Your Go-To Content Optimization Checklist
Content is the lifeblood of digital marketing. It attracts, engages, and persuades, eventually turning prospects into loyal customers. Content optimization is the process of fine-tuning your content to make it more appealing and actionable. The goal is to improve not only the content’s search engine discoverability, but also its potential for engagement and conversion.
Below we explore the ultimate content optimization checklist for boosting your marketing performance. These steps go hand in hand with the content tips outlined in our Conversion Rate Optimization guide.
How Content Optimization Works
To drive user engagement, content is optimized to resonate with the audience, cater to their needs, spark interest, and motivate them to act. In fact, you’ll appreciate that user experience is a priority right from the top. Content optimization begins with comprehending your audience and their needs, with keyword research providing insights into their interests.
This is the data that guides the subsequent content creation process. Our content optimization checklist will help you draft high-quality copy that is not only compelling, but also structured for easy readability and navigation.
That’s not to say that content optimization ends when you publish the pieces. As you’ll learn from our content optimization checklist, this is a continuous engagement that demands constant monitoring and fine-tuning of your copy. You’ll be using tools like Google Analytics to track the performance of your content and identify possible areas for improvement.
The Content Optimization Checklist
A content optimization checklist outlines the roadmap that you’ll use to maximize your content’s search engine visibility and user engagement. It smoothly integrates into your marketing processes, where it shapes your content creation from both a technical and strategic standpoint.
For instance, in our content optimization checklist, you’ll find a methodical blueprint for keyword research. This is what shows you how to center your content around the terms that resonate with your audience’s searches.
The checklist also emphasizes content quality. It details the technical procedures for not just creating engaging content but also delivering value to your audience.
Our content optimization checklist additionally comes with guidelines for enhancing the user experience. You can follow them to simplify the navigation and keep your content easily readable. Mobile optimization is another focal point of the checklist, as it ensures that your content is readily accessible and perfectly modeled for mobile screens.
You even get a roadmap for distributing content to the largest possible audience. Then to top it all off, the checklist integrates monitoring and analysis schedules, which should help you in tracking your content’s performance.
Keyword Research and Usage
Keyword research is the foundation of content optimization, as it uncovers the keywords that your audience has been using to scan through the web for information, products, or services in your niche. You’ll get clarity on your audience’s interests, queries, and linguistic preferences, along with keywords your competitors are exploiting.
Some of the tools that you could use for the job include Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keyword Generator, Moz Keyword Explorer, or the SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool. These tools generate and assess keyword ideas based on search volume, difficulty, intent, and relevance.
Once you’ve identified keywords, here’s how you should integrate them into the content page for maximum impact:
- Start incorporating your primary keyword early in your content, preferably within the first 100 words.
- Use the keywords in your content titles, headings, body text, meta tags, and URLs.
- Pay attention to the questions prospective buyers are asking on social media and create content around them.
- Avoid keyword stuffing; place keywords within the natural flow of the content.
- Use long-tail keywords to target variations on popular searches.
- Regularly update your keyword strategy based on current trends and audience interests.
- Avoid targeting the same keyword on multiple pages to prevent keyword cannibalization.
- Insert Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords in your content to help Google understand the context.
- Keep the URLs short, descriptive, and include your target keywords.
- Optimize your content for voice search by incorporating conversational keywords and questions.
Quality of Content
For easy readability, your content should maintain clear and concise language, employ active voice and second-person perspective, plus infuse storytelling and emotional appeal, all while avoiding grammatical and spelling errors.
You might also want to make the text scannable by partitioning it with images, videos, charts, headings, subheadings, bullet points, and lists.
Here’s are some guidelines to keep in mind:
- Use tools like Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, or Yoast SEO to check and improve your content readability.
- Use original research and data to add credibility to your content.
- Align the content with your brand’s voice and style guidelines.
- Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues by specifying the “preferred” version of a page.
- Structure content with header tags (H1, H2, etc.)
- Make the content long enough to provide detailed information, but not so extended that it becomes boring.
- Regularly audit your content and remove or update any outdated or low-quality content.
User Experience
Quality content is a critically important part of a seamless and enjoyable on-site experience for your users, enticing them to engage with your brand and ultimately convert.
Here are page design optimization guidelines to provide a great user experience:
- Simplify navigation with clear menus and links that guide users to the information they’re looking for.
- Keep important pages three or fewer clicks away from the homepage.
