 tweets since then? If you want to search for the screenshot, you have to remember what the caption of it was. You can’t search by what it actually said because it was a picture. With the new increase, your best friend will be able to post the words directly to Twitter. You can get right on, search for what she said and recall it to remind her how awful she felt when her boy-toy of the month cheated on her. Some of the biggest benefits will come to marketing experts. For years, businesses have been asking the experts to Tweet long ads and information for them. This has never been a reality, but the increase would allow social media content creators to have all the space that they need to work with to get information out about the best businesses in the world of Twitter. Check out our social media writing and management services!

Express Writers Launches #ContentWritingChat, Our First Ever Twitter Chat

December 31, 2020January 18, 2016 by Adam Oakley

At Express Writers, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re launching our own Twitter chat this January 2016, #ContentWritingChat. We’re excited to share this opportunity with all of you, and can’t wait to get to work building an awesome community of content writers, business owners, and marketers! Open to all, our first chat is happening Tuesday, January 19, at 10 AM CST / 9 AM EST. Join us and look for the questions to come from our Twitter profile, @ExpWriters, as well as our exclusive Twitter chat handle, @writingchat! Those of you who have used them know that Twitter Chats are an amazing way to connect and interact with fans and Twitter followers. Available in every type of business niche from marketing to sales, Twitter chats allow people to develop a community, promote a brand, and meet like-minded individuals in their industries. So, What’s All the Fuss About Twitter Chats? 4 Key Reasons to Regularly Join One (Besides ContentWritingChat) When you join a Twitter chat, the conversation is focused around a specific hashtag (in our case, # ContentWritingChat). This hashtag allows a wide variety of people to follow and interact with the Twitter chat, which commonly lasts for an hour at a scheduled weekly time. These chats end up creating a lively and varied ongoing conversation around important industry topics. On average, Express Writers joins 20 Twitter chats in a given week. Some of our top favorites are #CMWorld by Content Marketing Institute, #SEMrushchat by SEMrush (I love this one, strong community and great engagement: I’ve seen over 2,000 tweets fly around inside their scheduled Twitter chat hour!), and #bufferchat by Buffer. I’d offer these four key benefits as great reasons you should join a Twitter chat: 1. Enhanced social media presence Social media is everything right now, and Twitter chats are a great way to promote your company’s social media presence. Because Twitter chats are hashtag-centric yet still public, millions of people have access to the conversation. This means that, when you participate actively within the conversation, you have the potential to reach millions of new people all the time. 2. Real-time feedback Want to start a conversation with your Twitter followers? No better way to do it than a Twitter chat. Twitter chats create a dynamic, real-time conversation that can be hugely beneficial for everyone involved. 