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Twitter’s underrated Lists feature finally gets some attention https://ift.tt/2RA5H8e Twitter Lists have never gotten the attention they deserve. A feature largely adopted by Twitter power users, lists allow you to create custom timelines by adding only those users whose tweets you want to track. And this can be done without having to also follow those Twitter accounts, which keeps your main timeline clutter-free. But the Twitter Lists feature has always been somewhat buried in Twitter’s interface — at least until now. The company today announced it’s testing a way to make lists easier to access, by relocating them only a swipe away from your home screen. According to a tweet shared today, Twitter has been thinking about how to make lists easier to get to. “One idea we had is for you to be able to swipe to your lists from home,” the company explained, followed by a request for feedback.
If you’ve been added to the test, your home timeline will now show dashed lines across the top for each list — a familiar design for anyone who’s ever used Snapchat or Instagram Stories, for example. From the main timeline, you simply swipe left to move through all your custom timelines, much like you’d advance through Stories. Lists are especially useful for things you want to track only sometimes — like tweets about a favorite sports team, TV show, or hashtag, perhaps. Or you could make a list of Twitter accounts that tweet cute animal photos, for when the rest of Twitter gets you down. You can also use lists for tracking notable accounts in a given industry, for research purposes, or for following accounts around any other particular interest. You can even use lists as a way to follow someone’s tweets without actually following them. Lists can also be both public and private, depending on whether you’re looking to share your Twitter curation with the wider world or not. Twitter didn’t say how many people would be added to the test. Nor does a test mean the feature is definitely going to launch to the public. But a better interface for accessing lists is something those who use the Lists feature have wanted for some time. The test is available in Twitter’s mobile app for those who have been opted in.
Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com June 25, 2019 at 09:43PM
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Gritty surprises kid with custom Gritty prosthetic leg http://bit.ly/2NdyAZw Gritty is so many things, but above all, he's a big hairy piece of joy. On Tuesday, Gritty, the legendary Philadelphia Flyers mascot, surprised 7-year-old fan Caiden O'Rourke at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. Gritty was there to deliver a custom Gritty-themed prosthetic leg to Caiden, who was born with a rare orthopedic condition that requires him to use two prosthetic legs. Caiden, whose birthday is in a week, seemed thrilled to receive it. Look at his face. Hospital staff reached out to the Flyers after Caiden requested that his next prosthetic be Gritty-themed. Caiden has had multiple sports-themed prosthetic legs in the past, many of them from Philadelphia teams, according to Fox 29. Caiden also received a custom Philadelphia Flyers jersey. Twitter was delighted by the entire exchange.
Gritty, please consider coming to the Mashable office to meet me, a 35-year-old adult. Social Media via Mashable http://bit.ly/2DCFv97 June 25, 2019 at 03:27PM Social Selling: The Right Way And The Wrong Way Of Doing It http://bit.ly/2NbTW9B The field of “social selling” continues to change and evolve, according to the needs of those doing the selling. In the early days, “social selling” simply meant hanging out on social platforms like LinkedIn and offering solutions to people’s problems. Now, it’s been used for everything from turning “cold leads” into “hot leads” and for helping members of a sales team craft their marketing messages. Here are few do’s and don’ts of how to do it right. DO: Use the social networks that people in your industry actually useThis is particularly important for B2B companies, where LinkedIn is still the preeminent social selling platform. If you’re trying to use Twitter and Instagram and people aren’t actually using those platforms, then you’re not going to have the kind of success you’re counting on. But that also means that you have to understand not just WHY people are using certain social networks, but also HOWthey are using them. For example, nobody likes to be DM’d on Twitter with obvious tweet spam. DON’T: Ignore the value of “social listening”There’s a common misconception that if you’re hanging out on a social network and not actually contributing new content, then you’re somehow “lurking” or “stalking” other users. That’s not the case at all. With any social network, the old 80/20 rule is in effect – 80% of the content is created by 20% of the people. Take time to listen to what potential customers are saying, and listen carefully to how they describe their problems. That will make it easier for you to chime in every now and then with some suggestions and ideas. DO: Provide valuable, actionable contentWhen it comes to “social selling,” you can’t view social media as just another broadcast medium where you simply blast out offers, deals and promotions. Instead, your goal should be to provide real value and knowledge. It’s about more than just leaving behind your company’s URL as a comment, too. It’s about sharing insights and knowledge. That’s the way you build up credibility and trust with potential customers. On social media, people can spot a lack of authenticity very easily. If you’re only sending out “connect with me” requests on LinkedIn only so that you can message them with a promotional offer, you’re doing it wrong. DON’T: Ignore the value of measuring results on a daily basisWith most sales teams, the focus is squarely on the quarter. As in: How many accounts did you open this quarter? But in social selling, the focus is on the day-to-day. Instead of setting targets and goals just for the quarter, you need to set up daily goals. How many people are you going to try to reach? How many conversations will you contribute to each day? If you’re hitting your daily goal, then you’ll most assuredly reach your quarterly goal. Just remember: there are two parts to “social selling” – the “social” part and the “selling” part. You need to focus on both in order to land the results you want. Being “social” means acting the way you would with your friends and colleagues – you wouldn’t go around stalking them and constantly barraging them with offers and comments every time you see then, and you shouldn’t do the same on social media. The post Social Selling: The Right Way And The Wrong Way Of Doing It appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://bit.ly/2onGYog June 25, 2019 at 10:43AM