- Accelerate page loading speeds by optimizing your images, skimming the code, and leveraging a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
- Make the site accessible to people with disabilities. Use alt text with your images, attach transcripts to videos, and facilitate keyboard navigation.
- Use clear calls to action to guide users toward desired actions.
- Capitalize on white space to cut down on avoid clutter and improve readability.
- Implement structured data (Schema.org) to help search engines understand your content.
- Optimize images with descriptive file names, alt tags, and compression.
- Regularly check for and fix broken internal and external links.
- Integrate breadcrumbs for easier navigation.
- Set up a search function for convenient access to information.
- Avoid using intrusive pop-ups or ads.
Mobile Optimization
The point of mobile optimization is to make the on-site experience seamless for mobile users. This is especially critical at a time when mobile accounts for close to 60% of website traffic.
Mobile users need a highly responsive website layout that automatically adjusts to fit the device’s screen size. With a responsive site design in place, make sure you address these other content optimization guidelines for mobile:
- Optimize images, minify code, leverage browser caching, and reduce redirects to increase your mobile site’s loading speed.
- Use larger font sizes, shorter paragraphs, and bullet points to make your content easily readable on a small screen. For even better legibility, try to increase the contrast between your text and background.
- Maintain a touch-friendly design on all elements of your website – including menus, forms, and buttons.
- Since Flash isn’t supported on many mobile devices, use HTML5 for animations.
- Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to be sure your website is mobile-friendly.
- Implement Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for mobile speed optimization.
- Use a viewport meta tag to control the layout on mobile browsers.
Content Promotion and Distribution
The creation of high-quality, optimized content is only half the battle. The other half lies in getting this content in front of the right eyes.
For the best possible reach, we’d advise you to distribute it using an omnichannel content promotion strategy. You should especially prioritize social media, email, and guest blogging.
With email marketing, you get a direct line of communication with your audience. And when you send out those emails, you can expect an open rate of between 30-40% – with the bulk coming from engaged leads. You can even engage email conversion optimization techniques to drive sales directly from your automated messages.
Some of the content promotion guidelines to keep in mind here are:
- Highlight new posts or videos in your email signature to encourage people to check them out.
- Personalize your emails to make the content more relevant and engaging for each subscriber.
- Segment your email list based on subscriber interests, behavior, or demographics to deliver more targeted content.
- Use A/B testing to optimize various email elements – like the call-to-action, layout, or delivery time.
- Include clear and compelling calls-to-action in your emails to guide subscribers on what to do next.
- Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers to maintain high deliverability rates.
Social media, on the other hand, offers a broader audience and more potential for engagement. The platforms to prioritize are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.
While you’re at it, you should follow these principles:
- Collaborate with influencers and other complementary businesses to promote your content.
- Employ paid advertising to boost your content’s reach.
- Regularly share and promote your old content.
- Include social sharing buttons to encourage users to share your content.
- Repurpose your content across different mediums. For example, a podcast episode could become a blog post, or key points from a blog post could inspire a series of tweets.
For collaborations with other publishers, the best content promotion channel would be guest blogging. It gives you the privilege of tapping into other websites’ audiences through content features.
For the best outcome consider:
- Using content syndication to reach a wider audience.
- Repurposing your content into different formats like videos, infographics, podcasts, etc.
- Creating a content calendar to plan your content promotion activities.
- Identifying relevant blogs in your industry that accept guest posts.
- Writing compelling pitches to external publishers, with each outlining your content idea and why it would be valuable to their audience.
- Avoiding promotional or salesy content in your guest post.
Monitoring and Analysis
The final step in the content optimization process is monitoring and analysis. This is where you track the performance of your content to understand what’s working and areas that need improvement.
The likes of Google Analytics are equipped to generate detailed reports on a wide range of content engagement parameters. They show you which pages are attracting traffic, how long visitors are staying, and what actions they’re taking.
Here are some of the performance metrics that you should pay special attention to:
- Pageviews: The total number of pages viewed.
- Unique Pageviews: The number of sessions during which the specified page was viewed at least once.
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of single-page visits.
- Exit Rate: The percentage of exits from your site that occurred out of the total pageviews.
- Average Time on Page: The average amount of time users spend viewing a specific page or screen.
Start Optimizing Your Content for Better Marketing Today!
As you can see, content optimization is an end-to-end process that encompasses the entire creative workflow – from keyword research to content distribution and performance analysis. With the content optimization checklist, you’ll find it easier to not just coordinate every step, but also compose original content that resonates with your audience and achieves your marketing objectives.
