I’m glad you’re interested in making the best out of your Facebook posts but let’s first get on the same page as far as what it is that you’re trying to accomplish with your posts.  

1. You want your posts to get maximum exposure/reach
2. You want your posts to start conversations and get comments
3. You want your posts to be liked and shared 

Can we agree on all 3 above? If yes, then check out my 3 quick tips below on how to make your Facebook posts noticeable, irresistible, and supremely shareable.  

Tip #1 Find out your most successful times to post 

When to post for maximum exposure?  

One performance metric that I look at to find out when I should be posting for most exposure is Reach, which you can find on the Facebook Insights tab.  

Usually what I do is:

• Click on the Insights tab on the right side of the Facebook Page to access page analytics. 
• Sort the summary by Reach in the Page posts section to see the posts that got the most amount of exposure/impressions.   
• Look for patterns in these posts on a micro level by looking at times and sometimes on a macro level by looking at days or even weeks when they were published. 

Research may take some A/B testing, but trust me, your secret formula for maximum exposure is waiting for you at the end of the path  

For example in one of the Facebook pages that I manage where the majority of fans are local college students, it was really easy to find that my best time to post posts for maximum exposure there is between 5 to 6pm.  So yes it gets easier if you have an specific audience… which is exactly why you should never buy your fans!  Keep your network relevant, quality beats quantity when creating relationships and in this case getting your posts in the spotlight of the day.   

And before we move to the next tip, there are studies out there to help you get started on optimizing your posts like Dan Zarella’s Science of Timing findings, but at the end of the day you still need to find out what works for you.  Learn globally and execute locally  

Tip #2 Keep your posts short and craft your questions right

The truth is that when people are skimming through their Facebook news feed, their attention span is short because of all the updates/information they are consuming at the same time, so yes I agree with this mini article on the topic. 

This is why you want to keep your posts short and engaging so that you may get your fans’ attention in that split second before their eyes scan across it and leave your post hanging without engaging. Rule of thumb is less than 80 characters, use it as a reference point, it’s OK if you do 81 this is not Twitter strict  

And  yes you need to ask questions but you need to ask them right. Why? Because if you don’t people won’t answer.  

This is a popular tip in the social media world but I hope that after reading this you get some extra traction from executing it  

From personal testing I found that questions beginning with “When”, “Where”, “Would” and “Should” have been most effective at starting conversations on Facebook.  Now, I am not saying that you should do this all the time as it could get annoying for your fans after a while, but whenever you have a chance of crafting without forcing a question like this, you should do it and you’ll be happy with the results.  I am happy just sharing this with you  

Again remember, balance for everything, you don’t want to abuse this tip by asking questions all the time or you’ll remind me of a character in a cartoon I used to watch when I was a kid. 

Tip #3 Use photo and video more often

Getting your posts shared is going to take more than just asking people to share them.  We are dealing with humans here, so unless you aim to  trigger their emotions, they won’t share your posts.  

After reading a couple of articles and testing some popular recommendations on the topic, my quick tip would be to step up your efforts with more photos, videos, infographics, or something where the end user can make a visual connection with your post. 

And no, I am not saying that only photo or video posts will get shared or liked, but that they are just more likely to get shared than plain status updates.  Guy Kawasaki says that Facebook is a photo economy, so if you want to invest in it, you need to use the right currency at least once in a while.  Here is an example of a viral post I had to share today (yep, it is a picture).  

OK, hope you enjoyed this article, try these tips and share your results with me later on.  Also if you have some other tips with some examples to back them up, share them with me here and I may feature you on a follow up post; a quick extra inbound link for your collection.  

Craving more social wisdom?

No worries, I got your back.  Here are 3 more posts you may also like

• Dale Carnegie and 6 Ways to Make People Like and Share Your Content
• Mastering the Basics – The “Cinco” Tips of Twitter Likeability
• How to Improve Your Social Media Game: 3 Tips from a Dating Coach

Getting Your (Political) Message Out, Then & Now

Running for political office has always been about spreading your message to the widest audience. The candidate with the ability to reach the greater number of constituents would have the advantage of being able to gather more supporters, thus – in theory – leading to a higher percentage of voters supporting him or her on Election Day.

