Entrepreneurs Need to Stop Doing These 10 Things, Right Now

Being an entrepreneur is hard. It's really hard. There isn't a playbook, instructional manual, video or biography that can possibly provide you with enough information to make it easy.

 

While the difficulty is just part of the deal, there are a number of things that founders often find themselves entangled in that, without question, make it harder. Let’s take a look at a list of the things that you, as a founder, need to stop doing -- right now.

 

1. Lying to yourself or others about your traction

 

It’s awesome if you’ve had 70,000 downloads for your new app in the first three months or that you generated over $1 million last year in revenue. It’s not awesome if you only have 2,000 monthly active users or actually lost $2 million overall. These are numbers that you are hiding behind, lying both to yourself and everyone else as you shout them from the mountaintop. At some point, you’ll begin to believe them -- then you’re in serious trouble.

 

2. Focusing on too many things at once

 

Guess what? You only have 100 percent of your time to split up between your professional activities. If you do too many different things simultaneously, you’re just splitting up your 100 percent into pieces that ultimately resemble slivers of poor performance. Instead, spend 100 percent of your time and focus on becoming excellent at one thing.

 

3. Working yourself to death

 

The concept that you need to work grueling hours to be an entrepreneur is not a rule, it’s a choice. Technology has advanced to the point where you can get inexpensive help with literally anything. If you’ve chosen not to learn to use the wealth of outsourcing and automation opportunities that would allow you to have a life and a normal night of sleep, that’s your fault and nobody else’s.

 

4. Following shiny objects

 

There’s no quicker way to drown your new enterprise than chasing too many opportunities. Yes, it’s in our nature as entrepreneurs to notice new opportunities and look for solutions to them, but you must remain focused on the task at hand. The best entrepreneurs in the world remain unshakably focused, and you must too.

 

5. Building terrible "lean" products

 

The "minimum viable product" (MVP) concept has a lot of value, in theory, but doesn’t always translate to production-level quality. So stop using the lean startup methodology as an excuse to put out crappy, underdeveloped products. You’re only wasting your own time.

 

6. Using the word "I"

 

Humility is important, particularly when your company begins to grow and bring on outside team members. There is no better way to disenfranchise them than to take credit for everything that comes out of the door. Stop being arrogant and replace “I” with “we.”

 

7. Building companies with no revenue

 

If I hear one more pitch where the entrepreneur says, “we’re not worrying about revenue until X happens,” I’m going to poke my eyes out. You’re starting a business, not a hobby, and the likelihood of you building the next Snapchat is fantastically low. Instead, create something that provides users with this magical thing called “value.” If you’re lucky (or smart) people will be willing to pay for it.

 

8. Asking investors to sign non-disclosure agreements

 

If you’re doing this, you’re screaming, “I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing”, which doesn’t typically bode well for potential investment. Here’s the thing, investors are investing, not stealing ideas and building companies. On top of that, it can take quite a long time to build your brand and networks as an investor and I can assure you that if they were indeed stealing ideas, it would fly through the startup community like wildfire.

 

If you’ve found the secret to creating nuclear fusion and are truly worried about it, be sure to work only with known and respected investors.

 

9. Thinking that you're the only company in your space

 

When you claim to not have competition, you’re either being dishonest or ignorant. Here’s the problem: competitors aren’t always direct replicas of your business -- think Walgreens and CVS -- but can be other larger companies with potential interest in your space -- Apple or Google -- that have huge amounts of cash to throw at the problem you’re trying to solve.

 

10. Building photo sharing and mobile dating apps

 

Sorry to break your heart, but those ships have sailed. You need to stop building companies that are incrementally, or 10 percent, better than what already exists. Instead, be creative and build your business around new innovations, ideas and even industries.

 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243324

 

Google Plans to Index Tweets in Real Time: How This Could Impact Your SEO

 

Years ago, it was commonplace to find real-time tweets in Google Search results. Twitter and Google had inked a deal that gave the search giant access to the social network's data stream. In turn, Google would display tweets in search results in real time. But that agreement expired, and in the middle of 2011, Google lost access to Twitter's data stream. 

 

Now, nearly four years later, the gang's back together.
Recently, Google and Twitter announced that they are working together again to index tweets as soon as they are posted.

 

How should a marketer to react to this news? In this post, I will focus on how you can benefit from the new deal between Google and Twitter. You will need to be active on Twitter to obtain these benefits, but I will include some tips for those of you who are just getting started -- you can still benefit from this development if you're doing the right things. The good news is that it will take some time for Google to implement changes based on the new data they will be getting from Twitter, so you have some time to get ready. But the sooner you get started, the better.

 

So let's dive into what the deal actually is and learn how you can take advantage of it.

 

What's the Deal With This New Deal?

 

Basically, this deal gives Google real-time access to tweets via a data feed, commonly called the Twitter Firehose. While the agreement seems to be in effect already, the two companies are saying only that it will take effect in Google Search sometime in the first half of 2015. The reason it will take some time to implement is that Twitter needs to figure out how to prep the data for Google, and Google needs to look at this data stream and decide what they want to do with it. However, one thing we know they will do is increase the number of tweets that they are indexing. What that means is that your tweets could start showing up in the search results.

 

Google actually does show some tweets in its search results today, but it's only a very small portion of what's on Twitter. My company, Stone Temple Consulting, recently did a study of 133,000 tweets to see how Google indexes tweets, and what we found is that Google indexes less than 8% of all the tweets we tested.

