You’re awesome at social media marketing. You’ve focused on creating timely and engaging posts with great content, so you stand out whenever you post.
In this scenario, you’re doing everything right – except for one thing.
What did you forget?
Still scratching your head?
Set aside the content aspect for a second – yes, we know this is difficult, especially if you prioritize quality content like we do – and go back to basics.
….Are your social media profiles optimized?
If you don’t know what this means, you need to.
To put it bluntly, your content can’t be “king” if your profiles — your social home bases — are a hot mess. These two things – content and presentation – need to support each other.
Don’t worry, though – we’re going to dig deeper into why you need to get your profiles on social media optimized. Then we’ll look at five great examples of social media profiles from businesses who are doing it the right way.
Why Do You Need to Optimize Your Profiles on Social Media?
Profile optimization is how you make your social profiles appear to best advantage to curious and interested users, a.k.a. potential leads. Without optimization on all your accounts, your web presence will look disjointed and choppy, not to mention people won’t be able to find your profiles through search engines.
You already know how important it is to be discoverable online, especially if you’re a local business. Applying this to your social media accounts will ensure all of your channels are ripe for the picking for whoever needs to find them. PLUS, you’ll scoop up leads who may be digging deeper into your online presence to find out about your brand and what you stand for.
The cherry on top? 🍒 You’ll cultivate a unified look across your web presence that’s professional, recognizable, and consistent.
The Easy Guide to Overhauling your Social Media Profiles for Great Optimization
Now that you know how important optimization is, we can get down to business.
We’ll start at the shallow end of the pool with something very simple: your profile pictures.
[bctt tweet=”Overhaul your social media profile in three easy steps? Yep, that’s it. Learn how at @ExpWriters ✨” via=”no”]
1. Unify All of Your Profile Pictures
Your profile picture is your online face. People will come to associate your presence with your picture, so make sure it’s relevant to your business as well as eye-catching.
A good rule of thumb is to use your brand logo, but you can always buck tradition for your social presence if you have an equally good photo that sums up your brand. (This could be a great headshot of you [or whoever stands in as your brand’s “face”] a variation of your logo, etc.)
Whatever you do, employ the same profile picture across all the major platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Remember this picture will appear beside all of your social activity, like comments. As such, don’t choose a picture that’s hard to see when it’s scaled down to a tiny icon (like a detailed landscape picture, for instance).
2. Create an Informative Profile Bio
According to Forbes, lots of companies make the mistake of not explaining what they do clearly in their bio.
When users visit your social media pages, they’re probably trying to figure out who you are and/or if they should follow you. They can’t make that decision if you don’t provide them with the necessary information.
The key is to be specific. If you make birthday cakes for dogs, don’t say your company “specializes in dog treats.” If you’re a tech company peddling coding software, don’t be vague and say you offer “solutions for web developers.” State what you do in terms your readers will glom onto. E.g., “Making Fido’s dreams come true on all of his special days with elaborate, canine-friendly cakes.”
Don’t forget to include your location and hours if you’re local. Plenty of people use their smartphones to find out this information about a business on the fly, and it’s frustrating when it’s M.I.A. You may even lose business if someone is checking you out and considering stopping by – but they can’t find your address or hours, so they choose to go elsewhere.
Sprout Social summarizes all of the above keys to visual optimization with this helpful infographic:
Don’t neglect the next point, however.
3. Sneak in Keywords
You can also use keywords in your profile name and description to show up in searches. Choose the most relevant ones and use them wisely to get discovered this way.
Other places to sneak in keywords: your headline, photo descriptions, hashtags, the “about” section, and even in your status updates. Try using a variety of keywords in these various areas and see what happens.
5 Examples of Social Media Pages with Optimal Optimization
With perfectly optimized pages that are consistent, audience-specific, informative, and engaging, these five different companies and organizations are examples of social media presences that hit the nail on the head.