Not that long ago this outreach effort was all about television commercials and radio ads. It didn’t matter if you were running for state assembly, governor or even President of the United States—if you didn’t have a media plan that involved mass marketing, you cut your chances of being elected down to nearly zero.

How the times have changed. With explosion of the Internet and the advent of social media networks, Facebook pages, Google+ and Twitter profiles and a slew of other online forums and communities have become the least costly, most effective and also most efficient way to spread a candidate’s message.

Candidate Barack Obama used social media very effectively in his 2008 election campaign. His success was not lost on politicians. Almost all are using social media to some extent, but not everyone is doing it effectively. A poorly managed social media strategy can do more harm than good.

Evaluating McKenna and Inslee’s Social Media Chops

We decided to evaluate the current race for Washington State governor in which Democratic Representative Jay Inslee is running against Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna. (Full disclosure – we’re all Dems here and rooting for Jay Inslee.) We got worried when we took a closer look. To borrow an overused cliché, a picture is worth a 1000 words (especially one chock full of data), so we created an infographic comparing the digital marketing efforts of Inslee and McKenna.

Results: McKenna Stronger than Inslee on Social Media
When it comes to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+, there is a clear line that divides these candidates. McKenna is an active participant on all of these networks, averaging 500 LinkedIn connections, 82 Google+ followers, 19 YouTube subscribers and nearly 13,000 Facebook fans. Meanwhile, Inslee has also adopted a social media policy, though it is not nearly as extensive. Inslee has just eight YouTube subscribers and no LinkedIn or Google+ followers. He relies mainly on Facebook and Twitter to communicate his messages, although he still falls behind in tweets, with just 61 to McKenna’s 119.

Social media is wildly important when spreading key messages because it’s all about connectivity. For every post on Facebook or Twitter, a person is opening the conversation up to an exponential number of people who haven’t yet had the chance to join in. For example, let’s pretend that every Twitter post is seen by three new people. Even though McKenna and Inslee will still have the same ratio of posts, the number of people their messages reach begins to differ greatly, especially if those new people decide to spread the word to three others. For McKenna, 119 people soon becomes over a million, while for Inslee, 61 people becomes just over 225,000. The difference is staggering.

However, social media is more than just a one-way tool these days. In fact, it offers candidates something that they’ve never been able to achieve: two-way communication on a massive scale. This has also been a key component in McKenna’s social media campaign that has put him at a clear advantage. Not only does he interact on Facebook more frequently than his competitor, but he also operates a blog that is updated weekly and elicits comments and questions. By keeping the lines of communication open with his followers, McKenna is able to solidify his standing with those who support him.

Welcome to 2012 – Elections in the Era of Twitter, Facebook & Google +
It’s clear that social media is the key to campaigning on a massive scale. Facebook posts are the new fireside chats, tweets are the new bumper stickers, and a candidate’s LinkedIn profile is a billboard for all to see his/her credentials. If he lacks any one of these, he risks losing out on hundreds of thousands of followers! The example of McKenna and Inslee may be a small-scale representation of how presidential candidates have begun to utilize these new mediums, but regardless, the method and the message remain the same: those who master social media can win the support of the majority.

Like the Infographic? Copy the Link Below!

Political marketing infographic Inslee vs McKenna for WA Governor by Confluence Digital and Search Engine Optimist

 Or download the political infographic in PDF format.

If you liked this post you may also be interested in:

- www.confluencedigital.com/blog/5-reasons-why-mckenna-is-winning-over-inslee-with-social-media-sep-11

- www.confluencedigital.com/blog/immigration-reform-pro-vs-anti-whos-winning-online-july-11

- www.confluencedigital.com/blog/using-social-media-for-change-welcomes-alonso-chehade-mar-11

Confluence Digital has teamed up with Search Engine Optimist to offer comprehensive, high-impact internet marketing for political candidates and causes. Let us help you make the most of your campaign budget whether to your constituents or fundraisers. We can help answer your questions about any digital tactic from social media to search “basics” like SEO and PPC as well as help with website design & optimization, email marketing and more.

