9 Reasons Why A Blog is Important for Your Career and Life

The word “blog” sounds dull to me.

There is no resonating romance, and trying to attach passion to it is a struggle. I see visions of over-sharers wrestling with technology to publish the mundane details of their everyday lives… but maybe that’s Facebook.

“Blog” originated as slang for “web log.” Those two words were mauled and mangled and out popped “blog”. Try and explain that to a blogger at a dinner party – you just have to love the magic of language, grammar and words. Always evolving.

So why should you blog?

Three motivations are the most obvious.

• A passion project. A blog is your digital portal to share your current passion online. It’s text and multimedia without ink stains or Facebook distractions.
• An entrepreneur’s platform. Maybe you’d like to write professionally, working with brands and advertisers to receive compensation for your creativity.
  
• An expert’s expression. A blog is a place where you distill the experiences, thoughts and ideas that you have learned during your education, career and life journey.

The truth lies hidden somewhere in between.

Still…Why should you?

A successful career and life is based upon being “on purpose.” We all bring our own magic and uniqueness into the world. Your goal in life is to discover what that is, embrace it and share it.

Your blog can be the digital platform where it’s revealed.

To start a blog and continue to create and publish you will need to find the inspiration for the words and ideas.

Inspiration does not emerge from a vacuum. No matter how you twist and turn in a digital and media-rich world powered by Instagram photos and videos, the blog is still driven by words and writing.

Stephen King sums up where the inspiration starts…

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Here are 9 reasons why blogging will make a big impact on your career and life if you are prepared to start the journey to create and publish:

1. Blogs refine your thoughts

Sitting down and distilling your ideas and insights into structured sentences and paragraphs is an art. Wrangling and wrestling those words into shape will produce clarity from the cloud. Make it a practice every day, and magic happens.

2. Blogs reward the creator

Creating is one thing, but publishing is another. Being willing to put your ideas “out there” takes bravery and a willingness to be vulnerable. Doubts may stop you. These include:

• Why would anyone want to read my ideas?
  
• I have nothing new to say.
  

Overcome your fears and publish your creation. Rewards will come. 

3. Blogs amplify your humanity

A blog amplified by social networks with simple-to-use interfaces is the intersection of humanity and technology. It is an extension and amplification of our uniqueness, creativity and content to 7 billion people.

The low-friction sharing will amplify who you are to a world that is waiting to hear your voice. 

4. Blogs connect us to our tribes

Tribes are no longer local but global connections of shared interests and passions. Blogs that are powered by Twitter feeds and online communities allow us to connect to those global tribes… in real time.

Connection with global communities provides insights and networks that can accelerate your learning process, opportunity and success.

You change them and they change you.

5. Blogs give introverts a voice

Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking highlights a new opportunity. The introvert now has a voice. It is estimated that 50% of us fit into that category. If you feel that is you then your blog can be your platform to speak to the world, let your personality shine and be heard. 

6. Blogs reward the “new age” publishers

Blogs are online magazines, books and resources all rolled into one.

A portal for expression, learning and publishing, they validate our creative content by quantifying attention through retweets, comments and sharing.

7. Blogs embrace the experimenters

In the age of print, making mistakes was expensive and time-consuming. With your online publishing platform you can experiment in real time with no financial risk.

8. Blogs accelerate discovery

The low friction of the social web allows content creators to bypass the old gatekeepers of editors and publishers. What took years or decades to achieve that important attention can be done in weeks and months.

9. Blogs open up a world without borders

Opportunity in the past was often limited to “local.” Today your online platform isn’t restricted by geography. The world is now your playpen.

You will grow

The consistent and persistent effort of online creation and publishing is a powerful journey in self-discovery and growth. It will be a career enhancer and a life changer. That willingness to be vulnerable, to make mistakes but keep creating will change you.

It is only through the door of risk that growth can enter.

You just have to start.

Disclaimer: I’m compensated by University of Phoenix for this blog. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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How 7 Top Influencers Share Great Content on Twitter

The digital battle is on!

Content competition is fierce. One billion websites, two billion plus social media users and 3 billion plus mobile owners. So you need to break through the clutter not only on desktop but on smart phones. But build it and they will come is not an option.

Content marketing is two words.

So you not only have to create great content. But you have to build distribution networks for that content and then hustle it to the world on social, email and search engines. It needs persistent focused effort. That’s marketing.

How do you do that?

You can pay for it and pull out the credit card and start advertising on Facebook and Google. This is the fast way to put content in front of potential readers, viewers and customers. This is possible if you have the money but not the time.

But if you want to earn it rather than pay for it then you have a lot to do. This includes doing all of the following.

• Build distribution on Social media by growing your followers
• Make it easy for them to share your content
• Guest blogging for the top influencers in your industry
• Increase the size of your email list
• Grow your search engine ranking so your content gets found on the first page of Google

This is the work of years. But to make it even harder Facebook has changed the game in social. It has made the “earned attention” harder. It’s organic reach is approaching zero.

But there is one social network that doesn’t choke your posts and make them invisible through filtering to your followers.

Twitter.

Twitter power

Twitter is used by many top influencers to display their content and ideas. How do they use Twitter?

They have taken the time and put in the effort to build their social distribution.

Then they make sure that they are tweeting often.

What type of content works for influencers?

To find content I use the Popsters tool.

This is a great social app that allows you to find their top content on Twitter. It is a cool tool that allows me to find the top content not only on Twitter but Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Using this tool I have discovered what type of content gets shared the most and has the highest engagement.

Here are 7 of the top influencers on social media according to Forbes and some of their top tweets.

1. Kim Garst

Kim is a Twitter powerhouse and has over 400,000 Twitter followers. Kim is a prolific tweeter and uses images often and well. If you want to see Twitter “best practice” follow Kim. She is a great example to model your Twitter tactics on!