1. NASA
NASA does a lot of things right with their social media profiles. Their Facebook page, for instance, has an eye-catching profile picture and all of the right information to help visitors who want to learn more.
Take a look at their Intro section:
Not only have they provided a succinct bio that states their mission and purpose, they have also included useful information, keywords, and important contact details.
Plus, their Twitter page mirrors their Facebook:
They use a similar profile picture and the same header image. This equals perfect continuity and optimization across their brand outlets, creating a seamless experience.
2. Out of Print
There’s no question about what Out of Print sells when you land on their Twitter page: “Shop bookish t-shirts, totes, socks, mugs, pins, and more!” This is a straightforward bio that gets the job done while inserting a few keywords and a great hashtag. It also nods to the charitable side of their brand without sounding braggy.
Plus, their header image features some of the products, and their stamp logo (mimicking the stamps you’d see in library books long ago) is perfect for the circular Twitter account photo.
Bonus points: using the stack of books emoji strategically!
Note how all of the above carries over seamlessly to their Instagram account:
3. Lifehacker
Lifehacker is a good example of a company that bucks logic in a way that works.
Instead of providing an informative bio, they have a witty one-liner: “Do everything better.” They can get away with this because they’re a well-known brand – they don’t have to explain themselves too deeply.
If you’re a small business just starting out, you can’t logically borrow this technique. However, if you have a wide local following, you could potentially score with this move.
4. Starbucks
Starbucks’ social media profiles take advantage of their world-renowned logo, but here you can see they’re doing something a little differently.
They’re using social media to market themselves as more of a neighborhood coffee shop than a global coffee chain. Just look at their tagline: “Inspiring and nurturing the human spirit – one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time.”
It’s obviously meant to sound warm, friendly, and inviting. They’re positioning themselves as involved with the neighborhoods they serve.
It doesn’t hurt that they re-post customer photos of favorite drinks, and their header image riffs off this concept.
5. Amy Porterfield
Our final example, marketing coach and educator Amy Porterfield, shows how going clear and simple can work incredibly well for optimizing your social media.
Note how, on her Twitter profile, Porterfield includes a short bio on her header image as well as one in the “official” bio field. She uses multiple keywords relevant to her industry and describes her brand in terms of what her followers/clients get out of following her. The emphasis is on THEM, not her. That’s key!
Also key: prominent links to her website. Don’t forget those CTAs to scoop up leads from social!
On Porterfield’s Facebook profile, we see the same optimization techniques, including the consistent branded imagery and similar-but-different profile photo:
Consistency, keywords, client/audience focus, CTAs. Those four things add up to optimized, successful social media profiles!
[bctt tweet=”Check out these five brands that are killing it with their social media optimization, including @starbucks, @amyporterfield, and @lifehacker 🏆 Learn why they work on the Write Blog 🎯” username=”ExpWriters”]
Examples of Social Media Prowess Lead the Way: Follow Suit!
If you’re wanting to improve your marketing game and web presence, look at examples of social media to live up to. Names like Starbucks, NASA, and Lifehacker all have distinctive styles and on-point profiles that you can plumb for inspiration.
Optimizing your profiles is a fantastic way to help you get in front of potential customers online and make you stand out among the hordes.
Pay attention to consistent branding, specific and relevant information, and the power of keywords in all the right spots. Follow these tips, and your presence on social media will shine just like the above powerhouse brands.
If you’re struggling to create the perfect social media profiles, Express Writers can help. Check out our social media products and services and let us help you boost your social clout.
It was exciting for two reasons: for one, it was at The Capital Factory, a dream speaking venue in downtown Austin. For another, I had a fantastic host: Jessica is the founder of Marketing for Greatness and a well-known local marketer here in Austin, Texas. She worked hard at putting together a memorable event, and invited me to come and speak personally. Jessica hosts many networking events locally, and is a great person in real life just as much as she is in marketing. I love being around her.