How to get others talking about you, your business, your product, or your service?  Word of mouth can give you social proof. 

Social proof will make you a likeable candidate to talk to or do business with; and this is exactly how I learned about a young entrepreneur here in Seattle and CEO of branddbuddee.com, Andy Karuza.

Meet Andy Karuza

People talk about him, share his content and engage with him.  We are talking Facebook, Twitter and on the ground in networking events. 

His new startup brandbuddee.com, officially launching in early 2012, is a marketing platform in development that promises to change the advertising relationship between brands and their customers. 

Andy has worked with many clients including well known brands like Microsoft, Google, Ducati and more.  As Director of Marketing at Seattle Fashion Week, Andy helped generate many conversations for the event helping it rank in the number one spot in search engine results for several years under “Seattle Fashion” by fostering organic word-of-mouth. 

I recently had the opportunity to meet with Andy to ask him more about what he does and how he does it.  Enjoy!

Video Interview with Andy Karuza

In our video interview Andy shared with us:

• How he got started in social media
• His strategy for the content he produces and shares 
• How to generate word of mouth
• Andy’s startup company brandbuddee.com 

Find Andy Online 

You can find Andy Karuza online on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.   

Want more?

Here are three blog posts you don’t want to miss:

• Dale Carnegie and 6 Ways to Make People Like and Share Your Content
• Three Tips To Boost Your Social Media Game
• What Can We Learn from Klout Stars?

Confluence Digital Founder Eric Layland recently interviewed  Mark Deruyter, Senior Manager - Customer Acquisition at the Musican’s Friend division of large music instrument retailer Guitar Center.

Mark’s team supports the PPC, SEO, display and affiliate customer acquisition efforts of Guitar Center’s key online properties, including GuitarCenter.com, Music123.com, Woodwind & Brasswind, Music & Arts, and top 50 eCommerce site MusiciansFriend.com 

In the interview which we captured on video, Mark discussed the changing eCommerce landscape and talked about the most effective online tactics and KPI’s eCommerce acquisition marketers should be using. He also shared his insights about the future of eCommerce.

FREE eBook: 15 Tips for eCommerce PPC

The holiday season is crucial for online retailers. These best practices will provide insights for online marketers year round. Download Now

I recently interviewed Colin Christianson, live streaming expert and founder of Tenacious Ventures.

In this interview, we talked about Colin’s favorite live video streaming services, best practices, preferred tools and equipment and where this technology is headed in 2012.

I used Quora to crowd-source my questions on live streaming to make sure I made the best use of Colin’s time by having him address the most in-demand questions on the topic. 

Alonso:  For the readers that are not familiar with this technology, can you explain what is live interactive broadcasting?

Colin: Live interactive broadcasting is when you have a live video feed coming from a physical world event and you are able to use social media like Twitter or Facebook to enable people tuning in to interact with each other and with the live stream moderator at the event by submitting questions and comments.  This allows for more community and more interaction to happen around the whole event.

Alonso: Now live streaming seems like a good opportunity for events, what are some of your favorite live streaming services out there and in your view which one has the best video live streaming technology?

Colin: As far as online hosting services go livestream.com is awesome, ustream.tv is great too. I use them really frequently as well.  Livestream.com is usually doing high end, high quality with professional teams coming in the picture while ustream.tv is more people doing basic event streaming.

Some of the others out there include justin.tv, which is really good for the video game industry since they attract the gamer crowd, and a another oone called bambuser.com that is out of Sweden and is really popular over in Europe.

Another option to mention is Adobe Flash. It lets you set up your own streaming server on your own servers and platforms, or your own hosting site, and you can bypass all those third party services altogether and set up your own private streaming service.   So those are the most popular out there to use right now. I personally prefer to use livestream.com and ustream.tv the most.

Alonso: What are some of your favorite tools and equipment for online broadcasting ?

