Uncategorized

Many business owners promote their products and services on different social media platforms. However, navigating all these platforms to get the desired results is not easy. 

Consider brands like Apple, Samsung, or Nike that constantly stand out on social media. These brands all have a strong and proactive social media presence that they leverage to target the right audiences. Their engagement demonstrates social media’s impact on their brands. 

An effective social media strategy for your business means a better chance of converting leads, promoting your brand, and increasing your customer base. 

What happens if your social media strategy is not showing any positive results? Here are some top tips to help you improve your strategy. 

#1:Establish Your KPIs 

Imagine if you had to complete ten tasks today. The best way to measure success is by knowing how much you accomplished at the end of the day. Completing two out of ten tasks may not indicate success, but it gives you a good idea of your performance. Knowing your performance establishes benchmarks that help you improve future results.

This strategy also works for measuring how impactful your social media strategy is to your audience. They are known as KPIs, short for Key Performance Indicators. As a business owner, your primary KPIs hinge on sales and revenue. Business owners should ask themselves questions that address current progress on KPIs. These two questions serve as starting points:

• How much revenue has my business generated since I launched my social media strategy?
• Has there been a notable increase or decrease in sales recently?

To establish your social media KPIs, you need to understand the role of social media in your business. Most companies use their active social media platforms to drive people to their websites. So, you can use this to develop key performance indicators that measure the number of clicks from social media to your website and the conversion rate after visiting your website. 

For example, do they move around and leave without purchasing anything, or do website visitors from your social media pages buy your product? 

You can also measure the engagement level to your posts or tweets through metrics like the number of likes, retweets, reposts, or shares. Be clear about the traffic results you want to see from social media, and you will be able to tailor your social media strategy to fit this.

#2: Review Your Analytics

Analytics review involves gathering data from social media platforms and reviewing them for insight into what strategies are working and what aren’t. Analytics reveal valuable insights, and once you’ve determined your goals, you can use this to measure your progress. 

For example, you can easily find out what your audience likes by monitoring post analytics. You can tailor your content around top performing posts. If your audience engages more with posts highlighting a problem your product or service solves, you can create more content around those topics

With this, analytics serves as an inspiration for more ideas for your product or service. Social media analytics tools make it easy to dig through data points and interpret your results. Most social media platforms come embedded with this functionality, like Twitter Analytics and Facebook Insights. However, their functionality is limited to that specific platform. Using outside tools in addition to the internal resources will give you the best data.

#3: Repurpose Your Content

It’s easy to get burned out from continuously creating and posting new content. If this occupies your daily routine, when will you have time to actually run your business? Repurposing your old content fixes this problem. It’s also an excellent strategy for learning more about your ideal customers and organically growing your social media pages. 

Creating pillar content makes it easier to repurpose content and create smaller pieces. Pillar content is usually a big piece of content, like video podcasts, audio interviews, or a YouTube video. These could be as long as 30 minutes and contain valuable information that can form great micro-content. 

Then, you can break down this big piece of content, and you have enough to post around your social media platforms for a while. Spread this content using quotes that stand out from the article or turn them into images for platforms like Instagram. You get more traction while putting in less work.

#4: Focus on Your Top Social Networks

We have many social media platforms today: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Youtube, and others. However, you shouldn’t use all of them. More isn’t always better, and brands should focus on a targeted approach. Figure out which social networks your clients use, and prioritize your efforts on those platforms.

You can’t always use the level of popularity to judge. A platform isn’t the best for you just because it has over 1 billion users. Running ads and creating content on each platform lets you collect relevant user data from your audience. 

This data helps you understand where most of your customers come from and which social networks to prioritize.

#5: Make Your Profile Searchable

How does your target audience reach you? Most will look for something and stumble across your brand. You can increase these occurrences by making your profile searchable. Using optimal keywords improves your search ability. Brands should select keywords that describe their services.

Real estate agents use the keyword “Real estate agent” in their profiles. They also include their locations to help ideal clients find their profiles. Optimizing your profile in this manner helps clients find you instead of the other way around. Most business owners only do outreach and play the numbers game. This strategy can help you get clients, but a searchable profile gets you clients on autopilot when done correctly.

Want Help With Your Social Media Strategy?

An effective social media strategy sets your business apart from the competition. You can generate more awareness for your brand and funnel social media followers to your website. They can learn more about your products and services and go deeper into your digital ecosystem.

Content and ads fuel any social media strategy. Content guides people through different stages of the customer journey, introduces your offers, and builds trust. Social media posts help you gain traction on various platforms, while ads help you scale. We’ve helped clients grow their businesses using online ads and content. If you want to learn how we can grow your business, send an email to marc@marcguberti.com today.

