The world of content and social media is buzzing with some of the latest news coming out of Facebook HQ. Facebook is planning to host various content pieces from a select number of websites for a new experimental feature that could bring about epic change to social media content.
The new feature is called Instant Articles and it aims to bring content directly to users in a quick, efficient manner. What is this new feature and what can you expect? Take a journey with me to find out.
What is the New Feature?
Instant Articles is a new feature Facebook is testing to see just how well it works for their users, as well as publishers. According to Tech Crunch, Instant Articles gives users access to the news and content they want without having to click and go to a publisher’s website, waiting for it to load. Sometimes, users experience too much load time with various sites, and Facebook wants to help them cut that time down and have quicker access to their favorite sources. The new feature is currently being tested by a few publishers to see how well it works for them and users alike. These publishers are Buzzfeed, The New York Times, National Geographic, and a few other well-known news sites. This is only available on mobile so you will not see Instant Articles within your browser.
Will Instant Articles Give Users More Control Over Their Newsfeeds?
Facebook has recently said that it plans to give users more control over what they see in their newsfeeds, which many are excited for. However, many experts are questioning just how this will play out with Facebook’s newest addition. No one can say for certain if people will get the control they desire over their newsfeeds, and it is likely everyone will need to wait for a bit to find out. However, one element of Instant Articles is to give users the ability to see content that is curated specifically for them. For example, according to the Tech Crunch article I shared above, if users like, comment, and/or share certain types more often, their newsfeeds might be tailored more to show more Instant Articles on topics they like. This isn’t truly control over one’s newsfeed, but it might be a step in a direction that helps Facebook users feel they are getting the content they want.
Will This Help or Hinder Businesses?
Since Instant Articles is in the experimental stage, it isn’t entirely sure just how much it can help or hinder a business. However, there will be an easy-to-access share button on all Instant Articles postings, which can help get content shared by more people on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Remember, I said earlier that this was only available on mobile, which means that the share button for Facebook will help push the content from mobile availability to browser availability.
It will also be great for users because there won’t be a delay when they open web content. They will get to see their content right away without waiting, and possibly leaving the story before it loads. The feature will also support the ability to expand images and GIFs, giving publishers the ability to create trendy pieces that will resonate with a social media crowd.
The main way it can possibly hinder a business is if Facebook does do what I mentioned earlier in the article. If the social media giant starts to tailor a user’s newsfeed based off of what Instant Articles the user likes, comments on, or shares, this could mean other articles get lost. This can be a detriment to different companies, and it is a legitimate worry. Will this truly happen? We will just need to wait and see how Facebook uses this feature, and how it will impact the newsfeed. It is too soon to say if this will be the main hindrance or if there will be other hindrances to look out for in the future.
This is What Paper Was Supposed to Be
Do you remember when Facebook released a new app that incorporated the person’s Facebook account plus news content? If not, don’t feel too bad. Many people ignored this app, known as Paper, making it an epic failure for Facebook. That didn’t stop the social media company, however. In fact, this new feature is very similar to what Paper was supposed to be for the company. It features the ability to access curated news stories quickly, giving users the ability to read their content in the app. Now that Paper isn’t really being used for that purpose, Facebook has implemented Instant Articles, hoping it will prove to be successful. It might just be since it will be in the Facebook app as Paper could have failed simply due to needing to download yet another app.
Who Does This Really Benefit?
When Facebook implements a new feature, the natural question is who will it really benefit. Many times, people believe that the feature will only benefit Facebook, but the company is trying to make sure people know that is not the case with Instant Articles. First of all, it will benefit the users of Facebook because it provides them with a quicker load time by not making them leave the platform to read the article. It will also benefit publishers because Facebook has said they will receive 100 percent of revenue from Instant Articles ads. Another way publishers benefit is that Facebook is also planning on sharing analytics to help the publisher create perfectly tailored content.
Obviously, Facebook will see benefits such as making it a leading news source, which the company hopes will beat Twitter. If the company is set apart as the leading social channel for news, this means more publishers will work with Facebook, which will bring more viewers, and eventual revenue, to the company. This is all speculation, of course, as everyone waits to see just how Instant Articles will work and if it will be the success Facebook is hoping.
