How to Generate More Leads & Customers Using Social Media Videos [Free Ebook]

Did you know that the use of video content for B2B marketers jumped from 8% to 58% in 2014 alone? More than that, the number of videos brands publish on Facebook has increased by 3.6x year over year.

But does all this video really help marketers succeed?

The short answer: Yes.

Social media posts that contain videos boost views by 48%, and visual content on Facebook specifically increases engagement by 65%. This means that not only are more people seeing your content as a result of video, but they're actually engaging with it, too. That's value.

Not sure where to start with video for your social media account? Don't worry, you aren't alone. HubSpot and Wistia have teamed together to bring you an interactive guide ... with videos. This guide will show you how you can start making videos that are optimized for each social media platform today.

You'll learn:

• How to create & implement a video social media strategy
• How to make awesome videos by turning your office into a DIY studio
• The best lighting, microphones, and tools to help you shoot high quality iPhone videos

View the free interactive guide to get started with video today.

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6 Practical Tips to Organically Increase Your Twitter Followers

Twitter is an excellent social media platform for expanding your reach to a larger set of audience. Today, businesses of all sizes are using it as an integral medium for promoting brand awareness. While the number of followers a brand can attract is a fair indication of its popularity, it may not always depict the right picture. Quality is much more important than sheer numbers. In order to achieve promotional success on Twitter, it's important to build a loyal base of engaged users.

While there are hundreds of ways to increase the count of followers on Twitter, you need to take the route which is going to bring you success in the longer run. Buying Twitter followers is cheap and easy, but what purpose is it going to serve? Similarly, there are a number of free and premium tools available in the market which can bring you followers in aplenty - but there's a high probability that none of them would be interested in your business. The need of the hour is to attract genuine followers, who would have a common interest on the niche you are dealing in.

So dump all the unethical ideas out of the window and be prepared to do the hard work. It may seem to be a time-consuming exercise, but do keep it in mind that success has no short-cuts! Concentrate on ethical ways of bringing organic followers to your business and success will automatically follow suit.

Here in this article, we are going to introduce you to 6 practical and ethical ways of building a targeted set of followers on Twitter organically. Let's find out 6 sure-fire ways of using Twitter's social reach to promote your business extensively and effectively.

1. Have a Catchy Yet Precise Bio:

Your best bet to impress perspective users is the 160-character 'bio' section. You need to be extremely careful in using this limited space wisely. Bring out the creative soul in you to craft the bio section in a precise manner. Avoid information overdose, but at the same time, it would be a huge boost if you can include important keywords related to your business. A few catchy words can sometimes do real wonder. An ideal bio should provoke readers to express interest in your brand and for that to happen, you must provide them a reason for following you.

2. Use Appropriate Hash-tags:

If users are the heart of Twitter, then hash-tags are its soul. Hash-tags are important to make the most out of Twitter's search functionality. Twitter uses hash-tags to map tweets to keywords. It allows other users to search and discover your tweets. Again, you need to be cautious in using hash-tags and limit it to one or two relevant keywords per tweet. Excessive hash-tagging can be regarded as a spamming behavior and may annoy your potential followers.

3. Tweet Live Updates:

If you are attending any live events related to your business, then tweet interesting bits of news to your Twitter followers with proper hash-tags. It is your chance to get found by people who may not be on your followers list but share a common subject of interest with you.

4. Join Twitter Chats:

Join Twitter Chats related to your business niche to grow your reputation among targeted audience. Be an active participant and try to add value to the discussions. It would help you to get noticed by potential followers. Twitter Chat can go a long way to establish a business network with like-minded folks and subsequently gain you new connections.

5. Let People Be Aware of Your Presence:

Ensure that you are leaving no stones unturned to display your Twitter handle in as many ways as possible. Include your Twitter profile in email signatures, highlight it on your websites, share it through your business cards and let the world know that you are on Twitter. The greater your reach spreads, the higher is your chance to attract new followers.

6. Cross-Promotion on Other Platforms:

Another effective technique to grow your Twitter follower is to promote it on other social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. If you have a quality website that gets tons of regular readers, then make the most out of it by placing links to your Twitter profile in a visible section 'above the fold'. In-case you don't have, then it's time to start a blog and create a healthy readership. It would not be too difficult a task to attract the regular readers in following you on Twitter.