 

 

That's not a high level of indexation at all. To make matters worse, it also appears that Google is quite slow to index tweets, as you can see in the chart below:

 

 

Currently, that means tweets have little chance of getting indexed. In fact, the people whose tweets were most likely to be indexed, according to our study, had much higher than average followings. For people who are just starting out on Twitter, chances are that the indexation rate is near zero.

 

The new deal between Google and Twitter may well change all that. It's hard to predict just how many more tweets Google will index, but you can count on it being a significant change -- otherwise doing this deal makes no sense for Google.

 

As a result, you may have an opportunity to use Twitter to increase your presence in Google's SERPs. However, remember that Google will need a few months to implement changes to leverage the Twitter data feed, so don't expect instant results.

 

How Will Google Choose Which Tweets to Index?

 

Google has made no statements about what their plans are, so we don't know for sure. But, based on their history, we figure that Google is going to work hard to find the tweets that offer the most value to their audience. They will also most likely implement strong anti-spam measures.

 

While the new Twitter data feed will be valuable to them, frankly, it's an add-on. They will be conservative in what they allow into the results, and they will only include things that they have a very high degree of confidence are not spam.

 

As a consequence of that, trying to game this new arrangement will likely be very difficult to do. Google is going to look for signals that certain tweets have greater value. Here are the types of signals that could be available to them:

1. Links from third party web sites to the tweets. (This signal is already available to them today.)
2. Links from third party web sites to a user's profile. (This signal is already available to them today.)
3. How many times a tweet is retweeted, and by whom. They may get this info directly from Twitter, or they may use their own means to determine it. (This will be new data for them.)
4. How many times a tweet is favorited, and by whom. They may get this info directly from Twitter, or they may use their own means to determine it. (This will be new data for them.)

I don't see how this deal makes sense for Google unless they get the info on points 3 and 4 above, or at least number 3. This would mean that Google can use retweet data, and the knowledge of who is performing the RTs to determine which tweets have the most value. This is the source of where I see significant potential value for companies and publishers.

 

Maximize your engagement on Twitter, and you are sending out signals that your tweeted content is valuable. So how do you get more engagement?

 

How Should You Maximize Engagement on Twitter?

 

This was the subject of another study my company did recently on Twitter engagement. This particular study focused on what factors within your Twitter content cause increases in retweets and favorites. By far the most significant factor was the use of images in your tweets:

 

 

Here you can see that your chances of getting at least one retweet are more than doubled for most low and moderate social authority accounts. That's quite a significant difference. Our data also showed that you can also get five to nine times as many total retweets by including images. That's a big deal!

 

Other factors that matter, though not quite as much as images, were the use of hashtags and implementing longer tweets. Factors that mattered less were time of day, including links to content off of Twitter, or mentions of others.

 

While the above info can definitely help you optimize your own presence, you can't forget the importance of developing relationships on Twitter. Focusing on key friendships and relationships with influencers is a big key to success, especially if your presence on the platform is not currently that strong. 

 

Imagine someone with a highly influential account retweeting your most important content. This could be gold for you, as it can make Google aware of the content very quickly. The influencer's tweet with the link to your content may appear in search results and help expose it to much wider audiences. Of course, this may also result in more links to your content as well.

 

Even if Google does not get information in the Twitter data feed that allows it to understand who is retweeting whom, Google could still use link data to better understand whose profiles are most important. Then, they can place more value on their tweets, and place them within their index, driving traffic and exposure to that tweet. If it contains a link to your content, your traffic and exposure could go up.

 

Summary

 

Will this fundamentally alter the digital landscape? No, but it does mean that a strong presence on Twitter will have more value than it did before. To capitalize on this shift, do the following:

1. Increase your time invested in Twitter.
2. Create engaging content that people will want to retweet and favorite.
3. Build relationships with others who will help amplify your content.
4. Make sure to build relationships with influencers whose tweets are more likely to get indexed by Google.
5. Watch the indexation of your tweets grow while you build your own influence on the platform.

As the full partnership takes effect, we may discover other ways to optimize our Twitter strategies for search, but until then, preparing for the shift using the steps above is a wise move.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-twitter-indexing-tweets-data

 

LinkedIn Marketing: 8 Huge Benefits and 8 Awesome Tips to Master It

Ae you using LinkedIn as a platform to market your business? Do you need convincing about its benefits and want some tips to get started?

 

If you’re a B2B company LinkedIn is an absolute must, but that’s not to say a B2C company can’t achieve success too. LinkedIn offers a unique platform to build brand awareness amongst a targeted professional audience.

 

QuickSprout have put together this infographic showing the benefits of LinkedIn and some tips on how to implement your strategy.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2015/02/17/linkedin-marketing-8-huge-benefits-and-8-awesome-tips-to-master-it/

 

How to Write an Irresistible Headline

Let’s start with a fundamental question: How are posts shared?

 

It’s not the blog post, tool, or resource that gets shared. That might be what motivates the person who is sharing it, but all that ends up getting shared is the headline. The headline is what you share with your subscribers, it’s what people see in search results, and it’s what gets passed around

.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a good headline is going to help your traffic prospects.

