Man Marries His Smartphone I now pronounce you husband and ….smartphone? You may now sign the data contract. Yup that’s right folks, Aaron Chevenek reigns as smartphone lover number one by tying the knot with his beloved phone in the marriage capital of the world, Las Vegas. Chevenek, a filmmaker, wanted to get hitched to […]
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/293Jckg via transformational marketing
Starting a business is a long, demanding process. Moreover, it is an expensive endeavor, as well. Not only do you have to plan your business’ future, but you also have to think of the employees – how many you need and how much they would be paid. Additionally, you have to factor in the money […]
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The goal of Facebook’s News Feed is to show people the stories that are most relevant to them. That’s no small task when you have over 1.65 billion people to keep happy and over 1,500 stories per day to prioritize for each of those individual users. Now, Facebook has announced one of their most significant News Feed shuffles.
On Wednesday, Facebook shared that the News Feed algorithm is going to shift so that it will more favorably promote content posted by the friends and family of users.
These changes are likely to mean that content posted by brands and publishers will show up less prominently in News Feeds. In the announcement, the company explained their priority is keeping you connected to the people, places and things you want to be connected to — starting with the people you are friends with on Facebook.
Back in April 2015, Facebook made a similar algorithm update trying to ensure that stories posted directly by the friends you care about will be higher up in News Feed, so you are less likely to miss them. But based on feedback, Facebook understands that people are still worried about missing important updates from the friends.
This update is likely to affect all types of content posted by brands and publishers, including links, videos, live videos and photos. Facebook said it anticipates that this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for many Pages who’s traffic comes directly through Page posts.
The update will have less of an impact, however, if a lot of your referral traffic is the result of people sharing your content and their friends liking and commenting on it. Links or Page content shared by friends or content your friends interact with frequently will still appear higher in the feed.
For example, the post from my personal Facebook account (on the right below) would be more likely to appear above the post from Buffer’s Page (on the left) in the News Feed:
Facebook’s success is built on getting people the stories that matter to them most.
To help make sure you don’t miss the friends and family posts you are likely to care about, Facebook try to put those posts toward the top of your News Feed. The News Feed learns and adapts over time based on the content you interact with the most, too. For example, if you tend to like photos from your sister, they’ll start putting her posts closer to the top of your feed so you won’t miss what she posted while you were away.
Facebook research has also shown that, after friends and family, people have two other strong expectations when they come to News Feed:
Despite its venture into publishing and partnerships with large news and entertainment brands, at its heart, Facebook is still a place for friends. And without solidifying our connections with those closest to us, Facebook could face struggles to keep its 1.65 billion monthly active users coming back.
To understand the inner-workings of social networks and what makes us keep using them, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology studied networks like Friendster and Myspace with the goal of figuring out what factors can be detrimental to a social network.
They found that when the time and effort (the costs) associated with being a member of a social network outweigh the benefits, then a decline in users becomes likely. If one person leaves, their friends become more likely to leave and as more people leave, this can lead to a cascading collapse in membership.
Networks like Friendster and Myspace were the Facebook of their day. Both had tens, and eventually hundreds, of millions of registered users, but what the study found is that the bonds between users weren’t particularly strong. Many users had very few close connections, and it appears there’s a direct correlation between how connected we feel to our friends and family and our affiliation with each network.
If Facebook users are worried about missing important updates from the people they care about most, then their affiliation with the network could begin to decline as they find other ways to stay connected. And once user begins to leave, or become un-engaged, it could have a waterfall effect on the network. David Garcia, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, explains:
“First the users in the outer cores start to leave, lowering the benefits of inner cores, cascading through the network towards the core users, and thus unraveling.”
You can see how a social network unravels in the below graphic (Friendster is used in the image):
For Facebook, the News Feed is the most integral part of their product to make us feel connected with those we care about. And as such, it’s important for Facebook to keep the content we want to see the most at the top of the feed.
The changes will affect all types of content posted by Pages, including links, videos, live videos and photos.
In their “News Feed Values” shared alongside this announcement, Facebook made it clear that content from friends and family will come first. And the company also highlighted the importance of authentic communication and being inclusive of all perspectives and view points without favoring specific kinds of sources — or ideas.
We expect that this update may cause organic post reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages. The impact will vary for every page and will greatly depend on the composition of your audience or the way in which your content is shared on Facebook. For example, if a lot of your referral traffic is the result of people sharing your content and their friends liking and commenting on it, there will be less of an impact than if the majority of your traffic comes directly through Page posts.
As with all Facebook algorithm updates, it may take a little time to determine exactly what will continue to work and how to increase organic reach (though Facebook feels like it’s shifting more towards a pay-to-play market for businesses).
One tactic that could become increasingly important is the amplification of brand content. With Facebook favoring content shared by users rather than Pages, it feels essential to find new and innovative ways to encourage your audience to share your content directly to Facebook. Ensuring your content is discoverable away for the Facebook News Feed could be another key play as well.
It also feels important to keep a focus on what people are looking for from the News Feed. As mentioned earlier, aside from friends and family, Facebook users turn to the News Feed to be informed and entertained. With those goals in mind, it’s worth thinking about how the content you create for Facebook can satisfy those desires.