Always remember that solely concentrating on self-promotion can severely dent your reputation. It's equally important to keep your followers engaged. Off-topic discussions on unrelated subjects can also prove to be useful in certain cases. Above all, you need to allocate consistent efforts on Twitter, follow a planned schedule and tweet regularly.

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10 Ways To Continue A Conversation With Someone On Social Media

Social media is commonly used as a platform for marketers to promote their content and products. Millions of businesses use social media to communicate with their customers every day. These conversations are typically one-sided. Business accounts send out tweets but don’t bother responding to their customers.

Businesses and individuals need to have more conversations with their audiences. It is conversations that allow the strongest relationships to occur. You don’t get long-lasting friends that matter by having one-sided conversations with them. You need to have a conversation with someone if you want to build a strong relationship with that person.

However, the conversations that create friendships are more than the wave, the greeting, and then the departure. Conversations that build strong relationships need to last for a long period of time. In order to continue a conversation with someone on social media that turns into a strong relationship, follow these 10 tips.

#1: Wish Your Followers A Wonderful Week/Weekend

At the end of many of my conversations, I wish people a wonderful week or weekend depending on the day of the week. I do this for two reasons. The first reason is that I do want these people to enjoy their weeks and weekends. We have the right to enjoy our lives. The second reason is that this ending encourages the conversation to develop. Many of my followers also wish me a wonderful week/weekend depending on the day of the week.

#2: Ask A Question

Questions are great ways to continue a conversation. After one of my followers wishes me a wonderful week/weekend, I ask that followers what he/she has planned for the week/weekend. Many people respond telling me all of the things they have to do for the week/weekend. I follow up with a list of things I have to do as well. Asking this question allows me to learn what my followers do. If I find a pattern, I may create a product around that pattern.

On a simpler scale, you can start a conversation by asking what your followers’ favorite books are. Asking these types of questions to all of your followers will start up multiple conversations.

#3: Have Multiple Conversations With The Same Person

Just because a conversation ends does not mean you and the person you were talking to will never have another conversation together. You can talk to the same person again and again, just like a real-life friendship.

#4: Thank Your Followers For Sharing Your Content

One of the best ways to start a conversation is with an act of gratitude. I constantly thank the people who share my content with their audiences. I have thanked the same people multiple times. Many of the people who I thank either say something like, “You’re welcome,” or “Thank you for putting up the content so I could share it.” If you get one of these two responses, you should continue the conversation with that person.

Most marketers are so focused on sharing and creating content that they forget to thank the people who appreciate them. Some of the people who share your articles will feel so grateful that you thanked them that these people will continue sharing your content. When you do this, it is important to avoid abusing this power (don’t use this to manipulate your followers), and in the end, your followers will only share your content if it is valuable.

#5: Include Pictures In Your Posts

Social media posts with pictures have been proven to get more engagement than social media posts without pictures. If you include pictures in more of your posts, you will start more conversations with your followers. Some of the people who engage with your pictures will be people who have had conversations with you in the past. You can continue interacting with these people to strengthen the relationships and interact with other people for the first time to start new relationships.

#6: Only Talk To The Right People

Not every social media user is created equal. Ideally, you want to talk to the people who are interested in the content you share on your social networks. These are the people who would be more likely to share your content and be grateful for your insights. You want to build an audience of like-minded people so that, when the conversations do take place, you are talking to the right people. In addition, when you hop onto a conversation, make sure the people in that conversation are the right people to talk with (like-minded people who share an interest in your niche).

#7: Respond Quicker

You can’t have much of a conversation with someone else unless you respond. The longest conversations that take place are the ones where people quickly respond to each other. Most of these conversations are real human interaction without any technology involved. On social media, you need technology to communicate with your followers. However, you can make those conversations last longer by responding quicker as if you were in a real conversation.

I make it a policy to get back to my followers within a day. Depending on when the conversation starts and when I log in, I may get back to some people within a few seconds or close to 24 hours. By responding quicker, your followers will be more likely to remember the conversation when they see your response.