If all this sounds like a lot of work, it is. If you don’t have the time or the expertise to optimize your content, the experts at Globe Runner can help. We can fine tune your content and ensure you are making the most out of every visit to your website. Place your content optimization request today!
How to Come Up With Irresistible Topics For Your Content Marketing
Blog posts that make headlines. Viral social media posts. Web series watched at breakneck rates. That’s the power of well-curated content marketing.
But it’s not enough to have Pulitzer Prize-worthy copy and National Geographic-style imagery. Truly tempting content often begins with one thing: topics that are relevant to your target audience.
Choosing the right topics for your content marketing efforts is part art, part science, and these trade secrets are just the boost yours needs to start improving their ROI.
1. Talk about the topical.
You don’t want to talk about trends exclusively, but if there’s a relevant breakout story that’s even semi-related to your brand, it’s worth talking about while it’s timely.
One free tool that will give you endless easy-to-use data is Google Trends. Whether you want to explore the topics that are breaking the internet that week, or search for something related to your business, this is the place to start.
The very top section allows you to enter a search term or topic you’re interested in. From there you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see related topics that might be more niche and of interest to your readership.
You can keep scrolling down the trends.google.com homepage to see recent stories and trends the internet is already consuming.
Just make sure to exercise all possible channels to help disseminate your high competition topics. We’re talking paid advertising, influencer partnerships, and content with high production value.
2. Get niche.
In the same way, long-tail keywords can help you zero in on topics your target audience is searching for, niche topics that are less competitive tend to yield higher results.
Let’s take content marketing vs influencer marketing as an example. The former is a household name – one that established businesses know they must use in order to stay relevant. However, influencer marketing is an emerging frontier where social media brand ambassadors are just beginning to establish themselves.
Point is, choosing to write about a topic that’s hugely relevant for your brand or industry, even if it’s not well-known yet, can put you at the forefront of thought leadership and bring in loads of new subscribers.
3. Pick network-specific topics.
Whether throwing your hat in the meme ring or comparing terminology used on different social media platforms, make sure to keep where you plan to share your content top of mind and create accordingly.
You can also promote the content differently on various networks for a cross-channel attention grab.
4. Repurpose once-popular content.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you had a once off-the-charts piece of content that has since gone dormant, you can likely revive it with newer, more engaging topic phrases.
Whether you republish it on your own site or send it to affiliate sites to remarket it to different audiences, it’s a great way to make your content marketing do double duty without putting in a lot of extra hours.
5. Use content marketing tools.
Remember that you never have to do it all on your own. There are plenty of content marketing tools available to you at low to no cost.
Paid versions give you invaluable insights to see what your audience is searching for, the channels they’re using to find it, and how the search volumes compare over time.
Remember that what you’re not writing about, your competition probably is. Staying ahead of the curve – or at least following along its trajectory- is the best way to ensure your content marketing topics are timely and click-worthy.
Need some help putting pen to paper? Let us do the legwork for you!
Are You Showcasing Your Social Proof?
Trust. It can be built and it can be earned, but it’s rarely instant.
As customers grow more and more wary of brands and businesses they don’t know, gaining their trust upfront is your main marketing objective.
Social proof is your ace in the hole when it comes to influencing visitors and facilitating new relationships. Here’s a high-level overview of what it is, why it’s so valuable, and how to showcase it.
What is Social Proof?
This social and psychological theory has been around since 1984 when Dr. Robert Cialdini coined it in his manifesto, Influence.
In essence, social proof describes the human tendency to “follow the crowd”. Cialdini and marketing mavens understand that, as social creatures, we tend to observe the behaviors and opinions of others, and direct our actions to match, assuming what most people do is the “correct” way to be.
And though you may think of yourself as a truly independent, unique flower, we’re guessing social proof has influenced your own decisions from time to time.
Ever stopped to read a social media update that already has tons of comments and reactions? Or tune in to a new sitcom that’s getting tons of buzz?
Bingo. That’s social proof.
Why is social proof so irresistible? Simple. It validates the user’s interest in your product, service, or piece of content and promises they won’t be wasting time or money by engaging with it.
Where can you use social proof? Easy. Anywhere you have an online presence, from your website to your social media channels and beyond.
Now that you have a sense of what social proof entails, here’s how you can utilize the power of group influence in your own marketing tactics.