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20+ Creative Social Media Contest Ideas and Examples http://bit.ly/2xfF0w8 A little inspiration goes a long way when it comes to brainstorming social media contest ideas. To get your creative juices flowing, we’ve rounded up more than 20 ideas across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat--and even TikTok. And to make things easier, we’ve sorted them by objective, from increasing engagement to generating leads. If you’re looking for platform-specific guides, don’t fret. Check out our Facebook and Instagram contest ideas for suggestions and guidelines.(PS: before launching your social media contest be sure to make sure it doesn’t violate the platforms’ T&Cs or R&Rs.) Now that the fine print is out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff. Bonus: Download our free, customizable social media calendar template to easily plan and schedule all your content in advance. 7 Social media contest ideas to increase engagementTurn up the likes, comments, and shares with these social media contest ideas. 1. Like and/or comment to winThe classic “like and/or comment to win” is a tried and true way to increase engagement. It can be held on just about any social platform, from LinkedIn to Instagram. Simply create a post with an explanatory caption, include an entry deadline and simple guidelines, and voila! You can also share the post in Facebook or Instagram Stories to better spread the word. In this example from Hallmark UK and Ireland’s Instagram account, the entry rules and deadline are clearly stated, and an on-brand image of the prize ties it all together. Hashtags like #giveaway, #freebie, #liketoenter, and #commentoenter help to amplify the contest’s reach, too. View this post on Instagram 2. Share or RT to enterLike and/or comment to win contests prompt engagements with your base, but by pairing the contest with a share or RT requirement, you can reach more people. If you ask followers to share to Facebook or Instagram Stories, keep in mind that you’ll only be able to confirm those shares within 24 hours. To promote the launch of its new direct flight from Tampa to Frankfurt, German airline Lufthansa ran a two-week #Hausguest social media campaign. To enter for a chance to win houseguest essentials, all participants had to do was retweet. 3. Tag a friendBring ideas 1 and 2 together with a “tag a friend” entry requirement, since a tag is technically a comment and a share wrapped into one. Ideally, this approach will benefit from the ripple effect: A friend tags a friend tags a friend kind of thing. This example from Montreal-based shoe brand asks participants to tag three friends, increasing the odds of additional tags. View this post on Instagram Brands with big budgets may also wish to incentivize tags with double prizes. For instance, a restaurant could ask followers to tag the person they’d like to share a meal with. Another way to encourage tags is to let them count as multiple entries. View this post on Instagram 4. Photo caption contestA “caption this” prompt is a fun way to encourage followers to comment on your photo and engage with your brand. Shopkins toy brand uses this type of contest to showcase its products. You don’t need a big prize budget to run a successful social media contest, either. Simply featuring the winner in Instagram Stories was enough to prompt 45 comments in this contest, three times more than its previous post. View this post on Instagram 5. Create a best comment competitionGiving followers a prompt can inspire more comments. Ask them to tell you why they—or a person they nominate—deserve to win. Or ask them to come up with a name for a new product. For a chance to win a print of this Saskia Skoric painting, participants were asked to come up with a name for it. View this post on Instagram 6. Create a play-to-win gameOver the course of one week, Chipotle kept its Instagrammers on their toes with a series of successive games intended to get people excited about the addition of queso to the menu. On the first day, fans were asked to comment with the letters “Q-U-E-S-O” on a post in uninterrupted succession. That led to 22,000 comments and a year of free queso for the winner. On day four, Chipotle launched a “spot the differences” game using Instagram Galleries, a game that 450 people played. By the end of the week more than 50,000 people had participated, making The Queso Cup Chipotle’s highest engagement Instagram campaign of all time. 7. Vote to winPeople love to have their say. Create a contest where a vote counts as an entry. Ask users to vote in the comment section of a post, or create an Instagram Stories poll. This is also a quick and easy way to collect feedback from your audience on something important to your business. View this post on Instagram