In their announcement, Facebook says their work is “only 1 percent finished” so it feels like there are plenty more twists and turns ahead for the News Feed.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this update and how it may affect the way you use Facebook and the types of content your share? Please feel free to leave a comment below and I’m excited to continue the conversation with you.
You’ve just poured your heart and soul into creating an epic blog post your audience is sure to love.
You’ve clicked the “Publish” button…Now what?
It may be tempting to leave it at that and move on to the next project. You’ve got more blogs to write, more topics to cover, and more content to produce, right?
Hold on a minute.
Publishing a blog post and quickly moving on to the next one is a waste of your efforts. Doing so will minimize the impact of your content and its true potential.
Download this cheat sheet of 14 things you need to do after publishing a blog post.
If you want to increase the exposure and circulation of your blog content, implement the following 14 tactics I’ve found to be insanely effective.
Should be an obvious one…but I need to mention it.
I like to think I’m pretty thorough with proofreading and diligent about catching spelling/grammar mistakes.
But no matter how meticulous I am, I occasionally find some errors after publishing.
Sometimes, it’s not even spelling/grammar but formatting or some other issue that slips past me.
You should be using spellcheck, obviously, or even a service such as Grammarly. However, nothing substitutes the proofreading services of a trained professional.
Most pros have a process they follow when proofreading a document.
If proofreading is not your strong suit, here’s what you can do:
You may wish to hire a copy editor instead of a proofreader.
What’s a copy editor? A copy editor pays more attention to the copy itself, not just grammatical details.
Wikipedia defines copy editor in this way:
Copy editing (also copy-editing or copyediting, sometimes abbreviated ce) is the process of taking raw material to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text.
A good copy editor can not only correct your typos and grammar but also improve the style, approach, tone, and accuracy of your content.
It doesn’t matter how much promotion you do (below). If your article is full of errors, you’ll lose credibility.
Internal linking kills two birds with one stone.
First, it encourages readers to explore your site further. Second, it’s helpful for building site architecture and can give you some much needed SEO juice.
I always try to find previously published content that’s relevant to each new blog post and create a link that points to it.
Why does this even matter?
Internal linking helps you to:
Adding a link to your new article from old posts is easy:
It only makes sense to do this easy task. Why? Because links matter.
According to Moz, 99.2% of the top 50 results on Google have at least one link to the website from some external site.
But it’s not just sitewide links that make a difference. The page itself should have links too. Moz’s research shows a high degree of correlation between a top-ranked page and a page-specific link.
Interlinking pages within your website aren’t considered external links, but they do improve your site’s structure and optimization.
Besides, there’s the freshness factor to consider. When a page acquires new links, it instantly signals relevance to the algorithm, improving its potential in the SERPs.
Adding links should be a top priority shortly after publication.
Many times, my audience just needs a little coaxing to chime in and get the conversation going.
That’s why I like to add an open-ended question at the end of each post.
This not only encourages my readers to think deeply about a topic but also increases their engagement significantly.
I don’t actually expect people to answer the questions I ask. I do it to spark thinking and conversation.
And thankfully, it works. You guys do share your thoughts with me and other readers!
Duh, right?
But there’s a deeper strategy involved.
When I post an article on Facebook, I like to add a quick sentence or two that captures the essence of a post and explains how others will benefit from reading it. Usually, it’s pulled directly from the article itself.
And the image? It’s a must-have.
Facebook posts with photos get more links, shares, and comments. It’s a fact.
You can combine different techniques to get even more social sizzle from your Facebook post—a photo with your article, plus a question and the link to the article.
If you promote your article with that kind of power, you’re bound to make an impact.
Notice how a successful page such as Business Insider promotes its articles with a variety of techniques: images, a brief comment, and the link to the article.
You’re obviously limited in terms of writing a description with 140 characters.
But I try to write a short, snazzy caption to pique the interest of my followers.
Chris Brogan does this too. The guy’s a Twitter master, and he knows how to get people to click on his articles when he promotes them.
Also be sure to include a hashtag or two, but don’t overdo it to the point of looking like a jabroni.
A couple of hashtags is all you need to double the amount of engagement on your promoted article!
LinkedIn is great for highly professional posts and those that are relevant to my industry.
If you’re posting on LinkedIn, you’ll improve your LinkedIn engagement.
LinkedIn users are among the most plugged in and tuned in to your message.
Use your best judgment in terms of the type of content you decide to post on LinkedIn, but by all means, use it!
You might regard Reddit as the Internet’s home for hipsters and geeks, and you might be right.
But it can also be a traffic gold mine.
Why? Reddit has millions of pageviews, and its active user base is committed to engagement.
With Facebook and Twitter, you might have casual users, but there’s something about Reddit’s audience that makes them absolutely addicted to the site!
Reddit users interact on the site using what’s called karma. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, think likes on Facebook, except not really.
Basically, the idea is this: if your post gets lots of karma, more people will see it.
Reddit users don’t hesitate to share their opinions—good or bad—on articles that get shared.