1. Go for quantity.
Would you trust an unknown brand that had seven likes or 700? That’s what we thought. Whether looking up recipe ratings or follower counts on your social media pages, customers are looking for signs of your popularity. Focus on increasing these numbers to give your business some off the cuff credibility.
2. Share user-generated content.
Anyone sharing content about your brand deserves thanks, praise, and maybe a small parade. Or, you could acknowledge them by sharing the post with your network. Not only is it a show of appreciation, but it also showcases some serious social proof. That’s because user-generated content is perceived as more genuine and relatable than paid ads or sponsorships.
3. Display reviews and ratings.
You work hard to make sure your customers are satisfied. Once they are, collect and display them on your website, Google Knowledge Panel, Facebook, etc. There’s no better marketing than the praise you collect and show from your peers.
4. Show off your endorsements.
Influencer marketing has come a long way in recent years. The trick with paid-partnerships is to ensure they are authentic. Whether you partner with an industry expert or a respected blogger in your field, ensure the praise is genuine. Your customers are likely to reject anything too “salesy.”
5. Humanize your testimonials.
Without a photo to accompany your testimonials, they’re simply words on a site. Though they still represent your brand well, you need a little more credibility as an unfamiliar brand. Make sure you take every opportunity to personalize them with a photo, location, title, etc.
6. Create case studies.
Customer success stories are huge boons for your brand. Stories capture social proof in a way that’s engaging and relatable. Case studies make your claims concrete and tell potential customers their problems are not only common but also solvable.
7. Offer some authority.
Authority begets authority. Meaning, if your brand is worth its weight in salt, you’ll be able to show other respected companies who are associated with you. Be it a display with all your client logos or an ‘as seen in’ like Globe Runner sports, it gives your brand instant integrity.
There you have it. The social proof is in the pudding. If you’re not already leveraging genuine peer-praise in your marketing strategy, time to turn over the mic to your current customers.
INVENTIVE TACTICS TO DOUBLE YOUR EMAIL LIST
People are wary of email soliciting. Maybe it’s junk mail fatigue, maybe it’s genuine distrust, but on the extreme end, ask for an address and you may as well be requesting their social security number.
Still, we all know companies whose email list numbers in the thousands with impressive open rates to boot. So how do marketers overcome the skepticism and keep subscribers engaged over the long haul?
That, my friend, is today’s aim.
Looking for inventive ways to double your email subscribers? These tools and tricks are designed to do just that.
Why Prioritize List Growth?
You’re still reading so that means you are at least partially invested in growing your email list. Great!
For those of you still on the fence or who need to make a case to the higher-ups, what if we told you that with no email growth strategy in place, you’re likely to lose about half of your list within two years.
According to Hubspot, email marketing databases degrade by about 22.5% every year. Some of your subscribers change companies, others actively unsubscribe part way through the year, and many fed you an inactive yahoo email from the beginning and haven’t logged in since 2007.
We repeat, the time to double your email list is now!
Here are five essential, creative practices to implement starting with your next email campaign.
- Use buyer personas to list segment. You know we’re big proponents of both buyer personas and email segmentation. The two go together as naturally as search marketing and increased sales. Certain users will respond better to certain content. It’s your job to use the demographic information you have about your subscribers to send them pointed emails with information that’s most likely to speak to their specific interests. We also recommend segmenting by action so you know if a reader is more likely to follow a certain CTA or consume particular pieces of content.
- Host an event. Workshops, speaking engagements, and networking events are great ways to bring in fresh potential subscribers. Whether you invite industry leaders, contact social media influencers, or just give out free snacks, there’s no shortage of options to draw a crowd. Simply look within your immediate community to create a killer panel. Or, if you’re like us, consider promoting a cause. In our case, we decided to turn our office into a gallery space, inviting talented local artists to show their work a few times a year. Whatever type of event you host, make sure to use a site like Eventbrite to register guests, send tickets, and capture their emails in the process.
- Offer a guest WiFi. You’ve done it a thousand times at the airport waiting for your plane to board. The security line was a breeze and you now have an hour to kill before takeoff. You shore up appropriate WiFi networks on your laptop and see the Boingo Hotspot or free airport guest WiFi. With the flick of the keyboard you enter your email address, hop online, and never give it a second thought. Similarly, offering a free guest free WiFi option to your patrons or clients who visit your office is a great way to grow your email list without much work. Apps like Gazella make the collection even easier, integrating the collected contacts into platforms like Constant Contact.