I said yes to Jessica’s invitation, and the rest is history! This amazing lady worked her network marketing magic and sold out the room – we had 50 seats, and more than 50 in attendance! It was my largest live audience yet.
We had a packed room for #socialmediabootcamp!
I’ve had the idea for a session on how to build authority online using the five foundational types of content for a while, and I decided to explore that for Jessica’s bootcamp. It was the perfect complement session to her opening talk on holistic social media marketing practices.
This talk was born: Building Authority Online & Where it Begins: 5 Types of Content You Should Be Publishing to Grow Your Brand.
After my talk, it was exciting to hear terrific real-time feedback from attendees.
Two senior-level marketing executives that worked in Austin came and found me to tell me how much my talk resonated with them.
“Everything you were saying about content made SO MUCH SENSE! Our ads aren’t working, nothing has been working, and we know we’ve needed a new channel for a while.”
It was clear they were excited to find a way out from old practices that weren’t working. That was a thrill to me to hear! I loved knowing I’d been able to make a difference for someone.
In today’s blog, I’m recapping the talk I gave, including the most important takeaways and lessons. Buckle in!
[bctt tweet=”Check out @JuliaEMcCoy’s recap of her talk on building #authority online through #content, live at @capitalfactory in #ATX for @jessicamcampos’ #socialmediabootcamp ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Social Media Bootcamp LIVE in Austin, Texas (Hosted by Jessica Campos)
Here’s a look at our fun day in Austin at Jessica’s bootcamp, put together by my designer in a collage. Keep scrolling for top takeaways, a recap of Jessica’s and my session, and some special shoutouts!
Jessica Campos: Social Media Practices That Bring Real Results in Your Business
Jessica Campos started off Friday’s Social Media Bootcamp with a fantastic, action-packed session.
She talked about the reality of “marketing” on social media, and how it’s not okay to just “turn to the person next to you, and ask, Would you like to lose ten pounds?” — and she had the whole room nodding and laughing. If it’s not okay to do in a waiting room, why do it on social media? She shared with us the typical journey of one of her warm leads: the person left her website open in their tab for days, closed it, came back through a Facebook ad and then clicked over to the blog, left the site again and came back to the contact page in another few days. And repeat.
I relate! We cannot predict our buyer’s journey. Jessica shared how the marketing funnel is dead, and what’s replaced it: the loyalty loop. (As most of you already know by now, I completely agree that the funnel is dead. I’ve written about that here.)
Jessica also shared how to discover your audience using tools like Facebook Insights and Google Analytics’ user behavior, two great tools for finding out real information about your audience.
Using the whiteboard to write out the frameworks she shared, Jessica covered several areas that made up a “sandwich,” or “burger” to help us remember how to build a solid social media marketing strategy:
The importance of data and knowing what your leads and ideal audience is actually doing and thinking of
Building avatars to represent and get to know your ideal audience
Creating a culture to attract your tribe and people
Writing a manifesto to represent who you are with a brand voice to differentiate yourself from the masses
Focusing on growing your influence online to attract people to you and your brand
Jessica also did a real-life marketing analysis with one of the attendees, Lori Stinson, an agent and owner for logistics and supply chain company DSV. It was awesome!
With Lori next to her, Jessica built avatars to represent Lori’s ideal audience, an experienced, established company out in California. One method I loved was when Jessica told Lori that LinkedIn was going to be her best bet to earn social media leads from. Several members of the audience also shared terrific ways Lori could create fun marketing campaigns to pull in the eyes and ears of her ideal people.
Around noon, Jessica wrapped up her session, and we all had a lunch break. Then, it was time for my session.
Special Shoutout to Jeff at Chubby Diaries & @YoungMommy (Christine Young) on Twitter
I want to take a quick moment to give some well-deserved shoutouts.
Jessica asked Jeffrey Jenkins, a local entrepreneur, travel influencer, speaker, and the founder of ChubbyDiaries.com, to attend and record media for us (as content creators, Jessica and I are all about maximizing our event presence). He took our photos and the raw video (coming soon to my YouTube channel!). Special shoutout to Jeff, who was a fantastic help!