If your content is subpar, you’ll get scoffed at. If it’s good, you can be confident that your new post will get referenced, linked to, and viewed by a lot of people.
Sites such as Alltop serve as resources where readers can find a vast amount of content on the topics that interest them.
Bloggers can often share their content on these types of sites, which can ultimately lead to an influx of quality traffic.
Check out this guide from Techlicious on the best news aggregator sites.
Whether it’s Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, or even Google+ and its uncoolness, share your content on whatever other site(s) you think might be beneficial to you.
The Internet is full of backwater forums, highly-engaged Facebook groups, and other pockets of interactive communities.
Seek out your tribe, build an audience, and provide this network with value through your content.
If you’ve got a sizable list of loyal subscribers, you can circulate your content with relative ease.
Just make sure you’re not doing it to the point of being annoying.
I send out a daily email to my subscribers, and it’s the perfect frequency for my engagement, audience, and goals.
I would never recommend being the irritating guy who’s always hitting someone up for a favor.
But I would recommend occasionally asking a key contact if they wouldn’t mind sharing a new post with their audience.
Just make sure that it’s relevant to their niche/industry and adds value to their audience.
In fact, that’s the most important thing—adding value.
Value works both ways. You should be trying to provide value to the influencer too. Before you hurry to email all the influencers in your address book, please read this post. It will give you some helpful tips on how to do it.
Let’s be honest. Getting readers to comment on your content isn’t easy—especially at first, when you’re just getting the ball rolling.
Although I usually get quite a few comments on Quick Sprout and NeilPatel.com, it didn’t just happen overnight.
It took a lot of hard work, persistence, and, of course, responding to comments.
Back in the day, my blog posts were pretty lame. But even then, I tried to respond to comments.
Being engaged and responsive is essential for building relationships, creating social proof, and ensuring future engagement.
Even though it can get a little time-consuming if you receive dozens or hundreds of comments, it’s well worth it to respond to each one individually in a timely manner.
If you’re relatively new to the game and are still trying to establish an audience, this is perfect for building rapport and trust.
Some may think of this tactic as old school, but it definitely gets results.
Why? Because you’re providing value to other people. It’s not just about scammy link building.
It’s about engaging with real people.
Just be sure you’re leaving valuable comments on relevant blogs.
One strategy I would highly recommend to fairly new bloggers is to take a bit of extra time to reach out to the people who are commenting on your blog.
For example, I suggest identifying a few consistent commenters contributing to the conversation and stopping by their blogs.
From there, I like to find a relevant post that ties into my content and leave a thoughtful comment.
I know this can be a bit time-consuming, but it can really boost your reputation and likability—both of which are integral to your content marketing longevity.
According to Hubspot, “B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67 percent more leads than those that do not.”
You already know that blogging is a best practice. You do it. But then what?
Then you share it.
A blog that simply churns out content is not going to get the kind of traffic, interaction, and action that it needs to. It’s essentially worthless unless you actually do the work of sharing it.
When you go the extra mile and follow these strategies, you can cast a wider net and circulate your content to the deepest recesses of the Internet.
These methods are the secret sauce you need to gain more leads and a loyal following of people who’ll stay hungry for future content. The great thing about intensive sharing is that doing so often attracts prospects who are most likely to convert on your content.
If you’re in the “publish and leave it” habit, it’s time to change. Use these simple, straightforward, and easy methods, and your content will begin to take off.
Do you have any specific steps you take after publishing a blog post to ensure maximum visibility?
Microsoft Releases Free Update Microsoft is releasing a free update for Windows 10 you don’t wanna miss. It’s available until July 29, or you’ll have to pay $119 after the date. The update includes new features like Windows Ink, Microsoft Edge browser extensions and Cortana improvements. Microsoft is also hoping to expand its Hello system […]
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/292RLfr via transformational marketing
We live in a world where information is at our finger tips all the time any time—which causes us to crave transparency more than ever before. Businesses that are transparent with both their employees and their customers are coming out on top and in many cases, taking this proactive approach is directly increasing the bottom […]
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/292ISHe via transformational marketing
After making or reorganizing your website you need to make your www-voice heard and reach that target public you’ve always wanted to reach. You prepare your tone of voice, your marketing strategy is all set, you’re thinking of your social media indicators and you feel that everything is good. Not quite. SEO is an important […]
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Airbnb Sues San Francisco It’s a full house up in hereeee — quote from Danny Tanner regarding current legal issues Airbnb is battling. The Golden Gate city threw a curveball last month when they passed a law making all Airbnb hosts register with the city before showing ads for their homes. San Fran legislators passed […]
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/299jG2D via transformational marketing
It is not easy to get your online marketing strategy going: first you have to build a website, find an affordable yet efficient hosting service, set up social profiles, create a blog and then learn how to regularly engage with potential audiences on all channels. If you’re having some trouble with your social media strategy […]
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Millions of blog posts are published every day.
A small percentage gain traction and attract readers.
And among those readers, 55% will read the blog post for 15 seconds or less.
(If you’re still reading, thanks for sticking with this one!)
The internet is a daily battle for attention. Everywhere you turn, people are trying to share the latest marketing hacks with many of the same points echoed repeatedly.
