Instagram is growing like wildfire and if you’ve put learning how to use it for your blog or small business, now is the time to learn how to create a winning Instagram on a budget. Instagram on a budget Be consistent with your brand Your Instagram posts will be creating a story for your brand…
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Pinterest is fun and boosts creativity but at its social media heart, Pinterest is marketing. Very smart marketing! Let’s look at some smart ways to use Pinterest for marketing.
Are you wondering how you can use Pinterest to market your small business, company, blog, or to promote your next book or product? Visual marketing on Pinterest is a low-key, self-paced way to reach people and get the word out.
Having a strategy for your Pinterest activities will help you reach your goals and objectives. You have those in place, right? Here are my tips and strategic ways to use Pinterest for marketing:
Pinterest has fantastic search capabilities. Help even more people find and your business by using keywords in your board titles. Make sure that you select a category for each board to help people find them and for Pinterest to recommend your board as well.
Again, use keywords in your description and keep in mind that people can tweet your pins. The text in the pin description is the tweet so keep it short, interesting, and relevant.
Pinterest images should be long and narrow to take up the maximum amount of visual space and get noticed! Look at your favorite pins and see what the images have in common so you see what types of images are repinned and shared. I create images that are up to 735 pixels by 1102 pixels. This creates an engaging invitation to repin your pinned article.
You have two opportunities with each pin to add your link: one in the description and one in the source for the pin.
Embedding pins on your blog is easy and a great way to get more repins. You can create an embed code on the Pinterest site.
Tweet your pin and share them on your other social networks where they are relevant.
I like to see what pins are popular and reshare them on other Pinterest boards or on social networks. Once a pin starts getting some interaction, fan the flames by giving it some social love.
From Pinterest: “Right now, there are five types of Rich Pins: movie, recipe, article, product, and place. To get started, you’ll need to prep your website with meta tags, test out your Rich Pins and apply to get them on Pinterest. If you’re not technical, you might want to ask your developer or site owner to help get you going!”
I love to have a big image or two on every blog post that I publish. I like to create a bigger image of 735 x 1102 because Pinterest loves tall, vertical images. I’ll create a big image, pin the large image, and then share the pin with the blog link. Here’s an example of a post I shared on Google+:
I have niche boards on Pinterest, blogging, Google+ that I regularly update.
Joan Stewart, of the Publicity Hound blog, built a beautiful, rich board called 50 Tips for Free Publicity. She created a series of coordinating pins with the same branding and shared her knowledge of publicity. Can you think of a way that you can share tips for your industry?
Follow Joan Stewart’s board 50 Tips for Free Publicity on Pinterest.
Collaborative boards can help you reach a new group of pinners and have your pins be seen by more people. You do need to be careful about which boards you join because all the pins will show on your Pinterest presence as well. You can only select the cover photo if you are the owner of the group board. One of my newest collaborative boards is my Pinterest Tips for Success board. All the pinners are fantastic about adding great content and sharing their Pinterest skills.
Follow Peg Fitzpatrick’s board Pinterest Tips for Success on Pinterest.
I hope this gives you some ideas for your Pinterest marketing. Let me know how you use Pinterest for your marketing in the comments below.
The post 12 Strategic Ways to Use Pinterest Marketing appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Your most important online asset is your content. It attracts clients to you and encourages prospects to take action. However, creating compelling content that engages your audience and inspires them to share that content with their community can feel elusive.
Excited to share this guest post from Rebekah Radice with you. Rebekah is one of my favorite bloggers in the social media space and her experience with social media is fantastic. I know you’ll love her advice.
Whether you are writing for your blog or social media sites, the ideas below will help you write innovative and compelling content that gets shared!
Whether it’s web copy or offline marketing, talking about your business, the value it offers and the intent behind it not only educates potential customers, but also allows them to make quicker decisions.
In the book, Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, author Gary Klein states that clearly communicating intent arms people with the information necessary to get “un-stuck” by moving potential decision-making obstacles out of their way.
When writing content for your business, consider looking at what your competitors are writing about. By using www.Alexa.com, you can identify which companies receive the top traffic within your industry.
Visit each of their sites and analyze the top shared content. What worked, what didn’t, and how can you improve upon it?
From Peg, BuzzSumo is another great way to check stats and social sharing.
“If you want to do your own analysis, you can now do this with the latest version of BuzzSumo. They have partnered with Majestic and they now show the total number of domain links next to the total shares for any article. This provides you with a more rounded view of how content is being amplified and you can see for any topic or any domain the content gaining shares, the content gaining links and the rare, magical content that achieves both.”
More reading: 12 Ways to Outshine Your Competition Online
Understanding who your ideal reader is and what content they find valuable will make content creation a breeze.
Begin by creating a customer persona. Describe what your perfect reader looks like, what they do, and why they would need your product or service.
Understanding who your ideal reader is and what content they find valuable will make content creation a breeze.Click To TweetImages are an excellent way to attract readers to your content. Whether they are funny, dramatic or eye-catching, make sure they are consistent with your business or brand look and feel.
Tell your story through images by adding custom designs to your blog post. Then pin them to Pinterest, share them on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
93% of our communication is visual. It’s very important that you get it right and share the proper message with your visuals. In the super crowded stream of social media and content marketing, each piece of content represents who you are and what you do.
The visual pieces of your content are the breadcrumbs that leave a trail back to you and your main hub.
More reading: DIY Design: How To Design Stunning Images Yourself
The titles of your articles and posts can dictate whether people click through, read it, retweet it or share.
Be creative and always keep the end-user in mind. Know what content connects with your potential clients and craft your title around that information.
Know what content connects with your potential clients and craft your title around that information.Click To TweetWhether you are posting to your blog or social media sites, proper structure is critical. Take a look at your last several posts — were they easy to read?
