Marc's Blog

5 Tips To Optimize Your Pinterest Boards

July 23, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

What allows Pinterest to differentiate itself from the other social networks is its boards. Boards allow you to categories the content you post on Pinterest far better than any other social network. Pinterest provides numerous options with their boards. Some of these options are implemented by numerous people who other options do not get implemented as much. Here are the five Pinterest tips that will allow you optimize your Pinterest boards.

Create a wide variety of boards. Some of your boards can be business related, others can contain pictures of nature, and others can be sports boards. If you think something is a good board idea, chances are it is. The more boards you have based on different topics, the more Pinterest users you will be able to attract to your boards.
Create a group board. Group boards allow you to systematize Pinterest. If you have hundreds of contributors for your group board, you can rest assured that people will update that group board for you. When you are logged in, you can add pins to your other boards because a group board with hundreds of contributors is bound to get thousands of pins added to it every week.
Have strong descriptions for each board. In some cases, people follow a board because it has a strong description. It may only take you a few minutes to come up with a strong description, but it will help you get more followers in the long run.
Choose the cover picture carefully. The more pins you have on your board, the more choices you have for the cover picture. A good rule of thumb for the cover picture is to choose a bright, stunning picture. The light colors (red, yellow, and orange) get the most attention. In fact, yellow is the first color that registers in our brains. If you choose a bright color, you also need to make sure that the picture is something stunning so people feel more enticed to click the follow button.
Pin valuable content in bulk. Boards with valuable content are more likely to be followed than the boards with not so valuable content. However, many people forget that Pinterest is similar to an online magazine. The more content there is to read, the more people stick around, and the more chances you have of providing the content that individuals in your audience want to see. You should make it a point to have as many boards as possible with over 100 pins. Once all of your boards have over 100 pins, get up to 500 pins per board, and keep on working your way up.

You cannot be successful on Pinterest unless you create boards, but if you optimize those boards, you may be able to decrease the amount of time it takes for you to reach certain follower milestones. What are your thoughts on this article? Do you have any additional tips on optimizing Pinterest boards? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Steps To Increase The Amount Of Time Someone Watches Your YouTube Video

July 23, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

video retention rate

Many people are looking for ways to get more views on YouTube. These people believe that views play a big factor in going viral and allowing their content to spread. That used to be the case, but few people know that views are no longer the big factor towards going viral and allowing content to spread.

Now it’s the amount of time someone watches your YouTube video.

That means you can get 1 million views, but if people only watch 10 seconds of your video, then it is not engaging people in a way that YouTube would start to pay attention (and promote your video). Time retention, not views, is now the key to going viral on YouTube. In order to increase the amount of time people watch your videos, follow these seven steps.

Get more people to subscribe to your channel. Did you know that subscribers watch your videos longer than anyone else? I didn’t know either until I saw some videos on YouTube Creator Academy.
Have a professional introduction. Your introduction is the deciding point of your YouTube videos. The more professional your introduction is, the more people will enjoy your video.
Have an incredible channel trailer. Believe it or not, there are some people who will not know who you are. You need to have an incredible channel trailer that sums up who you are in an effective manner.
Make your videos shorter. Just to put it simply, would you rather watch a 1 hour video or a 1 minute video? The shorter your videos are, the more likely people will be to watch to the end.
Have two camera angles. That way, it is okay to mess up. You can continue your video with the second camera. The moment you realize your babbling in your YouTube video, you can stop recording from the first camera angle and then record from the second camera angle. If you sound like you are babbling, then people will not bother watching the entire video.
Your videos need to be good. People will not watch a bad video just because it has all of the other factors of getting more retention rate optimized. You need to constantly practice on improving your videos. They may be valuable now, but how can you make them more valuable.
Show people that you are popular. Most people still believe viewership has a big impact on how YouTube ranks videos. That means most people think that popularity is measured by the number of views a YouTube video has. If your YouTube videos have thousands of views, people will watch those videos from start to finish just because thousands of other people have watched those videos as well. Here are some ways to get more YouTube views.