Young professionals have the world at their fingertips. You’re young and have plenty of time to explore the career opportunities you have. Along with others your age, you also have the power to transform the current climate of work. The Department for Professional Employees reports that as of 2020, the 28 million young professionals aged between 18 and 34 comprise over 30% of the American workforce.

At the same time, all the possibilities these factors create can be overwhelming. Sure, you can pave your own career path — but the question is: how exactly should you get started? Below are a few pieces of advice that you can use to start your professional life on the right foot.

Make Long-Term Plans

Though you don’t need to set everything in stone, try to get a general idea of where you’re headed. Maybe you want to establish a startup in your industry within five years or become a partner at a prestigious law firm within 10. This helps you establish what you need to do to get where you want to be. You’ll find that there are things you need to start doing today, while other tasks can wait. With every item crossed off your list, you’ll be that much closer to your career goals. Entrepreneur Haris Reis summed it up nicely in Episode 360 of Breakthrough Success: “I started with the end in mind.”

Build Your Network

Your professional network will form the backbone of your professional life: it helps you exchange ideas, forge valuable business contacts, and open new doors for your career. That’s why talent advisory specialist LHH recommends maximizing your network connections as soon as possible. Join all the industry-related events you can find, whether they are seminars or webinars. Find online communities on sites like Slack and Reddit to discover the influential voices in your line of work. Use LinkedIn to connect to like-minded individuals you can refer to later on. These steps might even lead you to find your mentor — an industry expert who can pass on their knowledge to you.

Develop New Skills

Slowly but surely, industries are letting go of degree-based hiring and adopting skill-based recruitment practices, instead. Regardless of your occupation, this means that you have to stay competitive by adding niche, in-demand skills to your professional arsenal. Today, it’s not enough to have a degree in computer science or software development: employers are clamoring for people with advanced expertise in data analytics and cybersecurity. Find the gaps in your job market and learn relevant skills to match. By doing so, you’ll be future-proofing your career.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

Roll up your sleeves and take on things you’ve never had the courage to do. Take on a new and challenging responsibility at work, apply for that job you’ve been eyeing, or learn a new skill that’s been intimidating you. In the process, you’ll learn more about yourself. You’ll discover your strengths and weaknesses while learning how to enhance one and improve on the other. Find joy in what you do, keep an open mind, and bring yourself to places you’ve never even imagined. You might even find an opportunity to take your career in a promising and unexpected direction.

Probably the most important thing to do when beginning your professional career is knowing where to start. Hopefully, these nuggets of knowledge help you lay the groundwork for future success and encourage growth in both yourself and your career.

This is a guest contribution from Melissa Andrews, the Content Marketing Strategist at ArXe Ventures

Instagram is huge. And it’s getting bigger every day. According to Statista, there were more than 1 billion users on Instagram in 2021 and that number has only been growing since then.

Over 100 MILLION posts are shared on Instagram every day. That’s a lot of posts, right?

So how do you make your Instagram posts more popular, with all those photos out there? It takes both time and effort, but there are some simple ways to help your Instagram posts rise above the noise…

1 . Tag Inspiring People

Remember when I said there were more than 1 billion active users on Instagram?

That means if someone sees your Instagram post on their feed, it’ll be less likely to get noticed amidst all the noise if you don’t tag any other users.

On the flip side of that same coin, tagging accounts that are relevant/interesting will help your posts get more exposure. This can be anything like an account you recently stumbled upon (but would like to feature in your post) or someone who could potentially influence your photo’s popularity.

For example, let’s say that you’re wearing the cutest dress and you’d like to share it with all your friends/followers. Instead of just posting it by itself, take a screenshot of the product page where you bought it and tag the retailer. If the retailer has accounts on Instagram, they might repost your photo if their followers like it enough!

2 . Use Creative Hashtags

Creatively using hashtags will get you more engagement than just using plain-Jane hashtags. Here are some examples: use only single words, add emojis (be careful not to overdo it #🔥), or make up your own branded hashtags. For example, ArXe Ventures found some of their clients more than tripled their exposure, once they used relevant hashtags.

Remember: Multiple posts that use the same hashtags will be found together, so using the same hashtag multiple times in a post is okay. However, don’t go overboard and spam your posts with the same hashtag.

3 . Be Trendy

Using trends in your Instagram feed can be a huge help for getting likes, comments, and exposure. Since trends can be fickle, it’s recommended to look at what hashtags people are using on Instagram and add those into your posts (instead of using the actual phrase, like “flexing”).

