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How to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Product Sales http://ift.tt/2s8sCOv Do you want to sell on Facebook? Wondering how to increase product sales without investing in Facebook ads? In this article, you’ll discover how to organically optimize your Facebook page for more sales.
#1: Choose the Right Facebook Page Type and CategoryEvery business is different, and how you optimize your Facebook page for sales depends on what you sell and how you sell it. For example, a consultant needs people to book appointments, a restaurant or hair salon wants to drive customers to their physical location, and an ecommerce business sells products online. Facebook has pre-made page templates to help you promote your products most effectively. To find these templates, go to Settings and click Edit Page on the left. Pages automatically start with the “default” template but you can change it to any of the following:
Before you select a different template, look at the recommended settings for the template (including the order of the tabs). Changing the template will automatically change your call to action (CTA) and the buttons available on the toolbar. Any existing tabs you have that don’t fit into the template may also be erased. To explore the different templates, click the Edit button to the right of your existing template. In the pop-up box, scroll down to the template you’re interested in and click View Details. Review the recommended settings for the template, and if needed, adjust your page manually before you apply the template. Only the Services and Shopping templates have built-in Shop sections, which allow you to extensively feature products on Facebook. However, you can manually add the Shop or Services tab to any template. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the Edit Page section. At the bottom of the list of existing tabs on your page, click Add a Tab. Then choose which tabs to add to your site. #2: Select a Sales-Oriented CTA ButtonYour page’s Call to Action (CTA) button sets the stage for the main action you want users to carry out. Do you want them to shop your products or call you to book an appointment? Choose the best CTA button for your business. To change your CTA button, click it on your page. You’ll then see a ton of different options you can choose from. While you likely know which CTA to choose for your business, here are some general guidelines: Select Book Services if your services are fairly straightforward and you want to optimize for appointments. Choose from the Get in Touch options if your business can reliably and quickly answer on Facebook, and the best way to win over customers is one-on-one communication. Great examples of businesses that would find this option useful include boutique fitness studios, freelancers, and consultants. Choose Shop Now if (like Book Services) your business sells products that can be bought fairly quickly and without needing a lot of questions answered first. Opt for Start Order or other customized food delivery CTAs if you’re a restaurant looking to optimize for takeout or delivery orders. Pick a Learn More option if your products or services are complex, high-priced, or unfamiliar to users. They’ll be more likely to click Learn More than Sign Up if they’re unfamiliar with your business or product; it’s a lower-pressure option. After you decide on your CTA, you’ll need to set it up. For Contact Us, as an illustration, enter a specific Contact Me page through which users can send you emails. #3: Set Up a Shop SectionIf you want to sell products more directly from Facebook, setting up a Shop section (if applicable to your business) is the best way to do this. Go to the Shop tab to create your Facebook storefront. First, agree to the Merchant Terms and Policies. Next, choose your checkout method. You can choose from two options: allow people to purchase from you through Facebook or by navigating to your site when they click on a product. For this example, we’ll illustrate the latter. Now fill out the “describe what you sell” section with information about your business and products so first-time users will feel more comfortable buying from you. Click Add Products to start adding products to your shop. You can add multiple photos, prices (even an on-sale price), a description, and a link where users can go to purchase the item. Organizing products into collections makes it easy for users to shop. When you add products to your shop, you can have them shared to your timeline automatically. If you add a new product you want users to know about, this can encourage immediate sales. You can edit and share both your products and shop at any time. For advice about how to fully set up a great Facebook shop, check out some best practices. #4: Tag Products From Your Shop in Photos and VideosMany businesses have pictures and videos featuring their products and services. Now you can tag your visual content and posts on the platform with your products, including your cover photo. When you click on your cover photo, for instance, you see the option to tag products from your shop. Click the Tag Products button. Then click on a product in your cover photo. When you start to type in the product name, products from your shop will pop up. You’ll see the Tag Products option whether or not you have a shop set up, but there’s a difference in the tags. If you have a shop, you can tag products like people; when users click, it takes them to the product page you’ve created on Facebook. If you don’t have a shop and products listed, users will just see the name of the product when they hover over it. This is still an advantage because users can identify products they like and go searching on their own. #5: Enable Customer ReviewsEnabling reviews on your Facebook page is one of the best things you can do for your business when you want to increase conversions. Customers don’t necessarily trust what businesses say about themselves; however, they do want to hear what actual customers think. If your business has positive reviews from customers, first-time visitors will be more likely to convert. As an added bonus, some reviewers will even recommend specific products or services, encouraging other users to try them. To check that reviews are enabled for your page, go to Settings and click Edit Page. Then scroll down to the Reviews tab and click the Settings button. Make sure your reviews are set to On. Final Thoughts If you want to sell more on Facebook, start by optimizing your business page. Whether people are searching for a business like yours or stumble onto your page after seeing a friend interact with it, your page may be the first point of contact for new users. Because of this, it’s essential to set up your page to nudge users toward conversion at all points of the digital sales funnel. What do you think? How do you optimize your Facebook page for more sales? What’s helped you increase your conversions? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think! Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 26, 2017 at 05:04AM
