Category: Content Marketing

Commonly Misused Word Pairs by Content Writers

August 7, 2015

Whether you are a novice or an expert content writer, we are all bound to make mistakes. These mistakes can be syntactical, semantic or just plain old wrong choice of words. It can become embarrassing when we find that we are making common mistakes, which could have been avoided. While no one is going to ask you to stop writing if you make a mistake here and there, it is always good to write well using good English. Unlike French, English is not governed by a language body The English language does not follow strict rules like French, which is controlled by the Acadamie Française (The French Academy). The Academie Française stipulates the rules for using words and for giving directions about which are the formally accepted words & which are not. Of course, common French people do not follow or take these rules very seriously. A walk on the streets of Paris will reveal a number of accents, dialects and words that are unfamiliar to Standard French speakers. It is the result for centuries of French colonization. Yet, French language has remained almost unchanged for the last 200 years because of the strict regulations put forth by the French Academy. English, on the other hand, is not governed by any such academies. It is a democratic and fragmented language, which exists in various colors and shades. From the Caribbean English to Australian, South African and the American & British, English exists in various forms, which are all recognized and valued for the contribution they have made towards Anglosphere. While many would disagree, English is an Indian language as well and a distinct Indian English is a recognized dialect and form of English. In fact, despite the current urge to equate English with colonialism, Indian English has a distinct culture and origin, which makes it as Indian as any other language. With that in mind, we can only imagine the number of words and phrases that English in general has received from various cultures & countries, through years of colonization, migration, immigration, trade, science and cultural exchange. It is no wonder then that many people misuse words and end up creating ambiguity when they write. Commonly misused words The purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that English comes in various forms but it is good to avoid ambiguous words, if you are a professional writer. In spite of all these regional and international variations in English, there are certain rules that are common to all countries and people across these countries tend to make similar mistakes. Let us take a look at some of the word pairs that are often misused or used incorrectly. 1. Farther and further This is a word pair that many people confuse each other with. “Further” is a word that refers to the physical distance. For instance, if you are about 10 kilometers away from your house, you can probably say “My house is still farther from here”. You can also say “Your house is farther than mine for I live closer to the centre of the city”. “Further”, on the other hand, refers to an extension of something. This is a more abstract concept and does not have much to do with actual physical distance. You can use “further” like this – “How can a business further its SEO optimization plans?”. In this context, further refers to the moving of a certain plan or strategy. It does not refer to the physical distance. Both the words are spelled and pronounced similarly. “Farther” has a longer vowel sound, whereas, “further” has a short vowel sound. It is important to bear these things in mind because when we write, we are mentally reciting what we write. If we recite what we write correctly, we also write correctly. This is one of the ways to “further” our writing skills. 2. Affect and effect “Affect” is a verb and it means to influence. It also tends to have a negative connotation though it is not always the case. You can probably say “This movie affected my mind in so many different ways”. When “affect” is used as a noun, it refers to emotions. For example, positive “affect” refers to emotions such as joy, pleasure, calmness etc. Negative “affect” refers to emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety and others. It is important to know these differences so that we do not make wrong choices of words. Another word commonly confused with “affect” is “effect”. “Effect” is, usually, a noun and is the result or consequence of something. It could be either positive or negative. For example, “the effects of global warming can already be seen in our larger cities”. It could also be used in a verb form but that is quite rare. When done so, it means “to bring into existence”. It is important to know the differences between “affect” and “effect” as even native speakers of English make mistakes while choosing between these two words. Again, learning the right pronunciation between the two and pronouncing them correctly while writing can help you to avoid making mistakes. 3. Among and between One of the most common mistakes that even seasoned writers make and there does not seem to be any awareness of the difference that exists between the two words. “Among” is a word that is used when there are more than two items. For example, you can probably say “among those three boys, I find the younger the most hard-working” or you can probably say “Among countries, it is important to foster goodwill and transparency”. “Between”, on the other hand, is usually, used to differentiate between two items. For example, you can use “between” like this – “There is no great difference between a man and a woman, except for some minor physical differences”. Another way to use “between” is at the starting of a sentence. You can probably say “Between the two, I choose the first”. Clearly, “between” is used when there are two items

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Which Should You Prioritize? Design or Content?