Kim blogs at KimGarst.com.

2. Mark Schaefer

Mark wrote the book on Twitter. The Tao of Twitter. He is a prolific author and international speaker. You can find him at his blog Businessesgrow.com

3. Joe Pulizzi

Joe is one of the brains behind Content Marketing Institute and knows how content works. This is one of his top ten tweets.

It is interesting to see that this one is not a visual tweet but Joe doesn’t post as many images as some of the other influencers.

4. Jay Baer

Jay’s online portal and authority site is at Convince and Convert. Jay and his team are “Digital marketing advisers”

He is also a speaker and author on social media and other things digital.

5. Pam Moore

Pam is a constant tweeter and a top influencer. She  runs a digital agency with the fun name “Marketing Nut“.

Here is one of her top tweets. She loves using visuals!

6. Jeffrey Hayzlett

Jeffrey Hayzlett is a top selling author and international speaker and blogs at Hayzlett.com.  Of  course one of his top tweets is an image of his book “Think Big. Act Bigger” which I am in the middle of reading.

7. Michael Brenner

Michael is a top influencer, blogger and digital marketer that covers social and content and top digital topics on his blog B2B Marketing Insider. This image he uses below which highlights some of the top influencers on Twitter reveals a great tactic to drive attention and traffic with Twitter.

Do a shout out!

A little curious?

I decided to see what my top tweets were and here is one of them I found on Popsters.

Here is one of my top tweets. It is a mini infographic. I have found this type of visual to be one of the best tactics to achieve a lot of retweets.

What is your top Twitter content?

So if you want to see what your top tweets and content on Twitter, Facebook and some of the other social media networks are in your niche try out Popsters.

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How to Use the 3-Act Structure To Improve Your Content Marketing

Unique… Helpful… Engaging.

These are the words that describe epic content marketing – but too many people are getting it wrong.

We can debate all day long about what makes for good content. But the one thing many would-be content marketers stumble on is coming up with an idea that hasn’t been rehashed or done to death.

There’s no point marketing content, if you can’t make it high quality and unique.

In the rush to have something to say, many businesses latch onto half-brained ideas and try to ride it out. The result is a jumbled mess that doesn’t make any sense, and only serves to frustrate their audience.

Storytelling seems to be a buzzword these days when it comes to content creation, but there’s much more to it than you think.

And I’m not here to tell you how to incorporate storytelling into your content, because that’s a topic that’s been done over and over.

However, what I can do is tell you how to avoid the trap of overdone ideas by using classic storytelling techniques. Helping you consistently create refreshing and amazing pieces of content.

Here’s how some classic storytelling techniques will help improve your content marketing.

Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth

The foremost storytelling technique I always keep in mind is the hero’s journey by Joseph Campbell.

In short, the hero’s journey is a classic sequence of actions that can be found in almost every story. Basically it’s a broad template which contends that every epic myth can be broken down into 12 distinct plot points.

As a content marketer you have to ask yourself, who is the hero of this story?

Most of you would have said yourself. Which is understandable, everyone naturally views themselves as the hero of the story.

But the key to creating consistently amazing pieces of content is to remember that you aren’t the hero in this story.

The hero is your audience.

Your role as a content marketer is not to be the hero, but the mentor.

The mentor is the character that every hero meets when they’re stuck. They provide all the necessary wisdom and advice that the hero needs in order to continue on their journey. Think Obi-Wan in Star Wars, Gandalf in Lord Of The Rings, or for a more contemporary example Jeff Bullas and this very article.

Every piece of content you craft has to be framed with the intention that it is the mentor dispensing valuable advice in order to aid the hero along their journey.

If you keep that in mind you’ll always be consistently creating content that is both valuable and useful to your audience.

Three-Act Structure

In screenwriting there is a model that divides a narrative into three distinct parts, or acts: the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Solution.

Like the hero’s journey the three-act structure is a basic template for most fictional narratives. It helps writers structure their narratives in a way that’s easy to understand.

Here’s an example of the three-act Structure in Star Wars.

But I don’t use the three-act structure as a way to model my content. Instead I use it as a way to help me generate new ideas.

You can use this to generate new ideas about any topic.

I’ll show you just how I used it to pitch Jeff Bullas a few ideas for a guest post. I personally like writing it all out in my notebook, but you can easily do yours differently.

The Setup

Classically the setup is where all the major characters are introduced, the world they live in, and all the conflict that will move the story forward.

In our case we already know who our characters are and the world they live in: the audience is the hero, and we’re the mentor. The conflict is fairly straightforward, the hero wants to know a piece of information that only the mentor can provide.

A key piece of advice when it comes to storytelling is this: you find the conflict, you find the story.

My process is to find a general topic of information that my hero wants to know more about.

When pitching Jeff I chose the topic of storytelling and content marketing.

Next up is to turn the hero’s problem into a goal, or declarative statement. What do they want to achieve by learning this piece of information?

As you can see the goal of my hero is, “I want to write an epic article about storytelling”.

There you have your Setup.

The Confrontation

In fiction writing the confrontation is when the stakes are raised because the hero encounters even more problems.

In my process I begin to break down the components of the hero’s goal. This is the most important step, because you have to thoroughly understand what questions your audience want answered.

What are the details they would need to know in order to achieve their goal? What questions would they ask?

I often use Quora as a way to keep in the loop about which questions are being commonly asked in my niche.

Although the easiest way is usually just asking: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Try and break down at least three different questions or problems that the hero will encounter.

As you can see with this other example I already have three different topics to write about. But those topics are just a little too generic, so I’ll break them down even further to generate more ideas!

The Solution

The final act is when all the narrative’s conflicts are resolved. All information and conflicts introduced in the first two acts are resolved in order to, theoretically, create a satisfying ending.

For my process what I do is come up with solutions to the questions raised in the previous section. I always aim for at least two different solutions to every question.