- Run a paid ad. Paid search is everywhere these days. It’s a critical part of any digital marketing strategy that can help you knock out all variety of end goals. While most people think it’s designed to increase your web traffic or improve your page views, you can also use it exclusively as an email capture. We’ve seen plenty of clients have great success creating a Facebook paid ad that steered browsers to their email sign-up sheet, effectively doubling their email subscribers in the span of the campaign.
- Go analog. We’re living in a digital world, but don’t underestimate the value of good ‘ol pen and paper. You might try sending out postcards to former customers with a QR code that takes them to your subscription page. Or you could simply create email sign up sheets on rotation at trade shows, your brick and mortar stores, or at the receptionist area of your office.
These email list growth tips only scratch the surface of all the many ways you can increase your subscribers.
Want us to talk you through additional email marketing strategies? Make contact – see you in our inbox!
SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGES YOU NEED TO ACT ON NOW
There’s no such thing as a static social media platform. Like most of the internet, social sites and the algorithms that power them are continuously being updated. Sometimes the changes are sweeping and make our lives easier. Other times they’re hardly noticeable at all, but can still have a huge impact on your social media marketing strategy.
The most recent algorithm changes to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are a mixture of both, but definitely ones your small business needs to act on. Ahead is a recap of what you should be aware of moving forward and how to plan accordingly.
Facebook Compresses Mobile Ad Format
Social media advertising is mission-critical in the pay-to-play world marketers are contending with, and that goes double for ads viewed on mobile devices. Ad format changes on the largest social media network mean social media marketers will need to make their new paid posts even punchier with less space for images and copy.
Last month, a Facebook Business blog announced the compression, stating that as of August 19th mobile News Feed ads would shrink to, “match the look and feel of the new Facebook design introduced earlier this year.“
Now, images and media will be capped at a vertical 4:5 aspect ratio, down from a previously generous 2:3. Copy, which used to show a lengthy seven lines, will now be reduced to a mere 3 lines of primary text before being truncated.
Why the change? According to the same post, Facebook is looking to “drive increased ad effectiveness and make it easier to use the same assets on Facebook News Feed and Instagram feed.” Essentially, this is great for cross-promotion between the two Facebook-owned channels, and not simply about looks.
What businesses need to do: Starting now, you can maximize your Facebook ad potential by making your first three lines of ad text as irresistible as possible, and formatting all your media to fit the predetermined height ahead of time.
LinkedIn Adopts Reaction Buttons
For the last three years, Facebook users have enjoyed emoting via their reaction buttons. Now, LinkedIn is following suit, offering desktop and mobile users the chance to not just “like” a post, but respond using a professionally-appropriate “celebrate,” “love,” “insightful,” and “curious” reaction.
They certainly took their time rolling out this feature. Now that it’s more than just a passing trend, the professional networking platform is hoping the reaction buttons will ultimately help them remain relevant among other social media players and increase overall engagement.
What businesses need to do: Make sure you’re posting regularly on LinkedIn. Include a variety of professional content so you can capitalize on these projected increasing engagement rates.
Instagram Cracks Down on “Offensive” Posts
All businesses want to make sure their Instagram posts and stories are seen by as many target audience eyes as possible. But they will need to be extra cautious to see that what they’re sharing doesn’t border on “inappropriate content.”
Now, even if a post doesn’t technically violate the network’s Community Guidelines, content that is too sexually suggestive or otherwise offensive will still have a drastically reduced reach. According to one Facebook Newsroom article, the demotion will limit, “those types of posts from being recommended on our Explore and hashtag pages.”
For the time being, your Instagram Stories bar will not be subject to the same problematic content management strategies, but best to steer clear anyway.
What businesses need to do: Before you post, verify that nothing you’re putting out into the world can be considered clickbaity or fake news-worthy. You should also be very careful about sharing any offensive memes (especially if they or the comments contain hate speech) or content that can be perceived as sexualized. In other words, don’t even attempt to push the limits. It’s also a good idea to review the “borderline content” section of the Instagram Help Center.
As the saying goes, “the only constant is change.” But don’t spend too much time mourning the past. If you need a hand to help your social media content roll with the changes just make contact.
LOCALIZED SOCIAL MARKETING + SEO POST GOOGLE+ SHUTDOWN
Logged on to your Google + page lately? If so you might have noticed something different – nothing at all. Though the shuttering of this once highly promising social media platform wasn’t a total surprise you might have been anticipating more time together – and you’re not alone.