3. Community If there’s one thing a Twitter chat is great at, it’s fostering community. When people interact in a Twitter chat, they tune in one time each week to interact with everyone else in the group. This creates an environment that’s ripe for connection with like-minded individuals and marketers who can help you become more efficient and knowledgeable. 4. Support Trying to learn new things? Want to become a better content writer or marketer? Joining a Twitter chat is a fantastic place to start. You’ll be in the presence of marketers who are in a similar place in their careers and will learn valuable new skills. Stay Tuned For # ContentWritingChat! Sold on the idea of Twitter chats? Great. Now, it’s time to talk about how to get involved in ours. The first step is to head to Twitter and to follow @writingchat. This will help you stay updated on our chat itself. You can also follow @ExpWriters, as questions will come from both of these accounts. The next step is actually joining the Twitter chat. Even if you’ve never done it before, joining a Twitter chat is incredibly simple. You’ll simply need to head to Twitter and join the conversation by searching the hashtag #ContentWritingChat on Tuesday, January 19 at 10 AM CST. This will take you directly to the conversation room and, from there, you’ll simply need to participate by adding your own comments accompanied by the associated hashtag. 5 Key Reminders to Prep For Joining a Twitter Chat You’ll also need to know how to be a great Twitter chat participant. To do this, you’ll want to follow these tips: 1. Get ready You want to be prepared for your first Twitter chat, right? Right. Before you join the conversation, jot down a few thoughts you’re interested in sharing and, if they’ve been made available (as they will be with our chat) you should review the descriptions or the questions that the host provides. This can help you participate actively and get the most from the Twitter chat. Be sure you know your time zone, so you can be there on time (simple tip but hey, I’ve messed up here before!), and the hashtag (#ContentWritingChat, in our case). 2. Send out a high-volume warning to followers Your followers should know that they can expect to see more tweets than usual from you during the scheduled chat time, so send out a high-volume warning beforehand. This will explain your increased activity and may also draw some of your followers into the chat. 3. Mind Twitter chat etiquette Just like everything else on the web, a Twitter chat comes with its own set of etiquette rules. We created a guide on this for your reference. In short: always use the Q and A format (answer the questions with A and the number the question is, example: A1 “your answer here” A2 “your answer here”, etc.), and the hashtag for the chat, for your answer to properly count. 4. Follow and engage Don’t be shy! A Twitter chat is an awesome place to build your community. Like tweets that you learned from, and follow the people you liked. It will mean return followers and engagement for you! Always respond to retweets and likes, as well. 5. Branch out Branch out to other Twitter chat conversations to build your community. Check out our list of the 25 best Twitter chats every marketer should join. Sneak Peek: Question 1 From Our First Ever Chat Topic, What Is a Copywriter? # ContentWritingChat Interested in a super-exclusive sneak-peak of our upcoming Twitter chat? Check out the first question we’ll be asking our followers during our first … Read more