This type of contest can also be paired with a submission-based campaign. For instance, if you’re running a caption or photo contest, the winner can be chosen by vote. 6 social media contest ideas to increase followersGrow your follower count with these tried and tested social media contest ideas. 1. Follow to winThe most straightforward way to broaden your audience is to require a follow for contest entry. This contest structure is usually combined with a “like” request, too, as in this example from Riedel UK. View this post on Instagram Brookes Blooms ran a similar contest. But, instead of using a date as an entry deadline, they set a goal of 100 followers before drawing a winner. View this post on Instagram 2. Follow and share to enterThere’s little point in asking your followers to follow you. The best “follow to win” contests are supported by an amplification strategy. Ask people to follow and share your post. Or ask them to tag someone in the comments so you can reach and hopefully entice non-followers to come aboard. View this post on Instagram 3. Follow to win + influencerAnother great way to reach new potential followers is to partner with an influencer. These contests can require entrants to follow both accounts for a mutual gain, or just your company’s account. Keep in mind that the terms you agree upon may influence the partnership cost. Lufthansa teamed up with influencer Marissa Cox @ruerodier to reach her audience of 123K followers. Based on the post’s comments, the airline scored somewhere near 650 followers out of the promotion. View this post on Instagram 4. Weekly or monthly drawsIt’s easy for followers to unfollow. But accounts that run monthly contests or draw winners weekly have a better chance of earning loyalty and maintaining follower counts. A few years back, Expedia noticed that #tbt was the fourth most popular hashtag on Instagram. Every Thursday over a 10 week period, people who shared a vacation throwback with the #ThrowMeBack tag were entered for a chance to be “thrown back” on that holiday. Expedia featured content on its account and published winners once a week, a strategy that encouraged people to follow to see if they’d won. In less than 10 weeks, the company nearly doubled its following on Instagram.
5. Follower milestone campaignBrands that are on the brink of passing a follower milestone like earning that capital K or M beside a number can use the occasion to build momentum. There are a few ways to approach one of these campaigns. The New England Patriots asked people to RT or share the hashtag #1MillionPatriots for the chance to see their name on a custom digital jersey. Unfortunately, they used a bot to select winners and things didn’t quite go as planned.
As NBC’s Dateline approached the million “like” mark on Facebook, it launched a “One in a Million” campaign. To enter, participants had to explain why they deserved to win a special New York experience. Bonus: Download our free, customizable social media calendar template to easily plan and schedule all your content in advance. Get the template now!
Others, like the craft queen herself, offer to award the two-millionth follower with a price.
6. Stage an exciting unveilBrands can ask people to follow them, or they can give people a reason to follow them. Use a contest as an initial hook, and secure followers by creating an incentive to tune in for the results. Foot Locker nabbed a Shorty Award for its #HorseWithHarden contest on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. For one week, fans were asked to shoot a video of their most creative basketball shots and share them with the hashtag. Now here’s the sinker: NBA star James Harden would be recreating the best submissions on Foot Locker’s feeds in a faceoff against the Internet. Unsurprisingly, Foot Locker’s YouTube subscriber rate skyrocketed by 300 percent.
Want to do something like this on a lower budget? Plan to announce the winner in a separate post. If you put the onus on participants to claim their prize, rather than contact the winner directly, they’ll be more likely to follow for the results. 3 social media contest ideas to collect leadsLearn more about your audiences with these lead generating social media contest ideas. 1. Enter to win sweepstakesSometimes the most obvious solution is the best one. The old-fashioned enter-to-win sweepstakes formula still works like a charm, especially with tools like Facebook’s Instant Forms feature. To collect email addresses for future retargeting campaigns, Asian restaurant chain P.F. Chang created a sweepstakes on Facebook and Instagram that asked people to share their email address to enter. Backed by paid reach, the month-long contest received nearly half-a-million entries. Automaker Opel used Instagram Stories and it’s direct-link capability to secure 1,887 contest registrations. 2. Chat to winA chatbot can offer a more tailored experience than generic form registration. KIA Motors Europe developed a Facebook Messenger chatbot that could ask people questions and help them enter to win a special experience. Promoted with click-to-Messenger ads, the chatbot was able to deliver 3,000 registrations. 3. Plan a social scavenger huntLeaving easter eggs or clues across your social media channels allows you to provide multiple call-to-actions to fill out a form. Take medical web and mobile-learning platform Osmosis for example. Its #OsmosisQuest challenge asks followers to find answers to its contest across its social media accounts in exchange for a free month trial of Osmosis Prime. To complete the submission, participants are also asked to share basic information, like what school they attend and what degree they’re pursuing. View this post on Instagram 6 social media contest ideas to generate buzzPromote a new product, takeover a social conversation, or just increase awareness and consideration. 1. Put out a call for submissionsA call for user-generated content is a surefire way to generate buzz. Especially if the call is specific, easy-to-follow, and realistic for enough followers to complete. Before launching a new chicken burger last September, Burger King UK knew it would have to address its “checkered chicken past.” So the company asked people to share photos of themselves taking a bite out of an imaginary burger using the #BK20KBITE for a chance to be paid £20,000 to taste-test the real thing. Other companies have encouraged people to submit photos with real products, which in turn can help to boost sales, too. Taking a different approach, Adobe challenged its community of creators to explore the full range of Photoshop’s possibilities. After realizing many of its users were Dungeons and Dragons fans, the company put out a call for the community to create the new D&D monster. In the end more than 2,000 creatures were shared, showing everyone what Photoshop and the Adobe community were capable of creating.
