Express Writers
#ContentWritingChat February 2 2016 Recap: How to Use Periscope and Live Video in Content Marketing with Christoph Trappe

#ContentWritingChat February 2 2016 Recap: How to Use Periscope and Live Video in Content Marketing with Christoph Trappe

by | Feb 5, 2016 | ContentWritingChat

Did you miss this week’s #ContentWritingChat? Not to worry! We have you covered with our weekly recap of our third-ever Twitter chat, on Tuesday, February 2nd at 10 AM CST.

#ContentWritingChat February 2 Recap: Periscope & Live Video with Christoph Trappe

Our guest host this week was Christoph Trappe, the creator of the Authentic Storytelling Project, content marketer, a global keynote speaker, frequent Periscoper and blogger, and recipient of The Content Marketing Institute’s 2014/ 2015 Top 100 Most Influential Content Marketer award. We were thrilled to have him on!

And, exciting times – once again we became a trending topic in the USA, ranking in at #47 this time!

Known as The Authentic Storyteller™, Christoph is a frequent Periscoper and shared his expertise with us specifically on live streaming video.

With the growth of live streaming apps such as Periscope, MeVee, and Blab, many marketers are feeling the pressure to join these platforms. As a marketer, it’s important to be where your audience is if you want to reach them! Live video allows you to better connect with your audience as a brand and on a personal level. Plus, it provides such a great way to engage them when you can get immediate feedback.

Our guest host, Christoph, mentioned that his favorite live streaming platform is Periscope. However, you shouldn’t count out the others. You should definitely give MeVee a try and Blab. Blab is great if you’re feeling a little nervous and want to have someone co-host with you. Grenae is right: live streaming is a great way to put a name with the face.

As Maureen pointed out, live video is just another layer to the content you’re already producing. It provides a whole new way to connect with your audience and get to know them. Strengthen your relationships with your customers, as Grenae said, and your audience is sure to love you.

Do you want to do a better job on Periscope? Take Christoph’s advice: be real! It’s so important to be genuine and show your audience your true personality through your live video broadcasts. When your audience gets to know you and like you, they’ll start trusting you!

Michael’s tip of promoting your Periscope broadcasts in advance is fantastic if you want to get more live viewers. If you have a broadcast coming up on a popular topic or are just talking about something you really want your audience to hear, let them know ahead of time so they know when to tune in.

Broadcast on Periscope or do a live video stream when you feel like you have something to say. If you have quality material you want to share with your audience, go live.

Our CEO, Julia, mentioned that daily scopers are seeing growth, so you may want to ramp up your presence on the platform when you’re just starting out. It will help you be seen and grow your audience quickly.

However, you should also keep your audience in mind, as Grenae mentioned. Think about what time it is before you broadcast because you don’t want to go live when a majority of your followers are likely in bed. If you want live engagement, you have to give people the chance to join!

Ai is spot on in suggesting to share quality content. If you want to gain followers and keep them, make sure you have something of value to share with them. Christoph brought up the importance of interacting with your audience by answering their questions. Don’t ignore the comments that come up while you’re broadcasting. It’s a turn-off for your viewers. They want to know you’re listening to them!

Both Michael and Alejandro shared some great tips as well: create a plan before you go live. This will be helpful if you forget something or even if you get nervous. Just don’t plan it out word-for-word. Be natural when speaking! And before you sign off, give your audience a call to action. Tell them what they should do next!

Great advice from Christoph: If you want to attract the right viewers to your broadcasts, use a title that’s descriptive and states exactly what you’ll be talking about.

Use hashtags in your video titles as well. When you share your broadcasts to other platforms (like Twitter) your Periscope will show up, which will get you more exposure.

As with anything online, privacy is always an issue. Be safe, especially when you’re broadcasting a live video. Turn off location sharing when you’re at home, like Julia mentioned. Michael also brings up a good point about being aware of what’s in your background. You don’t want to accidentally expose confidential information.

We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Be sure to join us (@ExpWriters) on Tuesday, February 9th, 2016 at 10 AM CST.

Want to be a guest host? We’re still scheduling guest hosts out for 2016. Email Julia! 

#ContentWritingChat January 26 2016 Recap: Best SEO Practices With SEMRush Strategist Elena

#ContentWritingChat January 26 2016 Recap: Best SEO Practices With SEMRush Strategist Elena

by | Jan 29, 2016 | ContentWritingChat

As you might already know, we recently launched our Twitter chat, #ContentWritingChat. We had our second ever chat on Tuesday, January 26th at 10 AM CST, and our topic was Best SEO Practices for Online Writers. We had such a great turn out that we went “viral” on Twitter, trending at #50 in the USA on Twitter–again!

#ContentWritingChat January 26, 2016: Best SEO Practices With SEMRush Strategist Elena

For this week’s chat, our lovely guest host was was Elena Terentyeva, strategist at SEMrush, the leading SEO software online. Elena joined us to chat all about SEO. We’re thrilled that so many of you have been joining us for the chat, but we’ve compiled some of the best tweets just in case you missed it. This week’s chat had so many amazing content creators and SEO experts ready to share their best advice!

