If youâre struggling with catchy headlines or coming up with something that rolls off the tongue or piques your viewersâ interest, go to BuzzFeed.com and check out some of the headlines there for inspiration.
(above- Buzzfeed.com encourages readers to spend hours on their site, clicking headings that pique our curiosity)
You want to pique reader interest so ensure your headlines play on our curiosity.
Pay a lot of attention to your headlines. About 50% of the effort youâre putting into your post, you should be putting into your headlines.
2. Pay attention to your formatting.
Make sure that your posts are easy to scan, not necessarily read.
Use short sentences.
Use lots of white space
Summarize key points in bold headings
Bold key points
Italicize sparingly
Use bullets and numbering
Provide at least 3 links to resources you mention in the post
(this post from LinkedIn has all the right ingredients to encourage me to keep reading)
3. Use images and multimedia.
Historically, posts that are shared the most are the ones that have up to 15 images.
So at least use one image. If you can include a video as well, absolutely go for it.
People want to see photos and they want to see videos more than they want to read a big wall of text.
The most successful posts used images to show someone exactly how to do what theyâre describing in the post, not just what to do.
Tips on using images:
Take pictures using your smartphone or screenshots
Pay for stock images
Use free images found on the internet – search Creative Commons licence on Flikr.com for example.
HOT TIP on images:
See the eyeball heatmap image below. For any of you unfamiliar with a eyeball heat map, it tracks the amount of time people spend looking at various parts of a webpage. The longest times are red, followed by orange, yellow and then green.
According to KISS metrics, having an image of either a baby or a lady looking at the text you want someone to focus on, will encourage them to do so.
4. Longer blog posts are actually better
Recent studies show that posts over a thousand words are getting shared more and more often because they provide more value.
Instead of just skimming the surface of your topic, dive a little deeper. Provide a little bit more information and details to your audience and you will get rewarded.
5. Ask for what you want.
The very last thing a lot of folks forget to do is ask for interaction.
Ask for people to share your post with their network. Ask for comments and you will receive!
Thatâs your One Minute Tip. If you found this valuable, please consider sharing with your network. And if you donât ever want to miss a tip, subscribe to my YouTube channel for weekly tips in your inbox. Thanks so much for watching.
Hey folks! Welcome to your one-minute tip! Today I wanted to be inspired by the Port of San Francisco, which is where I am. You can see the beautiful Bay Bridge behind me to talk to you about really easy updates that you can make to your website to get better customer satisfaction.
1. Make it easy to contact you:
So the very first thing is to add your phone number or a large Contact Us button to the very top of your website on every single page so customers donât have to hunt and search to contact you.
For an intermediate step, you can also add a live chat on your website which you can sync to your smartphone to connect with your website visitors in real time.
2. Post your hours of operation:
Especially important for brick and mortar businesses, Â add your hours of operation either to the very top of your website or at least to your contact page. A lot of people are searching for your hours of operation and you donât want to leave them frustrated.
3. Help people find you with a map
For those of you with a local business or store front, be sure to add a Google map so people can get directions and find out exactly where your business is located.
Thatâs your One Minute Tip. Thanks for watching. And if you found this valuable, please consider sharing with your network and donât forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and never miss a tip. Thank you.
Todayâs question comes from Joy who is wondering,
How do I market my business online just using my smart phone? I donât have a laptop yet.
Joy, thatâs a great question. I know you run a jewelry business – congratulations on that!
So what you want to do is change your thinking: Youâre not at a disadvantage not having a laptop. In fact, your smart phone has more power than laptops from 10 years ago.
Step One for Mobile Marketing: Create as much content as you can
Start creating multimedia using your phone; think photos and videos. Some ideas for creating content could be:
You can take pictures before, during and after your jewelry making process.
You can take photos of people wearing your jewelry.
Small videos on how to repair jewelry.
Videos or images of how to wear jewelry- with what clothes, shoes etc.
One of the biggest obstacle people face typically with web marketing is creating visual content and youâve got all that power in the palm of your hands.
Step Two for Mobile Marketing: Be present where your customers are
The second thing is setting up accounts where people are going to see your wonderful content.
Instagram, Pinterest & Facebook are three really great accounts to get for your business.