When Google first announced the shutdown we were told we would have until August 2019 to say goodbye. But security bugs coupled with reported, “low usage” forced Google’s hand. Earlier this year they revised that date to April 2nd.
And close it down they did. But what now? If Google + has been a component of your SEO and social media marketing plan you may be looking for a new way to get in front of your target audience.
Here’s how localized social marketing strategies are picking up where Google + left off and helping businesses move onward and upward.
How will the Google + Shutdown impact your SEO + Social?
Google and search marketing are one and the same, so it stands to reason that a social networking product under this all-seeing search engine would make SEO soar, right? Wrong.
The good news is that you haven’t just been doing it wrong this whole time. Poor user adoption across the board meant that posts didn’t really amount to much in the way of increased traffic or SEO benefits. That paired with a security breach that compromised the accounts of more than 500k businesses left the writing on the wall.
More good news – even if you were active on the low-performing social site, posts from your other social media profiles have been and will continue to (literally) pull rank. In other words, you really shouldn’t see much of a dip in your search rankings.
Remember that social signals have always had minimal impact on SEO while things like successful website development and backlinks from other credible sites to it count for a lot!
In the wake of this atypical Google blunder, be sure to go back through your site and other profiles to remove the G+ link and icon. Staying goodbye to G+ shouldn’t sink your SEO ranking, but dead links still can.
Google My Business (GMB) and Adwords pages will also not be impacted but hit those heavily for a nice counterbalancing effect.
Localized Social Marketing
Fear not. Especially if you have more than one location or run a multi-store brand platform like Facebook makes it easier than ever to communicate with your local audience in the wake of the Google + shutdown.
SOCi, a social media and reputation management platform, defines localized social marketing as, “marketing efforts that focus on building a local presence for a business, leveraging locally-driven communication channels to reach the specific local communities it serves.” The idea is to turn things like social reviews and ads into “two-way engagement channels.”
According to findings published in a recent SOCi report, “more than 70 percent of brand engagement on social is happening on location Pages.”
Setting up local Facebook Pages for your various locations makes capturing reviews a breeze and gives local leaders a chance to answer questions in more personal and thorough ways than your corporate team can.
In the end, it may not be as tearful a Google+ goodbye as you’d envisioned, but that’s ok. Where Google has closed a door, social media has opened a window.
Want help improving your SEO or setting up a localized social marketing strategy? Let us take your brand beyond.
SCRUB UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BIOS FOR INCREASED CONVERSIONS
Social media users are a judgmental bunch. In the literal blink of an eye, they’ll subconsciously size you up based largely on your bio. How quickly are we talking? About a tenth of a second. And these first impressions can be hard to shake.
If you’ve been writing your social media bios as an afterthought, time to start treating them like the valuable pieces of real estate they are. Here are seven ways to scrub the images, copy, and links in your bios to increase your conversions and strengthen your branding.
Images
1. Use a hi-res profile image
In social media marketing, a quality profile image is critical. True, some platform’s profile pictures are super small but that doesn’t mean they’re any less important.
Your profile picture is the first place a user is likely to look when visiting you on social media, and one of the last things they’ll remember about your company.
According to one scientific study, online photo first impressions influence perception so strongly that they usually remain even after interacting with you or your brand.
When uploading your profile picture, make sure it’s free of pixelation and the same across all your other social media channels. Even for small spaces like Instagram, hi-res images or renderings of your logo or leadership work best.
2. Take advantage of your header image
Some social networks like Twitter and Facebook have header images located behind your profile picture. This is where you can give followers a snapshot of your company’s personality, products, and services, or current sales and specials. There’s really no limit to what you can do with this highly visible piece of property.
Same rules as above apply here, too. Make sure the image – be it photo or graphic – is clear, high-quality, and properly formatted to fit the space.
As for what to cover on your cover, don’t be afraid to get creative! We’ve seen clients have great success advertising the following on their header images:
- An inspirational quote from a historical figure or CEO.
- A candid photo of their team.
- New individual products or an entire line of them.
- Giveaways, networking events, industry awards.
- Seasonal greetings or work anniversaries.
- Fan acknowledgment for hitting 10K likes.
- Testimonials or reviews.
- Sales or limited time offers.
- Percentage of each sale or annual profit that goes to charity.