In your blog posts, consider using lists. Lists are scannable and easy for those moving quickly across the Internet to quickly scan your content.
With your social media posts, consider keeping them short, but exciting. Encourage conversation by asking a question or offering your thoughts around a particular topic.
As you begin to create content, remember that relationships are at the core of getting that information shared.
Building trust by forming healthy connections will draw people to you and your content.
Every business has a story. What’s yours? Share your story in a real and relatable way.
Stories connect readers and potential customers to your company. Allow them to know and remember yours.
Simply posting links to your social sites will quickly bore your target market. Change it up and intersperse links with images, quotes, questions, feedback and any additional content that adds value to the conversation.
Think of it this way: if you were having a conversation with someone face-to-face, you wouldn’t spend the entire time promoting you and your product or service. You would listen, react and respond as well. It’s no different when you’re online.
Make content creation a part of your daily marketing strategy.
Build out an editorial calendar with a list of topics, article ideas, and social media posts to keep your efforts focused and consistent.
Get serious about your blog and creatively boost your editorial calendar!
Stay up-to-date on the latest news within your industry and field. Share that content in a timely manner, offering context around it. How did you feel when you read the post? What is your key takeaway and why should your audience care?
Context is every bit as important as content when it comes to sharing in social media.
Building an email list should be at the top of your social media and content strategy to-do list. Use a subscriber list to stay in front of your audience and promote your latest blog post, campaign or product.
Driving subscribers to your content not only encourages increased readership and traffic, but boosts shares by staying top-of-mind.
If you liked this article, please hit the share button. I appreciate it!
Your turn! What are your most innovative ways to create content that gets shared? I’d love to hear your top tip in the comments below!
Sprout Social has an amazing blog and they’ve put together this smart infographic with SEO tips to go along with your social media. Pin to your favorite boards for a future reference.
SEO Tips for Social Media Managers by Sprout Social
The post 12 Most Innovative Ways to Create Content That Gets Shared appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
The key to Instagram engagement is TIME. Visual storytelling and conversation starting combined with the right mix of when to post and what to post creates Instagram gold.
T – Time
Are you posting at the right time? Are you giving Instagram enough time to make a difference?
I – Intent
Time to stop your random acts of posting on the Gram. Being intentional with your photos, concepts, and descriptions is crucial.
M – Management
Do you have a system down to make Instagram a part of your social media plan? Are you measuring key Instagram factors and making smart decisions based on data?
E – Engage
Responding to comments on your post is important. Are you also commenting and liking other people’s posts?
Keep a solid community in your comments and stay active by doing the following:
A combination of time, intent, management, and engagement creates the perfect Instagram presence to showcase your brand through storytelling and community building. It’s not enough simply to post great photos – it’s all the moments that occur after you post that build the conversation and relationship.
A combination of time, intent, management, and engagement creates the perfect Instagram presence.Click To TweetConsider this shocking stat: 92% of all social engagement is happening on Instagram vs 7% on Facebook and 1% on Twitter based on the L2 Intelligence Report: Social Platforms 2017.
Wow! 92% of all social engagement is happening on Instagram. Click To TweetMaureen Mullen and Scott Galloway of L2 say, “The most powerful platform the world: Instagram. We see about ninety-two percent of all engagement occurring across all kinds of consumer sectors in the brands that we track so you know ninety-two percent on Instagram across countries. Instagram is the new Facebook.”
I’m super excited to share a new tool to will help with your Instagram engagement. Tailwind has added Instagram to their platform! Tailwind for Instagram is an Instagram scheduling and analytics tool built on the same platform as Tailwind’s popular Pinterest marketing tool. Tailwind is my absolute go-to tool for Pinterest. I can’t wait to see how it supercharges my Instagram.
Tailwind for Instagram leverages the intelligence-powered features that have helped marketers improve ROI with Tailwind for Pinterest, including a smart schedule which analyzes when followers are most active online to generate an ideal posting schedule. This maximizes the engagement Tailwind members get from every post. Tailwind members have historically grown the reach on visual networks over twice as fast as their peers- and the average post published with Tailwind generates 4x as many engagements as the average.
Four times as much engagement with double growth? Yes, please!
Tailwind has been able to demonstrate in this video that scheduling and posting to Instagram is 60% faster with Tailwind than without it. That’s a one minute saving per post. With the average brand posting to Instagram 1 to 2 times a day, that adds up to 6 to 12 hours saved per year. Tailwind’s member base of over 100,000 marketers, could collectively save over 150 years of productivity in 2017 alone.
The video also shows Tailwind’s bulk image upload and browser extension features being used to schedule 10 posts to Instagram in under a minute. These features might be especially appealing to marketers who manage multiple Instagram accounts, who regram user-generated content, or who post content to Instagram from their website.
Instagram is the new Facebook.Click To TweetWhy does being an Official (Instagram or Pinterest) Partner matter?
I’m really looking forward to giving all these new Tailwind features a spin and seeing how it improves my Instagram account. What are you looking forward to testing?
The post How to Unlock the Key to Instagram Engagement appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Designing great Pinterest pins has never been more important for bloggers! Social media algorithms and content glut are slowing traffic to websites. If your social traffic is slowing or you just want to add solid referral traffic to your blog, Pinterest is here for you!
“Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas. “
Pinterest has remained steady and solid for leading qualified traffic to websites. In fact, a pin is 100 times more spreadable than your average tweet. Wow, right?
In fact, a pin is 100 times more spreadable than your average tweet. Wow, right?Click To TweetIt makes me cry little tears each time I visit an article WRITTEN ABOUT PINTEREST with no pinnable images. Did you just write an article about Pinterest and learn nothing? It truly makes me shake my head. Having optimized Pinterest pin images for each article is essential. You need to make it as easy as possible for people to share your articles.