July 31, 2015

Social media accounts, belonging to companies, have given rise to a whole new phenomenon in which companies try to design their social media pages in sync with their brands. Most companies still have not begun to make use of this important branding strategy. Social profiles of companies are, usually, the first point of contact for customers and clients. If your social profile is designed well and is attractive enough, people will spend more time on it and read through what you have shared. It is becoming increasingly important to get custom Twitter backgrounds and Facebook pages. While more people discuss designing social profiles, the focus on content seems to be falling back. It is important to focus on content as well as that is as important as design, when it comes to social profiles. Companies often ask if they need to focus more on design or content when it comes to launching their social profiles. In this article, we would evaluate the importance of both content and design, in order to understand which one is better and on which you need to spend more money. Why focus on design? Design has always been one of the primary focus areas of branding. Whether it is the color scheme or formatting or typography, design has begun to take precedence over other aspects of IT and branding. This is a good sign, as psychological research shows that people often judge a website based on its design. Similarly, it need not be an extrapolation of facts, if we assume that people will judge your social profile based on its design. Likewise, many companies have begun to invest in customization of their social profiles. Facebook pages and Twitter accounts can already be customized to suit your branding strategies. What remains important is the way we make use of these various design tools to reflect our core marketing philosophies. At the end of the day, our social profiles need to resemble our main websites and branding strategies, if not an exact replica of the main website. You can probably speak to design specialists and branding professionals to get your social profiles customized to suit your core branding strategies. Steve Jobs famously said “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.” His argument was quite clear and it worked for Apple. IT is all about how things work. Your social profile has to work. It has to fulfill its functions and be the face of your company to an online audience. On the other hand, Paul Rand stated that “Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated”. Paul Rand brings the importance of content to the foreground. In the next section, let us take a look at the importance of content. Why focus on content? Content always needs to be the primary focus of any social marketing initiative. If you do not have valuable content that people can use, your social profile is simply not worthy enough for people to visit time and again. Moreover, social profiles are not used only for customer relationship management or crisis management. They are increasingly being used to share information, educate and inform customers & clients. It is also a great way to attract prospects and convert them into customers. Whether you share a blog post on Twitter or an entire photo album on Facebook, depicting your recent event, social profiles are an important platform to build your content strategy. Content, on the other hand, is crucial for ensuring that you remain relevant in an ever-changing world. If your content evolves along with the world, you will remain relevant and useful to your audience. This is one of the reasons why people tell you that content is more important than design. You can probably have the best-designed social profiles out there. However, if your content is not up to the mark, people will simply stop visiting your profile. When Howard Gardner said “I believe that the brain has evolved over millions of years to be responsive to different kinds of content in the world. Language content, musical content, spatial content, numerical content, etc”, he couldn’t have been closer to truth. There are far too many kinds of content and all these different types of content need to be available on your social media profiles. The only way it can be made possible is by ensuring that you have a consistent content marketing strategy, which focuses not just on  textual content but also on images, numerical data and other forms of media. All these are important to ensure that there is a cohesion within the content marketing strategy. Content or design? This is a rather difficult question to answer. One cannot replace the other and it would be foolhardy to say that content is more important than design. It is equally foolhardy to say that design is more important than content. Any social marketing venture we undertake needs to involve focus areas of both content and design. In fact, professionals know that content and design are inseparable & you need to try to intertwine both of them as much as possible. When you have your design and content strategies in place, it will become a more holistic way of approaching things & that is what will help you achieve success. Content marketing invariably includes design as well and when it comes to social profiles, both content and design go hand in hand. If you are confused about which one to focus on, you need to really stop where you are and decide to focus on both. One cannot avoid either the design aspect of social profiles or the importance of actual content. Both the factors go hand in hand and help you

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LinkedIn Pulse Posts Bring More Eyeballs to Your Content