2. Create a hashtag challengeHashtag challenges have been around for a longtime, starting with Cinemagram and Vine, and now TikTok. Thanks to their popularity, it’s easy for companies to join in with branded hashtags that prompt users to engage and become brand ambassadors. Guess was the first to challenge TikTok users with its #InMyDenim campaign that asked participants to create videos depicting their denim transformations. The hashtag has raked in 37.9 million views. Wondering what TikTok is and if you should care about it? Learn more. 3. Take over an eventThis is not the same as an influencer “takeover”. Frank’s RedHot scored a touchdown on Twitter this year with a #FranksSweepstakes that asked fans to help bring its “Put That S#!t on Everything!” catchphrase to life. During the game, fans were asked to put the chili pepper emoji on every ad they saw. In other words, when a car commercial comes on, you’d tweet the pepper plus the auto emoji. Franks RedHot made use of an event that wasn’t officially “theirs”, but at which they knew lots of customers would be in attendance.
4. Use a branded filter/lens to winWhy not ask fans to create a Snap or Story with a branded filter for a chance to win a prize? Many companies, including Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, and HBO’s Game of Thrones have created branded filters to promote a new product or simply increase awareness.
5. Play to win a Snapchat gameWe’ve all been caught in a Snappable snafu, whether you’ve been walked in on trying to catch imaginary Twizzlers in your mouth, or fulfilling some other odd objective. With a built-in games setup, brands can use Snapchat to create video-gamified contests. GrubHub created a Snapchat game called “Food’s Here” game that offered players $10 off their first order for winning, and $15 off if they downloaded the food delivery app. 6. Create a Pinterest Board to WinAsking followers to create a Pinterest board can be a great way to encourage engagement with your products. For instance, Pinners could be asked to use a travel company’s Pins to create a board depicting their dream vacation. Or home interiors companies could ask Pinners to use their products to create a board for their ideal living room. Save time and run your next social media contest with Hootsuite. Promote it across all the major networks, engage your followers, and manage user-generated content in one place. Try it free today.
The post 20+ Creative Social Media Contest Ideas and Examples appeared first on Hootsuite Social Media Management. Social Media via Hootsuite Social Media Management http://bit.ly/1LdunxE June 25, 2019 at 08:58AM
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25 tweets about being lactose intolerant that won't give you a stomachache http://bit.ly/2NdjKlN People who are lactose intolerant love to pretend they are not lactose intolerant. And who can blame them? Cheese tastes very good. Still, it's not a good feeling (to say the least) to realize that the strawberry milkshake you drank to feel like a Riverdale character has betrayed you after all. You knew it was going to happen, didn't you? But that's the thing about risking dairy when you're lactose intolerant. You're just going to keep getting burned by the enemy. (The enemy is lactose.) Are you currently experiencing earth-shattering regret after choosing to eat two slices of pizza for lunch? Look at these tweets — you're not alone! Yes, your stomach still hurts, but maybe you can laugh a little to ease the pain. Don't laugh too hard, though. That will absolutely make it worse.
Social Media via Mashable http://bit.ly/2DCFv97 June 25, 2019 at 08:47AM
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4 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Strategy http://bit.ly/2Fyj7wJ Every marketing professional knows that social media outreach has gotten significantly more complex and more difficult as the social media platforms themselves have evolved and grown in both cultural and social importance. Large businesses now see social media advertising services as an indispensable tool in their marketing arsenal, but what can you and your business do to ensure that you’re maximizing the potential of your social media outreach?
It started with Snapchat, but since then, almost every single social media platform now supports limited availability video and image posts called stories. Most advertising professionals are already familiar with them, but they can be drastically underutilized in many social media campaigns. Experts have begun to swear by them due to their low cost and short time format, maximizing return on investment and providing an easy way to jump into the consumer’s feed.