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Instagram is actively ruining my life with its inhumane algorithm http://ift.tt/2rNWawJ As a rule, social networks are terrible at understanding their human users — no matter the ooey-gooey platitudes about bringing us "closer together" their executives piece together. Never has this been more clear than over the past few days, when Instagram's algorithm continually shoved well-meaning but emotionally ruinous "happy Father's Day!" garbage down my throat. Quick background: A brain tumor put my dad six feet under close to 11 years ago, when I was still a teenager. It was, I'd say, pretty traumatic: he spent close to two years incredibly sick, confused, and weak. So, I'm not a huge fan of Father's Day. But the "holiday" does gangbusters for Facebook, the social behemoth that owns Instagram and subsists on the content you feed it. Nearly 830 million photographs and videos were shared to Facebook on Father's Day last year. When the networks gain sentience and take over, this will be their Thanksgiving — a feast of plenty where your visual data is the turkey and the stuffing. A Father's Day post near the top of my Instagram feed three days after the holiday... Image: Damon Beres/Mashable ... and one an entire five days after Father's Day. Image: Damon Beres/Mashable Your photos and videos give platforms like Facebook and Instagram data to market against, which means these social networks will stop at nothing to get you to Share, Share, Share. Seeing your friends post a certain kind of content encourages you to do the same — perhaps you've felt this inertia yourself after scrolling through dozens of "love you, dad!" posts — which is why the automated processes behind your Facebook and Instagram feeds show you highly engaged-with content that you're likely to enjoy. Put very simply, your feeds aren't chronological. They're automatically arranged according to a variety of signals, and the content you see up top is supposedly the material you're most likely to interact with. This creates some problems. On Friday — as in, an entire five days after Father's Day — Instagram was delivering reheated content about how excellent it is to have a dad who isn't, like, super dead. All smiles and happy fission for the perfect nuclear family. Certainly this pain has been written about before. But good grief, I just checked again out of morbid curiosity and there are two more in my feed, like roaches on the wall: This is now 144 hours after Father's Day photos should be remotely of interest to anyone, and that's where this gets interesting. Because while I can boo-hoo about my corpse-Pops until the cows come home, this is really about what a dumb, inhuman product Instagram is. Social media, as opposed to the, uh, non-social media it's meant to replace, should be of the moment. Immediacy is its raison d'etre -- the thing that keeps us coming back for more and dragging down on our screens like they're slot machines. A quick survey of the first 10 posts on my Instagram feed today, pulled from the 222 people I follow:
Of the 10 different people who published this machine-nourishing content, only four had posted something else in the past day. It's not a scientific survey, but it leads me to wonder if Instagram — just like daddy Facebook, as famously reported by The Information last year — is experiencing a problem with people sharing less. How else to explain this flood of old-ass content in my feed, including oh so many smiling fathers? Whatever the reason, it highlights something very simple about the "social" apps we use every day: They don't really understand their human users and what we want. Algorithms play on our behavior to deliver content we're meant to enjoy. They're supposedly better at this than people, who obviously couldn't curate the material in your social feeds even if Facebook wanted them to do that. But this week proves how disastrous the formula can be: who wants a feed of old media, especially when it's emotionally taxing to sift through? A roughly 10 million-word profile of Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom published on Recode earlier this year ended with an interesting quote. "Our mission is to strengthen relationships through shared experiences," Systrom told the outlet. "And we’re going to be best at that in the world." To which we say: Lol. And: Try harder. Oh, and finally: Your users are living, breathing human beings with emotions, not data points. Move beyond the platitudes and fix the product. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 June 24, 2017 at 10:58AM
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Instagram Live Replays, Periscope Super Hearts, Snap Map, and Pinterest Lens Camera Updates http://ift.tt/2t5RlDe Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show with Erik Fisher and Kim Reynolds, we explore Instagram live replays with Jeff Sieh, Periscope super hearts with Luria Petrucci, Snapchat’s Snap Map with Shaun Ayala, Pinterest Lens Camera tools with Alisa Meredith, and other breaking social media marketing news of the week! Watch the Social Media Morning Talk ShowIf you’re new to the show, click on the green “Watch replay” button below and sign in or register to watch our latest episode from Friday, June 23, 2017.