#8: Quiz Your Followers

Quizzing your followers is a great way to start more conversations. You can quiz your followers by giving them a clue to identify someone, something, or an event such as, “Who was the 33rd President of the United States?” The answer to that question is Harry S. Truman. Of course, some followers may choose to look that up, but you get more interaction.

The best quiz questions are the ones that require a guess. Think “How many pieces of candy are in the box” type of questions. You can offer a free prize to the first person who guesses the right answer or is the closest to the right answer.

#9: Poll

Polls are another way to start conversations. Facebook has an especially great feature that makes poll creation easier. For any social network though, you can simply list poll choices like this:

What should my next product be about?

A. Pinterest

B. Twitter

C. Facebook

D. Blogging

E. Productivity

In less than a minute, I just created a poll that could be put on any social network, including Twitter with its 140 character limit. This type of poll would allow me to know what products my followers want. Having this knowledge would allow me to make better decisions when I create my future products. You can ask any poll question such as, “Which social network do you like the most…” Not all of them have to be related to your products or expertise.

#10: Thoughtfully Contribute To The Conversation

When you contribute to a conversation, you need to thoughtfully contribute to that conversation. In human interaction, we don’t have as much time to think about what we say. We say what we think of. Sometimes, we say thoughtful things while at other times, we say things that we should have thought about before saying. On social media, you have time to think about what you say. Utilize the extra time to think before you post something on social media. Then, you will have a better reply to a conversation that makes the conversation build.

In Conclusion

Conversations are important on social media because they allow relationships to build. Some of these relationships may turn into sales, subscribers, and people who promote you for a long time. However, most conversations on social media are either one-sided or do not last for a long period of time. Everything you post is the start of a conversation. It is up to you to post the type of content your followers would be encouraged to engage with. Then it is up to you to keep those conversations going so you can build stronger relationships with your followers.

What are your thoughts on having conversations on social media? Do you have any other tips for making a conversation continue for a longer period of time? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

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15 Essential Content Creation Apps You Need Right Now

Writing is your drawcard.

It’s the number one tool you have at your fingertips for marketing an online business.

So it needs to be good.

You need to write compelling copy that engages readers, gets them to listen up and encourages them to buy.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could create content faster without giving up on quality?

Today I’m going to introduce you to 15 content creation apps that will make your job (and life) easier. 

From coming up with new content ideas, to writing content and eventually promoting it.

Let’s get straight into it.

Coming up with content ideas

This is often the most difficult step for a content creator.

What should I write about?

And frankly, a blank page is not helping at all.

Readers are tired of the same old topics and tips. They are always expecting something out of the ordinary, life changing and breath taking. Without these catchy topics, people won’t come back for more.

So here are some sources of inspiration.

1. Feedly

Feedly offers a daily inspiration of great content ideas.

Things happen all the time, in absolutely every field. But as a writer, you can’t afford to browse tons of websites to look for interesting news. This takes too much time.

This is why Feedly exists! This web app gathers news from different websites all in one place.

Users can select the sources and sort the news by topics. After this, you only have to log in and bam – News comes to you!

Now pick up the catchiest topic one and start writing.

2. Mindnote

Sometimes, people expect to find material solutions to the problems they read about. So a good idea for coming up with an appealing topic is to first find a new and innovative product.

Then, the rest is simple as pie – start the article with the issue, suggest the solution and introduce the product that can actually sort things out. MindNote is the best place to apply this method.

3. ContentGems

ContentGems puts together particular kinds of news in one daily e-mail. You can choose the topics of interest and a list of articles comes straight to your inbox.

This is a great method for coming up with a writing topics every day.

4. FAQ Fox

This is a great place for finding out what topics people are looking for online.

FAQ Fox gathers information from a large variety of websites.

Here is how it works – users type in a term, hit search and select the websites they want to track down. Next, the platform displays questions and answers related to that particular term.

Writers can spot the unsatisfactory answers and create a qualitative article on that topic.

This method guarantees readership!

5. Creativity Portal

Creativity Portal is famous for helping writers and other artists guide their creativity. It provides inspirational materials – e-journals, articles, posts, and so on.