Another shoutout to Christine Young, supermom to 7 and blogger at FromDatestoDiapers.com, for live-tweeting during our event! She captured some fantastic takeaways live during our bootcamp.
Great ideas = great content. Take time to brainstorm ideas, research topics, gather data, and formulate topics for posts. #socialmediabootcamp
Building Authority Online & Where it Begins: 5 Types of Content to Grow Your Brand (Recap of My Live Talk)
I started my session with these important facts about today’s buyer:
81% of U.S. consumers trust information and advice from blogs. (BlogHer)
Email remains an incredibly effective channel at driving purchases. In 2018, 17.75% of clicked-through emails resulted in a purchase. This stat has been increasing every year. (Barilliance.com study)
47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. (DemandGen)
Good content is becoming the foundation of good marketing.
Bond studied the results from over $10,000,000+ in Facebook ad spend across seven and eight-figure brands for months, and discovered that from 2016 to late 2018, the ROA (return on advertising) for a traditional ad funnel plummeted from 11.8x all the way to .6x. On average, marketers are now losing money on ads. Crazy!
Then, I went into the five types of content to build to see real results online, starting with the important foundational overview:
Build consistent content on your website (your online house), AND: start list-building, getting visible on social media, and be intimately familiar with the what and how of creating content that works.
5 Types of Content to Build
The five types of content I recommended to attendees for a strong online presence are these:
Blogs
Site Content (Web Pages)
Email
Social Media
List-Builders (Downloadables: Lead Magnets, Free Ebooks)
Goal of SEO rankings in Google, inbound traffic, and list-building: Create long-form (1000w-3000w) blogs
Goal of brand awareness, event sharing, news/launch: Short-form (500-800w) blogs
I also shared the importance of scannable content over readable content. Scannable content goes a step further. It’s when you focus on crafting content that contains zero fluff. When you format properly, with H2s, H3s, and strong sectioned-out content. I shared the structure of a good blog, taking inspiration from one of the world’s best bloggers: Jon Morrow of Smart Blogger.
Specifically, I shared one of his top-shared blogs, which is also top #10 in Google for ‘how to become a freelance writer.’ This is an example of a terrific blog for these reasons:
It starts with a story that ‘hooks’ the ideal reader into a situation they dream of or wish to be in one day.
Then, Jon tells them the story can come true with statistical proof as to how big the industry is, and how much freelance writers are needed.
Then, he adds tons and tons of value to the reader’s life, in a 3,000-word monster blog.
Next, I covered the three stages of how to craft great blog content.
Blogging is best done in stages:
Ideation
Creation
Publishing
Great ideas are the key to great blogs, and that’s why leaving time and space just for ideas and research. I spend a day JUST for ideation, called Brainstorming Day, and validate each idea by researching with the right tools (BuzzSumo, KWFinder, SEMrush are some go-tos). I teach the how of content ideation in my Content Strategy & Marketing Course.
[bctt tweet=”‘I spend a day just for content ideation, and I call it Brainstorming Day.’ More on #contentcreation methods that build your #authority online from @JuliaEMcCoy’s live talk in #ATX” username=”ExpWriters”]
Next, I covered web pages, email content, and list-builders. (Blogs are very often the meat of your consistent online presence, so I spent the most time there.)
Good web pages are:
Focused: Created around one clear keyword or page topic to focus around (one topic per page).
Word Count: The majority of clear, well-crafted web pages are 400-1200w, depending on topic & product features.
Clear Formatting: Well-formatted with clear headline, body introduction, H2s, H3s.
I shared a few critical “must-dos” for web page copy:
Clarity over cleverness in the copy. Be CLEAR on what the page is about.
YOU/YOUR vs. WE/OUR: Less “our”, more “you!” Be customer-focused.