For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above. Periscope Launches Super Hearts and Announces the Super Broadcaster Program: Periscope rolls out super hearts, a new paid form of commenting that allows viewers to celebrate and support their favorite broadcasters. Viewers can purchase an in-app currency through the iOS App Store or Google Play Store and use the “coins” to buy and send live broadcasters super hearts. Each super heart is worth a different value and contributes to a broadcaster’s overall “star balance.” Periscope also announced its new Super Broadcaster Program, which allows approved broadcasters to exchange their star balance for cash. The new program is currently only available in the U.S., but it’s expected to roll out internationally “soon.” (6:20) Instagram Stories Reaches 250M Daily Active Users and Adds Live Video Replays: Instagram introduced the ability to share live video replays to Instagram Stories for 24 hours with a new Share button found at the bottom of the screen once a broadcast ends. Instagram also announced that Stories now boasts 250 million daily active users, which is “up from 200 million in April, 150 million in January and 100 million in October after launching the Snapchat Stories clone in August.” (26:00) Snapchat Rolls Out Snap Map: Snapchat built “a whole new way to explore the world” with Snap Map. Snap Map gives users the option to share their current location and location-based content with one another when the app is opened. Snap Map is rolling out globally to all users. (38:10) VIDEO Time Warner Agrees to Create Original Programming and Ad Revenue for Snapchat: Time Warner and Snap Inc. announced a new deal valued at about $100 million that will increase both ad spending and original, made-for-Snapchat programming over the next two years. The shows are expected to span a wide range of genres including scripted dramas, daily news shows, comedy, and more. TechCrunch also reports that Time Warner is investing in Snap ads from its other properties like HBO, Turner, and Warner Bros. (43:38)
Pinterest Updates Lens Camera Tools and Features: Pinterest rolled out a “fresh look for Lens” with “more helpful tools and a newly heightened sense of style.” These new tools include new zoom and focus features that allow users to “pinpoint exactly what [they]’re looking for” in a photo, the ability to directly access the latest photos from the camera roll, and an Instant Ideas button on Lens results. Pinterest also announced that it has “doubled the number of categories Lens has been trained to recognize” over the last month. (46:42) Facebook Tests New Tools for Managing Profile Photos: Facebook is piloting a set of new tools in India that allows users to have “more control over who can download and share their profile pictures” and “more easily add designs to profile pictures,” which has been shown to deter misuse. This experiment is currently limited to users in India but Facebook hopes to expand it to other countries “soon.” LinkedIn Makes Comments More Visual: LinkedIn added the ability to include images within comments shared on its platform “to give you a richer, more expressive way to have conversations.” LinkedIn Rolls Out New Search Feature to Boost Job Opportunities: LinkedIn updated its search capabilities to make it easier to discover new jobs and professional opportunities. With the new Search Appearances feature on mobile and desktop, members can now see how many people have found them through a LinkedIn search, as well as their companies and job titles. LinkedIn is working to bring “even more insights such as the keywords that other members are searching to discover your profile” in the future. Spotify Bot Allows Groups to Build Playlists on Facebook Messenger: Spotify expanded the functionality within its Facebook Messenger bot to allow groups to build playlists directly from within the Messenger app. Although Spotify already supported collaborative playlists across devices and platforms prior to this update, Group Playlists for Messenger is the company’s first attempt at allowing users to seamlessly share music and build “their perfect mix” without leaving the Messenger app. Ticketmaster Launches New Facebook Messenger Bot: Ticketmaster released a new Facebook Messenger bot that uses natural language processing to generate responses and shows every event that Ticketmaster is serving up in a specific area, all within the app. TechCrunch reports that the Ticketmaster bot also responds to requests about the schedule for specific artists and will send alerts when they’re coming to your area, provided they’re playing at a Ticketmaster venue.
Google Enables Job Hunts and Email Alerts Directly From Search: Google partnered with a number of popular job search sites such as LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder, and others to enable users to find employment opportunities directly through Google search and receive email alerts when a new relevant job posting opens. This new search update is currently limited to job opportunities in the U.S. and is available in English on both desktop and mobile searches. VIDEO YouTube Launches New Program to Teach Creators How to Develop VR Videos: YouTube announced a new three-day program to be held at YouTube Spaces Los Angeles that will teach creators how to make VR video. Participants will have access to camera equipment, tools for stitching clips together, training sessions, and other resources. Adweek reports that “creators need to have already made two 360-degree videos, have at least 10,000 subscribers, go through an orientation and be at least 18 years old” to participate in the program.
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Man discovers 36-year-old message in a bottle and the original writer is delighted http://ift.tt/2tCVdc0 Old school communication meets new school communication. Ryan Burchett found a message in a bottle last weekend on Little St. Simons in Georgia. The buoyant letter was 36 years ago and thanks to social media he was able to connect with the original sender. Douglas Stephens sent the bottle afloat off the Atlantic coast of Florida back on June 10, 1981. The letter included his name, address, the date, and a request for the finder to let him know where and when they found the bottle. Burchett found the bottle while fishing with friends in southern Georgia, 40 miles from Fernandina Beach where Stephens set the bottle adrift. Wanting to follow the note's instructions, Burchett tried to find the writer but discovered Stephens wasn't on Facebook, and had since moved from his original address. Based on the suggestion of a mutual friend, Burchett reached out to the Southeast Adventure Outfitters on Facebook to share the note on their page. According to 11Alive, Burchett got in contact with Stephens over the phone after, "more than 1,500 shares and hundreds of comments, tags, and connections." Now that the two have made contact, Burchett says he plans to "reunite [Stephens] with his note and share the pictures." Hopefully message in a bottle texting won't make a comeback. It's not very environmentally friendly. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 June 23, 2017 at 12:56PM