How Social Engagement Really Ties Into SEO Rankings

December 31, 2020November 5, 2015 by Adam Oakley

If you run a business, there’s no doubt you’ve been told you need to be busy on social media channels. But, essentially you need to know that your efforts on those platforms are driving traffic to your website and making it quicker for customers to find you online. In short, you need to know you’re getting a return on investment. The question is this: do social signals actually influence your SEO? Social Engagement and SEO: The Answer Is Indirectly Last year, Matt Cutts announced that social signals won’t directly affect SEO. Sounds pretty cut and dry, right? Wrong. The keyword in that sentence is “directly.” Social media allows you the chance to impact your business’s SEO in an array of indirect ways. How to Measure That Indirect Impact Just because you can’t tie the indirect impact of SEO and social signs doesn’t mean it’s time to pack up shop and shut down all your social profiles. While there may not be a very specific formula for directly connecting SEO and social, it definitely doesn’t mean your social effort are futile. Let’s say you have a ton of followers on Twitter. That doesn’t really guarantee that you’re going to enjoy higher ranks on Google and the other search engines. However, it also doesn’t mean that won’t change tomorrow. For instance, in 2013 Google said that they did include social signals. A year later in 2014, they said they did not. According to Justin Kirby, CaveSocial Co-Founder, if a business’s content tends to be drawing people from various social networks to your URL constantly, SERPS are going to view your content as respected and eventually your rankings will increase. Social Is Much More than SEO Rankings Increasing your business’s website rankings in search engines really shouldn’t be your only goal when it comes to social signals. Just look at these other benefits: Link building Increased website traffic Social profile growth Content visibility Each of these can, and will, contribute to increased rankings. Gone are the days of SEO just being about using keywords and link building. That’s exactly why Google’s algorithm continues to evolve. Now, SEO revolves around honest experiences and trustworthy brands which means your rankings get better as you provide quality content, delivered consistently from a variety of sources. When you create a marriage between your social and content, you’ll see how your ranking and website traffic will improve. Let’s not forget about social reputation and brand awareness, either. As stated in Searchmetrics’ 2016 Rebooting Ranking Factors White Paper: “The correlation between social signals and ranking position is extremely high, and the number of social signals per landing page has remained constant when compared to with the values from last year’s whitepaper. … The top-ranked websites in Google’s rankings displays vastly more social signals than all other pages…. This is primarily due to the overlap between brand websites performing strongly in social networks and being allocated top positions by Google.” Essentially, the more ways people are able to find you in search engines, the more you’re able to control your brands’ images. Simply open the first few pages of Google on a search of your product or brand. Be consistent in your efforts and you’ll be able to “own” some topics online with your killer content and, ultimately, your services and products. So Many Reasons to Be Active on Social Media While there may not be a clear recipe of what you should be doing on social for your efforts to affect SEO, that doesn’t mean social signals won’t affect SEO whatsoever. There are plenty of reasons to be active on social, like engaging one-on-one with customers and growing your community. All the growth and social activity to see on your networks will lead to increase website traffic, increased interest in your offerings and more content views. SEO Is Becoming More Dependent on Engagement Human marketing, that is, having an online presence and engaging with your community, is good for all sorts of reasons. It’s especially good for your bottom line. Search engines are hard at work building algorithms that are way more in tune with human thinking since at the end of the day, humans are the ones using the search engines. So the closer they get to being human, the better the results will be. But don’t just take my word for it. Searchmetrics created a list of correlating factors between social signals and search engine positions. What you can see here is that 8 out of 10 highest correlations between search engine positions and rankings are tied to social engagement factors. That means that those factors that tie in best with the search engine positioning is related to how people react to content on social media. Human beings’ reactions on social media don’t happen because of numbers or because you’ve created a perfect site (from a technical viewpoint). It does happen because your content appeals to your audience; it resonates with them; they can relate. They’re human! We could get into a whole heated debate about a link between causality and correlation. But there’s really one main thing we need to know: content that is likely to entice engagement has a better chance of higher rankings and content that ranks well will help your bottom line. Matt Cutt’s Viewpoint So, just how far is Google from using social media signals as factors for ranking? Can the SERPS use follower and engagement metrics from the likes of Facebook and Twitter to evaluate an individual’s authority? The answers to those questions were certainly buried in the headlines in Matt Cutt’s video. Supporting what Matt had to say, Google’s John Mueller has categorically stated Google doesn’t use social signals in its search ranking factors. Okay, so let’s go in depth into Matt Cutt’s comments to try to understand why Google doesn’t do so. Do Twitter and Facebooks Signals Play a Part in Google’s Ranking Algorithms? That’s what Matt Cutts answered in the video. Let’s break it down. 1. Twitter and Facebook … Read more