Colin: As far a equipment goes for broadcasting, cameras, laptops; using a portable system is my preference. 

There are a lot of high-end systems like the Tri-Caster, one of the most elite broadcasting solutions out there right now, but its price point starts around $12,000 to $15,000 for the base model and the ideal model that you want is around is $24,000 t0 $25,000.  It is quite expensive if you’re going for that technology.

Then there is the lower-end technology that is more portable and I believe the next level down, it’s using high-end laptops with great video cards, and using telestream software which is wirecast. In my opinion that is the best software solution.

I am kind of going back and forth on using HDMI signals coming in and out, as opposed to firewire as I was using before on cameras.  I am starting to move to a combination of the two, just because then you get a higher quality video.

Black magic is also another hardware manufacturer that does an amazing job and they’ve been coming out with some great new live video broadcasting hardware devices to offload the processing from your laptop into a device that can handle 1080p high quality video to then just use the laptop for the cutting, mixing, and broadcasting.

Alonso: Live streaming opens the door, as you said, for more community and interaction to happen – so why won’t major TV networks live stream all their programming?

Colin: As far as broadcast networks putting their live video on the Internet (it’s) just an early phase of the game and they need to build (it) in to their operations’ workflows to have a moderator, which is the person there that is actually looking at the feeds coming in and allowing for interaction to take place, that’s still one of the bottlenecks. Also, this (Web broadcasting) industry is still just starting to develop itself and integrate itself into existing events and broadcasts so its slowly getting there. 

With Google TV and Apple TV we are starting to see how broadcast networks can be more interactive.  It’s a matter of adoption and the broadcast networks are a lot more slow-moving than the smaller, more entrepreneurial organizations.

Alonso: What are your predictions for Live Interactive Broadcasting in 2012?

Colin: Your TV is gonna become smarter.  Google TV is starting to install Android on the back end of a lot of Sony TV sets that come equipped with it.  We are going to start seeing applications actually on our television sets that are also the applications that we could be using on our phones, so as those solutions proliferate and the market expands and manifests itself, we are going to see more interaction happening with your home television sets.

We are also going to see more live streaming interaction in mid-range events.   High end events will start doing online broadcasts thus not depending on networks to publicize their show. What may happen then is broadcast networks will still send out a camera operator to get sound bites from the shows then syndicate content from the recorded online broadcast of the show.

Connect with Colin on Twitter @ColinAC and check out his company Tenacious Ventures on Facebook.

Watch the video below to see the part of our interview where Colin shares more about how he became a live streaming expert.

Photo Credit: Blue Scholars Facebook Page

The Blue Scholars is a Seattle-based music group who has been able to forego signing a deal with a record label by distributing and marketing their content by themselves through the use of social media.  As a fan of their work and after recently attending a social media event for musicians at the Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle, I decided to take a deeper look into their social accounts to find out what they are doing and how are they making it happen big.  One word – Impressed!  

Here are three reasons why every musician should look up to the Blue Scholars to make the best out of their social media programs:

#1 CONSISTENCY – Strong Presence & Highly Engaged Fans    

To start with, below is an screenshot of Blue Scholars social media channels.  As you can see they have established a strong presence in different social platforms and distribution channels; top 3 being Facebook, My Space and Twitter.  Most of theirs accounts are updated almost daily keeping their fans engaged with their progress and adventures as they tour different cities around the country.

(Click to enlarge)  

#2 FULL ACCESS – Media Rich Content

When it comes to finding and discovering their music, the Blue Scholars get an A+ not only by pushing their content in a diverse range of platforms through soundtracks and music videos but all the way to LIVE streaming.  Their commitment to their fans is incredible as far as taking them with them wherever they go to share the experience.   The Blue Scholars will regularly give you full instant access to their adventures. 

#3 CREATIVITY - Fund-sourcing  Music Pioneers  

 After 4 years of traveling and making a lot of music,  the Blue Scholars decided to try something completely new to fund the release of their third album called “CINEMETROPOLIS”.  They turned to Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform to raise $25,000 to release their music and videos instead of signing with a record label.  The outcome — after leveraging their social media programs to reach out to their fans for support, the Blue Scholars raised over $62,000 at the end of their campaign!   