In the end what you’ll end up with is a handful of different topics you can easily write about!

When it came to pitching Jeff I was able to come up with a handful solutions to my hero’s questions. Eventually I settled on three different topics I particularly liked and pitched those to Jeff.

By using this process you’ll be able to consistently generate new ideas for content that are filled with actionable advice. Too many people try to solve every problem in one go, and what you’re usually left with is a very general article that doesn’t answer any specific questions and ends up a boring read.

Instead just focus on one idea and be as in-depth as possible when it comes to that single idea.

What you’ll find is that you’ll never be stumped for ideas again!

Show, Don’t Tell

Every writing student has heard this at one point, to learn how to show, not tell. The principle is that you shouldn’t just spoon-feed information to the audience. Instead writers are encouraged to think of different ways to showcase a piece of information.

The most straightforward way is to pick a topic and write an article about it. But there are so many ways to present a single piece of information.

For example, on this topic of storytelling techniques I could have, just as easily, created an instructional video, or an infographic instead of an article.

Or I could have held an event or workshop and directly taught my method to a group of people.

Using the content multiplier framework in Dan Norris’s book Content Machine I’m able to find different ways to present my information.

As a content creator you have to think of the different ways your audience absorbs information.

This is a great way to significantly increase the different types of content you can produce, and all from one idea!

Key takeaways

• Your audience is the hero of the story, you’re the wise mentor helping them on their journey

• Focus on the challenges your audience faces, and how you can help them overcome them

• There is always more than one way to present a single piece of information

Often the hardest part of content creation isn’t writing it out, it’s coming up with an original idea in the first place.

But what you’ll find is that by using these classic storytelling techniques, not only will you overcome writer’s block – you’ll also be able to constantly generate an awesome piece of content your audience will love!

Guest Author: Jonathan Chan is the Content Crafter at Foundr Magazine, a magazine for young entrepreneurs. He can often be found writing and reading anything and everything to do with entrepreneurship and the startup world. That or spending too much time pretending to be the next MMA star. Check out more of his writing over at the Foundr Blog.

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9 Ways to Make Money On Instagram

Instagram started out as an image-sharing app with only a tiny workforce.

It found a sweet spot in modern society that combined vanity, social networks and a shift toward visual media.

And then one day Mr. Zuckerberg decided to pay a billion dollars to acquire it.

Soon it was a tool for many; famous celebrities, politicians, marketers, and even some top-notch businesses.

Today, Instagram ranks 7^th on the list of the Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites with over 100 million unique monthly users and over 300 million active users posting photos and videos every day.

Apart from the 15-second video sharing option, we’re all excited about the new feature Instagram plans on releasing by the end of this year: targeted advertisements that show up on user’s photo feeds.

Paid ads, means more chance to make money.

If you’re interested in monetizing your Instagram account, here are 9 ways to turn those pictures into profits.

1. Start building a solid followership

Successful marketing on social media is almost directly proportional to having a long list of followers.

Whether the followership was obtained before your marketing efforts or after is beside the point – you just need a significant amount of followers! The more you have, the more you are “seen” and the greater your chances are of turning leads to sales.

There are several ways you can grow your followers on Instagram. Some of the most effective ways  have been highlighted by Melyssa Griffin, tactics such as; liking photos in your niche, socializing, asking people to follow you, running contests, and more.

Also don’t forget to follow and post on several hashtags in your niche.

2. Always provide a link to your blog

Product links and links to your blog are crucial when it comes to making money on Instagram!

Every single image, video, or whatever else you share must include CTA’s (in this case links to your blog or wherever they could purchase the item).

Also make sure you place an item number or tag that could make their purchase easier.

Instagram currently doesn’t allow clickable site links, so for now the users will just have to do with re-writing the link in their browser window.

3. Share quality images

Despite the new features, Instagram is, and always has been about sharing beautiful images.

Nothing will entice your prospects or monetize your account more than high quality, beautiful images.

Show your followers what your brand is about with images that appeal to their visual senses. Show off your products, tell them your brand story, create graphically altered images and get creative.

If you’re a gym service for example, you could show off pictures of hot hunks doing their work-outs. If you’re a yoghurt selling service, share images of your product and perhaps other ways you could use that yoghurt in recipes.

Check out how Starbucks does this with amazing graphics, artistic pictures of Starbuck cups, and their latest coffee creations.

Always be sure to share photos of your latest products. For example, you could be writing a new book. Take a cool snap of the cover and share it with a release date.

4. Use the video function

If a picture is worth a thousand words – then what is a video (which is comprised of practically thousands of pictures) worth? You do the maths!

Thanks to Instagram’s latest feature (and competition with lead rival, Vine) there is a 15-second video sharing option that you get creative with.

Come up with a personal message for your fans and tell them why you think they should try out your new product. Or perhaps, you could share a 15-second fast-paced process of how you build your creations.

There’s no limit to how creative you can get with video building!

Check out top brands on Instagram and Vine for some video sharing inspiration.

5. Get your fans involved

Many fans and followers are willing to endorse your brand only for a little recognition – and of course a post about them on your profile. This is a great way to engage your followers as well as outsource original, quality content.

Give your followers a chance to submit their photos with your product, share their “experience” in a video, or anything they like. The best submissions could get discounts on your products, a small reward, or perhaps just a little recognition through your brand name.

Here’s a great example of Starbucks latest “Hello Fall” video contributed by an artistic fan after they introduced the Fall cup.

6. Organize contests or events

Get people to like your images and follow you because you’re running a cool campaign or an event.

Offer exclusive deals for a short period of time and keep updating your users on how time is running out (urgency works!).

Sharing special promotions or coupons is another way to get your followers involved in a contest and turn those leads into sales. Ask them to double-tap or tag a friend to get their name in the draw box.