To find the most trending hashtags, Instagram’s explore page is a great place to start.

4 . Engage With Other Feeds

The most obvious way to make your Instagram posts more popular is to interact with other popular users’ feeds. When you comment on another user’s post, it’ll increase the likelihood of them commenting back or checking out your profile.

There are tons of easy ways for this to happen, but what’s important is that you comment and like on other users that are relevant to your interests and your target audience.

5 .  Don’t Forget Your Other Social Media Channels

In order to make your Instagram posts more popular, you need to share the love with all of your social media accounts. Don’t forget to link back to your other feeds from places like Twitter, Facebook, and even Pinterest!

This will help the reach of your posts and get more likes, comments, and shares. It’s all about cross-promotion!

6 . Be Consistent 

In order to make your Instagram posts more popular, you need a good strategy. Your posts shouldn’t be all over the place and they shouldn’t feature a thousand hashtags.

Keep it simple and post at intervals that work for you! If you go days without posting, don’t expect engagement on your feed. But if you’re consistently posting, you’ll generate more traction. There are even some tools out there such as Inflact (formerly known as Ingramer) which allow you to automatically schedule posts, and use a hashtag generator!

Take time to create a strategy that works for you and then stick to it!

7 . Don’t Be Salesy

Don’t go overboard with trying to sell people things in your Instagram posts. (And by going overboard, I mean you should RARELY do it.)

Most people check Instagram to forget about work and school and responsibilities for a little while – if you’re constantly trying to sell them on buying something or following your other social media channels, they’ll get annoyed very quickly.

Remember to give your Instagram feed some breathing room between posts about your products or services. (Think Gary V’s Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook concept.)

If you make it too salesy, people will stop following you and you’ll lose out on all of the potential exposure!

Conclusion

So there you have it – 7 easy ways to make your Instagram posts more popular. Remember that the best way to get more attention on your posts is to experiment, take risks, and work hard at being creative.

Don’t forget to leave a link to your own Instagram account in the comments section!

Backlinks are the foundation for any successful SEO strategy. Backlinks act as votes of approval. When other websites link back to yours, Google starts to think more favorably towards your website. 

Backlinks only produce higher SEO rankings if they are relevant. When SEO was the Wild West, people would buy hundreds of low-quality backlinks. These purchases artificially inflated their rankings, but Google caught on to these shenanigans. This era is far past us, but some mistakenly believe backlinks are no longer important.

You need backlinks to move up in the algorithm. These strategies will help you get more of them.

1. Write Guest Posts

Some blog owners rely on guest posts to continue providing content to their audiences. Instead of writing the content themselves, they lean towards outside contributors to fill in the gaps.

Guest blogging puts you in front of new audiences. More people will hear about your work. Some of these people will inquire about your services.

Each blog owner has different rules surrounding guest posts. Some guest post rules let you link throughout the article. You can link to relevant articles on your site to draw visitors to your content. 

While rules vary, every blog owner gives contributors a byline. You can use this byline to link to your opt-in or services page. You’ll secure a backlink in the process.

The cool part about guest posts is that you can repurpose the content. You can turn guest posts into podcast episodes and YouTube videos. 

Why stop with a single piece of content when you can incorporate several formats? You’ll reach a larger audience and increase your income potential.

2. Appear on Podcasts

Appearing on podcasts helps you establish credibility. Podcast guests get to talk about themselves and their core topic for an entire conversation. 

It’s important to remember that podcasting is a conversation. Podcast hosts like to engage in a talk instead of hearing your monologue. Make your answers short and to the point. Quick answers allow podcast hosts to ask more questions and further highlight your expertise.

Almost every podcast has a show notes section. In this section, a podcast host includes links mentioned in the episode. Podcast hosts will link to this section of your website. You can also provide a call to action, such as scheduling an appointment or subscribing to your opt-in. These calls to action provide direction and can turn listeners into clients.

3. The Value Backlink

You may read a blog post and feel like something’s missing. Backlinks provide value to readers by expanding the content. Some bloggers do not include many backlinks. It takes extra time to find useful internal and external links.

I’ve received many emails from bloggers about including their links in one of my blog posts. The idea is that if I include their link, it increases the overall value of the blog post. This sounds like a great idea, but naturally, people overused this tactic and sent generic emails.

Here’s the secret about these types of emails. I can tell if someone actually read my blog post or listened to episodes. People will say, “Great job with [insert name of latest podcast episode or blog post]” and think that’s enough to fool me. It’s easier to do it this way. 