 

What’s less obvious is that sometimes the best way to come up with an idea is to start with the headline. Here’s why: If you start with the resource, you might end up putting a lot of time into it before you realize that there’s no way to summarize it with an irresistible headline. This is a lot like the death sentence most products face if they don’t have an “elevator pitch” on which to build.

 

 

What Makes a Good Headline?

 

According to a study published in The Guardian, these changes help your headline’s click-through rate:1

• Headlines with 8 words do 21% better than average.
• Using a hyphen or colon will add 9% to your CTR.
• Thumbnails and images boost clicks by 27%, so use them on every platform you can.
• List posts tend to do better. They do even better if the number of list elements is odd instead of even. In fact, odd-numbered posts do 20 percent better than even-numbered posts. I suspect, however, that “10” is an exception to this rule.
• Headlines that end with a question mark do better according to this study. On top of that, a university study has also found that question headlines do better. They also discovered that question headlines did even better if they referenced the reader with “you” or “your,” as opposed to rhetorical questions or other types of questions.
• Headlines that end with three exclamation points get twice as many clicks as headlines with any other punctuation!!! Obviously, you can do this too much!!! You’ll start to lose your credibility after a while!!! But if you’re going to use an exclamation point, you might as well use three instead of one!!!

 

What Do the Top Blogs Do?

 

Using a script, Startup Moon scraped several blogs and organized the posts from most to least shared on social networks. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the most shareable headlines, but it’s probably a good indication that these posts attracted more traffic than usual. Posts in the top 20% tended to use the following tactics:

• Startup Moon was looking at tech blogs, but some of the most successful posts used words like “kill,” “fear,” “dark,” “bleeding,” and “war.” It looks like violent language gets attention, even when the subject isn’t about violence at all.
• The negative spin on a post tends to do better. Words like “without,” “no,” and “stop” showed up in a lot of the top posts. A study by Outbrain reached a similar result. They found that the negative superlatives “never” and “worst” performed 30% better than average and 59% better than positive superlatives. I’d bet that this all comes down to the human bias called loss aversion. Even when the outcome is the same, we pay more attention when the outcome is framed as avoiding a loss instead of gaining something.
• Obviously, people like seeing numbers in headlines. But it’s not just list posts that do this. Numbers of any kind apparently add credibility to headlines by adding specificity. Bigger numbers also tend to do better because they make things sound more dramatic. Use digits to represent numbers, not words. Time units also help, probably because they indicate exactly how much time it will take to learn something new. Finally, it’s best if the headline starts with the number.
• Guides do very well. Using words like “introduction,” “beginner’s guide,” “in 5 minutes,” and “DIY” will help your CTR.
• Piggybacking on big brands and hot topics also helps, even when the articles are only using those brands or topics metaphorically to make a comparison with something very different.
• A few random words also seemed to help: smart, surprising, science, history, hacks/hacking/hackers, huge/big, critical.
• The study also found that these words seem to hurt: announcing, wins, celebrates, grows.

 

Finally, if you want better headlines, your content needs to be built on a broader base of subjects and topics. This is where you look for inspiration from the top brands and widen your content strategy to include as many themes and ideas related to your industry as you can.

 

In another study, Ripenn analyzed 2,616 headlines on sites known for their ability to elicit clicks: BuzzFeed, UpWorthy, ViralNova, and Wimp. Here’s what they recommend as a result of their findings:

• Reference current trends, celebrities, and popular movies but with a unique spin on them.
• Inject headlines with curiosity. Elicit an interest, but don’t give it all away in the title.
• Use emotional words.
• Use action words. This is backed up by Dan Zarrella’s research on Twitter click-through rates. More adverbs and verbs will help CTR, while more nouns and adjectives will hurt it. We like to hear stories about things that are being done or learn how to do things. We don’t like stories about things just sitting there.
• Make bold claims.
• Write relatable, human headlines, and don’t get too formal.

 

Working together with Ripenn on that study, BufferApp was able to discover that these were some of the most popular phrases in successful headlines:

 

Image via BufferApp

Image via BufferApp

 

What If You Just Want to Sell?

 

While these are great tactics for sparking interest in a subject, many of them will backfire if you’re trying to target users who are already looking for something specific. Several case studies from ContentVerve at Unbounce demonstrate that, when it comes to landing pages:

• Question titles almost always perform worst. (“Need a Free MP3 Player?”)
• Loss-aversion titles tend to come in second unless there is a very clear thing people are trying to avoid. (“Don’t Waste Money on Expensive Mp3 Converters”)
• Titles expressing a very clear benefit tend to do best. (“Get Your Free YouTube Converter”)

 

The business of writing headlines for landing pages is very different from the business of writing headlines for blog posts. With landing pages, you’re trying to capture the attention of people who are already looking for something specific. Clever headlines just force them to think harder about what you’re offering.

 

With blog posts, on the other hand, you’re usually trying to elicit interest in a subject.

 

Over to You

 

Think carefully about which goal you’re trying to accomplish before you write your headline. In fact, this will probably depend on the platform. You’ll usually want to write more creative headlines for platforms like Facebook and Twitter, while you will often want to use more straightforward headlines for paid search or email.

 

It all comes down to the question of serendipitous discovery versus goal-oriented search.

 

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/how-to-write-a-headline/

 

36 Tried-and-True Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

There are lots of things you need to do to have a successful blog. Not only do your posts need to be well-written, helpful, and relevant to your target audience, but you've also got to make sure you're promoting them correctly so they get in front of people who could become your fans -- and maybe even your customers.