One of the best advantages of running contests and campaigns on Instagram is that you can create separate hashtags and keep all contributions in one place.

Buffalo Wings and Rings Jordan contest

7. Get testimonials from clients

Get happy clients to upload pictures or videos of themselves using your product.

There’s nothing more convincing than a handful of images, videos, or testimonials that provide social proof.

8. Get an influencer on the job for you

If you know a celebrity like Kim Kardashian, you’re one lucky duck!

But, of course not everyone has direct access to the Kardashians, much less their Instagram profile.

However, there are other people who have big followings on Instagram that are much more accessible. For example, if you’re selling women apparel look for popular online influencers such as fashion bloggers, entrepreneurs, or social media gurus that have a large fan following.

Plenty of blogger models are willing to share what brands they wear and why purchasing from a specific brand would be a good idea. This is a great way to generate referral traffic through links to your blog as well as your branded Instagram hashtags.

9. There’s an app for everything

Use an app to do a bulk of the work for you!

The number of tools out there for boosting your Instagram marketing is overwhelming.

But here are some of the best:

• Iconosquare: This is a tool that provides Instagram users with advanced statistics about their profile such as total number of likes received, average number of likes and comments per photo, most liked photos, follower growth charts, and more.
• Repost: Allows you to re-post an amazing retina-ready image from another Instagram user’s profile while still giving them the credit.
• Instaquote: Share inspiring “quotes of the day” and keep your followers engaged.
• Postso: This is a post scheduling app that makes a busy marketer’s life easy. Schedule your posts, specify a location, sit back and relax.
• Piquora: This is a visual marketing app that will curate and suggest the best photos for your posts that can pull content based on geography, language, and specific locations.

Guest Author: Alison Stone works at Dissertation cube where she provides dissertation writing help to students. In her spare time she writes blogs for students starting their career and for those who are still in jobs. Find her on Google+.

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How to Use Twitter To Increase Reach and Engagement

Twitter.

It’s a big scary social media platform (for those who don’t know how to use it right).

But an incredibly useful engagement tool for those who do.

At first glance it can seem that Twitter is just for sending endless promotional tweets out to the people who have chosen to follow you. This is all well and good, BUT, did you know you could be using Twitter to increase the reach and engagement of your brand?

For example, Twitter’s recent upgrade of their search function allows you to filter searches on a range of different criteria; from ‘Accounts’ to ‘Photos’, to ‘Videos. Pinpointing users and content that are super-specific to your niche enables you to deliberately shift the conversations about your brand.

It’s important to approach Twitter conversations in the right way, with preparation and planning.

In this article, I will outline the key steps for increasing reach and engagement by creating conversations across Twitter.

Picking who to create conversations with

The important thing to remember about being proactive on Twitter is that you can interact with as many people as you like – but if they don’t influence your business or brand, then they aren’t doing you any good.

You can have 250,000 followers but only engage with 2 of them OR have 10,000 followers and engage with 100’s. Selection is vital.

Industry influencers are probably the most important connections you will get because your customers trust their opinion on social media.

Quality signals include having a large following, presence across various social networks and obvious signs of engagement on their website or blog. If they influence you, then they are most likely to influence the people who care about your industry.

Connecting with these influencers will increase your brand awareness, likeability and all round image.

Ability to spy on the competition

The convenient thing about Twitter is that you have an open view of what your competition is doing. This ability to actively follow competition basically provides you with a look into their PR strategy.

There are three steps to spying on your competition:

1. Follow a range of your competitors on Twitter. This includes employee accounts to ensure you don’t fall behind the latest press release.
2. Monitor their replies so you can see any issues the competition are having. Twitter is great when customers like you, but when they don’t, it provides a live audience to all. If you see your competitor’s customers stating an issue with their brand, it opens a chance to steal away business. 83% of customers have deserted a purchase after receiving poor customer service so why not make that sale yours instead! The key with this is not to appear to be selling a sales pitch, instead be friendly and offer a different alternative leaving the power with the customer.
3. See what social media platforms they link to their Twitter, so you can ensure you are at the same level and using them at least the same amount or more.

Proactive searching for new leads

Businesses on Twitter usually follow one of these strategies; reactive or proactive tweeting.

Being reactive on Twitter means reacting to situations as they happen, so if a competitor’s system fails, you could use it to steer those customers in your direction.

Proactive on the other hand means to actively hunt down new customers, by writing new blog posts, sending out tweets to the correct audience and commenting on related content.

Choosing between the two is dependent on where your business is at, and whether you’re more interested in gaining new customers or keeping the current ones.

I’m going to focus on gaining new ones, and finding the right people on Twitter using the data they provide.

Finding audiences based on different data

Twitter users readily provide a vast amount of personal data about themselves or their business. These span from their bio, use of hashtags or interactions with blogger chats and current events.

For example, if you’re trying to find some potential local customers around the London area, simply use the “places” option in the Twitter advanced search, and set the radius you’d like to focus on. This can ensure you are not pitching to an area you cannot supply to.

When promoting your product or service, using the information users have written in their bio is crucial. A fashion blogger for example is most likely to have the words ‘fashion’, ‘blogger’ or ‘fblogger’ featured at some point. All together this work can lead to many different things, from simply interacting with more relevant consumers to directing a sales pitch.

The important thing to remember is to focus on the person and not just the tweet.

A Twitter bio is rich with Meta data that you can utilize such as URL, location, what the person does for a living, hobbies etc. This data means it becomes a lot easier to find new targets to contact, rather than just searching through tweets. For example, a business professional may note their job in their bio but never mention it via their tweets.

The proof

If you still don’t believe that proactive Twitter activity can work here’s a stat for you –  a total of 724 proactive interactions in related areas, can convert to an average 33% action rate, a 25% click through rate and an amazing bounce rate of just 50%. These statistics were taken from only a two month time span, through interacting with a range of relevant business people, all of different areas and with different ideas.