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How to Discover Your Customers’ Most-Googled Frustrations (and solve them) http://ift.tt/2t3Fk0y Google is a treasure trove for marketers. Currently (2017), it “processes over 40,000 search queries every second!” This “translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.” And just look at how much Google use grew between 2000 and 2012: It’s ridiculous! And this all means one thing. Google can generate valuable data like it’s nobody’s business. There’s arguably no other resource in history that compares to it. Another thing I love about the search engine is the arsenal of free tools it offers for gaining insights. There’s the Google Search Console, Google Analytics, the Google Keyword Planner and Google Alerts, just to name a few. These are all ideal for providing you with the data you need to better understand the behavior of your audience and improve your marketing. And as we all know, data is a marketer’s best friend. Without data, I wouldn’t know what direction to take, making it much more difficult for me to reach my demographic. In this post, I’m going to cover an extremely important aspect of marketing. It’s this: how to discover your customers’ biggest frustrations and how to solve them. I’ve found that Google is perfect for finding out what irks my audience, and you can implement the same methods too. Here are several techniques you can utilize. AutocompleteLet’s start with an incredibly simple yet effective feature: autocomplete. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. With the insane amount of data Google has accumulated and continues to accumulate, it offers autocomplete to streamline user searches and help people find the information they’re looking for quicker. Here’s a screenshot that summarizes how this feature works: Notice I highlighted two key points. Autocomplete predictions factor in the popularity/freshness of search terms and terms other people are searching for. Using autocomplete can provide you with valuable intel on what your customers are searching for and, more importantly, what their collective frustrations are. Let me give you an example of how you can use it. Type in a broad keyword phrase that relates to your industry, niche or product you’re selling. I’ll use “organic soap” as an example. Here’s what pops up: Just like that, I can tell what some of the most popular search terms are. It’s obvious people are interested in organic soap bases, recipes and organic soap-making supplies. Therefore, this user base has questions and concerns about these topics. So this is a good starting point. I recommend recording these popular searches for future reference because you’ll want to create content around those topics. Performing a question-based searchAnother easy way to understand your average customer’s frustrations is to figure out what types of questions they’re asking regarding your niche/product. You can do this by typing in search phrases such as “what is,” “why is,” “how to,” etc., followed by a broad keyword. Here’s an example: Within seconds, I can get a pretty good idea of which aspects of the organic soap topic people are curious about. Remember, if it pops up on Google autocomplete, you know a large number of people have entered that search phrase. So, you’re dealing with a high volume of searches. Again, you’ll want to record those search phrases because you can target them later on. Performing a problems searchLet’s take it one step further. Type in your broad keyword followed by the word problems: Here are some of the results I got: I also highlighted some frustrations, concerns and questions people have. Considering the fact these are all on page one of this Google search, it’s safe to say there’s a significant number of people who share these frustrations. As a result, these are all potential topics I could cover. Using the Google Keyword ToolYou probably already use this tool for performing keyword research for SEO. But it can also be useful for finding your customers’ pain points as well. Here’s what you do. Type in your broad keyword in the search box: Then scroll down to see what people are most interested in. The main thing you’ll want to take into consideration is the number of average monthly searches. Here are some highly searched keywords that let me know what types of questions and frustrations customers have: Using Google TrendsI absolutely love Google Trends. It’s one of the best ways to get a quick snapshot of the popularity of something and see how interest has either grown or declined over time. I also like to use it to generate graphs for great looking visuals for my content. To use it in this context, just type in your search phrase: Then scroll down to “Related queries.” You can view related queries as either “Top” or “Rising.” “Top” lets you know what’s most popular over time in the grand scheme of things. “Rising” lets you know what’s most popular at the moment and what’s trending upward. Use this information to spot any potential frustrations your customers might be having that you may want to address. Identifying top blogs in your nicheHere’s one last technique. Do a Google search that combines your broad keyword and the word blogs. You’ll get results like this: Then click on one or more of the results. This one looks good to me: Now, I can get a glimpse of the types of topics the top blogs are covering, which are indicative of what your average customer is most interested in: I can get quite a bit of information by just looking at the description of each blog. But, of course, I can learn a lot more by actually clicking on a specific blog and scanning through the posts. This should fill in the gaps in terms of discovering the average customer’s frustrations and can give me even more ideas for content. Solving those frustrationsOkay, so I’ve discussed several different ways to gain an understanding of what’s irking your customers. As you can see, Google is pretty much a be-all and end-all tool for this. But how do you solve those frustrations? It’s simple. You want to create robust, comprehensive content that exhaustively answers these questions and addresses these frustrations. I recommend writing down a list of topics based on your research and prioritizing them in terms of importance. For instance, I found people were interested in:
and so on. Now I can start creating content that covers those topics. More specifically, my goal is to create content that outranks the competition. Skyscraper itAs you may already know, I’m a huge proponent of the skyscraper technique: producing content that betters and outperforms your competitors’ content. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept or need to brush up, this guide from Backlinko will tell you everything you need to know. By following this formula and addressing the unique concerns of your customers, you’ll quickly be on track to generate traffic, build trust and “scratch their itch.” Diversifying your contentI’ve mentioned many times before that interactive content significantly outperforms conventional static content. Here are a few stats from Impact Marketing that show the importance of creating interactive content: When you break it all down,