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but the actual words count for a lot, too. Next up: how to make those count.
Words
1. Use keywords
What modern business isn’t interested in improving their search results? Keywords are your brand’s most direct way to convene with the search engines and increase your ranking.
Thing is, your social media bios have much stricter character limits than other pieces of content you create. So while a couple of key terms are important, your bio still needs to read as a human wrote it. As with all other mediums, keyword stuffing is a no-no.
One way to give your social bio keywords extra staying power is to include your location. For instance, it’s no accident our Instagram reads, “Digital marketing agency in Addison, Texas.” It’s a great way to introduce yourself to local potential customers.
2. Develop your bios
Your bio is born from concise copy that tells social media users: who you are, what you do, your contact info, your USP (unique selling proposition), how you can help them, and what you want them to do (your CTA).
Tools like Bio Gen — bio generator for social networks and Designer Bio Generator™ can help you get a skeleton bio pulled together, but you may want to add some personal flare to help with the overall impact.
3. Include CTAs
Speaking of CTAs, it’s great if your profiles have their own specific calls that change and correspond to different marketing initiatives throughout the year.
Some of our favorite galvanizing CTAs include:
- Expressing what you want: “Click the link in our bio for a free consultation”
- Asking for shares: “Tag us + #brandedhashtag to be featured”
- Promoting sales: “Shop our Summer sale”
- Highlighting a contest: “Caption this photo for your chance to win!”
Now that you’ve asked them what to do, time to tell them where to go!
Links
1. Utilize different links for different marketing goals
Many companies simply link to their website. Be it a specific landing page like your contact page or one you’ve created for incoming social media visitors, remember to keep the link updated in your social profile. You can even use a UTM code or bit.ly link to help you track the number of visitors you’re getting from your social media profiles.
Other popular links include:
- Updates about product launches.
- Email sign-ups for webinars.
- Articles written about your business or your latest YouTube video.
- Event registration pages for speaking engagements or networking events.
2. Offer promo codes
Followers always appreciate a little extra incentive to take them from socializing to making a sale. If your budget allows for it, consider including a small promotional code in your bio. These types of online coupon codes are known conversion drivers. Bonus: they also double as conversion trackers! Just make sure to create a unique code for each of your profiles so you can more accurately account for the increased traffic.
Take it from us, your bio is the beginning of your relationship with your followers. Make sure it starts off on a good foot with the best possible social media bio.
Want a social media professional to take a stab at your bios? Just say the word?
SOCIAL POSTING: WHAT’S TOO MUCH AND WHAT’S TOO LITTLE?
Posting on social media takes Goldilocks-like sensibilities. No, we’re not suggesting that your social media strategy is child’s play. In fact, having a well-developed social media presence is a critical part of running a successful business in the digital age.
Instead, what social media experts prescribe is a not-too-much, not-too-little approach to running your social channels.
So how do you achieve that “just right” sweet spot when posting on social media? That’s what we’re about to unpack.
General Rules for Posting on Social Media
Every business is different. In fact, let’s make that rule #1. Keep it in mind as you continue reading.
What do we mean by that?
Start with these tips and times as a baseline, but make sure you’re checking your insights and analytics regularly to see how your particular audience compares. Make adjustments so you’re posting the right kinds of content when they’re most active
The next two rules may seem obvious. But they’re worth repeating.
1. Post consistently. The more consistently you post, the less the frequency matters. That may sound like a bold statement to make in a post that’s all about how often you should post on social media, but we stand by it. Why? Because the absolute worst thing you can do is give your social media followers the silent treatment. It’s the equivalent of ghosting. Better to post at a pace you can actually manage without burnout.
2. Make sure your content is high quality. Again, posting too much won’t be an issue if the content you’re sharing is truly high quality. The more engaging your social media posts are the more likely your followers are to take notice.
How Often to Post Per Platform
Before we launch into the specifics of how often to post on different social media channels, we’d like to take an opportunity to give some sage advice.
Don’t try to be a star on each one.
Your audience is likely to be more active and engaged on one of two platforms. Put your effort there.
That’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t have a profile on each of the five major players. (You absolutely should.) However with your limited marketing resources we recommend focusing on one or two or hiring a digital marketing agency to post for you.
Here’s how often to post on each of the most popular social media sites:
- Facebook: HubSpot recommends posting on the king of all social media platforms 1-2 times per day. Of course, some of that depends on the size of your follower count. Typically, oversaturating them with content will cause your Facebook audience to tune you out, hide your posts, or worse, give you the old unfollow.