If I love an article the first thing I want to do it pin it. Many blogs haven’t even added a Pin it button yet so the next step is to go to my Chrome extension or Tailwind extension buttons to pin the article for later. If there’s no pinnable images on the article, there’s no social sharing from me. I’m assuming it is the same for many people.
You need to make your blog content socially shareable.Click To TweetBonus reading: How to build a Pin it button for your blog
On Pinterest, long, tall images command the show taking up the most visual real estate in the Pinterest feed. Pinterest’s preferred image aspect ratio is 2:3 to 1:3.5. The minimum width of a pin is 600 pixels and the maximum is 735 pixels.
To create pins that generate interaction, create images 735 pixels x 1102 pixels. While this size might not be optimal for your blog, you can create a pin on Pinterest with your custom graphic and embed your pin into your blog post. This creates an engaging invitation to repin your pinned article.
Tall, vertical Pinterest pin example. [pin it here]
Pinterest is the ultimate wish list. People pin and repin things they like and want. So think of your Pinterest boards as your visual portfolios, and make your pins as appealing as possible.
Make sure that you have permission to use any images that you find for your blog or your social media posts. If you can’t afford images, you can’t afford the fines that you could incur for using photos illegally. Luckily, there are many sites that you can find free images to use. Here are a few of my favorites:
Resource: Oh Snap, Can I Legally Use That Photo
Your Pinterest pin images should help tell the story of your article, recipe, or craft that you’re sharing. The image is a breadcrumb leading to the main meal and people don’t want a surprise when they get there.
Great example of an image matching the content of the article. [pin it here]
It’s great to add branding to your designs but keep it subtle. [pin it here]
Find your own creative design style can take time. If you’re a blogger, you should have a style guide for your blog with your brand colors, fonts, etc. Your Pinterest pins will be an extension of your visual style and people should recognize your work as your own.
Keep in mind that you want to create designs that look like your brand voice and not a bad copy of someone else’s brand designs. Practice will help you improve your design. I know it took me a long time but it was worth it! [pin it here]
Rebekah Radice, popular blogger and super Pinterest pin designer says, “Providing a strong visual presence is key to domination.”
I hope this gets your ideas churning and inspires you to take a serious look at how you’re creating Pinterest pins.
Still want more? I’ve designed a brand new course on Skillshare called How to Create Amazing Pins for Pinterest. If you’re a hands-on person or one who likes to learn from video and seeing how things are done vs. reading them, you’ll love this course. I’ve created videos to show you how to design Pinterest pins on desktop and mobile as well as the steps to load pins directly to Pinterest. Join the course here!
The post How to Make Your Pinterest Pins Look Like a Million Bucks appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Video success seems fleeting but it’s easier than you think to create powerful video content.
Video has been a huge challenge for me personally because I don’t know how to edit video. I’ve tried and I have Adobe Creative Cloud and iMovie but it’s hard for me. My daughter is fantastic with video editing and she works on some of my longer videos which is fantastic! But I’ve got an awesome new tool to share with you that can guarantee video success with any skill level. (even mine!)
Enter Adobe Spark Video. You may have read my past articles singing the praises of Adobe Spark Post which I use for creating graphics and animations for social media. I’m also a brand ambassador for Adobe Spark.
From Adobe, “Let’s face it—video was everywhere in 2016. It used to be a cause, a business, a brand was invisible if it didn’t have a website. Now video is the new standard. Consider the following stats:
Video communication is here to stay and it’s only going to become even more important to how we all communicate every day.
Our passion at Spark is to make standing out on social easy and fun. And today we’ve made video creation and sharing simpler for everyone. Spark Video now supports video clips to help you engage, motivate, and inspire your audience. And best of all, you can do it in just minutes — no big budget or film crew required.”
Isn’t that amazing! Let me show you how easy it is to create videos in Spark.
Spark videos are created with slides and then magically stitched together with the click of a button. Literally, one click!
This is a glorious example of a recipe video created in Spark. Time to stop drooling over Tasty’s awesome food videos and make your own.
This video was added to this article by embedding the HTML code. You can also download them and upload to YouTube or natively into Facebook.
Facebook is partnering with Adobe Spark in their powerful Blueprint program to help you become more successful on Facebook video. Facebook has a great tutorial with guidelines for video storytelling. A few things they recommend:
Video clips: Unlike complicated video editors, your clip can easily be parsed into a series of slides of various durations. Add a video from your camera roll or your computer on the web.
I love that you can take one video on your phone, load it once into Spark Video, then edit the clips easily.
Shooting and editing video, adding music or a voiceover can mean a lot of work for content creators. Spark Video makes it easy to add voiceovers on your video and it works on each slide separately so if you make a mistake you haven’t ruined the full voiceover and you can update each section individually.
Adding video to your repertoire is a must. Aside from the huge SEO benefits, if you are a blogger, online marketer or social media professional, video needs to be part of your online strategy.
Consider these strategies from video pro Misty Belardo McPadden of PodJam TV when you’re planning your visual content. Here are some timely truths about video implementation and production that can help you get started or improve your video success:
The primary goal for Google and other search engines is to serve relevant search results to their users. Using engagement triggers like images and videos are great way to encourage more people to engage with your content. The more engagement you generate, the more visible your content is in search.
Recent advances in streaming technology and faster internet connections has contributed significantly to the growing popularity of online video. Create great video content and people will tend to share it on their social networks and bloggers will be encouraged to link to your videos and generate some nice backlinks back to your site.
More and more people are encouraged to create videos to either apply for a job or get into the school of their choice. Video allows prospective employers and school administrators to get a much better idea of who you are. Nowadays, a text-based resume or application may not be enough to convince hiring managers or school admissions staff that you’re the right candidate. Video will allow you to tell your story in a unique way. The only limit will be the limits you set.