OK, enough with the writing.  Ready to see some examples? Click on the link below

3 Unmissable Social Media Ideas for Musicians

Need to Create 2 Google+ Profiles, Really?

Yesterday I discovered that Google+ is finally available with Google apps, which means I can now create a profile on their social platform with my work e-mail.  The problem? I have already created a Google+ profile for myself under my personal Google account and I don’t want another one. Ideally I would like to have access to my Google+ profile page whenever I am logged in either with my personal or work Google account.  

I did some research to find out if there was a way to have both of my e-mail accounts under the same Google+ profile, but unfortunately for now, because they are both Google accounts — I can’t.

Google Pages Improvements - Please Hurry

Currently Google pages only allows one admin per page, which means I can’t add other people to help manage the page.  Funny thing is that I ended up creating my company’s Google page under my personal Google account because I didn’t want to create another Google+ duplicate profile for myself on the platform. The problem? Now I have to keep switching accounts or opening new browsers to log into my personal Google account every time I need to post on the page when I am at the office.  

I researched this issue, and unfortunately for now there is no workaround here folks. Well, now at least you know so you don’t have to do the research to figure this out on your own or wait until Google catches the problems and does something to fix this.  Cheers!

Have you found any Google+ issues that bug you? Or do you have suggestions for how best to handle any of them? Please share your ideas in the comments below or post them on our Google+ page.

Contact us if you need help with any aspect of your digital strategy. Our inbound marketing solutions cover SEO, social media, paid search, web analytics, conversion rate optimization and more.

It seems the change is being rolled out gradually and at this time shows up mostly for searches done when logged into the account. I first noticed the change a week ago, but decided to dig in and test both logged in and logged out.

My sample search was “bookstores” and I saw the following results.

Search results for keyword “bookstores” when logged out of Google account

Click image to see larger version

Search results for keyword “bookstores”  when logged in to Google account

Click image to see larger version

And that’s not all, folks… A corollary of those changes Google is rolling out other features that will impact search advertisers on their network. I’d like to point out one other element that is now visible and accessible.

When you now look closely at the paid search ad, you’ll notice that you’re being asked “Why this Ad?” and when you click on it, a pop-up appears that encourages you to click a further link to your personalized Ads Preferences Manager.

Click image to see larger version

When you follow that link while logged in, you will arrive at a page which explains ad personalization including a link to a video.

Click image to see larger version

Here the user has the option to block all paid search ads or select ads from individual advertisers whose ads were featured in the current search result.

Click image to see larger version

How will the changes in ad placement impact AdWords advertisers?

So what does it all mean? I frankly think it is premature to jump to conclusions on how all of those changes will impact AdWords advertisers. Yes, Google has changed the game… again, but it is too soon to judge whether the change is good or bad. We need more data before we can make any pronouncements. We can assume that Google has done the homework on this – you would think they would care, since paid search is a big chunk of revenue for them. They suggest advertisers evaluate the “top” vs. “other” performance of their ads in AdWords to start benchmarking ad performance based on position.

That said, one likely outcome is more competition “at the top” leading to advertisers being willing to pay more per click in order to have a shot at the top of the page spots.

There are also fewer slots on the page overall, and that’s likely to push up the cost of being on page #1 of SERPs, since fewer advertisers can show up on the first page with the new page layout.

No matter what, besides more revenue to Google, one outcome of the changes should be a better user experience. That is Google’s stated goal, since the need to compete over fewer spots will force advertisers to work even harder at ensuring their headline is attention grabbing, the ad copy clearly states the offer, and the content on the landing page is relevant. In fact, this development fits right in with Google’s other recent announcement that it would weigh landing pages more heavily when calculating the Quality Score.