Next, for email content, I talked about sending consistent campaigns. Marketers, send emails for almost every new thing you do or publish on your site. Here are a few reasons to send an email to your list:
New content (blogs) that you post on your site
Events (online or in-person) you’re hosting or guesting at
Product/service launches or updates
Less often: sales emails (courses, services)
The rule of thumb to not tick anyone off accidentally in your free vs. pitch-focused content is this:
For every pitch, send a minimum of three value-focused emails.
[bctt tweet=”3:1 — For every one pitch, send a minimum of three value-focused emails. More on #contentcreation methods via @JuliaEMcCoy’s recap of her live talk in #ATX” username=”ExpWriters”]
I also talked about email headlines and how important it is to optimize them without click-baiting. Clarity and specific statements work best in email headlines.
Then, I merged into social media, and kept my tips focused to copywriting, with a few other relatable key takeaways.
A few important reminders I shared when writing social media copy:
Brevity in copy
Be visual-heavy, copy-light
Use emojis in your copy
Use hashtags (don’t overload – less can be more esp. on Twitter/LinkedIn)
Go live or upload short videos on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
I also shared that authenticity matters in social media. Your audience WANTS you to speak what you think on social media, and share the REAL YOU. It’s true — we have examples from leading marketers of patterns of virility from posting real, original thoughts that focus on an audience pain point that everyone in that audience can relate to. For example, this tweet from Chris Kubby that turned into another viral Instagram post:
Marketers don’t ruin everything.
Bad, no-talent, un-creative marketers trying to sell things too quickly to the wrong audience ruin everything.
I talked about the importance of giving yourself time, space, and knowledge (getting to know your real audience) to have these original, genuine thoughts. Without time and space, you aren’t giving your mind permission to come up with these thoughts; and without knowledge, you won’t know what kind of pain points your audience actually has that you need to speak and relate to.
Finally, I wrapped up with a segment on list-building, and covered how to write and put together these three types of list-builders:
Case Studies/Whitepapers
Lead Magnets & Ebooks
Cheat Sheets (Content Upgrades, Templates)
One of our most popular case studies is this one, where we partnered with our client at Nfusion Solutions to uncover SEO keywords and craft SEO content that built their presence online. They were a fantastic client to work with, and we were able to build a great case study based on their story and what we were able to do together.
I also shared another authority-building “secret:” content upgrades, a term first coined by Brian Dean of Backlinko back in 2016.
A content upgrade is when you create a blog and a PDF summary or cheat-sheet, and combine the two. The PDF you’re giving away inside your blog offers that extra tidbit of value for your list, and they’re already going to be interested in downloading it because it’s 100% relevant to the blog they’re reading. HUGE opportunity for list building!
For the past few years, we’ve been growing by 9-12 subscribers on average daily, autopilot, just through all the content upgrades I’ve built over the years. It is a ton of work to set up, but completely worth it!
Special Announcement! Content Hacker Coming Soon
Towards the end of the bootcamp, I shared a fun announcement. (This will be new for many of you Write Blog readers, too, unless you frequent Twitter or Facebook – the cat is out of the bag on most of my social media platforms!)
Everyone attending and watching my presentation had been getting a sneak peek of the new branding for my all-new brand launching in June, Content Hacker.The colors, style, everything was a sneak peek into the branding that will be a part of my new site and brand when it launches. I think I had the biggest smile on my face when I was talking about this. I’m so excited to reveal Content Hacker! Content Hacker will be a #1 resource for every growth-focused content marketer on the planet: a tribe, a community, a resource hub, a place where I interview Content Hackers making a difference, a blog for productivity and life improvements alongside best content practices, bespoke content marketing consulting, and more.
Join me when we launch – sign up to the launch list to get notified (and when you sign up, you’ll get a special letter from me explaining part of the mission behind the launch!). Click below to go to Content Hacker and sign up to learn about my new brand launching in June.