Aside from being able to share your unique story in a more visual way, creating videos will help you connect with your audience on a much more personal and deeper level. With videos, people watching can see the way you talk and hear your inflections. They can see and hear your sincerity and passion. Hearing the human voice has an amazing way to convert the information you share into meaningful content.
In terms of viewership alone, there are more than 1 billion unique users who visit YouTube each month. There are over 6 billion hours of video watched each month. Probably the most interesting fact is that according to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more U.S. adults ages 18-34 than cable TV. YouTube is also the second largest search engine — bigger than Yahoo and Bing combined. Just make sure you optimize your videos by adding tags, a relevant description and links to your website so you can funnel traffic back to your primary website.
YouTube videos tend to vary in length and that is great depending on the amount of information you want and need to share; but if you are not a fan of long form videos, there is always Instagram and Twitter. Both platforms are a great way to showcase your creativity. Think about it, television commercials tend to either be 15 to 30 seconds on average. If you are able to creatively summarize attributes of your brand or service in a short video, it will go a long way to help you better connect with potential clients and customers in a fun and creative way.
Recently, there have been many changes on most of the popular social sites to help make visual content stand out. Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus have all tweaked their designs to put more focus on video content. Video is a great way to make your content stand out and appear higher on the timeline. According to statistics from Simple Measured, when Facebook launched Timeline, overall user engagement with brands increased 14% when brands shared videos instead of just links.
It can be confusing for some bloggers and online marketers on whether to host or embed videos on their websites. “Hosting” a video means that you upload videos to your site directly. “Embedding” a video means that you upload video to a third party site like YouTube and then you embed it in your posts on your blog. I strongly recommend embedding videos whenever you can, rather than hosting them. Embedding will make your videos load faster and not slow your site down.
According to YouTube, mobile makes up more than 25% of total views on YouTube, more than one billion views a day. Make sure your site is optimized for mobile views and, more importantly, includes content in video form. Imagine if your competitor is using video as a means to promote their product or service and you are not. They will be able to attract more potential customers because they are including video on their websites and giving their audience a much better idea about the benefits of doing business with them.
The beauty of creating videos is that you don’t really need a lot of fancy equipment to shoot and edit your videos. You can shoot and edit videos using your mobile phone and share easily on your social sites. There are a good selection of mobile video editing apps available that allow you to edit, add graphics and fancy transitions to your videos right on your mobile phone. If you have the budget and want to take your game to another level, there are a lot of great cameras you can purchase along with versatile desktop editing software to produce professional quality results. As you can see, there is really no excuse not to include video in your online strategy.
Just like when we write our articles, if it doesn’t bring value to your readers, it will not be read or shared. The same thought applies when you are creating your video; it must either inform or entertain, or better yet — do both. Only when your content is relevant and resonates with your audience will it will be consumed and increase overall engagement.
Video is a great way to increase the variety of content-types you can offer your audience. Not everyone gets excited reading blog posts that are all text. Some people respond better to visual stimuli. Everyone has different learning styles and ways of absorbing a message or information. Some people learn and understand an idea better when demonstrated visually rather than just reading or listening.
Using videos to attract, teach and inform people about your product, service or idea is not as difficult as it once was. There are a lot of affordable equipment and software options to shoot and edit your videos. There is also the option of hiring a video production company.
Either at spark.adobe.com or in the iOS app on your mobile device.
There really isn’t any excuse for not including video in your marketing strategy. Do you use video on your blog? What challenges do you experience?
Share your thoughts on video — we would love to hear from you!
Sponsored by Adobe Spark • get started making your own amazing videos today!
The post 20+ Powerful Tips and Strategies for Video Success appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Girl bosses need a little extra love this holiday or any day! Show your support for your favorite girl boss with a few items from this fun list that bound to add a little spring in her step.
Some of these are my current faves and I’m adding some to my Santa wish list too! Or I might just order them. A girl boss doesn’t need to wait for a gift, right?
Get organized with a planner by Day Designer $19.99
Fine tip Sharpies that won’t bled through planner pages $8.90
Folders to color and use! $12.24
Learn some lettering skills with Creative Lettering and Beyond: Inspiring tips, techniques, and ideas for hand lettering your way to beautiful works of art $11.97
Goal digger coffee mug $17.50
S’well Teakwood water bottle $27.59
Goal digger print – a download that you can customize with your favorite frame
Monster headphones in Rose Gold $199.99
mophie juice pack reserve in Rose Gold $49.95
Michael Kors Rose Gold tote $122.97
Whether you’re buying a gift for your favorite girl boss or treating yourself, I hope you got a little inspiration. Surrounding yourself with objects that inspire can help make it through a tough day or power up a Monday morning.
Prices subject to change but I wanted to give you an idea to see what fits your budget. Some links are affiliate links for products – the items don’t cost you any more but they do help pay for hosting on my blog.
The post 10 Great Gifts to Inspire Girl Bosses appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Social media marketing is evolving at rapid speed. Being ordinary isn’t going to help your brand grow. In this article I want to share how to boost your social media like a boss and grow your business or brand.
Marie Forleo‘s weekly videos preach this simple (much needed) motto. If you focus too much on perfectionism you’ll stall your progress. “Perfect” is like “normal.” There is no such thing.
Give up the impossible ideal of “being perfect.” While maintaining professionalism and high standards allow for progress to happen with an attitude of moving forward as a work in progress that can evolve.
Great things can happen when the pressure is off to 'be perfect.'Click To TweetCranking out a bunch of junk isn’t going to help your blog or bring business to your company.
Short, unfocused fluff will provide no value to your readers or clients. Strive to become the resource in your industry and provide information to inspire people to consume, comment on, and share your work.
The other side of this coin is creating content that reaches your social media goals.
