by Sofi | Sep 28, 2018 | Other
Everyone has told you that great content is key for your brand’s online success. So you regularly post great content on all of your social media, your website, your blog, etc…now what? Having online content is not enough to build your brand; you also want to attract the attention of your audience in a way that generates click-throughs. Here are five tips on how to get more clicks on your content.
#1 Create Catchy Headlines
Whenever you are creating a headline, you want to make sure that it does two things: grabs attention and peaks interest to find out more. There’s an overwhelming amount of content online, so your headline has to first make someone scrolling stop in their tracks. Then, it has to make them want to follow through by clicking on the content. One good method of achieving this is to leverage the “curiosity gap.” Headlines that use the “curiosity gap” are specific enough to intrigue the reader but not so specific that they satisfy the reader’s curiosity.
#2 Promise Value
Have you ever seen something online and questioned why it mattered? Your audience is more likely to click on content when they know exactly what value the piece is offering them. Many advertising copywriters suggest using the phrase “how to” in your content to provide a specific direction and what to expect. Your content should speak for itself as to why your audience should pay attention. It should be simple and straightforward so there is less thinking involved and more clicking!
#3 Clearly Address Your Audience
Part of creating great content in the first place is having a clearly defined audience. Do not be afraid to directly shout them out to direct them to your content. This lets the reader know that this material is right for them, and they should continue paying attention. You can grab attention by stating who the content is for or asking the reader if they fit a certain profile, such as “Beginner’s Guide For Small Business Startups” or “Are You an Independent Writer Seeking Work?”
#4 Include Visuals
No matter what device or platform your audience is using, images and videos attract more attention than plain text. Social media posts should always include visuals whenever possible to draw attention and stand out amongst a flood of other posts. Blog posts can use visuals to help the reader immediately understand what they are about to read and engage them to continue. Websites should use visuals, whether images or graphics, to direct the viewer as to what actions they should take. Visuals provide cues for your audience that help generate clicks.
#5 Place Links at Beginning of Posts
Social media is a great place to promote links and generate click-through traffic to websites and blogs. Generally, more people click on links provided in social media posts that are placed a quarter way in from the start. Although placing links at the very end can be more convenient, it is proven that the positioning does not lead to as many interactions.
These five tips on how to get more clicks on your content can make your posts more valuable for your business. Always keep in mind who your audience is and what action you want them to take.
by Sofi | Aug 3, 2018 | Social Media Marketing
You probably hear about “viral” social media content regularly, and it is possible that you even view this kind of content multiple times a day. What exactly does “going viral” mean? Urban Dictionary explains it as an image, video, or link that rapidly spreads online by being frequently shared. In the marketing field, creating viral content is the best way for your brand or product to reach maximum exposure. Let’s look at five examples of brilliant viral social media content.
#1 WATERisLIFE’s first world complaints YouTube video
The non-profit organization WATERisLIFE created a controversial social media campaign that ended up being a huge success. They created a documentary composed of clips of the underprivileged with captions of common complaints from the privileged. Examples of such complaints are “I hate it when my phone charger won’t reach my bed” and “When I go to the bathroom and I forget my phone.” The result was a very striking visual that obtained over one million views in the first day. At the end of the video was the caption “First world problems…aren’t problems,” which directed interest to their Twitter as followers made their own captions with the hashtag #firstworldproblems.
#2 Cadbury’s giant chocolate Facebook thumb’s up
Originally as a thank you to fans for reaching one million likes, Cadbury constructed a giant Facebook thumb out of their Dairy Milk bars. The photo of this construction quickly went viral, and they gained an additional 40,000 followers within a very short amount of time. Due to this success, they decided to stream a live real-time video that showed the making of the thumb. The video alone was viewed by over 350,000 fans around the world.
