Content Writing and Marketing Services
Dave Combs is a songwriter and photographer with four decades of experience writing over 120 songs and creating fourteen albums of soothing, relaxing instrumental piano music. His songwriting began with the now popular standard, Rachel’s Song. His soothing, relaxing music has been played millions of times worldwide on radio, satellite, and all internet streaming media.
Here are the key links from the episode:
Get Dave’s book — Touched by the Music
Dave’s site — Combs Music
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.
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.
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:
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.
Not all users post stories regularly. According to Instagram’s stats, 85% of users post stories daily.
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.
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.
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.
Finally, we will look at the differences between these two features.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ce’Aira Brown and Andre Henry bonded through their hardships and founded DreamAgain which offers services for financial and psychological treatments for individuals and communities facing hardships. In addition to their business, Ce’Aira a professional track athlete, and Andre Henry is a Fortune 500 corporate account.
Here are the key links from the episode:
Join the Dream Again Book Club
Get your copy of their book — From Orphan to Millionaire
Armineh Keshishian is a bestselling author and international speaker. She is the founder and CEO of Wealth & Wellness Global, a coaching company that encourages living abundantly. Her book Joyous Wealth – 56 Secrets to Riches and Wellness is a creative nonfiction work teaching lessons around wealth, success mindset, empowerment and joy.
Here are the key links from the episode:
Armineh’s site — Wealth and Wellness Global
Get your copy of Armineh’s book — Joyous Wealth
Nikki Nash is a podcast host, Hay House author, and creator of Market Your Genius, a training and development brand on a mission to equip entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to share and profit from their message.
Here are the key links from the episode:
Is it time to hire a writer? Many creatives and companies wonder if delegating content gives them a sufficient return on their investment. Some feel compelled to produce their content without any assistance.
However, many businesses pay writers. Some companies employ hundreds of writers at a time. I’ve performed writing services for others and delegated other parts of my business. Here’s what you need to know before hiring a writer.
More content does not always produce more sales. Creatives who produce content for the sake of producing content will miss out on revenue. A vague goal makes content production less profitable.
Writing content for your platform helps with building trust. However, an investment needs a potential payoff. If you invest $50 for a blog post, how do you get that $50 back?
Not all free content converts buyers right away. Content advances visitors to a different step in the customer journey. Some content shifts people from unaware to aware. Other content shifts people from interested to purchasers.
Promote a product or service in your content and on your website. This call-to-action turns free content into profitable resources.
Handing off content responsibilities to others gives you extra time. You can use that extra time to pursue additional business projects.
Many people hire writers to save time. They can produce the content themselves, but why do that when they can delegate that task?
You can promote your products more effectively and serve existing customers. Operating a business becomes less stressful as you delegate more tasks.
Hiring people to write content will help your business grow. More content gives you an edge on search engines and builds customer loyalty.
Before hiring a writer, establish a long-term strategy. It takes several months to get notable traffic from SEO. Creating a library of content gives visitors more to consume.
Your content should cater to different stages in the customer journey. Various customer journey rubrics exist, but we’ll use AIDA for this example.
AIDA stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.
Create content that addresses each of these four stages. Some people are unaware of the problem. They are not actively searching for a solution. This content helps people recognize their problem.
Once people become aware, they may become interested in learning more. Create content that makes readers want to learn more about a problem.
During the Desire Stage, consumers become loyal to the brand and are a few steps away from taking action. They’ve got the itch they want to scratch. They’ve been looking at the product or services for months without taking action. Each piece of content builds desire. Content brings the consumer’s desire front and center.
The more they see you, the more likely they will take action. At this stage, a consumer makes the full transition into becoming a customer. They acknowledge their intention to make a purchase and follow-through.
Including a call-to-action at the bottom of each blog post fuels action. These actions can range from joining an email list to buying a product. You can experiment with several calls-to-action and see which one converts the best.
Hiring a writer can help you grow your business. A seasoned writer knows how to produce content that draws attention and boost sales. You can focus more time on other areas of your business.
If you are looking for a freelance writer for your team, I can help. I have written for clients across various industries. If you want to learn more about my services and how we can work together, send an email to marc@marcguberti.com