Download those apps and start uploading your content there all the time.
Instagram is rolling out a âBuy Nowâ button. Facebook already has one and Pinterest also has that coming out in the States and hopefully soon will be in Canada as well.
Takeaway: You can start selling your products directly on these social media networks.
Itâs very important, once youâve got those profiles set up on both those accounts, to âoptimizeâ them so to generate sales for you.
Some ways to optimize your profiles could be:
Indicate in your profile how people can actually purchase your product.
How they can contact you
Your shipping and return policies.
Step three for mobile marketing: Create your community.
And my last tip is, go out and engage with people strategically.
So perhaps fashion boutiques or people who do make up. Or anybody that has the same customer base that you would want for yourself.
And also use hashtags.
Use â#YYJâ for the local Victoria hashtag. #jewelry, #fashion, #style, etc. Experiment with hashtags to see which ones draw the most likes and comments on your photos.
Thatâs your One Minute Tip.
If you found this valuable, please consider sharing with your network. And if you never want to miss a tip, subscribe to my YouTube channel and youâll get a tip a week in your inbox.
Did you know there are entrepreneurs who are making money and getting free stuff from their blogs?
Learn exactly what these successful bloggers are doing to generate revenue & get free stuff. Check out the interview below.
CTV news reports on how to run a successful fashion blog, interviewing 2 successful bloggers and CEO of The New Media Group, Laurel Lindsay.
Check out the video clip & transcript below.
Transcription below: Joe: Look whoâs back tonight. Lisa Perry back from Greece with Luis Hart. Trip was good? Lisa: It was fantastic. I highly recommend Greece. Joe: Our style has fallen apart in the last couple of weeks. Weâre going to get that back on track tonight with a couple of local fashion bloggers. Lisa: Thatâs right. Iâm back with blogging. Joe, according to the business development bank of Canada, over 70% of Canadians online trust consumer reviews. That means there’s business to be had in personal style blogging. Take a look. Narrator: Laura Mitbrodt has just been blogging for over a year. Laura: I have 12,000 followers on Instagram but I work up to 60 hours a week. Narrator: She blogs Monday through Friday and links through multiple social media platforms, sharing tidbits from her life always connecting them to an outfit of the day. Laura: I kind of look at the 50âs, 60âs and 70âs for inspiration. Narrator: Her efforts are paying off. In fact, she has never approached a sponsorâonly they have approached her. Laura: I have a company based in San Francisco that works with me. They get companies going to them and if they find brands or products that suit me, they will send them my way and I photograph them, kind of talk about them and review them. Narrator: While blogging is Lauraâs full-time job, itâs more of a hobby for Kai Mundigler. Kai: A lot of the time, too, itâs for trade. Like I get my nails done in town and I just do some posts. Narrator: Her blog was voted one of Victoriaâs best through Best of the City 2013. She posts once or twice a week about local fashion finds. Kai: I have quite a few people emailing me, âWhere could I find such a type of dress or sandal?â Narrator: Lauraâs audience is wider. Laura: Most of my followers are from the States. I have followers in Europe, Australia and South America. Narrator: But she still maintains that connection. Laura: Iâm replying to their comments on the feed. And if they have a blog, I go back and comment on their blog. Narrator: Web marketer Laurel Lindsay says thatâs rule number 1 in successful blogging. Laurel:
You have to give to get. That invokes the law of reciprocity where folks start to pay attention to you.
Narrator: She also says video is huge. Laura: And then I got this really cute sunglass case from Michael. Laurel: Itâs the number 1 activity in mobile devices right now so if you can summarize some of your blog points in a video, that ups the points for share-ability. Narrator: And lastly, consistency is key. Laurel: People want to trust the websites that theyâre going back to frequentlyâso consistency in tone and the amount of blog posts that you post per day, per week or per month. Narrator: Laura follows these rules to a tee. Laura: Actually going into it, I didnât realize how much work it is to actually sustain something and create an audience. Narrator: While the amount of effort going into their blogs differs, both Laura and Kai say you have to love it to do it. Kai: I just like being out and aboutâbeing out there and I definitely learn new things along the way. Laura: I just love that I am independent and itâs for me, not anyone else. Lisa: Web Marketer, Laurel Lindsay says blogs with 1000 to 2000 words and about 15 images typically get shared the most, which then attracts the sponsors. Joe: A lot of people blogging these days. Travelling. People love to blog travelling. So there you go. Some tips that could probably transferred over.