No matter, we’re all in this together. We are all being impacted equally, and I look forward to observing and measuring the results of this change in our client campaigns. I’d be interested in hearing from other advertisers on what you learn in the coming weeks and months. Please feel free to contact me via content or on Twitter @DorotaUmeno.

Contact us if you need help with any aspect of your digital strategy. Our inbound marketing solutions cover SEO, social media, paid search, web analytics, conversion rate optimization and more.

A client asked us the other day whether she should start using the rel=”author” tag for key content creators for her company’s website and link it to each author’s Google+ profile for enhance search visiblity. The client generates a substantial volume of great (valuable and engaging) content by several team members and has had some of that content republished without authorization. That’s one thing the rel=”author” tag is meant to prevent.

(It is really tempting at this point to launch into a discussion of whether Google+ is more than just “the new shiny” of the day, but that bigger question deserves a post of its own (look for it next week), so I’ll focus on the question at hand.)

What does the rel=”author” tag do?

The rel=”author” tag is a way to signal to Google and other search engines that you are the originator of the content. Having the tag in place helps the search engines correctly attribute all articles (blog posts or other web content) to the correct author, regardless of which website publishes them. It can be particularly useful when you are a prolific web influencer wanting to keep track of your output or working on building up your individual brand.

How does the rel=”author” tag work with Google+?

The bonus feature comes with using the rel=”author” tag in conjunction with an active Google + account. When someone searches for a topic you have written about which has been rel=”author” tagged, it will:

• Put your profile picture from Google+ next to search results for articles you write on the queried topic, which can make your search result stand out from the rest on the page.

• Centralize all the articles that you have written that are scattered across the web into one place.

• Enhance your personal “brand” (meaning you) know matter where you write.

It looks like this in search results:

As you can see, this search result promotes Google+ through listing the number of Google+ Circles, a button for adding to the circles for some authors, comment numbers, and a link to the Google+ page. And it also promotes Steven Levy, the author of the article.

However, not everyone’s Google+ profile picture is displayed. It may depend on the number and popularity of your posts and whether or not you are perceived as an authority for the search query terms. In other words, unless you’re a “rising star” or prolific enough to be perceived as an influencer by Google, you may not get the visibility boost from the tag implementation.

As an argument for implementation, there’s speculation that since there is evidence that Google favors its own properties in search engine results (SERPs), using the rel=”author” tag could someday boost your articles’ rankings in search results.

So, should you implement the rel=”author” tag today?

Unless you’re very active on Google+ and your name is tied to your company’s brand, we think it’s a nice feature but not something to prioritize over other search optimization activities at this time. 

However, if you want to give it a go, here’s how you would go about setting this up:

1. If you have more than one content contributor on your team, you will need to create separate profile for each one on your website, ideally with a URL format like this: http://www.yourcompany.com/FirstNameLastName.
2. If they do not currently have a Google+ account, they will need to set one up, activate it, populate it with useful content and use it for some time in order to gain prominence and influence.
3. Then, in each one of their profiles on your site, you will need to create a link to each one’s Google+ profile and add it to the page’s code. The format of the snippet will look as follows:

   <href=”https://plus.google.com/101010101010101010101/posts?rel=me”>FirstNameLastName>

   (The 1010… number sequence is a stand-in for the Google+ account number and FirstNameLastName will be replaced by the actual name of the user.)

4. Next, you will need to link your Google+ profile to each profile page.

   • Sign in to your Google profile.

   • Click Edit profile.
   • Click the Contributor To section on the right (depending on how many photos you have, you may need to scroll to see this section), and then click Add custom link. Make sure to check the box that says “this page is specifically about me”
   • If you want, change the visibility of your link, and then click Save.
5. On each article written by a contributor you want promoted in this way, add

     <href=”https://plus.google.com/101010101010101010101/posts?rel=me”>FirstNameLastName>

6. Finally, fill out this form and submit it to Google.

And if you want more details, check out this much more detailed “how-to” post that also discusses the rel=”author”’s tag “cousin”, the emergent rel=”me” tag.