Wrapping Up #SocialMediaBootcamp With a Panel
To wrap up our bootcamp at The Capital Factory, Jessica had a great idea: invite former newscaster Kim Zook Barnes, award-winning newscaster and the brains behind Barnes Team Media, an on-camera and media/video training consulting agency, to a panel with both of us afterwards.
Together, the three of us took Q&As that the audience was asked to write down during our session. It was a fantastic idea on Jessica’s part and turned out well! We were able to answer some great questions live. Kim added some great insights from her experience in on-camera communications. See Jessica’s recap for the full Q&A list.
Video Recap of My Session
That’s a Wrap: How to Use 5 Types of Content to Grow Your Authority Online for Jessica’s #SocialMediaBootcamp in Austin, Texas
Thanks for hanging for my recap of Friday’s live talk!
It was an amazing event by Jessica Campos, and I was truly honored to be a part of it. Anything Jessica does is fabulous, so it was a no-brainer “yes.”
I hope you enjoyed it — in some way, either being there live or reading this recap — and were able to take away a new idea or two to use in your business.
Psst… If you don’t have them yet, don’t forget to grab your copy of my (93+!) slides:
Have questions? Anything to add to the conversation? Were you there? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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:
Image Credit: Wordstream
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 other content delivery platforms because you could end up losing out on a lot more than you may realize at first.
5. Get Ready to Produce Original Content on the Majority of Social Platforms
More than ever we are seeing just how important original content is in the realm of social media.
There are multiple places that are requiring original content from Facebook to YouTube, and many sites like Upworthy are making sure they’re producing it.
In fact, research is already showing just how important original content is on platforms like Facebook. Native videos on Facebook do significantly better than those shared from third parties.
What’s the breakdown of how well these videos do? The videos end up reaching two times more people, getting shared three times more than third party videos, and receive seven times more comments.
Getting original content is not difficult, and when you focus on it, you will start to notice that more people are willing to engage and share.
6. Up Your Twitter Content Game with Powerful Tweets
The other big thing you should focus on with this new setup is convincing people to click your links and get to your page.
There are several awesome ways to do this, but a really great way is utilizing images.
Buffer takes a look at the power of images on Twitter, showing that tweets with photos get 18 percent more clicks, as well as 89 percent more favorites.
What about re-tweets? Tweets with images were re-tweeted 159 percent more for Buffer. Incredible, no?
7. Use Your Hashtags to Bring in More Readers and Viewers
You should also make sure you are hashtagging correctly. It can be super easy to hashtag a tweet to death trying to reach everyone you possibly can, but that doesn’t work well anymore. Linchpin SEO did a study showing that tweets that utilize two hashtags saw a 21 percent increase in engagement. And tweets with more than two? The engagement numbers actually dropped by 17 percent. Original, Powerful Content is More Important Than Ever
With all of these great advances in long-form content publication, you need to start creating awesome long-form content.
You need to ensure you are focusing on creating original content consistently to not only work with Facebook but also with Google and Twitter.
Conclusion
It’s always a good time to focus on the quality and consistent production of your content, and now that Twitter’s doing away with character limits, time to focus on long-form, high quality content even more! Express Writers can provide you with the exact type of long-form content you need to see awesome results.
What do you think about all this? Share in the comments!
Are you looking for a great, new way to help leverage your social media campaign? Of course you are, that’s why you’re reading this blog!
There currently exists on the web an excellent social media channel that has been around for a while now, yet is starting to become a very vital aspect of any social media campaign – Pinterest. That’s right, the channel that gives people recipes and DIY tips is the next element in an impressive social media campaign. Let’s take a look at why this channel will be important for you, the various advantages of it, and how you can use Pinterest to generate revenue.
Why is Pinterest Such an Important Channel?