 

Luckily, you have many creative options when it comes to promoting your blog content.

 

In the infographic below from ReferralCandy, we hear from over 40 marketing experts about their favorite blog promotion tactics -- everything from relationship building to email segmentation to social media. Check it out.

 

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blog-promotion-tactics

 

How to Get More Likes on Your Facebook Page

Every brand on Facebook is on Facebook for one reason -- to (eventually) get more business. But getting more business from Facebook means different things to different types of businesses. Different brands will have different objectives, such as driving in-store sales, increasing online sales, launching a new product, building awareness, or promoting a mobile app.

 

Regardless of the objective, there are a few steps that happen before Facebook fans can turn into real business. You have to first build an audience on Facebook, then drive inbound traffic to your website, then turn that traffic into qualified leads, and then nurture those leads into customers.

This post is all about the very first step in this whole process: building an audience of fans who actually have an interest in what your company sells. If you recently set up your Facebook Page or could simply use a few pointers on how to get more Facebook Likes, this post is for you.

 

 

How to Get More Facebook Likes

 

1) Fill out your Facebook Page with searchable information. 

 

To grow your number of Facebook fans, every section of your page should include content that's relevant and helpful, but also searchable. Remember: All of the content on your page will be indexed by search engines, helping you attract more Fans to your page.

 

By no means should you should go on a keyword-stuffing spree -- but you should spend time optimizing each section of your page with keywords appropriate for your business.

 

For example, once you’ve created your Facebook Page, make sure the About section of your page includes:

• An overview of what your business has to offer
• A link to your website
• Any other information that will help prospects understand your business better

2) Include Facebook Like Boxes on your website and blog.

 

Making your Facebook Page as discoverable as possible includes promoting your Facebook presence using the marketing channels you already have, and removing any barriers for existing contacts to like your page. 

 

If you have a website or blog, use Facebook’s various social plugins to get people to 'Like' your page without having to go over to Facebook.com.

 

While Facebook's Like Button allows users to like individual pieces of content on the web and share them on Facebook, the Like Box is designed only for Facebook Pages. The Like Box is a great way to leverage social proof to amplify your page. It displays your page's number of Likes along with the faces of some of your Facebook fans.
 

3) Invite existing contacts to Like your page.

 

Chances are, you already have friends, family, and existing customers who would be more than willing to connect with your business on Facebook. All you need to do is ask. Whether in person, via email, or via Facebook, try asking for Likes and positive reviews. Just be cautious about over-promoting to uninterested connections.
 

You can also encourage existing connections to become fans by making it more likely that they'll see a suggestion on Facebook to like your page. How? You'll have to upload a list of emails to Facebook, and those from that list who are on Facebook will be made more likely to see a suggestion to like your page in places like "Recommended Pages." Your contacts who aren't on Facebook won't see this suggestion.
 

To upload a list of email contacts through Facebook, open the "Build Audience" menu (located at the top right of your Facebook Page) and select "Invite Email Contacts."
 

From there, you can upload a maximum of 7,000 contacts per day per page -- and a maximum of 5,000 contacts at a time.
 

4) Invite employees to Like your page.

 

People are more likely to Like pages that already have some sort of following, and your employees can help your business build its initial numbers. After all, they are your strongest and most effective brand advocates.
 

Ask them to like the official Facebook Page. Then, encourage them to share, Like, and comment on the content your team posts on Facebook, too. Employees who really want to share the love might include a link to your Facebook Page in their email signatures or on their personal social media profiles.
 

5) Incorporate Facebook into your offline communication channels.

 

Have a physical storefront? Think about ways to encourage patrons to become Facebook fans. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Place stickers in your front windows promoting your page's name.
• Include your Facebook URL on your receipts.
• Run a promotion where customers who become Facebook fans on the spot get small discounts.

Market your business offline? Include links to your Facebook Page and other social media profiles on printed ads, flyers, coupons, catalogs, business cards, and direct mail assets.
 

6) Cross promote on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

Add a link to your Facebook Page on your business's Twitter and LinkedIn profiles (and your personal profile, for that matter). Tweet about your Facebook Page occasionally to encourage your Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections to stay in contact with you on another network.
 

Add your Twitter link to your Facebook Page, and occasionally tweet about your Facebook Page. Don’t stop with Twitter and Facebook; you could also cross-promote on LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, etc. Just be sure that your cross promotions are sparing and strategic -- you don't want to spam the other audiences that you've worked so hard to develop.
 

7) Post valuable content.

 

The best way to increase your following on Facebook is by treating your fans like people -- and that means consistently delivering content that is valuable to them. Delivering value really comes into play with the content you create and share with your fans, and how you interact with them.
 

It's all about building long-term relationships with your Facebook fans. They might not remember one individual post to Facebook, but if they notice you consistently publish high quality, helpful, and relevant posts to Facebook, they'll think of you as a valuable resource.
 

So, how do you know what to publish? If you’re in tune with your buyer personas, you probably have a good idea what types of content your ideal customers like. If not, or if you just need some inspiration, consider spending a week taking note of the types of content in your own News Feed that compels you click, comment, or share. What inspired you? Use your observations to inspire future posts.
 

8) Be active.

 

Getting more Facebook Likes isn't just about profile optimization and an initial push. To continue growing steadily, you need to maintain an active, ongoing presence.
 