Taking the time to really get to know your clients and cater to their specific needs is a proven method for success, demonstrated best by Impress!ve Digital. By choosing to only take on a limited number of clients annually, they are able to provide bespoke digital advertising services at a lower cost and with much higher quality and engagement than traditional companies. “There are too many companies trying to do everything,” says founder Robert Tadros, “and as a result the quality of their campaigns falters. By choosing to specialize, we are able to guarantee both a high quality of service and as much attention as our individual clients require.” It’s advice worth listening to; Tadros was able to grow his company to upwards of $6 million in annual revenue just two years after building his business.
It can seem like a no-brainer, but you might be surprised at how limited companies’ auditing of their own online presence can be. If you’re not paying attention to the effectiveness of your social media campaigns and tweaking things like how often you post, trying different formats and platforms, all while carefully analyzing your engagement rates, then you could be throwing your clients’ money down the drain. Marketing in the modern age is all about being lean and efficient while delivering results. Smart audits are the best way to ensure that you’re meeting those demands.
The best social media campaigns don’t succeed as a result of the spray and pray method or throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. You need to find which platforms specifically cater to the demographics you’re trying to reach, and then design your approach around the strengths and weaknesses of that platform, while keeping your crafted brand identity in mind. In addition, be aware that social media companies are constantly altering the way you are able to pursue engagement through their platforms, so you need to keep abreast of the changes and alter your strategy to fit them, and don’t be afraid to step outside social media if the specific situation calls for it. The post 4 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Strategy appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://bit.ly/2onGYog June 25, 2019 at 06:32AM
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3 Ways to Improve Your YouTube Watch Time http://bit.ly/2X4FIHn Wondering how to make your YouTube content more viewer-friendly? Do you want to increase your YouTube watch time? In this article, you’ll find three easy ways to increase the amount of time people spend watching your videos on YouTube. Why Does YouTube Watch Time (Minutes Watched) Matter?YouTube is one of the most powerful marketing platforms, as well as one of the most overcrowded. How do you get visibility for your content, and generate views and interactions? It’s not only hard to generate organic YouTube visibility (due to the sheer volume of content published every minute), but it’s also difficult to figure out the algorithm. Back when YouTube visibility relied on the number of video views, it was quite easy. These days, YouTube judges video quality based on how many minutes are watched (i.e., whether people watch deep into the video and how long they keep watching). It makes sense: If more people close a video or move to another one after a few seconds of watching, it must not be very interesting. The minutes watched metric—known as watch time—is difficult to manipulate or fake because YouTube clearly knows when the same person is watching the video in full, over and over again. So, to sum up, why should video creators care about the watch time metric? If YouTube sees a lot of people watching deep into your video, that’s the strongest signal of high-quality content. You’ll also notice your YouTube-driven views grow (mainly from suggested and related videos). Outside of YouTube rankings, getting people to watch past the beginning of your videos means more people will hear your main points, follow your verbal calls to action, and simply remember your brand. With the takeaways above, it becomes obvious that watch time is by far the most important YouTube engagement metric, and coincidentally is the one this article focuses on. Here are four ways you can improve it. #1: Create a Clickable Table of Contents for Your YouTube VideoYouTube lets you create clickable timestamps in both your video descriptions and comments. When viewers click a timestamp, it takes them to that exact part of the video. Using this tactic, you can create a nice outline of your video content. It’s a great way to drive people deeper into the video and get them to watch past the beginning. Here’s a detailed tutorial on creating a timestamp for your video with lots of screenshots. To summarize, start by finding the time in the video that you want to deep-link to. In the comment box, type this time exactly as you see it, using the format Hours:Minutes:Seconds (no spaces). After the time, type the name for this section of the video. Try to make it sound interesting and inviting to click. Phrasing your video sections as questions may be a good idea. Questions usually prompt a click because people feel inclined to start looking for answers right away. In the end, you’ll have a clear list describing your video content with clickable timestamps taking viewers to each section. If you cover a few concepts in your YouTube video or answer several questions, adding clickable timestamps will help your audience quickly navigate to the part that most interests them (before they get too bored) and keep them watching. #2: Sort Your YouTube Videos Into PlaylistsPlaylists are a way for YouTube to better understand what your video is about and how it relates to other videos. You may have noticed that YouTube suggests topics now, allowing you to discover new videos on the topics you’ve watched previously. In the mobile app, YouTube suggests playlists, often including new content you’ve never watched before. That content is similar to what you’ve watched before and seem to like. YouTube uses a variety of signals to determine whether your video should be suggested as part of a topic or an automatically generated playlist, including personal user preferences, text content and hashtags, common audience, and