July 20, 2015

Every writer would agree to the fact that one of the toughest parts of blogging is actually to build the right audience. However, getting it published, generating interests and leads and the social media activities are something that most of the bloggers struggle with.  The content that you consider to be the best ever written can go unread and unshared simply because it is not reaching the right audience. All you need is more eyeballs on your content. Social media networks are helping you to accomplish your goal with its never-ending contributions. One such contribution is seen from LinkedIn publishing platform through its LinkedIn Pulse, a news application allowing LinkedIn members to create and share content written by various influencers across different industries. Members can get access to the valuable content, displayed in a photo-based grid. Besides, it also allows the members to tailor their news feed by selecting the sources and subjects that interest them the most. Unlike LinkedIn Today, that made readers leave the LinkedIn website to consume more content, Pulse encourages readers to reside on LinkedIn by producing unique and genuine content. How Does Marketing with Pulse Bring in More Traffic? The marketing potential of Pulse is untapped by the majority of marketers. However, it’s time to try this new publishing platform to connect with the right audience at the right time. Without a shadow of doubt, you’ve enough compelling reasons to explore this interesting destination… Enhanced Brand Awareness and Reputation With its ability to deliver great articles from top influencers and publishers, LinkedIn Pulse is more efficient in attracting audience’s attention. The more you publish your article, the more you’re increasing your brand reputation as an expert. One article that can take a long time to get views on your website’s blog can easily get thousands of views through this application. If your posts get featured more often, LinkedIn can even label you as an influencer. More Number of Viewers, More Potential Leads If your articles are really interesting and deliver value to your readers, the views can possibly mean having hundreds of likes, shares and new followers right on your company page. This definitely ensures the possibility of potentially new leads and clients. Besides, the notification that followers receive when you post content, your posts also show up directly on the followers’ feeds and increase your content visibility further. Add Link Back and Get More Traffic Once you add links back to your website, your LinkedIn Pulse posts drive traffic and click-throughs directly to your site. Here are different ways to add links back: Link Back with Banner and Image Pulse allows you to add images and link them to your post. Most importantly, Pulse posts have little to no distractions as it does not contain any advertisement and the focus is mainly on your content. Link Back to a Valuable Resource As you link to other valuable posts on your blog, do the same by linking a relevant and useful resource on your website. Simply link back to a post or two on your site that adds value for the readers. Link Back to Squeeze Page Link to a page that encourages visitors to share their email addresses in exchange of something, which is of value to them and start building your list of leads. Now, the traffic that you get to your site tends to be of high quality, as expected. Pulse Articles are Search-Engine Friendly LinkedIn is a highly trafficked website. This means Google is more likely to index the Pulse content and put in Google search result than the content you put on your personal blog. This augments your search engine visibility and also steers the readers towards your other social accounts and posts, which are displayed under the photo at the top of your profile. You Network with the Best Influencers of Your Industry LinkedIn is all about networking. It’s the only platform that has the perfect mix of professional and social context. You get more mileage from your best article in Pulse. The entire platform is made to help you make connection by giving you access to the right influencers. However, those 300 million sets of eyeballs can even glaze over your post, if your content lacks a compelling and click-worthy headline. For that matter, your entire content has to be extremely engaging. The Best Practices for LinkedIn Pulse Article Publication You can effectively drive Pulse article engagement through the following practices: Choose your topic and its title wisely. Avoid covering too many topics in the long-form post and keep your writing focused. There are no limits on word count; the long-form posts can be more than three paragraphs. Add images, videos or presentations to your content. Place three relevant tags that represent the content of your post. Publish whenever you’ve something valuable to share with LinkedIn members. Keep your content authentic. Make your most valuable content published on LinkedIn and get your voice heard and your company seen by numerous potential clients.

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Growing Your Blog Audience Is Not A Rocket Science

June 23, 2015

Whether it’s blogging about leaders or blogging about your favorite food joints, writing great stories and publishing them in your blog does not carry any value until they are exposed to the outer world. Do you know blogging can do a lot of your marketing effort? It can drive traffic to your website and help you capture leads. Provided you know the right ways, it can expand your reach to an extended network of individuals. Your blog can help you connect with people without spending any additional marketing dollars. All you need is a right strategy and not luck as many believe. Today’s blog post aims at focusing on your efforts to gain attention of people and help you to grow your blog. Quality is the King A blog post may contain 2,000 words or 4,000 words. Well, that’s quite a lot of text. To add to this, it should also have screenshots and images. However, only if the content has valuable information to impart, you’re bound to get traffic on a consistent basis. Most importantly, consider writing the hot topic of discussion in an extremely detailed manner so that no one dares to copy you. But of course, editing remains a crucial part. Conversational Tone of Writing By making your blog post sound like conversation, instead of an essay, you’re actually inviting more audience to read your content and encouraging them to comment naturally. The simple ways to bring in a conversational tone is by: Using ‘you’ and ‘I’ within your content Keeping the paragraphs short and to the point Using common words Asking questions in your blog post and solving readers’ problems Respond and Build a Fan Base If you’re thinking that why would anyone want to be your fan, you need to immediately stop thinking that way. Reciprocate and build your blog fan base. How often do you reply back to the comments on your blog? Comments are a great way to increase your readers’ loyalty. If people comment on your blog on a consistent basis, it means they’re reading your content and they’re more likely to share it via social platforms. Also when your readers email you, are you taking out the time to email them back? If not, it’s high time you start caring about your readers and help them as far as possible. They’ll certainly come back. Syndicate Your Content to Third Party Publications Third party sites are usually cited by a variety of people quite frequently. Therefore, syndicating your content to these sites will have a higher likelihood of getting more social shares. These sites can better expose your company, links, name and thought leadership to a wider spectrum of audience and turn steer more people back to your own site. However, you need to find sites that have high traffic and social sharing numbers and whose subject matter is relevant to your brand and content strategy. Promote Your Content The best way to grow your blog audience is to promote your content through different channels. Do not stick only to social media to share your post. You may email your list and reach out to influencers in your niche or pin the shares of your post either in your Facebook page or Twitter profile. You can also use social media advertising to promote shares of your blog post. Content Publication on a Consistent Basis Writing one or two content a month can never increase your fan base. It is important to write and publish content on a consistent basis. One blog post should get published at least once a week. If your readers are expecting a new article every week, don’t disappoint them. Give them the confidence that if they visit your blog, they’ll be greeted with a new content. Use Forums Forum like Quora is an effective way to drive relevant and targeted traffic to your blog. Search for questions and topics relevant to the subject matters you had covered and answer them with valuable information. If possible, add a link back to your appropriate blog post. Remember not to include a link forcefully. This helps establish you and your blog as a trustworthy and useful source of information. Link Other Relevant Sites to Your Own Post Readers, bloggers and even search engines appreciate valuable links. When your own material in-content are referred in such a way that is not manipulative, you automatically draw visitors to your content. Besides, it is always valuable to refer content of others, especially, the high quality sites and great content. When the site owners get to see that you’ve linked to their content, they’ll also reciprocate in the future. Guest Blogging Another best way to get your name or company’s name in front of a broader section of audience is through guest blogging. Make a list of relevant blogs who have the best crossover with the audience that you’d like to connect with. Now, start reaching out to the bloggers or editors who are most willing to accept high quality, free content on their site. Pitch in the specific blog topic ideas in your first inquiry email. Send a brief synopsis of what you’d write about. However, make sure you write all original content for any guest posting you do. Build a Strong Social Media Profile There are tons of social media networks that you could potentially use to market your blog. Most of the social media channels also have paid options that allow you to market to targeted individuals. Promote the best work through paid amplification including PPC, influencer outreach, social ads and different social networks. Community building is an art, what works for one community may not work for another one. Therefore keep engaging and optimizing your social efforts for the best outcomes. There is no rocket science behind growing your blog traffic. A few simple strategies should be able to get you visitors more than you expect in a month. So, why not give it a shot?