Not only does this mean posting educational, insightful content on a regular basis, but it also means monitoring your presence and interacting with your fans. Ask questions, answer questions, and participate in discussions with those posting on your page. Find, follow, and build relationships with others in your industry. Create a presence worth following.
 

9) Use Facebook Ads to expand your reach.

 

Growing your Facebook Likes organically is the best way to drive engagement and, ultimately, convert fans into customers. But if you have the budget for it, incorporating some paid advertising into your Facebook strategy can help augment the hard work you're already putting in.
 

Facebook offers a type of ad called a "Page Like Ad," which contains a CTA suggesting that users Like your Facebook Page. These ads can appear in users' News Feeds or in the ad column on the right-hand side of their web browser when they're on Facebook. Here's what a Page Like Ad looks like on a mobile News Feed:
 

Image Credit: Facebook

 

If you’ve exhausted your existing contacts and want to reach people who don’t know about your page yet, but would be interested in hearing from you, you can use Facebook’s granular targeting capabilities to reach your ideal buyer persona(s) and grow your audience.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/get-more-facebook-likes
 

The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Checklist Every Newbie Must Follow

Are you just starting out on social media as a platform to market your business? Are you unsure about what you should be doing in order to be a success?

 

Take a look at these handy checklists from Andrea Vahl to see how you are getting along. There’s one for Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.

 

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/08/05/the-ultimate-social-media-marketing-checklist-every-newbie-must-follow/

 

9 Reasons Why Your Internet Marketing Strategy Will Fail Without a Blog

There’s no getting away from it, your business needs a blog if you want to succeed online!

 

Google’s algorithms demand that you create content that people will want to share and your customers demand information that will help them.

 

Take a look at the infographic below from QuickSprout which gives you 9 reasons why your business should be blogging.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/07/25/9-reasons-why-your-internet-marketing-strategy-will-fail-without-a-blog/

 

The Secrets to Tweets that Generate Engagement

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How Often You Should Post on Twitter and Other Social Media Networks

If you’ve been using multiple social media networks to market your business you’ll know that they aren’t all created equal. What is the norm on one network would be frowned upon on another, especially when it comes to the frequency in which you post updates.

 

For the recommended guidelines for each of the major social media sites take a look at the infographic below from Constant Contact.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/07/28/how-often-you-should-post-on-twitter-and-other-social-media-networks/

 

17 Stats You Should Know About Visual Content Marketing in 2015

Each year in mid-January, when all of last year’s research has been published, we like to read through some of the major reports on inbound marketing, content marketing, social media and online behavior.

 

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, honestly, it’s amazing how fast things can change in twelve short months and 2014 was certainly no exception.

While reviewing this year’s research two major trends emerged and both highlight the effectiveness of visual content marketing. As you will learn, this year’s data reveals that marketers who are leveraging visual content are seeing significant increases in their blog traffic, social media engagement, visitor-to-lead conversion rates and inbound customer acquisition results.

Let's begin by examining a few statistics that demonstrate the impact visual content has on social media reach and engagement.

 

Over the last 12 months almost every major social network, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram have increased the prominence and importance of visual content. Keeping pace with this trend, several research studies conducted over the course of 2014 point to the rather amazing effectiveness of visual content for social media.

 

Here are a few stats, specifically related to social media, that you should consider while you are crafting your 2015 content marketing strategy:
 

1) Last year the amount of video from people and brands in Facebook's News feed increased 3.6X year-over-year.

 

 

2) Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets.

3) Socialbakers.com looked at the top 10% of posts made by more than 30,000 Facebook brand pages and found that posts with photos saw the most engagement—accounting for a whopping 87% of total interactions.

 

 

4) In 2014, 39% of B2B buyers identified that they share infographics on social media frequently.

 

5) Adding a photo URL to your tweet can boost retweets by 35%.

 

6) Images and photos are the most important tactic in optimizing social media posts.

 

 

7) Visual content is a key component in each of the top 5 most effective B2B marketing tactics.

 

 

8) 70% of marketers plan to increase their use of original visual assets in 2015.

 

 

9) The top 3 content formats that B2B buyers seek out to research a purchase decision include: Whitepapers (78%), Case Studies (73%), and Webinars (67%).

 

10) B2C marketers are more likely to use original videos (63% B2C vs. 56% B2B) and original visual assets (63% B2C vs. 56% B2B).

 

11) 95% of B2B buyers agreed that they preferred shorter content formats.

 

 

 

12) In a recent study 86% of buyers expressed some level of desire to access interactive/visual content on demand.  

 

13) Social Media Examiner recently asked marketers which forms of content they most want to learn about in 2015. Creating original visual assets took first place, followed by producing original videos.

 

14) In 2014 the use of video content for B2B marketing increased by 8% to 58%, while the use of infographics topped the adoption list increasing in usage by 9% to 52%.

 

15) Interactive content formats such as Brainshark and SlideShare increased in popularity during 2014, up from roughly 21% in 2013 to 28% in 2014.

 

16) B2B marketers are employing on average 12-14 formats of content.

 

17) The popularity of whitepapers as a B2B content marketing format is actually declining in relation to more interactive, easily digestible formats such as video.

 

 

Given that white papers were previously the most widely used form of marketing content for inbound marketers I might be so bold to call this shift the birth of content marketing two point zero.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/visual-content-marketing-strategy

 

7 Ways Marketers Can Get the Most out of LinkedIn

When you use the site to bolster your personal brand, you also strengthen your company's brand image.
 