Focus on developing a social media marketing plan to provide high quality materials that help reach your SMART marketing goals.
More isn’t better for social media content. Take the time to develop your goals and designing specific pieces of content [blog articles, live videos, produced videos, webinars, etc.] to create winning marketing to help your clients and attract people to your website.
Google rewards original content by bubbling it to the top of relevant searches. This must be earned by creating stellar work.
Stories make your content interesting and unique. Each person or brand has their own story and distinctive way to tell it.
I have certain parts of my social media journey that I talk about which are mine alone. The short version is that Twitter was my first social media love, I was super excited to tweet and converse with authors which lead to my starting a Twitter chat called #MyBookClub. I love to read so this brought me particular joy.
This story is specific to me and people love to hear about it.
Find pieces of your story that you can share with writing, visuals, or video. My friend Brian Scott is a farmer in Indiana and he creates really great media of his activities on his family farm.
This video Brian shot with his son has SIX MILLION views on Facebook. Brian takes photos, shoots video, and does some great stuff with drones. He’s a fantastic ambassador for the modern farmer. Who knew they used so much high tech equipment? Not me! By the way, I met Brian on Twitter years ago in a blogging chat.
Want people to see your content? Of course you do! Visual marketing gets your stuff seen. This super cool GIF was tweeted by Adobe to share some of their new features in the Creative Cloud suite of products.
From updates to your favorite apps to introducing new tools, we’re announcing the 2017 release of Creative Cloud. https://t.co/UoWaYVacr7 http://pic.twitter.com/Vf8hGs79N1
— Adobe Creative Cloud (@creativecloud) November 3, 2016
Remember the stellar content in point #2? This needs to be done on a regular basis. Can you commit to post bi-weekly on your blog and once a week on your YouTube channel? When you’re making your plan be realistic with your goals and follow through with actions.
When people know that you’re posting something new every Monday at 9 am or going Live on your Facebook Page for a Friday video, they’ll anticipate and appreciate your efforts.
I know this is scary but social media marketing moves quickly. Create smaller content plans by the quarter and be ready to reevaluate based on changes on the social marketing platforms. We’re held at the whim of the changes that are made on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. Pay attention to the platforms that you’re investing time and money into and adjust accordingly.
I hope these ideas get your creative juices flowing for your social media. Get ready to boost your social media LIKE A BOSS! Let me know which idea you implement and how it works for you. Tried something different that I didn’t mention? Please share in the comments below.
Special note: I’m excited to be the keynote speaker at IWPA’s World of Wood Conference in San Francisco in April 2017 sharing how to boost your social media. I’ll also have a breakout session covering building your brand. Hope to see you there!
The post How To Boost Your Social Media Like a Boss appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Everyone wants a shortcut to social media success but sadly there is no “easy button.” I’d like to share seven proven little tricks to achieve the best results in social media. They’re sure to give you a boost in your social media results.
Sometimes I share practical, step-by-step social media articles but this one is more about the bigger picture on how to create meaningful social media that will result in success. I’ll share some tools at the end of the article to make sure you’re ready to roll.
Best-selling social media author Jay Baer says, “Youtility is marketing so useful, people would pay for it (if you asked them). It’s marketing customers actually want, instead of marketing that companies think they need.”
Providing help for people for FREE can lead to paying customers down the road.
“Solve problems on a daily basis and always put your best foot forward. Be a giver first – give of your knowledge, expertise and experience.” from social media strategist Rebekah Radice
Social listening can help you find frustrated people in need of solutions in your industry. Create hashtag or keyword searches to connect with people who may turn into a grateful client down the road.
Brevity beats verbosity on social media. You’re competing with millions of posts every day. People make snap judgments and move right along if you don’t capture their interest quickly. The sweet spot for Facebook is posts with 150-200 characters performed the best in tests by BuzzSumo and 100 characters on Twitter.
The sweet spot for created content is 500 to 1,000 words.
Data from Orbit Media says, “Blog posts vary in length from a few short paragraphs (Seth Godin style) to 40,000 words (Neil Patel style). If your goal is search engine traffic, longer is better. The ideal length for a search optimized blog post is 1,500 words.”
Success favors the bold as well as the interesting on social media, so don’t hesitate to express your feelings. Guy Kawasaki’s theory is “that if you’re not pissing people off on social media, you’re not using it right.” While I don’t take as bold a stance as Guy does, pushing the boundaries is a good thing.
If everyone loves what you’re doing, you might be too bland.
Every post—literally every one—should contain “eye candy” in the form of a picture, graphic, or video. According to a study by content marketer Skyword, total views of its clients’ content increased by 94% if a published article contained a relevant photograph or infographic, when compared to articles without an image in the same category. A great graphic or embedded video is as important for the success of a post as the text.
Some stats from BuzzSumo and Mari Smith:
Image posts get 179% more interactions than the average Facebook post.
Videos are the most shared post type, with 89.5 average Facebook shares. BuzzSumo counted only shares, not likes + comments.
Hashtags are a beautiful thing. They connect posts from people all over the world and add structure to an otherwise unstructured ecosystem. When you add a hashtag to a post, you are telling people the post is relevant to a shared topic. For example, #socialmediatips connects posts that are about social media. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all support hashtags, and I recommend adding two or three to your posts. (If you use more, you look like an #idiot who’s trying to #gamethesystem.)
The sweet spot for Instagram hashtags is higher. Track Maven found “a steady increase in average interactions up through four to five hashtags per post, after which the average interactions per post actually drops.”
The jury is still out on hashtags on Facebook. They do work but they can look spammy. Do not, I repeat, do not send all your Instagram posts to Facebook and leave all the hashtags on your Facebook post. It smells of lazy social media. I like to use hashtags that are trending on Facebook and my branded hashtag which is #thanksalatte for my weekly Q & A show.