How can you take advantage of this platform?

Read about the topics you are interested in and use them for inspiration, information, writing style, etc.

Just remember not to plagiarize!

Creating better content

Sure, marketing is kind of on auto pilot these days. But writing still requires a human mind. And yes, I know how exhausting this can be!

Fortunately, smart IT guys have invented several content creation apps to help us research, write, edit, and design content.

Below, I have chosen some of the top picks.

6. Papersgear

Proofreading takes some time and energy. Wouldn’t it be better to start writing the next article rather than edit the already completed one?

In this case, you just need some professional editors willing to verify and improve the content. Papersgear has a great team with experienced employers who can help you publish nothing less than perfect articles.

Also, if you need help with writing something, count on this website. Writers cover all niches and deliver pretty impressive work.

7. Hemingway App

The famous writer, Ernest Hemingway, was well known for his style – simple, short sentences. As a consequence, this is exactly the purpose of this platform – to guide writers to create easy to understand phrases and texts. After all, this is the main requirement for online content.

The app is really easy to use – you just copy and paste text and see the evaluation.

At first, I was happy to learn that our articles were at college level or higher. But guess what? This is the opposite of what you should aim for!

Online readers need to grasp the meaning of an article as fast as possible. The tool also spots passive voice. This is something to be avoided, because it makes sentences long and harder to understand.

8. InboundWriter

Ok, you already have the topic of your next article. But now, it is vital to know how to write it and what to include in it.

The solution is to use InboundWriter. This tool allows you to monitor certain topics and spot the improvements you will need to make to resonate with your readers.

9. Creately

This tool is amazing when it comes to organizing and structuring a future article.

Your life becomes easier when things are clearly sitting in front of you. So use this platform to create diagrams, charts, infographics, and so on.

It works on the basic principle of drag and drop, and it even accepts photos. However, it has a major downside – every project is public, unless users pay for it.

10. Glipho

Glipho allows writers to publish their content and users from all around the world can come up with ideas for the sequel. What better method to find out what people want to read about?

Submit a part of an article, and wait for reactions. Then choose the best idea and finish the text.

Content targeting and optimization

After the content is done, it is time to check its effectiveness. Marketers bet on emotional keywords and SEO. These methods are great to ensure readership.

There are online tools that can evaluate content from this point of view. They will tell you if a title is too long, or not strong enough; if the content is redundant or it has way too many SEO terms.

In this way, you will know what exactly to do in order to improve the content and make it more “commercial”.

11. Headline Analyzer

Did you know that only 62% of readers go beyond the headline of an article?

As a direct consequence, this one is vital for attracting and keeping readership interested. Learn how to boost your headlines by using this online tool.

The Headline Analyzer, created by CoSchedule, is more than useful. It says what kind of words the title contains (common, uncommon, emotional, powerful); the headline type (if you got “generic”, keep trying); it analyzes the length; it even offers a Google search preview and an e-mail subject line preview; it shows you the keywords and the sentiment caused by the titled (you need positive emotions).

12. Zmags

The team at Zmags can create digital materials meant to capture your audiences attention and bring in more and more views. The website owns several products that help writers create and publish content.

13. PRWeb

Attract readers by letting them know you exist.

Use PRWeb to send search-engine-optimized press releases. These ones will promote the articles to everybody interested on that particular topic – subscribers, visitors of the website, and even journalists.

14. Scribe content

This is a valuable tool for every writer and marketer. Scribe analyzes the readers’ preferences and tells you if the content is optimized for sharing.

How does it do that?

Well, it collects conversations from Twitter and Google+, regarding the term introduced by the user.

Then, it also guides users towards creating content that will be better ranked by search engines. In the end, the result will be an easier and more effective marketing campaign.

15. Test My Marketing (TMM)

TMM offers a professional opinion regarding any kind of marketing and advertising materials. The team is made up of professionals in the field who can tell you from one look if the campaign is going to be successful or not.

Or course, after all this criticizing, the marketers will also offer you some guidelines for improving the content. Take advantage of these precious indications and use them for future campaigns.

What do you think…

Which one is your favorite?

What content creation apps would you add to this list?