The harder approach is to give something extra. You want the blogger to link to your content. Quality content is your only shot at getting the backlinks. You can make your pitch stand out by providing a suggestion for an internal link.

Review the blogger’s previous blog posts and give them an internal linking opportunity. Find an older post on the blogger’s site and explain how it would make a great internal link. Some bloggers crave this information. They want to add more internal links to their content. 

You’ve got a better chance if you give them a viable internal link while presenting your external link. This strategy revolves around sending many cold emails. It’s a numbers game.

You can also provide value by fixing a broken link. Find broken links on other people’s websites and offer your link as the solution. It’s a quick fix to a problem that hurts the user experience.

4. Reach Out to Roundup Post Creators

Roundup posts assemble various experts and ask a few questions. Some roundup posts cover top blogging tools, while others cover marketing tips. Look up roundup blog posts in your niche and reach out to the authors. 

If you want roundup posts around investing, just search “investing roundup post” in Google. Some authors write multiple roundup posts. These posts take more work, but you’ve got a bunch of people eager to share them. People are more likely to share content that features them.

Roundup post creators understand this perk and write more roundups. You can pitch yourself as an expert source for future roundup articles and get backlinks in the process.

5. Use HARO

The major theme with backlinks is that people need help. You provide the solution while getting an extra backlink. HARO fits this rule. 

Journalists need sources for their stories. They turn to sites like HARO to get sources. You can pitch to several journalists each day. Some stories provide significant exposure for your brand. However, they all give you a backlink. 

Journalists have tight deadlines. Only look at a HARO email if you can respond to pitches right away. If you wait a few hours, the journalist may already have a viable source for their story.

Get Help with Your SEO

These backlink strategies help you increase your SEO ranking. Your business will appear higher in search results and get more leads. 

Some business owners don’t have enough time to produce content for their brands. Get in touch today if you want someone else to create optimized, results-oriented content for your brand.

This is a guest post written by Tom Siani, the Content Manager at Blog Waves

Instagram Stories vs Feed: A Guide for Social Media Marketers

Today, social media, particularly Instagram, has become an increasingly vital medium for any B2B or brand awareness campaign.

There is fierce competition in the market between different social media platforms. They’re launching new features every day to get ahead of their rivals.

You can see several bold examples of recently introduced features that beat the competitors. Instagram Stories is one of the most important ones, which was released to counter Snapchat’s Stories.

This Instagram feature has become one of the most popular social media features globally.

What is the difference between Instagram Stories and the Instagram feed? As a marketer or influencer, if you know their applications, you can take advantage of them efficiently.

That’s why we tried to study them thoroughly to help you choose the best one for your content marketing campaigns.

What Is an Instagram Story?

Instagram launched its Stories feature in August 2016. It allows users to share pictures and video clips for 24 hours.

It quickly became prevalent among users and gained 200 million daily active users until April 2017.

The truth is that Snapchat had invented the Story function, but Instagram Stories soon gained control of the market!

Instagram Stories has become the number one tool for sharing personal moments. Apart from individuals, businesses are making the most out of it to broadcast their special events.

Instagram Stories Statistics 

Now it’s good to know some important statistics about Instagram Stories. As you know, all Instagram users browse through their feeds, but how many use Stories?

Here are some vital stats:

Instagram Stories has more than 500 million daily users

Among 1 billion Instagram users, 500 million users use Instagram Stories every day. That’s a great start for a feature that is five years old. 

More than 85% of users post Instagram Stories every day

Not all users post stories regularly. According to Instagram’s stats, 85% of users post stories daily.

70% of Gen Z and 60% of Millenials love Instagram stories

According to Instagram story views data, 60 percent of Millennials view Instagram stories while 70% of Gen Z love to watch Instagram stories.

More surprisingly, one-quarter of Gen Z and Millennials utilize Instagram Stories to find desired products and services.

36% of businesses post stories for product promotion

Instagram Stories is popular among businesses. 36% of them use it to promote their products.

The importance of this stat will be more apparent when you know more than 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business account. You can imagine the effectiveness of using Instagram Stories for promotion and marketing strategies.

Business accounts create one-third of the popular stories

Instagram claimed that businesses create one-third of their top stories.

This stat shows that businesses have put significant effort into stories creating high-quality content for their audience.

Instagram Stories vs Feed: Features

Finally, we will look at the differences between these two features. 

Evergreen vs Fleeting

Instagram posts will remain on the platform forever unless you delete them intentionally. On the other hand, stories will be live for only 24 hours.

Instagram stories are more suitable for sharing moments instantly. Also, stories make sense of urgency, encouraging users to watch them.