Here’s what I suggest. Look for ways to create different types of content your competitors have overlooked or ignored. Rather than writing your standard 800-word blog post, write a long-form, 2,000-word post full of visuals, including relevant videos, graphs, stats, etc. Or if there’s a pervasive question your customers have, try creating an infographic that succinctly answers it step by step. In other words, think outside the box and be willing to go where your competition doesn’t. This should kill two birds with one stone because you’re solving your customers’ biggest frustrations and providing them with incredibly helpful information while offering a level of depth your competitors are not. It’s a win-win situation. ConclusionIt’s amazing the insights you can gain from Google. It’s a godsend for doing market research and will provide you with a wealth of valuable intel if you know how to use it correctly. And the longer people use Google, the bigger the data pool becomes. The best part is that it’s completely free. As you’re probably aware, every demographic has its own specific pain points. Your job as a marketer is to identify these frustrations and provide an effective solution. By using the techniques I mentioned, you can do this in a very streamlined manner. From there, you’re in a much better position to create content that hits its mark and can provide your audience with the answers they crave. This, in turn, translates into a host of benefits including increased traffic, more leads and bigger profits. Do you have any other suggestions for using Google to discover customer frustrations? Social Media via Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/UU7LJr June 23, 2017 at 10:01AM
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Live Video Strategy: How to Create a Show That Engages http://ift.tt/2tVwIG8 Interested in broadcasting live video? Have you considered starting a live video show? To explore how to create a successful live video show, I interview Luria Petrucci. More About This ShowThe Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. In this episode, I interview Luria Petrucci, a live video expert. She’s the host of Live Streaming Pros, a live show dedicated to helping businesses produce professional live streams. She’s helped big brands such as AT&T and Panasonic, and influencers such as Michael Hyatt, Amy Porterfield, and Pat Flynn. Luria explores four levels of broadcasting equipment. You’ll discover how to create an engaging flow for your live show. Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below. Listen NowListen now: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:18 — 39.1MB) Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show: Live Video StrategyLuria’s Story Luria got started with video in 2005. She was one of the first video podcasters to create content for the video iPod. (This was before the iPhone and long before YouTube “became a thing.”) Shortly thereafter, Luria started doing live video, too. By 2007, she was live-streaming from a professional studio and from mobile devices and began learning how live video creates a connection with her audience. Ever since, she’s been doing a weekly or daily show. Before Periscope and Facebook Live, Luria’s live-streaming tech included a NewTek TriCaster and Ustream. She also did some YouTube. Justin.tv (which is now Twitch) and Livestream were the other early platforms, although they focused more on business. Although Ustream focuses more on businesses now, it concentrated on creators back then. Luria enjoys seeing other people getting excited about going live, because she’s believed in live video for so long. She says live video creates a strong relationship with her audience and is the reason her audience has stuck with her for 11 years through massive business changes, partnership changes, and all of the hard stuff that goes on in business. People tell her they’ve been watching her since day one. (Note: Back then, Luria was known as Cali Lewis.) Listen to the show to discover what tech Luria used in the early days, as well as what live video was like at the beginning. Why Consider Live Video Live video is the best marketing conversion tool Luria has ever seen because of its impact. When people are watching you on live video, they know you’re not faking it. When you’re selling something or trying to lead people into a funnel, live video is easy because of what Luria calls the “conversational call to action.” Like most people, Luria has a hard time selling. People don’t like to sell because they don’t like to be sold to. The conversational call to action is really about helping people. You’re letting them know you’re there for them and will take care of them. When you offer something in a live video, it’s easier to sell it because you’re not really selling. When somebody asks a question, your answer proves the value of your products or services. Also, although the excitement for and accessibility of live video is new, its formulas and structure are proven. Listen to the show to hear what I love about live video. The Four Levels of Live Video Gear Luria explains what gear you need for live video in four levels. She calls level 1 the “selfie stream.” You hold your mobile phone in your hand and the live video is raw, up-close, and personal. For level 2, add some gear to your mobile phone such as a microphone, video stabilizer, and a light. This gear adds a little polish to your video and removes the shakiness. Level 3 is going live from a computer with software like Wirecast. Finally, level 4 is for TV-quality video. Your gear includes a dedicated machine in a studio and a setup that produces a high-quality stream. Listen to the show to hear Luria discuss the roots of live video. Luria’s Live Video Strategy Part 1 of Luria’s live video strategy is consistency. You want to tell your audience you’re there for them every single week. When you make that commitment to them, they’ll make that commitment to you. Plus, people have a lot to pay attention to, so if you’re not in their face all the time, they’ll forget about you. Luria recommends starting with a weekly show. A monthly show is doable, but it’s not really enough to be consistent. You don’t want to go daily, unless you’ve done weekly for a while, because daily is really hard to keep up. Do your weekly show on the same day at the same time. The best time to go live is what works best for you and your schedule. Obviously, you can’t pre-record a live show. If you commit to a time that’s not good for you because you think it’s the best time to go live, you’ll fail and then quit. Don’t pick a time that will leave you rushed to get into the studio or worried about picking up your kids. The time you choose is part of your long-term strategy because you want to be consistent long-term and focus on delivering value. You can use level 3 or 4 gear for this part of the strategy. You’ll be at a computer, so you have the ability to pull in interviews and add lower thirds (title graphics). You can do a lot to make it look good so it’s a great show. You can also go with level 2 for a regular show by putting your smartphone on a tripod. Part 2 of the strategy is the life stream. The goal is to add a human element to your video content by sharing your life with your audience. To create this video, use gear from level 1 or 2 (your mobile device, maybe with some gear). Sharing who you are turns your audience into a loyal viewer base. This loyalty is valuable when you ask them to make a purchase. You want them to stick around so they don’t turn to your competitors. I ask how someone might start creating this type of content. Luria recommends beginning with life streams as you get your weekly show up and running. Bring your audience into your journey. Luria says the experience you create is comparable to inviting your best friend to experience Disney World with you, instead of telling her about it afterward. Similarly, as you develop your weekly show, a buzz-building campaign with life streams leading up to the show’s launch will have more impact than people simply finding out about your show. For example, you can do life streams talking about what you’re going to name the show and when it will be on. Let people feel like part of that experience. At the same time, you can show off your new dog and wrap your business into your personal life. To help people add the life stream component, Luria offers a downloadable content calendar. Part 2 is difficult to put into practice until you see it in action. A life stream is supposed to be random, but when you’re just getting used to the process, scheduling life streams can be helpful. At first, do a life stream two times a week. If you already launched your weekly show, don’t do your life stream and your show on the same day. Do a fun mobile stream where you talk about something, either leading up to your weekly show or offering a behind-the-scenes look at something. You could share behind-the-scenes content daily and people wouldn’t get tired of it. It’s incredible. Part 3 is the after live. This is the afterlife of your live video, and it’s all about repurposing. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that their live video is all about their live video. It’s not. Get in the habit of making your live video the centerpiece of all of your content creation. That makes everything really strategic and helps you create live videos consistently. To repurpose your live video, you can edit and trim the video and release it as a podcast, a YouTube video, or whatever fits into your overall strategy. Also, the live video will have many more video views after the fact than it will live, so don’t get caught up with live-viewer numbers. If you’re doing live video on Facebook, you can boost it to reach a bigger audience. You can also share the video to your email list after the broadcast or send a link to your list prior to a scheduled live video. People will still open the email after your live video is over and watch the replay. I note that in podcast episode 223, Chalene Johnson lays out how she uses her live video to do almost all of her marketing. The three-part live video strategy is a long-term play, but with it in place, you’ll drive more traffic to your live views, as well as to other parts of your business. VIDEO Listen to the show to hear about my experience with life streams and Social Media Examiner’s weekly live show. Show Flow As soon as you press the button to go live, your brain starts buzzing with all kinds of thoughts about the people who are or aren’t there, what to do with your hands, and so forth. Luria says you can tame that sensation but she’s found that it never completely goes away. Live video comes with an extra adrenaline factor. To help you manage this aspect of live video, Luria shares her formula for the flow of a live video show. Start with a tease. Because you’ll repurpose your live videos, you can’t wait for people to come in. You need to go right into the content. Tell people what they’re going to learn in the video, even for a fun random video. “Hey, I’m going to show you my new puppy.” Then you have an intro. People who don’t know you will join your live videos, so explain who you are and why you’re talking about this topic. This intro is especially important if you’re doing a value-oriented weekly show. Luria calls her people Streamers. So for example, one of her videos may start with, “Hey Streamers. I’m going to give you the formula for live videos so you don’t struggle with what to say. Hey, guys. I’m Luria Petrucci, and I’ve been doing live video for 11 years. I’ve really fine-tuned this formula, so I’m excited to share it with you today. First, before we get started, I really want to hear from you.” Then she asks a question of the day such as, “My question of the day to you is: Have you done a live video yet? Yes or no. Give me a big yes or no in the comments.” After asking the question, Luria engages. The live viewers likely won’t see the beginning sequence of tease-intro-share, because they haven’t joined the video yet. The beginning sequence is for the replay viewers, who will see the beginning of your video when they click Play. Luria encourages engagement for a couple of reasons. First of all, with live video (especially on Facebook), the algorithms are built so the more engagement you get off the bat, the greater your visibility. Get people to comment, share, and engage, so Facebook shows your video to more people. As you encourage people to interact, make the interaction worth their while by responding to them. A lot of people ask viewers for their city and state. Although Luria does that sometimes, she more often asks a specific question of the day that’s related to her topic. Viewer responses give her a bit of feedback on what she talks about during the show. Engage in the way you feel most comfortable, whether it’s asking for a share, a heart, a location, or a question of the day. Next, Luria restates the topic overview, which is great for the live viewers and doesn’t bother the replay viewers. Then, she gets into the valuable information. For instance, if you’re doing three steps to a particular thing, go through the entire first step (or for a long video, a portion of it), and then break for engagement. That’s when you take questions or comments. So the pattern is value, then engage; value, then engage; value, then engage. End the show with a call to action, which Luria chooses based on her business goals at the time. So the call to action might be about a product launch or audience-building. For example, Luria might say, “Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hearing all of your comments and questions. I’d love to hear from you, so keep it going and get into this community. I’m here every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 AM Pacific, so be sure to mark it in your calendars, set a timer on your alarm, whatever you gotta do to make sure you’re here.” Listen to the show to hear Luria and I discuss how going live improves your communication skills. Listen to the show! Listen now: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:18 — 39.1MB) Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:What do you think? What are your thoughts on live video strategy? Please leave your comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 23, 2017 at 05:06AM Live Video Strategy: How to Create a Show That Engages http://ift.tt/2tVwIG8 Interested in broadcasting live video? Have you considered starting a live video show? To explore how to create a successful live video show, I interview Luria Petrucci. More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. In this episode, I interview Luria Petrucci, a live video expert. She's the host of Live Streaming Pros, a live show dedicated to helping businesses produce professional live streams. She's helped big brands such as AT&T and Panasonic, and influencers such as Michael Hyatt, Amy Porterfield, and Pat Flynn. Luria explores four levels of broadcasting equipment. You'll discover how to create an engaging flow for your live show. Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below. Listen Now Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show: Live Video Strategy Luria's Story Luria got started with video in 2005. She was one of the first video podcasters to create content for the video iPod. (This was before the iPhone and long before YouTube "became a thing.") Shortly thereafter, Luria started doing live video, too. By 2007, she was live-streaming from a professional studio and from mobile devices and began learning how live video creates a connection with her audience. Ever since, she's been doing a weekly or daily show. Before Periscope and Facebook Live, Luria's live-streaming tech included a NewTek TriCaster and Ustream. She also did some YouTube. Justin.tv (which is now Twitch) and Livestream were the other early platforms, although they focused more on business. Although Ustream focuses more on businesses now, it concentrated on creators back then. Luria enjoys seeing other people getting excited about going live, because she's believed in live video for so long. She says live video creates a strong relationship with her audience and is the reason her audience has stuck with her for 11 years through massive business changes, partnership changes, and all of the hard stuff that goes on in business. People tell her they've been watching her since day one. (Note: Back then, Luria was known as Cali Lewis.) Listen to the show to discover what tech Luria used in the early days, as well as what live video was like at the beginning. Why Consider Live Video Live video is the best marketing conversion tool Luria has ever seen because of its impact. When people are watching you on live video, they know you're not faking it. When you're selling something or trying to lead people into a funnel, live video is easy because of what Luria calls the "conversational call to action." Like most people, Luria has a hard time selling. People don't like to sell because they don't like to be sold to. The conversational call to action is really about helping people. You're letting them know you're there for them and will take care of them. When you offer something in a live video, it's easier to sell it because you're not really selling. When somebody asks a question, your answer proves the value of your products or services. Also, although the excitement for and accessibility of live video is new, its formulas and structure are proven. Listen to the show to hear what I love about live video. The Four Levels of Live Video Gear Luria explains what gear you need for live video in four levels. She calls level 1 the "selfie stream." You hold your mobile phone in your hand and the live video is raw, up-close, and personal. For level 2, add some gear to your mobile phone such as a microphone, video stabilizer, and a light. This gear adds a little polish to your video and removes the shakiness. Level 3 is going live from a computer with software like Wirecast. Finally, level 4 is for TV-quality video. Social Media via Social Media Marketing Podcast helps your business thrive with social media http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 23, 2017 at 05:01AM
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This app will tell you which of your photos are actually good enough to post (which is both harsh and helpful) http://ift.tt/2tTsY7V This app will tell you which of your photos are actually good enough to post (which is both harsh and helpful)Let's be real – most of our camera rolls are chock full with nearly identical photos.Image: Molly sequin/mashable
By Molly Sequin2017-06-22 20:32:36 UTC
It's a rare occasion when you take the perfect photo on the first try. Most likely, your camera roll is clogged with photos as you attempt to shoot that all-star selfie, picture at the concert, or snapshot of the new glow-in-the-dark donuts. But for all you accidental photo hoarders, photography app EyeEm and its AI helper are here to remove your pre-post photo clutter. The app rolled out an update on Wednesday, giving users the ability to choose which photos will be the most liked. The new feature is called EyeEm "Selects," and it's an AI curator that automatically selects the best shots on your camera roll based on learned algorithms. The app is actually a place where anyone can sell their photos. And while not everyone is trying to select the perfect photo to sell, it's still a super useful way to figure out which photos you should delete and which ones you should post. After all, if EyeEm thinks that one photo is going to sell better than the others, it probably also means that's the photo you should post on social media, too. EyeEm's Vision technology works so well because it learned to appreciate aesthetics from expert researchers and photo curators. That means when suggesting photos to post, it doesn't focus solely on technical features, like if the rule of thirds was followed. To train Selects, developers gave the feature a test set of millions of photos already on EyeEm to learn with. Photo editors sorted through them to identify which ones were "good." This taught the AI assistant how to choose the photos that have the most significance and tell the best story, and not just the photos with the good quality and composition. On top of that, EyeEm helps you find similar photos on your camera roll. That way you won't miss out on posting photos you took a while ago and may have forgotten about. Even if you think you've got a better eye than this technology, EyeEm can still be a helpful tool for photographers by helping you shoot better photos in the first place. When you take pictures in the app, it corrects for exposure and gives you a grid and level to make sure everything's lined up just how you want it. There are also 24 adjustable filters available — that's one more than Instagram — with plenty of fine-tuners like saturation and contrast. EyeEm's Selects update is only available for Android users right now. But don't worry, iPhone lovers — your update is on the way. That said, if you really can't wait, an app from EyeEm called The Roll works in a similar way to organize and rank the photos in your phone's camera roll. Apple, Google, Facebook, and almost any other digital tech company you can think of have been working on their own ways to help you identity which photo to choose. Many digital platforms have been using algorithms to predict what we'll want for quite a while (like which videos we'll want to see on our Facebook news feed), so it's really just a matter of time until this kind of AI help is all everywhere. But for now, EyeEm Selects has your back. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 June 22, 2017 at 03:37PM 4 Insider Tips to Run Your Facebook Ads like a Professional http://ift.tt/2tSBiVz Despite the emergence of advertising on different social media websites, Facebook remains one of the best platforms for marketers to reach their audience. With its many business tools and huge user base, the website is an ideal place to launch an advertising campaign. However, you need to use Facebook’s features effectively to avoid wasting money on unproductive marketing pushes. Figuring out a strategy that takes advantage of the platform’s options will help ensure a good ROI, as long as you fully understand the system and its inner workings. Here are some strategies to keep in mind so that you use your Facebook advertising campaign to its fullest potential. 1. Optimize Your BiddingThere are two camps when it comes to Facebook bid strategy: those who believe that you should allow Facebook to handle it for you, and those who argue that you should control it on your own. On one hand, Facebook makes it easy to set a bid strategy and budget through its Optimized CPM feature. This tool allows Facebook to bid for ad space on your behalf, based on constraints you set. Some believe that this helps you maximize your budget while refraining from spending too much money accidentally. This is an ideal option for those less experienced in Facebook ad space costs and budget allocations. For the more experienced, others argue that you should handle your bidding on your own terms. By selecting the advanced pricing model, you can set your own CPM bids and switch to CPC pricing if you prefer. This can save you some money, and provide you with a lot of flexibility regarding your ad campaign. 