This is just by putting more time into creating conversations with people who will actually be interested, rather than just sending a blanket tweet to all.

So why bother?

So I’ve showed you some insight into creating those vital conversations on Twitter, with the right people.

Quality rules over quantity in this case, and if you interact with the right person who opens the door to a whole new area, the benefits will be worth it.

Guest Author: Elena Lockett is a PR assistant for Gnatta, Gnatta allows businesses of all sizes to listen and engage with their customers on an individual basis via one single interface.

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4 Social Media Tools to Get Small Business Owners off the Treadmill

I know you understand…

Content marketing is effective and social media is a great way to interact with your customers.

But we all only get 24 hours in a day, and if you run a small business, you probably have two things scheduled for every single one of those hours already.

So how are you supposed to do content marketing on top of that?

Finding time and content to Tweet, blog and share your opinion on Facebook takes up time and energy you might just not have.

And even if you do have the time, wouldn’t you like to know how to do it faster and easier?

Here are the top tools you need to get off the social media treadmill and start making real progress.

1. Feedly

The first hurdle in social media marketing is what to Tweet or post. We know from studies that it makes sense to blog three times a week, Tweet three times a day, Facebook at least twice, and so on.

But that’s a lot of talking.

You’ll need news to comment on and cool ideas to pass on if your content marketing efforts are to reap the rewards and meet these crazy standards. That’s where Feedly comes in.

What does it do?

Feedly helps you build a news feed of content that interests you or fits with your space. It lets you collate blogs, news articles from papers and magazines, YouTube videos and more, so you never have to go looking for something to post about again!

It also monitors the web for news about your business – a crucial aspect of reputation management. The service claims over 15 million users and offers integrations with Chrome and Google Apps.

Get off the treadmill with Feedly

Start your content marketing session with your Feedly news feeds. Split them by categories according to the interests of different customer groups and you are away – a quick intro, a link, and you’re Twittering like a boss (you are a boss; you know what I mean).

One more thing…

The Shared Collections feature lets you discover, read and distribute content collaboratively.

Pricing

Feedly is free: Feedly Pro, with Evernote and Pocket integration and more features in the pipe, is $5/month.

2. Tweet Jukebox

While writing Tweets isn’t the most time-consuming process you’ll do in a working day, it’s a grind if you’re trying to Tweet multiple times – six or eight isn’t uncommon – throughout the day.

You could write your Tweets into a spreadsheet, then copy and paste them throughout the day, but that’s still a drag and besides, this isn’t 2001. And dumping a dozen Tweets on your audience all at once is a surefire way to make sure none of them are read.

Enter Tweet Jukebox, which lets you schedule multiple Tweets throughout the day or week, solving the problem of getting content out there.

What does it do?

Tweet Jukebox is based on the concept of a jukebox. For you whippersnappers, a jukebox used to mount a stack of short-playing records and then play them one after another, or at least that’s what Wikipedia says.

Tweet Jukebox does the same with Tweets. You preload it, and then leave it to Tweet for you at specified times and days of the week.

On Friday, Tweet Jukebox will automatically thank the people who mentioned you on Twitter during the week. Unlike the majority of Twitter scheduling services, Tweet Jukebox allows you to construct multiple ‘jukeboxes,’ alternate or switch between them and run big ones on repeat, so when they reach the end they start at the beginning again.

Get off the treadmill with Tweet Jukebox

Log in and start assembling Tweets to fire off at preset times and days. Use jukeboxes to tweet your blog posts several times – the best way to get more engagement with your blog!

One more thing…

Tweet Jukebox’s creators, Tim Fargo and Len Sixt, built the app for Tim’s business. It wasn’t designed to be marketed, but once they saw what they had, they had to let us have it too!

There’s a bonus too. For a small business owner the Tweet Jukebox library is a huge time saver. You can grab some quotes or photos for free and instantly spice up your Twitter feed.

Pricing

Tweet Jukebox is free, but there’s a pro version in the works for $9.99/month.

3. Buffer

You’re browsing the web in your (legendary) free time, and you come across a piece of content you’d really like to share with your fans. If only there was a way to shoot it out to all your social networks really easily, without opening half a dozen windows, copying the link and wearing out the CTRL + V keys on your laptop.

Enter Buffer.

What does it do?

Buffer began life as a scheduler, but there’s way more to the service than that.

Unlike Tweet Jukebox, you can’t schedule evergreen content to repeat and have to reenter it manually and there’s also a less granular level of control. But what it does allow you to do is pick up any piece of content and effortlessly disseminate it across your social networks via the Buffer instant sharing button, which you’ve probably seen – it’s on plenty of blogs!

Get off the treadmill with Buffer

When you find a piece of content you like, instantly share it, staying on trend efficiently and without disrupting your content strategy.

One more thing…

Buffer integrates well with Feedly, as well as other content management apps.

Pricing

Buffer has a range of plans, from Individual, which is free, through Awesome at $10/month to Large Business Plan at $250/month.

4. Raven Tools

So you’ve got your content management tools up and running, you’re pulling relevant content from Feedly and the web and dropping great posts into your Twitter feed and Google+ (don’t neglect it; Google still loves it) and Facebook pages.

What’s the result?

As Peter Drucker famously said, ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.’

So a content management strategy that takes you off the treadmill of guesswork and hoping should include measuring outcomes as well as controlling output.

That’s why you need Raven.

What does it do?

Raven Internet Marketing Tools includes everything you’d expect from a standard social media marketing analytics suite.

But it made this list, so there’s more, right? Right.

Raven also gives you CRM-like functionality, like the ability to manage and schedule responses to Tweets and Facebook posts in the dashboard. You can assign tasks, control access within your organization and – well, you can do anything you can do with a CRM, because Raven includes one.