Top Menu vs Timeline

Instagram Stories posted by your following can get viewed at the top of your Instagram feed.

When they post a story, it will show up in a line of circles based on a chronological order, which starts with the most recent story. On the contrary, Instagram feed posts show up in your timeline.

So if you want to watch a story, you have to tap on it, but you have no choice but to see feed posts unless you change the setting for posts from that account.

Reach vs Engagement

Instagram Feed posts can be easily discovered by new audiences, so feed posts are best for reaching out to niche audiences and increasing followers.

On the other hand, stories are best for increasing engagement rates. So try to be as creative as possible on your stories.

Scheduling vs Moment

Instagram posts are usually scheduled, especially by business accounts. Feed posts are curated content that act as broadcasts to convey specific messages.

On the other hand, people and businesses primarily share stories in the moment. Business accounts usually use stories for alarming upcoming events, not sharing a curated piece of content.

Official vs Casual

Many regard the Instagram feed as the official face of a brand regarding business accounts. Stories are a place for casual engagement with users. That’s why the platform has put Live videos in stories.

As a result, many companies don’t have a strategy for stories. Many of them concentrate their marketing plans on feed posts. Incorporating Instagram Stories into your strategy will help you get more engagement. You will appear in more places for followers to see.

Conclusion 

Instagram has different features like Feed posts, Stories, IGTV, Live, and Reels. If you want to become successful in Instagram marketing, you have to use it to its total capacity. This article compared Feed posts vs stories to tell you which one is better for your purpose. Try to use both of them depending on your requirements. Creativity is key to succeeding in social media marketing. Never stop updating your techniques and content.

Want more insights to master content marketing? Make sure you pick up your free ticket to the Content Marketing Success Summit.

Freelancing provides writers with consistent income. For some writers, freelance work provides a full-time income. Some writers get enough freelance clients to work from home. They use their remaining work time to build their brand.

Attracting freelance clients helps you generate income and writing assignments. As you build your freelance client pipeline, you can pursue higher paying roles. Getting that first freelance client can be tough. That’s why we will cover three strategies to help you attract freelance writing clients.

#1: Submit Pitches

Some freelance writers don’t pitch to clients anymore. The clients come to them. Every freelancer wants this scenario, but it’s not a reality for beginners. 

In order to land freelance clients, you must submit pitches. Go to sites like UpWork and Freelance Writing to find freelance writing jobs. 

When you start out, submit several pitches per day. You do not make money from pitches. You only make money when someone hires you and gives you work. Submitting several pitches gives you quick experience and puts you in dialogue with several decision makers.

As you get freelance writing work, the focus shifts. Instead of applying to every freelance writing job, you must get more selective. You can only write so many articles in a given day. Look for higher paying freelance writing jobs so you can earn more in less time.

#2: Build Up Your Work Portfolio

Why would a company hire you? Business owners want to see examples of past content. They want to see you can produce a great piece. 

While submitting pitches, also write content for yourself. Start up a blog or write on Medium. This exercise will improve your writing skills and let potential clients see what you can do. 

Writing content for yourself helps you grow your platform. Platform income is scalable. You can make more money with 10,000 email subscribers compared to 1,000 email subscribers. You don’t have to put in extra hours to boost your income if your audience continues growing.

Some writers double as business owners and freelance writers. They grow their platforms and offer products. Freelance writing provides a consistent income source. Income from a platform can vary, but the consistent base gives you the ability to take more risks.

#3: Constantly Network

It’s not about what you know or who you know. It’s about who knows you. Constantly networking with freelance writers leads to intros. Join Facebook Groups with freelance writers and participate. Not only will you get intros, but you will also learn new strategies about finding clients and serving existing clients.

Networking opens doors you could not open on your own. No freelance writer is self-made. We get help from friends, family, colleagues, and everyone in between. 

Acknowledge this truth by networking with people in the industry. Networking create short cuts and help you build long relationships. Hosting the Breakthrough Success Podcast has opened many doors for my business. The show has introduced me to thousands of wonderful people.

Finding Freelance Writing Jobs

Start the process by sending as many pitches as possible. The more, the better. Continue building up your brand with content in the meantime. 

As you get more freelance writing jobs, you’ll have less time to submit pitches. This is perfectly fine. Focus instead of submitting pitches to higher paying work. 

Throughout the journey, connect with other writers. Start with a group and build from there. You may even start a podcast.

Some freelance writers work full-time. These writers can work from anywhere and on their hours. It’s a dream come true for many writers that is possible for anyone.