Say Hello to Twitter Moments: What It Is, & How to Use It

January 1, 2021October 13, 2015 by Adam Oakley

If you’re an avid Twitter user, it’s likely that you noticed a change in the service at the beginning of October. This change goes by a simple name: Moments. And it’s accessed by the lightning bolt “Moments” tab at the top of Twitter now: It’s the next big thing in the Twitter universe. People familiar with Twitter know exactly how expansive the service is – approximately 500 million Tweets cross the site on a daily basis – and it’s impossible to see it all, no matter how often you refresh the screen. What’s more, much of this interaction is specific to Twitter and doesn’t take place anywhere else on the web: Tweet fights between celebrities, conversations between social or political features or, recently, President Obama’s viral tweet inviting young scientist Ahmed Mohamed to the White House after the high school student made a clock that his high school mistook for a bomb and suspended him for three days for. In short – Twitter is a great place to interact with your favorite musicians, leaders and politicians, but it can be tough to gather everything that interests you into a convenient place and, if you slack on interacting with the app for a day, you’re bound to miss important news and events. Fortunately, Twitter moments is here to make that reality go away for good. Currently, Moments is available to US-based Twitter users on Android, iPhone, and Desktop devices. To make the service more accessible, however, a Moment can be shared across all locations, which means that if a person in the US shares a moment, it can be accessed be a user in Europe ahead of the service’s release in those areas. How Twitter Moments Works There are many places to get news online but, unlike many typical news outlets, Twitter Moments blends input from around the Twittersphere into one convenient place – so you can access tweets, videos, GIFs and interviews about a certain topic all in one place. Currently, the Moments pages are assembled by Twitter’s curation team, which pulls content from sites like Buzzfeed, Entertainment Weekly, Mashable and the Washington Post. However, Twitter has announced that Twitter users will be able to curate their own Moments in the coming months, which will allow for more customized sharing and unique and highly viral Moments pages. To check out Moments for yourself, log into Twitter and click the lightning bolt icon at the top of your dashboard. This will open a page full of Moments that are happening or are important right now. These stories update throughout the day as the news rolls in, events take place or new details are added to previously published stories. To make the Moments experience easier for users, the page also features tabs divided into “News,” “Sports,” Entertainment” and “Fun” tabs that users can click on for niche-related news from the last several days. How to Engage with Moments In addition to gathering a ton of important news into one easy-to-access platform, Moments also offers several features that make the platform easy to use and fun to interact with. Click on a moment, for example, and you’re taken to an introduction page with a description of the story. Once you’ve landed on the intro page, swipe right on a mobile device (for info on how to use the service from a desktop platform, check out this tutorial) to read the story, complete with full-bleed photos, videos set to auto-play, Vines, GIFs and anything else the story has to offer. If you want more, tap the screen once for the option to favorite, Tweet or Retweet right from the story’s homepage. When you’re ready to leave, simply swipe up or down to exit the moment and head back to the Moment guide screen. If there’s a rapidly developing story you’re interested in, you have the option of following the moment or even embedding it in your website by clicking a link located at the top of the page. Embedding a Moment into your site is yet another way to stay current on rapidly developing news and to involve others in the one-stop shop that is Twitter Moments. The Reasoning Behind Twitter Moments Since its launch date in 2006, Twitter has been a go-to for news, current events, and gossip. The site has been so powerful, in fact, that it’s been credited as a vehicle for social change and a huge driving force behind events like the Twitter revolution and mass protests in in Moldova or the 2009 Iranian elections, during which people used Twitter to spread news and display their solidarity with the protestors in that area. One of Twitter’s main boons – its impressive speed – is also one of its largest drawbacks. On Twitter, news gets out quickly but it also changes quickly, meaning that users who aren’t literally constantly engaged with the app are going to miss a fair amount of the content that hits their home screen. Moments is an attempt by Twitter to change this. According to many industry experts, by slowing down the pace of the news and grouping important stories into Moments that users can consult after the original stories have broken, Twitter is hoping to make the entire service easier to access for users who aren’t familiar with Twitter. In that same vein, though, Moments has the potential to change how people interact with Twitter and may spell less interaction with live events and more interaction with the Moments pages – topic-based stories, videos, and live news pages displayed in a somewhat static format. Promoted Moments 101: How Moments Applies to Marketers Although the Moments feature is currently ad-free, Twitter is planning to feature Promoted Moments within a few weeks. This means that when Twitter users log into their Twitter dashboard and click on the Moments icon, they’ll see a Promoted Moment in each topic tab. These Promoted Moments will be used by brands for curated tweets. This is projected to work an awful lot … Read more