Be interested in other people to help you maintain your connection online. Remember people’s names and read their content.
Sprout Social has a great feature that you can see all the interactions with a person when you click on their profile. This is super helpful when you haven’t had a conversation with someone for a very long time.
There’s always a shiny new toy or tool popping up but you don’t have to spend a lot of time testing things – don’t pull your focus from getting real work done. It’s more important to be consistent and engaging on your social media than it is to spend too much time testing tools unless that’s the focus of your job or blog. If not, read reviews and fill in the holes in your social media plan as needed.
I hope you got some new ideas for your social media. It’s an individual process to plan and implement your social media. You won’t find a blueprint for social success that would work for every person, small business, and large brand. Take the time to work on what will make your social media unique and inviting and then put in the work.
Social media will work if you put the work in.Click To Tweet
The post 7 Little Tricks To Achieve The Best Results In Social Media appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Does creating Facebook visuals seem overwhelming for you? Are you unsure of what types of images work on Facebook? In this article, I’ll share WHY and HOW to create Facebook visuals for your marketing that will convert.
I’ll also share graphic design tools that won’t break the bank, and you’ll come away with great ideas for creating your own visuals to bring more engagement and interest to your Facebook community.
Creating the perfect social media post maximizes your great content by reaching more people. Using graphics to tell the your story is the best way to reach people. This is what I call “visual marketing.”
A solid visual brand ties all of your content together across social media platforms and helps people recognize your posts. One of the highest compliments I get on social media is when people say “I saw a beautiful graphic and immediately knew that it was yours so I had to read it.” People recognize my style of graphics, my signature pink circle logo in the corner, and know when they click through they can trust my content to be worthy of their time.
That’s WHY you spend the time to create a visual style.
Use your brand’s style guide to help you create branded, on-target visual marketing every time.
Try creating your own style guide using the following simple structure: [or hire a pro to create one for you]
Adding an emotional layer to your social media content is what engages your Facebook Page community. Strive to create content that:
Images that convert are images that fit into your brand, explain your content, and inspire people to click and learn more from your post.
REMEMBER to KISS your images: keep it simple, sweetheart.Click To TweetOvercomplicating images with too much text or multiple fonts that distract from your image don’t help your visual marketing. Facebook has removed the 20% text rule for Facebook promoted images but they say that images with too much text will be seen less in the Newsfeed. This needs to be repeated: Facebook says that photos with too much text will be shown to less people even if you promote or boost the post.
From Facebook, “Facebook prefers ad images with little or no text, because images with a lot of text may create a lower-quality experience for people on Facebook.”
Image Text Ratings
Image Text: OK
Your ad will run normally.
Image Text: Low
Your ad’s reach may be slightly lower.
Image Text: Medium
Your ad’s reach may be much lower.
Image Text: High
Your ad may not run.
Look at your social media posts and really dig deep to see if you’re using visuals to tell your story or just posting photos with your posts. They’re two different things.
Here’s an example from Biltmore Estate, who is a client, on their Facebook Page. They asked a question with a graphic and engaged thousands of people to answer, like and even share their post.
There is some psychology as to why people share on social media (based on a study done by The New York Times). Here is a little of what they found, people like to share:
Strive to create share-worthy visuals for your Facebook Page that will help your content spread to more people.
I hope this gives you some ideas to create more contextual visuals for your Facebook Page and convert more social media impressions to actual clients.
The post How to Create Facebook Visuals that Convert appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
Visual storytelling has been in part of our culture since men first drew pictures of Wooly Mammoth hunts on cave walls with charcoal from the fire pit.
We’re still drawn to stories and storytellers today but the ability to reach hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people with visuals in the form of viral videos, GIFs, or memes.
I presented this keynote at BarkWorld and I thought you’d enjoy it too!
Social media isn’t one size fits all.
Telling your own unique story connects people with you and helps you grow your community. Visuals are crucial to building and growing but are you telling your story?
Camera Awesome iOS and Android
VSCO – edit like an Instagram star
Planoly – Instagram management and planning tool
Adobe Spark – I’m a brand ambassador for Adobe Spark because I love using their app on my iPhone, iPad, and desktop to create fantastic graphics, animations, and even videos!
Canva for Work Canva makes it easy to create beautiful on-brand marketing materials, presentations and social media graphics. Canva for Work makes it easy to stay on brand.
Look at your social media posts and really dig deep to see if you’re using visuals to tell your story or just posting photos with your posts. They’re two different things.
Visual storytelling is the heart of social media with video and visual social media taking the lead in the race to reach people. I hope these ideas and tools help you find your path to telling your visual story.
The post The Art of Visual Storytelling appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
I recently gave a keynote speech at a hackathon at Simmons College in Boston called Lean In and Push Back. I gave a really different presentation because I’m a tactical presenter. I’m usually teaching people how to use Instagram and how to use Facebook. But these students are the future of our workforce specifically in the tech industry, and so I thought, “If I was a college student and going out into the world, what would I need to know?” I wanted to give an overview of things that I wished I knew when I was working when I was in my 20s.
Below is the transcript of my presentation. You can watch the video here:
It’s titled Lean In and Push Back because I love Sheryl Sandberg’s whole concept of leaning in and helping each other. Guess what? You guys are millennials. You’re going to have to push back a little bit too because we’re a little bit too passive when we’re in our 20s. We’re in the workplace and we just don’t know it until years later and you realize, “I could’ve done something differently.” You guys are all going to have a great upper hand when you get out there and get started.
