Content Marketing
Data-driven content production can generate far better results and increase the ROI for your content marketing efforts and investments. Here’s how to collect & start using essential data about your methods to inform and improve your content production process(es).
4 Ways to Use Data to Better Understand Your Content Production Process via @MarcusWorkfront • @CMIContent
Are you ready to start scaling your SaaS business and take it to the next level? Then, you have to check out this series of articles that reveals the latest tools and tactics you can use to scale and grow your SaaS business in 2017.
The Best SaaS Articles of 2016 From Around the Web via @hnshah
Interactive content can create more memorable audience experiences. Here’s how to dive into developing interactive content so you can start leveraging it to boost attention for and interest in your brand.
15 Tools to Create Interactive Content via @alancassinelli • @zembulations
Make sure your latest content marketing campaign and strategies hit the ground running by following these steps.
5 Steps To Getting Started With Content Marketing For Your Small Business Or Startup via @BrennerMichael • @MKTGInsiders
Content marketing is one of the single best ways to get attention for your brand online and build trust with a target audience. Here’s the undeniable case for content marketing and what you can do to start benefiting from it.
Why Content Marketing is Essential via @JasonDiNunno • @LinkedIn
Social Media Marketing
Check out the leading Instagram trends for last year. These can reveal how you can update and refine your Instagram posts and strategies for 2017!
Instagram Year in Review: Top Trends from 2016 via @taylrn • @latermedia
Creating an impressive, engaging Facebook video is easier than you think if you follow these insider tips.
5 Simple Tips for Great Facebook Videos derived from Facebook’s Best Publisher via @SusanCMoeller • @BuzzSumo
Don’t waste any more time writing and publishing your social media posts. Here’s a powerful new tool you can use to automatically post great content to your social media pages.
Introducing ReQueue: The Most Intelligent Way To Automate Your Social Media via @kat_nyhus • @CoSchedule
Create a better brand experience for your followers and target audience by diving into Facebook Live the right way. Here’s how.
7 Smart Ways to Start Using Facebook Live for Your Business via @BlastYourBlog • @convince
Never post the wrong size image on social media again! Make this insider’s guide your go-to resource so you always know the right size image for every major social network.
The Definitive Guide to Social Media Image Sizes via @JasonDiNunno • @DAuthorityCo
Hashtags 101: Why & How to Use Hashtags (on Any Social Network)
Using the right hashtags in your social media posts can enhance their visibility and promote better engagement.
But what are the right hashtags? How many is enough (or too many)?
Uncovering the answers to these (and other) questions, this week, I’m sharing some essential best practices for using hashtags on any social network. These insights can help you refine and improve your social posts, positioning them for more views, shares, retweets, comments, etc.
And that can be central to growing your brand’s presence and authority on social media (and online in general).
Hashtags Defined: What Are They & Why to Use Them
Hashtags (#) sort messages of different topics across a social media platform. They essentially categorize posts by topic so users can view, monitor and/or join the conversation on a given subject.
By adding hashtags to your social media posts, you ensure your posts are part of a given conversation or discussion happening about the hashtagged topic(s).
So, for instance, #DigitalMarketing (on, let’s say a Twitter post sharing a digital marketing tip) would connect that post to the ongoing conversation happening on Twitter regarding digital marketing. As people view and monitor that thread, they can see and respond to that post.
This effectively opens up a whole new audience (beyond your current followers) for any of your social media posts that include hashtags.
Using Hashtags: 4 Best Practices for Any Social Network
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1. Make sure it’s relevant – The hashtag has to fit or correspond to the topic of the post. It should also be relevant to your brand. Adding an irrelevant hashtag to your posts (because, for instance, it’s trending) can detract from your brand’s credibility and be off-putting to an audience.
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2. Keep it short and memorable – These go hand in hand. Shorter hashtags tend to be more memorable. And the more memorable your hashtags are, the more likely it is that your followers and a greater audience will recall them later and rejoin the conversation.
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3. Do some research – If you really want to extend the reach of your posts, don’t just blindly choose hashtags and assume they’ll work. That’s a risk you don’t have to take if you just spend a few minutes (at most) researching hashtags to find the best ones to include in your posts. There are plenty of tools out there (like Hashtagify.me and RiteTag.com) that let you search a given keyword or topic to find the top performing hashtags related to it.
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4. Don’t overdo it – Use 1 to 3 hashtags in your posts. More than 3 hashtags can be irritating and overwhelming to an audience, which can mean less engagement (not only with that post but also moving forward).
Using Hashtags: A Few More Insider Tips
As you start to pull together content ideas to inspire your Twitter posts, here’s another thing to keep in mind: you don’t want to over or under do the promotional Tweets.
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● Don’t be afraid to be unique or create a new hashtag.
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● Use the names of new products, events or special promotions as the basis for your hashtags (these can be unique and memorable!).
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● Don’t limit your hashtag use to just including them in your social media posts. Follow the discussions happening in hashtags that are relevant to your brand, business and/or industry. This can help reveal the issues, concerns and/or positive experiences an audience has had with your brand, business and/or industry (at any point in the client experience), possibly highlighting new opportunities to:
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○ Connect with new segments of your audience or prospective client base
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○ Answer their questions or address their concerns, demystifying your business and increasing the chances that you’ll convert skeptics into new prospects
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○ Expand your brand’s presence and pull on social media, which can be pivotal to growing your business.
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Are you a hashtag junkie? Are you still on the fence about using hashtags (or whether you’re using them right)? Have you faced any specific challenges or successes with hashtags in your social posts?
Tell me more on Facebook and LinkedIn. And don’t hesitate to get a hold of me on social media to ask any digital marketing question or just to say ‘hi.’ I look forward to hearing from you!