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An Overview of Content Monetization in Recent Times

June 12, 2015

Whether you run a blog or a business website, monetizing your site to make some extra money is always beneficial for your business. Investments in content marketing are transforming business models; however, part of the investments often goes unmonetized, especially when it fails to generate highly qualified lead volume and purchases. So, to combat the spoilage of content marketing assets, content monetization is an effective method to quickly increase production efforts to repeat the content marketing cycle. Monetization of Content Since creation of each piece of content is time-effective, there is a finite and objective cost for a content marketing strategy. Content monetization entails learning new ways to distribute and market content. This is done to reach potential buyers and leads that offer a large number of engaged users who are ready to buy premium digital content. Before we proceed to the steps towards monetizing your content, your first priority should be to create high-quality content that people will love to read… Finding the Right Membership Sites The key to getting a great membership site is by understanding the right concept of membership. Membership sites ask users to create an account and pay membership fees before they can access pages of the website. People need to see the value of paying for the content. Members need to feel that they’re gaining high-value information, access to the director of the sites and networking opportunities with other members. The 3 Important Models for Paid Content Subscription It is users’ subscription to your membership site for a monthly or annual fee. Transaction Individual content involving reports, audio or video downloads or training programs are sold separately. Metered This model allows users to read some of your content before they decide to pay for the full access. Lifetime Membership Strategies to Follow Users need to pay for in-depth content Ask for membership ‘sign-in’ to continue reading Open a members-only forum and offer perks Create information products, books and course for a fee Direct Advertising of Your Content Direct advertising is easy to set up and removes the middlemen. You as a publisher get full incentive for your service. Besides, you can also offer almost any type of ad formats for the advertisers including: Banner RSS Ads Site Reviews Text Links Audio Video Ads Newsletter Ads Through direct advertising, you can accept multiple flexible payment options without any chance of losing the deal. This not only opens the door for consistent streams of income from the advertisers but also increases the probability of getting more advertising deals through referrals. A blog that acquires consistent direct advertisement deals automatically builds its credibility and is considered as an authority in its niche. Create Content to Sale The key to selling content is to provide high-quality content… Decide on the topic idea. Research and find the topic your followers are interested in. To do this, you can test your idea and produce short versions of your final idea to test responses. Post titles in social media and check the responses. Check responses through blog posts and do a guesswork regarding the acceptance of the subject matter. Send emails to your list of members and ask them to fill a survey. The survey should contain as few questions as possible. E-books, audio-video downloads or special reports are inexpensive and easy to digest. Highly premium content such as instructional materials, worksheets, ad resources, seminars or audio and video materials often offer personalized solutions. If you’re active on social media and say for instance, you’re active in Pinterest, you can create original graphics of your content that can be pinned in Pinterest board. The pictures will link to your content, which will bring more traffic to your sales funnel. Consider Affiliate Marketing A good way to monetize your articles is to start with affiliate marketing, guiding readers to a product or service in exchange for a charge on the sale. However, the product that you sell must be relevant to the topic you produce. Here are a few quick steps to monetize your blog through affiliate marketing: Place affiliate ads and encourage visitors to click on the ads and then either sign up, register or make a purchase before you get paid for the action. The more relevant the ad is to your content, the higher the likelihood that visitors will click on your ads and perform the required actions. Consider affiliate aggregator service such as VigLink, which will automatically monetize the links on your site. In addition to this, VigLink can also optionally insert new relevant links, which optimizes both the user experiences and revenue. Look for Sponsorship If you have enough traffic for your blog, you may find sponsors for your website/blog. Sponsors are organizations that pay a monthly fee for the space ads they place on your website because the majority of your audience is among their target groups. You may promote your sponsors in whatever way you can. How to Find the Sponsors? Check other blogs that have similar target audience as your own website Find the advertisings and sponsors on other sites in your niche Make a list of companies that specializes in your niche and their products & services must align to the topics you produce for your content How to Make Sponsors Find You? Create a sales page and place a link in your sidebar. This page should explain your different sponsorship prices, packages and payment methods. The sponsorship packages should have a ‘buy now’, ‘order’ or ‘make payment’ link at the end. Also, detail the benefits that sponsors will get. Give details of the traffic statistics and demographic information to help potential sponsors evaluate the value of sponsoring your website. The sponsors should be able to see the number of unique visitors, subscribers and page views. People are more likely to respond if they know the terms of sponsorship, the payment methods and your contact details. For an enhanced content monetization, you need to be constantly updating your content, re-launch, repost across