2. Always work on TargetingMost companies have different customer bases with different expectations. Catering to those distinct groups will help you serve your audiences better, as well as making your Facebook ads more appealing to those groups. Facebook’s Audience Insights is an excellent tool to start digging into what makes your client base tick. Basically, it grants business account owners access to data about specific audiences, allowing you to research your target market based on users who have liked your page. Since users who display interest in your business by liking the page are probably the types of people who would pay attention to your advertisements, Audience Insights is a treasure trove of information for crafting buyer personas. You can then focus your advertising campaign based on the geographic locations, interests, ages, genders, and other characteristics of your target personas. Create ads to speak to your target audiences; luckily, Facebook makes this easy by allowing marketers to create separate advertisement sets for different audiences. 3. Test, Test, TestOne of the cardinal rules of creating a successful Facebook advertising campaign is to never assume that anything will work. Test every ad design and targeting attempt if you want to maximize your campaign’s reach and effectiveness. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be patient with seemingly low-performing ads; oftentimes, businesses pull ads too soon because of low conversion rates. It’s important to remember that Facebook ad campaigns can take some time to gain traction, so run your advertisement for about a week or so before you make changes to your campaign. Another important aspect of testing regards ad variations. You should test variations in target audience, copy, images, design, and more to see what’s working and what isn’t. Consider running several different variations of an ad at the same time, then switch up pictures and copy on low-performing ads to make them more successful. 4. Leverage the “Social” Part of Social MediaMany people rely on recommendations from others when making purchasing decisions. Luckily, Facebook provides the social medium to provide this resource to your potential customers. Testimonials from your customers are a great way to make your Facebook campaign more convincing to your viewership. Compelling stories from real people who have enjoyed your product or service on a platform as socially-oriented as Facebook could be all it takes to increase conversions. If you aren’t able to get testimonials, you can also focus on your large user base to convince other Facebook users to click on your ad. Describing how many clients you already have immediately gives your advertisements a more social tint, and encourages others to join the party by seeing what so many others are enjoying through your company. Although other platforms like Twitter and Instagram are certainly gaining ground, Facebook is still one of the best social media websites to launch your advertising campaign. If you take advantage of all the tools it has to offer, you can create a marketing push that will drive conversions and improve your ROI. The post 4 Insider Tips to Run Your Facebook Ads like a Professional appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR June 22, 2017 at 09:29AM
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3 Ways to Easily Caption Social Media Video http://ift.tt/2rFGr2J
Looking for quick and efficient ways to produce captioned video? In this article, you’ll discover three ways to automatically caption social media video. #1: Use Live Titles to Caption Apple ClipsNeed a quicker way to do captions for a video? Apple Clips is now available and one of its key features is the ability to create Live Titles, or real-time captions. Plus, the square video layout is ideal for posting to Facebook and Instagram. Ready to get started? First, download the app from the App Store on your iOS smartphone and open it. Tap on the down arrow in the upper-left corner and select the New Video drop-down that’s revealed. Now, select Video from the three media options and tap on the speech bubble to enable captioning. You’ll have three animated caption styles to choose from, as well as an option for None. Select the caption type you want and get ready to record. The captions appear in real time with your voice. Not camera-ready? There’s also an option to select a set screen and then record audio only with captions. This is great if you’re camera-shy but want an effective video to get your message out with captions. Pro Tip: To get the most out of this app, have a short script ready and then record your video scene by scene. The scenes will be threaded together to form your video. #2: Generate Automatic Captions via Facebook Video LibraryDid you know you can easily add captions to your published Facebook video (including Facebook Live videos), as well as your unpublished videos? Adding captions before your video is published means that they’re properly captioned when they do go live. To get started, select the Videos tab from the left-hand menu of your Facebook page, then click on the Video Library button. Within the video library, you can see your published and unpublished videos. Unpublished videos are noted with a yellow dot and published videos with a green dot. From this list, select the video you want to add captions to. When the video opens in the player window, click the Edit button and then the Captions tab. Simply click on the Generate button to automatically generate captions. After the captions are generated, you’ll see your video broken into timed segments with their corresponding captions. Given that the captions are automatically generated, they may not be 100% accurate. It’s a good idea to play each segment individually and edit captions if necessary. Make sure the Pause Video While Typing box is checked; this makes it very easy to play only the portion of the clip you’re editing, making it transcribe what you hear. To change any caption, select the text of the automatically generated caption and type the correct text. Pro Tip: Wearing headphones will help you concentrate as you edit the captions. #3: Enable Subtitles for YouTube Video via Video ManagerYouTube also has an automatic captions option. To take advantage of this feature, upload your video to your YouTube channel, then go to Video Manager. Navigate to the video you want to add captions to, and click on the arrow next to the video name to reveal a drop-down menu. Click the Subtitles/CC button. You should then see the language file with a bright-green button next to it; English captioning is the default choice. Again, these captions have been automatically generated, so make sure you check them for accuracy. To review the captions and edit them, click the language caption file and then click the Edit button in the top right of the caption column. As with the Facebook process, check the Pause Video While Typing box, then play the video. Click on any individual caption segment to play each piece and revise the caption. When you’re happy with the captions, click Save. Conclusion Adding captions to your videos is not just important, it’s essential. On Facebook, for example, 85% of videos are played without sound. The best timesavers for all captions being added to videos is to have a script. With a script, you can automatically add the captions to your YouTube video and then download the .srt file to upload to Facebook. Alternatively, you can quickly and easily use your script to create a short video on Apple Clips with captions. What do you think? Have you tried any of these options for creating captions for your social media video? Which of these options seems most helpful to you? How do you add captions to your videos? Share your thoughts and any questions in the comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 22, 2017 at 05:02AM |
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