Express Writers
#ContentWritingChat March 22 Recap: Strategies for Finding/Creating Great Media to Go With Your Content with Kelsey Jones

#ContentWritingChat March 22 Recap: Strategies for Finding/Creating Great Media to Go With Your Content with Kelsey Jones

by | Mar 25, 2016 | ContentWritingChat

Did you miss this week’s #ContentWritingChat? Well, you’re in luck because we have a full recap! We talked all about finding and creating media (images, videos, and audio) to go with your content. Keep reading for some of the highlights from the chat and start implementing these tips into your online presence.

#ContentWritingChat March 22 2016 Recap: Strategies for Finding/Creating Great Media to Go With Your Content

For this week’s chat, our guest host was Kelsey Jones. Kelsey is a Marketing Strategist and the Executive Editor at Search Engine Journal, where our CEO Julia is a guest contributor. We love SEJ and we were honored to have Kelsey join us! She shared her best tips on creating great media to go along with your blog posts, social media, and more – our hour was packed full with information!

Julia was unable to make it, unfortunately, due to her baby toddler being sick – but we still managed to have fun. 😉

Q1: How do you find or create the perfect video/image/audio?

When we’re creating media, we always want to ensure it’s our absolute best! How do you do that? It seems the participants of Tuesday’s chat were pretty unanimous with their answers.

Kelsey, Village Print & Media, and Hannah all agree that you need to keep your audience in mind when creating images, videos, and audio content. Your audience is the most important thing and you want to ensure you’re creating media that will resonate with them. Plan your message and figure out what your audience is most drawn to.

Q2: What are some tips on creating great images to share in blog posts?

When it comes to blog posts, it’s important to add at least one image to your written content. A great image will help get your audience’s attention and keep them interested. To create amazing images for your next posts, read these tips:

Liliana and Amel are spot on! Make sure the images you create for your posts are actually related to your written content. You can’t just put any old image together. It needs to complement your post.

Hannah offered some good advice with her answer: Learn, test, optimize. Don’t be afraid to try new things to see how your audience responds. You just want to make sure you always stay on brand!

Make sure you don’t go overboard with your images! As Brittany pointed out, images that are too large can slow down your page loading time. If your page takes too long to load, you risk losing out on potential readers who don’t want to wait.

If you’re looking for another way to step-up your images within blog posts, try Kate’s tip! She recommends creating graphics out of some of the strongest quotes within your posts. It’s a great way to ensure they stand out and are seen by your audience.

Q3: What are some tips on creating great images to share on social media?

It’s important to have a great image to include with your social media posts because it helps your content stand out in a busy timeline. Kelsey, ThinkSEM, Varun, Village Print & Media, and Partha all shared some helpful tips:

When creating images, you should always keep Kelsey’s advice in mind. Use the right kind of fonts for your brand/business. Fonts convey a certain personality and you want to make sure you’re using the right ones for your images.

For example, fun and playful fonts won’t be the best fit for a corporate company, but work well for a creative business.

As ThinkSEM and Varun said, make sure you keep sizing in mind when creating images for social media. Each platform has guidelines when it comes to an ideal size for graphics. Figure out which sizes work best for each platform and make sure you design accordingly!

As always, make sure you have your audience in mind when creating any kind of content! Village Print & Media suggests designing images that will get your audience’s attention and are relatable, inviting, creative, and neat.

Partha offered some fantastic advice with his answer: include a call to action (CTA). Use your images to tell your audience what to do next.

Q4: What are some of the best tools for creating great media?

If you’re looking for some new tools to try out to help you create amazing media, our chat participants offered a lot of great suggestions. Check them out:

ThinkSEM recommends using Photoshop/Lightroom, Canva, or PicMonkey. Although, sometimes it just doesn’t get better than getting behind the camera, right?

So many people in Tuesday’s chat raved about Canva, which should come as no surprise because it’s a fantastic tool. We use it here at Express Writers too! Pablo by Buffer is another good way to create images quickly and easily.

Thinking beyond images, Kelsey says she loves to use Instagram and Facebook for events. She also recommends everyone checks out Blab. It’s an awesome way to add live streaming video to your online presence.

Q5: Are there limitations to what you can create? When should you hire a designer?

Should you hire a designer? Should you do it all yourself? It depends! Here’s what we learned in the chat:

Kelsey and the team at Search Engine Journal know the importance of a great designer. Their designer helps create images for podcasts, webinars, and more.

As Brittany said, you’re only limited by yourself. If you want to get better at creating graphics, start reading up on design tips and implement them. You can get better the more you learn and the more you practice!

If you find that you’re still struggling to get your designs just right, consider hiring someone to help.

Q6: What kind of media works best in blog posts?

Are you wondering what kind of media works best in your blog posts? Netvantage Marketing, Shannon, Kelsey, Kate, and Kristen all offered some great advice.

As Netvantage Marketing and Shannon said: consider your audience. Give your audience the types of media they are looking for and make sure it fits the content of your post.

Kelsey recommends going beyond just sharing images in your blog posts. Add social media content and embed videos as well!

As Kate pointed out, you need to keep mobile users in mind due to load times, user experience, and data limits. Make sure you always test your content on mobile before you publish it. Your blog posts should not take long to load and they should always be easy to navigate on mobile devices. Also, remember that some people are limited to how much data they can use on their phones. If you embed a video, consider adding a written transcript for people who can’t watch.