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Actionable Video Marketing Techniques for Online Business

June 10, 2015

In an era where digitalization has taken over traditional ways of businesses, companies also must invest in digital marketing to maintain their market presence. E-commerce is trending like never before and with it, there are new marketing techniques coming up. Video Marketing is a relatively new strategy in the digital world, which has become very popular among various audiences. Consumer psychology shows that when you market a product through videos, it remains in the memory of the audience for a longer time. It is a well-known fact that human beings process visual information much better than textual content. Yet, we have always been used to reading books, web copy and now, blogs. While we do not discount the utility of textual content and words, it is also useful to publish and create videos that help to present content in an audio-visual format. A lot of people prefer videos to text and we could be using videos to tap into this sub-section of the audience. While it is quite a task to create videos, it is yet another to create actionable videos. Actionable videos encourage the user to take some action, mostly respond to a call to action. This could involve signing up at the end of the video, providing e-mail address after watching the video or even buying the product. However, to create such actionable videos, we need to bear a few things in mind. Let us find some video marketing techniques that can act as a catalyst in boosting your business: Demos Descriptions of a product or a video demonstrating a product works well with the audience, as there are many websites and products competing for attention. You need to find a USP or unique selling proposition to increase your audience base and also to turn your audience into your future clients. You can do this by making your website more interesting; create small videos to showcase your product. You can use animation or a music video format to be different from others. Product demos can also be used to encourage viewers to take some action. This could be in the form of a covert message within the video to contact you for further information or to sign up at the end of the video, which is a more overt form of asking to take action. Both these methods work very well and demo videos are increasingly being used by companies that have a flagship product. Descriptive video content You can also use descriptive content for the videos on your webpage. You may wonder why anyone would want to add descriptive video when you can just post a video. However, research studies show that descriptive video content adds to the effect. It is quite natural, as we have been used to reading pages of content and all of a sudden, videos are becoming more visible. Adding the content will entertain the audience who are getting used to the new format. However, content need not be too long; it needs to be short and crisp. If possible, add in humor and quirkiness. This can be used as a subscript or as textual matter that is inserted within a video. What this actually does is, it grabs the attention of those people who are not very fond of watching videos. By making descriptive videos, we are targeting two different and opposing kinds of audience – one that loves videos and the other, which is still getting used to video content but is very much happy with text. Corporate videos Corporate videos are a big hit among the audience as it evokes a sense of loyalty in your customers. Everyone is interested in what goes on in a company, especially, a corporate company. Use this advantage and boost up your video marketing by bringing in more corporate videos. The themes could be anything from production of a product or showing the fun you have while working. In order to make corporate videos actionable, you could request viewers to add you on LinkedIn at the end of the video. A short note, which screams out your LinkedIn profile address, can also be useful. Another option is to have a running message at the bottom, which occasionally reads out your e-mail address or your LinkedIn address. This will help interested viewers to contact you and probably clinch a deal or two. Social videos What are social videos? Basically, using the marketing videos on social platforms constitutes the idea of social videos. You can use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to share your video, to reach out to a larger crowd & increase your audience base. You might probably think that if your target audience is youth or the IT sector, then this is the best way to turn them into your clients. However, this is not quite true. Social media is used by all ages and demographics & it is a great platform for you to showcase your products. If you can manage to create videos that can go viral on YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion, you can achieve surprisingly high rates of conversion. The key here is to make videos that can go viral. For that to happen, you need to hire good script writers and video producers. To make social videos more actionable, ensure that you always have a call-to-action when you share them on social platforms. This could include urging your audience to follow you back like your page or simply, share your content more. Market research Market research is a must. You need to be aware of new trends in video marketing, if you don’t constantly update your knowledge on the current themes and also the format of product videos. This will help you to bring innovation in your videos. The more ‘newness’ you bring into your videos, the more client base you will gain. The reason why market research is an actionable video marketing technique is because it helps you understand your audience better. You need to save all the