Content is, Yet Again, King With Instant Articles
Just a year or so ago, people were questioning if content was king, or if that statement was starting to be irrelevant. With the new Facebook feature, it is once again driving home just how important content is for websites. This means you need to focus on creating content in the form of web pages, blogs, and social media to help bring in and convert new clients. Express Writers can help you create this content with our web content and social media services. Take a look to see how we can help you by preparing your content for Instant Articles.
Were you in the loop on the webinar that happened this Wednesday? Over 34,000 people signed up and listened in, breaking the world record for 10,899 participants, set by Hubspot just a few years ago in 2011.
The Best Social Media Webinar of All Time
We were there, and the event was worth the hype. No less than three of today’s top social media platforms had a senior director or marketing head present during the webinar, with Hubspot hosting: Russ Laraway, Twitter’s Senior SMB Director; Jed Clevenger, Facebook’s Global Head of SMB Channel Marketing; and Scott Engelman, Head of Online Marketing at LinkedIN.The host was @Dan Zarrella, Hubspot’s own Social Media Scientist. Check out the event page on Hubspot.
Since the webinar was not recorded, we took direct notes while listening in. Here are our favorite tidbits from the experts who spoke. Enjoy! Twitter Company Page tips shared from @Russ Laraway: “Your first impression on Twitter counts. Use your bio to be descriptive and reflective of your business. Give people a compelling reason to follow your account. Include URL to an important landing page, your store hours, and anything that makes it easy to find you. Feature your logo and visual elements to describe your company. @Bonobos is an excellent example that does all of this for their Twitter profile.Be relevant on mobile. Twitter was born on mobile; 75% of users are mobile; think of your Twitter profile as your mobile website.” Business Facebook Page tips by @Jed Clevenger: “We have over 1 million active advertisers. Setting up your Facebook page is huge for your business. Three things to get started:
Fill out complete and accurate information about your business: type, location, hours, URL, contact information. This establishes your business on Facebook, makes it indexed to search.
Have great cover pictures and cover photo. Customers want to see that you’re legitimate.
Use our free Facebook tools: contact importer, where you can upload all your contacts, and friend invites, where you can invite all your friends.
Test new types of content and spend time in your Page Insights to get information on your posts, audience, and traffic. SweetHaus used no advertising dollars to grow their account to over 3,000 likes: promoting to existing customers and finding new customers.” LinkedIN Company Page tips from @Scott Engelman: “Write a company page that is informative and engaging. Use keywords that are relevant to your business to get your company in search results. Think of what image to use—an eye-catching image that invites visitors to learn more. Once it’s set up, invite your company network to follow. Engage with your followers by posting updates.”
Of course, we loved this question:
So much of marketing in social media is copywriting. Should my Twitter campaign copy be different from other copy? Russ, Twitter guru, answered: “The short answer is no, but it’s safe to acknowledge that Twitter offers constraints – 140 characters. Generally speaking, consider email marketing. I bet everybody here does this. With email marketing, you’re creating and constantly refining a list of interested parties; create content; send it out regularly, with minor adjustments, you can use this for your Twitter audience. Your followers are your lists. Work on shorter-form for Twitter. Most of you will create bigger content pieces like blogs, newsletters, e-books, think of these as base documents that you can carve into bite size pieces and use Twitter to drive those bits. For example, take a newsletter. Instead of tweeting the link with “check out the newsletter,” tweet a tip about the newsletter, a series of tips all day, and link to it or that excerpt in it. You can get a lot of mileage out of what you’re already producing this way, just modify it to make it work on Twitter.” How do you get engagement with your tweets?A great question, and it got a great answer from Russ Laraway: “Forgive me for being obvious, but you can get more engagement with your tweets by giving your audience what they want. Really think about the 80/20 rule. 80% of your content should NOT be focused on what you are selling. Non-direct selling, direct offering of value that is informative and helpful. What can your followers benefit from? Best practices, industry trends, are examples of great kind of content. Tweets that include rich media are more than likely to be shared. If you upload an image that tweet will do twice as well. 20% of your content SHOULD be focused on what you are selling.” I can’t seem to grow, how do I get a relevant following?Russ answered: “It is true that it is really important to build a great follower base on Twitter. Remember, followers are optional. The users on Twitter regularly refine who they follow. There is no friction to stop following an account. So, users are very careful about the accounts they follow. Your followers will be interested to hear from you with regularity. Use the profile tips from earlier for a compelling profile, and jump in on industry conversations with hashtags—like the smart marketers