so on. Sorting your videos into playlists with other videos on the same or related topics places your content into that relevant neighborhood and helps YouTube classify it correctly. Playlists are also perfect for increasing the Watch Time metric because they’re made for eternal viewing. In other words, playlists improve the engagement rate of your content by giving your audience collections of videos so they can sit back and watch endlessly. You may want to partner with fellow YouTube creators to have them add your videos to their playlists, too. Keep in mind that playlists are content entities of their own. They may rank both in YouTube and Google search results, especially for brand names. Whenever you’re marketing a podcast or series, make sure to create a playlist with the podcast’s name. Here’s an example of our podcast playlist ranking in Google: And here’s the playlist ranking in YouTube search: Playlists help boost discovery (especially if you invest well in promoting your brand). Furthermore, once viewers find your playlist, YouTube will play all of the videos one by one automatically without distracting viewers by suggesting other videos. Creating and marketing YouTube playlists is important for both discovery and increasing your Watch Time metric. In short, I suggest putting some effort into creating YouTube playlists. Here’s my usual routine:
#3: Build Anticipation With a YouTube PremiereAnother great way to improve engagement with any content, including video content, is to time it right. When it comes to YouTube marketing, I suggest scheduling a YouTube premiere for your video and promoting it through your social media channels using seasonal hashtags. Find the Optimal Time for Your YouTube PremiereYou want to publish the premiere exactly at the peak of a seasonal trend. To identify the best date to schedule your premiere and actually publish the video, do some research on your video topic with Google Trends. This tool will help you determine exactly when you need to start preparing and publishing the content for it to get noticed. How to Use Video Marketing to Increase Your Influence, Visibility, and sales—Online Training! For instance, if your video is related to the topic of graduation, May 25–30 looks like a good date range to schedule a premiere on YouTube and start building anticipation. And April 15 should be a good day to publish your video to catch the peak of interest before there’s too much content covering your topic. Set Up a YouTube PremiereNow you’re ready to schedule your premiere. Start by uploading your video. On the right side of the upload page, activate the Premiere option. Then select Scheduled where you’d normally select the video privacy, and choose the date and time when you want it to go live. When you schedule your video as a YouTube premiere, you’ll get a shareable link to invite people to watch and build some leads. Your future video page gives your audience an option to set a reminder so they’ll get notified when it goes live. Promote Your YouTube PremiereNow use your social media calendar app to plan how you’ll promote the link and get your community engaged. ContentCal is an editorial calendar platform that lets you schedule seasonal content as far as 1 year ahead. The Campaigns feature can help you plan both the promotion and publication of your YouTube premiere. The tool is available in both free and paid plans, starting at $13/month. You can keep important dates and links on the Campaigns tab. A ribbon will appear across your shared calendar dashboard to notify your team of an approaching campaign, as shown below. This is the signal for them to start working on content creation and marketing. Clicking the ribbon takes them to the campaign brief with details on how and when you plan to promote the video. Create a quick timeline for each campaign for the team to act upon when they see the campaign approaching. Using ContentCal, you’ll be able to engage your team in promoting your video and building anticipation. Your team can add social media updates to the pinboard for you (or any assigned moderator) to spread them around your campaign. This way, you end up with varied social media updates across multiple channels. Pull Engaged Viewers From Google to YouTubeWhen it comes to YouTube marketing, getting your video ranked in Google is usually a missed step, which is a shame. There are two big reasons to pursue organic Google visibility for your video. Google traffic is usually very engaged. Google users search for answers and they’ll watch your video in full trying to find them. Unlike social media ads (where user browsing is usually interrupted by an ad) organic search traffic brings people whose intent is to find content so the engagement is usually higher. Google seems to favor YouTube and you’re likely to see a video or two (or the whole carousel) for each search. YouTube-hosted videos are pretty easy to rank for long-tail queries, partly because Google seems to favor YouTube (which is their property) and partly because there’s not much competition (again, not many video creators strive for Google rankings so there’s still a lot of opportunity there). The key to getting a YouTube video page ranked in Google is to find a searchable keyword that doesn’t have crazy competition. I use Serpstat to identify these search queries because its Keywords Difficulty metric proves quite on-point. To use this feature, you’ll need to sign up for a paid plan, which start at $69/month. To select search queries with lower competition using Serpstat, type your generic core term (which is what your video is about) in the tool’s search box. Then create a Keywords Difficulty filter that’s between 0 and 20 (the lower the difficulty, the lower the organic competition). Serpstat measures organic competition on a scale of 0–100, so if you choose between 0 and 20, you’ll see the least competitive phrases. Sort results by search volume. This number represents how many people searched for each term monthly over the course of the previous year. As soon as you pick your keyword, use it in your video title, description, and hashtags. Note that YouTube allows you to put up to 15 hashtags in the description. In general, the more text content you create around