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Effective Social Media Marketing to Boost Your Content Reach

May 29, 2015

If you are looking for the best way to publicize your content and are looking for a greater social exposure, you need to try and exploit social media platforms more often. Using social media effectively helps you to build a larger audience and finally, disseminate your content to a larger audience. The moment you publish a blog post, article, a video or podcast, there needs to be enough social signals for it to be picked up by search engines. For this to happen, you need to utilize your social media tools effectively. Though it might sound daunting initially, it is not very difficult. In this article, let us take a look at how to use existing social media tools to our benefit and create a wider reach for our content. How to use Facebook When we speak about Facebook, we are speaking about a very large and diverse audience. Anybody could have a Facebook account and anyone could be following your page. In order to fully utilize this platform, you need to share your post within 24 hours once. Do not post new content more than two or three times after your first one goes live. Also, try to keep your content diverse. Your first piece of content could be a blog, then a video and then a link or an image & so on and so forth. This will help you to tap different kinds of audiences who like different forms of content. Ensure that your preview images are all different so that it does not look like you are duplicating your own posts. You can also ask your employees, friends and others to occasionally share your posts on their own wall. How to use Twitter to boost content marketing? With the first twenty four hours, you could share the same piece of content at least three or four times a day. Do not post the same content consequently. Instead, tweet other links, posts and statuses as well in between & respond to your followers’ tweets. You could play around with different hashtags, words and mentions each time you share the same link, so that it looks & feels different. If someone retweets or mentions you when you share an article, respond to them politely. Do not thank mechanically but try to engage them in a useful conversation. Twitter now provides useful tweets that were tweeted while your followers were away. Thus, it is quite possible that they will end up seeing your tweet in that list if your tweet becomes popular. How to use LinkedIn for content marketing? LinkedIn is a great way to reach your professional and business audience. It helps you to make new professional contacts, build client base and also interact with people who might prove to be useful to you later on. Within the first twenty four hours, you could either share your post as a status update or as a blog post within LinkedIn. Try and understand your audience & you can even share your content on a busy group that you are a member of. LinkedIn has the advantage of being one of the more serious social platforms and thus, you do not have to beat around the bush when it comes to content marketing. You can get down to business straightaway and that will help you to market your content to a more niche and sophisticated audience. Final thoughts Ultimately, we are not only looking at increasing our audience but also trying to get a better SEO score organically. The only ethical and professional way to do this is to fully utilize social media to widen our content reach. As word spreads about your newly published content, you will probably receive more calls regarding your business and you might be able to clinch new deals. Thus, in order to fully optimize your content marketing campaigns, you will need to fall back upon your social media marketing as well. In fact, both the techniques are tied to each other and the psychologists would say of a relationship, they are codependent. All that you need to ensure is that you have a formidable plan and strategy to combine both the techniques.

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YouTube Card- The New Tool of YouTube Video Marketing