I’m guilty of it myself, and I completely understand why many of us write articles that are a little similar and repetitive. It’s because they work. You could argue that content is becoming less art and more science. There are formulas to it — if you find the best keywords and write the correct content, you can build a high-traffic blog (that’s almost a guarantee).
But is traffic the goal of content? Or can there be some new and unusual ways of measuring content success? I have some ideas I’d love to share.
Often (and, I’m guilty of this too) you’ll hear someone talk about the success of their content by saying something like: “10,000 people read my post” or “60,000 people saw my video on Facebook.”
But I’ve started to wonder if this is really an accurate measure of successful content?
Even if someone clicks on your article, the likelihood of them taking it all in is very slim. The internet has changed many of our habits. But one thing that hasn’t changed in nearly 20 years is the way we consume content online. Most of us still skim and rarely read a full post.
Many publishers have now started to focus on “attention metrics” alongside more traditional measurements like pageviews. Medium’s Ev Williams explains their stance on which numbers are meaningful:
We pay more attention to time spent reading than number of visitors at Medium because, in a world of infinite content — where there are a million shiny attention-grabbing objects a touch away and notifications coming in constantly — it’s meaningful when someone is actually spending time.
Maybe we need to stop focusing on how we can hack and grow the number of views our content gets. And instead, focus on how we can make each reader care about what we’re saying.
I’d argue that you don’t build a successful blog by accumulating a huge number of page views. Rather, you build a successful blog by creating something of value.
The only way content will drive results for any business is if it provides value to someone else. It’s not necessarily about how many people you reach; it’s how many you connect with. Because when people connect with us, they remember us, come back for more, trust what we have to say, and may eventually buy from us.
When you’re creating great content, you don’t need to live or die by your analytics. Maybe we should let go of our desire to write for everyone in order to skyrocket our pageviews, and instead hone in on sharing what’s unusual, valuable, and unique?
Value is quite subjective and can be hard to measure. In this section, I’d love to share a few ways we’re starting to measure the value of our content here at Buffer.
A Net Promoter Score (NPS) is commonly used to measure loyalty between a brand and a consumer. It can also be a great way to measure the value that your blog is delivering to readers.
You calculate NPS by asking a simple question: How likely is it that you would recommend our blog to a friend or colleague? (Using a 0-10 scale to answer.)
Respondents to the question are then grouped as follows:
Subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 (if every customer is a Detractor) to a high of 100 (if every customer is a Promoter).
This handy graphic from the Net Promoter Network highlights the formula:
By running an NPS survey on your blog you can begin to understand how many of your readers truly value the content you’re creating and whether they would be happy to share it with their networks.
There are plenty of great tools out there to help you run an NPS Survey on your blog and I’d love to share a few below:
You can also create your own survey using a tool like Typeform and distribute it to your readers. One thing that feels important to be mindful of is ensuring you reach all kinds of readers with your survey. For example, sending it only to your email subscribers could slightly skew results as they’re likely to already be your most engaged readers.
There has been a lot of debate about the state of blog comments. With the rise of social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, readers have a multitude of ways to engage with your content:
With all these options and ways to interact with content, you could argue that a blog comment is losing its relevancy — or on the contrary, you could see it that the value of a blog comment is rising.
Knowing that people can share and comment on your post anywhere, the fact they’re taking the time to respond directly within the post itself could be perceived as the highest form of engagement.
For us, comments are an increasingly important metric and one we’re focused on measuring. In Q2 2016, we’ve had a focus on increasing the average comments on each blog post by 100% from Q1 and here’s how we’re getting on:
Comments feel like a great measure of the value your content creates. If someone takes the time to spark a discussion on reply to us through a comment then we feel the post must have been useful to them in some way or sparked some curiosity. A great example is our recent social media study post. This one generated over 70 comments with readers sharing their thoughts on the study and also how our findings compare to their own.
Whenever I publish a post on the Buffer blog, I’ll get a few mentions on Twitter or LinkedIn when people share it. As a result of this, I’ve started to build a slight intuition around how much value each post is generating based on shares and mentions.
When a post really delivers value and goes above and beyond reader expectations, I’ll notice a distinct spike in the number of shares it receives and the number of mentions we receive both via the @buffer accounts and my own personal social media accounts.
It’s super easy to keep tabs on how many times your content has been shared. Sharing plugins like SumoMe and Social Warfare can provide share counts on your posts and PostReach (full disclosure: this is a tool a few friends and I have built) and Buzzsumo can pull in data about who is sharing each of your posts on Twitter. I also like to pay extra close attention to my mentions on Twitter after a new post goes live so I can gauge how it’s doing and see what people are saying.
Headlines are amazingly important to the success of a piece of content. Before we publish a post, we spend a bit of time focusing on how we can craft a headline that gives the content the best chance of being seen. Amazing content behind a weak headline probably won’t get seen.