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4 Lesser Known Facebook Ad Tips to Get the Most For Your Budget

I’m a huge fan of how easy Facebook has made it to advertise on their platform. You can create a campaign with zero experience and have it submitted to Facebook Ad Approvers within minutes. It’s truly a powerful time we live in.

Want to know what’s not amazing? The fact that there are some incredibly profitable elements that 99% of Facebook Advertisers don’t know about. In this post, I’m going to help you:

• Find the ads that work best for you
• Find the audience segments that work best for you
• Spend your money in the smartest, most strategic way possible
• Improve your interest targeting

With these tips, you’ll be able to eliminate the unprofitable parts of your campaigns, find the hidden gems, and massively improve your targeting.

 

Split Test Your Ads for Maximum Profit

Want to run the same campaign but double your results? Then you better be split testing your ads. The visual nature of Facebook can cause one ad to perform very differently from another ad.The above screenshot is a 7-day period from an ad set using all the same targeting for the same product. The only difference between ads A, B, and C is the image itself.

The results are three ads that performed incredibly different:

• Ad A: Photo of a model wearing the product: 5.0% CTR & $4.74 CPA

• Ad B: Photo of the product against white background: 5.4% CTR & $10.01 CPA

• Ad C: Split photo of model & product: 3.0% CTR & $6.65 CPA

Had I just launched one ad (Ad B), my CPA would end up being more than double my best ad!

Want to find the perfect combination of ads that will give you the lowest CPA and highest profit?Here’s how we do it at Search Scientists:

• Start with at least five images per ad set.

• Write at least two ad texts

• Write at least two headlines

• From here, you’ll have 5 x 2 x 2 = 20 ads.

Check your Facebook Reporting every 24 hours, and begin pausing ads with the lowest performing combinations.

It takes time to optimize this way, but you can see from the example, the results can be incredible if you take the time to create ads in this manner.

Segment Your Reporting Data

When it comes to optimizing paid traffic accounts, I like to follow a simple (and fairly obvious) rule: Do more of what works, and do less of what doesn’t work.

 It’s a simple principle that can have a massive impact in your Facebook Ads Account when applied consistently.

Let’s say we had a target of $75 cost per website conversion in the above campaign. When we open up the data for the campaign, we see a $106 CPA, should we give up and pause the campaign? Not without digging deeper!

Navigate to Reports > Breakdown. Here, you can discover the easiest way to find opportunity in your account. Turn off the poor performing areas, and allocate the budget towards the profitable parts of your account. In the example above, I’d be turning off several age groups, and would instantly be at my goal CPA.

Other great questions you can answer with the “breakdown” tab on Facebook reports

• Age (What age is connecting with your ads?)

• Gender (What gender is buying your products?)

• Age & Gender (Is there a combination that is most profitable? Maybe 18-24 year old guys aren’t fans of the product, but 18-24 year old women are)

• Country / Region (What geographic region is most expensive to advertise in?)

• Placement (Do my ads work better on mobile, desktop, or right-hand side?)

When you begin exploring the inner workings of your account, you’ll start to discover that campaign-level summaries don’t tell the whole story.

Build Campaign Priority Lists

When it comes to Facebook Ads, not all campaigns are created equally.

There are campaign strategies that should receive more of your attention and budget, and other campaigns that should be created only after developing a strong foundation.

Advanced marketers develop Campaign Priority Lists to allocate their funds to the best strategies first. Before you approach challenging campaigns, be sure to capitalize on low-hanging fruit first.

So where should you begin?

Top Priority: Users Who Are in Buy Mode

Targeting Strategy: Retargeting Product Viewers

After you installed your custom audience pixel on all of your pages, you can begin creating segmented retargeting lists. People who have already viewed your product pages have already completed all the hard work to make it there. They found your content, opted in, and viewed your product. These people are ready to buy. Give them a gentle nudge to convert, and you’ll start Facebook Ads with a high converting, low-cost masterpiece of a campaign.

Pro Tip: Serve these ads with a high bid 72 hours after viewing a product page. 