May 18, 2015

YouTube is not just a forum to watch the most desired videos; it is also an opportunity to market your business to millions of people. The platform is perfect for building business client relationships and to reap the benefits of creative marketing strategy. Most importantly, there are no big budgets. If YouTube is still not a part of your social media business marketing, it’s high time that you consider this medium for your business growth. As people are treating YouTube channels as almost like a homepage of a website, YouTube introduced YouTube Cards that allow you to add more interactive cards to your videos. The elements including custom images, titles and call-to-action text integrated within YouTube Cards add an extra layer of interactivity to your video content. YouTube Cards YouTube Cards are side bar options shown on YouTube videos. They allow users to place external links, call-to-actions and other YouTube related videos. You no longer have to anticipate whether your audience would remember your website address you mentioned or check the video description for a link. They can simply click on your video card to check for any important information. The Six Different Types of Card you can add to your Videos Merchandise Card Merchandise card helps in promoting a creator’s licensed merchandise directly from the video. Fan Funding Card This type of card allows your fans to appreciate your videos and make monetary contribution directly to your video page. Fundraising Card This card link viewers directly to the projects on whitelist fundraising sites. Video or Playlist Card This card helps in linking to another public YouTube video or playlist, which can interest other viewers of the current video. Playlist Card Playlist card helps in promoting various playlists on YouTube. Associated Website Card You can directly link your viewers to your website through YouTube card. Ensure whichever card you use aligns with the goals of your YouTube video. Features that make the card widely accepted among its users It is easy to customize the card with images, titles and call-to-actions. If you use three cards or less, you’ll have higher click-through rates. Although cards are available to open and view at any time, you can choose any particular time for the card’s teaser to appear in your video. Users can make the card icon appear and click the ‘i’ tab for getting the desired card. YouTube cards function across all mobile and desktop devices. This is a great advantage, especially, for those who gets frustrated by the lack of annotations when they watch YouTube video on Smartphones. The card’s performance can be checked in YouTube’s Analytics. YouTube is still surfacing the most relevant card teasers, based on fan behaviour, card performance and the devices users are using to watch the videos. Here’s how your business can benefit from new school of YouTube Marketing You have more audience to your website Each video you create needs to have a clear goal; and this is where the call-to-action is important in your card. YouTube Card allows you to send viewers to other pages on your website. However, ensure that you know where they need to go and what you want them to do once they get there. For instance, if your video is about ‘how-to-guide’, you can accordingly use a card and send it to your audience to discover the tips and guidance on your site. You might also add the link of your ‘how-to-guide’ video to your blog. Your audience are well-aware of your brand Video marketing is an effective way to make your prospects aware of what’s new and happening within your brand. Use YouTube card to discuss a particular topic, about products and services or answering common questions, especially, when your website has blog articles & valuable information for the viewers to read. Direct promotion of your products and services YouTube video cards are quite impressive when it is about promoting your products. One great way of showcasing your products is by creating and publishing a series of short videos for your viewers to know who you are. You might also create a video that demonstrates what you’re selling or how to use your products. Once you’re done with your video, incorporate a YouTube card to promote the entire product and a link & call-to-action to buy them. You have your viewers’ email addresses Email list is a significant aspect of customer relationship development in your business. As YouTube video can have up to 5 YouTube cards, one of them can be an enticement to sign up for email address. Place a URL to one of your lead magnets where users will have to share their email addresses to receive it. Email marketing is crucial to stay in touch with your audience, warm them up and promote your products & services. While you offer free content in exchange for an email sign up through YouTube card, you’re actually giving your potential customers the opportunity to learn more about you and your offerings. So, here’s your chance to make your YouTube channel a destination to generate more leads.

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Video Blogging – The Next Big Thing Taking The Internet By Storm

April 20, 2015

Attracting more than 1 billion unique viewers every month is easy now. With video blogging (vlog), it is easy to engage your audience and let them know your story. Using video is simple and something very different for the marketers in their marketing space. It is amazing to see the use of video marketing right from the beginning of 2015. Apparently, it has increased the consumers understanding of products by 74%. What’s Behind The Winning Video Blogging Strategy? Successful video marketing is not just about the format, but the execution of the right plan. However, inefficient ways of using video blogging can ruin its entire purpose. Here’s how marketers seeking to use this super video platform can follow its simple etiquettes Keep It Simple You don’t always need a professional photo shoot kit for your blog’s video. You can sit in front of your Smartphone camera and make a short and interesting video. The How-To videos help your business stand out of the crowd. Moreover, embedding the videos onto your website can increase the interaction and engagement factor, especially if you can include your video with a relevant blog. Keep It Short Make your videos less than five minutes for giving it more in-depth. All you need is a 60 seconds video and establish a rhythm in your posting. Style Your Video Include your artwork, updated content, images, custom URL in your video and link it to your website and social media pages. Choose the best thumbnail and upload a custom thumbnail. Use Humor Nothing can be better than making people to smile or laugh. Include subtle comedy in your script. This helps people to lighten up and develop the right attitude towards your products and services. Have A Plot Your videos need to have a story. The story should be engrossing and well connected to the products you are selling. Let Your Video Talk People prefer to watch than to read. Limit the use of text in the video and let your ideas flow through creative drawings and animation effects. Viewers grasp more from what they see rather than what they read. Relevant Marketing Choosing topics that are always relevant to your audience’s need works the best. News, questions & answers, events & happenings or commercials & press can make your video bogging go instantly viral. Explore Multiple Distribution Channels In order to reach out to the maximum audience, you need to create an integrated network of distribution channels. Share your video across multiple and specifically targeted sites if you want to explore its full potential. How Do You Do Video Blogging to Inspire Your Creativity? #Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Video When you do product reviews or create a how-to-video, put in more questions that needs further explanation and demonstration to clarify the points. FAQ video helps the existing, future and potential customers to get the answers of those frequently asked questions. This shows your responsive nature to your viewer’s needs, thereby increasing the trust and the like factor. #Featured Video In Your Facebook Page Video posts have the maximum organic reach of any type of Facebook post. However, your Facebook Page video should be a good representation of your business. Uploading video directly to the Facebook page enhances the reach of your video posts. A short video slideshow or a video clip can reinforce your post’s content. #15 or 6 Seconds Video To Reach Instagram Or Vine Users 15 seconds video on Instagram or 6 seconds video on Vine, it is possible to show people ‘behind the scenes of your operation’ demonstrating something inspiring and valuable. With Vine and Instagram, you can upload short video clips to easily reach different section of audience with video content. #Product Review Video Blog Video blog to review products is an effective method to gain the attention and create more loyal customers. Unboxing a product to show viewers exactly what they get when they buy products earns you a trustworthy entity. People become more confident to get associated with your products. They believe this as unbiased reviews and is a source they can trust. #Curated Videos To Create YouTube Channel Even if you do not create your own videos you can create a YouTube channel by curating the best YouTube videos created by others. Once you’ve a YouTube channel comprising of videos of top industry thought leaders, you’re already having a subscriber base especially when you start posting your own videos. #Embedded Videos to Improve Blog Post You can increase your social engagement and enhance blog post by embedding video posts on your website. In this context, you can also embed Facebook and Twitter video post. Embedding the Facebook post allows people to view and like the video without leaving your blog post. Facebook allows you to embed Facebook videos directly into your website or blog. Similarly, when you embed a tweet with video, visitors can watch the embedded video, follow your Twitter account, reply, retweet, and favourite that tweet directly from your blog post. What Is Most Important Behind A Successful Video Blog? Although there are several effective steps to build a perfect video, the real success relies on the quality and relevance of its content. This means you need to create interactive and engaging content and guarantee a high standard of audio and visual effects. Your videos can be your sales superstar. People love to watch videos that have stories to tell. As a result, effort should be made to optimize videos to garner the attention and build a larger and more motivated audience.