Sometimes we’ll create between 20-30 headlines for each post and choose the one that feels best and other times we’ll have a quick chat and riff on how we can make the headline stand out. Here are some extracts from a recent conversation between Leo and I:
The original headline we had was:
53 Graphic Design Terms and Definitions for Non-Designers
And the title we decided on when we hit publish is:
Why Every Marketer in 2016 Needs to Be a (Part-Time) Designer: 53 Design Terms and Tips to Level-Up
This post has generated plenty of shares so far and 18 comments (at the time of writing). By focusing on the headline, we were able to promise value: 53 Design Terms and Tips to Level-Up. And also spark a discussion about the role of a marketer: Why Every Marketer in 2016 Needs to Be a (Part-Time) Designer. Without the time spent tweaking this headline, I’m not sure we would have had such success with this post.
Every blog post begins as an idea, but what makes an idea stand out and how do you know which ideas to act on and publish?
Before choosing a post to write, I tend to ask myself three questions:
And I’d love to go into detail on each of the three questions below:
On the Buffer blog, we strive to deliver content that helps readers solve a problem or challenge they face in their every-day work environment. This means we like them to be able to read a post and directly action something they’ve learned from it.
We focus on making content actionable because we believe that if someone learns something from one of our posts they’re likely to remember us and even share the post with their network as a New York Times study found that content that is practically useful gets shared more than any other content:
When creating content, it’s important to hone in on your audience and think about who you’re writing for. One way I like to frame this is to ask myself “who will amplify this post?” If I can’t answer this question then I won’t write the post. Normally, this question forces me to focus on a specific area of marketing or a specific role.
(h/t to Rand Fishkin for this one)
We’re surrounded by content nowadays and if you want to stand out, you need to craft content that’s unique.
What makes a piece of content unique can vary from post to post. Sometimes it can be timing that makes a post unique, for example, when we published our post on Twitter Polls it was launched shorty after Polls were publicly announced and was one of the first guides on how to use the feature.
Other ways to make your content unique include:
I believe we can create more value if we pay closer attention to depth than breadth. It’s not so much how many people click on our content, it’s how many people pay attention to our content. It’s how many people we can make an impression on and connect with that really matters.
Measuring the success of blog content is an interesting topic and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
Do you feel we put too much focus on the metrics like page views and sessions? How do you measure the quality and value provided by a blog post? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
We’ve all faced disappointing traffic numbers and even heart-stopping dives.
It happened to me recently on this website. Two years ago, I was blogging along as usual, when wham, my traffic dropped!
As it turns out, it was a random algorithm update that killed things for a week or two. Several tweaks later, I was back up to even higher numbers than before.
I understand that algorithms can change, audiences can leave, and a website can suffer from penalties.
But I’m also convinced that there’s no reason to settle for low traffic.
How can I be so confident? Because I faced it. I dealt with it. I recovered.
I’ve come up with 10 SEO tactics proven to boost traffic.
If you’re feeling skeptical right about now, I understand. I am sure plenty of SEO snake oil salesmen have tried to convince you that [insert some random weird hack here] could boost your SEO.
I don’t give advice that doesn’t work or hasn’t worked for me and my clients. These tactics actually work.
And here’s a quick comment before you dive into the tactics. I’ve intentionally avoided all the obvious stuff because you’d already have already tried that.
These techniques are relatively advanced. However, with the right skillset and a bit of patience, I know that you can master each technique and enjoy the boost in traffic.
Do you know where Google Knowledge Graph gets its content from?
Wait, what the heck is Wikidata?
Wikidata is a community-driven initiative that belongs to the Wikimedia organization. They own a bunch of Wiki sites serving information content in a variety of languages.
It’s easy to see that once you get into Wikidata, either as a company or as a reference, your business will benefit in terms of exposure and traffic. Plus, a link from any of the Wiki sites is worth its weight in gold.
Many organizations pull data from the Wiki sites. The most important of them all is Google.
The content that gets featured in the Google Knowledge Graph is from Wikidata.
Do you see now why it’s important?
Getting inside Wikidata seems easy on paper, but it isn’t. Here’s how you can get a free pass:
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you sell products related to the fashion industry, specifically industrial sewing machines. One of your top sellers is the Brother brand.
Here’s what you should do:
Your page must be strong and backed by data. Fluffy or thin pages are deleted by the editors.
You can even add social media URLs to the reference pages. It would be a good idea to create a group discussion on LinkedIn related to the topic, and link it as a reference on your Wiki page.
In addition to this, you must go to each Wiki site and edit or contribute to topics that contain your keyword. Don’t forget to write an authoritative piece on your subdomain or website and link to it as a reference. For the example above, the keywords would be fashion, sewing, clothing, models, etc.
News articles get pulled by Google on two SERPs—the traditional SERP you’re used to and the News section.
You may not have thought of Google News as a traffic source, but consider my point. It’s a traffic wellspring!
Check out this screen shot:
To get into Google news requires perseverance, honest reporting, cutting-edge articles, and regular updates.
If you are up to it and want your website to show up on the Google News SERP, here’s what you should do:
Yeah, it reads like a slow process, but it’s worth millions!
Heard of Google Posts?
Let me rephrase.
Have you ever seen a carousel on Google SERPs? Something like the image below. Notice the section outlined in red:
The posts contained in such carousels are Google Posts.