Pinterest hasn’t always been on the social media radar as an important channel for businesses. However, it is an incredible channel that can help bring about engagement and revenue for your company. According to Suzanne Delzio at Social Media Examiner, Pinterest currently has 47 million users, and this number is expected to grow exponentially in 2016. Researchers believe this growth will happen going off of past analytics that show users doubling in 2014, and more people are signing up for the social site each day. This means that your clients are likely to be on this channel already, and if they aren’t, they soon will be. While Pinterest has been a site mainly populated by women, the social media channel has attempted to grow the demographic, and reports are showing that the amount of men signing up is growing quick.
As you can see, the platform is growing by leaps and bounds in many different areas and demographics, making it an important channel. You need to make sure you are on this channel soon and well before 2016 starts.
Who Uses Pinterest the Most?
I briefly mentioned above that women use this site the most, but that the amount of male users is growing quickly. However, I am going to give a bit more detail into the users to help you craft an excellent campaign. According to Carly Stec at HubSpot, one-third of users are women, and that number is up by 25 percent. In addition, 8 percent of men inside the United States use the social channel, which is a growth from 5 percent. These numbers are expected to rise, and this means that there will be more shoppers will to buy your products or services. For now, women are still dominating over at Pinterest, and should be a target audience. However, don’t neglect the men who are starting to use this channel, as well.
The Anatomy of a Pinterest Brain
When it comes to Pinterest, you need to know and understand the anatomy of a user’s brain. Just why do they go to the platform and how do they become a shopper instead of a browser? Let’s take a look!
“I’m Just Looking at Various Things.” When someone opens their Pinterest app or goes on the desktop site, they simply start out looking and browsing what is being shared. Many times, they don’t go in with the intention of buying, but, by following a few steps, many do end up doing so.
“Well, This is Interesting.” The next part of the anatomy of a Pinterest brain is that someone has to think the image, idea, or product looks interesting. The more interesting the pin, the more likely that person will be to click on the image and then the link attached, directing them to a site. This can then lead them to purchase the item from the picture.
“I Need to Narrow This Down.” Many times, people who are browsing Pinterest will see a multitude of interesting things, but they want to make sure they narrow things down. This helps them decide which pins to share or which products to buy.
“This is Exactly What I Need.” After narrowing things down, users will end up buying what they find to be exactly what they need. This is why it is important to make your pins stand out. You want it to be the winning pin for the Pinterest brain. Don’t worry; I am going to look at how you can achieve this later in the blog.
5 Incredible Advantages to Using Pinterest for Your Business
Before I get into how you can make incredible revenue with a Pinterest account, I want to look at the advantages of joining. Some people might not be sure that it is a site they can use, but there are some incredible benefits to it.
You Can Reach a Younger Demographic. Pinterest gives you access to a younger demographic, and while you might want to reach an older one, young people can really help your business. You shouldn’t ignore this demographic because you might be surprised just how much revenue you can bring in when you advertise to them. Pinterest is a great starting place for this.
You Can Use it as a Marketing Tool on Your Site or in Your Store. If you have product images or blogs, you can add a Pinterest social share button to your site. This will encourage users and readers to pin anything they find interesting on their own account, therefore sharing it with their friend group. If their friends find it interesting, they will share that pin and so on. This can bring in more people to that product, blog, or landing page, and once there, you can convert them to leads.
You Can Share More Than Just Your Products. When it comes to Pinterest, you aren’t limited to only sharing product images. In fact, you can share your blogs, other landing pages, and also share helpful information from industry leaders. You can create boards for each and every idea you have, helping to keep them all organized, and allowing people to follow the boards they find interesting.
You Can Create a Board that Links to Your Blogs. Do you want to drive more traffic to your blogs? Then create a board and link directly to each post as you share it. Make sure to use your keywords in the pin description and use hashtags, as well.
Pinterest Gives You the Chance to Make Your Brand More Human. This gives you a chance to show your brand in a more human light, which can help people trust you. You can create a board that shows the “daily life” of your company and share images or create an “event” board to show your events. Whatever shows a personal side to your business will help make your brand more human.