Contact us if you you are looking for help with your inbound marketing efforts. We’re also happy to answer any of your questions about digital channels such as SEO, social media, paid search, web analytics, conversion rate optimization and more.

If you’re wondering how long has the best selling American author Dale Carnegie been offering tips on content marketing, the answer is never – or at least never directly.  However, he did have great tips on how to make people like you.  

As a lifelong Dale Carnegie fan and follower of his advice, I learned that in most social situations when people like you they will talk to you and they will talk about you just like when they don’t like you. But what about the neutrals, you wonder? 

Well, this is exactly where the majority of marketers who have trouble producing engaging content are stuck, with most of their content perceived as digital background noise.

In Dale Carnegie’s bestselling book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” he teaches 6 ways to make people like you, which I insipired me to apply it to creating the following 6 ways to make readers like and share your content.

#1 Become genuinely interested in other people

Yes stalking and analyzing their website and social media profiles is a good way to learn about your audience.  However on a more personal level,  if you’re truly “genuinely interested” in someone, you will probably try to meet them in person at some point and engage with their content online.  

You would follow them on social media, comment on their blog, sent them a message of appreciation, and keep in touch with them in a place where you can closely monitor their activity to interact with them whenever something they pushed online calls your attention. 

That’s why this is not a task you can just check, but an art that must be embraced until you become someone who is truly passionate about learning about other people.  

Now, how does this apply to you when creating content? Simple, the best way to be interesting is by being interested in others, and your content should reflect that when you create it by adding other people’s thoughts to your content, preferably of those people you have engaged with in the past and continue engaging whenever you can.   

#2 Smile

What happens most of the time when you smile at someone?  Most likely they will smile back at you, or at least most of the times.  One way to accomplish this through your content where body language is most of the time absent unless you’re using visual media is by using humor. 

Humor like other forms of “digital body language” is a great way to make your articles fun to read and where even the right image will make them more approachable to click on.  However please don’t overuse it.

Relevant Link:  5 Tips for Using Humor in Your Social Media Activities by Jason Miller, social media marketing manager at Zoomerang. 

#3 Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language

This tip is pretty straight forward.  Whenever you can, remember to include people’s name when you message, reply, or quote them in your content.  Most people welcome recognition. 

#4 Be a good listener – encourage others to talk about themselves

Take the time to learn about what your audience is talking about, and using that as a reference point enhance the conversation with great questions.  

Questions have specially proven to be a great way to get others engaged. Why? Because they call for an answer, and the right (interesting) question can attract many of them.  

Think of this as you finish creating your content, but please unless you have a great question don’t just ask for asking purposes but because you truly want to know what your audience has to say.  That attitude will help you craft a great question! 

Relevant Links: (1) Learning Center, LinkedIn Answers (2) 8 Easy Twitter Monitoring Ideas by Cindy King, manager editor of Social Media Examiner.

#5 Talk in terms of the other person’s interest

Well, this one is an easy one, the reason I created this article is because I learned through LinkedIn that someone’s biggest content marketing challenge was getting their content shared.  Without trying to sell anything but simply providing someone ideas to change their attitude toward getting their posts shared, the purpose here is to start a new relationship online based on what they are interested in.  I think we often forget, including myself on this one, that the best way to get your content shared is by being passionate about it and with the communities who could be interested in it.  

#6 Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely

In addition to making sure that you remember to use people’s names whenever you can as mentioned in tip #3, following all the tips mentioned above will help you start making people feel important.  Why? Because your actions will indicate that you are interested enough in what they have to say to engage with them. For example, you have a smile in your content either through humor or great media, you are always being helpful providing your audience something of value to them, and because you do it sincerely. 

Relevant Link: 9 Reasons Why Your Content Is Not Shared on Social Networks: New Research by Phil Mershon, director of events for Social Media Examiner.

Now to follow up on my own tip #4, I really want to know what are some steps you’re going to take to make your content shared after reading this? 

Contact us if you you are looking for advice on the effectiveness of your social media strategy. We’re also happy to answer your questions about digital tactics such as SEO, paid search, web analytics, conversion rate optimization and more.