hash-tagging #WLW14! For example, if your target audience is educators, reach out to Alexander Russo and build a relationship with them. If you just tweet out valuable content in order to get a retweet, you’ll get more relevant followers over time.” How do I target content for Facebook industry audience? Jed says: “A lot of the same principles from Russ for Twitter can be applied here for Facebook. We encourage you to start testing your way into great content. We have tools similar to A/B testing. From your page, any post you publish can be available to the public, but not all the public. Target your post by location, country, state, city, language, gender, relationship status, educational status, age—there is a ton of targeting option. Speak with an authentic voice to reach core audiences.” How do I use hashtags successfully?Russ said: “Hashtags are best used for tweets driven for engagements. Leave them out of tweets driving direct responses. Don’t squat on a hashtag by just using it. Offer some value when you use it. Anyone can create their own hashtag: just make sure it’s easy to understand, and you’ll get good results. If it’s not widely used, think about trying to build momentum around it. We’ve created the #WLW14 hashtag and incorporated it into other avenues: email, marketing, etc. Build a community around your hashtag.” And Dan at Hubspot added: “Social media is awesome because advertisers can do really smart advertising!” Using sponsored updates on LinkedIN, LinkedIN expert Scott says: “Sponsored updates are a great way to extend your reach and get the best content in front of a target audience. We recommend starting with an organic company post, that has the highest engagement, and use sponsored updates to extend the reach of that post. Use industry location, job function, company size to target these sponsored updates. This allows you to get in front of your audience in an organic way. The power behind this targeting is the accuracy of the data: you can target your exact audience. Finally, sponsored updates allow you to get into desktop, tablet and mobile audiences.” On Facebook app success, Jed says: “Facebook has four pillars for Facebook ad strategies. 1) Ad formats – 20% of all user time in ads are spent on Facebook, in the newsfeed. Create newsfeed ads. 2) Targeting – You’re targeting people, not cookies. You can target them in a safe way. Our targeting includes demographic (age, interests, etc.); custom audiences (from email lists, app users, etc.); just-launched website custom audiences (target people on Facebook who were on your website); look-like audience creation (find other people on Facebook with similar characteristics). 3) Conversion tracking – drop a conversion pixel on your website to track everything. 4) Measurement – use your page insights and manager. An example: Little Passports grew their customer base 300% and cut back on costs by 60% using Facebook advertising. They saw a huge uplift in sales and is their life in sales. Some of the biggest takeaways were about images, which are vital in your tweets, Facebook shares, and LinkedIN posts:
Russ says: “Use images in tweets. You’ll get double the engagement. Get deeper: create images around hashtag vortexes, and make it aligned with what is popular with your audience. You can even pair this with an offer and then track it with Twitter’s tracking capabilities. Chegg is a great example. Using this resulted in 13,000 post engagement purchases, a 23% engagement conversion rate.”
Jed says: “Use bigger and better images. Use pictures that relate to your posts and companies. Use newsfeed advertising.”
Scott says: “Remember, audiences are professional on LinkedIN. Keep this mindset in mind. GE uses creativity in their images that still stay professional.”
And Dan says: “Followers on platforms are different people. Always be experimenting. Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.”
Social media platforms represent dynamic environments in the world of web content tips which more than 56% of all living, breathing individuals connect socially.
In this context, it goes without saying that giant, extremely popular social networking websites are a fertile ground for clever web content strategies, developed and implemented by most companies to grow their online presence, maximize their ROI, enhance conversion rates and increase brand awareness.
Studies indicate that 1.2 billion people have a Facebook account and spend approximately 700 billion minutes on this platform on a monthly basis, exposing themselves to countless marketing messages. Would you like to boost the popularity of your online business on Facebook?
Follow these simple web content tips to gather tons of likes from an increased number of visitors.
#1 Distribute various types of insightful web content to prevent boredom
Posting 2 or 3 photos on a daily basis with a flat comment won’t draw more visitors to your Facebook page. In this case, diversity is the key to success. Distribute various types of web content to discover exactly what makes your targeted audience tick. Count on:
1) Funny, entertaining videos: Do you know what has gone viral these days in your line of work? Don’t be afraid to post videos which are not directly related to your brand, but still manage to entertain, inform and educate your segment of potential buyers. For instance, viral videos about fun, adrenaline-filled activities will always be a gold mine for a well-known, popular energy drink.
2) Inspirational blog posts: Do you want to create buzz around an event, a new product or a recently launched service? Write an engaging blog post and promote it on Facebook.