Kristen knows that many people today love GIFs! Take advantage of that by incorporating GIFs into your blog posts when appropriate.

Q7: How can you work storytelling into your visuals/media?

Make sure your visuals/media tell a story to your audience. If you’re not sure exactly how to do that, read these tips:

Kelsey said it’s important to take the time to get your images right. It’s not just about what your images say. You need to make sure they have the right style and that they are high quality.

ThinkSEM recommends making your audience part of the content. Add quotes, statistics, and information relevant to your readers.

Your images can evoke an emotion within your audience. Make a connection with them by tugging on their heartstrings like McKinney & Associates said.

Both Varun and Kristen know the importance of incorporating real people into your media content. Varun says to share real stories of people who have been positively impacted by your product/service. Kristen agreed, saying that it helps to humanize your story.

Q8: What are safe practices to be aware of when using/creating visuals to avoid licensing issues?

Don’t think you can just go around the web pulling any images you like. There are copyright issues you need to be aware of. If you want to avoid any licensing issues, keep these tips in mind:

Like Kelsey, many people like to use Creative Commons to find images for their graphics. If you do, be sure to properly attribute the source.

You cannot just Google Image Search a topic and use whatever you find. Most of those images are copyrighted and could get you in a lot of trouble if you use them.

If you’re buying photos, make sure you know what the limitations are. Some photos can be used for any type of media, while others are for editorial use only. Make sure you take the time to read the fine print.

Finally, if you really want to be on the safe side, try taking your own photos. You can’t get in trouble if you’re taking the photos for all of your graphics.

We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM CDT for great chats centered around content writing and marketing!

#ContentWritingChat March 8 2016 Recap: Best Practices for Content Curation in 2016

#ContentWritingChat March 8 2016 Recap: Best Practices for Content Curation in 2016

by | Mar 11, 2016 | ContentWritingChat

We had so many new participants in this week’s Content Writing Chat – we couldn’t have been more thrilled with the turn out. Lots of new faces joined us. We were even a trending topic in the USA again, reaching our highest rank so far: #40!


If you missed it, there’s no need to worry because we have a recap of some of the best tweets of the chat. Keep reading to learn all about content curation!

#ContentWritingChat March 8 2016 Recap: Best Practices for Content Curation in 2016

Our guest host for this week’s chat was Guillaume Decugis. Guillaume is the Co-Founder and CEO of Scoop.it, and an all-around awesome entrepreneur and influencer in the content marketing space. Julia has interviewed him previously on G+ Hangouts and Blab. He joined us to share his thoughts on best practices for content curation in 2016.

What is content curation exactly? Guillaume, Kristen, Kyle, and Grenae all chimed in with great answers for our first question!

It’s all about discovering and publishing content that is relevant to your audience. Grenae said you should add your own insights, examples, and experience when sharing content from others. As Kyle mentioned, it’s a good way to advance the conversation.

It seems everyone agrees: you can’t have creation without curation! Guillaume mentioned that we should all have a balance between creating content and curating content. Kyle said it’s important to create great content ourselves, but to also promote others who are creating great content as well.

Even our CEO, Julia, agrees. She said she can’t create without curation. Curating amazing content can be a huge source of inspiration!

Although Guillaume and Julia don’t have a specific ratio they follow, they both recognize that balance is KEY. Provide your audience with a mix of valuable content from you and from other sources.

Both Chris and Kyle are fans of a 60/40 ratio. Your goal should always be to give your audience useful content and to tune in to what others are saying.

And as Jeremy said, curation shows that you care about what others are saying. You let others know that you’re listening when their content is part of your curation.

We received a ton of suggestions for great content curation tips from everyone in the chat on Tuesday! As Netvantage Marketing said, you should consider where your audience is getting their information. Check out the websites and sources they’re reading.

Guillaume mentioned using his tool, Scoop.it, but also said email newsletters are a great place to find content. Make sure you’re subscribed to some of the influential blogs within your industry to see what people are talking about!

Kristen is a fan of Feedly and Paper.li. Varun likes using Twitter Lists to find awesome content. If you create a List of influencers in your industry, you can easily scroll through updates and find a ton of new content. Tajah suggests checking out some of your favorite hashtags to see what others are posting.

And as Julia and Dagmar mentioned, BuzzSumo is a fantastic tool for curation. We use it here at Express Writers on a regular basis.

When it comes to content curation, there are a few things you should always keep in mind. Guillaume stressed the importance of always giving proper credit to the original source. Never try to take credit for something you didn’t create!

Tara said you should always read content in its entirety before you share it with your audience. Never blindly retweet or share something without checking it out first.

Omni Sodo suggested using tools to save you time when curating content. Kyle recommended using Twitter Lists as a way to track people and brands who consistently publish great content.

Some content curation don’ts: Don’t be unethical. Don’t steal content and try to pass it off as your own. Don’t curate for search engines. (Curate for your audience instead!)

Here are just a few of the amazing tools you should use when curating content: Scoop.it, Storify, Feedly, Buffer, Quora, BuzzSumo, social media platforms, and Google Trends.

We had an open Q&A session at the end of the chat and invited everyone in the chat to ask Guillaume questions. Check out a couple of his answers below:

We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM for great chats centered around content writing and marketing!

#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!