10 Ways to Use Pinterest to Generate Revenue
Now that you can see some of the benefits of using Pinterest, I am going to look at how you can use it to generate revenue. I will be referencing a few points from the HubSpot article by Carly Stec I shared towards the beginning of this blog.
Here are some things you can do on your Pinterest account to have a successful presence.
Use Several Dominant Colors in Your Pin. Carly points out that images with dominant colors tend to receive more than three times the amount of shares and re-pins as those that don’t. Make sure you use more than one dominant color, as one won’t be as likely to get as many shares. This will help you stand out and make people look at your pins, and then, as I said, they will share. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Stay Away from Sharing a Human Face. Pinterest is an artsy social channel, which means that people like to see more artistic images than regular. One of the things that people seem not to like as much on the platform is seeing the human face in their images. You can show a person, but consider photos that have the person looking away, with a focus elsewhere like on a book or a cup of tea.
Get Artsy With Your Pins. As I said, Pinterest is artsy, which means that artsy pins are going to be shared more than plain looking ones. There are many ways you can make an image look artsy by adding filters and focusing on different things in the image. If you are sharing a photo of a field, consider one that focuses on a flower with the field behind; just something that looks pretty and artistic.
Bring Down Your Image’s Saturation. Carly also gives another tip for creating a good image to share on the channel, which is to bring down the image saturation. This gives it that Instagram filter feel, which can make people especially younger individuals look at it more. This is something you can easily do with the editing software that comes with your computer or by locating different online places that can help.
Create Infographics that Provide Your Clients With Value. Pinterest is a very visual platform, as you can see, which means you need to have great visual content ready. However, your business might not be one with many visuals. A great way to utilize the channel is to create and share valuable infographics for your user base, encouraging them to read and share with others.
Have a Decent Amount of Pins Already Pinned. In order for people to consider following your Pinterest account or boards, you need to have pins already pinned. This can attract more people because you will look active on the account. If you have nothing pinned, users won’t know if you are a valuable brand to follow. Create a few boards and pin different things to them to start out, and you will begin to see more people willing to either follow you or one or two of your boards.
Promote Your Brand on Pinterest. Promoting on Pinterest is one of the best ways to get noticed. It is rare for people to stumble on someone’s account if it isn’t being promoted. Social Media Examiner points out that Pinterest says that promoted pins can get just as much traffic as regular ones, which helps with organic traffic. While it is still new, this is still a great idea for different businesses. You can join the list to become one of the businesses able to use it by signing up to be chosen to be in the beta program.
Set Up a Collaboration with Other Popular Pinners. You can set up collaborative boards that allow others that aren’t from your business to pin to it. You don’t want to leave it open for just anyone, but you can invite other popular pinners or select people from your business who are also on Pinterest. This can help curate a lot of content from all over and different viewpoints, giving users the ability to get unique, great content from all over.
Create Contests and Have People Create Their Own Boards. Pinterest creates a great opportunity to have contests for your clients. You’ll need to make sure that you follow the rules when it comes to contests, but it can be a great way to bring in more followers and eventual new clients. A great example of Pinterest content is Adagio Teas’ contest that encouraged clients to create a board of their top ten favorite items from the store. Once a user created the board, Adagio said to email the board and be entered into the contest, and everyone who did, received a small gift certificate in return.
Share Your Pins in Your Weekly or Monthly Email Newsletter. When you share your newsletter with your clients, you can start to gain followers by including your pins in your emails. This can help your email marketing and also drive engagement and revenue. You can take a screenshot of your top or best pins from the week or month and then create a link for people to click on. This will take them directly to your pins and account, and get them looking at your other content, as well.
Enrich Your Business and Use Pinterest
Pinterest can really help enrich your business and make your social media campaign impactful. You will find that after you have established a presence that you can start driving excellent revenue. If you need help creating infographics or content for your Pinterest campaign, then contact Express Writers. We can help you create an excellent campaign and give your clients access to great infographics.
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.