As Shayla mentioned, I did write a book. I think it’s interesting to share. I do live in New Hampshire. Shayla’s from New Hampshire. It’s very small place and, yet, I have worked for companies like Motorola and Audi, McDonald’s. I work with Adobe right now on their Spark project. It’s really an awesome work environment because it doesn’t matter where you live. I always tell people I’m just a girl with a computer and I come up with ideas and I make it happen.I was a stay home mom for many years. I had been out of the workplace for a long time and I created a whole different job essentially for myself and creating this really cool thing that I love. Today more than ever you have the opportunity of working for a corporation or starting your own really awesome thing from wherever you are with your great tech skills, which was not available when I was graduating.
I was a stay home mom for many years. I had been out of the full time workplace for a long time and I created a whole different career for myself and created this really cool thing that I love. Today more than ever you have the opportunity of working for a corporation or starting your own really awesome thing from wherever you are with your great tech skills, which was not available when I was graduating.
The first thing I want to talk about is pushing the boundaries, which I touched on a little bit. When you’re going out into the world, you don’t have to just take what’s expected. I created my whole thing. My husband kept telling me, “I don’t think what you’re trying to do is a job. No one is going to pay you to do this.” I’m like, “They will. I’ll be awesome at it and people will love it.” Now he’s like, “Honey, you go work on the computer.” He’s all about it now. It took a lot of work, but you can really push the boundaries with your ideas these days. The internet has connected the whole entire world.
It’s interesting because, like I said, you can connect with people anywhere, you can push all the boundaries.
Don’t think I have to just apply to this job, that I just need to fill out my LinkedIn profile and wait for things to happen. You guys, more than any other generation, can really just make really awesome things by pushing the boundaries.
Back in the day, I don’t even know if they do this anymore, but Glamour Magazine used to have these things called Glamour Dos and Glamour Don’ts. Do they have those anymore? It was this girl with an awesome outfit, she was a Glamour Do. The don’ts have a little black stripe across their face so you didn’t see her face because her outfit was so bad. These are the dos and don’ts. These are the things that you don’t want to accept.
Way back in the day when I worked at Merrill Lynch when it was just Merrill Lynch … I don’t know if it’s been, bought, sold and a million other things at this point. The manager of the office used to call me all kinds of cute nicknames because he thought I was really nice. I think he probably thought it was a compliment that he really liked me and he called me Pegatha. He had so many “cute” nicknames for me.
When you’re 20, you don’t know what to say. “Can you please call me by my name?” You’re in a position where you think “I can’t do anything about it.”
Now, you guys have a lot more information in your toolkits than we did back then. If you ever feel like you’re being patronized by someone using demeaning language or anything like that, speak up and say, “I’d prefer it if you would call me Peggy,” or whatever name you want to go by.
It’s things like that that sometimes we don’t realize until later. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal. Maybe it is a big deal. Those are the things that undermine your authority and your professionalism. It is hard when you’re young because you go in and everybody else as been there longer, people know each other, they have the ropes down already and you’re new.
I had really a bad situation. I worked at a bank before I worked at Merrill Lynch, and I had confidential payroll information on my desk and somebody actually went and looked at employment numbers. I had no idea, in my 20s, that someone would do that. Who would be that unprofessional that they would go through other people’s things on desks? Guess what? People did it.
I’ve had people do that on computers. I had somebody in the IT department delete a whole presentation right before I was supposed to give it. Little did she know, I can work really fast and I recreated it, and I didn’t say one word. I just went and I redid it.
It’s unfortunate that when you go out in the workplace sometimes everybody isn’t necessarily going to be maybe your best friend, but that’s okay. You just have to be professional be prepared.
Being harassed, again, you guys have a lot more in your toolkits now in the workplace. There’s a lot more laws. There’s also been ways that you can be harassed that are just super subtle. Being in the computer science field, you guys are going to have to deal with it, unfortunately, I think, a lot more than other fields because it’s out there. It’s not friendly all the time, but you guys can handle it if you just make sure that you document things if they do happen. If it’s something that makes you feel uncomfortable, that can be harassment without it being something huge or lots of things. It can be little things that happen over time.
There are many different ways that harassment occurs. If it makes you feel harassed, it’s harassment. That’s the bottom line. Make sure when you get a job, which, of course, you guys all will get awesome jobs, you check the paperwork and you keep it because there may be some time when you may need to go back and find the person that you can go and talk to.
Unfortunately, I did have harassment issues. I did deal with them. I went in and I was like, “This isn’t okay.” I was told, because this is before the strong harassment laws, “They produce a lot of money. Do you think you can just handle it? Do you think it would be okay?” I was like, “No, I really don’t think it will be okay.”
That person did not get fired. Today, that wouldn’t have happened. That person would’ve been fired. There would’ve been more going on. That time, I did report it. It’s unfortunate that those things happen, but just don’t feel bad if you ever have to push back on things because it’s your job. There’s people that may have been there longer and they think they can get away with things, but they can’t unless you let them. You definitely don’t want to do that.
This is mostly for the females in the room. For some reason, our gender apologizes. “I’m really sorry, but I hate to interrupt you.” “I’m sorry.” We apologize all the time. I don’t know why. I think we’re just really polite, which is very nice, but when you enter a workplace, that can be seen as a weakness, to apologize for things. Think about how you’re phrasing things, and if you’re apologizing for things that aren’t really … If you’re just asking someone a question, it’s their jobs to answer the question whether it’s a professor, a boss, whoever. Think about it and don’t apologize for things that don’t need an apology.
Now that I’ve told you that, hopefully think about it, but it’s just something that we do. We apologize way too much.
Mostly ourselves, and other people. Just stop judging. Cut people some slack, cut yourself some slack. You don’t need to be so hard on yourself. Take a breath, don’t judge everything. I know I am the worst judge of myself. I am my own worst critic. If you can appease yourself, guarantee that everybody else, number one, they’re probably not even paying attention. Because we think everybody’s got their eyes focused on us, but most people are focusing on themselves, too. Don’t judge.