Recently, Instagram added search to its desktop experience. This update is not just great for finding the best cat and puppy photos, itâs AMAZING for helping you market your business on Instagram. The following three strategies take advantage of the new update and will generate new and engaged followers of your business which could lead to new leads and sales.
1. Like and Comment on Keyword Hashtags
Hashtags are widely used on Instagram so users can easily find similar or themed content. Consider keywords that relate to your business or that represent the target demographic of your product or service. Once you start searching, Instagram will show you how many posts have been tagged with a specific keyword and this can help you narrow down which keywords are more popular than others. Now itâs time for favouriting and commenting. I recommend a minimum of 100 outgoing favourites and 25 comments per day in order to achieve maximum effectiveness with engagement. Donât over think your comments, keep it simple, for example âGreat photo!â or âLove this!â and consider adding some emoji! Remember that this activity needs to be daily as Instagram users are always posting new photos (over 70M per day).
2. Like and Comment on Posts in a Specific Geographic Location
This feature is undoubtedly the most beneficial for businesses. Now you can easily see photos in a specific geographic location. Simply type in the City name and the search box will suggest that location. Interacting with customers in your area will be the most effective way to generate leads and sales. Try to engage with local posts in a fun and friendly way and donât hesitate to add a local flare to your comments. You should start to build relationships with local Instagramâers and this in turn will help you gain a loyal following.
3. Research Competitors and Industry Influencers
With the new update itâs now even easier to research competitors and industry influencers. In order to stay on top of your industry, you need to know whats working and not working for your competitors. Some things to consider would be which of their photos are receiving the most engagement and why? Are videos performing better than photos? Considering how many people are following them, are they receiving a high, medium or low level of engagement? Are there any promotions going on that you could match or beat? These questions will help you focus your strategy on Instagram and start leading the pack. Another way to get inspiration and for ideas on how great businesses use the platform, try researching some relevant industry influencers. These brands have larger marketing budgets for Instagram and can show you the most effective way to engage with your unique audience.
Today’s question comes from Tim Lu, who writes on our Facebook page,
âHow do you grow your Twitter followers beyond 20,000?â.
I’ve got some great tips for you, Tim- so if you are wondering how to do that yourself, keep reading.
The first thing that you want to do is use the automated tool âTweet Adder.â
Tweet Adder is a paid service that goes out and favourites tweets of folks in your target demographicâand thereby drives engagement. It’s actually a very effective tool, which I highly recommend.
UPDATE:
Another thing to do is making sure that you are engaging with and acknowledging your existing followers so they don’t drop off and you get exposure to their networks.
Retweeting them, giving them shout-outs, thanking them for following you and including them in the #FF or Follow Friday hashtag are great ways to promote and engage your existing audience.
Also making sure that the tweets you are sending out are relevant to your audience is a great way to increase your followers. By focusing on the value you provide, ensuring that people are interested in what you’re tweeting and are actually sharing thatâthat will get you exposure across lots of other networks beyond the one that you currently have.
And the last tip is to do a little bit of research around the hashtags of your target followers.
What hashtags are trending?
What are popular in particular geographical areas and within specific industries?
If you can jump on the bandwagon of tweets that are trending, you can certainly again get more exposure to a larger demographic than you may have already. And you can get more followers that way.
If you found this valuable, please consider sharing with your network.
Today’s question comes from Michelle Bell, who writes, âHow can I integrate all my social media platforms and measure performance based on engagement?â If you’re wondering that too, then keep reading for the answer.
Michelle, it’s a fantastic question. Measurement is absolutely critical to improving your engagement and your performance on social media. So how do you do that?
Gathering Social Media Statistics
We use a software called Sprout Social, which integrates a lot of the different social platforms and generates lots of valuable information around what the most popular types of content that we’re posting, who are the most active people in our network, and much more. It’s a fantastic tool & highly recommended. It is paid service, but well worth it!