Google Posts isn’t commercially launched yet. There’s a waitlist, and you must get on the waitlist.
Google Posts allows verified and prominent individuals and organizations to create content (text, images, videos) on the fly and publish instantly. Once the posts are published, they will be visible on Google SERPs when a user searches for topics and keywords within that niche.
The hassle, of course, is that you can’t start using Google Posts immediately. If you are an established organization or a prominent individual, you should sign up and reap the benefits when it goes live.
AMP is a new coding standard, and the way it is shaping up, it seems that it will go on to become a global HTML coding best practice.
I highly recommend you research it and implement what you can.
Think of AMP HTML as regular HTML with some restrictions that reduce clunkiness and help generate reliability.
AMP HTML (and JS) increases the loading speed of your web pages, which is an extremely important factor. This protocol is on its way to become a huge ranking factor.
Google has already included it in its Search Console, and many web developers around the world are quickly adopting it.
Remember the time when Google made mobile-friendly design a ranking factor?
Developers were slow to pick up on it, and when their site rankings dropped, there was panic.
That’s why I encourage you to get started on AMP right away and to keep your site AMP-ready. Moreover, AMP will make your pages load faster, which will help you rank higher and attract more traffic.
Did you know it was Brian Dean of Backlinko who coined the term Skyscraper Technique?
Although it’s simple when you think of it, it requires some pretty intense work.
Does it work? Yes, it does. Sites with traditionally low traffic or in traffic slumps have experienced an uptick in traffic after using the technique.
Here’s how you should exploit it:
First, simply research the top-shared content in your niche. You can use BuzzSumo or EpicBeat.
Next, you should:
Result: Traffic, shares, and more traffic.
There are three things you must be aware of:
One of the key takeaways from the Google I/O developer conference notes was that over 20% of the searches on the Google app on Android in the US were performed by voice.
I don’t have the stats for Siri, but if you put two and two together, it’s easy to infer that your SEO must be ready for voice search/voice assistants because its use will keep increasing over time.
How will you get your website ready for voice search?
By developing an FAQ page in your niche.
An FAQ page can easily leverage both the question word and the keyword/correlated keywords.
How will you collect data for your FAQ page? Here are some ideas:
Finally, take all this research and create a giant FAQ page that is neatly divided into categories.
Make each question shareable, and write detailed and helpful answers. Do this, and you’ll quickly get some traffic to your site.
Sounds like a tall order, right?
But it’s not as difficult as you think.
You can increase your website’s traffic by growing your personal brand. I spent about a decade cultivating my personal brand. I then used that personal brand to boost traffic and generate high-converting leads, creating several multi-million dollar businesses.
You can do the same. Here is how.
Start sharing your knowledge tactfully and helping others without giving away your business secrets.
First, register at Q&A sites such as Quora, Yahoo Answers, and WikiHow. Join LinkedIn groups, and reach out to other sites in your niche that could benefit from your guest authorship or input.
Start answering questions and helping users. Do not promote your business or link to your website.
If your answers are helpful, users will start requesting your help. When you see help requests coming in, it’s time to strike (in a good way, of course).
From this point on, help people, but link back to your article or site when you do so.
Followers and browsers will follow your link, and your site traffic will multiply like crazy.
Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn, and Quora are liberal with links, but WikiHow has a tough backlinking policy, so be careful. Whatever you do, be polite, and write factual helpful information.
Many website owners do all the right things and still wonder why their traffic volume is static (or decreasing).
The answer could be that you may be doing too many of the right things.
There are tons of SEO and content marketing tips available on the web, and while reading as much as possible is a good thing, trying to do everything may prove to be counterproductive.
Content marketing is performed on social media and blogs, which are user-driven. Viewers expect the writer or poster to interact with them and follow up on their articles.
If you’re into excessive content marketing, you won’t have time to interact. You’ll also feel burnt out doing too many things at the same time.
My advice is to stick to three or four social media channels (Facebook and YouTube are important). Once your traffic and sales increase, you can consider hiring someone to handle other social channels.
You may have heard that influencer marketing is dead, but I can guarantee you that if any influencer links to your post, a swarm of traffic will follow.
Now, you cannot overtly approach an influencer and request that person to promote your content. Why? Because the minute the influencer reads your first line, they’ll understand what you want. Honestly, it’s a turnoff.
Influencers receive hundreds of content promotion requests every month. They can spot one from a distance.
Here’s what you can do instead. Influence and motivate the influencer to share your content.
I’ll show you how you can attempt that with an example.
Let’s say I am targeting “men’s fashion” as my keyword phrase. I Googled “top blogs on men’s fashion.” There are plenty of meaty results:
I visited one top blog, Off The Cuff, and found it was founded and owned by Christopher Hogan.
Next, I visited Christopher Hogan’s Twitter page. It looks like he tweets often, and some of his tweets are about formal fashion in different seasons (he has 3,300 followers. It’s a bit low, but there’s a twist in the tale).
That gave me an idea—a content strategy that can be endorsed by many influencers (with a gazillion followers).
Here’s what I’d do next:
What I have given you is just an example. And it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential of this technique.