LinkedIn may tag you an “All-Star” on Your Profile page—but you're a minor leaguer if you don't fully exploit the marketing and sales powers of the social medium used by more than half the world's professionals. “If your profile has the wrong information, it might as well be your tombstone,” says Mark Amtower, a consultant who specializes in LinkedIn strategy.

 

At stake are the current 313 million members, as well as the two joining per second, as LinkedIn reports. And let's not forget 3.5 million companies present there.

 

Facebook may have the B2C sex appeal, but when it comes to B2B marketing—and personal branding—LinkedIn is where it's at. Marketers can boost their own and their firm's reputations, market their wares, establish themselves and their organizations as industry thought-leaders, and harvest sales leads—with most of those benefits costing nothing.

 

“In my 30 years as a marketing consultant, I've never seen a platform that does so much,” Amtower says. “Traditional B2B direct marketers that do not fully embrace LinkedIn miss the opportunity to develop deeper relationships with key customers or be found by prospects looking for what they sell.”

 

Here are seven ways marketers can maximize LinkedIn themselves and their companies:

 

Juice Up Your Profile

 

LinkedIn Profiles average 53 million views daily. A marketer's profile should reflect that she's the face of her brand, not a job hunter. To entice prospects, marketers should share their expertise areas, the market they serve and what their company does, Amtower says. “Top the profile with a summary that's informative and fun, so it'll be read.”

 

Also upload six to 12 slides, PowerPoint presentations, or videos of your work to intrigue prospects without giving away too much to competitors, he says. And remember the basics: phone and email, so you can be easily reached.

 

Maximize Your Company Page

 

Sporadic updates aren't enough. See a company page as a mini website with appealingly packaged and SEO-jammed information, links, and contacts.

 

Look to marketing software firm HubSpot, which feeds its page almost daily with visually-adorned entries on products, achievements, new hires, and industry-related trends. It also cross-promotes the page across blogs, emails, and other channels. “We ask customers who give appreciative feedback on surveys to consider sharing their opinions on LinkedIn,” says Kipp Bodnar, VP of marketing.

 

The result: HubSpot touts 40,000 followers, 272 product recommendations, and a Culture Code slide share that's been viewed nearly 2 million times.

 

Each follower and comment packs heat, amplifying the firm's visibility on his or her own LinkedIn feed, Bodnar says:  “For us, LinkedIn traffic converts into leads more than traffic on other social platforms.”

 

Leverage Your Employees' LinkedIn Profiles and Activities

 

“Employee profiles become mini-marketing reaches that put your best face forward,” says Mike Derezin, LinkedIn's VP of sales solutions. “The more you provide, the more likely the message will be uniform.”

 

All of HubSpot's 900 employees have personal profiles and active feeds, Bodnar says. Executives set the tone by posting blog entries on their LinkedIn pages, and the firm provides profile tips, professional headshots, and a clear mission statement to new hires.

 

Join or Form a Likeminded Group

 

Sharing insights about an industry pays off: 86% of buyers say they'd engage with salespeople if they offered such knowledge, LinkedIn reports. Become a known thought leader and that rises to 92%.

 

HubSpot launched its Inbound Marketers group seven years ago, where 111,000 members currently discuss strategies and trends. Those who participate get 4 times the profile views of those who don't, Bodnar finds.

 

“Each member is a potential prospect,” Amtower says. “Useful entries also reinforce your name and brand.”

 

Use “In Messages” to Follow Those Who Check You Out

 

Look regularly to see who's examined your profile, as Amtower does thrice daily. Then pounce.

“Check out their profile, and if you see potential, reach out via message or In Mail,” he says. “You can say, ‘Hey, I saw you looked at my profile. Are you interested in chatting or connecting?' Start a conversation while it's hot—not two days later when they might not remember who you are.”

 

Use Sales Navigator to Convert Cold Calls

 

You can arm yourself with the personal information that thaws cold calls into warm introductions via LinkedIn's Sales Navigator app. Stats and analytics on targeted accounts reveal who you know in common, where workers went to school and other information, whether you're LinkedIn or not.

 

“It's hugely valuable, especially if you're B2B,” says Bodnar. “It's a lot easier to get prospects.”

 

Reach Those Who Really Matter Via LinkedIn Ads

 

Why advertise to the irrelevant? LinkedIn's display ads can target a desired audience by job title, company size, or other attributes—and HubSpot occasionally uses this feature along with its other LinkedIn efforts. “We've used some display ads in sponsored updates,” Bodnar says, “but we're advertising less on all channels, thanks to the success of nonpaid efforts, like those on LinkedIn.”

 

http://www.dmnews.com/7-ways-marketers-can-get-the-most-out-of-linkedin/article/371328/

 

20 Twitter Best Practices That Will Build Followers and Increase Engagement

Are you making the most out of Twitter? With over 645m users posting 790m tweets per day it’s a monster of a network and it can provide massive results when used in the right way.

 

The infographic below from Passion Digital gives you 20+ best practices to use that will help you to build new followers and increase engagement.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/04/23/20-twitter-best-practices-that-will-build-followers-and-increase-engagement/

 

5 Reasons to Use Social Media Even If It’s Not Driving (Free) Traffic

Image via BigStockPhoto.com

Picture this situation: You’ve chosen the right social media platforms for your business and are posting good content to each one of them, but you’re not getting any more than just a handful of clicks.