It also includes some scheduling functionality, a customized reporting system and some SEO and advertising tools.

Get off the treadmill with Raven

Use Raven to plan multi-channel campaigns that use AdWords and social channels together. Light a fire under your content marketing!

One more thing…

Raven integrates with Google AdWords, so you can create AdWords campaigns directly from the Raven dashboard.

Pricing

Pro plan is $99/month; Agency plan is $249/month.

Summing up

In all probability, you’re already using Buffer or Feedly. However, if you aren’t and you’re a small business, you’d do well to use all of these tools in conjunction with each other.

These will solve all the main problems of social media posting; curation, targeting, scheduling and analytics. You can finally get off that treadmill!

Guest Author: Pratik Dholakiya is the Co-Founder and VP of Marketing of E2M, a digital marketing agency and MoveoApps, a mobile apps development company. Pratik has contributed on sites like Huffington Post, Fast Company, Entrepreneur Magazine, Moz, Search Engine Watch and Social Media Examiner to name a few. He’s a ‘must follow’ SEO expert according to Search Engine Watch and has been named one of the top content marketing influencers by Onalytica two years in a row. He’s passionate about fitness, entrepreneurship, startups and all things digital marketing. Hit him up on Twitter @DholakiyaPratik for a quick chat on any of these topics.

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Top 5 Twitter Management Tips to Increase Your Followers Organically

People still don’t get it…

Twitter has been an influential social network for a long time now, but there are still marketers who don’t quite understand its power (or how to use it).

This is especially true when it comes to growing a big list of followers.

With a few small tweaks to your Twitter strategy, you can be well on your way to gaining loyal followers who will actively engage with your content.

Note of warning: Since quality is always valued over quantity, be sure to steer away from buying followers or adopting any other “unethical” methods of increasing followers.

Buying followers might look good on the surface, but if they never engage with your brand – what’s the point?

By gaining followers organically, you will access a group of highly engaged users who are more likely to convert and buy your product or service.

Here are 5 Twitter management tips that can help you build a long list of followers organically.

1. Make replying and retweeting a habit

Twitter is all about having casual conversations with your followers, and being as personable as you can be. Some brands that don’t really get the hang of how Twitter works often make the mistake of only talking about themselves, and posting jargon in each of their posts.

But in order to increase your number of Twitter followers, you need to bring yourself into the light by conversing with your existing and potential followers. Keep these conversations natural and free of any promotional content.

There are a few brands out there that are doing it right. Here’s an example from Olay:

Olay, the popular skincare brand, replies to questions and comments from consumers without fail. This tactic pays off down the road, and can get you more followers who truly want to engage with your brand.

There is also a lot of give and take on Twitter. When someone follows you, be sure to check out their profile and follow them back if what they do is relevant to your business. Also, when you reply to a particular tweet, mention the user’s name in your post.

Re-tweeting is another great way to show courtesy on Twitter. If you see a post on Twitter that is related to your brand or to the services/products you provide, retweet it. You can also add your own short comment to the post to personalize it.

2. Deliver good content consistently

Brands that publish informative content on a regular basis have a higher chance of increasing their number of loyal followers. People love reading new information, and the more informative you share, the more engagement you will get on your Twitter page.

Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when you are publishing posts. Around 80% of the content that you post should be purely informative while the remaining 20% can be promotional in nature. Also, try to alternate between text and visual content from time to time. Visual content can be quite appealing and draw more eyeballs to your posts.

Here’s one of Charmin’s tweets. The brand often posts tweets with creative images and subtle promotional content:

At times, you might not have the bandwidth to create fresh content or look for content that might be interesting to your followers. In these situations, it is good practice to use a content discovery tool for that extra bit of help.

Here are a few tools you can use:

• Storify allows you to find news stories and other content and lets you create your own stories by adding images, and text. You can then share your creations with others on your social media networks.
• Pocket is a content curation tool that lets you save content that you read on other channels for later use. With Pocket, you can easily group the articles together, and tag them for easy retrieval.
• DrumUp (Disclosure: I write for the DrumUp blog) is a social media content management tool that helps you discover share-worthy stories, which you can schedule for publishing to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

3. Monitor hashtags and trending topics

The little pound symbol on your phone is now part of a huge tech culture. Hashtags are used to categorize the endless stream of content on Twitter, and can also make your tweets easy to discover. Using the right hashtags in your post can be very beneficial as they help put your tweet on other users’ radars.

To be able to use hashtags successfully in your posts, keep an eye out for trending hashtags that are relevant to your brand. While publishing your content, include a few hashtags in the post – emphasis on a few. Do not overdo it.

Also look at trending topics and try to publish posts that acknowledge specific events that are happening in your vicinity. This way, your followers will know that you are also involved in what goes on around you.

In June, JetBlue Airways sent out several tweets with the #LoveWins hashtag when the Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage. Here’s a tweet by JetBlue Airways:

Using hashtags in your posts can be a great way to raise awareness around an upcoming event, product launch or a contest as well. You can also create and promote your own hashtags through your Twitter posts. Just remember to align them with your marketing objectives.

4. Engage with influencers on Twitter

Find influencers in your industry and reach out to them via Twitter posts. Mention them in your posts, and engage them in conversations that relate to your brand. These thought leaders will in turn share your content, giving you more exposure to a larger network of users in the Twitterverse. If you are not quite sure about how to find influencers, the ‘Who To Follow’ lists on Twitter are an amazing resource for all to use.

If you can get an influencer to endorse your products/services, or mention them in a Twitter post, it can have a massive impact on the number of registrations or downloads you get for your product. According to a survey conducted by Augure, Twitter is the best channel for building working relationships with influencers in your industry.

However, it is important to be polite and give back. If an influencer does mention your brand, be sure to drop them a reply thanking them, and of course, retweet the post to your connections as well.