Use your creativity to devise even more advanced and informative content within your niche.
You can use other tools, such as Followerwonk or Buzzsumo, to find influencers and apply the same technique.
There are so many articles floating around on keyword research that I wasn’t sure whether I should include this tip.
I decided to include it.
E-commerce is a serious business. If you know what customers are exactly searching for, it could be rock-and-roll time for your sales and traffic.
Shoppers who have finished their research typically head to retail sites such as Amazon to buy stuff. As I’m sure you’re aware, Amazon is the world’s largest e-tailer.
Researching keywords on Amazon and including them in your content can be a rewarding SEO task.
To research keywords on Amazon, you need to subscribe to a paid keyword research service.
But I’ll show you how to research for free. Here’s the technique:
First, choose your product on Amazon.com (it’s “men’s fashion” in this example):
Next, select “men’s fashion” in “All Departments.”
Then, now check the results page. Notice the filters and categories in the column on the far left.
Finally, expand each category, and copy the keywords that drop down.
These are the keywords that real shoppers with ready-to-swipe credit cards search for (on Amazon). Use these very keywords in your content.
If your traffic has dropped because of slow loading pages, lousy server, clunky coding, malware, unfriendly UI, etc., no amount of SEO, SMM, or PPC can help you. Plus, you’ll end up wasting a ton of money.
Fix the basic issues first, and then move on to marketing and SEO.
The tactics I have recommended will help you attract traffic that has the potential to convert.
It’s worked for me. I’m confident it will work for you too.
Tell me how it goes! And let me know about both your successes and your challenges. I want to help.
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What is the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal?
Is it keyword research? Copywriting? Beautifully designed ad campaigns? Maybe….
But the driving force behind all of these things?
Psychology.
You see, sales and marketing are really about understanding consumer psychology.
Why do people buy? What makes them click on your Facebook ad? What sort of stimuli do most people respond to?
I’ve been interested in consumer psychology for quite a while. It started innocently enough. I was curious. What makes customers interested in a product, service, person, or brand? Why do people click on headlines? What makes 100%-refund-guarantees so assuring? How will this influence conversion rates or customer loyalty?
Asking these kinds of questions helped me develop a deeper understanding of my customers.
And then I figured out something more. Consumer psychology applies to just about everything in business.
Even social media.
What did I do? I started using my knowledge of psychology to improve my Facebook strategy.
And guess what?
It worked.
It wasn’t just my personal brand that started growing by leaps and bounds. My clients got the benefits too!
I’m not going to keep these techniques a secret.
I wanted to share with you the psychological insights I learned so you can dramatically improve your game by leveraging Facebook marketing more effectively.
So, what are the most important psychological “hacks” you can start using today to improve your social media marketing?
Most people are emotional creatures, not rational.
Many of us analytical types tend to think that everyone else sees the world in terms of ones and zeros like we do. But this is simply not the case.
Most people act emotionally, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It just is.
One of the most effective things you can do to improve your Facebook strategy is to quit relying on rational thinking as your main driver and start relying on customer’s emotions to take the wheel.
Great…But how do you do this?
One of the most effective methods is to convey emotion through facial expression. Try using ads that have someone’s face on them, whether it’s a real photograph or a drawing.
I do this often, simply by adding an image of a face to my posts. It’s simple. It’s quick. It’s effective.
Seeing a face is way more appealing than seeing some inanimate object.
It works not only on posts, like the ones above, but on sidebar ads too.
People are already browsing through Facebook, looking at pictures of friends and family. Using headshots or other shots that include facial expression is a natural way to enter into your customer’s newsfeed unobtrusively.
Facial expression is the only universally understood language, and the human brain is wired to process facial cues far more easily than written word.
In fact, according to a study from Caltech, people may have specific neurons in their brains that respond to individual people!
This means that when you see my face, Tony Robbin’s face, Donald Trump’s face, or Brad Pitt’s face, you have a neuron in your brain dedicated to only them!
Pretty cool, huh?
Take a look at some of the ads below.
Notice how the headshot of Noah Kagan smiling instantly changes your mood and instills trust.
This ad from AdEspresso offers almost no rational reason for clicking on it, but the positive emotion instilled by the cartoon and the eye-catching red (more on that later) makes me want to click on it.
Notice how Tim’s confident (or smug?) facial expression communicates confidence about the method he is teaching without any extra information.
The face is enough to build my trust and encourage me to interact with the Facebook ad.
Do you see how powerful conveying emotion through facial expression is? Use it in all your Facebook ads, regardless of the topic.
Something that many marketers are aware of but rarely utilize is the power of color.
The human brain evolved to see red colors more vividly. This was a huge advantage to hunter-gatherers who could now spot ripe red fruits out of green leafy trees as well as potential dangers like venomous snakes and fish.
This is a huge advantage to marketers.
Red in your ads will catch users’ attention much more effectively than any other color.
However, the combination of red and blue is even more powerful as blue is more calming and relaxing.
For example, let’s reexamine the AdEspresso ad.
Notice how the ad uses red to grab your attention and direct you to the “Try it now” button but combines it with some blue text to give the ad a more calming and friendly tone.