 

How does it make you feel?

 

Frustrated!

 

But let me ask you a question: How many, of all the links that appear in your newsfeed throughout the day, do you actually click? The fact remains that you see oodles of links you don’t bother clicking. Hopefully, you’re feeling a bit relieved after this stark disclosure.

 

However, if traffic’s been dying down (especially after the recent organic reach debacle), you may need to revamp your social media marketing strategy (if you have one already) or create a new one with the assistance of an expert or an agency.

 

Today, the organic reach of Facebook page posts has reduced by a drastic 80%–90%. For example, a Facebook page like Picsity (with close to 1.3 million Likes) that regularly enjoyed a reach of 10,000 per typical post a few months back now suffers from an incredibly low reach of 500 per typical post.

 

But should you stop using social media sites because they aren’t driving your websites and blogs enough organic traffic anymore? Well, you shouldn’t (and, actually, you can’t) because there are ample reasons to be on social media other than traffic.

 

Here are five of them.

 

1. Build Relationships

 

Consistently, social media experts have reiterated that the focus should be more on “social” and less on “media.” You shouldn’t measure the worth of a social media account by the total number of its fans or followers. Social media, at its very core, is about building meaningful relationships, which depend on the quality of the conversations you have with your community. Lack of strong bonding renders even thousands of fans and followers useless.

 

In the traditional business world, organizations or companies are connected with their clients through transaction-based associations, as opposed to relationship-based associations. Relationship building gives social media platforms their uniqueness, and it’s something that traditional advertising can never achieve.

 

A few relationship building tips include:

• Participate in conversations in a genuine way
• Exchange original ideas with others
• Pay attention to others’ hobbies/interests
• Find opportunities to help others

Social media has been helping companies or business owners find partners, customers, and investors. If you approach social media as a relationship building tool, it’s still as powerful as it’s always been.

You shouldn’t measure the worth of a social media account by the total number of its fans or followers. — @obaidulhaque 

2. Remain on Top of Industry News and Best Practices

 

For a business, social media is not just about tweeting or posting updates to Facebook. Recently, LinkedIn conducted a survey to understand how SMBs look at social media in regard to their businesses. 81% of the SMBs the company surveyed use social media.

 

Of this group, 94% use social media as a marketing tool. However, 49% of the surveyed SMBs admitted that they also use social media as a tool to keep themselves abreast of the latest industry news and best practices. By following other businesses, industry experts, and thought leaders, they learn more about individual niches and markets while also getting answers to many of their important business questions.

 

3. Generate Content Ideas

 

Social media sites are excellent when it comes to finding intriguing content ideas. By creating meaningful conversations of your own or simply participating in the existing ones, you’ll be able to gather a lot of ideas to create a variety of useful marketing content.

 

Copyblogger, for example, creates a discussion on LinkedIn after they’ve published a new post on their blog. This opens up opportune avenues for them to discuss a particular topic on a deeper level, engage with the audience, ask for their feedback, and collect out-of-the-box ideas for future blog posts and content in other formats.

 

The Twitter Search feature is another good tool for finding content ideas. It allows you to quickly track the trending hashtags and eavesdrop on existing public conversations for new topics and ideas. Social media websites, groups, and communities, therefore, offer you abundant material to help with the content generation process on an ongoing basis. All you need to do is turn on your social listening ears when you’re using social media sites.

 

4. Find Better Hires

 

If you don’t want to waste time digging through a pile of resumes or wading through a sea of bad candidates when planning to hire talented professionals from a specific industry, social media is your answer. According to a report published by Staff.com, as much as 92% of companies leverage platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to locate, screen, and hire quality candidates for numerous job positions.

 

In an interview of 40–60 minutes, it can be quite an effort to evaluate an applicant in terms of their skills and personality. With the help of social media, however, you can quickly screen a candidate and identify the traits that could affect their performance at work. It’s crucial to note that 73% of recruiters say they have made successful hires though social media. Conversely, 1/3rd of employees also rejected applicants on the basis of what they found in their social media profiles.

There are several ways to find potential job prospects via social media, from your own social referral network to special features like Advanced LinkedIn Search. Once you’ve spotted potential candidates, you can start analyzing their social media profiles in terms of current employers, skills, work experiences, joined groups, interests, connections, quality of updates, and more.

 

5. Become More Productive

 

Being on social media, if you aren’t aware, increases productivity at work. According to a recent study by Ipsos and Microsoft, 46% of people agreed that using social media enhanced their productivity. But the result depends on what exactly you use social media websites for. If you’re checking out industry-related tweets and Facebook updates by competitors, it will certainly give your productivity level a quick boost. On the other hand, using the social platforms only for personal reasons won’t help much.

 

Don’t let social traffic become an obsession. Driving traffic to your websites and blogs should be one of the reasons to use social media, but not the only one. Change the way you look at social media, and you’ll soon see that it has a lot more to offer than you could ever expect.

 

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/5-reasons-to-use-social-media-even-if-its-not-driving-free-traffic/

 

The Penalty-Proof Way to Build Backlinks

Ranking penalties, as the result of Google algorithm updates, have plagued search marketers and webmasters since the search engine got serious about defeating spam back in the late 2000s. The Penguin update of 2012 and its subsequent iterations were responsible for most of the link-related ranking volatility of recent years, distributing penalties to sites with irregular, irrelevant, or otherwise non-valuable backlink, leaving many to abandon or dramatically overhaul their offsite SEO strategies.