Measuring your influence:
Another tool you can use is Klout. Klout will actually measure your influence by grabbing information from all your social profiles and then again measuring what types of content are getting the most engagement and how your influence is progressing, either up or down depending on your engagement with your community.
How about that website?
And then a very overlooked tactic, but one I always recommend, is to make sure that you’re measuring your traffic back to your website to see what kind of social properties are driving traffic to your site and what those folks are doing once they get to your site.
Imagine if you could work anywhere with wifi. Your office could be your local coffee shop, a favourite park or even a new city each week. This general concept is exactly how The New Media Group operates. Every single team member is ENCOURAGED to work anywhere with wifi. Now youâre probably wondering, how is it possible for a team of people to accomplish this while also fulfilling clients needs and actively collaborating on projects? The answer is very simple and in this blog post, Iâm going to explain the three main ways.
1. Project Management and Collaboration Tool
Holding team members accountable and meeting deadlines is so important for every single business. Without a robust cloud software for project management and collaboration we would never be able to achieve our mobile work goals. Our teamâs software of choice is Basecamp! We love the ease of use when it comes to creating and assigning projects and tasks as well as the ability for team members to communicate within the software, lessoning our daily email intake and allowing us to focus more time on our amazing clients.
2. Google Hangouts
Technically, you donât have to wear pants to our team meetings. Not only because pants are over rated but because every meeting is conducted online through Google Hangouts. This allows team members to create their own space for meeting, in the comfort of their own office. We begin by sharing how our week has been and then briefly share updates about our current projects or any information that clients have passed along. Once everyone has shared their updates, we generally talk briefly about the unique cool things we will be doing that weekend in the city where we live. This may be one of the coolest parts of working for The New Media Group, always hearing about the exciting things going on in and around Western Canada.
3. A Progressive Leader
The only way ANY of this mobile work environment would be possible, is with a progressive leader. President Laurel Lindsay always encourages a work life balance that is rare to find anywhere but at the most progressive tech companies in a place such as Silicon Valley. Having worked at Hootsuite in Vancouver (equipped with nap rooms, quiet working spaces, and a full gym) it did not seem possible to find another work environment that whole heartedly supported team members work-life balance, that was until my New Media Group position. Another thing to consider is that Laurel can hire anyone, from any city, allowing her to optimize her talent level and ensure sheâs working with the experts she most admires. We feel that more businesses should embrace this progressive mobile work concept and consider some of the benefits for their business. For tips on how your business can become more mobile work friendly, donât hesitate to ping Laurel today.
If youâve ever been the recipient of a bad online review of your business, you may find yourself frustrated by the apparent lack of control we as entrepreneurs have over things being said about our business – especially if theyâre not true.
What proactive steps can you take to protect your business, and how do you best handle a peer review gone wrong?
1. Adapt your mindset.
The worst thing you can do is tell yourself this article isnât relevant to your business and click away.
Seriously.
We need to adapt in order to survive and thrive, and todayâs consumers have more power than theyâve ever had to affect our success. 70%Â of Canadians online trust consumer reviews. (BDC, 2013) Negative sentiment can go viral, quickly – as exemplified by the Applebeeâs social media nightmare – and can be very difficult to manage. Understanding the change in buyer behaviour and accepting that itâs not going away, frees you up to take in the following information to help protect your business.
2. Get informed:
Increasingly Canadian consumers such as you and I, rely on the web to make our purchasing decisions.
1. Canadians spend on average 2.5 hours a day online; on social media, watching videos, & researching products and services. ComScore, 2014 2. Nine out of 10 consumers claim to use their smartphone for pre-shopping activities BDC 2013 3. 70%Â of Canadians online trust consumer reviews. (BDC, 2013) None of this is particularly surprising. The widespread adoption of web connected smartphones is not a new phenomenon. In fact many older and wiser of us lament the pervasive nature of these devices and their impact on social connection – Â and more practically – our ability to walk down the street without literally running into people distracted by their smartphones.
Beyond being a mildly irritating obstacle to efficient walking, this change in how we as a culture interact has widespread implications for todayâs business owner.
The constantly connected state of todayâs consumer – specifically – your customers – means your customers shape your brandâs reputation.
Customers and the public at large (reasonable and otherwise) can seriously impact your ability to acquire new customers and maintain your reputation.