This is an easy psychological trick you can use to your advantage in your next campaign.
Colors are powerful. They’re a language unto themselves.
It’s time to start speaking this language with your customers. Why? Because it’s a language that is neurologically innate. We’ve learned the language of color through nature and through the complex development of our species.
Color has a way of communicating that doesn’t depend on effective ad copy or even a smiling picture of a model. Choosing the right color can drive up your engagement and improve your Facebook marketing.
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find something in a supermarket that costs exactly $1 or exactly $5?
That’s because, once again, the human brain has evolved to discern the difference between prices based on the left-most digit.
That’s the power of pricing.
For example, the reduction of one cent—from $100.00 to $99.99—is perceived as more significant than the reduction of 40 cents—from $99.99 to $99.59.
While the brain may suck at math, this is an incredibly easy-to-implement tactic that can increase your Facebook ad conversions almost instantly.
This doesn’t work every time or in every situation. However, I have learned that odd styles of pricing are far more effective at luring customers in than flat, round numbers.
Give it a try. Run a split test with differing price points, and see which one wins.
Our brains are not wired for our modern technological era.
It sounds odd, I know. After all, most of us run around virtually tethered to some electronic device—wearing it, talking to it, and interacting with it.
But the brain is still trying to adapt to these devices, no matter how marvelous they are.
Our brains are still way back in the day when we were living on plains, hunting and gathering for survival. This means our brains are still wired for one of two basic responses: fight or flight.
You’ve heard of fight or flight, haven’t you? The idea is simple: fight or flight is “the instinctive physiological response to a threatening situation, which readies one either to resist forcibly or to run away.”
The fight or flight response takes its toll on the entire body in various ways. Some of these effects are obvious—like sweating. Other effects are subtle—like digestion slowing down.
Either way, our bodies respond.
Here’s how one science website describes it:
In response to acute stress, the body’s sympathetic nervous system is activated due to the sudden release of hormones. The sympathetic nervous systems stimulate the adrenal glands triggering the release of catecholamines, which include adrenaline and noradrenaline. This results in an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. After the threat is gone, it takes between 20 to 60 minutes for the body to return to its pre-arousal levels….In the face of something frightening, your heart beat quickened, you begin breathing faster, and your entire body become tense and ready to take action. This response can happen in the face of an imminent physical danger (such as encountering a growling dog during your morning jog) or as a result of a more psychological threat (such as preparing to give a big presentation at school or work).
In other words, our brains are wired to make impulse decisions.
Using the word now is a great way to capitalize on the brain’s propensity for impulsivity and get your customers to click on your Facebook ad.
Here’s how one Inc. writer describes the word now:
Immediacy is what everyone wants: Get what you want now. Make a change now. You can start now. Tomorrow is too late, yesterday is over, and now is exactly the right moment to start.
Humans are wired to want now. It’s just the way we are.
Cater to that desire in your ads or social campaigns, and you’re sure to improve your scores, conversions, and engagement.
According to most modern studies, the brain processes images much faster than text.
This means that when you are designing your Facebook or other social media campaigns, you should focus more of your time and energy on the images you are using than the text you include.
Social media today is a visually driven world. The more visual content you have and the better it is, the more successful your social media campaigns will be.
We’ve established that the brain is wired for impulse decisions and fight or flight. Thus, ads featuring products with (perceived) scarcity instill a sense of urgency, influencing a customer’s desire to purchase.
Notice how the “Only 24 Hours Left” warning creates a sense of urgency to buy.
You want it more because it’s scarcer.
It’s called the scarcity principle, and it will work wonders for your social media strategy!
I was just about to write the conclusion to this article when I realized…
I can’t end on an even number!
Why? Because odd numbers are, for whatever reason, more psychologically appealing. Odd numbers improve engagement, increase click-throughs, and attract more eyeballs.
The simple takeaway?
For example, the giveaway “9 Powerful Hacks to Massively Increase Facebook Ad Conversions” would convert much better than “10 Amazing Ways to Improve Your Conversion Rate” (according to science).
Conductor’s research showed that odd-numbered headlines have 36% more clicks and a 20% higher CTR than non-numbered or even-numbered headlines.
The same principle holds true for Facebook ads, Facebook articles, and Facebook opt-ins.
Odd numbers just work.
Researchers have discovered that the mind considers odd numbers to be more natural. A list-driven article like this one, therefore, has a more trustworthy neurological connection due to its odd-numbered status.
More often than not, I find that most Facebook ads fail to utilize any of the above tools, and that is a shame because using human psychology is one of the most proven and consistent ways to increase your sales and conversions.
And the thing is none of these psychological insights are hard to implement!
That’s the power of consumer psychology. Knowing a few insights can be powerful and can positively impact your marketing efforts!
If you want to see any of the above advice in action, simply run an A/B split test, utilizing the power of color, facial expression, and trigger words. You’ll be AMAZED at the results.
Like with everything, however, don’t take my word for it. Go out there, and do it for yourself: test, test, test, and see what gets you the results.
I’m still curious. What kinds of psychological hacks are you testing and trying in order to improve your Facebook strategy?