your video, the higher the chance it will show up in Google organic results, as well as its featured snippets. Here’s the character limits to aim for, as well as a few more details to pay attention to. Needless to say, your YouTube video description should be unique so you’ll have to write it from scratch. The good news is that a tool like Text Optimizer can help (and increase the chances your video will get ranked in search). The Pro plan costs $60/month. Text Optimizer uses semantic analysis to extract Google search snippets and identify underlying concepts and terms, giving you a better idea of your target topic. You can select terms that best fit your video and build your video description around them. Include 20–30 of these words in your YouTube video description for the video to rank higher. These can also be useful for brainstorming hashtags. This is probably the most tedious step but it needs to be done. After all, keyword research and content creation tasks are likely to be much easier than putting a good video together. ConclusionYouTube’s watch time is the most important metric for your video marketing success. Building it up will take time and effort but it’s doable. To get more people to watch more of your YouTube video content, try the following tricks:
There are of course many more (tactical) tricks to get people to watch past the first 2 seconds of your YouTube video but the tips above lay an important foundation that will help you create an engagement-focused video marketing strategy. What do you think? Which of these tactics will you try to improve your YouTube watch time? Do you have any other tips to offer? Share your thoughts in the comments below. More articles on YouTube marketing:How to Use Video Marketing to Increase Your Influence, Visibility, and sales—Online Training! Social Media via Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner http://bit.ly/1LtH18p June 25, 2019 at 05:04AM 3 Unique Tricks to Impress Your Customers Online http://bit.ly/2IIaZvH When it comes to growing your online business and really establishing your space in the market, you need to prioritize connecting with customers and effectively building those relationships. It’s not a truly successful transaction unless you make a consistently positive impression and get them to come back again next time. It should be your goal to stand out above the crowd and incentivize your customer to reinforce your brand and keep coming back. Surprise Customers with Benefits One easy and high;y effective way to impress your customers and encourage them to come back and start building some loyalty to your brand is by offering rewards. Surprise them after their first purchase with some kind of benefit or discount for the future. When customers reach out with queries or problems to resolve, use the opportunity to offer them extra deals! If they’re having a problem, a free service or discount can serve as a kind apology showing a conscientious and compassionate company. These benefits can be crucial for getting those one-time customers to convert into loyal brand ambassadors. Don’t Make Them Do the Work You should do everything you can to make processes simple and streamlined for your customers. This can be as simple as easy auto-fill options for making purchases, but this applies especially to offering support and problem resolution. Every customer is used to going through boring, repetitive processes when they reach out for support. They have to explain their problem three different times to three different people before they get passed around to someone who may actually be able to offer a solution. They may feel that if they’re not persistent and loud they won’t have their issues addressed. “Making customers jump through hoops with no obvious rhyme or reason just to get the service they deserve is incredibly disrespectful,” says Cynthia Berger, founding partner of Berger and Green. “Show them you value them as clients by putting in the work yourself.” Smoothing this process out and making customer support a less frustrating experience is just a matter of effective communication. Let your support staff do the work instead of putting it back on the customer. Get the information directly from the other representative and only go to the client with any clarifying questions. Describe what’s going on and explain your diagnosis of the problem to the client as you go to help them feel that progress is happening, that they’re not continuing to be bounced around different staff members while the problem remains the same. Keep Up the Service and Follow Through It may not seem so unique. But really taking a real interest in someone’s experience and following through to be sure they have their needs met really makes an impression. It’s so meaningful to many customers because sometimes it is unique. It’s not something they really encounter every day. Try to respond to queries as quickly as possible and show the customer that they’re cared for and that you take seriously your responsibility to help them. Then, after the problem has been resolved, go beyond expectations and reach out later! Get back in touch and make sure no other problems have arisen. The post 3 Unique Tricks to Impress Your Customers Online appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://bit.ly/2onGYog June 24, 2019 at 05:12PM Digital Marketing Goals For Those People Businesses In The Following Niches http://bit.ly/2Xu7Bge To run a successful digital marketing campaign there has to be goals to attain to consider it a massive success or utter failure. Each company might have vastly different goals whether it is generate sales or to fix a reputation that could have been tarnished by a former employee. The best thing that a marketing department can do is to write out the goals then create a strategy that will help attain them all. Prioritize the goals as well as everyone should know what the top 3 goals are in terms of the campaign. The following are digital marketing goals for specific niches of business. Dental Offices Should Reduce Fear And Set AppointmentsPeople are scared of the dentist so marketing to reduce these fears is important. Setting an appointment needs to be as easy as possible on the website for returning patients. New