Let’s dive into the recap.

Our CEO, Julia, couldn’t have described SEO any better! It’s all about creating quality content and optimizing it so search engines can rank you higher. As Elena (our guest host) pointed out, SEO is not an extra activity. It’s essential to your online presence and something you should always do!

We love Netvantage Marketing’s example of PB & Jelly (SEO + the writer), and Ryan put it point-blank!

A quick note to all the content creators out there: SEO is a must! Good words from Julia and Ecreativeworks.

High-quality content is essential! Focus on writing something great and then add in those keywords, headers, ALT tags, and more. Remember: no keyword stuffing! Use keywords in a way that’s natural. Grenae brings up being good at editing your content, a great point.

What skills do you need to have? First and foremost, you need to focus on strengthening those writing skills. Then, make sure you know how to effectively do keyword research to find the right keywords for your content. Don’t forget that SEO is always changing, so you have to stay updated!

Alejandro says it well: know your objectives. And Elena’s example of Backlinko was superb!

Make sure you’re using the right keywords to attract the audience you want!

Do SEO keyword research every single time you create new content. You need to make time to optimize your content if you want it to get noticed!

How many of these SEO tools are you using? Our participants gave some great suggestions!

We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat. Be sure to join us (@ExpWriters) on Tuesday, February 2nd at 10 AM CST!

#ContentWritingChat First Episode: What is a Copywriter? With Julia McCoy Recap

#ContentWritingChat First Episode: What is a Copywriter? With Julia McCoy Recap

by | Jan 22, 2016 | ContentWritingChat

We launched our very first #contentwritingchat this week, Tuesday the 19th at 10 AM, and it was a raging success! Over 300 tweets were sent back and forth in the short hour. I was the host, and the topic was all about my favorite subject, What is a Copywriter? As the host, I answered the key questions put together by my social media team on this topic. We had some great participants join in and add superb thoughts to the conversation!

Our Very First #ContentWritingChat Makes it To #42 Hottest Talked About on Twitter

The most exciting part was when we were told by TMobile that we ranked #42 in the USA on Twitter. We had to take a screenshot of that one:

Our chat featured writers, content creators and some of the experts who make up a large part of the content writing world.

Let’s dive right in on the recap! 

A copywriter works to build up a business. They work to make a business better from the ground up.

According to Anneliese Sparks, a good copywriter must have tech skills, be savvy and original. We agree.

Content that is engaging and targets an audience will pull the people in. Content that is well written will keep them in.

Content marketing is the best of both worlds for Olivia. She knows what it is all about and we know that the two often go hand in hand to get to content marketing.

Nearly everyone uses it, so it is important that social media content is unique. SEO is equally important because, let’s face it, who doesn’t use Google on a daily basis?

While we know there’s much more to SEO, long tail phrases are the newest way to get the content marketing results that you need for your business. They’re a great place to start.

Businesses need copywriters because most of them don’t have the skills for online writing. Copywriters provide professional service and great information that a business may not have been able to put out otherwise. You should also consider using a copywriter …

We are looking forward to seeing all of you next Tuesday at 10AM (Central) on the #ContentWritingChat! Our guest host will be none other than Elena from SEMrush, discussing content strategy tips for the online SEO writer. Join us on Twitter @ExpWriters!

#ContentWritingChat First Episode: What is a Copywriter? With Julia McCoy Recap

Express Writers Launches #ContentWritingChat, Our First Ever Twitter Chat

by | Jan 18, 2016 | Social Media

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.

#ContentWritingChat twitter chat

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 ever Twitter chat this Tuesday:

twitter chat q1

 

You can expect many other great topics to come, but this is where we plan to get the conversation started, so be prepared to get excited about content writing.

Our Host & Moderator

In terms of hosting, our inaugural Twitter chat will be hosted by me. Since 2011, I’ve built my copywriting agency, Express Writers, from a small team to a leader in the copywriting agency industry with more than 60 advanced copywriters and editors. I’ve also been an online copywriter myself for five years, and write for Search Engine Journal, Content Marketing Institute, Problogger, to name a few places. I’m excited to share some of what I’ve learned about copywriting with you. Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Our capable Social Media Specialist, Marko, will be moderating the chat. He has a degree in Psychology and is a college student going for his Master’s. He has worked in Internet marketing and social media for several years. Follow Marko on Twitter.

In the future, we will be featuring guest hosts in the realms of SEO, copywriting, and more. So, if you’re a content writing enthusiast with some valuable information to share, you could be one of them!

Open Invitation!

Are you interested in being on our Twitter chat as a guest host? Email julia@expresswriters.com directly with your favorite topic(s) to talk about in the areas of marketing, writing, and entrepreneurship, for potential scheduling!

You can also drop us a comment below to let us know of topics you’d love to see addressed by our team.

See you Tuesday @ 10 am CST!