#3 Dunkin’ Donuts and #thedress
You might remember when the color of #thedress sparked debate all over the internet. It started when Scottish singer Caitlin McNeill posted a picture of her dress on Tumblr asking users if the color was blue/black or white/gold. Dunkin’ Donuts capitalized on this piece of viral content in order to make their own viral content based on something that they already knew was wildly popular on the web. The company tweeted a picture of black/blue and white/gold glazed donuts with #thedress hashtag. Adding to an internet craze already in effect, the post was an instant success.
#4 Kellog’s Eggo campaign with Stranger Things
Netflix original Stranger Things has a cult following that invaded popular culture, so when the second season came out Kellog jumped on board to take advantage of the character Eleven’s favorite snack: Eggo waffles. Kellog discussed a marketing campaign with Netflix before the new season came out that resulted in an advertisement partnership. Their marketing team prepared a whole line of Stranger Things inspired ads, including a tweet written upside down asking the Stranger Things Twitter if they were messing with Kellog again. Fans loved the partnership of these two companies.
#5 Chiquita Banana’s solar eclipse
There was a lot of hype online regarding the 2017 solar eclipse, and Chiquita took credit for this eclipse by dubbing the sun’s crescent shape the “Banana Sun.” For a full three weeks leading up to the eclipse, the company created gifs, a website, and even a massive glowing banana. This content gained Chiquita thousands of new Twitter followers, hundreds of comments, and thousands of retweets. They even released banana eclipse videos that reached over a million views each.
by Sofi | May 25, 2018 | Social Media Marketing
Don’t let the summer stop you from being productive and making the most out of the season. Whatever type of business you run, summertime is a great time to step up your game on social media. So, here are some content ideas you can use to improve your social media presence during this hot season.
#1 Post summer visual content
Photos and videos are an easy way to boost engagement on social media, so make sure you take advantage of this during the summer. You can post photos or videos from your summer products, local summer events, the city you live in, a favorite vacation destination, or anything else that you think will engage your audience. Make sure you post interesting, high-quality photos and videos to ensure a positive feedback from your audience.
#2 Hold a summer social media contest
Contests are a great way to spark the interest of your fans and followers during the summer days. You can hold a contest where your followers have to post some type of photo or video, give an answer to a question, etc. Make sure you clearly lay out the rules and announce the prize for the winners. The prize can be anything from giving away a discount coupon to winning a short trip, depending on your budget.
#3 Share business tips and advices for the summer season
You certainly learned many things from your past experience, so share your knowledge with your audience. Everybody would appreciate a useful tip or advice that could help them in their own career. Talk about what kind of strategies usually work for you in the summer, different business experiences you had, and the lessons you learned working during the summer season. You can write a social media post or put your thoughts in a blog post.
#4 Conduct a summer survey
People have a lot of free time on their hands during the summer, so this is a great period to conduct a survey. Ask your customers what they think about your summer products or services, ask them for suggestions, and let them know that their opinions matter. You will get useful feedback, but more importantly, you will engage your customers and generate a buzz for your business.
#5 Advertise your summer specials and sales
Social media is the best place to advertise your seasonal specials and sales. Inform your fans and followers about your special offers by creating fun summer-themed ads, events, and social media posts. This is a great way to generate engagement and reach, as well as increase sales.
Add these content ideas to your social media plan this summer and enjoy the season!
by Sofi | Mar 2, 2018 | Social Media Marketing
Creating and sharing unique visual content can help you improve your online presence and increase brand awareness. So, here are 10 types of visual content that go viral on social media.
#1 Photos/Images
Eye-catching photos and images always grab people’s attention and have a huge potential to go viral. You can easily find or create beautiful photos to include in your content on social media. You can download free photos from sites like Shutterstock, you can create your own designs on sites like Canva, or you can post photos taken by you that add a personal touch to your content.
#2 Videos
Videos are another type of visual content that work well on social media. There are many different types of videos you can post to your page, like educational videos, product demos, testimonials from customers, funny videos, tutorials, etc. Make sure your video content is relevant yet unique and sets you apart from your competitors.