Increasing the amount of time people watch your YouTube videos will allow you to rank higher on YouTube’s search engine where you will be able to access more viewers who can possibly subscribe to your channel. What are your thoughts on this article? Do you have any tips on getting more people to watch your videos longer? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Lessons We Need To Learn From YouTube Creator

July 22, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

YouTube Playbook

One of the things most people do not like about Google products is that they are difficult to use. To some people, using Google products correctly is like trying to solve a giant jigsaw puzzle the size of the Empire State Building. Google Adsense and Google Hangouts are some of the many Google products that people have difficulty using. However, there is a bright spot, and that bright spot is YouTube Creator. For the first time, YouTube, owned by Google, decided to listen to what its users were recommending. In addition, the people working at YouTube Creator actually tell us about the changes YouTube is implementing so we can give them feedback. If only all of Google’s products were like this. Since YouTube Creator is offering something never offered before, we need to learn as much from this as possible. Here are five things that we need to learn from YouTube Creator.

Allow users in the same tribe to easily communicate with each other. Ever since YouTube Creator came around, users have been commenting on numerous videos with suggestions. Some users supported getting rid of certain features while others supported the addition of other features. Regardless of what everyone said, this resulted more engagement.
Ask for suggestions. If you ask for suggestions, you are opening yourself up to more ideas. Chances are someone has a great idea that you don’t know about. If that person tells you their idea, you can implement that idea for your product or service. Even the big players such as YouTube ask for suggestions. It is okay to ask for help. In fact, asking is powerful.
Make a lot of information easy to access. I had to disconnect from the internet to stop exploring YouTube Creator so I could write this blog post. YouTube Creator has a sleek design and valuable information. Right when you click somewhere and think you are going to read an article, YouTube Creator gets more specific. If you are looking for something specific about building your YouTube audience, you will be able to find most of it on YouTube Creator.
Identify and solve the problems. Crowdfunding campaigns to Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and all of the other crowdfunding sites would get promoted on YouTube. The problem for YouTube was that people were leaving YouTube so they could support a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, Kickstarter, or somewhere else. One of the promised updated from YouTube Creator was that YouTube would offer crowdfunding. Now, less people are going to leave YouTube, and more people are going to go to YouTube for their crowdfunding campaigns since it gets over 1 billion unique monthly visitors and attracts an international audience.
It must be easy to communicate to the people in charge. Good leadership is listening to the people who follow you. If you do not do what the followers want, those followers will leave. YouTube Creator is further strengthening YouTube’s reputation as a leader by allowing anyone (including you or me) to contact the people in charge of YouTube’s updates.

YouTube Creator is simply brilliant. If you have not seen it already, I highly recommend searching it on Google and giving it a look.

Why Facebook Is Still Worth It

July 22, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It seems like every other month there is another article about a mass exodus on Facebook. Every time these articles make the news, more businesses question the significance and importance of having their own Facebook Page or being active on the Facebook Page these businesses already have. This is the point when everyone seems to ask if Facebook is still worth it. Is growing an audience on a “social network in decline” still worth the effort?

I was one of the many people who asked myself this question. I created a Facebook Page a long time ago and had not updated it for months. When I decided to go back and start updating that Facebook Page, another article came out saying how Facebook is losing people. I wondered if what I was doing wouldn’t be worth it, but then I came to a realization.

Social media is going to stick around for a very long time. That means Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Instagram, Vine, SnapChat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and all of the other ones are going to be with us for a very long time. Social media is where people get to easily interact with one another. Local stories such as #BatKid become international inspirations. Social media changed Egyptian politics. Social media allows us to stay updated about what our favorite celebrities are doing. Social media has changed the world and is not going to go away anytime soon.

Now let’s go back to Facebook. It is a social network, but unlike social media in general, losing an individual social network is not going to be extremely catastrophic. If Instagram goes down, you’ll know it when you see #InstagramDown on the list of trending topics. People just move on from one social network to the other.

It is important to realize that even though there are articles that mention Facebook losing millions of users, Facebook is still the second most popular website on the web. With the occasional jump to the #1 spot, Facebook has not lost its strong grip of popularity and influence in the world. Facebook users are also more engaged and stay on Facebook longer than most social media users.

Facebook is still the largest, most popular social network on the web and is therefore still worth it. Create that Facebook Page in peace knowing that it can end up thriving later on. Continue to post on Facebook knowing that there will be people to like your content. The time you invest in Facebook can lead to more blog traffic, sales, and connections.

5 Useful Methods To Get More Repins On Pinterest

July 21, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Pinterest has a distinct advantage that none of the other social networks have. Its users share a higher percentage of content than other social media users. Out of all of the tweets on Twitter, only 1% of those tweets are retweets. On Pinterest, there is a much different picture. 80% of all of the pins on Pinterest are repins. That means the chances of your content spreading on Pinterest are very high.