5. Promote your Twitter handle

One of the simplest ways to gain more followers is through the publicity of your Twitter handle. Create an eye-catching Twitter profile with an attractive header image, and a relevant profile picture. Yes, this means, your pet dog or cat can’t be on your profile picture!

Etsy’s cover photo on it’s Twitter page sums up pretty much everything that the website is about, and is also quite appealing.

Put up your Twitter details wherever it is possible. The best places are of course your own company website. You can also include your Twitter handle at the end of your blog posts and also embed a live Twitter feed on your blog page.

It doesn’t just stop there. You can also use offline marketing to promote your Twitter handle. Print it on company newsletters, brochures and business cards since this type of printed material gets circulated often. You can also include your Twitter handle in your email signature to give it more exposure.

Sum up

Twitter provides a sea of opportunities for people who want to market themselves or their brands. The key is to manage your Twitter account properly and be on the lookout for new ideas and trends that can be used as part of your marketing strategy.

Keep these 5 Twitter management tips in mind as you embark on your mission to gain more followers. Post engaging content, be courteous and give back to the Twitter community, get involved in conversations and discussions with your followers and influencers, and watch your number of followers grow!

Guest Author: Apurva Jog is a Content Writer at DrumUp, a social media management tool. She has penned down several articles related to social media management and content marketing. When she is not writing, she is usually catching up with anything that is trending in the social media sphere.

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How to Use Facebook to Promote Your Quizzes

Imagine yourself as an artist, social media as your canvas, and your quizzes your paintbrush.

Your job is to create an impactful work of art on that blank canvas known as social media.

Let’s face it, social media has become the most effective way of advertising digitally.

With Facebook at the forefront, businesses today allocate at least 28% of their spending towards social media advertising. It’s an investment, no doubt, but it’s an investment worth making.

This kind of investment will help boost the activity of your quizzes which in turn will generate traffic to your website.

With over 25,000 quizzes under our belt at Interact, we’ve come up with a comprehensive three-step plan for promoting your quiz and using it to bring in targeted leads using Facebook advertising.

1. Select your target audience

The initial step you have to take in effectively promoting your quiz through Facebook would be to select the kind of audience that you want to target based on your company’s marketing goals and values.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What kind of audience do I want to attract?

• What is my audience interested in?

• Who are my lookalike audiences? (more about this later)

• What are my audience’s thoughts on similar companies?

These are the important questions that you have to keep in mind. This will give you a better understanding on the kind of audience you want to attract.

Here are some ways to select your audience:

Location

Targeting your audience based on location allows you to reach customers in key locations by country, state/province, city and zip code. Pretty convenient isn’t it?

This information is based on the location of an individual’s Facebook Timeline. You can even exclude certain cities or zip codes you’ve already reached.

Demographics

Targeting an audience based on demographics allows you to refine ad’s based on the information your audience has shared about themselves. This includes their Facebook profile, their age, their gender, their relationship status, their level of education and their type of employment.

Interests

Using things like hobbies and the pages they’ve liked on Facebook allows you to target an audience based on their interests. All of this content is collected from an individual’s timeline.

The same information is also taken from keywords associated with the pages they’ve liked and the apps they’ve used. It also takes ads and similar sources that they’ve clicked on into consideration.

Behaviors

Maybe you want to target your audience based on their Facebook activity. If that’s the case, targeting your audience based on behavior might be up your alley.

Behavior also takes into account purchase history or intentions (like wishlists) along with travel preferences. This information is retrieved from someone’s activity, both online and offline.

Connections

If you’re interested in targeting your audience based on connections, you’re looking to attract the people based on who they are already friends with. This information is based on mutual family or friends and the similar interests they share.

Advanced targeting

Advanced targeting refers to custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and custom audiences from your website.

• Custom audiences target existing customers based on information you already have.

• Lookalike audiences are people that are similar to the customers you already have, so they share the same interests and ideas.

• Custom audiences from your website are simply people on Facebook that have visited your page already.

Let’s take a closer look at how to create a lookalike audience.

Creating a lookalike audience

1. Go to your “Audiences” tab in your Ads Manager.

2. Select “Create Audience,” then choose “Lookalike Audience.”

3. From there, you can select a Facebook page, Custom Audience or conversion pixel.

4. Once you’ve chosen your customer group, select your audience size. You can start off by optimizing your Lookalike Audience for Similarity, which will show your ads to a smaller, more precise audience. You can then experiment with optimizing your audience size for Reach, which will show your ads to a larger audience.

5. After selecting your audience size, your Lookalike Audience will be ready for use in ad targeting within 6-24 hours.

6. Once it’s been processed, go back to the Ads Manager and click the Audiences tab.

7. From there, you’ll find your Lookalike Audience. Click “Create Ad.” Select your ad objective in the ads create tool and set up your ad. It’ll now be targeted to your Lookalike Audience.

It’s a good rule of thumb to look up what your Lookalike Audience “Likes” on Facebook. This will give you an idea of whether they’ve selected the right audience or not.

Through trial and error, you’ll be able to find out what works and what doesn’t.

2. Setting up your quiz ad for Facebook

Visuals

Presentation is everything in an advertisement-fueled social media platform. Facebook is all about visuals; from people’s profile images to their cover photos.

How well you want your quiz to perform on Facebook will depend heavily on how you promote it visually.

 

Make sure the images you use are the correct proportions; that includes desktop and mobile device viewing. Incorrect image proportions can compromise the look and feel of your page.

If one of your images on your page is displayed improperly, just imagine what a potential customer would think. We don’t want to drive people away, so avoid this at all costs.

Make sure to play around with the dimensions of your images so that they all display correctly on desktops and mobile devices.

Make your ads as effective as possible

There are a few distinct tips for promoting quizzes based on how interactive they are.

Let’s take a look.