Then, how many people have been personally victimized Regina George? You don’t even go here. On the internet a mean girl isn’t necessarily Regina George because we don’t necessarily see the person pulling up in the comfortable to tell us to go shopping with them. Mean girl behavior really honestly does exist in forums, live on Twitter. All over the place. Be cautious and be aware that mean girl behavior happens. If you see it happening, remove yourself from conversations.
One of the things I used to feel really bad about was unfollowing people or blocking people. I felt like, “We want that person,” like it was so mean of me to do that. Guess what? It’s not mean. They’re not your friend. They’re harassing you. Everybody’s not out to be friends with everybody. Some people just enjoy being mean to other people. For whatever reason, they do. When you see mean girl behavior, whether if at work, in the tech industry, anywhere that you are, address it or ignore it, however you choose to deal with it, but you don’t have to accept it. You don’t have to let people harass.
I’m sure you guys probably saw the story with Leslie Jones who’s on Saturday Night Live and she was in Ghostbusters. For some reason, some people online just hate her. They are horrible. They harassed her so much on Twitter that she left Twitter and she was like, “I can’t deal with this.”
They went and they doxed her. They went on her website, they hacked her site, they hacked her phone, her email, all of her pictures, and, of course, the news sources aren’t even savvy enough to know what doxing is, but I know you guys all know. They even put some of her personal information. They put a copy of her passport on her homepage. Serious things can happen. It’s not just little teeny things. These are serious issues.
The laws haven’t even really caught up to the things that are happening. If you see stuff like that you’d want to avoid. It. The levels of mean girl behavior went from just a little harassment, like Regina George, to now you can get doxed and all of those things, so it can be really serious. Make sure that, if things happen with you, you address it if your accounts get hacked or something like that. I’m sure you guys all have really great passwords. You guys must know more about IT safety than I do, so I’m assuming no one has Password 1234 or any of those kinds of things. Still, if somebody really wants to, obviously they can hack it. I don’t know if the stars necessarily all have great passwords, but they certainly need to get better with it that it was that easy.
Then I wanted to leave you from this section with a quote from Katherine Hepburn which I love, which she said, “I put on pants 50 years ago and declared a middle road. I’ve not lived as a woman, I’ve lived as a man. I’ve done just damn well what I wanted to and I made enough money to support myself and I’m not afraid of being alone.”
She wore pants a long time ago when it was not cool at all. Back in the day, when I started work, I had to wear skirts, pantyhose, and heels every day to work. What a pain. I’m thankful you guys can wear much more comfortable clothes, especially if you’re startup people. Comfy tech t-shirts, Converse, skinny jeans forever, and possible a cardigan on the side.
It’s just nice to know that some women before us really did make a push in the workplace. She was a Hollywood actress, which was even a bigger deal. I think that we made a ton of strides in the workplace and then we stopped a little bit. I feel like it just went back to what it was.
All the different equality things that you could have at work are not there yet, so I’m hoping that you guys can really push it and get the gender wage gap fixed because I think everybody should make the same amount of money. Don’t you agree?
I love this quote. If you think about it, working together, as you guys are going to do on Hackathon, really makes everyone better.
Try not to think of everything as a me, and think of a we. Whether you just have a couple friends that you’re working with, a couple teammates, whoever it is, even if it’s just one really awesome person, working as a team helps make you better. Having a mentor makes you better, being a mentor makes you better.
All of these things can help make us better. Think about working together and floating everyone’s boats.
These are things that are a-okay, which would be a Glamour Do.
Support other women in tech any way that you can whether it’s reading someone’s book and share it. We were just talking about #GirlBoss before. Sophia Amoruso is so amazing. She wrote her book #GirlBoss, if you guys haven’t read it yet, it’s super good, it got picked up by Netflix. It’s going to be a show.
People are doing awesome things.
Find other women in tech that you can support whether it’s code that they wrote, a blog post that they shared, something someway that you can support other women in tech. Definitely do it.
Men can do the most to help women because other men helping women be successful, treating them like equals, makes a huge difference for everybody.
It’s a very hard skill, and it goes back to that thank you thing, but you’re going to need to learn to negotiate when you’re getting hired because somebody will make you an offer. You don’t necessarily have to take that first offer. As much as you really want a job, you don’t have to take the first thing someone offers you. You can counter offer and you can get a better offer. You’d don’t have to necessarily take it.
It’s one of those that men traditionally do better than women and they make more money because of it. Why don’t we negotiate so we can make more money? I’d say yes. I do it, and then sometimes they accept it right away and I’m like, “Next time, I’m raising it.” You know what happens when I raise it? I still get more clients. It works. I tested it. It totally works.
Again, you guys being especially in this environment are awesome with these things.Think about that when you’re in the workplace or any place because if you’re tech it can be competitive.
New jobs are competitive, but just be inclusive and include everyone, accept everybody’s ideas, and then you can really grow together.
This seems like a trite statement, but, honestly, you’d be surprised how many workplaces aren’t positive. There aren’t very many people that do things to support a positive work environment, and it makes a huge difference in the whole office. If you have somebody who makes cookies on people’s birthdays or does things like that, it makes a huge difference to make everybody get along better and just to make it a better work environment.
People are stressed … Especially computer science; you guys work weird hours, you’re up late, you could be grouchy. Just try to encourage kindness by being kind.
Not a gold digger. Set goals and work really hard because I know that with the education that you guys are getting and the opportunities that you’re going to have, you’ll be able to create some really awesome goals and really begin to make them happen.
I leave you with a quote from Tina Fey who, of course, also wrote Mean Girls. I Tina Feyed twice, but how can you not because she’s Tina Fey?
“If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: who cares?”
The post Lean In and Push Back: A Love Letter to Girls in Tech appeared first on Peg Fitzpatrick.