- Twitter: Life moves fast on this microblogging platform. Most experts say posting between 5-10 times a day is the best way to get in front of the majority of your audience. Check your analytics to see when you have the most eyes on your posts and try to spread them out accordingly.
- Pinterest: The social media buffs at Buffer recommend posting on Pinterest up to 30 times a day. If that sounds like a lot to you, start small. Once you get in the habit of posting 5-10 pins a day you can work your way up for more exposure.
- LinkedIn: By their own admission daily posting on LinkedIn tends to yield the best results. Remember to keep the content business professional – think case studies, industry news, company milestones, etc.
- Instagram: Posting to your feed 1-2 times per day is best for the ‘gram. If you have additional content to share, consider making updates to your stories to keep from overwhelming your followers.
When it comes to social media, you don’t want to seem like you’re yelling or whispering. Talking in a consistent, conversational tone will help you keep a pace that encourages all variety of Goldilocks type followers to hang on your every word.
Want us to do the posting for you? Let’s chat!
HOW TO SECURE SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND AMBASSADORS
Brand ambassadorship is the new celebrity endorsement. Today’s social media influencers are the movie stars of the internet, and with thousands or millions of followers hanging on their every post, they’re a potent marketing outlet.
You may have many reasons for aligning your business with a social media brand ambassador. Perhaps you’re looking to increase your sales. Maybe your branding strategy is all about boosting brand recognition among millennials.
In any event, joining forces with social media influencers and ambassadors can elevate your brand awareness and boost your reputation as well as your bottom line. But first, you have to secure them. Here’s how.
Types of Social Media Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors are creatives who post content that elevates your brand. Be it in videos, a mention in their stories, review of your product, or promotion, the goal is to get more eyes on your brand and help you tap new segments of your target audience.
For the purposes of this piece we’ll cover two main types.
The first is known as a social media influencer. These are typically users who have collected an impressive number of followers. In recent years, influencer marketing has become big business, and it can be easy to be dazzled by large follower counts.
The truth is, almost anyone can be a brand ambassador. That is, so long as they’re actively engaging with your target audience (and vice versa). Don’t underestimate the power of a small but captivated audience.
Which brings us to our next type of ambassador: your employees.
Think about it. You have this arsenal of people who are already loyal to your brand. Most of them come with a well-established audience of followers who are already invested in the content they share. If you’re not already leveraging your employees as brand ambassadors you’re missing out on a huge untapped market.
How to On-Board Brand Ambassadors
Ok, we promised you a how-to and we aim to deliver.
Before making the ask you’ll want to review their follower demographics and make sure they match your specified target audience. If all seems like a fit, reach out online or via email.
Once on board you’ll want to make sure they’re genuinely excited about your brand and give them as much context as possible. This means background about your company, your core values, campaign goals, product specifics, etc. The more familiar they are the better.
You also need to make sure you discuss in detail how they’ll represent your brand. Have a contract in place that specifies the duration or number of posts with a clause that you’ll reexamine your working relationship after reviewing the results of the campaign. Also, state any content they post is subject to approval and designate an individual on your team to give the all clear.
When working with employee brand ambassadors it works a little different.
Sure, you could just throw out a blanketed catch all requesting employees to share about an achievement or company update. However, you’ll be much more effective if you:
1. Make a direct request.
Keep a close eye on your staff to determine which have the most outgoing, gregarious personalities. They’re likely to have a similar social media presence. The more seen you make them feel, the more likely they are to want to share on behalf of the brand.
2. Incentivize your employees.
A little employee recognition can go a long way. Staying attuned to their needs at and outside work can help increase their advocacy. Whether you’re inspiring via friendly competition or everyone’s favorite, paid time off, be sure to compensate and recognize their efforts.
3. Create company–wide hashtags.
The more clever and creative they are, the more likely your employees are to use them.
4. Invite their feedback.
Everyone likes to feel seen and heard. Let your employees know you want their buy-in by inviting their feedback. You may be surprised to hear new channel recommendations or marketing ideas that you hadn’t previously thought of!
Remember, the goal of any effective social media partnership is to build an enthusiastic community that actively engages with your brand. Influencers and ambassadors are like a direct line to potential customers. Approach them right and you’ll all but secure more sales for your brand.
Want us to sweet-talk them for you? Simply make contact.