1. Be informal;  approach your audience as if you would anyone else on social media. Make your company’s personality stand out. You want to make the ad feel as genuine as possible while also being concise. You only have a couple of seconds to grab the attention of your customers. Make sure you include a call-to-action and make it clear what you want your customers to do.

2. Imagery is also important; make a visual impact to boost your visibility. Include an image pertaining to your quiz and ask questions that will potentially urge your customers to take the quiz. Don’t be afraid to ride on the popularity of a well-talked about topic, but make sure you use credible sources. The last thing we want is to divert attention away from the original subject matter.

3. Be controversial. Be bold. Don’t shy away from controversy, encourage it, but be smart about it. Pick subjects everyone can relate to, specifically targeting behavior, belonging and beliefs. This will draw people to either confirm or disapprove. Controversy spurs quiz popularity and splits its takers down the middle.

4. Go for the emotional angle. Approach your audience from different emotional angles. Playing on emotional states will deliver a myriad of results, and these results will enable us to provide for the customer based on their emotional needs. Happiness makes people want to share. Sadness enables others to connect and empathize with one another. Fear and surprise makes people desperate, urging them to find something to cling onto. Anger and disgust makes people stubborn. These emotions are what drive customers. Take these emotions into consideration and apply them to your quiz. The emotional state of a customer will play a significant role on the kind of quiz you’re giving them. The easier it is for your audience to relate to your quiz, the more engaging it will be.

Writing a good headline

The image to your quiz won’t be the only factor in grabbing your audience’s attention. You want a headline that will encourage people to take your quiz. Give your audience an idea of what they’re about to get themselves into.

Formulate titles that will target your audience, for example “Which (blank) are you?” Where (blank) is character from a movie. Another good example would be “How much do you know about (blank)?” Where (blank) could be a subject of your choosing. Sell yourself through your quiz, but keep it simple. The purpose of your quiz is to attract prospective customers, while the content you provide is meant to keep then.

3. Tracking conversions and ROI

One important aspect of promoting your quiz on Facebook is adding a snippet of code from your company’s website in the section that will measure your conversions. After setting up your pixel conversion, Facebook allows you to optimize it for checkouts, registrations, leads, key page views, adds to cart, and other website conversions.

Wrapping things up

Facebook is the quintessential source for social media. As a marketer, it is an essential tool for promoting your quiz to generate more leads.

Advertising on social media lets your company touch base with an audience and the social circle they are a part of. Not only are you engaging your customers through this platform, you’re converting them into prospective leads. It’s a win-win situation, and Facebook is there to help you do it.

Guest Author: JP Misenas is the content marketing director and audio/visual technician/engineer of Interact, a place for creating entertaining and engaging quizzes that generate email leads. He writes about innovative ways to connect with customers and to build professional long-lasting relationships with them.

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How To Increase Website Traffic with Quizzes (+50 Ideas for Viral Quizzes)

Pepsi or Coke?

Such a simple question, but so much underlying meaning.

A question like this grabs your attention, because most people immediately have an opinion about which drink they prefer. They are affiliated to either side and immediately attach both drinks to a feeling or memory they hold.

This is the power of quiz marketing – a form of interactive content.

It catches the intrigue of viewers and encourages them to engage with your content by tapping into already developed bias.

But how can you leverage quizzes in your content marketing to drive traffic and generate leads?

Let’s take a look at why people love quizzes and how you can leverage them in your content marketing.

1. People are narcissists

Which smartphone are you? Are you a relaxed worker?

We love to find out more about who we are.  It makes us feel thankful when given an insight into our life based on the answer to a quick quiz.

“People love it when you ask them questions about themselves. It makes us feel good that the quiz is interested in us.” – Christine Whelan, sociologist in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin (source).

This trend will only continue growing as millennials start to take charge of the home budget. A Study found that what millennials care about the most is themselves. It’s no coincidence that ‘Me, myself, and I’ is their mantra.

(Source)

2. We love to compare ourselves to others

“I’ve got Donald Trump”

“I have Hilary Clinton”

“I’m a hot-dog person”

“I prefer donuts”

People love to compare their results with others. Although we are all unique snowflakes with our own opinions and special talents, quizzes let us find similar people and create sub-groups based on interests.

Check this exemplary quiz – What coffee look are you?

3. Shareability is a conversation starter on social media

People love to boast about their quiz results on Facebook or Twitter which is the first step of going viral.

Plus, quizzes serve as conversation starters. For example, if you like Batman while one of your friends prefers Spiderman, now you two have a platform to exchange your views.

“I think a lot of people are really wondering, ‘What do other people think of me?’And this is a really innocent and non-threatening way of finding out.” – Steven Meyers, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Roosevelt University in Chicago (source)

4. Quizzes make us feel good

Do you remember any quiz that produced a negative result? No?

In most cases, online quizzes will tell you that you are awesome. It’s because people are more eager to share results which portray them as the most interesting people around. Take this quiz by BuzzFeed as an example:

Now we know what lies at the foundation of a quizzes popularity, let’s get some perspective about their potential:

Every website can leverage the popularity of quizzes to increase engagement rates. To start all you need is an idea.

To help you craft your first quiz at 4screens we have created this infographic with 50 ideas for viral quizzes for every industry.

In the past to create a quiz you had to work together with a programmer and a graphic designer. But now we are witnessing a rise of easy to use and fast quiz creators, which are mobile ready and look great.

Take these two examples which resonate with the ideas from infographic.

Which smartphone are you?

A Cold or Allergies: Which Is It?

Quizzes are a great way to drive traffic and get leads. It could be as simple as offering a personalized offer that encourages people to submit their email address.

Guest Author: Karol Kopańko –  Quiz Master at 4screens, the company that developed Engageform - easy to use tool to engage customers on every screen with quizzes, surveys and pools. Follow him at @kkopanko or @4Screens.

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