Spreading on Pinterest requires you to generate a small push. After you get the small push, other users will hear about you and see your pin. That results in more repins and your content spreading farther on Pinterest. However, many people struggle to get the small push needed to go viral on Pinterest. Few people have pins that have received over 100 repins let alone 10 repins. I am one of the lucky few who has been able to get one of my pins repinned over 100 times. You may want to get your next pin repinned 100 times or at least get to the 10 repin milestone, and here are five useful methods that will help you with that.

Make your boards specific. A pin on a specific board is seen by a target audience who likes that specific topic. The people in this audience would be very likely to repin your pins on that specific board because it is about a topic they already like.
Pin motivational quotes. Pinstamatic is great for pinning motivational quotes. Most of my repins that got over 100 repins happen to be motivational quotes.
Pin about a variety of topics. On Pinterest, it is okay to extend out of your business. In fact, it is recommended. Pinning about a variety of topics attracts a larger audience of people who will want to repin your pins.
Follow other people. Some of these people will follow you back, and this method has the potential to bring in hundreds of new followers every day. In addition, these people will be more likely to engage with you and share your content since they know you are following them.
Repin other people’s content. If you repin someone else’s content, that person may decide to return the favor by sharing your pins on their account. If you repin 100 people’s pins, and those 100 people returned the favor by repinning one of your pins, then that’s an extra 100 repins that you may have never gotten.

Getting your content to spread on Pinterest will allow you to grow your audience and get more traffic. What are your thoughts on these methods? Do you have any additional methods about getting more repins that you would like to share? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

7 Reasons Why You Need To Schedule Facebook Posts

July 21, 2014 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

When Facebook decided to allow people to schedule posts directly on Facebook’s site, the social media world went crazy. Being able to schedule posts on Facebook’s site meant you no longer needed to use an app like HootSuite to get the job done (HootSuite is still good for most of the other social networks). However, there are not many people who are utilizing Facebook’s scheduling feature. Some people only send posts at the moment, and some of these posts get sent when few people are paying attention to them. Scheduling Facebook posts is super important, and here are seven reasons why that is true.

You can post on Facebook without being on Facebook. Are you going on a family road trip and can’t get access to your computer for the entire day? No problem. You can schedule Facebook posts the night before the road trip so people still get your Facebook posts while you are on the road trip.
You can be more strategic with your posts. This is the part when Facebook insights become very useful. You can use their statistics to see when most of your fans are on Facebook. That means you can send your Facebook posts during the times that most of your fan base will see them.
Your Facebook Page will get more likes. The more posts you send out, the more chances you have of someone clicking the like button. Most of the people who like one of your posts will also like your Facebook Page.
Your Facebook posts will get more engagement. If you are scheduling Facebook posts on a daily basis, people will realize you are active. Some of the people who realize you are active will check your Facebook Page every day for new posts. In addition, by sending out more posts, you also get more chances of someone liking, commenting on, or sharing one of your posts.
You have more time to think before you write. In a world filled with rushing and impatience, some people will rush a Facebook post and write a typo. As you are scheduling your Facebook post, you will have some time to look at what you wrote. That way, you will have a better chances of picking up typos.
You get to learn about what works. If you send out enough Facebook posts, you will learn what resonates well with your audience. Then, you can focus on sending out content that resonates with your audience. As your Facebook posts get hundreds of likes, people will want to learn more about how you got to this stage (maybe through a consultation session).
More people get to see your Facebook posts. One of the worst things Facebook did was preventing most of your fans from seeing your posts. Less than 20% of your fans will see your Facebook post. If you have 10 fans, then only two of those fans saw your post. Bummer, right? If you schedule enough Facebook posts throughout the day, you will be able to account for most, or if you get really lucky, all of your fans. That way, more than 20% of your audience gets to see at least one of your posts. Then, some of the people who liked the post they saw will visit your Facebook Page and like the other posts as well.

Scheduling Facebook posts eliminates the requirement of being on Facebook in order to post on Facebook. Implementing these methods will allow you to be more active on Facebook and grow your audience at the same time! What are your thoughts on these methods? Do you have any additional reasons why you schedule Facebook posts? Please share your thoughts and advice below.