 

Today, backlink building is still an integral part of any SEO strategy, as a means of increasing your site’s domain authority and making it easier to rank for almost any phrase. While there are modern tactics to build a high quantity of links without earning a penalty from Google, the safer approach is to incorporate a long-term, penalty-proof system of link building, which will keep you safe in the short-term and protect you against any future Google updates.

 

Step One: Choose Your Sources Wisely

Your first step is to build and maintain and inventory of quality external sources where you can build links. Consulting and abiding by this list will protect you against penalties based on the type of sources you use, and help boost your domain authority even further by increasing your relevance and building meaningful associations.

 

As a general rule, you should scout for sites that are authoritative (meaning they’ve been around for a while, they have value for their users, and a respectable amount of traffic), and sites that are directly related to your industry. You can find these sites by performing regular Google searches, using an aggregated news feed, or by examining the link profiles of your competitors using a free tool like Open Site Explorer. Collect a long list of these possible sources and begin making requests for your links on a rotating basis.

 

Be sure to avoid the following types of non-authoritative sources:

• Article directories. Article directories exist for the sole purpose of publishing random articles for the sake of building backlinks. Such sites are few and far between since Google began their crackdown, but stay far away from them regardless.
• Link farms. Link farms, much like article directories, exist solely to help other sites build backlinks. They publish hundreds of links pointing back to your domain, but all of them are very low quality and will likely result in a penalty.
• Payment-based sources. Google has an explicit policy against paid link building, which means that any links you pay for (other than advertising or affiliate links) can earn you a harsh penalty.
• Irrelevant blogs or forums. Forums, blogs, and directories can all be quality sources for backlinks—but only if they are relevant to your specific field. Posting a link on an irrelevant forum, or in an irrelevant conversation, can do more harm than good.

 

Step Two: Post Like a Person

If the search engine giant suspects that your link was built through automation or by a scheme to improve your rank, it will penalize you. So if you post like an ordinary, unbiased user with no ulterior agenda, you’ll be in the clear.

 

There’s no “trick” to getting past these evaluations of Google’s algorithms. Instead of trying to make your post look like it was posted to improve user experience, bypass that step and post content that is actually valuable.

 

The biggest key here is relevance. When you find a thread on an industry forum that seems like it might be a good fit for a link, read through it before you post. If your company doesn’t have anything to do with the topic, move on. If there’s a blog post that elaborates on a topic mentioned or substantiates a claim made in the thread, post a link to it! And don’t just post the link and be done with it; take the time to write up an explanation of why you’re posting the link, and why you think it would be helpful to the conversation.

 

Similarly, you’ll need to ensure that all your guest blogs and offsite content align with the expectations and standards of your offsite sources, and of course, ensure that they are well-written. Keep your hyperlinks to only what’s necessary or what’s helpful in understanding the article.

 

Step Three: Diversify

 

Another key in making sure you avoid any penalties in the future is to diversify your entire strategy. You’ll want to include as much variation as possible in every step of the process if you want to hedge your bets against the search engine’s next moves and stay ahead of the game no matter what.

 

First, you’ll need to diversify your sources. Hopefully, you’ve got a fairly long list of potential sources to draw from; take advantage of its entirety. Rotate your sources regularly, and never post too many links on any one source.

 

Second, you’ll need to diversify your timing. Don’t post all of your links on one day of the week or even worse, one day of the month. Spread your links out at random times over random days in an irregular pattern. Links look more natural that way.

 

Finally, it’s a good idea to diversify your link structure. Avoid posting the same link to your homepage over and over again. Instead, use deep links from your interior pages and blog posts to vary your external posts—it will also help ensure that your posts are specifically relevant to the conversation at hand. For good measure, be sure to build a significant number of linkless brand mentions as well. Brand mentions pass authority without garnering the negative attention of excessive backlinks.

 

Step Four: Audit Regularly

Unfortunately, maintaining solid best practices throughout your implementation isn’t enough to fully protect you against the possibility of a penalty, or even against the possibility of error in your own work. If you want to maintain the quality of your strategy and catch potential problems early on, the best course of action is to audit your backlink profile on a regular basis.

 

There are a few ways to do this, but the easiest is to consult a link-based search tool like Open Site Explorer, which we mentioned above. Here, you’ll be able to review all the links on the web that are pointing back to your site, and evaluate them for diversity, appropriateness, and authority. If you find any links that are irrelevant or questionable, you can easily get rid of them by asking the webmaster to remove them. If you find that your strategy doesn’t include as much diversity as you’d like, or if you spot too many patterns in your posts, you can adjust your process accordingly.

 

Plan on implementing a full backlink profile audit at least once a month, possibly more often if you have an aggressive link building strategy in place.

 

Put these steps into action for your entire offsite SEO strategy, and you’ll protect yourself against whatever new algorithm updates Google throws at you. Google’s entire motivation in rolling out updates is to make the web a better place with more relevant, accurate content—so if you focus on creating the best possible online experience for your visitors and modern searchers, there will be nothing for the search engine to penalize.

 

http://www.audiencebloom.com/2015/01/penalty-proof-way-build-backlinks/