#3 Infographics
Whenever you want to quickly and clearly present important information to your audience–use infographics. With infographics, you can easily inform or educate people on any given topic. By visually representing the information in an infographic, you make it easy to consume and understand. Therefore, infographics are some of the most shared types of visual content on social media.
#4 Data visualizations
Data visualization is a great way to visually represent any type of data using charts, graphs, maps, diagrams, etc. Data visualizations can help you represent different facts, figures, trends, etc. in a visual context. If you put enough effort into creating relevant visualizations that are easy to understand–they can go viral in no time.
#5 Quotes pictures
Pictures with smart, motivational, or inspirational quotes can go a long way on social media. Especially popular are the ones with quotes by famous people, celebrities, scientists, or experts in some field. Quotes have the power to trigger people’s emotions, so people often share this type of content with others.
#6 Screenshots
You can take screenshots when you want to share some positive comments from customers, testimonials, reviews, or any other information that you think is relevant to share with your audience. You can also annotate your screenshots if you want to point out a specific part of the image that you’d like your audience to pay attention to. Screenshots that contain relevant information can easily go viral.
#7 CTAs
You can add CTAs to your visuals that direct your followers to take a certain action, like visit your website, subscribe to your blog, answer a question, click on a link, buy a product, and so on. Combined with the right colors and imagery, CTAs are very likely to get your followers engaged.
#8 Memes/Comics
Memes and comics are a fun, humorous type of content that make people laugh and create positive emotions. Therefore, this type of content can easily drive engagement and go viral.
#9 GIFs
GIFs are fun visuals that run for 2-3 seconds. GIFs can be added to a certain post to emphasize its meaning, show an emotion, some sort of reaction, and so on. If used in the right context they can be quite effective, so you should definitely consider including them in your visual content strategy.
by Sofi | Jan 12, 2018 | Marketing Strategy
How can you be certain that the content reaches consumers, and what are the key steps to develop successful content strategy? Questions like these are extremely vital and support businesses preparing for consistent and profitable foundations of website traffic and new leads.
The dependable source of traffic and leads from your content will allow you to experiment with other marketing strategies to produce revenue. Moreover, your content will not only assist in engaging new leads — it will also educate your target prospects and create recognition for your brand.
Now, let’s learn how to start planning a successful content strategy.
#1 Set your goal
What’s your purpose for creating a content strategy? Why do you want to create a content strategy? Recognize your goals before you start planning, and it will set you on the right track
#2 Determine your customer persona
To create a successful content strategy, you need to clarify your buyer persona. Buyer personas tell us significant characteristics about individuals such as their drive, what they value in a product, and why they stay loyal to the same brands over time. By defining your target audience, you can create more suitable content that they’ll be interested to read and convert on. There are numerous approaches to researching customer data, including following audiences on social media and keyword research to determine what customers are searching.
#3 Adjust format and channel
The kind of content you select to produce should always be aligned with its main purpose and the distribution channel. Personas dictate the best content format. Asking questions about your customer – such as how do they find new products, or what a typical day look like – will result in higher relevancy, and, therefore more significant engagement.
#4 Create an editorial calendar
The people accountable for content within an organization must plan out content for the upcoming weeks, months and year. The editorial calendar assists in keeping teams on the same page and making authors responsible for their work. An editorial calendar should contain content ideas and dates, as well as comprehensive data on accountability and details about distribution.
#5 Set KPI’s
Another vital part of an editorial calendar is the performance measurement. This means defining important performance indicators to determine the success of a generated content. Because content aims to reach customers at different points in the buying phase, it’s also significant to establish KPI’s according to the location of the customer at that time. For instance, if you are determining content in terms of engagement, a KPI could be social shares or video views. Nevertheless, this method does not define success in other aspects, such as conversion or lead generation. Other than assisting you to track and validate the content you produce, setting KPI’s can also be beneficial for informing future content.
#6 Define a content management system
Establish a system where you can manage your content. The most important parts of content management include: content formation, content publication, and content analytics. Some of the content system options include CoSchedule, WordPress, and HubSpot software.