3) Press releases: Are you getting ready to launch a new product? Are you eager to announce a few recent updates and/or major improvements? Share the exciting news with your friends by posting informative, well-written press releases.
4) Photos: Try to find great pictures which are relevant to your business. Here’s an extra tip: post snapshots of your employees and clients photographed while testing your products. Your motivated staff members and satisfied customers are the best brand evangelists one could ever hope for!
#2 Less is sometimes more on Facebook
Recent studies indicate the fact that most people choose to unfriend their acquaintances simply because they are constantly bombarded with tons of useless information, game invitations and other forms of dull web content. One post a day would be more than enough, though many brands choose to break this rule and end up spamming their followers. A wrong posting strategy is correlated with a low engagement rate, so try to stay active and relevant at the same time without annoying your virtual friends with countless Facebook posts on a daily basis.
#3 In the end, it’s not about you
Social media content strategies are very tricky: the end goal is to bring your brand under the spotlight and persuade your audience into doing something, but without actually leaving the impression that the whole (digital) world revolves around your company and your line of products. Remember the fact that all your followers are self-centered and consider their needs a top priority. Give them tips, useful pieces of advice, recommendations, helpful information, how-to articles, valuable tutorials and they’ll land on your Facebook page regularly, constantly asking for more. Don’t forget to end your posts with a (pertinent) question addressed to your fans to encourage their feedback.
It’s always virtually impossible to reach your destination when you don’t know which way to go. If you’re looking for amazing web content and a suitable social media marketing strategy tailored to your objectives, requirements and expectations count on professional content writing services and start turning dreams into accomplishments today.
Social media is all around us. What started out as a way for college students to stay connected with one another has now consumed the business world. Most businesses that have an online presence typically have at least one social media profile, and an expert to help them with their social media writing.
Social media has opened the door for many businesses to connect to a wider audience. So naturally web writing, when it comes to social media, needs to be specific. Social media encompasses a wide variety of networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and more. Social media is an extension of your overall communication strategy.
Social Media Writing 101: 10 Tips for Best Results
In order to effectively write for social media you need to keep in mind the following ten tips:
1. Know and Understand Your Target Audience
In order to do social media writing effectively, you need to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is. It does you no good to write about hair care products in your posts if your audience is members of the construction field.
2. Know Your Objective
What do you want to achieve with your social media posts? What is the main point you want your audience to know? When your objective is clear; your writing can be more focused
3. Write Using Plain Language
Sometimes, in writing, it is easy to go off on a tangent and write what is clearly playing in your head. The problem is that when you write in that manner, your audience may not have a clue what you’re talking about. You want to write in plain language that gets your point across but is also easily understandable. Never use jargon or slang
4. Talk In An Active Voice.
Writing in an active voice means you’re taking control of the conversation. The verbs you use are the action. Example: This supplement took our client to the next level in her quest for health. The word “took” is the active word. It shows the action
5. Keep Your Messages Short
Social media is about getting the facts in a short and simple way. Remember, with social media you don’t want to write a novel. Keeping it short is also going to cause you to be more specific about what you say. Because the posts, tweets, etc. are short, you have to get to the main point and fast
6. Go Sparingly When It Comes to Acronyms
Remember, people may not know an acronym right away. It is recommended that you use them sparingly. If you have to use an acronym, be sure to spell out what it stands for “before” the acronym itself. Even if an acronym may seem obvious to you, it may not be so obvious to someone else.
7. Numbers Can Help Make Your Point Clear
Numbers can often get to the point for you. However, you need to use them in the right way. So instead of saying “25% of the people” say something like “1 in 4 people”. People tend to relate more to number when they make content easy to understand.
8. Focus On The Positives
It’s easy to point out why someone shouldn’t do something. You get more from your message and your readers, however, by focusing on the positives of anything.
9. Encourage Your Readers With A Call To Action
A call to action gets your readers to do something. Whether it’s clicking on a link or making a change in their life; get them to act.
10. Make the Content Relevant and Relatable
People read and respond to what they feel relates to them and their life. If they can relate to it; make a connection with your post, than you are ahead of the game.
By utilizing these ten tips, your social media writing will be more effective, grab your reader’s attention and get them to act upon it.
Social media is about being sociable. So make sure your writing reaches your audience the way you intended it to. Use these tips and you’ll be on your way to social media success.