Google & Twitter Team Up On A New Content Delivery Platform

June 19, 2024October 9, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Getting content and getting it fast is important in the world of the Internet, isn’t it? When you see an interesting article, you want to click and read without having to wait for several seconds. Facebook knew this way back in May, creating a new content delivery platform called Instant Articles. And now it looks like Google and Twitter are teaming up for something similar. What is this new content delivery platform? And how can you use it for your content? Avengers, Assemble: Google and Twitter Teaming Up for a Content Delivery Platform Back in May, Facebook announced a new content delivery platform called Instant Articles. The plan on Facebook’s part was to offer original content from companies directly on Facebook instead of third party sites. They’ve continued this with the revamp of Notes, creating a powerful long-form content platform. And Google and Twitter did not want to be left out. Recode reports that many Twitter users are noticing that articles load instantaneously now, instead of waiting for a few seconds for it to load. Are you seeing the similarity with Instant Articles? Once you get passed that similarity, you’ll notice a few interesting differences. This isn’t necessarily being hosted directly on Google and Twitter; in fact, both channels want to make this an open source service. This gives several tech companies the opportunity to use this and build on it for their own needs. This is a great opportunity for websites, and since this is based on cached websites instead of an individual content platform, it is open to everyone. And, you won’t lose out on ad revenue either. How is this Going to Compete With Facebook’s Instant Articles? The biggest way Google and Twitter’s new delivery platform is going to compete with Instant Articles is simply that it is open source. Instant Articles is only for Facebook and isn’t available for everyone yet. However, with this platform, every single publisher will benefit. When it comes to using Facebook, Mashable points out that it really is a difficult position for publishers. Instant Articles shows that people need to jump on the Facebook bandwagon or they could lose out. However, it could also get to the point where people rely too heavily on Facebook and forget other channels. This isn’t so with Google and Twitter, which is making this new option immediately attractive to many publishers both large and small. Is This Going to Drastically Changes Online Content Delivery? Thankfully, this new change isn’t going to be a drastic change. It just means that you need to focus heavily on content creation. And really, you should already be focusing on it. Creating excellent content pieces that people will click on is the biggest way that you can take advantage of this excellent opportunity. Content creation is an incredible way to deliver content your clients want to see, providing them with value. This can definitely help you stand out from all of your competitors, making you someone people will trust quicker. 7 Ways to Prepare for Google and Twitter’s Content Delivery Platform When it comes to creating excellent content and preparing to utilize Google and Twitter’s new setup, there are a few things you can do. I am going to take a look and help you create some awesome long-form content pieces that people will click on and love to read ASAP. 1. Prepare to Write More Long-Form Content for Social Media The biggest thing you need to do to prepare for the majority of recent changes, including Google and Twitter, is to make sure you are focusing on long-form content. Long-form content can drastically increase your website traffic, as well as making sure people stay, return, and share. Just take a look at this graph from Wordstream after they began to implement long-form content: When they began to create long-form content, they saw that more readers stayed on their site longer. This is great because it then opens it up to encourage people to go around your site and look at your products and services. Sujan Patel says that long-form content also gives you the ability to reach a wider audience base, helps you to talk about more topics, and helps you generate more leads. 2.Hire Not Only Social Media Managers but Copywriters As Well One of the best ways to prepare and get awesome content is to not only hire social media managers but copywriters as well. This will help you create great content consistently, helping encourage people to click the links on Twitter and read your article. Just imagine what the combined efforts of Google and Twitter with the power of a copywriter can do for your site. You’ll see some absolutely incredible results. Including, but not limited to, people sharing your content, engaging with it, and staying on your site longer. 3. Know How to Tailor Your Content for the Channel You should also know the tone you want to use when it comes to reaching Twitter. You may need to create some great blog pieces that capture that tone, and help you reach out to a wider demographic. It is vital to know, however, the difference between your brand’s voice and the tone you use. Your voice must always stay the same to help promote consistency. Buffer’s Kevan Lee powerfully states that, “Voice is a mission statement. Tone is the application of that mission.” You should already know the voice you want to have for your brand so use it when crafting content. And change up your multitude of tones to reach out to the right audience on Twitter. 4. Keep Up Your Business Site’s Blog With Facebook’s Instant Articles, you might start believing you don’t need to keep up your site’s blog. As I stated earlier, this is exactly what Mashable is afraid of. And you shouldn’t fall into this easy trap. With the new change between Google and Twitter, you will absolutely need to keep up your business’s blog. Don’t neglect it for … Read more