patients might need to be vetted a bit as the last thing any dentist wants is multiple no shows in a day from taking on too many new patients. Give tips for both children and adults to help quell their fears about getting a filling or a crown. Law Firms Should Educate And Comfort As Well As Attain ConsultationsPeople are going to try to find a San Antonio injury lawyer or lawyer in their local area to help them after a car accident. People need to know about certain facts about their case like time limits to file a lawsuit or potential penalties if they are convicted for a crime. A law firm’s blog can be a place where a person can learn as well as find a little comfort. People want legal representation that is knowledgeable and also has compassion for the situation they are in. Contractors Should Try To Maximize Leads Via Reputation ManagementPeople are going to look up a contractor to see if they have any reviews before signing a deal to complete a renovation on your home. Managing reputation is important and encouraging satisfied clients to give reviews is important. Monitor these reviews and respond to the negative ones as one glaring review can draw the eyes of people and make them decide to look elsewhere for their contracting needs. People looking at reviews will see the responses the contractor makes and lack of response can look like lack of care. Financial Services Need To Educate Consumers On Careful SpendingCareful spending seems to be few and far between in today’s time with $10 avocado toast. Financial services educating consumers is important as financially healthy clients are better for business for the most part minus the credit card and loan businesses. This can be done through content both on the blog of the company as well as offsite publications. The appeal of being able to go into a local office is important for many people wanting to take out a loan or open an account. Local SEO needs to be targeted as there are plenty of funding options out there they can choose in the area. The above niches need to have an all-inclusive marketing plan the tips given are a great place to start. Take the time to see where you can start improving your digital marketing strategy today! The post Digital Marketing Goals For Those People Businesses In The Following Niches appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://bit.ly/2onGYog June 24, 2019 at 02:33PM Tell Your Friends: How to Boost Ecommerce Word-of-Mouth Marketing http://bit.ly/2Xqe77F Online shoppers will believe what brands say — to a point. But many people take marketing from ecommerce brands with a grain of salt because they know the goal is to earn their business. There’s a difference between a retailer imploring you to buy their great new product and a friend telling you everything they love about their latest online purchase. This illustrates the power of word-of-mouth marketing. There are definitely times when “hearing something straight from the horse’s mouth” is advantageous. But in ecommerce, people are more inclined to trust the recommendations of friends, family members, acquaintances, coworkers and even strangers on the internet, more than they believe marketing from online companies. One survey found two-thirds (67 percent) of U.S. consumers say they’re “at least a little more likely” to buy something if a friend or family shares it via social media or email. So, how can you get people to tell their friends about your store? Here are some strategies to help. Reward Loyal Customers for Telling Others The simplest way to motivate people to spread the word about your store is to offer them an incentive for doing so. The trick is letting shoppers know in clear terms what they’ll get out of the deal: Get $10 in credit when you refer a friend! Tell a friend and you’ll both earn 20 percent off. Invite a friend—earn $5 per person who signs up. Use clear calls to action so people know exactly what’s at stake. Modern website builder like Shopify integrate directly with a variety of “tell-a-friend” plug-ins and apps, simplifying the process of getting your referral program up, running and communicated to shoppers in an appealing way. Optimize Your Email Marketing Strategy People want to share valuable nuggets of information they find online, especially when they find them to be relevant to their lives. Think of how many times we’ve all come across something online and thought about sending it to someone we know with a little note along the lines of, “This reminded me of you.” Drumming up these kinds of referrals is a two-fold process: First, create genuinely interesting, helpful content. Then share it effectively with your customer base in the hopes they’ll pass it on. Email marketing is useful for accomplishing this because “you will build up your pool of brand ambassadors,” which will increase the word-of-mouth marketing customers are doing on your company’s behalf. How does this look in action? A company selling pet supplies and accessories could send out a seasonal newsletter full of tips for keeping pets safe in changing weather conditions. Chances are, some of the recipients on the list will forward this newsletter on to friends, especially those who’ve recently adopted a furry companion. While the newsletter can also contain links to certain relevant products— like dog booties meant to protect paws during winter — it should primarily offer helpful information. If the secondary recipient appreciates the material, they too will subscribe to your email list for future updates, and/or shop your store. Host Contests on Social Media Social media contests allow online retailers to expand their audience reach. Plus, they’re fun. People enjoy the opportunity to win something without having to do anything more than tag a friend, leave a comment or share a post. Just make sure the incentive you’re offering is worth the entry steps users have to complete. Boosting ecommerce word-of-mouth marketing using these tips can help retailers acquire new customers and drive sales without breaking the bank. The post Tell Your Friends: How to Boost Ecommerce Word-of-Mouth Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://bit.ly/2onGYog June 24, 2019 at 10:41AM |
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