3. Know that negative sentiment goes far beyond review sites:
You may have heard of âreputation managementâ in the context of managing reviews of your business, or even been approached by a less than integrity based business offering you positive reviews of your business, for a price.
But beyond the formal review channels, people can leave negative sentiments on your Facebook page, in response to a post on social media…and almost anywhere else on the web.
4. Start listening:
Google your business name to see what comes up. You may be surprised at the places itâs listed and what people are saying about your company.
If you are surprised, itâs a sign to implement some practices internally to start monitoring your companyâs reputation.
You can either manually conduct a search regularly or implement an automated solution to alert you immediately of any new conversations about your business.
Business owner responses allow you to build relationships with customers, but theyâre also public. When replying to your customers, keep the following guidelines in mind:
Be nice and donât get personal. This isnât just a guideline–itâs also a good idea as a business owner. It’s difficult to win an argument with a frustrated customer, and you want to avoid burning bridges. Keep your responses useful, readable, and courteous. In addition, responses should comply with our local content policy.
Keep it short and sweet. Users are looking for useful and genuine responses, but they can easily be overwhelmed by a long response.
Thank your reviewers. Respond to happy reviewers when you have new or relevant information to share. You donât need to thank every reviewer publicly, since each response reaches lots of customers, not just one.
Be a friend, not a salesperson. Your reviewers are already customers, so thereâs no need to offer incentives or advertisements. Tell reviewers something new about your business, or share something they might not know from their first visit.
6. Go above & beyond:
The tone and speed of your response to a bad review is where you can really make or break your reputation. In this CTV news clip, I was asked to comment on what appears to be a fraudulent sale of goods by a household brand.
This would never have become a news story if the response to the customerâs complaint on their facebook page hadnât been a canned response to call their 1 800 number – where the customer didnât get a response. In the case studies above, with Winners & Applebees, both responses to the negative sentiment were woefully inadequate and appeared completely disingenuous.
Because customer sentiment can so powerfully and permanently affect your reputation, if you are in the wrong (like I believe Winners was ) you need to go above and beyond- 1.Get the customerâs information 2. Make an effort to get in touch with them right away. 3. Work to resolve the issue to their satisfaction 4. Once you get agreement on a solution, ask if the customer will then update their post with details on how you came through for them. 5. Going forward – work with your social media manager to create a policy for addressing unhappy customers in a way that shows you actually care.
7. Be proactive
By actively soliciting positive reviews- and incentivising your customers to do so, you can combat any negative and unfair reviews with a steady stream of positive reviews.
Copy and paste this templated email and send out to all your happy customers; Â ( just replace the links with your Facebook & Google Plus page links before you send )
Today we are going to answer Jeff’s question, who writes, âWhat are three tips for finding the right customers on social media?â
That’s a great question. And if you are wondering that yourself, keep reading for the answer.
Identify your ideal customers:
If you know who your right customers are, you’re two steps ahead of many of your competitors.
The next step is to typify them in an archetype or in a demographic. So for example, maybe your customers are typically affluent women in their thirties and forties.
Now you have concrete data you can use to research what social networks that particular demographic uses the most.
In this case of our example, that would be Pinterest. Doing a little bit of market research in the beginning will help you create the bare bones of a social media strategy and save you a lot of hassle and time making mistakes through trial and error.
Identify target location:
The second thing to do to find your ideal customers on social media, is narrowing your target down to a geographic area. Again, this provides you with a concrete benchmark, from which you can conduct more market research.
Specifically, there are hashtags that are used for each specific geographic area. Do a little bit of research and find out which are the most popular ones for both your geographic location, as well as the interests of your demographic so you can capitalize on their interests by getting involved in conversations about trending topics and more.
Pay for it:
Another thing you can do to get in front of your ideal networks is advertise. The social media networks we participate in have amazing data collected on all of us. Thus, they’ve got very specific demographic information available for you to advertise and get in front of an audience that maybe isn’t part of your existing community.
Solicit Reviews:
The last thing that you can do is solicit referrals and recommendations on all your social media properties by having people endorse you. Endorsements not only provide new customers with a level of trust that youâre a reputable business, but this activity also provides exposure to your recommenderâs network, who are much more likely to buy from you than a total stranger.