Mid-Priority: Users Who Know Your Brand

Targeting Strategies: Retargeting Website Viewers, Fans, Email Lists, Friends of Your Fans Who are Fans of Competitors

After targeting product viewers, let’s take one step up to a mid-priority campaign strategy and capture the users who already know about your brand.

Imagine you sell wedding invitations. A soon-to-be bride may look at seven different websites in a week. Just because they left your site without converting doesn’t mean they’re not ready to buy. Creating campaigns to target users who already know your brand but haven’t purchased yet is another low-cost way to capture the attention of users deep in the sales funnel.

Low-Priority: Users Who Have Never Heard of You [Interest Targeting]

After you have patched holes in the deeper sections of your sales funnel using the high and mid-priority targeting strategies, it’s time to open up the floodgates of traffic.

Targeting users that haven’t heard of you or previously looked at your products are less likely to convert than the previous campaigns I mentioned. However, that doesn’t mean you can build wildly successful campaigns targeting completely cold traffic with interest targeting.

To make interest targeting successful, remember to advertise appropriately. Someone who hasn’t searched for your product may not be ready to take out their credit card and spend money. However, if your target appropriately, you may be able to add value to their lives without asking them to buy anything. At this stage of targeting, you’ll want to use engaging landing pages and utilize a sales funnel to nurture the lead over time. This way, when the person is ready to convert, they do it with you.

Campaign Priority Wildcard: Lookalike Targetting

When it comes to Facebook ads, one of my favorite campaigns to run is a lookalike campaign. It works like this:

-Person completes certain action on your site (purchases, adds to cart, is on email list, etc..)

-Facebook then finds demographic data about that person and finds other people are similar

The reason these lookalike campaigns are a wildcard is simple: Facebook Lookalike Targeting isn’t perfect. For example, if you upload a sample list of 1,000 people, Facebook may spit back 2.5 million lookalikes.

When Facebook provides you with a lot of potential lookalikes, combine it with another targeting method. You can target fans of “Social Media Explorer”, only if they are on my lookalike list. Stacking these two kinds of targeting allows you to zoom in on the precise person you’re looking for.

Leverage Boolean Operators

One of the biggest, most impactful mistakes I see when it comes to Facebook Ads is a train of thought you have surely practiced.

Let’s do a little experiment and fire up the audience builder in Facebook.

Suppose I want to target runners who like technology.

First, I type in runners:

Wow, 33,000,000 people!

Now let’s narrow it down by adding the interest “technology”:

Uh… Wait a second… 

Wait a second. How did the audience size increase?  Wasn’t narrowing down my targeting by finding only the subgroup of runners who also like technology?

Unfortunately, no you weren’t.

Instead, we’re targeting people that like to go running, as well as a completely separate group of people that like to like technology.

This principle is so important when creating your ads, and it’s worth repeating for clarity. You are targeting two separate groups: Technology followers are your first group, and runners are your second group. There might be some overlap, but, for the most part, these are separate buckets. This is why the audience size increases when we add new interests.

Think about it: If you’re targeting a subgroup, the more interests you add – the audience size should get smaller. It doesn’t. The more interests you add, the larger your audience gets.

I typed in even more interests, and my audience only grew:

Facebook hides this little fact from most of its documentation. When selecting interests, you are using an “OR” variable. In the example above, we’re targeting runners OR fans of technology. We are not targeting “People who are runners AND like technology readers.”

So how can you improve your targeting, zooming to the audience you truly want to target?

The first is the segmentation of your campaigns. In this example we’ve been using, you would create one campaign targeting “surfers” and another targeting “technology.” It’s not perfect, but the goal here is to determine which interest is more profitable for you and optimize accordingly.

The second way to serve ads to the audience you intend is to use the Facebook Ads API.

If you’re not a developer, have no fear. There are many applications that handle this for you. Ad Espresso and Qwaya are two of the big names in this space. At Search Scientists, we use Ad Espresso, and it allows us to hit the center of the Venn Diagram for our clients.

See in the example above, I’m using the “and” variable. This time, I’m targeting people who are interested in running AND technology.

This time, when I enter all of those extra targeting methods, my audience zooms into the smallest level, only 6,000 users.

With the ideal targeting your ads will take off like never before. It’s all about finding the most ideal audience possible.

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