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How to Boost Your Content Marketing Plan with Social Media

April 1, 2015

While it is well-established that content marketing is very important for SEO, sales and for the quality of marketing itself, companies are left wondering how best they can optimize an existing content marketing plan. One of the ways is to tap into social media, which is inextricably linked to content. More people access Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to get their daily dose of content. This could range for news articles to blog posts from companies they like. This new reality presents us with challenges and opportunities that we had not seen or experienced before. It is not known that social media can effectively boost an existing content marketing plan. For this to be successful, one needs to have an effective policy in place. In this article, let us take a look at how social media can be used to boost content marketing. Understand and engage your audience The first step to using social media for content marketing is to understand your readership and your audience. If you are writing primarily for a professional and business audience, it makes sense to use LinkedIn as the preferred platform. LinkedIn is particularly popular with professionals and is a great tool to boost content marketing. If your audience is younger and hipper, you could probably choose Facebook. Moreover, having a Facebook page is very crucial for any sort of content marketing. It is a given in today’s circles that social media invariably involves using Facebook pages. Last but not the least, Twitter is used by a large number of people. You can use Twitter to promote your posts, content and even connect with your audience. Twitter has the added benefit of being more public than the other two platforms. In order to make sure that content is circulated over social media, you first need to ensure that you are writing socially engaging posts. Posts need to have the ability to go viral. It does not make sense to write articles that are not entertaining or socially attractive. You need to understand that people like, share and even read content that appeals to them. That which does not interest them, simply gets ignored. Understand your audience to create posts that are uniquely interesting and have the ability to go viral. Have a plan in place to disseminate your content In order to fully utilize the power of social media to market your content, you need to have a plan in place to disseminate your content. This means, you need to have a full-fledged social media team or outsource your content marketing to an external vendor who also has a social media team. This ensures that your social posts are closely related to your content and that there is no clash between the two. It is important to remember that an effective social media campaign also involves content marketing and thus, it is important to keep the two in a loop. Seek feedback, measure your social media strategies and improve your content It is no use, if you write great content and use social media well, if you do not track your progress. Every social and content marketing campaign needs to be tracked & measured. Based on the analysis, you need to reformulate, add, modify or even continue with your existing social media and content marketing strategies. This helps us to know where exactly we stand when it comes to content marketing on social media. With a growing focus on different demographics and psychographics, you also need to be aware of what kind of content you are sharing. Content needs to match with your social audience and only then will your content marketing be of any use. Final thoughts Content marketing started with the popularity of blogs and eventually began to encompass everything from e-books, white papers and brochures to even videos & podcasts. In order to ensure that created content reaches the right target audience, one needs to have an effective marketing plan. This is where content marketing meets social media. In order to make sure that content marketing campaigns are successful, it is necessary to make use of social platforms as well.

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